my hopes for pokemon champions
truthfully i dont know exactly what theyre offering with champions, theyve (reasonably) been a little vague so far, but as far as i can tell its something similar to showdown: direct pokemon battles, most of the battle gimmicks, probably better aligned with the precedents set by official competitive-y battles. that doesn't speak to me on its own, so here's what id hope for, as a very casual battler:
GOOFY RULESETS: you know inverse battle? you know littlecup? rotation battles?? i wanna see those kindsa things! i would love to see some weird, never-before-seen battle scenarios. this is something that you probably wont get from showdown as-is, and itd be cool to see what they could come up with!
TRAINER CUSTOMIZATION: im a simple guy that loves dressup. it would be nice to see a solid variety of outfits for your little avatar, and it might encourage people to connect over what they wear (think social media posts sharing outfits and playing around with your team and personal aesthetic) (i also just hate the default masc trainer's outfit and don't want to potentially get she/her'd by choosing the fem one) and again, you can't do dressup in pokemon showdown.
ACTUALLY PERFORMS WELL: they showed footage of the game playing on mobile devices, and im really worried that theyre not going to be able to deliver on a satisfying mobile device experience. i know im not being optimistic, but... (gestures at scarlet and violet)
DOESN'T CONFLICT WITH POKÉMON SHOWDOWN: my biggest fear is that champions is an attempt to squash or negatively compete with pokemon showdown. i want them to coexist, preferably in peace, with their own strengths and weaknesses
ACTUALLY RELEASES: do you guys remember how they announced pokemon sleep and then said nothing for years. do you remember how vague they were. i get the impression (possibly based on vibes alone) that champions is pretty early in development. what if they simply dont follow up? we assumed pokemon sleep was cancelled, but what if champions actually does get cancelled.
LEGENDS FORMATS WITH ANY POKÉMON?: im less confident in how this would work but considering how pla and plza have very different battle systems from mainline games, itd be interesting to see them let you use your pokes from Home in a legends format. Very Unlikely, but it popped into my head while writing this post and it could be cool. :)
BETTER LOGO: this is simple... you see, i hate the logo they have revealed. i understand the concept but they executed it poorly. it looks dated and unpleasant. to me.
with how little info we actually have, i am doing a lot of guesswork. but... idk, its fun to speculate :D
