Welcome to part 3 of my Fanboys Fix It of Pokemon Generation I.
As mentioned before, this was sponsored by Guest Five's donation on Patreon via the Pick Your Poison tier (donate today if you want to request a special feature of your own)
Part 1 was the general setup and information about items, HMs, how Pokemon can evolve and more. Part 2 was the new Pokedex. To wrap things up here in part 3, I'll be talking about all the story elements including how I would reformat the trainers you battle throughout the game.
This part is a bit of a mess. My apologies.
Move Changes
I didn't really have another spot to put this, but for battling purposes, some moves that I didn't mention in part 1 are changed, as they don't make a lot of sense in the context of this rewrite.
- There aren't any Dark or Steel moves in Gen 1, nor any real Ghost or Dragon moves, so we need to add more. Just take some from later games and insert them.
- We don't need Absorb, Mega Drain and Leech Life (especially not with Giga Drain coming later).
- Splash is renamed Flop. It's Hop in Japanese and that's why Pokemon without the Water type can learn it. Splash makes no sense. Nor does Hop, cause fish don't do that, but they do flop, and non-fish can flop.
- Confuse Ray is Psychic now because logic.
- Dragon Rage shouldn't do 40 all the time. Obviously, as mentioned, there should be more Dragon moves, but even still, that doesn't make sense to me. Dragon Rage should be something like Drill Peck, Wing Attack, Egg Bomb...just something that's strong when it hits. Maybe, it can have a secondary effect, but I'm not sure what.
- Why do we have both Self-Destruct and Explosion? They're exactly the same. Explosion should be a Fire move that has a chance to burn the opponent along with the damage and instead of fully fainting the user, it takes out half their HP.
- Fury Attack and Fury Swipes are way too similar. Get rid of Fury Swipes.
- Glare is Dark, maybe.
- Why is Mirror Move a Flying attack? It should be Normal.
- Why is Razor Wind a Normal attack? It should be Flying.
- Night Shade shouldn't be based on the level.
- Rest should be Normal instead of Psychic.
- We don't need Spore and Sleep Powder, especially with both being Grass.
Basic Story Progression Changes
- You have 2 rivals. One of them (hereby called Blue) picks the starter that is better than you and the other (hereby called Green) picks the worse one because they arrive later than the other two and are perpetually running behind. What a loser. The characters are a girl and a boy by default no matter what you pick for your own gender.
- There aren't 8 gyms. Instead, you need a badge for EVERY TYPE in order to get into the Indigo Plateau to challenge for the champion's spot.
- These badges are obtained through Gym Leaders as well as Ace Trainers found throughout the region that all specialize in a type.
- The Elite 3 (not Elite 4) specialize in "themes" of Pokemon, but not specific types. The champion is random.
- Each Ace Trainer or Gym Leader uses a team based on your level as a trainer. The higher you are, the tougher they are. You can revisit them once you've become champion and they'll have their strongest teams, which I'll break down below.
- You have to beat your weaker rival before facing the Elite 3, and your stronger rival is the champion. However, they aren't the last fight in the game.
- Once you become the champion, you get access to the area where Mewtwo is. Maybe it's Cerulean Cave, or maybe I've created a new spot. I don't know. But now, you can catch the strongest Pokemon in the game.
- Once you catch all 200 Pokemon and completed the Pokedex, your final battle is Professor Oak, who uses all level 100 Pokemon. If you beat him, you prove to him that you're worthy of having Mew, which he had all along, as he had saved Mew from the cloning experiments.
Smaller Miscellaneous Story Changes
- Bill doesn't give you the S.S. Anne ticket. Instead, he gives you an Eevee. I'm not sure how I'd change it so you get to the S.S. Anne, but...
- Why isn't the S.S. Anne where you learn the ability to surf, rather than the cut one? It seems like that's a better spot to come across someone who knows how to navigate water.
- Voodoll is in the Lavendar Town story in the tower, rather than Cubone. You have to free it from its curse.
- Pokemon Mansion isn't a mansion. Why is it a mansion? That makes no sense. Instead, it's a laboratory that is inside a volcano on Cinnabar, which is why they were able to get away with these experiments, much like the lair in a James Bond movie (You Only Live Twice, for the record).
- Marsh and Soul are swapped. Marsh is what you get from beating the Grass leader and Soul is from the Psychic leader.
- Switch up those repetitive trainers. How many people do you need to fight that just have a Caterpie or something? Instead, let's have more themes or variety. Someone should have a double battle of a Miltank and a Taurox, for instance. Someone has all the Eevee variations. So on and so forth.
