Rivals

[Jayrodd]

Are you really playing pokemon if you don't have a rival? Every game has one (or two or three or whatever) and they usually play a big part to show the player growth along a journey, and they help show that the world is not static but growing with you. Rivals come in all kinds of shapes, edge, and size, so let's see what you think?

• Discuss archetypes of rivals used in canon and fan games
• Explore ways that a rival can be used to enhance a narrative or become meaningful roadblock for the player
• Define what makes a rival "good"

 

[Evan]

Gosh what an interesting and hot topic--I've actually been discussing this quite recently with people. As it stands, most people can divide rivals into two classes: Shit-head I-Hate-You Rivals, and I'm-Your-Friend Rivals. The first two definitely were featured mostly in the first two gens, and perhaps with Hugh and Gladion a tad bit. The other generations seemed to take on a more friendly rival. Some have been more engaging than others, but I think the biggest quality a rival can have is being memorable.

People remember Blue and Silver because they were complete jerks and you really hated them and wanted to beat them. This worked doubly well in their games because the villainous team, Rocket, wasn't too huge of a threat that you couldn't focus on beating down this dirt-bag. However, once the shift happened to end-of-the-world evil teams, the rivals became friendly checkpoints, like Gym Leaders. To me that meant in order to save them from being forgotten they needed memorable stories. Like Wally's tale of getting stronger, or Hau and Lillie in SuMo.

I think whether a rival is good or 'bad' can differ or vary, but having a believable reason to be challenging you over and over during your journey and also having their own story arc and reason to be there is incredibly important to keep them memorable--which in my opinion is the one quality that makes a rival good.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Oh, heck, wish I knew this was coming up, or I wouldn't have blabbed so much in the story thread!

Spoiler: What I wrote there

The rival that is laser-focused on being a better Pokemon trainer than you was great the first time, but making that their sole goal is just recycling an old plot. (IIRC, the only time canon games have repeated that is with Calem/Serena, and since they weren't Champion, they didn't have the same story importance Blue did) Even when rivals are trying to one-up the player, there's often another motive behind that, or it will change during the story:
Silver seems to be entirely unconcerned with the Pokemon League, and is determined to take down Team Rocket, as well as anyone else he considers "weak". While Silver frequently challenges the player, his main goal isn't just to overcome them, but to become stronger himself.
Wally, like Silver, wants to grow stronger himself, but for him, growing stronger is just being able to bond with his Pokemon and have an adventure, something he wasn't able to do in the past. While he still wants to try to be stronger than the player, it's not the end of his journey, or even a major point of it-just one of the ways he bonds and adventures with friends.
Barry wants to be a good battler like his father, and like Blue, does this by trying to one-up the player in the Pokemon League. He's quite similar to Blue in a lot of ways (and I almost wonder if he wasn't a second attempt at the base of Blue's character), but his personality is given little touches here and there to make him his own person (his impulsiveness compared to Blue's hyper-planning, Barry's dialogue including a little more compliments as opposed to Blue's constant berated, Barry looking to be stronger to be like someone he admires, while Blue does it to prove himself to his perceived snubbing from Oak). His journey is also rather different from Blue's-in addition to his loses from the player, losing to Jupiter and seeing Uxie hurting as a result causes him to mature a little more-and he never does head off to the championship.
Cheren starts out with the basic rival kit (includes stronger starter, dream of becoming Champion, and impatience-though it's far from the entirety of his personality!), but after Alder asks him why, he begins to reflect more on himself and grow as a person-deciding to change his original goal and instead become a gym leader. Not only do his losses no longer make him frustrated, he's quite glad to see them-he wants to help people continue on their journeys. (and continues to help out the player after)
...I was gonna keep analyzing all the rivals, but I think that's good for now-listing all of them is a bit much!

(Personally, I'm quite fond of rivals like Hugh, Silver, and Gladion-rivals where their goals aren't quite like yours, but they still cross paths and/or butt heads with you. But that's just a personal preference)
There's nothing wrong with the rival wanting to be stronger than the player-you could almost argue that's the point of rivals-but instead of just having the bare bones of a rival, give them a little more color in their character. A rival's on a journey of their own-just like you don't want your game to be the same as another, your rival shouldn't have the same path as another.

