Player Characters that aren't forced to be children
I find it kind of ridiculous that one of the first things I'm asked for when booting Pokemon Champions is my age to separate me into a category for adults, but then I'm forced to play as a child who is a Gym Leader. The Pokemon Company knows based on registration for competitions alone that there is a significant portion of adults among their player base, and Pokemon Champions specifically is not tied to an overarching story that would necessitate us playing as a character who is a child. We can't even communicate with other players in any format in this game, we should at the bare minimum be allowed to play as a character we can identify with. I feel like every time a new Pokemon game comes out and our main character is forced to be a child it adds to the negative connotation that Pokemon is for children only. The games started in 1996 and there are obviously fans who still play the games 30 years later, please consider the entirety of your market instead of focusing on children. Nintendo as a company has always considered making their products appeal to all ages, I don't understand why Pokemon has always been dead set on infantilizing the player. At least consider the popularity of Gym Leaders like Larry who are literally just a normal person, which allowed many fans to relate even more with the series.
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The point is that the player character is always forced to be ambiguously childish. Has there never been a person under 18 with facial hair? Must every person choose from the exact same base models with 4 varying skin tones? We just have to be shorter and skinnier than every NPC and patronized as if we've never seen a Pikachu in our lives, I don't think it's asking for too much to be able to say "I'm an adult and would like to be treated as one, even in this fictional setting." It doesn't seem harmful in anyway to allow players to present themselves as whatever age they feel like in a game where the only interaction with others is via battling.
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Hi @Champion-Aidyl, thank you for sharing your concerns about player characters. I highly encourage you to share this feedback directly to our support team at this link.
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Pokémon is ostensibly a children's franchise, but I think everyone is aware at this point that they have a sizeable adult audience. The series is 30 years old. At this point some of the oldest fans could have grandchildren of their own.
It's not 10 year olds dropping hundreds of dollars on boxes of Pokémon cards and starting fights in supermarkets. Nor are they buying Pokémon engagement rings or car accessories.
It may be harder to justify an adult in the Pokémon world being a complete beginner, but nevertheless I think the adult audience would appreciate the ability to play as a more age appropriate protagonist. Perhaps we could have more challenging difficulty modes to go with it.
Or failing that, maybe it's time for a more mature spin-off series, if Gamefreak insist on making the mainline games the most brain dead RPGs on the market, though honestly I think the series history shows even children are capable of completing games more challenging than modern Pokémon.
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