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Spoiler Should Rivals Be Deeper and More Interactive?

Joined
Aug 25, 2012
Location
Indiana, USA
Rivals are a trademark in mainstream Pokemon games and have assumed all kinds of roles, from arrogant jerks to immoral thieves to completely friendly little girls. The original Rival, Blue, was an arrogant jerk who was always a step ahead of you and yet missed the point of training Pokemon. His frequent and random battles with you added heat to the rivalry, and (spoiler alert) it paid off by the end of the game when you discovered he had become the strongest Trainer in Kanto as the Pokemon League Champion, and you had to beat him one last time to fulfill your dreams.

Since then, Rivals seem to have been waning in attention and function - I haven't played Black or White, so you tell me if its Rivals were any good, but most Rivals before then bore little relation to the story and served more as annoyances than actual challenges. It's felt to me as if they're now obligatory rather than complimentary. Blue was no saint, but Generation III and IV's Rivals seemed largely redundant.

I've thought about Rivals in Pokemon a lot. I'm of the persuasion Pokemon needs to change in a fast-increasing list of areas, but Rival composition takes up space on the list. You may occasionally hear me reference the manga Pokemon Adventures in this post. Rather than pointing out the flaws of modern Rivals, I'll throw together a list of general ideas for how Rivals could be improved. I'd love to hear what you think.

#1: Actual involvement in the story. Pokemon needs a deep story that the game centers itself around anyway, but the Rival being a big part of that would go a long way. In Pokemon Adventures, Blue shows up from time to time to confront Red, the protagonist, and basically make him feel inferior in every way possible. Although he initially comes across as a cold, blunt Trainer who loves to show Red just how much farther ahead he is, he becomes involved in Team Rocket's plot inside Saffron City and aids Red and Green in freeing the city. His involvement in the story doesn't stop there, but this is an example of what Rivals in the games could be doing. Rather than just being there for the occasional battle, they could actually contribute to the plot in fighting evil (or possibly assisting in it). I don't just mean a battle or two and a few lines of dialogue. The story itself has to be deep and well-written, but that's for another time.

#2: A changing schedule and arsenal. The Rival can be formidable when you don't know what to prepare for, but once you do, it's usually a bit less intimidating. What I propose is something that would require a great deal of thought and attention, but would benefit the games tremendously: Rivals who, rather than act on scripted events, work on their own to always present a different challenge each time. Blue had some of this in the original games by how his party would change pretty moderately depending on which starter Pokemon you chose, but I mean to go farther than that. In this proposition, your Rival would work on a balanced system where it would frequently catch random Pokemon and, based on its knowledge of you and your party, may alter its party and strategies for the next encounter. No battle would be the same, and if Nintendo took this to an extreme edge, your Rival would have a mind of its own, meaning you could actually get ahead of it and encounter it in completely unexpected places. It could find you and challenge you (in an optional match, of course) if it so desired or coincidentally bump into you along the road. With this method, it feels like an actual Rival that moves, acts, and thinks. You could even call it up on your own and ask it for a battle. Such a system would need a lot of care and attention, but if done right, it could be a selling point for the game as far as Pokemon's standards go.

#3: More optional/less punishing matches with better rewards. How many of us are annoyed when we've just come from a gauntlet of Trainers, stumble into the next town, briefly forgo the Pokemon Center just to get a peek of what's around the corner, and run into the Rival who issues a mandatory battle? I don't think all Rival battles should be optional, as that could easily negate the purpose of having one, but it should be less punishing. Perhaps your Rival could heal your Pokemon before the battle, or if my second point is used, the battle was purely random and you lost nothing from his victory. Random Rival battles could give rewards for you winning, like information on Pokemon or rare items. You could also learn what new Pokemon it had caught and strategies it's using, and you know what they say: knowing is half the battle. However it's done, Rival battles as rigidly scripted as they are have come off as irritating and sometimes gratuitous to me.

What would you like to see from Rivals? Do you agree with any of what I've said, or is it a bunch of hooey? Finally, what personality would you prefer from your next Rival? I'm always a fan of Blue's personality from Pokemon Adventures, or at least something similar to it - something that can get under your skin and further your rivalry, but enjoyable on the whole and enabling you to respect the Rival. Not annoying, but competitive.
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2011
I don't know if you have played it or not, but your rivals N and Hugh from Black and White and Black and White2 kinda fulfills most of what your after. I'm not gonna go into details unless you don't mind spoilers, but I can confirm that these rivals play a completely different role then any other Rival in the Pokémon series.
 

Musicfan

the shadow mage
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Location
insanity
I think that most trainers should be like that insted of just standing there doing absolutly nothing. Like maybe at the most basic have a majoras mask like schedule.
 

Scoby

France
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Location
Spain
i think we should have 2 rivals, 1 evil rival, who we don't like and 1 friendly rival who we like but compete with all tiem. add some story and we have awesome pokemon game :)
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
#1: See N and Hugh for a rival done right in the story sense.

#2:That... would be hard to pull off right, but it would indeed be very interesting to see a wandering rival in the sense you're speaking of. I don't know if they can pull off having a rival who's both central to the plot and a wanderer like what you're describing (i.e. he/she might not be there when you need to fight off the villains together) but if they can somehow pull it off it'll be really cool.

#3:That seems kinda contradictory to the rest of the list. I prefer my rivals to show up when I'm least prepared. Really keep me on my toes, and if he catches me at a low point then I have to change tactics to keep my team alive.
 

Sydney

The Good Samaritan
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Location
Canberra, Australia
I don't know if you have played it or not, but your rivals N and Hugh from Black and White and Black and White2 kinda fulfills most of what your after. I'm not gonna go into details unless you don't mind spoilers, but I can confirm that these rivals play a completely different role then any other Rival in the Pokémon series.

I agree yet again. N and Hugh were excellent and deep rivals. They were very interactive, and made their respective games much more enjoyable.
 
J

jksawesome

Guest
There should be more times when what you say effects what happens to the rival in the game. like in gold/silver his golbat only will evolve into a crobat after a certain interaction
 

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