Also, if you have multiple rivals-show their dynamics! Ethereal Gates' rivals bring a lot to their personalities with their interactions, and even how their family reacts to the player! I think that's why the rivals in XY fell flat for some people-they're nearly all focused on the player, when a group of friends (especially one that seems to have already formed before your arrival) should have some fun interactions between each other.

And now for something new to add...
I think most rivals can generally be sorted into two categories-Friendlier rivals that you're not wholly willing to fight, or ruder rivals that you might want to get rougher with besides just fighting. (with varying extremes in-between-some Type 2 rivals are just a little rough around the edges, and some are like Blue and happily declare they don't care about other people) I think there's generally a story/gameplay conflict between the two: a rival is an opponent you'll have to beat, but they're also a recurring character.

• With a Type 1 rival, they're a nice character to have around, but you don't want to fight them as much.
• With a Type 2 rival, you enjoy proving yourself the stronger to them, but you're not always glad to see them pop up in the storyline.

Not true for all rivals-Gladion, for example, starts out as a Type 2, but is a blast to have in the story-but I think that's the beginning issue in conceiving a rival. And of course, on top of this, there's personal preferences-some fans like Type 1, some fans like Type 2, and it's impossible to get a rival that appeals universally.

I think the best road to take is a happy medium-either by blending the two into one character (a rough character that grows as a person, or a friendly character that still keeps a strong competitive streak with the player), or by having two rivals that kinda fit both.

 

[LunarDusk]

Rivals can be one of the easiest characters to create, but also one of the hardest. To put it simply, a rival to me should be a character that has as much of a story arc as the main character, albeit maybe a bit smaller or with a more specific goal. These characters should have a personality that is unique to them, but still be able to show growth and character depth as the story progresses and the players spend more time with them. This could be rivals like Silver, who went from a thief in your hometown to the son of Giovanni in Team Rocket, who goes against his father's beliefs. Other examples of rivals with arcs include Wally, who goes from a shy and intorverted kid to a confident and bold trainer, going so far as to meet you right at the end of Victory Road in order to prove how much he's grown, and becoming one of few trainers to fully utilize Mega Evolution later in ORAS (which to me is a big deal because only major characters get that role in gen 6 games. Even your rival in XY didnt get a megastone until the late post game.)

In terms of fangames, no rival is a better example of how not to make a rival than the classic Gary clone from Zeta/Omicron: Jake. Jake had one sole purpose in Zeta/Omicron: Jake was made to have swag, and to be a joke rival that would battle you randomly while eventually just gaining control of the second most powerful legendary in the entire story for almost no reason. Here are a list of the reasons that Jake, as a character, breaks the ideas of making a good Rival.

1. Jake's design is not original or unique. Being a literal clone of Gary, he doesnt feel like his own character because he doesn't look like his own character.
2. Jake's ideals and characteristics, even if they were made as a joke, are not tested or changed throughout the entire game. There are no big moments where Jake truly shows any character growth, he is too busy making himself have more swag and less focused on the literal war tearing apart the Vesryn Region in the game.
3. Jake is found at every major section, in very random events, for absolutely no reason. You could say this about almost every main game rival like Gary but in the maingames when a rival character is in a big town, it is because they are there to guide the player to something, or to build part of their story, wheras Jake fills the role of punching bag for most of the game whenever he shows up, and only acts to help the player as a character that cant even hold his own in a gym battle despite having strong legendaries with him.

So, if you are creating a rival for a fangame, and you had a base character like Jake, how could you truly make him into something better? How can Jake, with these 3 major flaws, be created into someone that a player can both love to hate, and hate to love throughout their journey? Here are some examples that I have been following when remaking Jake for Epsilon:

1. Create a new Jake. This means not only an entire new look and sprite set to make sure he is a unique character graphically, but also with his personality. Instead of focusing on swag as a joke, turn Jake into someone who is cocky with his abilities since he dominates everyone at his school. A rival who is hot-headed in his abilities, but still keeps a collected vibe instead of rubbing it in the player's face so that while he seems to be in over his head, the players can still relate and understand when he fails to meet his own expectations in battle.
2. Giving him a real arc. Showing how Jake can go from a cocky trainer who still has a lot to learn into a key component to helping to stop the wars battling on throughout his region is a BIG story arc, and one that needs to be followed step by step throughout the region. Whether it is being with the player to fight off the evil teams, or being seen in towns collecting his badges and learning new tricks.

