>>56631553The 8 gyms should be seen as an extended tutorial, teaching you the ins and outs of every mechanic the game has to offer
The Elite 4 and Champion should serve as your final exams, before the game opens up to battle facilities that expects you to know the ins and outs of all aspects of battles, aka the REAL game begins
I don't know if I'd remove the monotype theming of each gym, but I think each one should have a mechanical focus primarily
Let's say, in no particular order, each gym would focus on Abilities, Weather, Terrain, Status, Buffs/Debuffs, Switching(?), Type Advantage/STABs
Thats at least 7 gyms, and as an example, let's say the first gym taught the concept of basic RPS style combat, and the leader had something neat like Protean/Libero Sprigatito, Scorbunny, or Fraokie as Ace depending on your starter to really play with the idea of types and keep you on your toes as the final test of the gym
