Our Favorite Old Characters

[Sun]

Yeah but the old lady in the cave implied we wouldn't be seeing her anytime (we as in us). Although she might appear to a super powerful dragon in Sun and Moon. Although given that our likely mascots might not be dragons I don't know how you'd really get her to apply to the story.

Actually, I took the meaning of we as in Brendan/May, the protagonists of Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. But hey, there's no real definition when it comes to that; you aren't completely wrong and I'm neither right, haha.

Hopefully, we'll get at least a mention.

I've seen people said that Cynthia should reappear. One thing's for sure if she appears in SM, People will be saying: #SinnohConfirmed, hahaha.

EDIT: If Zygarde's going to receive his own (little) chapter during SM's post game, Zinnia should better make an appearance.

 

[Zakariya]

I would like to see N make an appearance once more, and have the amount of significance he did during the Generation V games. I don't recall an older character being used in a newer generation like this in the past, and I generally find the concept of N returning after years of absence to be highly interesting.

One of the closest things to an older character (in the main series games, excluding remakes) being given a meaningful use years after their games of origin was Sabrina taking the role of actor in BW 2.

I'm not considering the use of the previous generation characters in the Pokemon World Tournament as equally meaningful since they're shown to have little to no development in Generation V, and the games don't really tell us anything about what's happened with them through the years. In Sabrina's case, her appearance in PokeStar Studios at least shows she's had a career change.

The second point I'm trying to make with this is that there's a chance we'll see an older character having some kind of importance to that degree (if not higher) in the Generation VII games. Though as I implied, it will likely be in the form of appearing in what equates to an optional minigame. >__>

 

[illumine]

N has showed up a few times, so they might not want to try that again. They might want to further elaborate on some more sidelined or wandering characters like Alder, but probably not that much in their case - nonetheless, they are always a possible return if they can do so properly. Honestly, they could just have Sabrina narrate the game as in the film 'Titanic,' and have it be similar with singing mini-games, etc., where Falkner tries to approximate Sting in 'Every Breath You Take,' for instance, which would also have an anime tie-in, a bunch of bikers using a Skarmory, and an evil team led by Pryce (for their decent pun via their 'gift' they are a bit neglected later on) trying to drown everyone like Team Aqua. However, they might want to give such characters a more central role this time, if they're returning, to reflect upon their games and so on. Some ice-related characters might, less facetiously, be worth a return in-game, as they have been focussing a bit on types being strong against Dragons or balancing them out, and hence they might as well use such themes as an excuse to emphasise the type.

Although given that our likely mascots might not be dragons I don't know how you'd really get her to apply to the story.

They can always be dragons, as recent regions have shown. Zinnia could function a bit like a Schrödinger's cat in expressing this uncertainty.

Blaine may be the coolest old man in the series particularly in the Gold/Silver remakes

To be fair, Blaine doesn't do that much in G/S, comparatively, and you might easily miss them. Perhaps they might be worth reviving for that reason, but otherwise they don't have that much in terms of in-game plot or aims that would seem to compel it.

 

[Ho-Oh]

N unfortunately probably won't be involved if you really think about it. N would have a reason to appear in the 8th gen because of the opportunity of remakes within that generation. Sun and Moon is most likely going to get a few Sinnoh people to hint towards the remakes rather than anyone so central to Unova's storyline.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I can see Blue and Cynthia reappearing. The two have (well in Japan at least) for most continuous appearances. Blue appeared in RGBYGSC before taking a break. While Cynthia appeared in DPPtH.gS.sBWB2W2 before taking a break (5 releases, and 9 games among those 5 releases, making her the most recurring character since her introduction. If only Looker hadn't skipped HgSs...).

 

[BettyNewbie]

Unfortunately, now knowing what kind of region Sun/Moon will be set in, I see the games having exactly as many returning characters as the likes of RSE, DPP, BW/2, and XY. We might get yet another shoehorned Looker or Cynthia appearance, but that'll be it. It's going to be an 100% brand new cast with zero connections to any of the previous games. Very disappointing.

 

[BettyNewbie]

Is it bad that I don't want to see anyone in particular return?

Don't get me wrong; I think there's actual merit in having recurring characters, but....for me, it kinda gets old after a while. I was a huge fan of Cynthia returning over and over, but I wouldn't be super thrilled if she (somehow) made a return again this generation. I really feel like we should avoid old characters returning at this point...why should they? Even if the plot or setting was somehow loosely relevant to them, they would exist for nothing else if not purely to satisfy players' nostalgic desires. As much as I'd like to see Blue, Red, Cynthia, N, and other characters make an appearance just to be like "oh hey, it's them again!!", at the same time, I'm hoping to meet some new faces, and hope that those same new faces stick around for the next game or two so we can learn more about them and become more familiar with them. Unless there's a post-game Battle Tournament kind of thing akin to PWT where you can challenge old favorites to a battle, it would seem really out of place to shoehorn any past character.

Well, I think you'll probably get your wish. Aloha appears to be another isolated region completely disconnected from the others, just like Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos, so the number of returning characters should be very small. Outside of Looker, neither XY or ORAS had any returning characters (and the original RSE had absolutely none).

As for me, I don't really care to meet a ton of new faces, especially when so many of the older ones have had so little screentime to begin with (the Kalos cast especially comes to mind). Plus, these are supposed to be the big Anniversary games, so they should be more about celebrating the old than the new, IMO.

 

[LilBueno]

I'm still placing bets on Looker making some kind of appearance.
Due to SM being so close to Gen VI, I wouldn't be surprised if we at least got references to XY/ORAS characters like Zinnia, Sycamore, or the heavily underused Diantha. Or we'll see more Draconids, maybe? I can't recall if they were simply Rayquaza relevant or if their culture was more about dragons in general.