Don't worry, I've not abandoned the current theme, I just had a sudden urge to do another post regarding a gaming idea I've been working on for a bit, and have thought about on some level or another for years.
Cool?
Okay, there are some things that simply don't go the way the world wants it to with certain people, with me and a lot of other people, one of those things is outgrowing video games. Now, that's not to say that people are supposed to outgrow video games, there are actually a lot of games intended for adult audiences, and some that get relegated to adult audiences due to some specific content. But there are some games that adults simply don't outgrow, even though the world very often expects them to.
One example of this is Pokémon, despite clearly being designed for children, with the generally cute design of the titular creatures, and the focus on pre-teens as the main characters, many adults, particularly those who grew up with the games, simply have not given up on the games. Myself? Well obviously I fall on the fans' side, I love Pokémon, and I'm not of the opinion that it's necessarily something that you can or should outgrow. I mean, outgrowing Pokémon is sort of like outgrowing chess or checkers or even sports on some level. I mean, there are national Pokémon championships. There are grown men who are super proud of their baseball card collections, if they can be proud of that, why can't I be proud of my Pokémon card collection? (I don't have one of those...sort of by choice, they're expensive.) Adults can love their real animals, so why can't I love my fake animals? They're definitely easier to take care of, and on some level more fun. People can join gardening clubs and book clubs, why can't I join Pokémon clubs?
Did I...did I get off on a tangent, in a tangent? Sorry. I didn't mean to, really.
Flint.
So here's the thing, I've played Pokémon games a lot, I've beat all of the games in Generation 2 and 3 at least once. I've beat one game from Generation 5, and one from Generation 6, and I've played a game from Generations 1 and 4, so I'm not the biggest fan, but I definitely enjoy the game. For anyone reading this who is for some reason completely unfamiliar with the concept of a Pokémon game, you play as a kid in the fantastic world of Pokémon who sets out on a Pokémon journey to collect all the Pokémon, defeat the Elite Four and become Pokémon champion, or even just to raise the cutest, coolest, or toughest Pokémon (clever or beautiful as well).
The general idea is that by the end of the game you can really do just about whatever you want except get a real job or become a gym leader. From what I understand, X and Y actually allow you to get pseudo-jobs too, apparently.
Anyway, all of that aside, the games are filled with archetypal characters: youngsters use easy to train small Pokémon, bug catchers use bug type Pokémon, beauties use cute Pokémon, swimmers use water Pokémon, hikers use ground and rock type Pokémon. On some level, I typically build a team in an archetypal fashion as well, the best example being my first Pokémon Sapphire play through, where I completed the game using a full water type team (Swampert, Wailord, Sharpedo, Ludicolo...and I don't remember the others...whoops). On the other hand, I've also always had sort of...favorites. It happens when a game gives a lot of options, you get favorites. For instance, Aggron, the steel-ground type Pokémon, has always been cool to me: you pick up this adorable little metal coated creature, he evolves into this quadrapedal metallic dinosaur thing, and then it evolves into this gigantic horned dinosaur thing. Like a T-Rex and a Triceratops had a baby and it fell into molten steel and survived! Look at this:
LOOK UPON HIM AND DESPAIR! Seriously, possibly one of the coolest Pokémon they've come up with, in my opinion. Also of note (on that note) was my steel team! Mawile, Aggron, Metagross, Steelix, Magneton and Skarmory! So awesome, you have no idea. At least...in my head.
So that idea right there gave rise to my latest character idea: Flint.
I don't have all the background details for Flint that I came up with, but I can tell you that Flint (as his name might imply) is a Rock/Ground/Steel type trainer. So he doesn't fall into the Hiker category, he's actually more similar to...I don't know...a generic Pokémon trainer, or a Pokémon league champion (like Steven Stone). Or maybe he would be classified a rider, since several of his Pokémon are rideable at some point in their evolutionary cycle, and his favorite is a Rhyhorn who he does ride everywhere. Here's the sort of idea I've had for his team so far:
Steel Stone Scales Scar Sting
I realize of course that there's one missing, and that's kind of open to a potential story based legendary (Groudon or Zygarde maybe). Scar is his Charizard who he caught after it became enraged by a Sandslash in Mt. Moon, of course it has a scar across its jaw from the fight with Sandslash, who would be raised by Brock until Flint felt he was capable of training it himself and returned for it.
Additionally I have some ideas for various special team comps, like a sandstorm team that relies on Tyranitar's SandStream ability to activate other sandstorm based abilities, like Sand Veil and Sand Rush.
So yeah, there's that, and I'll probably have several more posts about Flint.
Also, that whole Sandstorm thing? Check that out, it's like advanced strategizing or something. Like chess or something. Having to learn to accommodate for weaknesses in your team, or optimize for certain advantages, clearly a children's game only.
By the way, thanks to the contributors to the Bulbagarden at bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net for the sprites I displayed above, they're all great rips from the original games!
As a side note, just used a trainer creator on deviant art to get a rough idea of what Flint might look like:
That's not exact but definitely in there. Thanks Joy-ling!
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