Pokemon Medieval

[Cymiril 80]

I have an idea for a Pokemon game, I don’t know why Nintendo and GameFreak haven’t went in this direction for at least one title, but here is the idea I’ve been playing with. I know it’s long, sorry, but stick with me for a minute.

 

So, Pokemon has quite a bit of lore surrounding the games, and though there is some information on the Pokemon world's past, there isn't much. My idea is to set the game in medieval times, before people called them Pokemon and caught them. (The idea is that the game would start right at the time of the first occurrence of the creatures being captured and trained.) 

 

My theory is that before Pokemon were caught and befriended by humans, they were thought of in much the same way as any other monster in any given RPG. Even the real games always stress how dangerous wild Pokemon can be if you don't have your own to fight them. The Pokedex entries for some Pokemon are down right messed up, and things like children being stolen by Pokemon, Pokemon eating your dreams or giving you nightmares, or Pokemon hanging around hospitals absorbing the souls of those who have died seem commonplace. So, without a way to capture and control them, the only other option would be to defend yourself from attack and fight back.

 

The main difference I would have is that your "trainer", the knight you would play as, would actually fight in battles as well. The opening would have your character and some NPC knights fighting off an invasion of the bad guys, and they attack by sending monsters out to fight. You fight a couple battles, defeat the monsters, and they withdraw. Someone wonders aloud about how the bad guys were controlling the monsters, and your character picks something up off the ground dropped by the bad guys in their hasty retreat - a small crystal.

 

Let me pause there and explain the crystal. In the Pokemon world, mass-produced Pokeballs are a fairly recent invention, having only been around for a few decades, it seems. A fruit/nut called Apricorns were used before that, each one made by hand. But that only goes back so far, as well. However, the custom of catching Pokemon goes back further... Even though it was from the horrible anime, there was one of the movies I read about that was set 1000 years before the present. In it, a knight named Sir Aaron kept his Pokemon in crystal set in his staff, so I went with this for the ancient Pokeball equivalent. I would also fluff any other technology as magic, like instead of the PC where your Pokemon are stored, some sort of magical device, like a Bag of Holding is used; or the TMs instead being Scrolls.

 

Anyway, the player character decides to take the crystal to the court wizard (stand in for the professor) to be examined. He figures out that the bad guys are using these crystals to capture the creatures, and it somehow makes them docile and willing to take orders. The wizard manages to reverse-engineer the crystal, and creates some for you to try out. So, the player starts using monsters to battle too, but he can still fight for himself if he chooses to. The player character at some point after this would muse about having "Monsters in his pocket", which leads to the good guys adopting the name Pokemon.

 

Since there are no gyms, you find out that the bad guys are trying to get these 8 artifacts together, which would summon a powerful legendary Pokemon for them to capture and use to take over the world. You stop them at every turn, fight the bosses at each location, vying for control of these artifacts. It turns out the bad guys lead you into a trap, though, at the location of the last artifact. They trick you into bringing the 7 artifacts you already have to the summoning ritual location, the player gets knocked out from being at the epicenter of the ritual, and, when he wakes up, they have already captured the legendary Pokemon and are gone. Cue the last dungeon, culminating in the legendary monster being the final boss, and you win by either defeating it or capturing it; love and friendship prevail, the bad guys could never win because they didn't treat their Pokemon as partners, yada-yada.

 

The final scenes of the game would describe how capturing and training Pokemon became commonplace a few years after, and the King makes a royal decree that institutes the Pokemon League Challenge to honor the hero's deeds, where trainers can travel around the land and defeat 8 Gym Leaders in a gentleman's game style for badges, symbolic of the hero's journey to save the world - though only the Pokemon are allowed to fight to keep the challenges civil, which leads to the kind of Pokemon battles fought in the modern world.

 

Now, for some actual gameplay mechanics, as I've already mentioned, the player would actually fight, and will take up a space on your team - this would make you only able to carry 5 Pokemon. The court wizard would explain this away by saying that the crystals start to react strangely in large groups, so he recommends that you carry only 5 until he can research them further, and makes it so the crystals are teleported into magical storage when you catch a Pokemon. The ending will explain that it is eventually discovered that the hard limit for crystals on your person is 6; this tradition is why modern trainers can only carry 6 Pokemon with them while participating in the League Challenge.

