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Question: Are you still doing the stream to talk about extra game content for EL? I'm really hoping you don't do it in the morning or during a time I wouldn't be able to watch and post my ideas.
You know, Wally trained with Norman and was also the one to awaken Rayquaza in the manga. A double battle with him and norman or him helping you to catch Rayquaza could be nice postgame nods to that.
For Wally Post game, he should be fought before EVERY Elite 4 rematch, almost like Silver in GSC. In addition, I think the best thing that I have ever seen was the Wally ORAS team after the large win streak in the Battle Maison because they have great abilities, great held items, & a stellar moveset while all being dual type pokemon with no overlapping types. He needs that rematch Elite Four team to be all dual type with no overlaps that posed a damn good challenge
To double down, here's an idea for Wally's post game team: Altaria, Magneton, & Roselia can stay Add in Walrein, Claydol, & Tyranitar The types not used of the 17 are Normal, Bug, Fight, Ghost, & Fire
Silver isn't fought before every E4 rematch. He only challenges you on certain days. By contrast, Wally *can* be fought before every E4 rematch, it's just optional rather than mandatory.
For May/Brendan's post game fight, you could mirror the post game fight they did in ORAS, so if you meet them on the top of Rt 103 where you met, you could have a final hurrah with their strongest team. As for Wally, I think having him go to the Battle Frontier would be sick. Also in ORAS, but I think he should show up here and battle you, and then maybe you can find him later in Petalburg at his family's house where he can challenge you to a final fight
Indeed think It’d be cool if Wally were to meets you on the ship ride to Battle frontier an you battle him either on the boat, Or once u depart in the battle frontier somewhere.. after you unlock the johto starters he’s there at the lab getting starter himself maybe either the unclaimed starter for instance if u picked cyndaquil he picks chickorita while May gets totodile.. when the elite four level up for the rematch you battle him again before you battle them except when you meet battle him he has a fully evolved starter himself this time. You’ll meet May in the Altering Cave with a Venusaur or blastoise maybe a Snorlax etc maybe either she or Wally shows up in the trainer hill with the remaining lati twin you don’t choose.
This video was a little strange. I could have sworn that during the game the player more or less bullied May/Brenden out of becoming a trainer and making them only focus on bein a professor. Am I bugging or am I remembering another pokemon game?
It's crazy how goated Gary/Blue was as a rival. First try and they nailed it. I feel like it makes future rivals feel lesser. I don't think we would mind Brendan/May being weaker rivals if we didn't have such a good example already.
Fighting blue as champion for the very first time was definitely something. I expected elite 4/ champion. I was down to my final Pokémon, no items, no revives. Nothing. So when I was told there was one more, and that it was HIM of all people, I knew it was over. “That means I’m the strongest trainer in the world”.
@@TheKabuto90 I think it’s not the character they nailed, but what the rival archetype represents. Blue functions as a test of skills (him being someone with just as much experience as you). While the character is bland, it gives off the feeling of being in a rivalry.
@@TheKabuto90That is the whole point, Blue is a cocky asshole who thought he was so great and can do anything himself. He was build to be disliked so much so the final fight as the new champion with him losing to you have such a big impact on both him and yourself. That huge defeat is what at the end changed Blue into a better person. True he is still cocky at times, but he isn’t much of a bully. Both Blue and Silver didn’t have any love and trust for their Pokémon which caused them to lose in the biggest match for them.
Finally, lore accurate Wally. I think the main rival could be used for more utility in the postgame, helping you find rare pokemon, and potentially giving the player some, basically making them a vital part of completing the Pokedex.
I would rather have this. Have them give hints on rare locations of pokemon. He/she shows you one after a Pokedex milestone. Thus unlocking the location/item to catch the rare Pokemon.
I am surprised you skipped the fact that Azumarill is a Pokémon that is already *kinda* associated to Wally, most specifically his cracked rematch team from the ORAS Battle Maison. I dunno if that was intentional or not
I don't know if this is even doable, but since the main rival wants to become a professor, I like the idea of giving them a helper role as a replayable, once a day battle. They will ask you what kind of Pokemon you want to battle against and have a full team of six of whatever type you select, so it's like they get to show off their impressive collection and you get to practice against a certain type. Maybe you get a little treat treat after beating every type. Maybe not. At the very least, this actually makes them a major grass type trainer if you select grass.
I really like this idea. I was gonna suggest that the May/Brendan fight could also include Pokémon from other regions, to show off how they’ve gone out to find rare Pokémon from places outside the Hoenn region, giving the player a sense of how far they’re willing to go to find new Pokémon. It would also have the added benefit of helping the player see more Pokémon. Alternatively, the rival could also help the player find some of the Pokémon they might have missed before beating the elite 4? Idk how they’d implement that as a feature, though… 🤔
I like the idea of being able to practice against a type, but I think having a team entirely of one type would be too easy of a battle for that point in the game, and I also think it goes against the entire idea of a rival. Obviously gym leaders and E4 members have type themes, but the most difficult fights usually don’t (the Champion). Someone who is your rival should realistically be using their best team possible in every fight against you, not handicapping themselves. Otherwise they’re not a rival, they’re just another trainer. I know the word ‘rival’ has become almost a meme in Pokémon games because of how friendly they always are to the protagonist, and how they usually work in tandem with the protagonist in the main storyline (literally not a rival by the definition of the word, rivals don’t work _together_ towards a goal), but I really think they should be actual rivals. That doesn’t mean they need to be rude, they can still be friendly, but they should really be trying to beat you at all costs, at all times. Otherwise, don’t call them a rival. Your idea is still good, I just don’t think it should be the rival offering those types of matches.
@@artistfloor9 Right! Like I feel like their personality is kind of "I like battling, but I don't want to do it competitively." I think something like this is perfect post-game content because it's all about showing off game content and doesn't really change anything fundamentally.
My only real suggestion for Wally’s Post Game Team is replace his Delcatty with Exploud. Aside from Gabby and Ty, Whismur doesn’t appear on any significant Trainer Teams. Plus, it’s found in Rusturf Tunnel, right by where Wally stayed with his Aunt and Uncle.
I love the fact that you actually gave Wally a full team of six! So many important battles in pokemon are ruined by the fact that while you have a full team the other trainers only use 4 or 5 mons. Also I'm curious about the picks for the Elite four since Hoenn dex is really lacking in their types.
For Post Game Wally, I do think leaning into making him very competitive like they did in ORAS would be cool. His ORAS team was Roserade, Talonflame, Azumarill, Magnezone, Garchomp and Gallade, which Talonflame and Garchomp were serious competitive threats in Gen 6. For Legacy obviously the Gen 4 evolutions won’t work, but maybe adding some Gen 3 competitive staples like adding Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, Gengar, Snorlax or Herracross to really show how serious of a battler Wally has become.
For the post game, May/Brendan should have extremely rare Pokemon: a sudowoodo since there's one in the Battle Frontier, Milotic, Relicanth, a high level wynaut (holding liechi Berry) from Mirage Island, and a medicham since they're unavailable in normal emerald Wally can have the same team, but with competitive movesets / EVs. It'd keep his love for his original pokemon in tact while showing he's taking training his pokemon seriously, as it'd imply he actually farmed berries to reset their EVs, EV trained, and got the TMs or visited move tutors for their movesets
I like this idea! I don’t agree with her specifically using milotic.. as an example. Normally I’d be fine suggesting her team may have Hoenn Pokémon that Emerald Specifically cuts out of the game roster Like Surskit/Masquerain Meditie/Medicham Roselia Zangoose Lunatone.. but since they can be found in game idk if I see the merit in suggesting that. I’m open to ideas I would like that outside fortree city when u battle her she has a feebas & kecleon! In front of the dept. store Mays got a chimecko since it’s like a 2% shot of catching one on mount pyre. Later on Or ..she could either have Latios/latias or a shiny Or we could stick her a uncommon Pokémon mawhile Nosepass wigglytuff slakoth snorunt ..if Smith didn’t mess with the encounter rates I’d have said Surskit. Maybe we battle her outside the Safari Zone once it’s been Expanded She could have a snubbull gligar… The rarest has got to be a level 5 Gyarados. Technically levels 6-19 are just as rare, but 5 is the lowest level you can legally obtain a Gyarados If you go to Sootopolis and use the Super Rod, there is a 20% chance to find a Gyarados. They can appear at any level from 5 to 45.. the lowest one I’ve ever caught was LV8, 10, 12… an I’ve had the game for a super long time. Or we stick with the original team but have her have all 6 Swellow Camerupt Macargo Wailord Breloom STARTER but have her pop up like Ty & Gabby all over the Region with her pkmn getting higher every few battles..an some getting swapped out depending on location. Torkoal Ludicolo Pelipper Tropius Macargo STARTER
@@Xeno_Solarus it is rare but it just doesn’t suit may imo..it’s more Juan’s style..beside it’s uniquely Wallace’s the CHAMPIONs Ace.. I feel like that would sort of undercutting him or be stealing his thunder imo. Besides Speaking of the battle frontier why not give her Smeargle instead.. Besides you can say the same thing about Castform or Metagross Which would go against what legacy is trying to do imo. But it’s your idea I get it.
it would be cool to give the main rival post game fight a latios or latias depending on their gender. It would fit the storyline of catching rare pokemons and making the fight fun by adding a great pokemon we don't see often. PS : loving the legacy series man !
I know Steven is the normal superboss in Emerald, but maybe you could bring Wally in for a similar situation. Perhaps have him visiting his parents and he can optionally be fought there like Cynthia in Black and White. Another idea is to have him replace Wallace as Champion in Elite Four rematches while Wallace is fought as a superboss himself in the Cave of Origin.
For the main rival, I would add the final battle from OR/AS. So, as Champion, you could challenge the rival once more on Route 103 with a final team (possibly with the three versions featuring a Spinda with a different pattern). For Wally, I would suggest a battle either in the Battle Frontier (Maybe as a final entry Battle) or before the rematches with the Elite Four. I would also love a double battle with both rivals.
For May/Brendan, a rematch with them is alright I suppose. But since their primary drive is catching Pokemon, I would like to see them interact with Altering Cave somehow, with that being how you could obtain a lot of the missing Pokemon from the Pokedex. Originally, this area was going to be tied to some distribution events that were never held. I think It would be cool to have that functionality finally brought into the game in some way, and May/Brendan are a perfect catalyst for that.
"There's not much difference between the two rivals" Not true. If you play as May, Brendon makes comments about how he thought you'd be a guy just cause you're a gym leader's kid. He also has other dialogue later that suggests he looked down on you for being a girl, but no longer feels this way
Definitely could use some more dialogue to set them apart for sure! Give them some more personality too. Like maybe May’s a tomboy while Brendan likes cute things
@@marinagaleotti If you pay attention to the male rival's dialogue.....he is kind of a jerk to the female protagonist. After you beat flannery, he will say something like "well, I'm off the challenge your dad. *Unlike you* he's actually strong." You really don't see a lotta people play the girl protagonist outside of speed runners who don't pay attention to dialogue anyway, so that kinda had my jaw drop a bit at how scathing the male rival's can be.
I want the Rival to be more of a researcher for post game. See then roaming around and have changing teams based on location. Or maybe even code it to where May is more of a battle junkie and you see Brendan around the contest halls frequently (like the manga). Have them call you up and battle May or compete in a contest with Brendan.
Give the rival a weird smelling obsession like Blue had, and they will be equally as cool as Blue. All joking aside, I did like the competitiveness I felt when Blue said he caught 40 different types of pokemon in gen 1. If Brendan and May are filling the pokedex, then maybe a comment of them having x number of pokemon (just a few under the max one could get by that time) could do something similar. It makes them feel like a competent collector since they are close to the max you could get, as compared to a weaker trainer who may or may not be doing well in filling their pokedex. And towards the end, if you wanted a good excuse to stop battling, either just say the collecting part is the fun part for them, or make an anime reference by having them show more interest in the contests.
After entering the Hall of Fame, Brendan/May could wait for you outside of your house and they'll ask for you to meet them at Route 103 for one more match where their team will be even stronger than the last time. This shares a reference to their final battle after the credits of ORAS. For Wally, he'll join you alongside when you visit the Battle Frontier and at some point, you'll be given the option to battle him again and he'll have strong Pokemon from the National Pokedex. This also references ORAS as well where he also used Pokemon from the National Pokedex from those games.
Very cool if Wally were to meets you on the ship ride to Battle frontier you battle him either on the boat, An once an them again in the battle frontier somewhere.. or after you unlock the johto starters he’s there at the lab getting starter himself maybe either the unclaimed starter for instance if u picked cyndaquil he picks chick or it’s while may gets totodile.. when the elite four level up you battle him again before you battle them except when you meet battle him the last time he has a fully evolved starter himself this time.
I think both rivals should have post game fights. Main Rival should have a new exotic team of rare Pokemon, ones that can only be ontained post game. They should all be fully evolved and strong enough to pose a challendge even if not difficult compared to Battle Frontier. Wally should return with a literal crack team to test the player. He should talk about how he is taking on the Battle Frontier and has learned a lot of new strategies. Maybe change his team up only slightly to give him ace Pokemon that mirror the main battles your to expext from the Battle Frontier or past gym leaders.
