>>42252258Turn the opposite gender protag into a full-blown partner character similar to PMD/HGSS, with an enourmous pool of possible interactions ranging from simply commenting on your surroundings to hanging out and dating. Encourage the player to interact with him or her through the series of various rewards such as different dialogue depending on your relationship, free item gifts and maybe even bonus EXP or EV rewards at the end of pokemon battles.
The two of you share a party of 6 pokemon and are considered a single entity in battle like the twins were in Gen 2 so that the core gameplay remains the same and he/she doesn't function like an annoying burden NPC that constantly triggers double battles and forces the player to rely on braindead AI.
