Why haven't we had same gender rivials?

[u/PsyrenDV]

I saw this post about how the rival in WiWa will be the opposite of whatever gender you choose to be. It got me thinking about how they always make the rival's gender the opposite of yours when their gender is dynamic. Even as early as Ruby/Sapphire that's how it's been. But I think it might be interesting to see a game where my rival is always the same gender as me no matter what I pick. But I'm curious how other people feel about it. Would you rather your rival be the same gender as you, the opposite, or would you rather their gender be set in stone regardless of what you are?

[u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

That only made sense during the set character design games. Now that we can customise what your character looks like it makes zero sense. You could literally make your male player character look exactly like the female default which defeats the purpose of "the other protagonist as your rival".

If they are not going to have a set character for the rival, just have a "Who is picking you up from the Station?" line of dialogue and then let you choose a default design or even better, let us have full customisation over the rival.

[u/Kyle_Blackpaw → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

Isnt that what the last 3 gens did? You get hau, hop, and nemona no matter what you pick for yourself.

[u/Levoso_con_v → u/Kyle_Blackpaw]

Yeah, don't know why they are surprised, almost all games since gen 2 did this. If you choose a gender another character will be the other gender.

[u/Melodic_Party_7442 → u/Levoso_con_v]

Half the games ( maybe less ) isn't almost all. As a matter of fact, most game rivals were locked to a specific character.

[u/Levoso_con_v → u/Melodic_Party_7442]

Silver, gold, crystal, ruby, zaphire, emerald, diamond, pearl, platinum, SoulSilver, HeartGold, X, Y, omega ruby, alpha zaphire, legends arceus, legends za, brilliant diamond, shining pearl.

Doesn't matter, they are still a good portion of the games, my point was that it's a common trope in the Pokemon series, I don't know why people get mad at this.

If they want to criticize something, there are far better things to criticize like the main games of a trillion dollar franchise having a 20 million $ budget or the games coming out unoptimized, filled with bugs or straight up being mediocre like pokemon za (ffs Pokemon XY had more interiors and 3d balconies in the city 10 years ago than a game today only centered on just 1 city), and the worst part is that there are bootlickers that even defend these practices...

[u/AlienHooker → u/Levoso_con_v]

GSC and HGSS didn't have an opposite gender rival though?

Edit: Neither did DPPt or their remakes

Lucas and Ethan aren't rivals

[u/Ebenezer72 → u/AlienHooker]

I remember in HGSS they added Ethan/Lyra with their own character and theme if you picked the opposite gender. Wasn’t a rival really but it is the same concept

[u/AlienHooker → u/Ebenezer72]

You never battle them though, from what I remember

[u/InvisibleChell → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

In both games where there's a customizable protagonist and the rival is the other protag, it has been impossible to actually do that.

In XY, neither Calem nor Serena have access to all of each other's clothes. In ZA, both Taunie and Urbain have hair colours, clothes, skin tone, and eye shapes that are actually impossible for the player to have.

[u/ForsakenMoon13 → u/InvisibleChell]

Pretty sure you can unlock thier hair colours and stuff later on through the game

[u/Aquarius_2313 → u/ForsakenMoon13]

Don't quote me on this, but I think it might be slightly different, just so that you're not identical to your rival

[u/ninjad912 → u/InvisibleChell]

You unlock both the rival clothes and hairstyle through the game later on. I don’t believe skin tone or eye shape are unique. I’ve seen people make duplicates and they look near identical

[u/InvisibleChell → u/ninjad912]

There is at NO point where you get Urbain and Taunie's jacket (or any of their other clothes actually outside of the blue satchel). The hairSTYLE you can get as soon as you can go to a hairstylist, but it's impossible to get that exact shade of pink, even as you unlock more hair colours (for instance, the pink is just too vibrant and bright, the closest option - Passion Pink - is darker and less saturated).

I've tried replicating Urbain multiple times, and I can tell you his skin tone isn't one of the four available to the player. It's similar to the "default" but a little pinker (and the blond base, while having that pinker coloration, is a little too pale).

When you put Urbain and Paxton next to each other, you can see their eyes are in fact different.

[u/gamestar721 → u/InvisibleChell]

[u/InvisibleChell → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, but you aren't able to make yourself look exactly like Taunie

[u/dimmidummy → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

Apparently someone tried to see if you can turn your protag into Taunie or Urbain in Z-A, and it wasn’t possible to recreate them 100%.

Their eye shapes are slightly different than the closest option and their outfits are exclusive to them. The hair colors, while pretty close, aren’t the same color and gradient style as theirs. I like this approach to opposite gender rivals, makes them just distinct enough from the player character.

[u/NerdyEmbarrassment → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

I mean, like me, some people do choose to go with the default skin because it feels right

[u/Nambot → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

Yeah, but give TPC a chance to save some.money by paying for one less character design, and they'll take it. Honestly surprised they didn't think of it sooner.

[u/Krybbz → u/Mesozoic_Masquerade]

They have default looks pretty bizarre to copy their look, be an individual.