>>56773062I think Sugimori said it best with the whole "Pokémon has become too focused on the human characters" thing. When only Gen I existed, Gym Leaders were memorable because they had names, unique sprites, more dialogue than most other characters, used a special battle theme, had designated buildings, and served as in-game bosses. They weren't full on story characters excluding maybe Giovanni, rather they were notable characters in your story. Gen I is not a story about how Team Rocket tries to commit evil acts, it's a story about your growth, your adventure, your achievements, and everyone else is incidental or a minor supporting character. Gen I-IV are all like this to a degree. Yeah, the supporting characters began to get more material, there were incidentals that got more fleshed out through rematches or battle facilities, but it never stopped being your Stand By Me story. The significance of a father in a narrative is that his presence would overshadow the player. In the DP spec documents, there were supposed to be seven stat Trainers instead of the five we got, which were
>Young (Male/Female)>Same age (Male/Female)>Young adult (Male/Female)>Parent-age adult (Female)And it specifically says there's no male for the parent-age because it would give a bad impression if the child outclasses them. Perhaps it's why they're so hesitant to include the player's father, since it's about the player's journey. If the games are Stand By Me, the player is Gordie, and the father's shadow looms over you. It's only by running away from home that the boy can become a man.
Once the story started becoming more like a JRPG, it lost focus on the player.
