Plot Discussion Thread(Villain Team, Rivals, Pacing etc.)

[SoulRebel726]

My favorite plots were probably BW and SM. I think that's because the villains weren't instantly obvious. Ghetsis was fairly obvious early on, but there was at least some intrigue there. In SM, I spent half the game annoyed at how stupid Team Skull was as the evil team, only to be pleasantly surprised as it took shape that Lusamine was the real villain. I'd like more of that. Give me villains that don't scream "I'M THE BAD GUY" after we beat the second gym or something.

I'd really like to see some sort of struggle between industrialism and nature. Maybe even as a Team Aqua/Team Magma dynamic, with both sides going to extremes. Both sides have good intentions but are being manipulated by a shadowy third organization and being pushed into being more and more radical. The PC gets caught up investigating how these initially benign organizations became so extreme and discovers the third organization by the end of the game.

Just spit balling here, but I think something like that could be cool.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

Agree to disagree on Aether not being a little obvious because either way they need to make things a bit more surprising. Xenoblade Chronicles for instance had an epic twist villain and an unexpected good guy that I really didn't see coming, yeah it can't be too complicated but kids love solving mysteries and not figuring it out hours before everyone else.

 

[SoulRebel726]

Agree to disagree on Aether not being a little obvious because either way they need to make things a bit more surprising. Xenoblade Chronicles for instance had an epic twist villain and an unexpected good guy that I really didn't see coming, yeah it can't be too complicated but kids love solving mysteries and not figuring it out hours before everyone else.

Fair enough, but I'm just comparing to other Pokemon games. I'm not expecting a crazy Bioshock-level twist in a Pokemon game. At least Aether kept you guessing for a bit, as opposed to teams Rocket, Aqua/Magma, Galactic, and Flare. And Plasma to a lesser extent. I'd love to see them run with that concept further, but I'd happily take something similar from a Pokemon game.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

just don't give us Galactic 3.0

I'm really hoping for some kind of King Arthur-like plot for the villains; maybe they want to use a legendary to go back in time or regress the current age back towards how life was back in the middle ages or something.

 

[Ignition]

Aether was so obvious. It just fit the “renowned organization with shady business going on behind the scenes” trope especially with Faba. And this was BEFORE the games were out.

 

[Aetius]

Honestly I don't know what I should expect from the Evil Team (or teams) of this generation.
I just hope they won't be pushovers, that's for sure.
As for the rest, we don't have much to go by at the moment, so any guess is what it just is....a guess.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

One thing I do trust Ohmori with is telling a good story.

I'm not too worried about that department, but I would like it if the main game was completely immersed into the story again, like with Gen 5. At every turn, another piece of the story was unveiled, and even the gym leaders were involved. It was so awesome to feel that kind of intensity storywise, and I would love for that to return.

I also wouldn't mind if this time the evil team began successful, instead of aiming to be, and instead our job was to dismantle the problems they already caused. Imagine if everyone in Galar already knows about this group, and were afraid of them, but you the player were recruited by another faction to help take them down? That would be dope.

 

[Sceptrigon]

One thing I do trust Ohmori with is telling a good story.

I'm not too worried about that department, but I would like it if the main game was completely immersed into the story again, like with Gen 5. At every turn, another piece of the story was unveiled, and even the gym leaders were involved. It was so awesome to feel that kind of intensity storywise, and I would love for that to return.

I also wouldn't mind if this time the evil team began successful, instead of aiming to be, and instead our job was to dismantle the problems they already caused. Imagine if everyone in Galar already knows about this group, and were afraid of them, but you the player were recruited by another faction to help take them down? That would be dope.

It would be great if they maintained high stakes with this story similar to Black and White, like having a plot that gives you (the player) questions to think about while it threatens the safety of Pokémon and their relationships with humans.

To add on to the industrialization vs. nature theme that has been mentioned, it could bring up issues regarding human progress and the destruction of environments inhabited by Pokémon which lead to a growing divide between Pokémon and their respect for humans in general. We have seen in plenty of ways that Pokémon are capable of having minds of their own, so if they experience or observe the effects of pollution directly, then that could shape their views of their trainers or their actions towards other humans they encounter.

In regards to the villainous team, it could be the head of industrial progress in the region, and the members refuse to acknowledge that their emissions of gas and waste are polluting Pokémon habitats. Or they could be divided into version exclusives, where they could either be those who support human progress and don’t mind destroying habitats, or those who support Pokémon species and attempt to reduce or eliminate technological advancement. It’s similar to Team Magma and Aqua, but more built on as constant questions that people ask themselves throughout the games. Is it worth it to continue industrial use at the expense of Pokemon’s lives? Do we really want to risk our relationships with them for our own goals?

