5th Gen Older! But Same Experience?

[Dragon]

Remember when we first heard news that our characters in Black and White were going to be older than ten, and so many of us got excited about that idea?

Well, we were older then, yet what was so different compared to when we were ten? We still live by our parents, we still have no Pokémon, and still treated like complete newbies (Prof. Juniper showing us what the Pokémon Center was like, and how to catch a Pokémon for the first time).

So what do you guys think the importance of being an older character was in Black and White compared to the previous generations? Sure didn't impact the story of the game, and there was no significant difference to being older, but really, if we hadn't been told that the characters were now older, do you think that we would still believe we're just ten years old starting their first journey?

Feel free to discuss!

 

[Mark Kamill]

The older protags meant that the thought provoking story couod also be reflected in characters who can critically analyze the situation and not be a dribbling ten year old who sees the worlld in black and white. Ironically enough, no Gray Version ever came yet the games were pushing for a plot with nothing BUT gray. Not toentiom older protags means me more stuff can be done with the plot.

 

[Hikamaru]

I loved this change to the games, it was quite interesting to hear about the trainers being older than 10 but I feel like it fits in better with the darker plot that Black & White had. I do hope we get more games with protagonists close to the age of the ones in Black & White.

 

[Mark Kamill]

Calem and Serena FYI around 15 as well, and iirc Brendan and May are 12 as of IRAS. They definitely are keeping the older protags going forward, and i can eventually see them giving us the option for thw rpotags age to change much like their appearance.

 

[Starry Windy]

For me, being not just 10 years old in Pokémon can bring good things, because logically, it makes sense if parents let the teens choose the decision to travel on their own, instead of letting 10-years old kid doing the same, even though I personally don't mind 10-year old kid as a protagonist in games or even in anime.

Besides, being aged as more than 10 years old gives quite much more sense of the responsibility the trainer should handle, and like Hikari said, it goes well with the story in Black and White, for sure, given the serious plot it has, more than in previous Pokémon main games.

 

[acatfrommars]

I don't feel like Pokemon White/Black were much different than any of the other games. Now when we got to Black/White 2 that was another story, Ghetsis was definitely a more scary person, and the game seemed more dark than normal. I don't really know if age matters though, because Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness was kinda a dark game as well and idk how old the main character, Michael was, but he couldn't have been much older than 10.

 

[Oddball_]

Black and White, my personal favorite Pokemon games. Them being older was important in several ways, the first being that Unova is based on New York, which is in America, where we tend to not accept the idea of children being old enough to make decisions, I'm not 100% of Japanese culture, but they definitely seem more accepting of childish things to me as an outsider, so upping the age looks like a cultural thing to me.
Also, the age of the average player was older at the time they released it as well, now being 15-25ish. (NOTE: There are older players still, but main audience.)
Then theres also the content of the story, some more serious thought going into that, IS capturing pokemon wrong? Younger audiences would understand the idea, but older audiences would actually think about it, and the more you think about it, the more you come to doubt whether what your doing is right.

This is all just my opinion of course, but I would like to think its accurate.