 

The battles would stay the same, all one vs. one. Even though the knight would be treated basically as a Pokemon, he would have quite a few key differences. First, he can't deposit himself, of course - he's a permanent party member. Second, if the knight faints, obviously, that's game over, leading to the normal Pokemon game "blackout" and return to the last healing location. This would happen even if you have usable Pokemon left, so you'd have to be somewhat cautious when having him fight. Fortunately, our knight would have some things going in his favor. His stats would be higher than the average Pokemon, similar to a legendary. This would be further boosted by equipment, new weapons and armor, accessories, etc... Next, since he would be human "type", he would have no weaknesses to any type, though no resistances either, everything hitting him for neutral damage, unless he's using a piece of equipment that changes his resistances. Additionally, he'd need to learn more than 4 attacks, I'm thinking 24 so he can have an attack of every type plus have all the HM moves. He wouldn’t be able to learn Pokemon TM moves, so I’d probably use an NPC to teach him spells and different attacks, and you’d be able to change his moves at any time.

 

So, would this make a fun game? Thanks for reading, and any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Antioch 33]

Holy shit I want this! Everything here seems to fit perfectly, and I really like the fact that this would be really easy to implement into RPGMaker.

[Cymiril 80]

Thanks! The basic idea of Pokemon in medieval times just kind of snowballed in my head, and when I realized it was fairly well fleshed out, I decided to see what people thought about it.

 

I started thinking about this after I found the Pokemon Essentials starter kit for RMXP. I haven't found an engine that works as well as Pokemon Essentials for VX Ace, unfortunately. Crystal Noel's Pokemon kit is close, but it doesn't quite look or feel right, and is missing some of the functionality of Pokemon Essentials, as far as I can tell. If I can ever find all the scripts needed for this, I'd start working on it.

[_____ 214]

Sound's awesome. goodluck with your project, i'll be sure to check out the final result!

[Cymiril 80]

Thank you! Unfortunately, it's just an idea I've been playing with for a few months, it's still just a concept, so nothing is even started yet regarding actual development. I need to see exactly what the Pokemon kits for Ace can do, and see where I need to go script-wise from there. I also have another project that I was working on first, and I'm trying to get a demo of it ready, so this will have to wait for a bit.

 

But I will get around to making this eventually. I'll make a topic in the Showroom when I actually start working on it. I just figured for the meantime I'd throw it out here and get some opinions.

 

Thanks again for reading my idea and the support!

[Kayzee 4,032]

I honestly think it would be better off as it's own thing really...

[Tuckie 59]

I mean they did Pokemon feudal (that tactics RPG very few played) back on the DS, which sort of had a similar concept.

 

But I really agree with KilloZappit here. You clearly have put the time in to flesh out your concept, and all you have to do to make it original is replace the word "Pokemon".

 

Something like, like..

Poket Monsters?

[Cymiril 80]

I honestly think it would be better off as it's own thing really...

 

I mean they did Pokemon feudal (that tactics RPG very few played) back on the DS, which sort of had a similar concept.

 

But I really agree with KilloZappit here. You clearly have put the time in to flesh out your concept, and all you have to do to make it original is replace the word "Pokemon".

 

Something like, like..

Poket Monsters?

 

 

That is an interesting idea, I never really thought about making it an original title, I was only thinking of it as a Pokemon fan game. I don't think it would stand on it's own just that easily, though, since if it wasn't Pokemon I'd need 100+ original creatures, new types and moves, at least slightly different mechanics, and several other things would need to be one-off from Pokemon, not just the name.

 

And I do know about Pokemon Conquest, but other than being set a long time ago, it doesn't really share anything with my idea. It's feudal Japan, not a European medieval setting. Pokemon Conquest uses a tactical battle system, I'd use the traditional battle system, 1 vs. 1 turn based. And Pokemon Conquest's story is about conquering different kingdoms, and then letting everyone have their kingdom back, which makes absolutely no sense (and is nothing like my story). And Pokemon Conquest STILL doesn't let people fight, only Pokemon.

 

And I really didn't put THAT much time in to thinking this up, the idea is still basically just a Pokemon game, just with a knights and castles twist.

