The many protagonists in the world of Pokemon are often considered to share many similar physical traits, leading one fan of the series to suggest a few ways that character customization could be greatly expanded on in future titles. Ever since the first games in the Pokemon franchise, players have had to step into the shoes of some particularly young characters - and while customization options have only appeared in the franchise relatively recently, many fans believe that such options need greater depth.
Though the protagonists of each generation certainly have their own distinct look, only those from the Generation 6 games and onwards could have their outfits, hairstyles, and skin colors customized to the player's liking. Players of the original Pokemon Red and Blue games didn't even have the option of playing as a girl, with the series' first female protagonist being introduced in Pokemon Crystal. While character customization has had a lot more depth added to it in some of the newer core-series Pokemon games, one common factor between every protagonist in the series has been their fairly young age, with most of these Pokemon Trainers being roughly between the ages of 11 and 16.
Understandably, the younger ages of Pokemon's protagonists often makes it difficult for players of older ages to relate to them. This prompted a fan known as LegoshixHaru64209 on Reddit to discuss with the community the possibility of future games allowing players to customize the age of the protagonists that they play as. Not only that, they also put forth the idea of choosing the player character's body type, a feature that has somewhat been present in various Pokemon side-series games. These ideas quickly become popular among members of the community, with many suggesting their own ideas of how player characters could have different heights to choose from to better represent varying ages.
Do you think Pokemon game character customization should allow age differences? Like letting you start your game at anywhere from 8 to 20? frompokemon
While enhanced customization options would no doubt be greatly appreciated by a massive portion of players, they would likely create some interesting challenges for the developers. One of the key reasons Pokemon protagonists are as young as they are is because people in the Pokemon world generally obtain their first Pokemon at a young age, so it could be considered unusual for adult characters not to be living with their own partner Pokemon. Variable age for protagonists would likely also impact the way they interact with the other rival NPC characters in the games, who are typically of a young age as well.
That said, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet certainly proved that the idea of older protagonists could be plausible, as several adult Academy students can be found throughout the games. Still, with many fans upset with the step backwards that Scarlet and Violet have taken with customization, it seems unlikely that future games will have character creation features to rival those seen in other popular RPGs anytime soon.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available on Nintendo Switch.