It has always bugged me that Wally's Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir is male. I know its not wrong because thats just how the game works, but the Ralts line is very clearly a feminine pokemon. Whenever i catch a Ralts, unless I'm intending on using a Gallade, I always make sure my Ralts is female. Just a personal nitpick of mine.
In terms of postgame, I think that a cool thing is if you get new battles from your main rival based on how full your dex is. After the E4, when you reach various thresholds of pokedex completion, the rival will call you up and ask you to meet them on various routes to show off the new pokemon you caught, as well as their team where they cycle out 2-3 of their pokemon for other uncommon encounters.
I think it would be interesting if the main rival post game could be found in various locations like Meteor Falls, Paciflog Town or Mt Pyre or something to reflect their researcher/pokemon catching story and have some unique pokemon that are rare in the area or pokemon you normally wouldn't see in the average adventure to help in filling out your pokedex as well, which in turn let's you get that Johto starter from Birch. Or for one of the fights they have one Johto starter to spark interest in the player by being, yeah my dad gave me this for completing the dex as an incentive for the player to try and fill out their dex too. Something like that cause it would be neat I think since now the rival wants to catch and find rare pokemon but likes to show them to you as way of helping/encouraging the player to find other pokemon As for Wally, an idea would be to have him on victory road with his team improving but after some time, he would show up in the Battle Frontier lobbies trying out some of the facilities and you being able to battle him there with his strongest team to show that he's grown to be your equal or close to it.
12:30 the donphan placement next to Mauville and inclusion on the Blaziken team have to be an Adventures manga references, Sapphire caught a donphan next to mauville on her Blaziken team
Postgame: Wally- Have him be an optional fight at the battle frontier, with his final team being fully IV + EV'd out, with competitive movsets. He would finally be of what he dreamed of being, possibly after you have all gold medals he would appear, similarly to ORAS. May/Brenden- I liked what they did with ORAS, them having a final fight where they had their first ever fight, route 103. Or Possibly, again in ORAS they had a little 'date' where they could create that and have a battle there. The rival could use pokemon that aren't in the hoenn pokedex. Along with a Johto starter that is strong against their own starter. I
very good. Look, I think that on the main rival's team it would be cool to put pokemon focused on contest, for example a pokemon with hail and blizzard and each one being focused on a cool category, beauty...
Postgame Wally could maybe have several different teams (Still keeping his signature Gardevoir of course) that he'll randomly swap between each to make his rematches more interesting. Maybe even add a legendary/mythical or 2 to each team to really spice it up.
I have three ideas for locations as to where Brendan/May would be fought in the postgame. Route 103: They would be standing in the spot where they fought you for the first time, reminiscing about the time you two were on equal footing battle-wise. They'd ask for one last battle for nostalgia's sake. Safari Zone: They'd be there talking about the new extensions to the Safari Zone and all the new rare Pokemon you could catch there. They'd offer a battle because they're curious to see if you've caught anything new or interesting. Battle Frontier: They were sent here by Birch to investigate odd foreign Pokemon being spotted here (Smeargle and Sudowoodo) and are excited to figure out what that's all about. They comment on how the player's clearly here for battle and offers a friendly spar as a warm up for the battle facilities. For their sixth team member I would go with Noctowl. It's a Pokemon not normally catchable in Hoenn, not particularly strong, available in the new Safari Zone areas, and could know Fly to show that since Brendan/May are now hunting for more rare Pokemon they value transportation significantly. Noctowl also gets Hypnosis for helping with catching Pokemon. I just think it really fits Brendan/May's character here.
For post game Wally i think it would be a really cool idea if he became a gym leader to show his growth as a trainer as well as wanting to support people that are knew to pokemon battles just like Norman did when he first arrived in his gym making his story come full Circle. Maybe he could potentially build his own gym on an island that you can access with the ship from slateport. He would notify you with a call telling you to come visit. Once yiu arrived his dad would tell you that Wally is long gone but left this ticket for you. You take the ship to an island, (maybe this island could give you the event tickets somehow), you enter the gym, only to see that wally is giving some advice to a kid on how to become a pokemon trainer. Once the kid leaves wally explains his story and how he grew because of the Player and thier rivaly and because of that he wanted you to be his first opponent as a gym leader. Once you beat him, he'll thank you and say that he is looking forward to the next battle. I think it would be cool but it would take a lot of effort to do.
For the postgame MainRival fight, taking inspiration from the ORAS after e4 "ceremonial duel" might be a good idea. Just with rotating teams of both their mainstory pokemon as well as maybe some rare postgame editions (like a johto starter or something like Yanma, Kangaskan or Porygon2), depending on whether or not there will be a national dex. I have seen a suggestion from another person in the comment section which I like: multible postgame mainrival fights with different teams based on your progress with the dex in different locations.
I think whismer/exploud fits really well on wally's team with them being so common next to his house. And naybe have your rival have a skitty/delcatty in their team? Think it fits with the rare pokemon theme and feels better with them vs walley.
2 things: 1) Don't forget that if you manage to avoid the fight in Rustboro City, they will approach you when heading into Mr. Briney's house, so that interaction will most likely need address as well. 2) I think Wally should have a pseudo-legend in a post game fight, and the other rival (May or Brendan) should have a Shedinja, because it's never seen in the main story and is an incredibly rare Pokémon to show off. Have them battle you in the post game area.
What to do for the rival post game: For Brendan/May, since they are focused on their PokéDex and becoming a Professor, they need post game events that help you complete your PokéDex. So rather than giving them a single post game fight, give them multiple. _If you are missing specific Pokémon in your Dex,_ they are given multiple spawn points near rare yet powerful Pokémon. They challenge you with a core team of 5 Pokémon, plus the rare Pokémon in the area. For example, if Bagon is still exclusively in the subcave of Meteor Falls, they will have a Salamence on their team and their dialogue will clue you in on where to go. Or if a rare Rock Smash spawn is in Victory Road, they’ll stand outside the cave entrance and use that Pokémon against you. _Once all these Pokémon are caught,_ they will have a final team of Pokemon with which to battle you daily. They will note that your Dex dedication is close to theirs, and wish to see which Pokémon you prefer to use. As for Wally. You missed an event where you meet his family. Perhaps add another event there post game, where he wants to show his family how far he has come, and battling you can really demonstrate his progress. OR, since he is the one that is focused on battling, tie him into the story of the Battle Frontier. After you beat the E4 and Scott invites you to the Battle Frontier, Wally is shown to also be an invitee. He rushes ahead to try his best, and disappears. After you complete the Battle Frontier, he appears in the area for a daily fight, using Pokémon that supposedly carried him through each challenge.
May/Brendan should have a book on their desk that each day when read gives a hint to a location. If you go to the location that day, you'll find them there, hunting rare Pokemon. It would be cool for them to have increased levels and one new Pokemon from the area they're currently in, probably the rarest in the area. Possible locations and Pokemon: Granite Cave with Nosepass; Meteor Falls, Bagon room with Salamence; Sky Pillar with Claydol. An added bonus could be Cave of Origin, but they don't battle you, just talk about how they wish they could've met Kyogre or Groudon.
Kind of agreeing with what most people are saying. I like the idea of repeatable postgame rival fights, but really showing that they're cemented in their new roles. Wally getting cracked to Frontier Brain levels, fully committing to battle. Either we fight him in Petalburg, the Battle Frontier, or in Victory Road. Brendan/May we can fight on Route 103 with all kinds of rare and maybe even legendary Pokémon. I think fighting alongside one or both of our rivals in double battles would be pretty on-brand for Emerald, which is what DPP did a generation later within the main story. Against who, I am not certain. Juan/Wallace and/or Tate/Liza rematches? That might be fun.
Love it! Since your main rival is going to be more of a researcher, it would be cool if they appeared post game in unusual routes catching Pokemon. That way you'll run into them if you're filling out your own Pokedex. Wally should definitely make an appearance at the battle frontier. Either just hanging around - or even add him into the roster at the battle tower!
I really lile the main rival's focus on rare pokemon. My first thought was to give them Milotic, but I also think giving them a rotating team with shinies could be cool. Maybe they even give you the shiny charm once you beat them. That may be too complicated though, so at the very least I'd just like to see the main rival continue to showcase rare 1% & 5% encounter pokemon
for post game you could make it so that you can find the rival in the safari zone and around the map and you can help them catch pokemon like a minigame
My take on why the rival fights stop after lilycove city is that it was too difficult or something to program a fight on the water, since there isnt any land left. Victory Road is already occupied by Wally
I would love for your rival, to get Registeel postcredit. He/She will wait in the ruins to show you this rare Pokemon and wants to battle you. After you win and show them regirock an regice in your party, you are going to get the Registeel as a gift since their information is completed.
For the main rival, instead of a post game rematch, I think it would be cool to have them offer trades to the player. They could give rare Pokémon or Pokémon with egg moves to show how they’re studying Pokémon. It might also be interesting to make them a low ranked trainer in contests to show how they’re exploring their passions but contests don’t really click with them either.
For May/Brendan's post game, something to keep in mind is that if the two of them are serious about completing their pokedex, they need to get all 8 badges, as there are 8 HMs that they'll need badges to unlock the use of. If you were to have a post-game encounter which involves running into them when they're out doing fieldwork, you could include some of those HM moves on their team, to show that they were out there doing work, not out there with a competitive team (while still balancing it to make it difficult enough to be a satisfying post-game encounter)
I think it would be interesting to show Wally with more competitive Pokemon in a post-game battle. Either that or just more competitive movesets, items, etc. I think having a post-game rival battle with the "main rival" would be awesome if it was right before or right after they become a professor (or a professor's assistant, something to show that they've been working towards their goal). The rival could then have Pokemon potentially from past gens that are harder to obtain. Just a way of showing that they go REALLY out of their way to collect rare Pokemon and may hint at the fact that they even make connections with other trainers/aspiring professors in order to learn more about Pokemon. Love the content as always :D
An idea that I've had is that when Wally calls out to the player the first couple of times after getting Raltz, he comes up from behind, signifying how far behind he is as a trainer compared to the player. But by the time of his final fight, he instead approaches us from the front, showing just how much he's grown as a trainer, to the point of getting ahead of us on our journey to become the champion.
Wally with Deoxys but also make him totaly oblivious that its incredibly rare. "I found this weird pokemon on Mossdeep. Must be a 1% encounter or something, but i wasnt even walking through tall grass" then the player goes to Mossdeep and someone reveals that a pair of pokemon snuck aboard the last rocket. They completely lost one, but heard rumors that the other headed South. And gives you the aurora ticket
Put the rival back on Route 103, where they were at the beginning of the game, and add a Smeargle to their team to reflect their offscreen trip to the Battle Frontier. Smeargle's moveset consists of Yawn, Night Shade, Rock Tomb, and Leech Seed. Each move represents the rival's love for hunting rare Pokemon such as Yawn coming from Chimecho (1% outside of Mt. Pyre), Night Shade from Sableye (10% in B1 of Granite Cave), rock tomb coming from Relicanth (5% diving in Route 124), and Leech Seed coming from Cacnea (6% on Route 111). The moveset will reflect the rival attempting to put more effort into buffing her other Pokemon with sleep, speed control, and passive healing. After beating them, you can randomly fight them (~1%-10% it's up to you) every 7 rounds in the Battle Tower with the same team, randomly selecting 3/6 of her team.
I think probably the easiest thing would be rematches, obviously. As a Gen Two diehard, I loved facing Silver at the Pokemon League on certain days. It was just nice to see him and felt very alive. So, while you can face Wally multiple times naturally, if there was maybe a scene or two of postgame opportunities to fight him. Maybe he trains with Tate and Lisa for his Gardevoir. Something like that. Or even putting Wally in the Battle Frontier as a random opponent or in the Battle Pyramid as a challenge to show his strength was enough to get him noticed by Scott. As for MR, Blue was always ahead of you in the Pokedex, maybe if they helped with increased chances of finding Pokemon like Bagon, or maybe gave you rare stuff like Pokemon with egg moves. They might also act as Bottle Cap traders later or as a move tutor and change stuff for existing Pokemon in your party. Could be egg moves again sorta like a different Move Rememberer. Shows off their knowledge. I'm sure whatever you do will be dope. I love the Wallace/Steven postgame.
Putting the extra Wally fight before Norman rather than after him (my suggestion I’ve mentioned countless times) is a great tweak to make the evolution to later just enough to still surprise. As for postgame, Brendan/May should reflect their greater focus on Pokédex and on top of a full team of six, not have all five prior members. The new additions should reflect rare postgame National Dex finds (or other late game main finds), keep it thematically on point, rather than copying the ORAS one. As for Wally, something like League-adjacent rematches akin to Silver, maybe with some team swaps, but generally just even more jacked movesets.
