>>26541502Basically this.
These guys have the right idea.
>>26535224>>26535321>>26535325>>26535595>>26535894>>26535899>>26541376The often repeated refrain of "not all Pokemon need to be competitively viable" is true, but Pokemon has also been dropping the ball on non-competitive mons being cool or useful in other ways. It can't just be a weird form change or variation, it should have some sort of intriguing story, lore, or single player mechanic to it. Using the Unown's as puzzle solving ciphers or needing certain sets to unlock stuff is cool. In many ways, it could function like a vague hard mode. You need a team of 6 spelling out a word, but you have to take them through a mini dungeon first to get to the place where they're used. Obviously, you'd need to balance things so it's not an absolute chore, but you get the basic idea.
The idea of needing to use them in a battle where the point isn't to win but communicate is interesting too. Helps switch up the "just beat the shit out of the legendary until it becomes your friend" thing. There's a number of ways the Unown, and other gimmick Pokemon, could be made more interesting without just making them better in normal battles. The series could use a little mixing up on that front. The last time something like that was introduced was with the Contests in Gen III, and even that was basically just battling by a different name (still sufficiently different to work, though).
