Pokemon BlazingSun, WitheringEarth, and SereneSky Edition

Pokémon BlazingSun, WitheringEarth, and SereneSky Edition would be a game for the Nintendo 3DS and its variations, and represents my idea for a new generation of the Pokémon franchise.

As some of you may know, I've been a fan of Pokémon since my young childhood through the anime, and somewhat recently, Pokemon X absorbed my life for a few months. This made me realize that there weren't too many standard Pokémon game ideas on the wiki, and that I myself had never done one (I have done Pokémon Journeys, but that was ages ago).

And so, I decided to make an idea that would give you guys a rough concept of what my ideal Pokémon game would be. I won't make a full list of Pokémon and other miniscule features, as that would just take tons of time that could be better used. As I keep saying, this is going to be my vision.

Story
It wasn't until somewhat recently that I found out each main canon Pokémon game focused on a distinct theme in its story. For instance, Gen VI's theme was the struggle between life and death, Gen V was a struggle between different social ideals, Gen IV focused on myths and legends, Gen III focused on nature, and so on.

For this game, I thought it would be fun to focus on the eternal struggle between order and chaos. Order would be represented by Iumagius, a solar Pokémon who watches over and protects humanity like the Sun, and chaos would be represented by Viroxian, a plague Pokémon who seeks to persecute and debase humanity for its overreaching nature, not unlike earthly pollution. Meanwhile, Skyveran seeks to belay this conflict by putting both Pokémon in their places, almost representing humanity's inner sense of independent reason and sensibility.

The game's conflict is centered around the rising of Team Rebirth, an anarchist organization not unlike Team Flare that seeks to destroy organized society as it is. They intend to leave only themselves and all the Pokémon in the world untouched, in order to create a new world order in their image and dominate it through the use of powerful Pokémon, with the legendary Viroxian at the forefront of their army. Their leader is an unstable yet sinister and conniving woman named Kalista, who has a fondness for showing up and seizing buildings and events before causing destruction and mayhem. More than that, she's bent on going to whatever lengths necessary to unleash Viroxian on the world.

Meanwhile, the protagonist is an unsuspecting aspiring trainer looking to win badges, defeat the local League Champion, and become an overall master of Pokémon battling and study. This trainer starts out like any other trainer and gets his/her first Pokémon (Porquoise, Cublaze, or Terrakeet) from the local Pokémon Professor Maple in his/her home region of Gallius.

This trainer and his/her sibling, who wants to become a trainer and eventually a Pokémon professor, become friendly rivals, and get caught up together in the plot of Team Rebirth, working to defend innocent people and Pokémon from their schemes.

Pokemon
Starters

Water
The water type starters are based on the aquatic mammals dolphins, porpoises, and orcas.
 * Porquoise
 * Hydraulfin
 * Orcadius

Fire
The fire type starters are based on the cheetah, feline creature of Africa.
 * Cublaze
 * Scorcheeta
 * Arsonox

Grass
The grass type starter is based on the parakeet, the conure parrot, and the toucan.
 * Terrakeet
 * Conifure
 * Ducanopy

Alternate Starters
I always thought it was an interesting move in Gen VI to have the Gen I starter Pokémon as alternate starters after beating a gym or two. If it were me, I would want to continue this feature in another generation, but this time around, I would mix and match starter generations. For the purposes of this article, I'll just use my favorite lines of starters for each type (but none from Gen I, because that's already been done; otherwise I would use Charizard).

Water
The water type alt. starters would be the line from Gen VI:
 * Froakie
 * Frogadier
 * Greninja

Fire
The fire type alt. starters would be the line from Gen II:
 * Cyndaquil
 * Quilava
 * Typhlosion

Grass
The grass type alt. starters would be the line from Gen V:
 * Snivy
 * Servine
 * Serperior

Legendaries
My idea for this game is to have three versions, much like the original Red, Blue, and Yellow Versions. Each version would have an exclusive Pokémon based on the version's flagship color, as well as on the theme of the story.

Iumagius
The exclusive legendary of the BlazingSun edition. Its sole purpose is to protect and preserve humanity and Pokémon from deadly threats. It can rarely be seen emerging from the sun to intervene in times of earthly crisis. It is a Fire/Fairy type.

Its appearance is somewhat genie-like; its body is made of pure mystical fires, and it has four arms with which to attack. Its power is supposedly equal to that of a supernova, but it is kept in check by a long, scarf-like band of energy that it uses in combat. Funnily, the ends of all his appendages are plumes of flame. The left side of its torso is red instead of orange, and it also has red markings around its eyes.

Viroxian
The exclusive legendary of the WitheringEarth edition. It rests deep in the earth and if disturbed, it will take revenge on those who disturb it by causing rampant disease and destruction. It is a Dark/Poison type.

It's been speculated that Viroxian is descended from the Time/Space Duo (Dialga and Palkia), based on its quadrupedal skeletal structure. Apart from this, it looks like a dragon or lizard, with scaly, poisonous skin with more tender skin on its underbelly and knees. It also has deadly sharp teeth and horns, claws on every leg, and long, stiff hairs stemming from its head.