Event Pokemon
Aerodactyl = one of the fossils you can pick from
Articuno = Seafoam Island
Eevee = given to you by Bill
Hitmontyke = gifted to you in the Fighting Dojo
Mew = gifted to you by Professor Oak when you beat him
Mewtwo = Unknown Dungeon (not sure where I'd place that in the game)
Moltres = Cinnabar Volcano
Scorpsean = one of the fossils you can pick from
Snorlax = blocking your way to one of the towns; it doesn't matter which
Tangulb = a blockade growth that you have to cut down, like Sudowoodo, maybe
Zapdos = Power Plant
I'd love to make some exclusive to regions like Safari Zone, Viridian Forest and S.S. Anne, but I'm not sure what.
I'd also like to make Porygon, Emimime, Yukiona, Jynx, Voodoll and Ditto events, but they don't have to be. Ditto could just be found in the lab, Voodoll could be found in Lavendar and so forth. Porygon, above all, I would like to see as an event, but I don't know where.
The Gym Leader / Ace Trainer Team Breakdown
I haven't fully figured out this concept, but the idea would be that you need a badge for every type, so you need to come across some sort of specialist (or Ace Trainer) that can certify you as being able to beat them.
This changes the structure of the gyms, and I wouldn't want to get rid of those entirely, but I do think it's a little strange for there to just be multiple gyms in every town. Instead, some of these would be random encounters to pass to another location and such.
I don't have all of the ideas set in stone, and you can definitely tell that I don't have all the Pokemon picked for what their original teams would be, or what their final teams would be. However, the concept is that the game isn't as linear as it originally was, and that you can battle them once with a weaker team (depending on the # of badges you have) and then another time with their strongest team, which you can rebattle over and over like the Indigo Plateau.
For the ones that have more than 6 options, I'd have a committee of people working on the game help me pick and choose what would make the best variety, but I try to have my own suggestions for each.
This isn't in order of when you'd come across them in the game. It's in alphabetical order for the types.
Ace Bug Catcher's Team: Bug
- Battled in Viridian Forest.
- Caterpie → Kakuna → Butterfree (Bug / Flying)
- Combee → Waspod → Thornet (Bug / Poison)
- Parasect → Parazytik → Parazombi (Bug / Grass, Poison, Ghost)
- Seaxor → Scizor → Scyther (Bug / Steel)
- Weetle → Scarabeat → Heraclash (Bug / Fighting)
- Porygon (Bug) = computer virus
Giovanni's Team: Dark
- Battle is at Cinnabar Laboratory.
- Spearow → Drearow → Fearkrow (Flying / Dark)
- Rattata → Ratched → Raticate (Normal / Dark)
- Rabbid → Rabbeast → Rabbutcher (Dark / *)
- Kongbatt → Guorilla → Primeape (Fighting / Dark)
- Jynx (Fairy / Dark)
- Gengar (Ghost / Dark)
Other options:
- Slahknir (Poison / Dark)
- Zubat → Golbat → Crobat (Poison / Dark)
Gloom → Vileplume (Grass / Dark)Blindig→ Shrewlunk → ??? (Ground / Dark)- Yukiona (Ice / Dark)
- or maybe a bunch of versions of Rabbutcher
Lance's Team: Dragon
- To be honest, I don't know where I'd put Lance in the game for his location and what his purpose would be. Most likely Victory Road.
- Charizard (Fire / Dragon)
Rabbutcher (Dark / Dragon)- Slahknir (Poison / Dragon)
- Onix line (Ground / Dragon)
- Rhydon (Rock / Dragon)
- Seadra (Water / Dragon)
- Searpent → Skullkraken (Water / Dragon)
- Nessio → Lokness → Loknessaur (Ice / Dragon)
- Aerodactyl (Rock / Dragon or Dragon / Flying)
- Dratini → Dragonair → Dragonite (Dragon / Flying)
Lt. Surge's Team: Electric
- Let's not call him "The Lightning American" as that makes no sense in the context of this world.
- Pichu → Pikachu → Raicho (Electric)
- Magnemite → Magnemate → Magneton (Electric / Steel)
- Elekid → Electabuzz → Electiger (Electric / Fighting)
- Laampeep → Baattery → Acedesheep (Electric / Fairy)
- Porygon (Electric)
- Jolteon (Electric)
Ace Beauty's Team: Fairy
- Battled at the Celadon department store.
