>>54001045All gyms should be level 50. If you're above level 50, you become level 50 for the battle only. AKA how online battles work.
You balance all the teams around level 50 and make them harder so that strategy from the gym leader's Pokémon matters way more than it does. Add an optional "difficulty" mode that makes all the gym leaders into double battles if you're into that.
Does this mean that you can tackle all the gyms at once instead of going through them in an order? Does it make the experience shorter? Yes to both. However, I feel like this puts a higher emphasis on the "alright, I'm going to explore the world and make a Pokémon team I really like so that I can be ready for the gym leaders and then the Elite Four!" which encourages way more exploration imo.
Team Star should be associated with side missions that NPCs give you in order to flesh them out more. These NPCs would probably be other students that are in trouble with Team Star, or who have had to deal with them. Clavell/Clive helps you out because he wants to help out his students. Other teachers should help you out too because it gets them more involved with the story. Maybe each Team Star boss was like "the favorite" of one specific teacher you have.
Titans are fine the way they are, but they should be way harder. Since it's a 2v1 battle with Arven fighting alongside you, I propose making them all basically double the level they current are lmao
