What if the games had (moral) choices?

[Sean Flame]

I like the games and whatnot, I understand it's aimed towards children, but I feel the story in each game can be a bit... shallow/too simple. It's always about a kid who gets a rare pokemon in the beginning, meets a rival, bumps into a certain organization (team), dismantles it and, in the end, beats the strongest trainers on the region, with a bonus little adventure afterwards possibly appearing. It has worked for the past 20 years and, if you just want to have fun and/or don't mind, it's all well and good, but given how games are nowadays, for better or worse, will this linear type story really hold for much longer?
IDK for sure. So why not include a few significant choices here and there in the story to make the experience more unique? I'm not saying it should be like Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls, something simple, like how you treat your rival, whether or not pursuit a romance with the character you didn't choose at the beginning, if you will help just once a team or the other, a one-time-choice to take the left or right path in a route, that kinda stuff. How would you like it?

 

[Lunar]

I would love a few different moral choices, even if they just ended with a couple of alternate endings to do with the Evil team, which I don't think is completely realistic, it could sure make things interesting though.

 

[Amore]

I don't think it would ever happen - I know though that if they gave you an option to be villainous, most players of all ages (especially the 10-year olds) would end up going by the motto WWGD? (What Would Ghetsis Do?) and go full evil (I chose Ghetsis because he does actually try to kill a protagonist with a messed up combination of two legendaries).

 

[Guest123123]

I know a lot of people have mentioned wanting to be able to choose to join Team Rocket when the grunt on Nugget Bridge asks. I think it would be neat to have those choices and it would give replay value, but I'd still go with the traditional storyline personally in most cases. Mainly because a lot of the time when people mention different choices, it involves the option to join the villains, and I can't be bad even in games. I can't just separate the in-game player from myself as a person and have fun doing things I wouldn't normally approve of. I had to stop playing the ROM hack Fuligin because I felt bad for stealing a trainer's Sableye.

If there's an option to roast characters with superiority complexes like Blue, though, I'd be all over that.

 

[smocks]

For as moral choices will go, I don't see any alternating endings in the Main Series Pokémon Games or anything similar to an alternate end because they want the same message, same experience every player to have because Pokémon is just a consistent, classic game. Changing the "morals of the story" will have players have different opinions and could cause confusion between kids because someone did __ while the other did __. But, more moral choices could be implemented but it'll be as far as to "Do you believe in ghosts?" imo

That being said, I could see a Pokémon Spin-Off containing moral choices! Maybe if they implement that more into a spin-off like pmd maybeeeee things will be more interesting