Skyveran
The exclusive legendary of the SereneSky edition. Contrary to the relationship among the weather trio, Skyveran's purpose is to prevent world catastrophe by ending conflict between Iumagius and Viroxian. It lives within the water cycle, becoming clouds, rain, and sea until it is needed, at which point it changes into its true form.

Its body, like its namesake, is somewhat similar to a Wyvern, but with some slight differences. It has long, curving protrusions on its stomach and tail, and it also has two medium-sized wings on either side of its body. It is light blue for the most part, but it also has stripes of dark blue in places.

Gameplay
The gameplay for BW&S would be much like what X and Y, but I think it should achieve a more cinematic vibe that Gen VI was trying to achieve. Before I go into the ideas I had for gameplay visuals, I want to come out and say that even though they might not be realistic or practical additions for a Pokémon game, this is still just an idea, so I'm allowed to stretch the boundaries a bit.

First of all, I think all moves should have a realistic impact on the battle's surroundings, meaning that Magnitude would create faults in the entire surrounding area for a few seconds, and explosive moves would fill the area with smoke for a few seconds. In addition, I think all moves should have suitably interesting animations, not unlike they do in the anime. One more feature I would add (which I'm rather proud of) is, if two opposing Pokémon both use the move Fly, the battle moves to the sky until one of them switches out or faints.

Next, I think the overworld's construction should be less linear and blocky than in Gen VI. I think winding pathways and realistically constructed towns would do wonders for player immersion, particularly since the Gallius region where this game is set is reminiscent of places like Ireland and Italy. As for the actual NPCs in the game, I would give them idle animations beyond blinking to add to the realism of having 3D sprites, which Gen VI didn't take much advantage of.

Speaking of realistic 3D sprites, I would also expand the customization a little bit. There would be a boy and girl sprite for both the main protagonist and his/her sibling, and both those two character models would be customizable. I would add in more hairstyles, clothes, and colors, and I would also make it possible to remove hats from characters.

Moving onto actual Pokémon battling, I would, of course, bring back new Mega Evolutions, but I would include the option to change which Pokémon in your party during battle is mega evolved at any given time (only one mega evolution at a time would still be the rule, though). I also feel that battling should focus less on stat boosts and more on attacks so that battles move along more quickly, and are more easy to pick up and learn for new players. Of course, new moves and Pokémon would be introduced, but I don't claim to be an expert. Otherwise, the basic gameplay from Pokémon would remain the same. No reason to fix what isn't broken.

List of New Mega Evolutions
I want to preface this section by saying that all the original Mega Evolutions would still be possible in this game. I don't want to give with one hand and take with the other. If anyone has suggestions for Mega Evolutions, let me know! All three fully evolved alternate starters, Greninja, Serperior, and Typhlosion, would also have their own Mega Evolutions, in the same way the alternate starters from Gen VI did.
 * Mega Aegislash
 * Mega Flygon
 * Mega Avalugg
 * Mega Marowak
 * Mega Dragonite
 * Mega Rapidash
 * Mega Xatu
 * Mega Bisharp
 * Mega Machamp
 * Mega Tropius
 * Mega Sableye
 * Mega Golurk
 * Mega Arcanine
 * Mega Kingdra
 * Mega Cofagrigus
 * Mega Metagross
 * Mega Zoroark

Communication and Trading
There were a couple things I found lacking in Gen VI as far as social interactions went. I'm personally less of a battler than a trader, so I have some gripes with the trading system that I think should be fixed.

First of all, I think there should be some option during anything involving two players for text-based chatting. Nintendo themselves obviously makes some provision for actual communication, as there is a vocal chat option in XY, although it seems to be rarely used. As such, since text-based chat is so popular among PC games and is easily achievable on the 3DS, I think it would be a good idea to make it an option for both battling and trading, to heighten the element of player-to-player enjoyment and co-operation.

Secondly, an issue I have with trading is that I think you should be able to access more detailed stats about a Pokémon up for trade, instead of just level, gender, name, appearance, and item. Considering the fact that so many things about a given Pokémon are potentially important, I think they should all be out in the open. This essentially means that I would add access to specific stats (like EVs, or IV's if it's, say a freshly hatched Pokémon, and hasn't been trained at all) and nature (like Adamant, Jolly, Timid, etc.).

Social Linking and Quests
I've seen quite a bit of Pokémon played over the years, and after playing it myself, I was disappointed by how few quests it had. Pokémon is normally known for large worlds, but there are remarkably few instances of interesting experiences and quests aside from the main quest.

My theory behind this is that most people who have a deep love for Pokémon enjoy the battling more than anything else, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just think that the series has lots of unfulfilled potential in terms of side-stories, particularly judging from the numerous interesting storylines of the anime episodes.

One thing I would add is relationships with certain NPCs. It could be possible to trade with them, battle with them, and battle alongside them, and if the relationship developed enoush, the player could receive a special item from them, such as a Master Ball or a rare evolution stone. Moreover, I would make it an opportunity for interesting quests, in addition to having more small quests available throughout the game.