>>58905415I'm not the biggest Zelda fan, although that's mostly because my first Zelda was, well, the first Zelda (good old Hyrule Fantasy) and none of the games after even remotly scratched that same itch (the Switch titles come close but the lack of good map design outside of Echoes of Wisdowm holds most of them back a lot). Still I like the Game Boy titles and Majora's Mask a lot, and Wind Waker is a vibe even though it's cut quite short and is easy even for a fairly easy series like Zelda. Really the only one I played a lot and outright dislike is Link to the Past but that's mostly down to personal taste and I've got oddly specific taste. Regardless, while looking to other video games is useful (even subconsciously), sometimes it's worth thinking about something new that can be done. What exactly that is in the context of Pokemon and in particular gym leaders isn't exactly easy, the limited design space combined with fairly common puzzles between them means there's not a ton of room to innovate in any meaningful way, plus fairy as a type isn't the best for novel combat encounter design. Misty Terrain to prevent self status effects is maybe a few too many steps for a player to even encounter before they sweep a team, so I dunno. This isn't even getting into the stage of the game the encounter is in where a gym leader could have anywhere from 2 to 5 Pokemon unless you stick with the modern design of only 3 Pokemon. Regardless, there's a lot of things to consider and unfortunately I think way too much about game design.
