The use of Seasons + Day/Night Cycles to implement more Pokemon into a game?

[27thColt]

I was thinking, what if the seasons mechanic from BW/B2W2 and Day/Night cycle were used in tandem with each other to increase the amount of pokemon during the main story?

Having the season mechanic alternate every 3 - 5 days or even 1 week (instead of 31 days like in BW/B2W2) alongside a realtime day and night cycle change which pokemon were available would definitely change up each and everyone's playthrough and make some pokemon rarer or more common depending on a person's schedule thus promoting trading with others.

Not only that, but it would substantially increase the amount of pokemon in the regional dex.

You could take it a step further and make certain pokemon exclusive to certain patches of grass like in SM, however I don't think it would be necessary.

What do you guys think? Do you think this mechanic would work well?

 

[Mister Coffee]

I would love for a pokemon game to have the seasonal changes in addition to having the day and night changes. I actually do not mind the seasonal changes being at the normal pace of our real life seasonal changes, mostly because it counts as a post game feature. The seasonal pokemon are harder to acquire which makes them count as long term post game, and it also makes it so that the game feels different with pokemon variety at the beginning of each season.
I definitely want to see these features return eventually in the future as they were in previouis games.

 

[Mab]

Yes please! Seasons were one of my favorite features in Gen 5 and something I really wish we could see return in the future. I've puzzled over why they vanished after BW2 and the only thing I can really come up with (besides the fact that removing cool features is just a GameFreakism) is storage space. Once the games made the jump to 3D models it may have been unfeasible to store multiple versions of each map for each season. If that is the case, perhaps we'll see seasons return on the Switch, hopefully in conjunction with a regular Day/Night cycle like all the modern games have.

 

[Desert Stream~]

I'd be fine with Day/Night to add more pokemon, seasons is eh because they take so long but y'know, more pokemon = better amiright? :p

 

[Sawsbuck]

Despite my favorite Pokemon being Sawsbuck, I don't really like how seasons work. The months they chose for the seasons don't make any sense and it takes too long, I'm stuck with the spring form because it never changes season when I'm actually playing the game
Although I've never played B&W so it probably explains something about how the seasons work

 

[27thColt]

Despite my favorite Pokemon being Sawsbuck, I don't really like how seasons work. The months they chose for the seasons don't make any sense and it takes too long, I'm stuck with the spring form because it never changes season when I'm actually playing the game
Although I've never played B&W so it probably explains something about how the seasons work

Which is why I suggest (if they ever do re-implement it) reducing the intervals from every 1 month to only 3 - 7 days. This way it wouldn't take too long

 

[Mab]

Yeah season intervals are a little weird and the Pokémon games aren't long enough for seasons to feasibly be real-time while not making the player wait months until they've already beaten the game to be able to access every season. A week would be a good length for a season.

 

[colours]

One of the things I've missed heavily from fifth generation is the inclusion of seasons. Admittedly, as already mentioned, seasons weren't exactly implemented in the best of ways, which understandably caused some frustration (even I was rather miffed by waiting a whole month for seasons to change which I thought was ridiculous).

Having seasons change once a week is a fine time frame -- combine this with the Day/Night cycles -- and it'll create a more immersive, more exciting, Pokemon game because of the realism. Imagine certain Pokemon only being available during the dead of night in the Winter seasons... that's pretty exciting!

 

[Mab]

<p>

Imagine certain Pokemon only being available during the dead of night in the Winter seasons... that's pretty exciting!

That would be awesome :0 what Pokémon do you think would only be available then?</p><p>I'm thinking Sneasel and Weavile, firstly.</p><p><br></p><p>Also just popped into my head while typing this: would be cool to have seasonal evolutions. For example, drop the "near a rock" evolution for Glaceon and Leafeon - Glaceon now evolves when levelled up in the dead of winter at night, and Leafeon evolves when levelled up during the day on the summer solstice (which would be like, the middle of the week if seasons are one week).</p>

 

[colours]

Sneasel and Weavile make sense as nighttime Winter Pokemon; Glalie is also an option. Everyone else either strikes me as not fitting any particular day/nighttime theme in particular or fits more in dawn/daytime. ._.

also evolution based on time/seasons would be awesome! :O

 

[27thColt]

<p>For example, drop the "near a rock" evolution for Glaceon and Leafeon - Glaceon now evolves when levelled up in the dead of winter at night, and Leafeon evolves when levelled up during the day on the summer solstice (which would be like, the middle of the week if seasons are one week).</p>

Holy crap that would be awesome!

 

[Kieran]

Whilst I love it, it's still weird when they change the season every month in BW.
And I am in a country where my 4 seasons are hot, very hot, extremely hot and rainy + hot seasons.