Having these major elements are how i define a rival as "good". They are characters that have a unique aesthetic compared to the rest of their world, with good story arcs that show emotional growth, and be a character that the player is excited to watch as they become better fighters, right up to the end where they act as the ultimate challenge for the protagonist before the Elite Four, or maybe even after them as the champion. Every pokemon trainer has a goal to reach for the very top and become the best that they ever could be, and that should apply to your rivals too. They are not just another random trainer in the game, they are the trainer that you as the palyer should see and connect with the most besides the protagonist, and they should have almost as big of a role as making a protagonist or an evil team leader for fangames.

 

[Mak]

Rivals usually fall between two categories:

Competitive prick or Friendly punching bag

Obviously some rivals display traits from both of these sides. Rivals like Blue and Silver are on the left side of the spectrum, while meanwhile characters like Brendan/May and the Gen 6 group fall on the far right. But there are rivals like, for instance, Hugh, Barry, and Wally that fall into varying degrees in the middle of the spectrum.

This isn't to say that a certain side of the spectrum is necessarily better. The thing about opinions is that every person has a different one. Some people prefer the love-to-hate rivals like Blue, taking pride in beating them. While others may prefer the friendly rivals that actually act the role of "childhood friend".


The thing about rivals is that their effectiveness depends on the narrative. Having an extremely-happy rival that always tries to help you out may work a lot better when you have a serious antagonistic force. Having someone reliably fight alongside you in times of need can give a nice feeling of closeness. I personally found Hau far better than the rest of the friend archetypes, particularly because he's a bit self-aware that he's weaker than you. But he still helps you in multiple instances.


Rivals are really one of those cases where "it depends". In my personal opinion, a rival should have depth to them, at least. Blue as a rival, despite being an excellent obstacle, has little depth as a character and, despite being a 'childhood friend', acts more like a snobbish bully than anything else. Personalities aren't formed out of thin air, and a solid reasons and motivations should be given to have your rival act the way they do. In my opinion this is what can make a rival either work, or not work.

But there's still the fact that rivals should grow alongside you. This isn't just the sense of having a stronger team, but having them learn things about themselves or the world around them through their journey. Silver is undeniably one of, if not the most developed rivals in the series. He has a solid motivation, strong determination to reach his goals, yet ultimately realizes that his methods aren't the right way to go. He eventually comes around and starts treating his Pokemon as equals, becoming a much stronger trainer in the process.
In a game that isn't very heavy in the plot-department, Silver works well in being able to act as both an obstacle and a character that you grow to genuinely like over the course of the game.

This doesn't have to be limited to rivals softening up of course. For instance, an otherwise carefree could be hardened by the world around him. Obviously, in cases like this, you want to give reasons why he does what he does. A happy, lighthearted plot with not even a hint of dark themes should not turn your happy-go-lucky best friend into an edgelord. Every good development requires something that challenges what they think. Views are shaped by experience, and a solid experience, good or bad, can completely change how you look at things. The same should apply to your rival.


... But enough of character talk. You want your rival to at least put up a fight. If your rival likes to boast, give them some bite to back up their bark.

• Make their teams balanced, with good type coverage.
• Keep them a notch above the trainers around you. They're your rival for a reason. What's the point in having them be just like any other trainer?
• Having strong Pokemon never hurts, but it definitely does when it's your rival using them.
• Rivals rarely ever make use of held items. Using them could help mix things up a bit and give them more of an edge.

In terms of making them an actual roadblock however, there's plenty ways you can do it.