Aside from all the Wally ideas here: maybe rematches with Brendan/May in the postgame could be fun. They would still not really pose a huge challenge but could show off 6 different, distinctly rare or hard to find/catch Pokémon to really cement them trying to complete that Pokédex while still having a side interest in battling the protagonist, even though they have given up being as strong as the player.
For May postgame, you can have it that you could fight her after you become champion, similar to the ORAS remakes. In addition, you can have it that she now has a full Grass-Fire-Water core now in her team depending on the player's starter: Swampert-Breloom-Houndoom, Sceptile-Torkoal-Milotic or Walrein (to lean more into the search for rare pokemon because feebas ia 1% encounter near the weather institute), and Blaziken-Tropius-Wailord. Though Megas do not exist in Gen 3, the team can now held competitive-based held items that help them out in battle while posing a decent challenge against the player.
I've always felt like the Gen 3 Rival's pokemon tied into the Gen 3 aesthetic of Land and Sea, and eventually Sky. Nowadays, we come to expect the Grass/Water/Fire team, but in R/S/E I think it's actually a bit meaningful. In Ruby and Sapphire, your rival will have a team of 3, made up of Wailmer/Numel/Shroomish/Starter, with a Swellow rounding it out. Honestly, if they were just higher level and actually evolved it would make for a fairly solid team on its own. In Emerald, the theme seems strongly about tying those different elements together. Lombre/Ludicolo is Water and Earth, Pelipper is Water and Sky, Tropius is Earth and Sky, and Slugma (/Magcargo) is (meant to be) Fire and Earth. Even the starters are like this, with Swampert being both Water and Earth, Blaziken being an earthbound bird that can reach the sky, and even Sceptile being a Grass type associated with tall trees. It's just that those pokemon are let down by not being high enough level to evolve, and by having trash movesets. Variety is the name of the game, which they simply didn't manage to pull off in regards to difficulty.
I think narratively it makes the most sense to progress wally through the E4 fights and have him use some of the best combos showcased there as a way of showing how he's adapting to and adopting high level strategies. I think holding to Gard as his Ace would fit the best, but adopting something along the lines of a tanky walrein from Glacia and a Salamace from Drake would bump his power level. I could even see him adopting a Skarmory from Steven for coverage. The alterative would just be to progress his fight to a Red-level encounter and just stack him with the team we basically all gravitated towards. Mons like Magniton, Gyrados, Walrein, Breloom, Heracross, Milotic, Salamance, and Metagross could all be mixed and matched as needed and so long as he kept his Gard it wouldn't feel that off.
For Wally, I think a neat idea to give some environmental and subtle storytelling for his growth. After either Flareny or Norman, you can make it where if a player checks thr Gym Statue for the certified trainers, it will have Wally first. A subtle "He got there before you" nod to show how much that fire is lit. It's something ORAS did and I think it would be a very nice touch here.
I think after you beat the elite 4, if you go to their house and talk to them, they’ll spew some dialogue, and challenge you to a rematch “for old times sake” and if you accept, you’ll then follow them outside, and the battle will begin, where they’ll have a full team of mixed rare-with-powerful pokemon, they’ll start off with the donphan with leftovers, I don’t really know a good move set so you’d have to think of that, next they’ll lead with pincer, after that they’ll send out an alakazam, followed by a dragonite, and for the 5th, they’ll send out their starter, and once that’s beaten, they’ll send out a level 80 aggron (and everything else would be around level 50-60, with their starter being lvl 70 possibly) and if you beat them, they’ll say how you’ve grown a lot, and you’re one of the best trainers they’ve seen, and since you are clearly capable, they’ll gift you their starter, along with a randomized stone, with a sum of money, maybe the battle is unfair, idk, but I wanted a post game kind of optional test, where you’re given a decent reward, along with their starter to make filling out the Pokédex easier for people, or if they just want a powerful Pokémon on their team. But as for Wally, if you decide to rematch the elite 4, once you get past all 4 members, instead of the usual champion, you’ll find Wally waiting for you there instead, and he’ll tell you that he’s heard of you becoming the new champion, so now he’s returned to challenge you to become the new champion, since he felt something reignite in him, and his team will pretty much be the same, except, all the Pokémon are scaled to a higher level, and his magneton now knows surf or hydro pump, I know I made a loooong comment but I wanna know what people think of my rival team selection.
Brilliant update as always, was thinking the exact same thing about Brendan/May earlier today! Dex Rival's postgame team, other than having fully evolved everything should keep some of the OG flavor by completing the Fire/Water/Grass core, but with two significant changes to keep with the new dex hunting lore: 1) The completed Fire/Water/Grass core should include a Johto starter (Typhlosion for the Mudkip Rival, Meganium for the Torchic one, and Feraligatr for the Treecko one). This ties back to the original Dex completion reward of a Johto starter from Birch, which you can now say the Rival helped him find, research and catch and again ties back into finding rare Pokemon. This would probably replace Keckleon in the team since I feel like having Spoink as a throughline feels like something they would do, but also because of point 2... 2) Their sixth team member could be a Psuedo-Legendary, with my initial pick being either Salamence or Tyranitar. This would again tie into the main theme of them really hunting for rare Pokemon and still showing their strength as a trainer, with them either being from deep in Meteor Falls or from Johto like where they caught the starters. For Wally's post game fight, you could lean on a similar vibe to point one about while also taking further cues from ORAS and give him a Charizard in place of Altaria (an ode to Talonflame in typing and an allusion to him continuing his journey elsewhere - ie: Kanto), and then replacing Delcatty with either Flygon (same type as ORAS Garchomp) or Dragonite (to mirror Dex Rival's two new Johto additions). Keep up the good work!
Wally trained in Kanto, and brought back a legendary surprise. Wally hangs in the Battle Frontier, and has 3 unique teams he'll cycle through each time you rematch him. Each team is a weather team built around Articuno (Hail), Zapdos (Rain), or Moltres (Sun). Roserade gets Weather Ball in later gens, so he keeps his Roselia, with added Weather Ball, and a Gardevoir, to keep him feeling like Wally. Then you just round out the other 3 members of his teams with a weather setter, and some more thematic mons for the weather types. Finally Main Rival... Main rival hangs in Birch's lab, and infodumps about rare pokemon :) They don't like battling! Let them COOK.
If your doing a proper post game, like a full battle frontier or story, you can have both Wally and the main rival attend (one looking for a challenge, one looking to see rare pokemon from other regions). As an introduction to this post game you can have the player partner with the rival against Wally and one of the Frontier Brains / an Elite Four member or something, as an exhibition match. Then, mid way through getting the first set of symbols, have Wally battle you with a much more powerful team, and again an even more powerful rooster, when you collect all Silver Symbols. After collecting all Gold Symbols, Wally can face you one last time with a maxed out team as the ultimate superboss of the game (all level 100 pokemon, with competitive movesets and items - a true test of skill).
For Brendan/May: after getting national dex they should show up and mention studying with other profs like Oak and Elm and add a battle with a Johto and Kanto starter. Kanto being weak to you and Johto being same type. 3 region starters, Kecleon, grumpig and maybe another rare mon like Togepi or Aerodactyl For Wally : he should be stationed outside the elite four waiting for you to go through your rematch and eventual fight with the new champion Wallace, Fights you with a strong team of 6. Gardevoir, Altaria, Metagross, Tyranitar, Kanto starter strong against you, Machamp. 6 three stage evos to mirror his growth from young weak boy to strong trainer.
I don't know if this should count as a rival postgame thing, but maybe instead of a *battle* with May/Brendan, they instead give you hints each day on where some of the rarest pokemon can be caught, showcasing their new focus and also providing an aid to players that won't use guides to determine where things like Bagon and Bedlum can be found in the ROM. Might not even be that hard to implement, the TV system kinda already does the same thing. As for Wally... While this might be a bit difficult to implement, I envision a postgame arc involving him getting sicker, and then the player ends up having to go on a mission to find a mythical pokemon that grants wishes to save him (A way of including Jirachi as an in-game event). Then when he's healed, he goes off and finds a place in one of the caves or mountains, to serve as a nice foil for the Red fight; with Jirachi having temporarily joined his team, adding some extra difficulty for this penultimate fight (this level of fight, I don't see anything wrong with paraflinch hax as a challenge for the player to solve), and victory has him leaving to train, and Jirachi floating down before you to be potentially caught as she had joined his team to help him get his confidence back.
I'm glad you actually included Wally in this discussion. I enjoy the idea of his story and I think most of the rivals have a great story concept but lack in execution. As for post game fights, maybe giving the "main rival" a legendary of some sort like a Regi or Jirachi could also build upon the catching rare Pokémon aspect and maybe after beating them, they can tell you where they found said legendary
our main rival is professor birch's kid, and with the goal of catching everything wouldn't it make sense that they have a gen 2 starter in their final fight. Birch does in fact give a gen 2 starter to the player if you have finished the dex, and this could be an indicator of our rivals progress on their journey, or they could get preferential treatment and tell us about one of the potential rewards for finishing the dex
I appreciate the changes you're trying to make to give Wally and the "Main Rival" different vibes, but I almost feel like you didn't lean enough into what makes the Main Rival different when coming up with new teams for them. These teams just feel like sub-par rival teams to me. If it were me, I would have given the rival significantly more pokemon than average but at lower levels to show that their main interest is collecting, not raising and battling. I would also have them cycle through members of their team between fights, like they're only keeping pokemon in the party long enough to evolve them before swapping them out for new ones. For example, in the first fight I might give the main rival four pokemon: a level 7 Silcoon, a level 10 Skitty, a level 12 Spoink, and a level 13 starter. For the next battle I would crank that up to five pokemon: evolve the Silcoon into a Beautifly with Sleep Powder (useful for catching pokemon), keep the Spoink because it hasn't evolved yet, get rid of the Skitty (it was already evolved with a moon stone and so is off the team), have the starter at its second stage but level 16 just having evolved, then add BOTH of the two elemental types aside from the starter (so if the rival started with Mudkip they would get both Slugma and Shroomish, if they started with Torchic they would get both Shroomish and Wailmer). None of the individual pokemon should be too challenging, but what makes the rival fight as a whole difficult is the number of pokemon they have and their wide type coverage. If you really want to add to the "looking for rare pokemon" vibe then I would even add a 6th pokemon which would become another staple for the rival in later fights: a low level Trapinch. For the third battle the rival should already have a full team of 6. Beautifly is gone, all of the other pokemon have evolved. Grumpig (just to show it some love), the 2nd evolution of the starter, and Vibrava keep their positions on the team but all of the others rotate out. They're still lower level than other trainers in the area because the Main Rival has not been dedicated to raising up one strong team. Then in the final rival battle the only two of their pokemon who return would be the now evolved Flygon and the final form of their starter. Everyone else is new, rarer pokemon (things like Absol, but a Seviper and Zangoose duo would be a cool since you'd only ever see those two in one place if someone is specifically trying to collect every pokemon)
For the post-game rival fights: May/Brandon should have the Lati twin you didn't pick when you see the TV broadcast and can afterwards offer a trade for it against any Pokémon of the player's choice, arguing that "Your strength as a trainer is much better suited for such a rare Pokémon such as this one". Otherwise they have their starter, Kecleon, Grumpig, Crobat, and a Shedinja, which IMO would build nicely on their arc and showcase that they have settled on a firm companion trio of Pokémon just like they do in RSE but this time not following the fire-grass-water type triangle. For Wally, I think Exploud, Altaria, Breloom, Azurill, Ninetales, and Gardevoir would be a cracked post-game team. Three Pokémon from his pre-League fight, and three pretty strong additions.
I like your rival battle updates a lot! Only thing what I would change is the Sootopolis dialogue to be an actual battle. Reasoning being that rival states he has arrived to a crossroad in their career, and asks MC to have a battle. Once player wins, rival states something like ”as expected”, thanks player for having a battle and then states that they are going to be a researcher, just like daddy is. Bit like Gary tells his true ambitions to Ash when he lost the battle in Silver Conference. For post-game I’d add two battles for main rival: one after player completes Hoenn-dex (assuming it can be completed after E4) and the other when player completes national dex. For those battles rival’s title would change from PKMN TRAINER to PKMN RESEARCHER, and they would have six pokemon (containing not necessarily most powerful but rare(st) non-legendary pokemon). That would the first match. The latter match would have a Hoenn-twist: to celebrate compeleted national dex player would be challenged to a double battle by rival Birch and professor Birch! For Wally I’d just make his last battle veery difficult, with at least pseudo-legendary and/or even ”low tier” legendary added to his team. Also, I subscribed because I want that cartridge to play it on my GBA SP! 😆
The Main Rival is in five different remote locations one after another, always talking about how they're gathering rare Pokémin. After the last one you can fight them in Littleroot Town with a brand new team apart from their starter,, including a Johto legendary beast.
