My ambition to create my ideal version of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2

Hey all, first off I would like to introduce myself as someone who has zero coding and programming knowledge which I'm doing my best to learn and understand outside of my hectic full time work & study schedule (Master's).

I've always loved Gen 5 as Pokemon Black was the first Pokemon game that I got from my birthday, though I played HGSS and Platinum before this event of my life, hence why I'm so passionate about this idea of a reimagined or rather my ideal version of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2.

Anyway, as how I have introduced myself, I would need a lot a lot of opinions and advices on what, where, how and what to start and, progressively, work on. From my research, DS games have been notoriously complex to reverse engineer but it has gotten better throughout the years, yet I still rather find it challenging to understand all of these things all at once so any of your inputs would be really appreciated.

Without further ado, below is the idea of what I aspire to do for my romhack (used ChatGPT and Claude to organize my thoughts cause the ideas in my head kept going and going so it was messy). I think it's incredibly ambitious but I'm not giving myself a hard deadline so it could be 10 years, 20 years of work that I'll actually come out with something hopefully, I've started on some core basics of Pokemon rebalancing etc so I hope I don't violate the No "Idea" Threads though :(

# 1. Core Vision

This romhack is built around **open-world exploration**. The player is able to move from city to city freely rather than following a rigid linear sequence. The starting point is **Castelia City**, positioned as the center of the region. Wild encounters change depending on how many badges the player has, which means routing and timing matter. A player may deliberately choose to catch a strong encounter earlier, knowing that doing so could mean missing a different scaled encounter later after another badge is earned. The game is meant to reward planning, tradeoffs, and strategic foresight.

A major pillar of the project is **Pokémon rebalancing**. Underwhelming Pokémon should become viable and should not feel like wasted encounter slots, but this must be handled carefully so the game does not become broken. Rebalancing may involve changes to stats, abilities, movepools, and even typings where necessary, but such changes must always be justified and make sense. The design goal is to be bold, creative, and innovative without becoming arbitrary.

# 2. Core Battle Philosophy

Every trainer battle should feel handcrafted. Each Pokémon on a trainer’s team must hold a **unique item**, with no repeated items on the same team. Every team member must make sense for that trainer’s **persona, vibe, identity, and team synergy**, while still being competitively viable. These are intended to be the **strongest and most complete versions** of these trainers up to Gen 5, essentially their peak forms in battle. Smogon can be used as a reference for singles-oriented team construction, while VGC can be used as a reference point for doubles-oriented design.

If a Pokémon needs to be adjusted in order to fit a team properly and remain viable, then changing its stats, abilities, movepool, or typing is on the table. However, every such change must remain logical and grounded in the trainer concept and in the overall balance of the game. The standard is not just creativity, but **creative precision**.

# 3. Gym Structure

The player is free to challenge the gym leaders in **any order**. Because of that, each gym leader must have **8 different teams**, each one scaling according to the player’s current badge count. Every gym leader uses a **full team of 6 Pokémon even from Badge 1 onward**. Gym leaders should usually remain **type specialists in identity**, but they should not be trapped in rigid mono-type rosters. Instead, they should use **type-led themed teams**, with 1–2 off-type Pokémon allowed when those Pokémon genuinely strengthen the concept.

# Off-Type Criteria

A good off-type pick should do at least one of the following:

* cover a major weakness

* support the leader’s main battle plan

* fit the leader’s aesthetic, profession, lore, or arena

* enhance doubles interaction

* punish the obvious counterpick

A bad off-type pick is one that is:

* generically strong

* unrelated to the leader’s concept

* included only to surprise the player with no logic

For gym leaders, the intended structure is:

* **60–80% on-type**

* **20–40% off-type, but theme-fitting**

# 4. Elite Four and Champion Design

The Elite Four should have more freedom than gym leaders. They should still preserve a distinct identity, but should feel more like **masters of a style or philosophy** than simple type-locked specialists. Champion Iris can be built as a **blended team** rather than a strict type team. From **Gym 5 onward**, gym leaders can begin using **1–2 legendary or mythical Pokémon**, excluding Meloetta and all of her forms, as long as those Pokémon fit their identity. The same principle applies to the Elite Four and Champion, and whichever form the Pokémon uses should be clearly indicated.

All gym leaders, Elite Four members, and champions should be designed at a level comparable to **Smogon-quality team construction for singles** and **actual VGC-quality team construction for doubles**. The player should feel that they are facing true competitive-level threats from the very first gym all the way through the postgame.

# 5. Battle Format Progression

Battle formats alternate between **singles and doubles** depending on the order in which the player earns badges. The first gym battle is singles, the second is doubles, the third returns to singles, and so on. This alternating format continues through the Elite Four, and the champion endgame should feature both singles and doubles as well.

There is also an idea to incorporate **Alder** into the champion battle structure so that the player effectively has to face **two champions**. The exact mechanics are still undecided. Possibilities include back-to-back battles with healing, a limited PC break where the player can exchange only one Pokémon, or another better solution. The order could be flexible, with the player choosing which champion to face first or second. In that structure, the first champion fight would be singles and the second would be doubles, which would effectively create **four champion teams** overall.

# 6. Level Cap Mode

At the start of the game, the player can choose whether to turn on **Level Cap Mode**. If enabled, the player’s Pokémon cannot overlevel the gym leaders’ level cap. These caps are uniform according to badge count, regardless of which gym is challenged first. The purpose is to preserve challenge, create tension, and force the player to think carefully about gym order, route order, and encounter choices.