• Have them block off an area, maybe until you have a gym badge. This can either be because they think you're not ready, or you're not good enough.
• In between major encounters, maybe you can give them an optional battle or two to show some progress.
• Place them in front of your destinations. Blue was good about this: the SS Anne, the road to Bill's, even the champion room itself. Blue was always protecting an area essential to plot advancement.
• It's always good to have your rival be the final challenge before the Pokémon League. There's a reason almost every game in the series has done it.
• If you really want to be a prick, you can put them at the end of a long route. Having a worn out team can have your rival put up an even bigger fight

These words exist only so that I can get to 800 words without actually thinking of any more things to say.

 

[Pixel Profligate]

Ooh boy, Rivals. Some can be very hit or miss, I find. With the better ones (in my terrible opinion) driving the player to not only become better, but to actually give the player goals beyond being a roadblock because the player hasn't had a "hard" fight in X amount of time. A prime example of this (and who I find to be the best rival Pokemon has ever had) is Silver.

Spoiler: My Big Silver Ramble

Silver is, to put if bluntly, an asshole. He steals, he's generally mean, and just not a fun guy to be around. But, in his doing that, he drives you to want to be better than him, since he consistently shows to be a harder challenge than the dime a dozen youngsters you encounter. But, he also gives you objectives to want to work towards. Now, most rivals do, but those don't often go beyond "beat gyms" or "help me fight these people that are right here in this moment." Silver, from the first time you meet him, talks about wanting to crush Team Rocket, who we all know are the bad guys. So naturally, we the player, also want to do that. And in doing that, we keep running into this guy, which Silver hates. He keeps trying to beat you, and just can't seem to. Now, unlike Blue, who just doesn't care that you beat him, or most other rivals, who are just impressed you're strong and congratulate you on being so, Silver gets pissed off. He doesn't get why he can't win. So, once you (not him) crush Team Rocket, he only has one more thing to beat. You. So he keeps trying to get stronger. But he actually develops somewhat as a character, which is shown both through dialogue, and through his team. For instance, Silver has a Golbat for a very, very long time. But, after you beat Team Rocket, and he's given some time to reflect on what he's been through, and what's been said to him, he grows. That Golbat evolves into a Crobat, which can only be done through happiness. He goes from seeing his Pokemon as tools to make him stronger, to seeing them as actual friends.

Now, and example of a "bad" rival would be the 3 set-in-stone rivals from XY (Not Calem/Serena). They do nothing to drive you or motivate you, they do nothing to challenge you, they rarely come up in gameplay, and the game would have been arguably the same without them in it.

I will say that, arguably, the better rivals are the ones who oppose the player. The mean ones, who really get under your skin, since they give the player a bigger reason to want to fight them, as opposed to the friend rivals, who you often don't want to fight since they do nothing to really warrant being fought. The mean rivals really do drive the player to want to become stronger, and since they do annoy you, you actually want to beat them when you see them (unless you happen to be doing a Nuzlocke, in which case you avoid them at all costs), but friendly rivals can work well, so long as they are actually given time to be developed and attached to by the player, which may be their biggest weakness in my eyes. If the friendly rival isn't given the proper time or development for the player to get attached to them, they become more of a burden or inconvenience for the player to encounter than something they are okay with. But you don't want to overly force the player to like them, or then they also become annoying. It's a hard line to hit, and I don't think that Pokemon has quite hit that mark yet. They have gotten close, but not quite there.
For example, Wally in RSE. He was a better rival than May/Brenden, having more development time and allowing the player to get somewhat invested in his personality, but after that, he isn't encountered enough for the player to truly feel like Wally matters. So, when he finally shows up in Victory Road, the player is not expecting to see him because, frankly, they don't remember him. You haven't seen him for 5 gyms and a whole legendary destruction even, after all. It ends up making him feel lackluster.

Overall, I think the Silver approach works best unless you plan on having an ultra-threatening team bent on doing something unspeakably terrible. Just don't be Gen 5 with 86 rivals that are completely purposeless and inconsequential. Sometimes less is more, and that is definitely one time it should have been.

 

[Tomix9tomix]

I guess I'll start off with my 3 favourite rivals and why...

1st place goes to Hugh:
Although I can't actually remember much about him, I do remember that I like him. I think he had that sort of I'm an douchebag aura that rivals like silver and blue give off, but you learn that there is more to him. He has a reason to push on and try to take down team plasma and it is quite a caring reason, so that on top of how I think he looks pretty cool, is why I like him so much.

