The role of Gym Leaders

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    Gym Leaders have been a staple of the franchise since the beginning, yet very little has been shown of these characters for Sun & Moon. Some of these Leaders even go that extra mile and help you out in various ways. Take Korrina from X/Y for example, she gifts you with a free Lucario and even gives you a Mega Ring thus allowing you to Mega Evolve your Pokemon! These characters initially served a purpose of battling and rewarding you with a badge, but lately it seems that some Gym Leaders have played more of an important role in the games (and anime) to help the player out in crucial moments of the storyline.

    Now that we know a little more about the Region and how it is made up, what are you expecting from these Gym Leaders? Would you like to see them more involved in the storyline and helping you out in various ways?
     
    With the supposed theory we could get a fleshed-out storyline again a la B/W, I am also hoping we get more developed Gym Leaders that get involved in the story. It was one of the reasons why X/Y fell flat, the notable lack of development in general.
     
    If they have to point out that Mysterious(TM) Lillie is "important to the plot" in her bio, I have a feeling most characters won't actually play any role more complex than their given titles, save for a small, select few. I'd love to see a more "gen 5 approach" taken with the Gym Leaders once more, but as of now it seems more likely they'll just be generic Gym Leaders like in gen 6, with the only significant characters being a few made specifically for plot purposes.
     
    I definitely want to see gym leaders have more character development and more interaction with the storyline, something closer to what we had in the 5th generation but even better than that.

    It's no fun if they're just some random nobody standing in a building. The only reason I have to believe that they're anything special is because they talk big and they have some flashy presentation.

    I feel like the saying "show, don't tell" is very appropriate when it comes to gym leaders.
     
    I don't care what their role is. I just want something different from previous games. Make more gyms, or fewer. Make the leaders part of Team Evil. Remove gyms entirely. Have the leaders all be characters you already know. Bring back old characters. Just do something interesting with them.
     
    From what I've seen on the map there was not a lot of Gym Building but a lot of some squared arena for battling like we saw with the Rival battle.
     
    Actually, I had a thought. The very first Japanese trailer was obviously paralleling the game, with the new-kid protagonist, and the small details of the 8 covered silhouettes (there's actually a 9th to the left of them all, but who knows who that's supposed to be). The trailer character, Hoku, was assumed to be your in-game friend because of how, well, friendly he was to the in-trailer "protagonist," and how Hoku was picking his own starter. But now we know that friend character is named Hau, not Hoku, in both Japanese and English.

    So is Hoku's name in that screenshot meant to symbolize he is, after all, a Gym Leader? And does him being friendly in the trailer mean nothing, or does it hint that Gym Leaders may actually involve themselves in the player's quest this time around? I can imagine some, like Hoku, would be more friendly towards the player, but some may even turn out to be a bit antagonistic (without needing to be a flat-out bad guy). These kinds of interactions would really add a lot of life to the game and characters, so, here's to hoping!
     
    I want them to be more involved in the story. I liked how in Black and White, they all came together in N's castle to fight together and help us out. Something like that again would be pretty cool.

    Please... please make them better and more memorable than the ones in X and Y.
     
    MarinoKadame said:
    From what I've seen on the map there was not a lot of Gym Building but a lot of some squared arena for battling like we saw with the Rival battle.
    Click to expand...

    Some are way too close together to be gym areas. There really hasn't been a map where you can pick out the gyms very easily. The only one really being Kalos 6th Gym.

    So the lack of buildings isn't really an issue. I am thinking the buildings that don't really look generic in the towns, are the gyms. And I can pick out every building that seems like a gym to me.


    As for the role of the leaders, I really want them to be similar to Unova Leaders. All of the leaders played a pretty large role in the games, even the ones that came later on in BW2. I was disappointed when the gym leaders had little to no role in the games. I think Korrina was really the only one.
     
    I am hoping the gym leaders send you on sort of quests before being allowed to battle at their gym.. It would be a change that is needed, but not detrimental to the essence of the storyline and badge achievements. They could be anything to acquiring evolution items from challenging destinations, to leveling up certain types of Pokemon in your party, to meeting a legendary and obtaining an item from the, to evolving a Pokemon in a new way (cough eeveelution). It would be neat.

    Anyways what type do you think the first revealed gym leader will be?
     
    OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire said:
    Perhaps gym leaders will be replaced with town chiefs instead.
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    I could see that being possible, when you consider that there's no easy hint to seeing any Gyms on the map. But then, the issue is that badges could be out as well and that'd be changing up Pokemon too much.
     
    Hikamaru said:
    I could see that being possible, when you consider that there's no easy hint to seeing any Gyms on the map. But then, the issue is that badges could be out as well and that'd be changing up Pokemon too much.
    Click to expand...
    Maybe we'll get a lei (a necklace of flowers usually, but can be made of other stuff too) that gains flowers (or shells, etc.) for each victory against a town chief(tess). I can see them being the color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), with the eighth one being white to represent the prism.
     
    I'm all for no gyms and instead something like how Genesis Sorority did Col&XD which was more about the quest than anything
     
    In one of the first trailers we got with the Japanese kid moving to Hawaii, we seen what looked like a poster with 8 shadowed figures in the classroom. I think those are likely our Gym Leaders, so I don't think they've eliminated the Gym and League formula. In the past region maps from what I can remember, not all of the Gyms were easily recognizable, so I think just because we can't see them on the Alola map doesn't mean they're not there.

    Other than the much-needed Dark-type Gym, I'm hoping that they pull a BW/BW2 and give the Gym Leaders a role in the story.
     
    WingsofBliss said:
    In one of the first trailers we got with the Japanese kid moving to Hawaii, we seen what looked like a poster with 8 shadowed figures in the classroom. I think those are likely our Gym Leaders, so I don't think they've eliminated the Gym and League formula. In the past region maps from what I can remember, not all of the Gyms were easily recognizable, so I think just because we can't see them on the Alola map doesn't mean they're not there.

    Other than the much-needed Dark-type Gym, I'm hoping that they pull a BW/BW2 and give the Gym Leaders a role in the story.
    Click to expand...

    Hopefully more of a BW than a B2W2, as I feel that BW did a better job at having it's gym leaders and even it's champion play a role in the story.

    I recall that the BW gyms were difficult to find. In the end they were found. The most memorable one was Elesa.
     
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