For May/Brendan post game, I think that instead of another battle, they should have a side quest where you show them a series of rare pokemon like Bill's grandfather in GSC. This I think fits with their character better than having a battle just for the sake of it. These pokemon should be ones you need to go out of your way to find like Nosepass, Bagon, and Snorunt. I think the reward for this should either be rare berries, evolution items, or battle items that usually cost BP. Also instead of just staying put looking at his/her computer for all eternity, he/she should have places they appear around the region. These places could also be linked to the rare pokemon they want you to find, but I think that some should just be them looking around in seemingly random areas. As for Wally, He should be treated like the Emerald gym leader rematches where his team slowly builds up to its final version over the course of a few battles. The intermediate battles would have him experiment with different strong pokemon but eventually he would settle on a team that's strong in general. Obviously he needs Gardevoir, but his other team members are more flexible. Of his original team, Magneton is the only one in competitive ADV OU so it gets to stay. His other 4 should be able to be found in the Hoenn Dex because he's not the type to travel the world just to get an edge. Those that stand out to me are Starmie, Salamence, Houndoom, and Dusclops, but there are a lot more options than just them. His team should be structured well with good moves, good items, good abilities, and actually good stats unlike vanilla NPCs. Most of all, the post-game rematch battles need to be interesting above all else. They should showcase things you otherwise might not see in the story. In Wally's case, I think this should specifically be the items and moves that he uses. He should have unorthodox, but effective, strategies in play in order to win.
one thing you could add is NPC talking about wally in cities with gym leader, saying stuff like "There's a lot of young promising trainer these day. just look at Flannery and the young boy who fought her recently!"
Post-game double battle with Wally to truly utilize the more odd/competitive useful moves that you don't see in the main story. Double battles in VGC require so much planning and understanding of the environment that implementing it in the rival story would be a alternative way of showcasing his underrated strategical capability.
Funnily enough, in Pokémon Masters May while being strong actually decides to focus more on research and become a Professor while Brendon is more focused on battling, and this sparks a conflict initially. I do love Masters for expanding the plot and the characterisation of the characters, so I'm glad to see you follow in its footsteps (or come up with the same idea)!
For post game fights: ORAS kinda covered the rivals pretty well. After the league you get a final battle with Brendan/May at the credits, kinda like AZ. It's not challenging compared to what you just beat, but that's part of the point, it's just a final conclusion. Then Wally goes to the Battle Maison (which would rightfully be the Frontier here) to give an actually challenging final battle (honestly, it's arguably one of the strongest teams made on a mainline pokemon NPC).
I think even if the main rival doesn't get into battling, having a postgame fight for them featuring some rare pokemon from another region would be interesting and be a great way to show them coming into their role of pokemon researcher even more. It could even be a starter from another region that completes the elemental triangle to give enough of a post game challenge while keeping their story up.
Wally has an arc of confidence, where he is timid but striving to live up to his Pokémon’s expectations. Brendan has an arc of sexism, where he looks down on you before respecting you. This is also shown by how less talkative he is compared to May, leading Girl to be the speedrunner’s choice. But I can’t tell you what May’s arc is, and I play as the boy all but once. If you don’t believe me about their arcs: When you first meet: - May: “… So your move was today. … I was hoping you would be nice, , and that we could be friends. Oh, this is silly, isn't it? I…I've just met you, .” - Brendan: “I didn't know that you're a girl. … Hey, , don't you have a Pokémon? Do you want me to go catch you one?” First defeat: - May: "Wow! That's great! , you're pretty good!" - Brendan: "Huh, , you're not too shabby." Route 119: - May: “How much stronger have you gotten? Let me check for you! … Achah! , you're strong! I was worried that you might be struggling with your training. But I had absolutely nothing to be worried about! Keep it up!” - Brendan: “Let me see how good you got. I'll test you! … Hmm… You've gotten pretty darn decent. I'd say you're good enough to search for Pokémon anywhere.” And more.
For May/Brendan, they could be a way to acquire National Dex Pokémon by telling you about various outbreaks, and giving you a starter from another region after you enter the Hall of Fame, like Professor Birch does in ORAS. As for Wally, I think it would be an interesting twist if in the post-game, due to his development as a trainer, he replaces Wallace as the champion, allowing Wallace to leave the region and pursue his other passion - Contests (he can appear as a contestant in Master rank Beauty contests in ORAS). This still leaves Steven as a postgame end boss, but gives players more of a challenge when rematching the Elite Four
The Wally fight before Norman also adds a little extra experience points before the Sudden Slaking. That's a really good idea. Also, have you considered making Pure Power double Special Attack while Huge Power doubles Physical Attack? Currently, both of them double Physical Attack, and it would be a good duality that might make other pokemon more viable.
I think for post-game Wally considering a double battle format. Since Emerald is the first main line game to introduce double battles. 1 strategy could be Earthquake Altaria with Double Team Gradevoir. Another stategy could be Sing Delcatty one opposing Pokémon so that it's 2 against 1. Delcatty can Charm the opposing Pokémon while Roselia helps weaken opposing Pokémon with Toxic and Leech Seed. And of course, the common Protect with moves like Earthquake and Surf.
For me, Wally in RSE was always insanely forgetable, and I only gained respect for him in ORAS. This was in large part thanks to his encounter in Victory Road being treated as a larger event, with his own room and theme music which also played during his battle. So if I could provide any suggestion, it would be to give him his own theme music based on his theme from ORAS, but I understand if that's far beyond the scope of this romhack. Other than that, a small thing that ORAS did to foreshadow Wally was to put his name on the Gym statues in each gym in the Certified Trainers section, showing that he has beaten them before you. I feel like this would be a neat addition, as I doubt many people would even notice that but it would be a nice surprise for those who do.
I think the post game for the main rival should feature all the starters to show that they worked with their dad to raise all three starter pokemon. I think it should also feature pokemon not native to Hoenn to suggest they've gone out of their way to study and capture other kinds of pokemon. Some initial thoughts are Smeargle with a bunch of unique signature moves, a nicknamed trade evolution from a past region (shuckie, kenya, etc.), or if you wanna get a bit wild and give them a legendary, Mew. For Wally, I think he deserves to take some of the strongest pokemon from other trainers in the region. Gardevior has to stay, but I think he could take Milotic from Wallace, Aggron from Steven, Snorlax OR Slaking from Frontier Brain Anabel or Norman, Arcanine from Frontier Brain Spenser, and keep his Altaria from Winona.
Since Brendan and May are about finding rare Pokémon, maybe they can give you access to either an item or a location that allows you to find rare Pokémon. They battle you first because the Pokémon are pretty strong and they want to test you. Then you could have a cheeky reveal that they were joking because of course the Hoenn champion would be strong, they just wanted to battle for old time’s sake.
Really like the changes for Brendan/May, but for the Torchic team, I think it would be to swap Wailmer for Pelliper with two main reasons for this. The first is just for basic game balancing since Wailmer (BST 400) is notably much weaker than Breloom (460) or Torkoal (470) while also being notable in that other than having an underleveled Wailord it will be the only NFE Pokemon they use. The Blaziken team is also the only one of the teams to lack a Ground resist/immunity. Pelliper fixes all these problems by giving a Ground resist/immunity and also being much more comparable to Breloom and Torkoal stat-wise with a BST of 440 (or 430 using the gen 3 stats). The second, and overall much spicier reasoning for making Wailmer not dependant on which starter you pick comes during the postgame, where they should have a proper final fight where they challenge you in Pacifidlog Town. During this fight, they really play into their new theme of wanting to be a professor and also wanting to seek out rare pokemon by adding Relicanth (which tye'll always end with) as their 6th party member, but also swapping Kecleon for Wailord (which they'll always lead with). Now I get balance-wise this will make their teams really Grass/Electric-weak, but like you said they're not trying to be really strong trainers. Instead, these two new additions to their teams as well as the location you fight them will serve as really big hints as to how to unlock the Regis, noting that they heard from the locals that there's a nearby underwater cave that holds the secrets to some really rare Pokemon and that they're two new team members are somehow connected to it. They also heard that the move Dig also plays an important part in the legend and should give the player another TM for it (since it's easy to accidentally waste and the only way to get another user is to get a level 41/45 Trapinch/Nincada) They can even find you in the Sealed Chamber after you solve the puzzle telling you that the mysterious writing in the cave resembles the writing that the stone monuments they were researching on Routes 105, 111, and 120 had on them.
I like the idea that the rival aiming to be a Pokémon professor gives them access to rare Pokémon but also any future battles post-game with them are like exhibition matches to new and upcoming trainers, so there’s a push to stay competitive but also it’s more about the flair of showing off to the ties between trainer and Pokémon to prospective trainers
For main rival post game i think it should reflect them getting to fill the Pokedex so what i would suggest is putting them in 3-6 softener locations randomly everytime you best the elite 4 having the location reset and the team they have feature a rare Pokémon from said area as their 6th member. This would show then continue to take Pokedex completion seriously as well as help to give some players an idea on where to find certain rare Pokémon. Lastly, to help the player find the main rival, they can talk to main rival's mom who can give a hint I.e. "May said she was going to check out a cave today" I think this would make the player curious about pokemon in different areas and encourage post game exploration Bonus points if main rival has a shiny in post game team because it would be a cool way to show the shiny mechanic and further add to their character😊
I feel like the main rival post game fight should be somewhere silly like the safari zone. Where you find them lookin for a rare pokemon, while you don't fight there, they ask you to meet them outside, where they actually challange you "for old time sake" and to show you the new rare pokemon they caught in there
I think for post game, giving Wally something like a Snorlax to replace his Magneton feels fitting. Since you added Azumarill and had Altaria's moveset mimic Winona's to show that he's learning from his battles, adding a Snorlax could imply that he's gone to Kanto/Sinnoh and gotten a Snorlax after seeing how strong it is. Not 100% sure what you would do for the moveset, but since it can learn half of the TMs available, there's a lot of potential there.
I think it would be cool if in the post game, you referenced the role Wally had in the post game of ORAS, where based on your progress at the battle resort, he would challenge you to battles, finishing off with a completely competitively viable team. Maybe he could challenge you once you get your first silver symbol with a refined version of his Victory Road team, then after you get a gold symbol he'll battle you with the weaker Pokemon on his team swapped out for competitive mainstays. As for the main rival, perhaps they could have a team which showcases rare Pokemon through gens 1-3. Like, maybe they briefly went over to Johto/Kanto after their conclusion in the main story, and have returned in the post game. It would be cool if they rewarded you with say, Larvitar and Dratini eggs, so you could get access to the previous psuedo-legendaries easily to help at the battle frontier
I love your content! Main Rival: Leave them with their starter, but then use a bunch of strange interactions between different pokemon. Things like Ledian making use of its unique moveset for defensive set-up to baton pass. The player never sees this type of interaction truly happen and studying pokemon would also involve seeing unique interactions with pokemon competetive battlers often ignore. Rather than it being a hard fight it might sinply be an extended fight seeing new things. Wally: A dialogue with Stephen Stone after beating him where he feels refreshed that TWO young trainers have beat him and hes excited for the future. Then lead the player to an epic battle with Wally.
Have a special interaction with Wally where he has the 3rd un-chosen starter (the one weak to yours) replace magneton and have the level range as 75-83 in his house ( I think it's in Verdenturf) with the text: "Hey, I've gotten fully over my sickness, and I really want to battle you to see if I am as strong as a champion!"
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Question: Are you still doing the stream to talk about extra game content for EL?
I'm really hoping you don't do it in the morning or during a time I wouldn't be able to watch and post my ideas.
The US link both here and in the description leads to a broken page. Canada link works tho
would love to see a red like battle vs not one but both rivals a double rival battle to settle the score 1vs2 =D
You know, Wally trained with Norman and was also the one to awaken Rayquaza in the manga. A double battle with him and norman or him helping you to catch Rayquaza could be nice postgame nods to that.
Postgame Wally with Rayquaza fight 👀
For Wally Post game, he should be fought before EVERY Elite 4 rematch, almost like Silver in GSC. In addition, I think the best thing that I have ever seen was the Wally ORAS team after the large win streak in the Battle Maison because they have great abilities, great held items, & a stellar moveset while all being dual type pokemon with no overlapping types. He needs that rematch Elite Four team to be all dual type with no overlaps that posed a damn good challenge
To double down, here's an idea for Wally's post game team:
Altaria, Magneton, & Roselia can stay
Add in Walrein, Claydol, & Tyranitar
The types not used of the 17 are Normal, Bug, Fight, Ghost, & Fire
Silver isn't fought before every E4 rematch. He only challenges you on certain days. By contrast, Wally *can* be fought before every E4 rematch, it's just optional rather than mandatory.
How did you comment 23 hours ago when the video got released an hour ago 🤔
Maybe it was a premiere
@@LunarWingCloud that was why I said almost when referencing Silver
For May/Brendan's post game fight, you could mirror the post game fight they did in ORAS, so if you meet them on the top of Rt 103 where you met, you could have a final hurrah with their strongest team.