- Cleffa → Clefairy → Clefable (Fairy)
- Foxtot → Vulpix → Ninetales (Fire / Fairy)
- Bellsprout → Bellossum (Grass / Fairy)
- Ponyta → Unequurn → Pegasteed (Fairy / Flying)
- Togepi → Togetic → Chansey (Normal / Fairy)
- Golppy line (Water / Fairy)
- Jynx (Fairy / Dark)
- Laampeep → Baattery → Acedesheep (Electric / Fairy)
Other options:
Yukiona (if it's Ice / Fairy)
Ace Black Belt's Team: Fighting
- Battled at Fighting Dojo. I loved that in the original game as some defunct gym that Sabrina had booted out. That's kind of how I wanted to expand on this in my reboot.
- Bigglybuff (Normal / Fighting)
- Kongbatt → Guorilla → Primeape (Fighting / Normal or Fighting / Dark) * possibly both variants
- Machump → Machop → Machamp (Fighting)
- Cubone → Marowak → Kangaskhan (Fighting / Ground)
- Hitmontyke → Hitmonlee (Fighting)
- Hitmontyke → Hitmonchan (Fighting)
- Weetle → Scarabeat → Heraclash (Bug / Fighting)
Other options:
- Rabbutcher (Normal or Dark / Fighting)
- Geodude → Graveler → Golum
- Krabrawler (Water / Fighting)
- Elekid → Electabuzz → Electiger (Electric / Fighting)
Blaine's Team: Fire
- Foxtot → Vulpix → Ninetales (Fire / Fairy)
- Puppyre → Growlava/Growlcano → Volcanine (Fire)
- Coalt → Torchorse → Charriot (Fire / Steel)
- Magby → Magmar → Magmortar (Fire)
- Flareon (Fire)
- Porygon (Fire)
Faulkner's Team: Flying
- This guy is either free-roam with no set location that you come across randomly as he's flying around, or, more likely, he's the person you have to battle to get access to the Power Planet, which would have a windmill on it.
- He's the one who tells you about the legendary birds.
- Butterfree (Bug / Flying)
- Pidgey → Pidgeotto → Pidgeot (Flying)
- Spearow → Drearow → Fearkrow (Flying / Dark)
- Zubat → Golbat → Crobat (Poison / Dark)
- Pegasteed (Fairy / Flying)
- Fowlott (Flying / Grass)
- Dodumbo (Normal / Flying) if that item is a thing
- Koffing → Weezing → Choaking (Poison / Flying)
- Searpent → Skullkraken (Water / Flying) if that item is a thing
- Aerodactyl (Rock / Flying)
- Dragonite (Dragon / Flying)
Mr. Fuji's Team: Ghost
- Parazombi (Bug / Ghost)
- Gastly → Haunter → Gengar (Ghost / Dark)
- Phantorb or whtaever I'm calling the Pokeball thing (Ghost / Steel)
- Voodoll (Ghost / Psychic)
- Baansheep line (Ghost)
- Porygon (Ghost) = reference to "ghost in the machine"
- Yukiona (Ice / Ghost) = if that typing, it replaces Parazombi most likely
Erika's Team: Grass
- Oddish → Gloom → Vileplume (Grass / Dark)
- Oddish → Bellsprout → Bellossum (Grass / Fairy)
- Parasect (Bug / Grass) -- she tosses it when it stops being Grass and replaces it with Leafeon for her final team
- Fowlott (Flying / Grass)
- Exeggutor line (Grass / Psychic)
- Tangulb → Tangulbush → Tangulweed (Grass)
- Leafeon (Grass)
Ace Ground Team: Ground
- Battled at Rock Tunnel.
- Armadig → Pangarmy → Armordrillo (Ground / Steel)
- Blindig → Shrewlunk → ??? (Ground or Ground / Dark)
- Dodumbo (Normal / Ground)
- Mukrud (Poison / Ground)
- Onix line (Ground / *)
- Cubone → Marowak → Kangaskhan (Fighting / Ground)
- Tangulweed (Grass / Ground)
- Scorpsean (Water / Ground)
Ace Sherpa's Team: Ice
- This is someone you have to battle to get access to Seafoam Island.
- Armordrillo (Ice / Steel)
- Narwhale (Water / Ice)
- Shellder → Clamperl → Cloyster (Water / Ice)
- Onix line (Ice / Ground)
- Yukiona (Ice / *)
- Nessio → Lokness → Loknessaur (Ice / Dragon)
Other options:
- Geodude → Graveler → Golum (Ice or Ice / Fighting)
- Rabbutcher (Dark / Ice)
- Aerodactyl (Ice / Flying) if that's in the game
Bill's Team: Normal
- He's another professor, of sorts, who has worked with Oak. He specializes in Normal type because it's the most foundational category to judge everything off from.
- You get Eevee from him, or maybe his assistant and that person has all the variations.
