Quoted By:
So, I was thinking about different ways to play the pokemon games to change up the experience. I came up with the idea of only being allowed to use fully evolved pokemon in gyms.
So, if you were playing Fire Red, you'd have the options to use Beedrill and Butterfree for Brock, as those two are the fully evolved pokemon you'd be reasonably able to acquire by that point. For Misty, you'd also gain access to Raticate, Fearow, Wigglytuff, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and Clefable, all by level 20.
There'd be several pokemon you could have already caught by the time you get to Cerulean that you could use against Lt. Surge, such as Sandslash, Arbok, Golbat, and Parasect.
The key about this idea is that since pokemon that evolve earlier are typically stronger at that level but weaker in general, the best time to use a pokemon is soon after it's fully evolved.
One of the reasons people start using the Nuzlocke rules was that it was supposed to force them to use pokemon they normally wouldn't think much about. I think that this puts a more interesting take on that, especially if you combine it with other rules. For example, if you treat gyms like dungeons, in which you must complete the entire thing in one go and blacking out is considered a game over, you could add a rule that forbids you from using one pokemon across multiple gyms, or forbids you from using it at all after the gym. So, if you happen to solo Brock's gym with Butterfree, you could save Beedrill for a future gym.
This might get more interesting if you add the fainting = death rule from Nuzlocke at the same time. In this case, it might be wise to allow the pokemon to still be used outside of gyms after they are used in one. So, the lifecycle of a pokemon would go: getting caught, trained to full evolution, used in gym fight, held in reserve for journey to next gym, and then retired before the next gym fight, assuming no early death.
Any thoughts about this? Ways to improve the idea?
