Personally I'd be curious to see how some more choices around trainer battles would pan out. Like say, maybe bribing someone to throw the match. Or perhaps just making a wager with the trainer you're about to fight. Not necessarily for more or less prize money. Could be something like 'loser has to go catch the winner a Vulpix' or something, and then you'd either receive one in a trade or visit the trainer after a period of time and they give you one.
Also am I the only one who wants to at least try and run from a trainer battle just to see what happens?
All of this is far too fancy for a Pokemon game though and will likely never happen =\
Imagines a few possibilities for other trainer rewards: items, information on a rare Pokemon's location, information on things like the Stakes of Ruin, agreeing to form a group with you, access to a minigame, or cheating at a minigame. Could swipe some of your (purchaseable) healing items if you lose.
Allows you to run from trainer battles in Scarlet/Violet, for the record. Loses the fight by doing so, however.
I somewhat agree with both of these. Regarding switches, just not giving priority to switching out would cut down on excessive switching, since the incoming move would hit the switched-out Pokemon instead of the switched-in Pokemon in most circumstances, kinda like Pursuit does.
Regarding PP, I would have it automatically refill after each battle. PP-restoring items other than Leppa Berries are difficult to find in large numbers in most games, so running low on PP necessitates running back to the nearest Pokemon Center even if the player's party is at near-full health, which feels frustrating most of the time. I'd also increase each move's maximum PP a little and remove the PP Up and PP Max items so that every Pokemon gets maxed-out PP from the beginning.
Would be on board with those implementations. Flows naturally with the existing gameplay and user interface.
I disagree, PP is a way to balance moves (strong moves have less PP then weak ones) and gives an incentive to actually visit Pokecenters instead of just carrying items. Being in the thick of a tough dungeon and trying to make do with half your Pokemon being knocked out, the rest at 1/2 HP and juggling PP to save your good moves for when you need them is a fun experience (at least to me) that's partially lost with the relatively plentiful PP restoring items in the Switch games.
When was the last time Pokemon had a dungeon like that? Black/White? Usually stuck a healing area in the center of long areas (see: Reflection Cave in X/Y, X/Y's Victory Road also with a shortcut back, a Team Flare Hideout in X/Y, Aether Paradise in Sun/Moon).
Typically only runs low or out of PP for a few reasons:
- Catching legendaries. Struggles themselves to death.
- Farming. Depleted all of Galvantula's Leech Lifes while farming SoS Blisseys in Ultra Sun plenty of times. (Stockpiled tons of Leppa Berries in that game.)
- SoS battles, speaking of which. Must not let the opposing Pokemon Struggle itself to death.
- Long, repetitive dungeons like Kanto's Rock Tunnel or Silph Co. Indicates poor Pokemon variety more than anything.
Rarely uses PP-restoring items, regardless. Simply hightails it back to the Pokemon Center, thus wasting time. Mentions running low on PP in a meaningful way once recently, in Fire Red. Came about from unusual circumstances. Basically duoed the Elite Four/Champion, with a few Hyper Beams and Earthquakes from a third and fourth. Switched between Alakazam's Psychic and Psybeam, once at the cost of a lot of irreplaceable hitpoints.
Views accuracy as a sufficient means of balancing high-power moves. Could not even trust Razor Leaf's 95% accuracy in a recent Scarlet playthrough. Avoids moves like Fire Blast because of the accuracy, not the PP. (Does not help, though.)
