>>37189944Different anon here; jeez dude, chill out. This kind of mechanic wouldn’t have to be a universal “T-minus 2 days until your Garchompnleaves you forever” sort of deal. You could easily have a system where pokémon will “lock” into a friendship bond with you and never leave, such as by having been through certain kinds of battles/events with you, giving them special items, or putting them in a special (but finite) storage box.
Hell, having pokémon leave you could be limited to pre-elite four, or even early-game, and still spark off the game’s message in a non-obtrusive way. You probably aren’t going to miss the first Dex-filler Ratata you caught on your way to bulldoze through the first gym, and that’s the theme most of these other anons are trying to troubleshoot.
Plus, to expand on what
>>37189600 proposed with teleporting/summoning caught mons, maybe you could just have the current box box system, exactly as it is now, but explained in-game that each sprite for each boxed mon represents that creature’s summoning ID, and that the real creature just goes back to the wild while waiting on you.
Either way, it would be a nice way to tie together some of the themes GF tried to broach in BW with living among pokémon in harmony, and cherishing the ones you have; and you could easily have a couple of cop-outs built in to streamline convincing a pokémon to never leave you, sort of like how breeding and IV judges are implemented now.
Plus, for all we complain about how simple the storylines are, how cool would it be to face off against pokémon you abandoned with pokémon you raised into true partners? The league champ or villain boss could use maxed-out top evos of creatures you personally raised (which could be exploited to re-obtain from that character post-game). Or, even just let two mons on your team spar against each other for easy exp. like
>>37189904 said, without the concept of either of them leaving your team.
