>>20511070An arcade battle system removes the entire conceit of what you, the player, are in the Pokemon world: a trainer.
Taking direct control of the Pokemon isn't the way to go. You'll notice in fact that even in the current games you aren't directly controlling your Pokemon, but giving them commands, which can in some cases be ignored or otherwise misconstrued when under condition effects. Taking direct control of your Pokemon shifts battles from a test of one's skill as a trainer to a test of one's skill as a fighting game aficionado. Have fun as the game becomes prey to frame timing, hitbox recognition, move exploits, and the like.
To stay true to the Pokemon format in an open world setting requires keeping a large element of agency in the hands of the Pokemon themselves. The best way to do that might see combat looking closer to Pokemon Stadium games, where the Pokemon themselves are controlled by individual AI affected by level, experience, nature, etc. and the player (see: Trainer) issues commands on the fly, such as attacks, pointing out targets (either Pokemon or environmental), as well as giving advice to guard or dodge when an enemy attacks.
Under this system, battles would be semi-real-time, and fairly fast-paced, with attacks undergoing timed cooldowns, where turns can be envisioned as a metronome, shifting back and forth between offense and defense for the two engaged parties, where failure to assign commands in time would result in a poor performance. A system like this would best keep to the principles of classic Pokemon, while still introducing more dynamic gameplay, where the player remains in the role of a Pokemon Trainer, and not the Pokemon themselves.