As for Wally, I think having him go to the Battle Frontier would be sick. Also in ORAS, but I think he should show up here and battle you, and then maybe you can find him later in Petalburg at his family's house where he can challenge you to a final fight
Indeed think It’d be cool if Wally were to meets you on the ship ride to Battle frontier an you battle him either on the boat, Or once u depart in the battle frontier somewhere..
after you unlock the johto starters he’s there at the lab getting starter himself maybe either the unclaimed starter for instance if u picked cyndaquil he picks chickorita while May gets totodile.. when the elite four level up for the rematch you battle him again before you battle them except when you meet battle him he has a fully evolved starter himself this time. You’ll meet May in the Altering Cave with a Venusaur or blastoise maybe a Snorlax etc maybe either she or Wally shows up in the trainer hill with the remaining lati twin you don’t choose.
This video was a little strange. I could have sworn that during the game the player more or less bullied May/Brenden out of becoming a trainer and making them only focus on bein a professor. Am I bugging or am I remembering another pokemon game?
It's crazy how goated Gary/Blue was as a rival. First try and they nailed it. I feel like it makes future rivals feel lesser. I don't think we would mind Brendan/May being weaker rivals if we didn't have such a good example already.
Fighting blue as champion for the very first time was definitely something. I expected elite 4/ champion. I was down to my final Pokémon, no items, no revives. Nothing. So when I was told there was one more, and that it was HIM of all people, I knew it was over.
“That means I’m the strongest trainer in the world”.
I don't think that they nailed it at all. An asshole does not necessarily make for a good rival and I think that Blue as a character was very weak.
@@TheKabuto90 I think it’s not the character they nailed, but what the rival archetype represents. Blue functions as a test of skills (him being someone with just as much experience as you). While the character is bland, it gives off the feeling of being in a rivalry.
@@TheKabuto90 To be honest, he's not even an asshole. He may be sometimes a bit rude, but that's it.
@@TheKabuto90That is the whole point, Blue is a cocky asshole who thought he was so great and can do anything himself. He was build to be disliked so much so the final fight as the new champion with him losing to you have such a big impact on both him and yourself. That huge defeat is what at the end changed Blue into a better person. True he is still cocky at times, but he isn’t much of a bully. Both Blue and Silver didn’t have any love and trust for their Pokémon which caused them to lose in the biggest match for them.
Finally, lore accurate Wally.
I think the main rival could be used for more utility in the postgame, helping you find rare pokemon, and potentially giving the player some, basically making them a vital part of completing the Pokedex.
I would rather have this.
Have them give hints on rare locations of pokemon. He/she shows you one after a Pokedex milestone. Thus unlocking the location/item to catch the rare Pokemon.
I am surprised you skipped the fact that Azumarill is a Pokémon that is already *kinda* associated to Wally, most specifically his cracked rematch team from the ORAS Battle Maison. I dunno if that was intentional or not
I don't know if this is even doable, but since the main rival wants to become a professor, I like the idea of giving them a helper role as a replayable, once a day battle.
They will ask you what kind of Pokemon you want to battle against and have a full team of six of whatever type you select, so it's like they get to show off their impressive collection and you get to practice against a certain type.
Maybe you get a little treat treat after beating every type. Maybe not. At the very least, this actually makes them a major grass type trainer if you select grass.
I really like this idea.
I was gonna suggest that the May/Brendan fight could also include Pokémon from other regions, to show off how they’ve gone out to find rare Pokémon from places outside the Hoenn region, giving the player a sense of how far they’re willing to go to find new Pokémon. It would also have the added benefit of helping the player see more Pokémon.
Alternatively, the rival could also help the player find some of the Pokémon they might have missed before beating the elite 4? Idk how they’d implement that as a feature, though… 🤔
I love this idea! It allows them to be a fun, varied, and useful challenge while still staying true to their characterization.
Gen 3 desperately needs more daily events like gen 2 so I love this idea
I like the idea of being able to practice against a type, but I think having a team entirely of one type would be too easy of a battle for that point in the game, and I also think it goes against the entire idea of a rival. Obviously gym leaders and E4 members have type themes, but the most difficult fights usually don’t (the Champion). Someone who is your rival should realistically be using their best team possible in every fight against you, not handicapping themselves. Otherwise they’re not a rival, they’re just another trainer. I know the word ‘rival’ has become almost a meme in Pokémon games because of how friendly they always are to the protagonist, and how they usually work in tandem with the protagonist in the main storyline (literally not a rival by the definition of the word, rivals don’t work _together_ towards a goal), but I really think they should be actual rivals. That doesn’t mean they need to be rude, they can still be friendly, but they should really be trying to beat you at all costs, at all times. Otherwise, don’t call them a rival.
Your idea is still good, I just don’t think it should be the rival offering those types of matches.
@@artistfloor9 Right! Like I feel like their personality is kind of "I like battling, but I don't want to do it competitively."
I think something like this is perfect post-game content because it's all about showing off game content and doesn't really change anything fundamentally.
My only real suggestion for Wally’s Post Game Team is replace his Delcatty with Exploud. Aside from Gabby and Ty, Whismur doesn’t appear on any significant Trainer Teams. Plus, it’s found in Rusturf Tunnel, right by where Wally stayed with his Aunt and Uncle.
I agree, delcatty is kinda ass for a final team. Exploud seems like a good replacement. I can’t think of any other good normal type replacements.
I love the fact that you actually gave Wally a full team of six! So many important battles in pokemon are ruined by the fact that while you have a full team the other trainers only use 4 or 5 mons. Also I'm curious about the picks for the Elite four since Hoenn dex is really lacking in their types.
Phoebe would work with a chimecho, since you can find em on top of mt pyre where her grandparents keep the orbs so would be a good lore choice
For Post Game Wally, I do think leaning into making him very competitive like they did in ORAS would be cool. His ORAS team was Roserade, Talonflame, Azumarill, Magnezone, Garchomp and Gallade, which Talonflame and Garchomp were serious competitive threats in Gen 6. For Legacy obviously the Gen 4 evolutions won’t work, but maybe adding some Gen 3 competitive staples like adding Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, Gengar, Snorlax or Herracross to really show how serious of a battler Wally has become.
For the post game, May/Brendan should have extremely rare Pokemon: a sudowoodo since there's one in the Battle Frontier, Milotic, Relicanth, a high level wynaut (holding liechi Berry) from Mirage Island, and a medicham since they're unavailable in normal emerald
Wally can have the same team, but with competitive movesets / EVs. It'd keep his love for his original pokemon in tact while showing he's taking training his pokemon seriously, as it'd imply he actually farmed berries to reset their EVs, EV trained, and got the TMs or visited move tutors for their movesets
I like this idea! I don’t agree with her specifically using milotic.. as an example. Normally I’d be fine suggesting her team may have Hoenn Pokémon that Emerald Specifically cuts out of the game roster
Like Surskit/Masquerain
Meditie/Medicham
Roselia
Zangoose
Lunatone.. but since they can be found in game idk if I see the merit in suggesting that. I’m open to ideas
I would like that outside fortree city when u battle her she has a feebas & kecleon!
In front of the dept. store Mays got a chimecko since it’s like a 2% shot of catching one on mount pyre.
Later on Or ..she could either have Latios/latias or a shiny
Or we could stick her a uncommon Pokémon mawhile Nosepass wigglytuff
slakoth snorunt ..if Smith didn’t mess with the encounter rates I’d have said Surskit.
Maybe we battle her outside the Safari Zone once it’s been Expanded
She could have a snubbull gligar… The rarest has got to be a level 5 Gyarados. Technically levels 6-19 are just as rare, but 5 is the lowest level you can legally obtain a Gyarados
If you go to Sootopolis and use the Super Rod, there is a 20% chance to find a Gyarados. They can appear at any level from 5 to 45.. the lowest one I’ve ever caught was LV8, 10, 12… an I’ve had the game for a super long time.
Or we stick with the original team but have her have all 6
Swellow Camerupt Macargo Wailord Breloom STARTER but have her pop up like Ty & Gabby all over the Region with her pkmn getting higher every few battles..an some getting swapped out depending on location.
Torkoal Ludicolo Pelipper Tropius Macargo STARTER
@@JayClearman411 Milotic is incredibly rare though, so I think it fits
@@Xeno_Solarus it is rare but it just doesn’t suit may imo..it’s more Juan’s style..beside it’s uniquely Wallace’s the CHAMPIONs Ace.. I feel like that would sort of undercutting him or be stealing his thunder imo. Besides Speaking of the battle frontier why not give her Smeargle instead.. Besides you can say the same thing about Castform or Metagross
Which would go against what legacy is trying to do imo. But it’s your idea I get it.
it would be cool to give the main rival post game fight a latios or latias depending on their gender. It would fit the storyline of catching rare pokemons and making the fight fun by adding a great pokemon we don't see often.
PS : loving the legacy series man !
Yes, replace Grumpig with the Lati- that we don't choose as our roaming legendary.
@justinkidd7634 I don't think they would force us to choose one so rival wouldn't be able to have another.
@@justinkidd7634I like this idea or maybe give it to Wally! We can see it when he challenges us again when we try an rematch the Elite 4.
I know Steven is the normal superboss in Emerald, but maybe you could bring Wally in for a similar situation. Perhaps have him visiting his parents and he can optionally be fought there like Cynthia in Black and White. Another idea is to have him replace Wallace as Champion in Elite Four rematches while Wallace is fought as a superboss himself in the Cave of Origin.
For the main rival, I would add the final battle from OR/AS. So, as Champion, you could challenge the rival once more on Route 103 with a final team (possibly with the three versions featuring a Spinda with a different pattern). For Wally, I would suggest a battle either in the Battle Frontier (Maybe as a final entry Battle) or before the rematches with the Elite Four. I would also love a double battle with both rivals.
For May/Brendan, a rematch with them is alright I suppose. But since their primary drive is catching Pokemon, I would like to see them interact with Altering Cave somehow, with that being how you could obtain a lot of the missing Pokemon from the Pokedex. Originally, this area was going to be tied to some distribution events that were never held. I think It would be cool to have that functionality finally brought into the game in some way, and May/Brendan are a perfect catalyst for that.
"There's not much difference between the two rivals" Not true. If you play as May, Brendon makes comments about how he thought you'd be a guy just cause you're a gym leader's kid. He also has other dialogue later that suggests he looked down on you for being a girl, but no longer feels this way
Wow, two random lines of dialogue...
All of the dialogue is different. Transcripts are available to read on Bulbapedia.
I think that qualifies as “not much difference”.
Definitely could use some more dialogue to set them apart for sure!
Give them some more personality too. Like maybe May’s a tomboy while Brendan likes cute things
@@marinagaleotti If you pay attention to the male rival's dialogue.....he is kind of a jerk to the female protagonist. After you beat flannery, he will say something like "well, I'm off the challenge your dad. *Unlike you* he's actually strong." You really don't see a lotta people play the girl protagonist outside of speed runners who don't pay attention to dialogue anyway, so that kinda had my jaw drop a bit at how scathing the male rival's can be.
12:05 Cool Trainer Gerald- Ahem 🤨. Do I need to get Flannery to have a word with you?
I’m glad i wasn’t the only one who remembered the random Kecleon in the fire gym
@@CractusJohn
I remember cause the damn thing had flamethrower and was a pain to take out.
I want the Rival to be more of a researcher for post game. See then roaming around and have changing teams based on location.
Or maybe even code it to where May is more of a battle junkie and you see Brendan around the contest halls frequently (like the manga). Have them call you up and battle May or compete in a contest with Brendan.
Give the rival a weird smelling obsession like Blue had, and they will be equally as cool as Blue.
All joking aside, I did like the competitiveness I felt when Blue said he caught 40 different types of pokemon in gen 1. If Brendan and May are filling the pokedex, then maybe a comment of them having x number of pokemon (just a few under the max one could get by that time) could do something similar. It makes them feel like a competent collector since they are close to the max you could get, as compared to a weaker trainer who may or may not be doing well in filling their pokedex.
And towards the end, if you wanted a good excuse to stop battling, either just say the collecting part is the fun part for them, or make an anime reference by having them show more interest in the contests.
New creepypasta: May's Torkoal.
After entering the Hall of Fame, Brendan/May could wait for you outside of your house and they'll ask for you to meet them at Route 103 for one more match where their team will be even stronger than the last time. This shares a reference to their final battle after the credits of ORAS. For Wally, he'll join you alongside when you visit the Battle Frontier and at some point, you'll be given the option to battle him again and he'll have strong Pokemon from the National Pokedex. This also references ORAS as well where he also used Pokemon from the National Pokedex from those games.
Very cool if Wally were to meets you on the ship ride to Battle frontier you battle him either on the boat, An once an them again in the battle frontier somewhere.. or after you unlock the johto starters he’s there at the lab getting starter himself maybe either the unclaimed starter for instance if u picked cyndaquil he picks chick or it’s while may gets totodile.. when the elite four level up you battle him again before you battle them except when you meet battle him the last time he has a fully evolved starter himself this time.
I think both rivals should have post game fights.
Main Rival should have a new exotic team of rare Pokemon, ones that can only be ontained post game. They should all be fully evolved and strong enough to pose a challendge even if not difficult compared to Battle Frontier.
