Rivals

[Mozart]

I understand this is going a little off the rails of what the topic is about, but everyone else has covered so effectively what makes rivals good or bad (and it's irritating how the XY friends were like, not developed at all, it's almost like SuMo was making up for that), I'm surprised at this point that nobody's tried the idea of your rival being literally your sibling. Maybe that would make writing more schmaltzy? But I liked the idea of your family being more strongly involved in Pokemon training as it was shown in RSE with your dad being a gym leader, so why not having a sibling rivalry.


Or better yet, a grandparent coming out of retirement to make sure you're serious about this Pokemon training thing and not treating it like a game.

 

[Radical Raptr]

I understand this is going a little off the rails of what the topic is about, but everyone else has covered so effectively what makes rivals good or bad (and it's irritating how the XY friends were like, not developed at all, it's almost like SuMo was making up for that), I'm surprised at this point that nobody's tried the idea of your rival being literally your sibling. Maybe that would make writing more schmaltzy? But I liked the idea of your family being more strongly involved in Pokemon training as it was shown in RSE with your dad being a gym leader, so why not having a sibling rivalry.


Or better yet, a grandparent coming out of retirement to make sure you're serious about this Pokemon training thing and not treating it like a game.

Perhaps your grandparent could even be like a champion or something, and your final test to enter the elite four is to beat them in battle :eyes:
I also really like the idea of a sibling rivalry, it could work with you being the younger sibling and trying to aspire to be like your older sibling and constantly fighting them to test your strength, or you could have a game were your rival is your twin, and then it could work with a personality like barry, where they are a little immature and run off trying to be the strongest while you're more calm and open minded.