Pokemon fan’s Gym scaling and rematch concept praised by players
The Pokemon CompanyOne Pokemon fan created a detailed concept for how Gym Leader scaling could work in the Pokemon series and fans loved it.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will be the first Pokemon game where trainers can freely challenge any Gym in whatever order they like.
However, many Pokemon fans have speculated that Scarlet & Violet’s Gym Leaders won’t have scalable teams with dynamic levels.
Now, one trainer created an in-depth concept surrounding how Gym scaling and rematches could work and used the Kanto region as a base.
Pokemon fan creates Gym scaling concept
The concept comes from the Pokemon subreddit where user I_Am_The_Bookwyrm created eight dynamic teams for each of Kanto’s Gym Leaders.
For example, Brock is always the first Gym Leader players battle on their journey through Kanto, and will always use a level 12 Geodude and a level 14 Onix.
However, this fan concept reimagines Brock’s team while keeping it in line with Kanto’s Pokedex. After one bade, Brock could theoretically have his same Geodude and Onix, but add either Omanyte or Kabuto to his team.
At four Gym badges, Brock’s team could consist of the unchose Fossil Pokemon, a Rhydon, a Graveler instead of Geodude, and Onix.
The concept stays consistent throughout each of the remaining seven Gym Leaders, with each having evolving teams depending on player progress.
The fan concept blew up on the subreddit and garnered over 38,000 upvotes and over 1,000 comments from fans praising the idea and giving their thoughts on it.
“This is great. Would love a remastered Gen I with adjustable difficulty and revamped “open-worldness” allowing the player to beat the trainers and gym leaders in any order and rematch gym leaders against progressively more difficult teams,” said user trim_gennaker.
Another fan praised the concept but said early teams could still be powerful to make an impact. “Movesets can always be nerfed as well. Facing fully evolved aces early on tends to be more memorable for the player.”
Though it would certainly require a bit more balancing and development time, this fan concept goes a long way to prove that dynamic Gym Leaders and late-game rematches could work well in the mainline series.
Whether or not Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will adapt scalable Gym Leaders remains to be seen. For now, players will just have to wait and see when the game releases on November 18, 2022.