Wally should return with a literal crack team to test the player. He should talk about how he is taking on the Battle Frontier and has learned a lot of new strategies. Maybe change his team up only slightly to give him ace Pokemon that mirror the main battles your to expext from the Battle Frontier or past gym leaders.
It has always bugged me that Wally's Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir is male. I know its not wrong because thats just how the game works, but the Ralts line is very clearly a feminine pokemon. Whenever i catch a Ralts, unless I'm intending on using a Gallade, I always make sure my Ralts is female. Just a personal nitpick of mine.
In terms of postgame, I think that a cool thing is if you get new battles from your main rival based on how full your dex is.
After the E4, when you reach various thresholds of pokedex completion, the rival will call you up and ask you to meet them on various routes to show off the new pokemon you caught, as well as their team where they cycle out 2-3 of their pokemon for other uncommon encounters.
I think it would be interesting if the main rival post game could be found in various locations like Meteor Falls, Paciflog Town or Mt Pyre or something to reflect their researcher/pokemon catching story and have some unique pokemon that are rare in the area or pokemon you normally wouldn't see in the average adventure to help in filling out your pokedex as well, which in turn let's you get that Johto starter from Birch. Or for one of the fights they have one Johto starter to spark interest in the player by being, yeah my dad gave me this for completing the dex as an incentive for the player to try and fill out their dex too. Something like that cause it would be neat I think since now the rival wants to catch and find rare pokemon but likes to show them to you as way of helping/encouraging the player to find other pokemon
As for Wally, an idea would be to have him on victory road with his team improving but after some time, he would show up in the Battle Frontier lobbies trying out some of the facilities and you being able to battle him there with his strongest team to show that he's grown to be your equal or close to it.
12:30 the donphan placement next to Mauville and inclusion on the Blaziken team have to be an Adventures manga references, Sapphire caught a donphan next to mauville on her Blaziken team
Postgame:
Wally- Have him be an optional fight at the battle frontier, with his final team being fully IV + EV'd out, with competitive movsets. He would finally be of what he dreamed of being, possibly after you have all gold medals he would appear, similarly to ORAS.
May/Brenden- I liked what they did with ORAS, them having a final fight where they had their first ever fight, route 103. Or Possibly, again in ORAS they had a little 'date' where they could create that and have a battle there. The rival could use pokemon that aren't in the hoenn pokedex. Along with a Johto starter that is strong against their own starter.
I
very good. Look, I think that on the main rival's team it would be cool to put pokemon focused on contest, for example a pokemon with hail and blizzard and each one being focused on a cool category, beauty...
Postgame Wally could maybe have several different teams (Still keeping his signature Gardevoir of course) that he'll randomly swap between each to make his rematches more interesting. Maybe even add a legendary/mythical or 2 to each team to really spice it up.
I have three ideas for locations as to where Brendan/May would be fought in the postgame.
Route 103: They would be standing in the spot where they fought you for the first time, reminiscing about the time you two were on equal footing battle-wise. They'd ask for one last battle for nostalgia's sake.
Safari Zone: They'd be there talking about the new extensions to the Safari Zone and all the new rare Pokemon you could catch there. They'd offer a battle because they're curious to see if you've caught anything new or interesting.
Battle Frontier: They were sent here by Birch to investigate odd foreign Pokemon being spotted here (Smeargle and Sudowoodo) and are excited to figure out what that's all about. They comment on how the player's clearly here for battle and offers a friendly spar as a warm up for the battle facilities.
For their sixth team member I would go with Noctowl. It's a Pokemon not normally catchable in Hoenn, not particularly strong, available in the new Safari Zone areas, and could know Fly to show that since Brendan/May are now hunting for more rare Pokemon they value transportation significantly. Noctowl also gets Hypnosis for helping with catching Pokemon. I just think it really fits Brendan/May's character here.
For post game Wally i think it would be a really cool idea if he became a gym leader to show his growth as a trainer as well as wanting to support people that are knew to pokemon battles just like Norman did when he first arrived in his gym making his story come full Circle.
Maybe he could potentially build his own gym on an island that you can access with the ship from slateport. He would notify you with a call telling you to come visit. Once yiu arrived his dad would tell you that Wally is long gone but left this ticket for you. You take the ship to an island, (maybe this island could give you the event tickets somehow), you enter the gym, only to see that wally is giving some advice to a kid on how to become a pokemon trainer. Once the kid leaves wally explains his story and how he grew because of the Player and thier rivaly and because of that he wanted you to be his first opponent as a gym leader.
Once you beat him, he'll thank you and say that he is looking forward to the next battle.
I think it would be cool but it would take a lot of effort to do.
For the postgame MainRival fight, taking inspiration from the ORAS after e4 "ceremonial duel" might be a good idea.
Just with rotating teams of both their mainstory pokemon as well as maybe some rare postgame editions (like a johto starter or something like Yanma, Kangaskan or Porygon2), depending on whether or not there will be a national dex.
I have seen a suggestion from another person in the comment section which I like: multible postgame mainrival fights with different teams based on your progress with the dex in different locations.
I think whismer/exploud fits really well on wally's team with them being so common next to his house.
And naybe have your rival have a skitty/delcatty in their team? Think it fits with the rare pokemon theme and feels better with them vs walley.
2 things:
1) Don't forget that if you manage to avoid the fight in Rustboro City, they will approach you when heading into Mr. Briney's house, so that interaction will most likely need address as well.
2) I think Wally should have a pseudo-legend in a post game fight, and the other rival (May or Brendan) should have a Shedinja, because it's never seen in the main story and is an incredibly rare Pokémon to show off. Have them battle you in the post game area.
Technically Shedinja is not a "incredibly rare pokemon". You can catch Nincada right next to Rustboro.
What to do for the rival post game:
For Brendan/May, since they are focused on their PokéDex and becoming a Professor, they need post game events that help you complete your PokéDex. So rather than giving them a single post game fight, give them multiple.
_If you are missing specific Pokémon in your Dex,_ they are given multiple spawn points near rare yet powerful Pokémon. They challenge you with a core team of 5 Pokémon, plus the rare Pokémon in the area. For example, if Bagon is still exclusively in the subcave of Meteor Falls, they will have a Salamence on their team and their dialogue will clue you in on where to go. Or if a rare Rock Smash spawn is in Victory Road, they’ll stand outside the cave entrance and use that Pokémon against you.
_Once all these Pokémon are caught,_ they will have a final team of Pokemon with which to battle you daily. They will note that your Dex dedication is close to theirs, and wish to see which Pokémon you prefer to use.
As for Wally.
You missed an event where you meet his family. Perhaps add another event there post game, where he wants to show his family how far he has come, and battling you can really demonstrate his progress.
OR, since he is the one that is focused on battling, tie him into the story of the Battle Frontier. After you beat the E4 and Scott invites you to the Battle Frontier, Wally is shown to also be an invitee. He rushes ahead to try his best, and disappears. After you complete the Battle Frontier, he appears in the area for a daily fight, using Pokémon that supposedly carried him through each challenge.
The rival should have been given a Milotic to really hit home the "finding rare pokemon" angle...
May/Brendan should have a book on their desk that each day when read gives a hint to a location. If you go to the location that day, you'll find them there, hunting rare Pokemon.
It would be cool for them to have increased levels and one new Pokemon from the area they're currently in, probably the rarest in the area.
Possible locations and Pokemon: Granite Cave with Nosepass; Meteor Falls, Bagon room with Salamence; Sky Pillar with Claydol.
An added bonus could be Cave of Origin, but they don't battle you, just talk about how they wish they could've met Kyogre or Groudon.
Kind of agreeing with what most people are saying. I like the idea of repeatable postgame rival fights, but really showing that they're cemented in their new roles.
Wally getting cracked to Frontier Brain levels, fully committing to battle. Either we fight him in Petalburg, the Battle Frontier, or in Victory Road.
Brendan/May we can fight on Route 103 with all kinds of rare and maybe even legendary Pokémon.
I think fighting alongside one or both of our rivals in double battles would be pretty on-brand for Emerald, which is what DPP did a generation later within the main story. Against who, I am not certain. Juan/Wallace and/or Tate/Liza rematches? That might be fun.
I wonder if Brendan would have been a good rival for Ash if he appeared in the Generation 3 anime back then? With the Mudkip line as his ace? 🤔
Love it! Since your main rival is going to be more of a researcher, it would be cool if they appeared post game in unusual routes catching Pokemon. That way you'll run into them if you're filling out your own Pokedex.
Wally should definitely make an appearance at the battle frontier. Either just hanging around - or even add him into the roster at the battle tower!
I really lile the main rival's focus on rare pokemon. My first thought was to give them Milotic, but I also think giving them a rotating team with shinies could be cool. Maybe they even give you the shiny charm once you beat them. That may be too complicated though, so at the very least I'd just like to see the main rival continue to showcase rare 1% & 5% encounter pokemon
for post game you could make it so that you can find the rival in the safari zone and around the map and you can help them catch pokemon like a minigame
This channel is the definition of “Erm, actually! 🤓☝️”
My take on why the rival fights stop after lilycove city is that it was too difficult or something to program a fight on the water, since there isnt any land left. Victory Road is already occupied by Wally
mossdeep and sootopolis are right there
Mossdeep is close and already has the Team Magma fight. Sootopolis can work if the rival blocks the arena after the cutscene
I would love for your rival, to get Registeel postcredit. He/She will wait in the ruins to show you this rare Pokemon and wants to battle you. After you win and show them regirock an regice in your party, you are going to get the Registeel as a gift since their information is completed.
For the main rival, instead of a post game rematch, I think it would be cool to have them offer trades to the player. They could give rare Pokémon or Pokémon with egg moves to show how they’re studying Pokémon. It might also be interesting to make them a low ranked trainer in contests to show how they’re exploring their passions but contests don’t really click with them either.
For May/Brendan's post game, something to keep in mind is that if the two of them are serious about completing their pokedex, they need to get all 8 badges, as there are 8 HMs that they'll need badges to unlock the use of. If you were to have a post-game encounter which involves running into them when they're out doing fieldwork, you could include some of those HM moves on their team, to show that they were out there doing work, not out there with a competitive team (while still balancing it to make it difficult enough to be a satisfying post-game encounter)
I think it would be interesting to show Wally with more competitive Pokemon in a post-game battle. Either that or just more competitive movesets, items, etc. I think having a post-game rival battle with the "main rival" would be awesome if it was right before or right after they become a professor (or a professor's assistant, something to show that they've been working towards their goal). The rival could then have Pokemon potentially from past gens that are harder to obtain. Just a way of showing that they go REALLY out of their way to collect rare Pokemon and may hint at the fact that they even make connections with other trainers/aspiring professors in order to learn more about Pokemon. Love the content as always :D
An idea that I've had is that when Wally calls out to the player the first couple of times after getting Raltz, he comes up from behind, signifying how far behind he is as a trainer compared to the player. But by the time of his final fight, he instead approaches us from the front, showing just how much he's grown as a trainer, to the point of getting ahead of us on our journey to become the champion.
Wally with Deoxys but also make him totaly oblivious that its incredibly rare. "I found this weird pokemon on Mossdeep. Must be a 1% encounter or something, but i wasnt even walking through tall grass" then the player goes to Mossdeep and someone reveals that a pair of pokemon snuck aboard the last rocket. They completely lost one, but heard rumors that the other headed South. And gives you the aurora ticket
Put the rival back on Route 103, where they were at the beginning of the game, and add a Smeargle to their team to reflect their offscreen trip to the Battle Frontier. Smeargle's moveset consists of Yawn, Night Shade, Rock Tomb, and Leech Seed. Each move represents the rival's love for hunting rare Pokemon such as Yawn coming from Chimecho (1% outside of Mt. Pyre), Night Shade from Sableye (10% in B1 of Granite Cave), rock tomb coming from Relicanth (5% diving in Route 124), and Leech Seed coming from Cacnea (6% on Route 111). The moveset will reflect the rival attempting to put more effort into buffing her other Pokemon with sleep, speed control, and passive healing. After beating them, you can randomly fight them (~1%-10% it's up to you) every 7 rounds in the Battle Tower with the same team, randomly selecting 3/6 of her team.
I think probably the easiest thing would be rematches, obviously. As a Gen Two diehard, I loved facing Silver at the Pokemon League on certain days. It was just nice to see him and felt very alive. So, while you can face Wally multiple times naturally, if there was maybe a scene or two of postgame opportunities to fight him. Maybe he trains with Tate and Lisa for his Gardevoir. Something like that. Or even putting Wally in the Battle Frontier as a random opponent or in the Battle Pyramid as a challenge to show his strength was enough to get him noticed by Scott.
As for MR, Blue was always ahead of you in the Pokedex, maybe if they helped with increased chances of finding Pokemon like Bagon, or maybe gave you rare stuff like Pokemon with egg moves. They might also act as Bottle Cap traders later or as a move tutor and change stuff for existing Pokemon in your party. Could be egg moves again sorta like a different Move Rememberer. Shows off their knowledge.