2nd place goes to Hau:
The problem with Hau was that he wasn't so much of a rival, but just a really nice friend. And being frank here, his story isn't that deep, you don't learn to much about his family and past unlike with Gladion and Lillie. So although this is probably a very personal opinion, I just like Hau because how happy he is, and that makes me happy too :)

3rd place goes to Silver:
I doubt I need to explain why silver is a good rival, he is being mentioned a lot in this discussion XD

So that's that, but I guess when it comes down to developing a rival you do want someone who educes emotions on to the player, whether they be the emotion of wanting to beat the crap out of them, or the emotion of just being happy to be with them on your adventure doesn't matter too much, but they should make you feel something. As far as main characters go in Pokemon games, rivals get a lot of screen time, maybe more than any other character, meaning that they need to be a well written character.

Motive plays a big part in this, just like the player should have a reason to go on their adventure, so should the rival. Why would some young kid all of a sudden decide to leave home, to try and beat some other kid? It doesn't really make sense.

Also while I am talking about good rivals I should mention the rival 'Theo' in Pokemon Uranium.

Spoiler: Pokemon Uranium

Pokemon Uranium does the rival extremely well. Right off the bat they establish how childish this person is. He complains about losing you and you start to think of him as an annoying brat. But then his dad possibly dies...
And then when you beat this 'brat' again you see how hard he is taking it. He can't seem to do anything right and now his dad is no longer her to help him, and you (at least I did) start to feel a whole lot more sorry for kicking his butt,
And then he starts to grow up, all of a sudden Theo might even be more mature than you, and plot continues, lalalala and happy ending
Thus, making Theo possibly the greatest rival I've ever played with

And maybe a bit of a controversial opinion, but I think Blue is a bit overrated. He just comes off as a bit of a prick with no redeeming qualities, maybe that is what makes him a good rival, but I feel like a rival has to be friendly on some terms, otherwise they just become the other enemy.

 

[Darius_Oak]

I'll lay down some examples from my old project that involved rivals. They weren't so much rivals as they were friends and allies of yours who would challenge you and actually allow you to turn them down, they'd always heal you first, the works. And there were quite a few of them:

• The young man who sought to become a professor himself, and would never actually challenge you unless he felt that he could learn something new from it.
• The excitable lass who simply had too much energy to hold back a desire to battle when it struck, and who didn't truly have a goal other than to follow that first guy around. Secretly, she wanted to impress him.
• The one who wanted to return to his home, but couldn't. He wasn't angsty like Shadow the Hedgehog, rather he was a genuinely nice guy and a true Ace Trainer of his day, who would treat battles against you like warm-ups.
• The quiet young lady who saw battling as an art form. She had no vested interest in besting you, but wanted to see what kind of beautiful art you could make. Things got a wee bit darker as things went on, but that's all I'm going to say of that.
• The one who trained each day to build his power and resilience. He never challenged you directly, but would always accept an offer, serving as a test of how much you can dish and how much you can tank.
• Finally, the secretive girl. Never spoke much, never battled much, but was constantly eyeing you all from behind and would only battle you when she felt she needed to test your strength before going into something dangerous. While she stood at the back and often said nothing, she would step up front when the time was right and stand as a human barricade against anyone who wasn't ready for her and even many who were, including you. She would push herself to her absolute limit, and you would be forced to match. She battled you to protect you.
  • This one was my character, so I'm a wee bit biased.

It looks overwhelming, but we made it work by keeping rival battles mostly to "you challenge them" scenarios. Screen time was split based on how talkative certain characters were, with the quieter ones occasionally not getting a line in edgewise, but this was actually much to their benefit. Their time was what you made of it, instead of everybody being shoehorned into one single narrative all the time.

 

[Djaco75]

I can honestly say that I'm not a big fan of rivals at all. Sure, they're there to estimate player growth, but isn't there a better way to do this like simply looking at your Gym Badges or having your mum congratulate you every so often?