 

I appreciate your suggestions, though, you've given something else to think about!

[Kayzee 4,032]

I mean, it seems to me like you could do something a lot different  then pokemon if you wanted, exploring new ideas and such. For example I always wondered what a pokemon like game would be like with a build-in nuzlocke-style permadeath system How would you design that? It would be a interesting opportunity to try new gameplay ideas as well as a new setting. But that's just me. :3

[Cymiril 80]

This is why I posted this here. I love your willingness to argue KilloZapit, and I mean that with all sincerity. Since my best friend passed away a few years ago, I haven't had a good argument with anyone. Arguing isn't the same as fighting, to me at least, I feel that it makes people think better when someone is willing to challenge what they say.   

 

How would you suggest handling the creatures, though? I'm not talented or skilled enough to make even 50 unique creatures, and even then I feel they'd just kind of be copies. Of course, I don't need as many as Pokemon has (even the original 151), but you'd have to have a decent amount for variation and player choice. I guess generic fantasy monsters would work, but then where do I get the custom graphics for battle? I can change sprite colors or do other little edits, but making them all seems a little daunting. Keep in mind I have no interest in making any RPG Maker game commercial, I'm against trying to profit from indie games, so I'm not going to pay someone to do sprite work for me.

 

And you don't think a perma-death system is a little harsh? Unless it was an option at the start of a new game, I'd be a little leery making that the only choice.

[lonequeso 1,921]

I never liked perma-death, but that's a subject for another time. I like the original idea as a Pokemon fan game. It's an interesting spin. I'm sure fans of the Pokemon games would love to see it, me being one of them. The spin by itself is an original enough idea even though you're using very well-known characters. You seem to be a fan of Pokemon, too. Use that passion and make something great.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I wouldn't even mind just using generic fantasy monsters really, I don't think you need hundreds of wacky super unique monster types to be worth it. I kinda would be interested to see a system based around a few base types that are mixed and matched into unique creatures though.

 

As for permadeath, well, I think Pokemon often has the problem in that there is no real reason not to stick with one team, and your loses have very little impact. This is why the Nuzlocke challenge was created in the first place, to sort of force diversity. Maybe it would work better i your monsters were just "wounded" and couldn't be used until they heal though. Also permadeath doesn't necessarily mean loosing all your progress, or mean that death comes in battle. If you ever played any of the Monster Rancher games for example, one of the central mechanics is that your monsters only have a limited lifespan, and that when they die they can pass on some of their experience to the next monster.

 

Also here are some other assorted ideas I have had over the years if anyone cares:

1. Ditch the concept of a party that travels around with you and just let you "summon" monsters directly from the PC Box equivalent whenever you wish. Maybe give the player a MP bar which they use to summon monsters. Maybe make monsters more into "familiar spirits" as a result of this.
2. Diversify how you catch monster. Require every battle that you can catch monsters with to have a little puzzle or other element you have to use besides just weakening them. Maybe that means a Shin Megami Tensei negotiation option, or maybe that means hitting a monster with a particular status effect or element attack. Maybe some monsters are caught purely by overworld interaction and not battle.
3. Possibly involve the player character in battle directly. Maybe have "contest style" battles with only monsters, and "real battles" that also involve the humans directly. Maybe make the fact that the human trainer even has stats a secret for a while and when the evil team rocket analog shows up, they suddenly attack you the player directly and the player realizes shit just got real.

[Cymiril 80]

Possibly involve the player character in battle directly. Maybe have "contest style" battles with only monsters, and "real battles" that also involve the humans directly. Maybe make the fact that the human trainer even has stats a secret for a while and when the evil team rocket analog shows up, they suddenly attack you the player directly and the player realizes shit just got real.

 

 

 

I like your other ideas, but other than the time setting, that IS the main difference from regular Pokemon that my idea had. The player character would always be able to battle.

[lonequeso 1,921]

@Killozapit- I had the same idea as your number 2 and 3. I like the idea of being able to swap/summon team members at will or at least in more area than just Pokecenters. I had having to backtrack because I need a Pokemon with a specific HM to get past an area, or the team I have isn't ideal for the area I'm in. 

