[Discussion] Question Regarding Legendaries

[PancakePrince]

So a friend and I are creating a Pokemon game, but we're kind of at a stalemate regarding our opinions on legendary pokemon.

I personally believe that our game should have a legendary pokemon that's essential to the plot that you have a chance of capturing during the game's story. I liked when a game would give you the chance to catch a legendary as part of the story, and for me that feels super rewarding.

My friend doesn't like that and prefers the way legendaries were handled in GEN 1, where legendary pokemon were only post-game and/or you had to go out of your way to find (i.e the Regis), and hates the fact that later games essentially gave you the chance to capture a legendary for free. He doesn't think a game that hands you a legendary for free is rewarding and makes the game less of a challenge.

What are your guys' opinions on this matter?

 

[DrawnToast]

I'm more of a legendary in the post-game, to the side. That's my plan for my fangames going onward.
To me, they're really strong, and might make the main game easier than it should be.
Legendaries are supposed to be rare and worth the challenge to encounter and catch.
I prefer them out of the way, personally.

 

[Cherrios]

I prefer it to be part of the plot. A show not tell story backingup a legendary pokemon is what makes it legendary. The impact is greater.

In my opinion, post game legendary are just rare pokemons who are strong. They can have backstory, they're nice, but it's not the same when you witness it.

 

[JackQ]

One effective way to make a legendary Pokemon part of the plot is to put it in the possession of an enemy trainer and treat it as a sort of boss battle. Then, in the aftermath, the legendary can flee to another location and open up a new sidequest where you track it down and catch it later in the game.

 

[Cataclyptic]

I take a sort of third option when doing this: Make it so that the legendary feels earned. This means doing sidequests to get one, having to battle it under certain circumstances, or given to you only after you've done a great task. In this way, you feel like you've done something to deserve getting a powerful pokemon.

 

[Bulky Ledian]

You could make the plot-legendary gimped in some respect, so there's effort in making it "good".
Even if it's not a legendary Type:Null -> Silvally is the most obvious example, though Hoopa->Unbound would also work in that sense.