A question we asked ourselves early in the creation process of Aethermon was, should we have ‘filler’ aethermon?
We concluded the answer was ‘no’, and today we’re discussing why.
As mentioned last week, Aethermon is not a collect-a-mon game. In collect-a-mon games it makes sense to have filler creatures – that is, less interesting, weaker foes that make the player’s team or boss monsters more interesting by comparison. A psychological buff, if you will.
A perfect example of this is Rattata from Pokemon Red or Blue. Rattata has an adorable character design, and is quite an exciting Pokemon to discover – the first time you encounter it. After that…not so much, and the reason is, there are SO MANY OF THEM. But once you’ve chewed your way through the hordes of Rattatas towards Viridian Forest, how much more exciting to finally discover a rare and tricky-to-capture Pikachu!
Both are rodent creatures with small, cute designs, but Rattata is all-too-common whereas Pikachu is relatively rare. Moreover, Pikachu has cool electricity powers that offer a real advantage in the second gym battle and beyond, whereas Rattata never really has any special skills.
I’m willing to bet there are some hardcore Rattata fans out there regardless – and again, all of this is fine in a collect-a-mon game where you can add whatever pieces to your team that you need or want in order to defeat the challenges in your path to the top.
But what if Rattata was your only pokemon – ever?
And what if other players got a Mewtwo?
Then the game starts to feel a mite unfair.
In Aethermon, your companion is not simply a battle minion but an ally and trusted friend – aethermon have personhood after all (see previous blog post). For this reason, representing some as powerful and valuable and some as run-of-the-mill cannon fodder disrespects the very tenets we have established.
Next week we will continue this subject into a discussion of ‘normal-type’.
Stay special, AetherRen!