I'm sure whatever you do will be dope. I love the Wallace/Steven postgame.
The random ad ends at 5:28
wtf was that
@@Sanicfan9192 LOL idk
Putting the extra Wally fight before Norman rather than after him (my suggestion I’ve mentioned countless times) is a great tweak to make the evolution to later just enough to still surprise.
As for postgame, Brendan/May should reflect their greater focus on Pokédex and on top of a full team of six, not have all five prior members. The new additions should reflect rare postgame National Dex finds (or other late game main finds), keep it thematically on point, rather than copying the ORAS one. As for Wally, something like League-adjacent rematches akin to Silver, maybe with some team swaps, but generally just even more jacked movesets.
Aside from all the Wally ideas here: maybe rematches with Brendan/May in the postgame could be fun. They would still not really pose a huge challenge but could show off 6 different, distinctly rare or hard to find/catch Pokémon to really cement them trying to complete that Pokédex while still having a side interest in battling the protagonist, even though they have given up being as strong as the player.
For May postgame, you can have it that you could fight her after you become champion, similar to the ORAS remakes. In addition, you can have it that she now has a full Grass-Fire-Water core now in her team depending on the player's starter: Swampert-Breloom-Houndoom, Sceptile-Torkoal-Milotic or Walrein (to lean more into the search for rare pokemon because feebas ia 1% encounter near the weather institute), and Blaziken-Tropius-Wailord. Though Megas do not exist in Gen 3, the team can now held competitive-based held items that help them out in battle while posing a decent challenge against the player.
I've always felt like the Gen 3 Rival's pokemon tied into the Gen 3 aesthetic of Land and Sea, and eventually Sky. Nowadays, we come to expect the Grass/Water/Fire team, but in R/S/E I think it's actually a bit meaningful. In Ruby and Sapphire, your rival will have a team of 3, made up of Wailmer/Numel/Shroomish/Starter, with a Swellow rounding it out. Honestly, if they were just higher level and actually evolved it would make for a fairly solid team on its own.
In Emerald, the theme seems strongly about tying those different elements together. Lombre/Ludicolo is Water and Earth, Pelipper is Water and Sky, Tropius is Earth and Sky, and Slugma (/Magcargo) is (meant to be) Fire and Earth. Even the starters are like this, with Swampert being both Water and Earth, Blaziken being an earthbound bird that can reach the sky, and even Sceptile being a Grass type associated with tall trees. It's just that those pokemon are let down by not being high enough level to evolve, and by having trash movesets. Variety is the name of the game, which they simply didn't manage to pull off in regards to difficulty.
I think narratively it makes the most sense to progress wally through the E4 fights and have him use some of the best combos showcased there as a way of showing how he's adapting to and adopting high level strategies. I think holding to Gard as his Ace would fit the best, but adopting something along the lines of a tanky walrein from Glacia and a Salamace from Drake would bump his power level. I could even see him adopting a Skarmory from Steven for coverage.
The alterative would just be to progress his fight to a Red-level encounter and just stack him with the team we basically all gravitated towards. Mons like Magniton, Gyrados, Walrein, Breloom, Heracross, Milotic, Salamance, and Metagross could all be mixed and matched as needed and so long as he kept his Gard it wouldn't feel that off.
There is a small oversight with the Rival changes. That being, how does May/Brendan use fly after the lilycove fight without a flier?
Or gym badge o.O
For Wally, I think a neat idea to give some environmental and subtle storytelling for his growth.
After either Flareny or Norman, you can make it where if a player checks thr Gym Statue for the certified trainers, it will have Wally first. A subtle "He got there before you" nod to show how much that fire is lit. It's something ORAS did and I think it would be a very nice touch here.
For post-game rivals:
Brendan/May: finish the water/fire/grass trio
Wally: the Lati we don't choose
I think after you beat the elite 4, if you go to their house and talk to them, they’ll spew some dialogue, and challenge you to a rematch “for old times sake” and if you accept, you’ll then follow them outside, and the battle will begin, where they’ll have a full team of mixed rare-with-powerful pokemon, they’ll start off with the donphan with leftovers, I don’t really know a good move set so you’d have to think of that, next they’ll lead with pincer, after that they’ll send out an alakazam, followed by a dragonite, and for the 5th, they’ll send out their starter, and once that’s beaten, they’ll send out a level 80 aggron (and everything else would be around level 50-60, with their starter being lvl 70 possibly) and if you beat them, they’ll say how you’ve grown a lot, and you’re one of the best trainers they’ve seen, and since you are clearly capable, they’ll gift you their starter, along with a randomized stone, with a sum of money, maybe the battle is unfair, idk, but I wanted a post game kind of optional test, where you’re given a decent reward, along with their starter to make filling out the Pokédex easier for people, or if they just want a powerful Pokémon on their team. But as for Wally, if you decide to rematch the elite 4, once you get past all 4 members, instead of the usual champion, you’ll find Wally waiting for you there instead, and he’ll tell you that he’s heard of you becoming the new champion, so now he’s returned to challenge you to become the new champion, since he felt something reignite in him, and his team will pretty much be the same, except, all the Pokémon are scaled to a higher level, and his magneton now knows surf or hydro pump, I know I made a loooong comment but I wanna know what people think of my rival team selection.
Brilliant update as always, was thinking the exact same thing about Brendan/May earlier today!
Dex Rival's postgame team, other than having fully evolved everything should keep some of the OG flavor by completing the Fire/Water/Grass core, but with two significant changes to keep with the new dex hunting lore:
1) The completed Fire/Water/Grass core should include a Johto starter (Typhlosion for the Mudkip Rival, Meganium for the Torchic one, and Feraligatr for the Treecko one). This ties back to the original Dex completion reward of a Johto starter from Birch, which you can now say the Rival helped him find, research and catch and again ties back into finding rare Pokemon. This would probably replace Keckleon in the team since I feel like having Spoink as a throughline feels like something they would do, but also because of point 2...
2) Their sixth team member could be a Psuedo-Legendary, with my initial pick being either Salamence or Tyranitar. This would again tie into the main theme of them really hunting for rare Pokemon and still showing their strength as a trainer, with them either being from deep in Meteor Falls or from Johto like where they caught the starters.
For Wally's post game fight, you could lean on a similar vibe to point one about while also taking further cues from ORAS and give him a Charizard in place of Altaria (an ode to Talonflame in typing and an allusion to him continuing his journey elsewhere - ie: Kanto), and then replacing Delcatty with either Flygon (same type as ORAS Garchomp) or Dragonite (to mirror Dex Rival's two new Johto additions).
Keep up the good work!
Wally trained in Kanto, and brought back a legendary surprise.
Wally hangs in the Battle Frontier, and has 3 unique teams he'll cycle through each time you rematch him.
Each team is a weather team built around Articuno (Hail), Zapdos (Rain), or Moltres (Sun).
Roserade gets Weather Ball in later gens, so he keeps his Roselia, with added Weather Ball, and a Gardevoir, to keep him feeling like Wally.
Then you just round out the other 3 members of his teams with a weather setter, and some more thematic mons for the weather types.
Finally Main Rival...
Main rival hangs in Birch's lab, and infodumps about rare pokemon :)
They don't like battling! Let them COOK.
If your doing a proper post game, like a full battle frontier or story, you can have both Wally and the main rival attend (one looking for a challenge, one looking to see rare pokemon from other regions). As an introduction to this post game you can have the player partner with the rival against Wally and one of the Frontier Brains / an Elite Four member or something, as an exhibition match.
Then, mid way through getting the first set of symbols, have Wally battle you with a much more powerful team, and again an even more powerful rooster, when you collect all Silver Symbols. After collecting all Gold Symbols, Wally can face you one last time with a maxed out team as the ultimate superboss of the game (all level 100 pokemon, with competitive movesets and items - a true test of skill).
For Brendan/May: after getting national dex they should show up and mention studying with other profs like Oak and Elm and add a battle with a Johto and Kanto starter. Kanto being weak to you and Johto being same type. 3 region starters, Kecleon, grumpig and maybe another rare mon like Togepi or Aerodactyl
For Wally : he should be stationed outside the elite four waiting for you to go through your rematch and eventual fight with the new champion Wallace,
Fights you with a strong team of 6. Gardevoir, Altaria, Metagross, Tyranitar, Kanto starter strong against you, Machamp. 6 three stage evos to mirror his growth from young weak boy to strong trainer.
I don't know if this should count as a rival postgame thing, but maybe instead of a *battle* with May/Brendan, they instead give you hints each day on where some of the rarest pokemon can be caught, showcasing their new focus and also providing an aid to players that won't use guides to determine where things like Bagon and Bedlum can be found in the ROM. Might not even be that hard to implement, the TV system kinda already does the same thing.
As for Wally... While this might be a bit difficult to implement, I envision a postgame arc involving him getting sicker, and then the player ends up having to go on a mission to find a mythical pokemon that grants wishes to save him (A way of including Jirachi as an in-game event). Then when he's healed, he goes off and finds a place in one of the caves or mountains, to serve as a nice foil for the Red fight; with Jirachi having temporarily joined his team, adding some extra difficulty for this penultimate fight (this level of fight, I don't see anything wrong with paraflinch hax as a challenge for the player to solve), and victory has him leaving to train, and Jirachi floating down before you to be potentially caught as she had joined his team to help him get his confidence back.
As part of Wally's training, a double battle between Wally/Norman vs. You and your rival. In a roundabout way, this is two rivals battling each other.
I'm glad you actually included Wally in this discussion. I enjoy the idea of his story and I think most of the rivals have a great story concept but lack in execution. As for post game fights, maybe giving the "main rival" a legendary of some sort like a Regi or Jirachi could also build upon the catching rare Pokémon aspect and maybe after beating them, they can tell you where they found said legendary
our main rival is professor birch's kid, and with the goal of catching everything wouldn't it make sense that they have a gen 2 starter in their final fight. Birch does in fact give a gen 2 starter to the player if you have finished the dex, and this could be an indicator of our rivals progress on their journey, or they could get preferential treatment and tell us about one of the potential rewards for finishing the dex
I appreciate the changes you're trying to make to give Wally and the "Main Rival" different vibes, but I almost feel like you didn't lean enough into what makes the Main Rival different when coming up with new teams for them. These teams just feel like sub-par rival teams to me.
If it were me, I would have given the rival significantly more pokemon than average but at lower levels to show that their main interest is collecting, not raising and battling. I would also have them cycle through members of their team between fights, like they're only keeping pokemon in the party long enough to evolve them before swapping them out for new ones.
For example, in the first fight I might give the main rival four pokemon: a level 7 Silcoon, a level 10 Skitty, a level 12 Spoink, and a level 13 starter.
For the next battle I would crank that up to five pokemon: evolve the Silcoon into a Beautifly with Sleep Powder (useful for catching pokemon), keep the Spoink because it hasn't evolved yet, get rid of the Skitty (it was already evolved with a moon stone and so is off the team), have the starter at its second stage but level 16 just having evolved, then add BOTH of the two elemental types aside from the starter (so if the rival started with Mudkip they would get both Slugma and Shroomish, if they started with Torchic they would get both Shroomish and Wailmer). None of the individual pokemon should be too challenging, but what makes the rival fight as a whole difficult is the number of pokemon they have and their wide type coverage. If you really want to add to the "looking for rare pokemon" vibe then I would even add a 6th pokemon which would become another staple for the rival in later fights: a low level Trapinch.
For the third battle the rival should already have a full team of 6. Beautifly is gone, all of the other pokemon have evolved. Grumpig (just to show it some love), the 2nd evolution of the starter, and Vibrava keep their positions on the team but all of the others rotate out. They're still lower level than other trainers in the area because the Main Rival has not been dedicated to raising up one strong team.
Then in the final rival battle the only two of their pokemon who return would be the now evolved Flygon and the final form of their starter. Everyone else is new, rarer pokemon (things like Absol, but a Seviper and Zangoose duo would be a cool since you'd only ever see those two in one place if someone is specifically trying to collect every pokemon)
@@shaunduzstuffs ... Okay? That literally has nothing to do with anything I said
For the post-game rival fights:
May/Brandon should have the Lati twin you didn't pick when you see the TV broadcast and can afterwards offer a trade for it against any Pokémon of the player's choice, arguing that "Your strength as a trainer is much better suited for such a rare Pokémon such as this one". Otherwise they have their starter, Kecleon, Grumpig, Crobat, and a Shedinja, which IMO would build nicely on their arc and showcase that they have settled on a firm companion trio of Pokémon just like they do in RSE but this time not following the fire-grass-water type triangle.
For Wally, I think Exploud, Altaria, Breloom, Azurill, Ninetales, and Gardevoir would be a cracked post-game team. Three Pokémon from his pre-League fight, and three pretty strong additions.
I like your rival battle updates a lot! Only thing what I would change is the Sootopolis dialogue to be an actual battle. Reasoning being that rival states he has arrived to a crossroad in their career, and asks MC to have a battle. Once player wins, rival states something like ”as expected”, thanks player for having a battle and then states that they are going to be a researcher, just like daddy is. Bit like Gary tells his true ambitions to Ash when he lost the battle in Silver Conference.
