
Originally Posted by
Renewal
Social Links as stat boosts and the like could work, as they do help Persona fusion, but the problem would be who the Social Links are with. After all they're tailored to the main characters in the Persona games...
Oh! Perhaps Arcana (and so Social Links) could correspond to types? So much like NPCs in the Persona series, each player would choose a type to associate with. They'd thus be most powerful with Pokemon of their type, but can still use Pokemon of other types (much like the players in Persona 3/4 could still summon and fuse Personae of Arcana for which they hadn't yet established a Social Link). Social Linking could then be with other players, to improve compatibility with Pokemon of other types. Though that still leaves the mechanism for Social Links undecided...
EDIT: As for setting, perhaps a Dark Hour-style 'other world' would be better? Mirroring Persona 3, it would also establish the nature of the villains as perverting the order of the world in their quest for power, thus angering Arceus.
EDIT 2: Incidentally, this is partially inspired by the mechanics behind Pokemon Conquest, which I recently bought and have become obsessed with. Basically, each character can 'link' with any Pokemon and send them into battle; this link is rated on a scale from 0 to 100%. The higher the link, the stronger the bond and the stronger the Pokemon; however, each character can only form a perfect, 100% link with only one Pokemon family, though they can form lesser (80-90%) links with Pokemon of similar typing.
Moreover, the plot of Pokemon Conquest boils down to 'conquer the 17 nations of the region (each corresponding to one type) to awaken the creator Pokemon of the region.' That is, uniting all 17 types allows you to awaken Arceus. So, if we have the types mirror the Major Arcana, then just as the Arcana are described as the Fool's Journey which culminates in the totality of the World/Universe, collecting all the types allows one to awaken the power of the Legendary Pokemon.
And of course, while humans may know this, Arceus may not be exactly happy with them trying to accomplish it...
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