Every mainline Pokemon game has significant trainers with different personalities, including rivals, Gym Leaders, and Elite Four members. Many of them have one-note personalities when encountered, as they will often show up just long enough to engage in a single battle. However, Game Freak has helped some of these trainers stand out by giving them additional scenes or development through other characters. Pokemon Sword and Shield are going to give its significant trainers more development in the upcoming Crown Tundra DLC with an addition called Star Tournaments.
Star Tournaments were introduced during the Crown Tundra presentation on September 28. These special events are an expansion of the Champion Cups that let players have rematches with important trainers after completing the main story. Once the DLC releases on October 22, players will be able to team up with another trainer for two-on-two battles that promise to show "new sides" of different characters as they interact. That includes characters from the main game and those from both the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra expansions, for instance letting Champion Leon and his teacher, Dojo Master Mustard, fight together.
The important characters in Sword and Shield already stand out from most other games given the way they fit into the established Galar Region, which treats its Pokemon League similar to a real-world sports league. Offering them more development is a plus for fans of the games, but it also sets an interesting precedent for future titles. Specifically, remakes of Generation 5's Pokemon Black, White, and their sequels, which should follow the highly-anticipated Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes. After all, Black 2 and White 2 introduced possibly the greatest tribute to the series' many characters through a feature called the Pokemon World Tournament (PWT).
Pokemon's Gym System
To understand what makes the PWT special, one must first understand how the Pokemon League as an overarching concept creates a hierarchy of diverse characters. In the original Pokemon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, the Indigo League was established ostensibly as a series of boss checkpoints for players to clear as they progress through the RPG. Eight Gyms exist throughout the Kanto Region that test a player's ability to overcome specific typing. Once players can beat these eight trainers, they gain access to Indigo Plateau where the cream-of-the-crop Elite Four await.
All of these significant trainers only use one Pokemon type, and their personalities often correspond with them. For example, Koga the Poison-type Gym Leader is a shifty ninja, while Blaine the Fire-type Gym Leader is an eccentric, energetic old man who burns the midnight oil coming up with quiz questions. As the games went on, some of these characters would receive more development beyond these paper-thin facades.
Pokemon Gold and Silver let players revisit Kanto, where Koga has joined the Elite Four and left the Fuchsia City Gym to his daughter Janine. In the remakes Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, players can visit Elite Four member Lorelei's home to discover she's a doll-collecting fanatic. Most major Pokemon characters have a life outside of their jobs, as seen by characters like Johto Gym Leader Jasmine visiting the Sunyshore City Lighthouse in Diamond and Pearl. However, this is rarely more apparent than in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2.
The Pokemon World Tournament
In the two-year time skip between Pokemon Black and White and their sequels, Gym Leader and cowboy businessman Clay converts the Cold Storage facility south of Driftveil City into a tournament arena to encourage tourism. Once players complete the main story, they are able to unlock specialty tournaments featuring nearly every Gym Leader and League Champion from the first five generations of Pokemon games.
On the surface, this is a blatantly nostalgic gesture to fans. There is a huge amount of fanfare packed into the PWT, with every trainer bringing some of their signature Pokemon, as well as remixed versions of the battle music from their original games. However, the tournaments are presented like major celebrity gatherings in-universe, televised events reminiscent of the Oscars or a United Nations General Assembly. Evidence of this is presented during the player's first visit to the PWT arena amid the main story campaign, during which Virbank City's Gym Leader Roxie arrives and comments on wanting to compete against other powerful trainers.
Legacy of the Star Tournaments
Pokemon Sword and Shield's upcoming Star Tournaments are a great precedent for the idea of a PWT in which Gym Leaders and others from all across the world can team up and interact. In the original Black 2 and White 2, these tournaments were mostly fan service, with characters battling before getting shuffled off to bring in the next competitor. Three more Generations of Pokemon games have passed since then, and the expanding number of significant characters means there are a lot more points of overlapping interests.
One repeating motif among Gym Leaders, for example, is the idea of some serving double duty as overseers of a lighthouse. The aforementioned Jasmine and Sunyshore City's Volkner both live in port cities with lighthouses, as does Sword and Shield's Nessa from Hulbury. Nessa is also an in-universe fashion model, a trait she shares with Nimbasa City's Elesa, which also overlaps with characters like Kalos Champion Diantha — a notable actress and icon. These overlaps by personality create interesting potential partnerships for a more dynamic PWT.
The Pokemon Company has seemingly leaned into exploring its characters as of late. A music video released to celebrate the Crown Tundra DLC shows essentially every major character from the video game series together, like a love letter to fans. DeNA's mobile game Pokemon Masters EX thrives on introducing characters from across the Pokemon world and setting them up with strange, interesting combinations that create fun story beats.
However, Pokemon Masters is a mobile spin-off game. Despite its relatively successful first year, it by no means has the reach of a mainline Pokemon game, or even other less character-driven titles like Pokemon GO. That's why it would do the main developers well to remember they have a storied catalog of characters to draw upon if they remake Generation 5 — and don't cut the PWT like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire did Hoenn's Battle Frontier.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are available now on Nintendo Switch.