For post-game I’d add two battles for main rival: one after player completes Hoenn-dex (assuming it can be completed after E4) and the other when player completes national dex. For those battles rival’s title would change from PKMN TRAINER to PKMN RESEARCHER, and they would have six pokemon (containing not necessarily most powerful but rare(st) non-legendary pokemon). That would the first match.
The latter match would have a Hoenn-twist: to celebrate compeleted national dex player would be challenged to a double battle by rival Birch and professor Birch!
For Wally I’d just make his last battle veery difficult, with at least pseudo-legendary and/or even ”low tier” legendary added to his team.
Also, I subscribed because I want that cartridge to play it on my GBA SP! 😆
The Main Rival is in five different remote locations one after another, always talking about how they're gathering rare Pokémin. After the last one you can fight them in Littleroot Town with a brand new team apart from their starter,, including a Johto legendary beast.
For May/Brendan post game, I think that instead of another battle, they should have a side quest where you show them a series of rare pokemon like Bill's grandfather in GSC. This I think fits with their character better than having a battle just for the sake of it. These pokemon should be ones you need to go out of your way to find like Nosepass, Bagon, and Snorunt. I think the reward for this should either be rare berries, evolution items, or battle items that usually cost BP. Also instead of just staying put looking at his/her computer for all eternity, he/she should have places they appear around the region. These places could also be linked to the rare pokemon they want you to find, but I think that some should just be them looking around in seemingly random areas.
As for Wally, He should be treated like the Emerald gym leader rematches where his team slowly builds up to its final version over the course of a few battles. The intermediate battles would have him experiment with different strong pokemon but eventually he would settle on a team that's strong in general. Obviously he needs Gardevoir, but his other team members are more flexible. Of his original team, Magneton is the only one in competitive ADV OU so it gets to stay. His other 4 should be able to be found in the Hoenn Dex because he's not the type to travel the world just to get an edge. Those that stand out to me are Starmie, Salamence, Houndoom, and Dusclops, but there are a lot more options than just them. His team should be structured well with good moves, good items, good abilities, and actually good stats unlike vanilla NPCs. Most of all, the post-game rematch battles need to be interesting above all else. They should showcase things you otherwise might not see in the story. In Wally's case, I think this should specifically be the items and moves that he uses. He should have unorthodox, but effective, strategies in play in order to win.
Wally is Underwhelming, the first time you Fight him he only has a Ralts fixing this will make me happy 😊
Wally isn't supposed to be a challenge there. The point of that fight is that he is just starting out and still isn't ready for the gym.
@@Peelster1 that is the point......
Damn I forgot story line exists I think I played radical red a little too much
one thing you could add is NPC talking about wally in cities with gym leader, saying stuff like "There's a lot of young promising trainer these day. just look at Flannery and the young boy who fought her recently!"
Post-game double battle with Wally to truly utilize the more odd/competitive useful moves that you don't see in the main story. Double battles in VGC require so much planning and understanding of the environment that implementing it in the rival story would be a alternative way of showcasing his underrated strategical capability.
Funnily enough, in Pokémon Masters May while being strong actually decides to focus more on research and become a Professor while Brendon is more focused on battling, and this sparks a conflict initially. I do love Masters for expanding the plot and the characterisation of the characters, so I'm glad to see you follow in its footsteps (or come up with the same idea)!
For post game fights: ORAS kinda covered the rivals pretty well. After the league you get a final battle with Brendan/May at the credits, kinda like AZ. It's not challenging compared to what you just beat, but that's part of the point, it's just a final conclusion. Then Wally goes to the Battle Maison (which would rightfully be the Frontier here) to give an actually challenging final battle (honestly, it's arguably one of the strongest teams made on a mainline pokemon NPC).
I think even if the main rival doesn't get into battling, having a postgame fight for them featuring some rare pokemon from another region would be interesting and be a great way to show them coming into their role of pokemon researcher even more. It could even be a starter from another region that completes the elemental triangle to give enough of a post game challenge while keeping their story up.
Wally has an arc of confidence, where he is timid but striving to live up to his Pokémon’s expectations.
Brendan has an arc of sexism, where he looks down on you before respecting you. This is also shown by how less talkative he is compared to May, leading Girl to be the speedrunner’s choice.
But I can’t tell you what May’s arc is, and I play as the boy all but once.
If you don’t believe me about their arcs:
When you first meet:
- May: “… So your move was today. … I was hoping you would be nice, , and that we could be friends. Oh, this is silly, isn't it? I…I've just met you, .”
- Brendan: “I didn't know that you're a girl. … Hey, , don't you have a Pokémon? Do you want me to go catch you one?”
First defeat:
- May: "Wow! That's great! , you're pretty good!"
- Brendan: "Huh, , you're not too shabby."
Route 119:
- May: “How much stronger have you gotten? Let me check for you! … Achah! , you're strong! I was worried that you might be struggling with your training. But I had absolutely nothing to be worried about! Keep it up!”
- Brendan: “Let me see how good you got. I'll test you! … Hmm… You've gotten pretty darn decent. I'd say you're good enough to search for Pokémon anywhere.”
And more.
For May/Brendan, they could be a way to acquire National Dex Pokémon by telling you about various outbreaks, and giving you a starter from another region after you enter the Hall of Fame, like Professor Birch does in ORAS.
As for Wally, I think it would be an interesting twist if in the post-game, due to his development as a trainer, he replaces Wallace as the champion, allowing Wallace to leave the region and pursue his other passion - Contests (he can appear as a contestant in Master rank Beauty contests in ORAS).
This still leaves Steven as a postgame end boss, but gives players more of a challenge when rematching the Elite Four
The Wally fight before Norman also adds a little extra experience points before the Sudden Slaking. That's a really good idea.
Also, have you considered making Pure Power double Special Attack while Huge Power doubles Physical Attack? Currently, both of them double Physical Attack, and it would be a good duality that might make other pokemon more viable.
I think for post-game Wally considering a double battle format. Since Emerald is the first main line game to introduce double battles. 1 strategy could be Earthquake Altaria with Double Team Gradevoir. Another stategy could be Sing Delcatty one opposing Pokémon so that it's 2 against 1. Delcatty can Charm the opposing Pokémon while Roselia helps weaken opposing Pokémon with Toxic and Leech Seed. And of course, the common Protect with moves like Earthquake and Surf.
For me, Wally in RSE was always insanely forgetable, and I only gained respect for him in ORAS.
This was in large part thanks to his encounter in Victory Road being treated as a larger event, with his own room and theme music which also played during his battle.
So if I could provide any suggestion, it would be to give him his own theme music based on his theme from ORAS, but I understand if that's far beyond the scope of this romhack.
Other than that, a small thing that ORAS did to foreshadow Wally was to put his name on the Gym statues in each gym in the Certified Trainers section, showing that he has beaten them before you. I feel like this would be a neat addition, as I doubt many people would even notice that but it would be a nice surprise for those who do.
I think the post game for the main rival should feature all the starters to show that they worked with their dad to raise all three starter pokemon. I think it should also feature pokemon not native to Hoenn to suggest they've gone out of their way to study and capture other kinds of pokemon. Some initial thoughts are Smeargle with a bunch of unique signature moves, a nicknamed trade evolution from a past region (shuckie, kenya, etc.), or if you wanna get a bit wild and give them a legendary, Mew.
For Wally, I think he deserves to take some of the strongest pokemon from other trainers in the region. Gardevior has to stay, but I think he could take Milotic from Wallace, Aggron from Steven, Snorlax OR Slaking from Frontier Brain Anabel or Norman, Arcanine from Frontier Brain Spenser, and keep his Altaria from Winona.
Since Brendan and May are about finding rare Pokémon, maybe they can give you access to either an item or a location that allows you to find rare Pokémon. They battle you first because the Pokémon are pretty strong and they want to test you. Then you could have a cheeky reveal that they were joking because of course the Hoenn champion would be strong, they just wanted to battle for old time’s sake.
Yeah you definitely have OCD just like me. Type overlap or other small things like that give me the same feeling
Really like the changes for Brendan/May, but for the Torchic team, I think it would be to swap Wailmer for Pelliper with two main reasons for this. The first is just for basic game balancing since Wailmer (BST 400) is notably much weaker than Breloom (460) or Torkoal (470) while also being notable in that other than having an underleveled Wailord it will be the only NFE Pokemon they use. The Blaziken team is also the only one of the teams to lack a Ground resist/immunity. Pelliper fixes all these problems by giving a Ground resist/immunity and also being much more comparable to Breloom and Torkoal stat-wise with a BST of 440 (or 430 using the gen 3 stats).
The second, and overall much spicier reasoning for making Wailmer not dependant on which starter you pick comes during the postgame, where they should have a proper final fight where they challenge you in Pacifidlog Town. During this fight, they really play into their new theme of wanting to be a professor and also wanting to seek out rare pokemon by adding Relicanth (which tye'll always end with) as their 6th party member, but also swapping Kecleon for Wailord (which they'll always lead with). Now I get balance-wise this will make their teams really Grass/Electric-weak, but like you said they're not trying to be really strong trainers. Instead, these two new additions to their teams as well as the location you fight them will serve as really big hints as to how to unlock the Regis, noting that they heard from the locals that there's a nearby underwater cave that holds the secrets to some really rare Pokemon and that they're two new team members are somehow connected to it. They also heard that the move Dig also plays an important part in the legend and should give the player another TM for it (since it's easy to accidentally waste and the only way to get another user is to get a level 41/45 Trapinch/Nincada) They can even find you in the Sealed Chamber after you solve the puzzle telling you that the mysterious writing in the cave resembles the writing that the stone monuments they were researching on Routes 105, 111, and 120 had on them.
I like the idea that the rival aiming to be a Pokémon professor gives them access to rare Pokémon but also any future battles post-game with them are like exhibition matches to new and upcoming trainers, so there’s a push to stay competitive but also it’s more about the flair of showing off to the ties between trainer and Pokémon to prospective trainers
Personally I could see the rival having two other starter pokemon on their team (one from Kanto, and one from Johto) for their post game fight.
For main rival post game i think it should reflect them getting to fill the Pokedex so what i would suggest is putting them in 3-6 softener locations randomly everytime you best the elite 4 having the location reset and the team they have feature a rare Pokémon from said area as their 6th member. This would show then continue to take Pokedex completion seriously as well as help to give some players an idea on where to find certain rare Pokémon.
Lastly, to help the player find the main rival, they can talk to main rival's mom who can give a hint
I.e. "May said she was going to check out a cave today"
I think this would make the player curious about pokemon in different areas and encourage post game exploration
Bonus points if main rival has a shiny in post game team because it would be a cool way to show the shiny mechanic and further add to their character😊
I feel like the main rival post game fight should be somewhere silly like the safari zone. Where you find them lookin for a rare pokemon, while you don't fight there, they ask you to meet them outside, where they actually challange you "for old time sake" and to show you the new rare pokemon they caught in there
I think for post game, giving Wally something like a Snorlax to replace his Magneton feels fitting. Since you added Azumarill and had Altaria's moveset mimic Winona's to show that he's learning from his battles, adding a Snorlax could imply that he's gone to Kanto/Sinnoh and gotten a Snorlax after seeing how strong it is. Not 100% sure what you would do for the moveset, but since it can learn half of the TMs available, there's a lot of potential there.
I think it would be cool if in the post game, you referenced the role Wally had in the post game of ORAS, where based on your progress at the battle resort, he would challenge you to battles, finishing off with a completely competitively viable team. Maybe he could challenge you once you get your first silver symbol with a refined version of his Victory Road team, then after you get a gold symbol he'll battle you with the weaker Pokemon on his team swapped out for competitive mainstays.
As for the main rival, perhaps they could have a team which showcases rare Pokemon through gens 1-3. Like, maybe they briefly went over to Johto/Kanto after their conclusion in the main story, and have returned in the post game. It would be cool if they rewarded you with say, Larvitar and Dratini eggs, so you could get access to the previous psuedo-legendaries easily to help at the battle frontier
I love your content!
Main Rival: Leave them with their starter, but then use a bunch of strange interactions between different pokemon. Things like Ledian making use of its unique moveset for defensive set-up to baton pass. The player never sees this type of interaction truly happen and studying pokemon would also involve seeing unique interactions with pokemon competetive battlers often ignore. Rather than it being a hard fight it might sinply be an extended fight seeing new things.
Wally: A dialogue with Stephen Stone after beating him where he feels refreshed that TWO young trainers have beat him and hes excited for the future. Then lead the player to an epic battle with Wally.
Have a special interaction with Wally where he has the 3rd un-chosen starter (the one weak to yours) replace magneton and have the level range as 75-83 in his house ( I think it's in Verdenturf) with the text: "Hey, I've gotten fully over my sickness, and I really want to battle you to see if I am as strong as a champion!"
Post game rival fight should be an actual gen 3 competitive team