[Game Idea] Pokémon Left and Right versions (a story about two countries at war)

[SpeedyAggron]

A month ago I posted my thoughts about a more complex Pokémon story on Reddit and the response was surprisingly positive. Now I would like to know what the people in this community think about it, so here is the complete topic.

I have been a massive Pokémon fan since my very first game, which was Pokémon Ruby. Since the start of the 3DS era, I have experienced a decline in quality like many other people. Pokémon Sun and Moon were a small improvement, but I was really disappointed with the Switch games lately. Legends Arceus is my last hope to give the franchise a much needed refreshment, but I'm still skeptical. That's why I came up with a new direction the series could have taken, so here is Pokémon Right and Left.
You might think this isn't too impressive, but there is a reason behind such a simple name. The games take place on an island with a country to the right and left, so let's them call it like that. The tension between both have always been high, but last year it has been escalated to a full scale war. The left country invades the right in the Right version and it's the opposite in the Left version. In this post I will explain the main characters and setting before going in detail for the story and plot twists. You are the prince/princess of the invaded country and you join the resistance to liberate cities. The commander sees you have the talent as a trainer and he makes you the captain of the assault unit. His son wanted to have that position and he becomes your main rival as he gets more jealous. There are the other generals who will assist you and they have different personalities. Your country's economy has been crippled and the rebels could hack Poké Balls that were disabled to catch Pokémon.
You'll infiltrate cities and attack the main base with puzzles and traps to defeat an enemy general. The first target is in your rival's hometown which is controlled by the prince/princess of the enemy country. He/She is the other gender and your secondary rival as he/she wants revenge for his/her defeat. As he/she follows you, he/she sees your determination to save your country and hate changes in respect. You can later choose the next six cities in any order as levels raise on how many you have reclaimed. When you captured three bases there is a small section where your allies are captured. You'll form a small unit to free them and you can attack the last three bases until you reach the capital. You'll have to confront the enemy commander there and face him with the box legendary. During the post-game you can explore the other country when peace has been restored. You can finally challenge the league which is spread across both countries with the nicer generals acting as gym leaders.
Both counties have a different set of wild Pokémon with some they share including the starters. You'll find more evolutions and rarer Pokémon when an area is only accessible during the post-game. Many enemy soldiers will have Pokémon you can't catch until the post-game depending on versions. The commander, generals and rival prince/princess will also change for which country you are in. Their personalities are like usual but they will be your allies or act hostile towards you. Your main rival will always be the same and his father will be the commander of the invaded country. Both countries will have a variety of areas such as forests, mountains, lakes, a desert, a glacier, a volcano and more. You can also help rebuild cities and that will result into making quests for certain people available. Soldiers will be replaced with regular trainers during the post-game and in liberated areas before. You can enter the league once you have collected eight badges like always which will be tournament based.
Pokémon games have become way too stale lately and something like this would change things up. It still has the same core mechanics, but it can improve as long you flavor up the surroundings. I hope you are interested in what I have in mind for this as those are only some main ideas. If anyone wants to use this for a fangame, go ahead, since it is way to hard for me to make on my own. There is a lot more in my mind about details and I can make more posts if people would like that.

The same aspects apply here as I can go in more detail if people are interested in them. Creators with more skill than me can still use my ideas to make an great fangame.
I started playing Legends Arceus yesterday and I'm having a blast with it right now. I wonder when it will start to feel repetitive, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

 

[AenaonDusky]

A month ago I posted my thoughts about a more complex Pokémon story on Reddit and the response was surprisingly positive. Now I would like to know what the people in this community think about it, so here is the complete topic.

