>>56470623I get what they were trying to do, but the execution was weak. Each friend was meant to be your rival in a specific way. Trevor was the pokedex completion guy, Shauna was the casual trainer who was nice to you, and Tierno was the weird themed team trainer, and Calem/Serena was the traditional trainer rival. But all the rivals sucked at what they were trying to achive, except maybe Calem/Serena. I think they should've just leaned into it more. Have Tierno capture more team members and kick your ass to show that themed teams don't have to suck, encouraging players to try stuff like that out more. Have Trevor compare dexes with you, and give the player rewards (like competetive battling items or some other good reward to have earlier than normal) for having caught more Pokemon than him. Have Shauna do more in-game trades besides the extra starter, where she gives the player access to things like Gengar or other trade evos. They could have had any of them tag along in a dungeon like the Sinnoh battle partners.
Instead, we got 4 kids that basically just felt like they were a bunch of aimless failures. They end up feeling like dead weight the whole game, and are easily kicked aside as rivals in battle.
