Pokémon Switch Wishlist: 7 Features Fans Demand
6. Choices That Shape The World
Worlds adapting to your choices have been a fixture of RPGs going back to Peter Molyneux’s lies about acorns. However, the new Switch RPG could allow for options to shape the world like never before.
Even in Red and Blue there was the choice over whether to pick up Kabuto or Lord Helix, Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan, but by the time we got them our party was normally much stronger. On the first playthrough at least, most trainers dumped them in the PC and moved on.
In Pokémon Black & White, Team Plasma (basically Pokémon PETA) had a point. They weren’t out and out baddies like Rocket or Flare, and it would’ve been nice if an RPG let you side with them on occasion.
Perhaps, in the style of Lionhead’s Fable or Mass Effect, there were options to be good and bad, with the bad choices tarnishing your reputation but offering some benefits. Crime does pay, after all. Just look at Giovanni.
Aside from this Renegade/Paragon type mechanic, your trainer might encounter people in need of assistance with long term payoffs, or may come across split paths that cannot be backtracked, forcing them to decide which route best suits them and their party.