The same aspects apply here as I can go in more detail if people are interested in them. Creators with more skill than me can still use my ideas to make an great fangame.
I started playing Legends Arceus yesterday and I'm having a blast with it right now. I wonder when it will start to feel repetitive, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

The basic idea is intriguing enough, but you should always be careful when it comes to the presentations of topics like that in mon fangames since they do not necessarily tie-in well with both the OG creator's vision (he disliked violence) and the general image of the franchise (not to mention the target demographic, though that's usually different from the main fangame-playing demographic ). That said however, there's been mentions of wars since gen 1 and the whole Kalos thing too was quite prominent in gen 6, plus, there's that weird Conquest crossover game so I guess that counts as well? If you handle it properly in a more true-to-the-franchise fashion you'll be fine, I think.

From a gameplay standpoint there's a lot of great ideas in there, and they sound like they have good synergy with the story.
The title might carry certain connotations (which at best will make your game associated with parody games, and at worst with real-world politics). Of course that doesn't mean you should change it just 'cause - since there's a very simple in-game reason for it in the first place, but you never know.

As a player, what I really like in games like these is a potential "third" option. Particularly if it is diplomatic or civilian, and enables you to be a peacemaker of sorts. That would also tie-in well with a head-of-the-trio legendary only available as a reward to those who've managed to resist their darker side and tried to bring an end to the conflict peacefully. Perhaps it was waiting for someone of pure heart to follow a different path and help bring an end to the war? You can use a small "teaser" right at the end of each path to indicate to your players that there's more to the game than meets the eye. Plus, there's always replay value for those who want to do another run.

Though, if you have enough free time, I'd suggest you give development a go yourself. Most people who've made fangames had to begin somewhere. You can definitely look for a team, but that's also a big undertaking in itself. Try entering a couple of game jams to get used to developing games and then go ahead! If you wanna cut straight to the chase with this game from the very beginning, you could make a bite-sized version and get enough feedback (and experience) from subsequent episodic releases to gradually expand on it.

 

[SpeedyAggron]

The basic idea is intriguing enough, but you should always be careful when it comes to the presentations of topics like that in mon fangames since they do not necessarily tie-in well with both the OG creator's vision (he disliked violence) and the general image of the franchise (not to mention the target demographic, though that's usually different from the main fangame-playing demographic ). That said however, there's been mentions of wars since gen 1 and the whole Kalos thing too was quite prominent in gen 6, plus, there's that weird Conquest crossover game so I guess that counts as well? If you handle it properly in a more true-to-the-franchise fashion you'll be fine, I think.

You can only go so far using a peaceful setting with a villainous team trying to disrupt it and eight gyms to conquer. The bases here are a replacements of the gyms, but I feel they involve the story better.

From a gameplay standpoint there's a lot of great ideas in there, and they sound like they have good synergy with the story.
The title might carry certain connotations (which at best will make your game associated with parody games, and at worst with real-world politics). Of course that doesn't mean you should change it just 'cause - since there's a very simple in-game reason for it in the first place, but you never know.

Legends Arceus is already proof that semi open-world can work in Pokémon. Left and Right is just a title I came up with on the go and I didn't think through that much.

As a player, what I really like in games like these is a potential "third" option. Particularly if it is diplomatic or civilian, and enables you to be a peacemaker of sorts. That would also tie-in well with a head-of-the-trio legendary only available as a reward to those who've managed to resist their darker side and tried to bring an end to the conflict peacefully. Perhaps it was waiting for someone of pure heart to follow a different path and help bring an end to the war? You can use a small "teaser" right at the end of each path to indicate to your players that there's more to the game than meets the eye. Plus, there's always replay value for those who want to do another run.

This was not created with a third option in mind, but it could include DLC which is the direction Pokémon takes now. There is also a huge plot twist at the end that changes the whole reason behind the war.

Though, if you have enough free time, I'd suggest you give development a go yourself. Most people who've made fangames had to begin somewhere. You can definitely look for a team, but that's also a big undertaking in itself. Try entering a couple of game jams to get used to developing games and then go ahead! If you wanna cut straight to the chase with this game from the very beginning, you could make a bite-sized version and get enough feedback (and experience) from subsequent episodic releases to gradually expand on it.

I'm already busy with another project which is a more traditional Pokémon story with some darker tones. This concept here is way out of my league on my own and would require a lot of custom edits.