Thread: Trainer Customization

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

We aren't ever going to get skin shifter because we have a set PC...

We've never had a set PC. That's why you can choose the name and gender. Gender is a slightly bigger difference than skin color, don't you think?
There's nothing to stop the games having generic player characters as the "canon" versions, much like Red/Brendan/May/Hilbert etc are the "canon" names, but they can still be changed.

With clothing options in mind I think it'd be neat if clothes gave in game bonuses much like armor in any other RPG. I'm not talking dramatic things like "catch rate increase -10%" but movement speed increases or something. We can see that skates will be added to the game, which may be a clothing option. If the game is being modeled after europe I can't see them ditching bikes all of the sudden. What about swim suits that increase the speed of surf or possibly something even like increases water type attacks (kind of a your pokemon is pumped cause it's not afraid to get you wet sort of thing lol).

Idk thoughts? I could take or leave the stat bonuses to outfits, I think it's just kind of fun.

Originally Posted by Bikini Miltank

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

We aren't ever going to get skin shifter because we have a set PC...

We've never had a set PC. That's why you can choose the name and gender. Gender is a slightly bigger difference than skin color, don't you think?
There's nothing to stop the games having generic player characters as the "canon" versions, much like Red/Brendan/May/Hilbert etc are the "canon" names, but they can still be changed.

err... Hilda/Hilbert are set PC'S... but changing the PC's race is nonsense... they aren't you really you which is why they have canon names... hair and clothing are great as they can be changed but changing the persons race is not needed...

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

err... Hilda/Hilbert are set PC'S... but changing the PC's race is nonsense... they aren't you really you which is why they have canon names... hair and clothing are great as they can be changed but changing the persons race is not needed...

If they are set PCs, then why is it we can change their names? Why is it that we can change which one of them is the protagonist? Hell, we can even change their backgrounds: whichever one you choose lives in the house in the starting town. Whichever one you choose has the mother who lives in the house in the starting town. If they're set characters then why can I change which one of them has that particular mother?
You're also ignoring the fact that a nascent character customization system already exists: since Gen IV we've been able to choose from a bunch of trainer sprites when interacting with other games. Am I still playing a set PC when I have a scientist as my avatar? Would that change if the scientist had dark skin? I don't get why it's apparently okay to change a character's name and role in the story and even their mother, but changing their race oversteps some boundary.

Originally Posted by Bikini Miltank

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

err... Hilda/Hilbert are set PC'S... but changing the PC's race is nonsense... they aren't you really you which is why they have canon names... hair and clothing are great as they can be changed but changing the persons race is not needed...

If they are set PCs, then why is it we can change their names? Why is it that we can change which one of them is the protagonist? Hell, we can even change their backgrounds: whichever one you choose lives in the house in the starting town. Whichever one you choose has the mother who lives in the house in the starting town. If they're set characters then why can I change which one of them has that particular mother?
You're also ignoring the fact that a nascent character customization system already exists: since Gen IV we've been able to choose from a bunch of trainer sprites when interacting with other games. Am I still playing a set PC when I have a scientist as my avatar? Would that change if the scientist had dark skin? I don't get why it's apparently okay to change a character's name and role in the story and even their mother, but changing their race oversteps some boundary.

How can you change your role ingame? You play the same role no matter what... when I say set I mean a set look... changing clothes and hair style/color is great but skin is far too extreme... as others have pointed out it might cause unnecessary controversy (Lenora and Jynx) the skin thing is pointless but also possibly controversial... just not worth it...
I don't care what race the PC is but making a white character black or a black character white just screams racism imo...

What about two custom menus?

Like- Professor: Now, what do you look like?

In this menu we should be able to do important stuff like gender/skin-eye color/muscle/etc.

Then, in-game, we should be able to get/buy clothes in shops, and store them in the inventory. In-game customizers might have features to change the hair color/style, but yeah.

Not being able to access the character creation menu in-game.

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

How can you change your role ingame?

