Main Series game with Adult Player Character?

[TheGoldenToon]

So, do you think it would work and if so what would you do?

 

[techitisJ]

I don't know if I could see it anytime soon, but I would love to see it be incorporated at some point, even if it's with a different kind of Pokemon game.

If it were to be a main series game, I think it would work best as an option, kind of like choosing a boy or a girl. The game would give you an option: Are you a new trainer, or a veteran trainer? This choice would dictate what protagonist you get, and then you can choose your gender so on so forth. They could even do a cute thing where the adult protagonist design is just an aged up version of the child protagonist design. There could even be a different main rival per option. I think this would also be a neat little way to implement a challenge mode.

From there, the story is mostly normal, except this time you are a veteran trainer coming in from another region to go on a new journey (kind of like Ash does in the anime), and your rival has done similar.

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For a side game, I think it would be cool if we had a side series Pokemon game where you can choose a role that older/adult figures generally have. It could take place in a brand new region (with older Pokemon though cuz side series game), or it could take place on one of the existing regions. In addition to catching Pokemon, battling, and exploring the region, you have certain tasks to do depending on what role you choose. A Pokemon researcher/professor might have to catch some odd amount of a certain Pokemon or catch a Pokemon from a certain area. A breeder could have to hatch and raise a certain Pokemon to a set level. Things like that.

 

[Tood]

More in-depth character customization could probably help deal with this issue. Maybe the player can choose their own age, and other characters can react to them based on how old they are? The rivals can also be aged up or down accordingly.

Alternatively, they could include ~3 rivals of different ages (young teen, older teen, adult), but with different goals? Like the youngest being into contests, the middle wanting to be a strong trainer, and the eldest wanting to be a researcher, or something...

 

[TheCapsFan]

Although it wasn't technically a main series game, you could argue that Pokemon Colosseum fits the bill for this, since it was in the same style as the main series. In that game, you played as an ex-villain adult who steals his evil team's special contraption, and worked to uproot that evil team as well as the main evil organization in a world full of crime.

I look back at that game and in retrospect, the story looks so much like a fanfic, being the black sheep compared to every other Pokemon game out there. But I think they could take a lot from that game and implement it for a similar game in the main series. By this I mean elements like a deeper story with more mature themes, starter Pokemon beginning at higher levels, etc.

 

[prog rocker]

Although it wasn't technically a main series game, you could argue that Pokemon Colosseum fits the bill for this, since it was in the same style as the main series. In that game, you played as an ex-villain adult who steals his evil team's special contraption, and worked to uproot that evil team as well as the main evil organization in a world full of crime.

I look back at that game and in retrospect, the story looks so much like a fanfic, being the black sheep compared to every other Pokemon game out there. But I think they could take a lot from that game and implement it for a similar game in the main series. By this I mean elements like a deeper story with more mature themes, starter Pokemon beginning at higher levels, etc.

The only things I find that they shouldn't implement would be the weird names, the fact that you teleport from place to place instead of actually going to different places and the higher leveled starters, but that last one is mostly because I like to evolve them.

 

[Nicolas721]

It would work better as an spin-off than as alternate mode, as the story would have to be rewritten in the adult version to have less handholding, harder battles and possibly less focus on the type effectiveness. I'd do it more mature but without being edgy, and the characters would have more defined backgrounds.

 

[Emmy]

For some reason, when I try to imagine an adult as the protagonist... my mind inevitably strays back to Kagetora and that of a middle aged protagonist trying to recapture his youth by going on a Pokémon journey amongst all the actual ten year olds.

 

[Felly]

I feel like it would be easiest as character customization to start. Let the player choose their age somewhere between 10 (the traditional age trainers go on their Pokemon journey) and something on the upper end (not sure of an ideal number here, but maybe something in the 20s-30s?) among other customization options.

But ideally, I'd like to see something along the lines of an older protagonist with a more mature storyline. It doesn't have to be super mature, but I think with a large chunk of the player base being older, it'd be nice to see something that panders to that, even if it does end up being a spin off. I think games like Colosseum, XD: Gale of Darkness, and BW/BW2 took steps in the right direction, but they haven't seemed to do much with them since they've dropped and we've gone onto future gens.

 

[Shib]

Given that we have had protagonists in their teens and Gamefreak seem to have been playing with some of the story conventions in the last couple of games I could imagine a playable character who is mid 20s, perhaps in a dreary job that they got stuck in to help their mum pay the rent deciding to break out and go on the Pokémon journey that they always wanted to go on but couldn’t.