If written well, then this kind of story could be just as or even more impactful than Black and White’s. And this sort of issue is a reality that we face in the world today, with the mass extinction of wildlife species since the start of the anthropocene and people who still don’t take the effects of pollution seriously enough.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

I like the idea of a team that's already fairly successful in taking over the region, maybe with your hometown and the professor's town being considered safe. Even places with Gyms are being taken over slowly. At first no one really finds fighting worth it because of how many people have joined them. Then as you and your rivals fight against the evil team you end up inspiring the gym masters to start fighting and you even get two other trainers who later become part of the elite four to fight with you. Then you fight against four of the admins and the team leader as the champion and elite four battles. Upon revisit you find that your rivals and two other trainers have become the Elite Four and you've become the true champion of the region, thus topping the protagonists of SuMo/USUM.

 

[shoz999]

So one of my favorite JRPGs is Xenoblade Chronicles and it's seen by some fans as the greatest JRPGs in years for it's great music, gameplay and it's impressive open-world design but also it's story. One extremely well-done characteristic of Xenoblade Chronicles is it's foreshadowing of a greater presence working behind the scenes including some foreshadowing that has never occurred to you until the plot of a revenge story shatters into a different kind of plot, making you realize something is very wrong here. The moment in the beginning of the story that the main character Shulk says that he just wants to destroy the enemy after his loss and his best friend Reyn responds that doesn't sound like the same Shulk he knows which they later laugh it off like it's nothing. It sounds like he's just angry but when you realize what the heck is going on, suddenly you find another layer of meaning behind those words.

Pokemon doesn't have to be like that but I freaking love awesome foreshadowing. It's why I freaking love the stories of Pokemon Adventures so much, the foreshadowing is amazing even if you know what's coming. The grand build-up to Giovanni's reveal is amazing because you come to a realization that holy @#%^ is Team Rocket dangerous for controlling so much of the Kanto region, having access to specific cities and routes that grant them tighter control over transporting stolen Pokemon. As soon as Red enters Viridian City, it feels like Red or the places he enters is always been watched by some unknown presence or you get that feeling later on when it's revealed just how much control Team Rocket has. Then we later get to see one of the greatest Pokemon villains enter the scene in Gen 2 who was foreshadowed all the way back from the very first story arc of Pokemon Adventures RGB through Blue (Fem Protag) fear of birds. In Gen 3, we not only hear but see reports of strange and unusual activity of earthquakes and tsunami's as early as Petalburg city. I know what you hardcore Pokemon fans are thinking. Obviously it has do with the villains Team Magma and Team Aqua? And the Manga says, hahahaha... that's cute. No. Team Magma and Team Aqua? Just a bunch of freaking puppets for the real villains, Groudon and Kyogre. WHAAAAT!? THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! And the thing is all this foreshadowing that accumulates into a logically satisfying revelation can be reflected into the games making you think that Groudon and Kyogre are also the villains of Gen 3's RSE games when you piece it together, making so much sense seeing Maxie and Archie absolutely terrified of what they've done unleashing creatures beyond their control.

Then we get to Gen 5 and it just hit me. You know how some people think that there is foreshadowing in Gen 5, that Ghetsis is the actual villain of the Black & White games? Well if you think that then hahaha... you remind me of me when I didn't realize how bad and forced such foreshadowing was in the games. In the Pokemon Adventures fanbase, they explained something that never occured to me, why Ghetsis of Pokemon Adventures is easily better than Ghetsis of the games. Foreshadowing, foreshadowing, foreshadowing. Both Ghetsis's are pretty much the same characters with one major difference that even the die-hard fan of the games will find this hard to disagree. The foreshadowing of how horrible of a person Ghetsis is isn't revealed in Pokemon Adventures Black & White until late in the story. Throughout the course of this story, he's just this nice old wise man who speaks in a friendly tone. Then Kusaka pulls a Xenoblade Chronicles on you and reveals he's a damn sociopath late in the story. The thing is his sociopathic actions are pretty much the same in the Pokemon games but he's made all the more hateful by the Pokemon fanbase by the fact that Adventures Ghetsis does this with a friendly smile believing everything he's doing is right. This is already different because we don't see who the true mastermind behind Team Plasma so early in the story which is what the games do, revealing that Ghetsis is pretty much Gen 5's bad guy as early as the first gym.

To sum it up, I thought Gen 7 was an improvement over Pokemon's foreshadowing and seeing characters like Lillie, Gladion, Prof. Kukui and even Hau wasn't that bad reminded me everything I loved about Pokemon Adventures storytelling. I pretty much knew what was going to happen in Gen 7's Pokemon story but like those who knew that Giovanni was going to be the villain of Pokemon Adventures RGB, I appreciated the surprising amount of build-up, the foreshadowing to a big satisfying conclusion and I'm gonna be honest, the revelation that Gladion and Lillie were family took me by complete surprise. I hope to see more of this foreshadowing storytelling that I felt succeeded to some degree in Pokemon Sun and Moon in the upcoming Sword & Shield games and it is currently one of my biggest hopes for the games as it is directed by none other than Shigeru Ohmori who is responsible for Sun & Moon... okay but seriously though give us skippable cutscenes. It's an amazing experience on the first time, not the second time.