- I considered giving him the Voltorb remake, as he's the one who created the storage system and you'd think he'd be into the Pokeball Pokemon, but Ghost / Steel is already covered in other trainers.
- Lickitung (Normal)
- Ditto (Normal)
- Eevee (Normal)
- Porygon (Normal)
- Snorlax (Normal)
- ???
Other options:
- Luckitty → Meowth → Purrsian (Normal)
- Miltank (Normal)
- Taurox (Normal)
Rattata → Ratched → Raticate (Normal / Dark)Jigglypuff → Wigglytuff → Bigglybuff (Normal / Fighting)Emimime (Normal / Psychic)Dodumbo (Normal / Ground or Flying)Kongbatt → Guorilla → Primeape (Fighting / Normal)Togepi → Togetic → Chansey (Normal / Fairy)
Koga's Team: Poison
- I dig the poison ninja vibe.
- Rabbutcher (Dark / Poison)
- Ekans → Arbok → Slahknir (Poison / *)
- Zubat → Golbat → Crobat (Poison / Dark)
- Parazytik (Bug / Poison)
- Grimer → Slimess → Mukrud (Poison / Ground)
- Koffing → Weezing → Choaking (Poison / Flying)
Other options:
- Combee → Waspod → Thornet (Bug / Poison)
- Tentacool → Tentacull → Tentacruel (Water / Poison)
- Porygon (Poison)
Sabrina's Team: Psychic
- Abra → Kadabra → Alakazam (Psychic)
- Drowzee → Sleepir → Hypno (Psychic)
- Emimime (Normal / Psychic)
- Voodoll (Ghost / Psychic)
- Porygon (Psychic)
- ???
Other options:
- Golduck → Heduacke → Psyquack (Water / Psychic)
- Exeggutor line (Grass / Psychic)
- Staryu → Starmie → Starwei (Water / Psychic)
Brock's Team: Rock
- Rabbutcher (Rock / Dark)
- Geodude → Graveler → Golum (Rock / Fighting)
- Shellder → Clamperl → Cloyster (Water / Rock)
- Onix line (Rock / Ground)
- Rhynorn → Rhyhorn → Rhydon (Rock / Dragon)
- Aerodactyl (Rock / Flying or Rock / Dragon)
Silph Co Engineer's Team: Steel
- Someone you save from Team Rocket that you can battle afterward in Silph Co.
- I considered making this person a steelworker and putting them at the Power Plant, but I changed that thing's direction. Plus, it's good to give Silph Co a purpose in the post-game.
- I wanted to make this tech-based, but there aren't that many technological Pokemon and even less that fit that bill and are Steel type.
- Magneton line (Electric / Steel)
- Porygon (Steel)
- Phantorb (Ghost / Steel)
- Armordrillo line (Ground / Steel)
- Rabbutcher (Dark / Steel)
- ???
Other options:
- Golum line (Steel / Fighting maybe)
- Cloyster line (Water / Steel)
- Scyther line (Bug / Steel)
Misty's Team: Water
- Poliwag → Poliwhirl → Poliwave (Water)
- Vaporeon (Water)
- Tentacool → Tentacull → Tentacruel (Water / Poison)
- Krabby → Kingler → Krabrawler (Water / Fighting)
- Golduck → Heduacke → Psyquack (Water / Psychic)
- ???
Other options:
- Narwhale line (Water / Ice)
- Shellder → Clamperl → Cloyster (Water / Rock, Ice or Steel)
- Horsea → Seaddle → Seadra (Water / Dragon)
- Golppy line (Water / Fairy)
- Staryu → Starmie → Starwei (Water / Psychic)
- Magikarp → Searpent → Skullkraken (Water / Dragon)
- Scorpsean (Water / Ground)
The Elite 3 / Champion / Rivals / Final Boss
Again, it's the Elite 3, not Elite 4, because I want to have these trainers be representational of the other "types" of Pokemon in that some people view them as cute, some are freaky and some are warriors.
The Elite 3 have no set type they use, just themes based on appearance.
The Elite Three are as follows:
Lorelei's Team: Cute or Pretty Pokemon (to symbolize collecting friends)
Options:
- Butterfree
- Clefable
- Ninetails
- Bellossum
- Purrsian
- Pegasteed
- Narwhale
- Chansey
- third evo of the goldfish
- Miltank
- Acedesheep
Agatha's Team: Scary or Creepy Pokemon (maybe even ugly, monstrous to symbolize how they're monsters)
Options:
- Fearkrow
- Raticate
- Slahknir
- Crobat
- Vileplume
- Parazombi
- Tentacruel
- Mukrud
- Gengar
- Hypno
- Choaking/Suffokating
- Emimime
- Jynx
Bruno's Team: Tough or Warrior Pokemon (to symbolize battling)
Options:
- Rabbutcher
- Armordrillo
- Primeape
- Machamp
- Golum
- Cloyster
- Onix's 3rd evo
- Krabrawler
- Hitmonlee
- Hitmonchan
- Rhydon
- Scyther
- Heraclash
- Electiger
- Taurox
Champion / Rivals
I love the idea of Red, Green and Blue from Let's Go having their own set teams. Originally, I wanted to set up a team layout like that, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it.
