What's your view on fakemons?

[Kenobi123]

So I'm pretty sure that this question has been ask before either here or on other forums. However I'm still very much interested in getting more opinions from the general masses, adding my personal view and hoping to go a bit more specific than just "do you like fakemons or not?". I use to think that fakemons are one of the most commonly beloved aspects within the community. However in more recent years, as i continue to be part of the general fan game community and joining in specific fan game community. I started to see a lot more "distain" views towards it. Some dislike it, some even refuse to play if the game feature fakemons at any sort each for various reasons. So what are your views in using fakemons (regional variants, evos, conversion, original,.....)?
- How many is ideal? (Starters, legendary, around a new gen 70-80, 100%)
- How important? (Should they be the main focus or should they be treated as regular pokemon)
- Art style? (What do yall consider as the gold standard? Bare minimum? Of fakemon designs)
Bla bla bla, so on, so forth.

 

[Kenobi123]

So for me, I believe that a fan game does not need fakemons to make it good. Nor does having fakemons automatically makes a fan game good.
However I also believe that if you're planning to feature fakemons in your game. You do want/need them to be good. Both in term of design and implementation. It should have synergy with the region you feature them in or at least have lore so that I'm willing to believe that it serves more of a purpose than just having it just for the sake of it. It should look good. And by "good" i mean it has a decent chance of not looking out of place when I put them alongside the official ones. And finally it should be properly implemented. I dont really care if one decided to add new moves/ability. What i do care however is that they do it in a way that it is not frustrating to use. I also don't care as how many fakemons you have, as long as all of the aforementioned conditions are satisfied to a reasonable extent.
Some examples:
- For the looks, Pokemon Head & Tails which feature only 6 original fakemons being the starters and their 1 evolution. Nothing on the creator (if anything i have huge respect for anyone thats willing to self design their own fakemons for their games) but out of the 3. Only the water line looks actually decent And not for any good reasons. Like why it's good is cause of how barebone the design is. It's just a big blue blob covering a smaller, darker blue blob w eyes and it its already way better than the fire and grass line.
- For the lore, pokemon insurgence's delta species. Like i love em, but they are not consistent at all. Lore wise they are genetically mutated experiments by one of the evil teams. But as you play the game, apparently some existed in ancient time, some appears in you imaginations and the whole post games says that the delta are just regularly occurring like any good ol regional variants.
- For the implementation, pokemon xenoverse is my go to example. I feel like the devs care a bit too much on the themes and looks of the fakemons that how they functions in game is either a after thought at best and actively hindering them at worst. Like they're already bad as it. But add in the limited move pool and a nerfing ability makes me wonder why even bother.