If you play as a boy, the protagonist is Hilbert, and Hilda is a side character. If you play as a girl, the protagonist is Hilda and Hilbert is a side character. Thus, neither Hilbert nor Hilda have a set role in the game. You decide which one is the protagonist.

as others have pointed out it might cause unnecessary controversy (Lenora and Jynx) the skin thing is pointless but also possibly controversial... just not worth it...

Nobody has pointed out how it would cause controversy. Please explain that. Also explain how Lenora ended up being controversial because I seem to remember a lot of shrieking about a disaster that never took place.

I don't care what race the PC is but making a white character black or a black character white just screams racism imo...

Um... you do realize they're generally Asian, right?

Originally Posted by Shadow Raikou

What about two custom menus?

Like- Professor: Now, what do you look like?

In this menu we should be able to do important stuff like gender/skin-eye color/muscle/etc.

Then, in-game, we should be able to get/buy clothes in shops, and store them in the inventory. In-game customizers might have features to change the hair color/style, but yeah.

Not being able to access the character creation menu in-game.

I actually don't like that idea, as it adds a bit of anxiety to your choices: what if you don't like that choice anymore?
Quality of choices will be superior to quantity of choices.

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

I don't care what race the PC is but making a white character black or a black character white just screams racism imo...

Racism is a part of our society, unfortunately. Even in a game as innocent as Pokemon it's impossible to rid of the belief, so I say just skip the drama and provide an option to players. One could also argue that limiting a player character to being of one race (Caucasian, in this case) is more racist than allowing a choice between multiple skin colours; this goes both ways. And keep in mind that noticing race is natural. When I look at someone of a different skin colour than mine it's the first thing I notice and it's okay. Pointing it out is even okay. But discriminating against a different race is what racism is, the belief that someone of a different skin colour is inferior.

It might be a stretch but honestly I think this could be a prime opportunity for GameFreak to introduce major player customization. The general concept of genes or DNA is differentiation and individuality, so what better way to push this idea than by letting each player personalize their character to his or her liking?

Originally Posted by Beck

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

I don't care what race the PC is but making a white character black or a black character white just screams racism imo...

Racism is a part of our society, unfortunately. Even in a game as innocent as Pokemon it's impossible to rid of the belief, so I say just skip the drama and provide an option to players. One could also argue that limiting a player character to being of one race (Caucasian, in this case) is more racist than allowing a choice between multiple skin colours; this goes both ways. And keep in mind that noticing race is natural. When I look at someone of a different skin colour than mine it's the first thing I notice and it's okay. Pointing it out is even okay. But discriminating against a different race is what racism is, the belief that someone of a different skin colour is inferior.

It might be a stretch but honestly I think this could be a prime opportunity for GameFreak to introduce major player customization. The general concept of genes or DNA is differentiation and individuality, so what better way to push this idea than by letting each player personalize their character to his or her liking?

That is actually amazing point about the titles and customization. I love it!

As for skin color indefinitely ending in race controversy, who's saying this? Who is getting offended by this crap. I remember with Brock they thought he was offensive so they replaced him with Tracy. But everyone loved Brock in all actuality and so we got him back. Jynx was racist, there's no doubting this, it's unfortunate, and a mistake on sugimoris part, but you move forward.

Like seriously it never ceases to amaze me the nonsense Pokemon fans come up with. I never hear these problems from any other fanbase. 'Cant have black people, it'll be racist' 'can't come out on 3ds I don't own one yet' not that anyone here said the ladder but its one of those 'what' statements I saw so often before X and Y were announced lol

Originally Posted by johnr754

Originally Posted by Ninja-Mage

Why would skin color be an issue? If anything it should be a bigger issue if they don't allow customization of that lol

No one wants another Jynx and Lenora incident.

Lenora and Jynx weren't controversial because they were black, they were controversial because they appeared, in Western cultures, to be racist caricatures of African-American individuals (regardless of the intent, that's what people perceived). There is honestly something wrong if you think "being black" is the source of controversy.

As a side point, if having the option to vary skin colour was controversial, why would Nintendo have spent time doing that in PBR? Or, in Gen V, creating more variance in the skin colour that appears in trainer sprites?

