>>41627377Fuck you, dating totally works in pokemon. Even in the manga Ruby & Sapphire hooked up. They're just too afraid to lose the E rating on the mainline games. All they need to do is make the romance route "hidden" or have condition checks to unlock that children wouldn't be smart enough/bother to do.
>Rival still forces you to battle them to progress the main story, however you can find them throughout the game world at certain days/times, and if you interact with them outside of the forced story quest you get a few menu options>Menu options to talk>Menu options to ask to join party>Menu options to gift>Menu options to trade>Menu options to battle>Selecting the option to talk raises hidden friendship stat, which when at a certain level, unlocks love stats>Talking to rival gives you an idea what kind of gifts they like, where they want you to take them, what pokemon they want with a specific nature, etc.>Asking them to join party lets them follow you around and will allow for dual battles in the wild, etc.>Taking a followed companion to the correct location (from talk hints) raises love stat>Doing duo battles slightly raises love stat, however if you duo with them too many times in a row, etc. it'll lower love stat because they think you're using them (pleb filter for kids who want to easymode the game and will sabotage romance options)>Gifting the correct items will raise love stat, gifting the wrong items will lower it. Rival will also gift you items in return, higher love = better gift, lower love/friendship = shitty gifts like a regular potion when your team is in the 50s>Trading the correct mon raises love stat, trading wrong mon/wrong nature does not/lowers it.>End game love condition requires you to trade them their favorite pokemon, but it NEEDS to be shiny (another pleb filter)>Battling them repeatedly or too many times outside of story lowers love stat since they think you're mocking themThere, easy romance that kids avoid.