With that being said, there have been some pretty cool rivals, as well as some bad ones, so...:

I think that there are usually two types of rivals. The friendly one and the mean one. The friendly one is usually easier to beat, more helpful to the player and usually has some sort of past connection with them. On the other hand, the mean one always pokes fun at the player, doesn't offer them items or etc. and usually has a negative or no past connection to the player. I'm not a fan of either of these methods - I prefer something of a mix, which engages the player, but doesn't go too hard on them.

Lastly, I feel like there are certain things that define a good rival and certain things that define a bad rival. Firstly, don't overdo it. X and Y got a lot of hate for including something like 5 rivals, which didn't go down well with the fans. Secondly, give your rival different typed Pokemon. They can still focus on one type, but give their Pokemon secondary types to counter weaknesses. Lastly, keep the balance between having a rival appear too frequently to appearing once or twice in the whole game.

 

[Shgeldz]

I think it really depends on the game. It's obvious that in later games, the concept of becoming the champion and tackling the Elite Four took a back seat to more story driven/evil team driven plotlines. In Gen 1, the concept of a "Rival" was someone you were racing to get all the gym badges and to complete the Pokédex the fastest, so he served as a great foil, by being obnoxious, but surprisingly deep in character. Gen 2's rival took this to an extreme (although if you haven't looked at the Celebi event from HGSS, you're missing out).

Gen 3 is where the series took a turn, as Wally and Dawn/Brenden fill the rival wars, but neither of them is directly in competition with you.

For me though, Gen 6 feels the most "lost" in terms of rivals. There's too many in your friend group, and Serena/Calem are about as bland as it gets.

Hau fixed that issue, as he's just so darn likable, and Gladion covered that "opponent" void.

I'd like to see a return to a rival who is light hearted, but competitive, like in Gen 1.

EDIT: I want to expand on this.

I named my Rivals as a kid after my friends who also played Pokémon. I think for me, the ideal rival would be basically a characterization of what another person playing the same game would be. Someone who's got the same goals and ideals and aspirations as the player character, but has a different way of approaching them, takes a different route, but is relatable in their quest.

 

[Radical Raptr]

Its hard to determine exactly what makes a rival good. The best dynamic I found, was having a group of friends from gen 5, Bianca and Cheren. However, it was the dynamic that made the "rival" aspect so influential. But the single greatest rival has to be Silver.

The dynamic of having friends who grow and change with you and have goals that are different but linked to yours who matter is so impactful. It draws you in and makes you have a purpose in the game aside from being randomly in one town out of any of the towns, instead you have real friends who care about you, and gives you a presence in the world. Bianca and Cheren grow and change, but they have minimal character development if any. Instead, their role is to give you, the player, an impact and connection to the world.

However, Silver, has actual flaws, emotions, and goes through an actual change. He seeks out only power, and wants to be strong, and likewise does that with his training with his pokemon. But that is his true flaw, he doesn't care about his pokemon, only power, and thats what keeps him from growing, but as you progress in the game, he takes each defeat to heart, and eventually grows as a person. He, near the end of his growth, has a crobat, a pokemon that can only evolve through friendship, clearly showing the once uncaring asshole silver, who only cared about power and strength, instead shows compassion and understanding to his pokemon. He gives the player a character to fight against and be better than, but has his own troubles and goes through his own changes.

There's more to being a rival than just being someone to measure your power and team against. Going the route of having friends you grew up with is a good way to give the player a purpose and grounded nature in the story, but having a character like silver who changes through the story ultimately has a better impact.

What makes a rival bad though? Ultimately, its a character who does not change in the story at all. People rip on X/Y but characters like Tierno and Trevor were really cool, unique, and interesting! They had goals and desires that were not like yours as a player. Teirno wanted to dance, and that was great, he's a good boy who love dancing. But what ultimately failed him was the writers not giving him anything, he had no screen time, no chance for development, and with the game juggling 20 main characters, it was impossible for any of them to have any depth. He was not a bad character in his own right, he was just not utilized at all. It was sad to see the game fail the characters so tremendously, but its important to note that the characters themselves were not bad from a design aspect, it was the game not utilizing them at all that was the problem. Furthermore, Teirno not having a team of pokemon that incorporated dance moves, or own tempo and combos like that was a god damn shame and fuck the guy who decided that.