Instead, for now, I'll just say that in general, your rivals have this basic kind of layout:
- Grass = Venusaur or alternative
- Fire = Charizard or alternative
- Water = Blastoise or alternative
- Psychic / Fighting / Dark / Ghost / Fairy
- Electric / Ground / Flying
- Normal
For instance, Blue always has either Blastoise or Gyarados, Venusaur or Exeggutor, and so on. In Let's Go, they took this a step further by having Red have Machamp, Blue has Alakazam and Green has Gengar so they form another trio. So on and so forth. I don't know exactly what these picks should be, though. But maybe something like the following....
Blue (male rival)
- Venusaur (Grass / Poison) or Exeggution (Grass / Psychic)
- Charizard (Fire / Dragon or Flying) or Charriot (Fire / Steel) or Volcanine (Fire) or Magmortar (Fire)
-
Blastoise (Water / Steel) or Skullkraken (Water / Dragon) or Cloyster (Water / Rock)
- Onix third evo (Ground / *)
-
Electiger (Electric / Fighting)
- Lickitung (Normal)
Green (female rival)
-
Venusaur (Grass / Poison) or Tangulweed (Grass / Ground)
-
Charizard (Fire / Dragon) or Ninetails (Fire / Fairy)
-
Blastoise (Water / Steel) or Psyquack (Water / Psychic)
-
Jynx (Fairy / Dark)
-
Rushawk (Flying)
-
Purrsian (Normal)
Final Boss Professor Oak
Reminder, once you've become the champion and you've caught all Pokemon, you can challenge the final boss, which is Professor Oak. If you beat him, he gives you Mew.
Oak's Team:
- I kind of wanted to give him Pokemon that were either things I could see old people using, or science themed.
- I also figured he could be a good "well-rounded" trainer.
- I considered that he could be more on the "legendary" side of things.
Options include:
- Mew = After he gives it to you, he replaces it with Alakazam (or maybe Hypno or Emimime)
- Raichu or Magneton
- Clefable or Dragonite
- Bigglybuff
- Primeape or Machamp or Heraclash
- Volcanine
- Poliwave
- Phantorb or Porygon
- Kangaskhan or Rhydon (reference to how Rhydon was the first Pokemon)
- Taurox or Snorlax
My philosophy is that Mew is his big secret all along. He didn't want to give it to anyone he couldn't trust to fulfill all the aspects of being a Pokemon trainer, from being the champion to completing the Pokedex and treating everything with compassion and whatnot. Since you've proven that by also beating him, he gives it to you and replaces it with Alakazam, which is one of Blue's trademarks.
Raichu is a reference to how he's your mentor and he has the mascot's final form. On a similar note, Rhydon would make sense for a reference to being the first Pokemon, but since my Rhydon is a third form and not the true Rhydon, I think Poliwave is better for that spot, as Poliwag was Red's starter in some media. Plus, that gives him Water type coverage.
Tauros has been a go-to for Blue and Red in the past, as well as one that Oak used on his original Gen 1 team. It's a generic Pokemon that is bulky and well-rounded.
Phantorb and Porygon are references to how he's a scientist. Since he's more of a Pokemon expert, Phantorb makes the most sense as the Pokeball gimmick.
Finally, Dragonite is mostly just a power play to show Oak's been around long enough to have come across, caught and trained powerful dragons. If you wanted to, you could replace that with Clefable for being somewhat mythical and it isn't used as much. That way, Dragonite is more of Lance's ace.
That's it! That's the insanity of notes that I have down for how I would be approaching a full-on reboot of the first generation of Pokemon games, if I had the benefit of hindsight and no other people working on this game to keep me from flying off the handle and going into too crazy directions.
Obviously, this is a bit of a mess, but this is an insight into how detailed my notes for such random topics can be. Just imagine what I have for my "superhero blueprint" concepts for The Complete Batman Story and so on!
If you'd like to see more of this, be it the rejected ideas of other Pokemon that I had (like a water buffalo named Buffloat), let me know and consider donating to the Patreon to specifically request something like that!
What do you think of these ideas?
How would you remake Pokemon Generation I?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
