Monotype gyms and E4 or themed gyms and E4 for my game that is going to be approximately 85% fakemon

[AwesomeToadUltimate]

I've been trying to decide whether I should have monotype gyms and E4 or themed gyms and E4. However, since my game is going to be about 85% fakemon (over 115 fakemon), I have to bring in some official mons to help pad out the teams of the E4. However, these official mons are not available to the player. People would be bothered by the E4 using mons unavailable to the player, but I don't want the gyms to have themes and then have the E4 be monotype, since that would be kind of underwhelming. Which way would you prefer?

 

[thebigguy270]

Focus on a single player story in the main story, then on the league in the postgame.
That's how I would do it in my fangame anyway...

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I think you should ask yourself if you really have to keep these Pokemon out of the player's grasp. Is there really no location you could fit in an overworld encounter with? No place to put an NPC with an Egg for the player to hatch?

If these Pokemon are just pulled from canon and not any kind of boss form like Eternamax, it seems like the only benefit to making them NPC-exclusive is that you as the developer don't have to find where to put them. And it's not like that's some horrible thing- making a game is a lot of effort, and doing some things to make development easier makes sense- but it seems like this design choice is at best going to get an "eh, I don't mind".

Focus on a single player story in the main story, then on the league in the postgame.
That's how I would do it in my fangame anyway...

? That doesn't really answer their question? They're talking about what Pokemon to include in the parties of the gym leaders and Elite 4. Focusing on a different part of the game at a different time isn't going to get around the fact that they need Pokemon for the player to battle. (And the league is part of the main story, beating them is what leads to the postgame)

 

[TheRedGenesect]

My guy, I feel like it depends on the sort of game it is. If it's hard then give the gym leaders and trainers a monotype. But if you don't want your game to be frustrating then give them a theme. As far as your second question goes, is there no place you can fit the pokemon? The NPCs can give you an egg which when hatched would give a canon mon. And then breeding the canon mons with fakemons can unlock the other canon mons. Also, how do you suppose people will be able to complete their Pokedex. Either make the region completely fakemon or make the canon mons accessible to the player.

 

[AwesomeToadUltimate]

My guy, I feel like it depends on the sort of game it is. If it's hard then give the gym leaders and trainers a monotype. But if you don't want your game to be frustrating then give them a theme. As far as your second question goes, is there no place you can fit the pokemon? The NPCs can give you an egg which when hatched would give a canon mon. And then breeding the canon mons with fakemons can unlock the other canon mons. Also, how do you suppose people will be able to complete their Pokedex. Either make the region completely fakemon or make the canon mons accessible to the player.

There will be official mons in my game, but I want my game to have more of a focus on the new mons instead of it being mostly official mons, hence why the pokedex is about 85% fakemon. If I do go back to monotype, I would want to give the gym leaders and E4 a strategy, like setting up rain to make Thunder 100% accurate.

 

[Amari Skye]

Imo it depends on how hard you want your game to be. For example, themes are generally harder because of the type diversity.