 

[Kyu]

Rivals in pokemon use to be of two kinds: the one that is super-friendly and tells you how good you´re as a pokemon trainer or a hateful character that underate you and think you´ve only win because you´re so lucky.
Normally the second type use to be the best ones, silver overall.
Silver is so loved by everyone because this rival is more than a character that appear from time to time, saying four words, challenging you and goes until the next time and this way constantly until the end of the game. This one in concrete has a backstory, a objective and a progression arch. In resume, not a flat character with mono-personality that never changes.
Examples of good rivals for me are: silver, blue, galdion and maybe hugh: Silver, as i say, has an objective, in this case a promise that made to himself after that talk with his father (you already know what i´m talking about). In the end, after the travel, the constant battle against you and other things, silver changes its mentality and starts to see his pokemon as friends instead of seeing them as objects.
in the case of the others they also have something that makes them special. they share with you all kind of moments and memories, help you to battle against the evil team, have a progression arch. Basically, they treat them as characters instead of item-givers and a trainer that appear when they want.

In the other side we have what i think they are the bad characters are May/brendan and basically every rival in the six gen:
What most surprise me is that i dind´t forget any of them, because it would be super easy if it not were because of other things such as the anime, the manga or even been the main characters. But as rivals they are only there for battling you from time to time, finishing with "incredible, you´re so strong, you will made to the top of the pokemon league!", saying this after a battle whose difficulty is... null?, after that they dissapear or they give you an object. they never change, always with the same mentality during all the travel, the biggest problem come with the six gen. the four rivals that go with you should share the travel with you, their memories, they should show a progression since the moment they get out of the initial town to the moment they end the travel. The six gen should had more development time, thse character couldn´t develop because there was no more time. the list of characters should have been smaller in order to develop better the others. but as i say, they never show a clear objective of what they want to do or of what they have learn.

In order to make a good rival i think is important to treat him as a main character and not as a NPC that battles you and is used as an excuse to give you an object, try to make him show and objective, to have a personality that goes farther than "you´re so good" or "you were lucky this time" character, make him learn something from the travel and of course make the battles against him something memorable, that put you in serious danger.

 

[Sparta]

The best types of rivals are the ones that just randomly appear, battle you, and then leave. Especially if they have no character plot and are as dull and stale as two week old bread. Every game should have ten rivals just like that.

Joke aside, the best rivals have character and relevance. They're not just some battle every now and then to see if you've gotten better - they're an actual person in the world who's doing stuff. My typical rule : If players don't care about your rivals, then you're not doing it right.

 

[kirlial]

Rivals tend to be on their own journey like the player so they can be a good parallel to your own adventure. In the main games they usually try hard but can't measure up to your success and have to learn to live with that. A good rival should have motives that make sense and have some growing to do over the course of the story.

In terms of gameplay, rival battles can be some of the bigger challenges you face as they're often surprise encounters you may not be prepared for and, unlike gyms, they don't use just one type of Pokemon.

I personally don't like to encounter rivals too often. I found it quite annoying how many times you fight Cheren in black and white, especially given that there's also Bianca to fight at times. Those two never left me alone! I guess a fight about once every two badges would be ideal for me. So, if it's a standard eight badge game maybe 6 or 7 rival battles. Barry had about the right presence for me, Brendan/May had too little.

 

[manta]

A common problem I see in both official and fan games is that rivals exist just to be an obstacle to the player. Rivals should be actual characters. They should have their own motive to get stronger and an actual place in the story. It helps the character more if you give them a motive different to the players, that is, not just 'I wanna be champion!'. Connections to the game's antagonist(s), encouraging a key theme/message. Those give the character a purpose. Maybe they shouldn't even be called rivals. But the thing is, the concept of 'person who becomes a Trainer the same time as you, follows you and fights you every so often', it has been done to death.

 

[Radical Raptr]

A common problem I see in both official and fan games is that rivals exist just to be an obstacle to the player. Rivals should be actual characters. They should have their own motive to get stronger and an actual place in the story. It helps the character more if you give them a motive different to the players, that is, not just 'I wanna be champion!'. Connections to the game's antagonist(s), encouraging a key theme/message. Those give the character a purpose. Maybe they shouldn't even be called rivals. But the thing is, the concept of 'person who becomes a Trainer the same time as you, follows you and fights you every so often', it has been done to death.

