Pokemon Champions Hopes and Wishes

[Devalue]

Announced Pokemon Champions in the recent Pokemon Presents. Are you hoping for something like Pokemon Stadium or something like Pokemon Showdown (if forced to choose)? Perhaps a third option of some kind? Are there any specific features you want to see? Do you think Z-moves and Dynamax will also return?
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Personally hopes for something like Pokemon Stadium, namely for a single-player experience. Doubts that, however. Focused on online battling in the trailer.

As for specific wishes: A robust choice of rental Pokemon. Kind of balanced evolved Pokemon versus unevolved Pokemon through movesets. Presented more of a choice.

Spotted something interesting in the fine print, also.

Pokemon you have originally obtained in Champions cannot be deposited into Pokemon Home.

Indicates being able to obtain Pokemon in Champions. How, exactly? Do you unlock groups of Pokemon?

Z-moves and Dynamax: Probably not Z-moves. Would not be surprised to see Dynamax return too. Connects to Sword/Shield still.

 

[Yippee!]

I'm hoping for easily customizable pokemon stats, basically something like the showdown team builder. I don't want to have to grind every pokemon from another game to make them usable for champions online.

For the rental mons I'm not sure how I'd want them, while I think it's interesting that the stadium rental mons are designed to be kinda balanced around eachother, I feel like that would only cut it in a format where rental mons are the only ones allowed. I dunno, I'll probably work with what I've got when the game's out.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

1. I am interested in knowing which Pokemon are we going to use, and how can we obtain the other, as you said. Online battling is good, but considering the graphics and design, I want that latency of the game remains better, because network fluctuations greatly affects the games like this.

2. It says about bringing Pokemon from Pokemon from Pokemon HOME. So I am expecting that we are (also) going to use Pokemon from this method. But then again, if someone doesn't uses Pokemon HOME, then how that player will get Pokemon, apart from the starter which they will give to us upon login?

3. Instead of Pokemon level being capped, I would be interested to see that the game has tier mechanism, and we are allowed to train and raise our Pokemon via battling.

4. There should be something like monthly or 3-monthly season, which will determine the meta list, and hence the varied format, in order to balance out the over-dependency on certain species only.

 

[Sheep]

Definitely more like Showdown. I would love to make my own teams from scratch without having to own anything, but the option to use our own Pokémon should absolutely be there too. A mix of that and maybe some minigames a la Stadium would be my biggest dream, but I am not expecting the latter to happen haha. Just give me a customizable battling sim and you have my attention - especially if battle mode versus NPCs is also included! Sometimes I just don't have the time (or skills lmao) to battle against actual people.

 

[Shrew]

I think it will be a hybrid between Stadium and Showdown. You can build pokemon completely from scratch, or import your own pokemon through Home which you can then easily edit the moves, EVs, and IVs. There would also be pre-built rental builds to start you out with for beginners.

There would be a distinction between these "from scratch" versus owned pokemon. I think the easiest solution would be to give the rentals a "Holo-Ball" of sorts, so the pokeball will give it away whether they were built internally or externally. I was originally thinking the designation could be the Marks/Titles, like it could say a title when either a rental or owned pokemon is sent out. However, I think that would look too clunky in VGC matches. However, players with owned pokemon can still customize their "real" pokemon with marks/titles, rare balls, whether they're shiny, and possibly nicknames. These cosmetic differences would be the game's way of encouraging you to import your owned pokemon through Home. Pokemon created from scratch could not be allowed to be imported into Home or other games.

As for monetization? They could do something like limiting you to a box of 30 "rental" (built from scratch) pokemon, with mtx to buy more space. You could delete pokemon and rebuild them ad infinitum, so you wouldn't actually be limited to 30 pokemon, but rather limited to 30 at a time. Whether this space would also apply to "owned" pokemon, I don't know. Personally I'd find this acceptable, but would much, much rather a flat $10 flat fee or, even better, limit mtx to trainer customization. It goes without saying that they'll definitely monetize trainer customization. That's an easy one. It's just whether there'll be further mtx that I'm brainstorming about.

I think Champions will be the new home for VGC. Getting people to play it casually would gateway and encourage people to get into VGC. That's probably the biggest reason against the idea of a 30 box limited space thing, because then people wouldn't play it casually over Showdown. I doubt TPC would shutdown Showdown... would they? I know Konami had DuelingNetwork shut down when they released Duel Links. It's a strange one, because Nintendo and their affiliates aren't above doing such a thing. But it would just really tarnish and put a bad taste in everyone's mouth if they did that to force people to get into Champions. I want to see Champions succeed on its own two legs. I think everyone does, including The Pokemon Company. So here's hopes they do it right.

Also... how cool would it be if this guy was the host of Pokemon Champions? Apparently Thorton is really popular in Japan. For those who don't know, Thorton is the battle frontier brain behind the Battle Factory in Platinum/HGSS, a mode that lets you use pre-built rental pokemon. Ofc there's also the OG Noland, but yeah, Thorton has popularity on his side. He would be a good mascot for a mode that pits you against trainers where you each use random pokemon! He'd also be a good mascot for all the statistics that could potentially be available in the game.

This is a long-shot but I'm hoping 6v6 battles are supported, and even better, balance is put into all the problems that have plagued 6v6 singles for a while. All those different clauses Smogon bring into the game, like Sleep Clause and Evasion clause? Actually change the mechanics for how things work so that clauses aren't necessary. Because this game is totally insular from other games, it could have mechanics different than the story mode games. And bring balance to the extremes between hyper offense and stall. And yes, you heard me right, I'm saying it's a longshot if 6v6 battles make it into the game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the mainline Battle Spot challenges have only supported 3v3 singles for a while now.

 

[RMVNZ]

Considering this game is set in a colosseum, give me a dynamic Pokémon Stadium-esque announcer.
It seems trivial, but it adds to the immersiveness of the setting.
A bit of a stretch, but also it would be nice to choose battle themes from several Gens as well before you start the match.

 

[Shrew]

I'm hoping for easily customizable pokemon stats, basically something like the showdown team builder. I don't want to have to grind every pokemon from another game to make them usable for champions online.

For the rental mons I'm not sure how I'd want them, while I think it's interesting that the stadium rental mons are designed to be kinda balanced around eachother, I feel like that would only cut it in a format where rental mons are the only ones allowed. I dunno, I'll probably work with what I've got when the game's out.

The easiest thing they could do for Rental Pokemon, assuming they include them, is use the Battle Tower (hence Battle Factory) movesets. They already have a library of them going up to at least generation 8. The library can be found here. They could potentially add a random battle option, like what Showdown has, using these movesets. This would effectively be a mode where only rental mons are allowed. Alas unlike Stadium, these movesets aren't balanced between unevolved and evolved pokemon.

3. Instead of Pokemon level being capped, I would be interested to see that the game has tier mechanism, and we are allowed to train and raise our Pokemon via battling.

4. There should be something like monthly or 3-monthly season, which will determine the meta list, and hence the varied format, in order to balance out the over-dependency on certain species only.

For point 4, I think that's what Battle Spot currently does, right? I would like to see something like this too. Perhaps expanded upon what they already do into something similar to tiers.

Could you tell me more about what you mean on point 3, with levels being uncapped and how that would tie into a tier mechanism?