 

My idea for a Pokemon game was actually a full fledged MMORPG where the other trainers were mostly other players, and your human character could catch Pokemon completely on their own using a few different methods. I could go on at length, but then we'd be waaay off topic.

 

The reason I bring it up, is the method of the trainer having to do some actual work would work well for your game, Cymiril. It sounds like it's going to at least start of that way. It'd be worth considering making it a necessary mechanic in the game. The trainer could have a few special skills they can acquire to increase the odds of catching Pokemon. Like a more elaborate version of the *cough* skills used in the Safari Zone. Killozapit's idea of summoning the Pokemon more or less at will could work too. Storywise, the magic used eventually gets taken over by technology, and magic becomes a lost art. Something like that.

 

I'm interested to see what you come up with. 

[Cymiril 80]

@Killozapit- I had the same idea as your number 2 and 3. I like the idea of being able to swap/summon team members at will or at least in more area than just Pokecenters. I had having to backtrack because I need a Pokemon with a specific HM to get past an area, or the team I have isn't ideal for the area I'm in. 

 

My idea for a Pokemon game was actually a full fledged MMORPG where the other trainers were mostly other players, and your human character could catch Pokemon completely on their own using a few different methods. I could go on at length, but then we'd be waaay off topic.

 

The reason I bring it up, is the method of the trainer having to do some actual work would work well for your game, Cymiril. It sounds like it's going to at least start of that way. It'd be worth considering making it a necessary mechanic in the game. The trainer could have a few special skills they can acquire to increase the odds of catching Pokemon. Like a more elaborate version of the *cough* skills used in the Safari Zone. Killozapit's idea of summoning the Pokemon more or less at will could work too. Storywise, the magic used eventually gets taken over by technology, and magic becomes a lost art. Something like that.

 

I'm interested to see what you come up with. 

 

I hate having to backtrack too, or have junk moves on my good team. I've thought for a long time HMs should just be field moves and not take up an actual move slot or be an attack. So you could teach a Pokemon any HM it could learn, but it would still have 4 attacks. I don't know if I'd be able to make that idea work in my game idea, but I figured the next best thing would be the knight having 20+ moves, so he could have all the HMs (except Fly,  maybe) and still have a lot of type coverage. Plus he'd have Teleport to take him back to the last healing area, and you'd never have to replace it.

[lonequeso 1,921]

You could always make a special category fro field moves. Anything under that would have skills that are set to only be used in the field. The only issue with doing it that way, is the category and skills will still show up in battle even though the player can't use them.  20+ moves is a lot unless it's going to be a long game. Especially if there's going to be several Pokemon in the party.

Personally, I never liked that they could only learn four moves at once. You're telling me a super genius like Alakazam can only handle learning four moves? C'mon Nintendo. >_< I would've have loved if they could learn 5 moves instead of 4 *hint* *hint*

It would throw off the feel of it being a prequel to the Pokemon series, though. Unless you can come up with a clever excuse reason they have more moves in the past.

If you go the summoning route one suggestion I have would to have a cool down time for it. If need be the player can later the team, but would still have to plan ahead. There's several cool down scripts out there so it would be easy to implement.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I like 8 moves as a limit,. though I am not as much of a fan of haveing "skill slots". It always seemed really silly and gamey. Still, I liked SaGa Frontier's weird shapeshifting monsters and how they could absorb up to 8 skills (not all of which were attacks or even action moves) a lot more then pokemon's system. SaGa Frontier kinda suffers in that all it's monsters are exactly the same though and just change based on what moves you have absorbed.

 

As for field moves like cut and stuff,  if you could summon any creature at any time, maybe you would need to just get and summon the right type of creature instead of needing the exact right move. Maybe each creature has a field action or actions that is different from it's battle movepool, like pokmemon's abilities only with field effects rather then passive ones, and you just need to figure out what one you need. It might be interesting to need to capture and summon a rain spirit to make it rain for a task in a desert town for example. It might also be interesting if the human trainer learned those as spells instead. Perhaps even those are the only skills the human character really learns and aren't as useful in battle which is why they mostly need monsters for protection.

Edited October 2, 2015 by KilloZapit

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

I am quite interested. First we got Sengoku Pokemon and now we have Medieval Pokemon!

[Mysticphoenix 8]

That's a really good idea. It's so different!