[Discussion] Help Fleshing Out Unown

[bjacks14]

I've been developing a from-scratch pokemon gaming engine and have actually gotten along far enough to start developing the storyline. I don't have much, but one of my favored ideas is that Unown will play a pretty important roll in the storyline. I'm thinking possibly even making a "special" unown a starter pokemon or available early on as a sort of pseudo-legendary pokemon (my thinking being that unown are rare or almost non-existant. perhaps they are disappearing?). Anyways, the issue I run into with this is that the unown as we have them are rather boring pokemon. I was looking to either a) give it some existing moves it didn't have access to before or b) make completely new (read signature) moves for it.


The reason I come to you guys today is I need some ideas on how to make a unown more interesting. How do we make a player want to keep it in their party beyond novelty?

 

[Radical Raptr]

maybe give it a powerful signature move, like unknown aura, and its a psychic move that give a random status effect
you could also add more forms, like ones for several different languages

 

[Maruno]

If we're talking signature moves, then I'm thinking of Vespiquen's bee-related moves which summon a swarm of bees to do its bidding. Unown could have a move (or several) which does the same, only with other Unown instead of bees. Perhaps the summoned Unown could spell a word which describes what the move does, and there's one move per word (giving at least 26 moves for Unown to choose from); compare the Poké Powers of Unown cards in the TCG.

The problem with Unown as they currently are is that they don't change. They only ever have a single move, and their level increases. That's boring. Their stats are also pretty poor. You'd need to address these problems if you want people to actually use Unown rather than other Pokémon.

 

[FL]

I addition of the previous statements, since the Unown stats are very weak I suggest an Ability like Huge Power, but for ALL stats, except HP. Maybe you can also combine this ability with synchronize.

 

[bjacks14]

like ones for several different languages

I had actually already been working on new unown before you even mentioned it lol. I was going to upload a sample batch up into the art section for critique, but I need 15 posts first. I think I'm going to make them a "new strain" of unown, so maybe having a few more powers wont seem odd. I definitely like the order attack idea.