 

[Matleo]

ADULT MODE AND XXX POTENTIAL? LIKE THE WITCHER? WOULD NEED AGE RESTRICTION. COULD BE A MODIFIED VERSION OF THE GENERATION 9 BUT WITH INFO WHAT VERSION IT IS.

 

[prog rocker]

ADULT MODE AND XXX POTENTIAL? LIKE THE WITCHER? WOULD NEED AGE RESTRICTION. COULD BE A MODIFIED VERSION OF THE GENERATION 9 BUT WITH INFO WHAT VERSION IT IS.

Dude, what the hell? You know this is out of the realm of possibility, right?

 

[Daren]

That reminds me of the people elsewhere on the web saying CDProjekt Red should make the next Pokémon game.
*
I think an option for an adult protagonist would be a nice nod, but I don't see it happening outside of the spinoffs that keep it vague (I can see the Rescue Team protagonist being an adult, for instance, and I felt that Super implied you may have been one since I think they seemed surprised to look like a child after being transformed).

 

[Poke Dragon]

Here's a good place to start: let the male protagonists have facial hair like mustaches and beards.

 

[Jet-black Zorua]

I think you overestimate how many Pokemon fans are adults or at least the ones that play the main games. I don't think that the majority of game sales come from adult fans who buy the games for themselves unless there are some statistics that I'm missing.

I figure that since the games are directed towards kids that Game Freak knows who their main demographic are so I find it hard to imagine them switching and focusing on pandering to adults all of a sudden.

 

[Daren]

I think you overestimate how many Pokemon fans are adults or at least the ones that play the main games. I don't think that the majority of game sales come from adult fans who buy the games for themselves unless there are some statistics that I'm missing.

I figure that since the games are directed towards kids that Game Freak knows who their main demographic are so I find it hard to imagine them switching and focusing on pandering to adults all of a sudden.

You'd be surprised how large the adult audience is, at least among people who registered:

Pokémon's Audience Is Growing Older

www.siliconera.com

 

[Parissong]

I am all for a game where the protagonist is an adult and all, and I think would definitely be very cool.

But for a game like Pokémon, I do not think it would fly really well, or if anything, would only satisfy a niche part of the overarching consumer group. A lot of people play Pokémon for that sort of escapism too or living in an alternate reality where you're sort of a new person on a new journey and whatnot. I would think that sort of sentiment would be difficult to recreate if put in a character who is older and would (realistically) have more experience with the world and whatnot. Maybe if the whole story structure is different (eg. maybe your journey is stopping the evil team primarily instead of collecting badges and be the champion) it would work, but it definitely is going to be a big shift regardless.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

I think you overestimate how many Pokemon fans are adults or at least the ones that play the main games. I don't think that the majority of game sales come from adult fans who buy the games for themselves unless there are some statistics that I'm missing.

I figure that since the games are directed towards kids that Game Freak knows who their main demographic are so I find it hard to imagine them switching and focusing on pandering to adults all of a sudden.

Yeah this. Older fans can be expected to be part of the franchise no matter what but I don't think they're as big of a percentage as some people like to pretend they are. And from my own experience I like how the games are childish for the most part so I wouldn't want adult playable characters cuz that would take away the illusion of childhood innocence.

 

[Leaf_Ranger]

To sum it up, an older protagonist whose story doesn't start in their single mother's house and getting to make errands for a Prof..
Let's us have the option to have jobs and invest time on it as well as make decisions and not always beeing the almighty saviour that just happened to show when the region was most needed.

 

[Sheep]

Rather than outright giving us an adult playable character I'd rather we get the ability to customize our player's height at least (along with more customization options in general), to give the illusion of being older, and not specify ages when playing the game. I can still be 20+ years old and living with my mom (if TPCi really insist on keeping that pattern) until I set out for my adventure, it's not weird! Not too bothered about being canonically a kid though since I think us older players just ignore that bit and insert our own persona into the game, but it would be nice in an ideal world.

GO did bring a lot of older fans back to the series so I'm sure the adult population is quite sizable right now, but probably mostly kids though yeah I imagine. one can dream ahah

 

[Bolt Strike]

I think there should be an age/height slider and let the characters be ambiguously kids, teens, or adults based on their preferences, with the rivals and other "friend" characters following suit based on your choices.