Originally Posted by Articwolf10

I don't care what race the PC is but making a white character black or a black character white just screams racism imo...

Because you know, there's nothing racist in assuming, if we had the ability to change a character's skin tone that the default character must be White and any variation thereof isn't the true representation of the character.

Or the notion that dark skin inherently means you're a person of colour....because you know, race is very well defined by skin colour and there isn't a lot of overlap in skin tones. That was sarcasm by the way. Because there is. I honestly find it ridiculous how the fandom assumes that Brock or any other dark skinned character was automatically Black but never considers them a "dark-skinned Japanese person" as if dark-skinned Japanese people don't exist :/

Originally Posted by The Outrage

Originally Posted by johnr754

Originally Posted by Ninja-Mage

Why would skin color be an issue? If anything it should be a bigger issue if they don't allow customization of that lol

No one wants another Jynx and Lenora incident.

Lenora and Jynx weren't controversial because they were black, they were controversial because they appeared, in Western cultures, to be racist caricatures of African-American individuals (regardless of the intent, that's what people perceived). There is honestly something wrong if you think "being black" is the source of controversy.

As a side point, if having the option to vary skin colour was controversial, why would Nintendo have spent time doing that in PBR? Or, in Gen V, creating more variance in the skin colour that appears in trainer sprites?

The skin color itself isn't controversial. It's that some people would abuse it to offend people for fun on wi-fi or other online features. But I'm sure Nintendo would have taken precautions in that.


Though, it would be cool if the customizations were collectable. Like, medals? When we complete a certain mission, we can get an in-game voucher to buy Cynthia's coat, or maybe Steven's steel arm-bands. Or Lance's cape, or N's void cube, even.

Originally Posted by Dark Blueberry

The skin color itself isn't controversial. It's that some people would abuse it to offend people for fun on wi-fi or other online features. But I'm sure Nintendo would have taken precautions in that.

Still a pretty ridiculous point of discussion since we already have a game with character customizations that didn't lend itself to racist caricatures. Why do people suddenly think that Game Freak will suddenly have this incredibly amazing customization ability that lets you do absolutely anything? And even if they did, not including it because of a bunch of assholes is an incredibly stupid reason. There are literally hundreds of Miis in existence being shared that has a penis for a face, and Nintendo is still more than happy in creating Miis. I don't see why, a game that has an international launch and has trainer customizations, should be reprimanded just because of a few idiots when what Game Freak would have given is a chance for players around the world to accurately represent themselves in the game.

There will always be assholes in this world, but we shouldn't limit the game and censor the diversity of the fandom just to censor these people.

Just an aside on my view on trainer customization:

I honestly think that the mirror scene is simply just a mirror scene and nothing else.

Originally Posted by Dark Blueberry

Originally Posted by The Outrage

Originally Posted by johnr754

Originally Posted by Ninja-Mage

Why would skin color be an issue? If anything it should be a bigger issue if they don't allow customization of that lol

No one wants another Jynx and Lenora incident.

Lenora and Jynx weren't controversial because they were black, they were controversial because they appeared, in Western cultures, to be racist caricatures of African-American individuals (regardless of the intent, that's what people perceived). There is honestly something wrong if you think "being black" is the source of controversy.

As a side point, if having the option to vary skin colour was controversial, why would Nintendo have spent time doing that in PBR? Or, in Gen V, creating more variance in the skin colour that appears in trainer sprites?

The skin color itself isn't controversial. It's that some people would abuse it to offend people for fun on wi-fi or other online features. But I'm sure Nintendo would have taken precautions in that.


Though, it would be cool if the customizations were collectable. Like, medals? When we complete a certain mission, we can get an in-game voucher to buy Cynthia's coat, or maybe Steven's steel arm-bands. Or Lance's cape, or N's void cube, even.

Yah that or dlc packs. I'm looking forward to the prospect of there being in game clothing stores. Towns seem pretty barren with just a veterinary clinic and a shop for Pokemon lol

I hope to Arceus that Trainer Customization is available. After what I saw from the trailer with the Trainer facing the mirror, I think it's possible now.