>>48415579Sure, let's take it back to the routes.
Protagonist is the grandchild of a professor operating out of a secret lab in a tiny rural town. The prof is something of a bedroom scientist, a fanatic, and has been attempting to reverse engineer and homebrew a pokedex, along with various Silph, Devon and other large tech firms proprietary hardware / software.
Nobody knows the prof is doing this, apart from your cocky neighbour and rival. They're slightly older than the protag, kind and caring towards you around adults, but a jerk when nobody is looking. The prof is entrusting your rival with a pokemon, so they can go out, test the tech, and live their dream of becoming a pokemon champ as part of the reward! but! The protag stumbles upon this clandestine arrangement when the 3 starter pokemon escape from gramps basement – gramps is forced to reveal all, but doesn't totally trust the protag not to tell all (even though the protage never speaks, subtle gag) and spill the beans on their pirate tech practice, so allows you to choose a pokemon first and go out on the test tech quest yourself. The protag is a little younger than most kids would be starting their journeys but he figures you'll make it.
This detail could influence design choices, and be an excuse to have much larger routes - the world seems huge to this kid, so there would be plenty of hidden secrets and rewards for thorough players who explore every nook and cranny.
Gives a fresh spin on the classic premise and allow the game shine in the areas it does best.
