>>39797147I'd quite like to see gyms made more of a side thing. Have them actually be semi-high level with full teams. So it is something you travelled back to do once you were more established. You could still introduce the gym leaders/elite 4/champion but have them doing stuff around their region. Introduce and hype them up so instead of knowing this guy for 5 minutes then destroying them it comes off like taking down a respected trainer. Always seemed dumb that you have a gym with level 10 pokemon, even with the whole gym leaders go easy on low level trainers theory.
Alternatively have a rookie league and a pro league. The rookie league is your normal through the game story. required gyms. pro league is post game needed to challenge the elite 4, who are actually a challenge so it comes off like you are actually facing the strongest in the region.
Either way would free up the story a bit.