The proposed level caps are:

* Badge 1: Level 19

* Badge 2: Level 29

* Badge 3: Level 39

* Badge 4: Level 49

* Badge 5: Level 59

* Badge 6: Level 69

* Badge 7: Level 69

* Badge 8: Level 89

* Elite Four: Level 97

* Champion: Level 100

# 7. Progression Resources and Limited Optimization

Players receive an **endless candy case** at the beginning of the game. However, if Level Cap Mode is turned on, the candy case cannot push Pokémon beyond the current level cap. Separate from that, **Rare Candies** exist as ultra-rare, deliberately hidden resources that require effort to obtain. Each one allows a Pokémon to go **1 level above the current cap**, making them a powerful but limited strategic resource.

Using the inspiration of Run & Bun, **Heart Scales** are also ultra-rare and limited. They are used to change Pokémon attributes such as nature and IVs, with **1 Heart Scale required per stat change**. **Ability Capsules** are also planned to allow ability changes, but their exact implementation is still undecided. They may either become very expensive rewards in the trainer point system or remain ultra-rare world resources like Rare Candies and Heart Scales, so that they still demand thoughtful use.

Extra encounters will also be added inside cities that normally do not contain encounters, but this feature is intended for **Level Cap Mode only**.

# 8. Travel and World Navigation

HM-based traversal will be replaced with world services. Instead of Fly, there will be a **Dragonite Express** located outside the Pokémon Center, which will transport the player to previously visited cities for a small fee. Instead of Surf, there will be **Lapras Logistics**, which allows travel and exploration across areas that would normally require Surf, again for a small fee. These systems preserve access and freedom while fitting the world more naturally.

# 9. Trainer Point System and Repeating World Trainers

Wild trainers will be placed strategically so that the player has to actively try to dodge them. These trainers will re-challenge the player after each badge and will scale according to badge count. Defeating them rewards **trainer points**, and the amount earned scales with badge progression. These points can be exchanged for useful held items. However, repeatedly challenging them is not meant to be without downsides, so the system is intended to create a meaningful risk-reward dynamic rather than becoming a mindless farming loop.

# 10. AI and Difficulty Standard

The AI should be enhanced and advanced. Gym leaders should have **personalized AI** that reflects their personality all the way to Champion Iris. PWT trainers, by contrast, should all use strong advanced AI, but not necessarily individualized AI, since giving every single one of them unique personality logic may become overwhelming from a development standpoint.

The overall difficulty target is very high. The player should be expected to deal with **genuine competitive threats** not only in the late game, but starting from the very first gym.

# 11. Quality of Life Features

The game should include strong quality-of-life support, such as:

* built-in IV checker on the stats screen

* built-in EV checker on the stats screen

* the ability to apply status conditions before battles

* the ability to pre-damage Pokémon at Pokémon Centers

* and potentially other QoL features not yet identified

# 12. Story Direction

The story will be revamped, although the precise structure has not yet been decided. One possible direction is that the story could be **badge-trigger based**. At this point, story design has not yet been explored in depth.

# 13. Rules and Generation Scope

The project rules are:

* **No Fairy type**

* **No Fairy-type moves**

* **Items and moves up to Gen 7 are allowed**

* **No Z-Moves**

* **No Mega Evolutions**

# 14. Guest Gym Trainers from Past Generations

A further idea is to place gym leaders from past generations into relevant Unova gyms as **gym trainers before the actual gym leader fight**. The in-universe explanation is that they are visiting Unova on holiday and taking part in the PWT Rumble. Their teams also scale according to badge count, but they are lower level than the actual gym leader’s cap and do not match the leader’s full team strength. The idea is to have **one such trainer per gym**.

# 15. PWT and Postgame Vision

The postgame centerpiece is the continuation and expansion of **PWT**, culminating in a far more extreme version of it. Gym leaders, Elite Four members, and champions will appear in their **true teams**, not weakened versions.

# PWT Rumble

This is the postgame feature you are most excited about. It is a full rumble featuring all remarkable trainers from **Gen 1 to Gen 5**, including gym leaders, Elite Four members, champions, and “legendary trainers.” The exact roster for legendary trainers is still open, but possible candidates include male and female player protagonists from each generation and others. Every trainer should use a team that is:

* fitting to their identity

* internally synergistic

* competitively optimized

* their strongest true version up to Gen 5

All of them should be very strong and should be built so that they are on roughly equal competitive footing, creating real challenge for the player. Standard PWT trainers are allowed **1 fitting legendary or mythical Pokémon**, excluding Meloetta and all her forms, and whichever form is used must be indicated.

# Champion Rumble

There is also a dedicated **Champion Rumble**, featuring all champions. In this structure, **Red and N are treated as champions**. Champions are allowed to use **2 legendary and/or mythical Pokémon**, again excluding Meloetta and all her forms. Their teams should be their absolute strongest and should fully represent them. Pokémon forms should always be specified.

# Special Event Bosses

There should also be **Special Event Bosses** tied to the PWT Rumble. These would be unlocked only after certain conditions are met and are meant to be extraordinary, almost impossible fights that feel both unexpected and phenomenal. The specific candidates for these bosses still need to be proposed.

# 16. PWT Team Construction Rule

All type specialists in PWT should usually remain type specialists in identity, but again, they should not be forced into strict mono-type rosters. They should function as **type-led themed teams** rather than literal mono-type collections. The same off-type logic applies here as with gym leaders: good off-type inclusions should cover a weakness, support the game plan, fit the trainer’s lore or arena, improve doubles play, or punish obvious counterplay. Bad ones are simply generic power picks with no thematic logic.

# 17. Overall Design Principle

At every level, the guiding rule is that teams must feel true to the trainer’s **identity, vibe, and personality** while still offering real competitive difficulty. Every Pokémon choice must make sense. Movesets, items, abilities, and even type changes must contribute to both theme and function. This project is meant to push beyond normal limits, but not randomly. It should be creative, daring, and deeply intentional.