What do you think are the core components of being a good rival?

they should have their own goals and place in the story
a purpose beyond "i want to be a champion"
a trainer who doesn't necessarily start when you do, and does more than fights you now and then
a trainer who is more than an obstacle

Is that all it takes to be a good rival? Couldn't a rival incorporate some of these failings? such as existing as an obstacle, but also having a place in a story, like a trainer who is perhaps a grunt or even higher in command in the antagonist group, meeting you at one point and battling you to stop your interfering, but losing and growing stronger to stop you. That trainer would exist as an obstacle to you meddling in their evil affairs, but also have a grounding in the story, and perhaps growing over time beyond becoming stronger to just defeating you to maybe other goals or aspirations.
Also, does a rival have to be your own age? Could a rival be some old man you meet on your journey, but in battle you rekindle his fighting spirit and he now wants to become even stronger than he was before, with you as his main objective? Does that make him a rival?
or does a rival have something else, is a rival a mirror to the protagonist, someone like you, but different - someone who could have been you but is inherently different from you, or does a rival only have to fill certain requirements to become a rival?

Can you have more than one rival? is that possible, or does it become less genuine and turn into trainers you fight over and over, or friends you train with? Does your rival have to be a trainer? or could you have a rival in contests, or bug catching, is that even possible to have?

this isn't directed at you completely, your post just got me thinking about stuff

 

[manta]

-snip-

A rival is just an archetype. All someone needs to become a rival in Pokémon terms though, is to get in your way by opposing you, multiple times, throughout the story. You meet the rival early on, and they aren't evil, just a bit antagonistic. Of course, a rival could be in contests, battling, or even fishing. To make a good rival, it's important to give them a real personality. Some quirky aspects. Instead of most of their dialogue being about Pokémon and Pokémon battles, round it out a bit. You could have a scene where they come across a Joltik and are unable to pass because they're scared of Joltik. Or, perhaps, an encounter at the shop where they're upset that their favourite food is out of order. Perhaps this may be too general. But I feel that focusing 90% of dialogue on Pokémon just because that's the name of the game... it makes it all seem samey.

 

[Dawn Bronze]

I feel like Blue and Silver always get a lot of attention as are praised as good examples of rival characters simply on the basis that they're assholes to the player. Call me soft, but I've never really gotten this line of thought. I can see how having a rivalry with another trainer is exciting, and I understand how beating them feels good when they've talked up how much better than you they are and have displayed how much of an asshole they are, but personally I much prefer when the rival character is on friendly terms with you. I like the idea that the rival isn't just some mean person who pops up now and again to be a pain and serve as just an obstacle in your path, but instead they're a friend that's going on a journey just like you, and that it's a pleasant surprise to meet up with them and have a friendly battle every now and again. That's why my favourite rivals are Barry, Bianca and Cheren. All of these characters are set up as your friends, and I remember when playing I felt happy when they popped up because I knew they were friendly and amicable. It was also nice that Bianca in particular had a cool backstory and sort of character arc with the whole thing about her Dad not wanting her to be a trainer, I also think it's great to have character development in the rival characters, and in fact every character, although sadly that's not something we see very often in Pokemon (that's why I also like Lilly quite a bit too!)

 

[FloofyPanthar]

My favorite rival is Barry, because hes not a pushover or an asshole

 

[Fontbane]

I feel like a good rival is a representation of a way of playing the game. This could be for different reasons, like to show the player what might be wrong with it or to have the player relate to them or compare them to their irl friends. For example, Silver treats his Pokémon like tools, ignoring the friendship part of the game, then showing the player how powerful you can become once you start viewing your Pokémon as friends or pets. Cheren acts like a veteran player who knows the basics of the game, so tries to help speed up tutorials, while Bianca acts like a new player, experiencing everything for the first time and needing explanations. Barry is someone who rushes through the plot to get to the cool parts, and Hau is someone who just wants to take it slow, relax, and enjoy his journey. Making your rival someone the players can compare to themselves or someone they know makes them much more memorable.