Childhood isn't the only time one embarks on new and wild experiences and you often witness adults in the games start their own journeys with Pokémon you trade or catch them
Maybe even something set in the Detective Pikachu verse where you have known about Pokémon all your life but haven't had the opportunity to pair with one until X event
I do understand the point is to appeal to and sell to kids but a. I played a lot of games with older protags as a kid and b. So many Pokémon fans world wide ARE adults who grew up with the series
the protag of colosseum - the first one, at least - always felt like an adult to me, tho it's been so long i can't remember even if that was one of my fav games as a kid
he started things off with being a runaway former gang member if I remember correctly and he's got an older-ish appearance, so, yeah, I'd consider Wes Probably An Adult and I loved that game to death as a kid It'd be nice for Nintendo to give us another one of those. (Tho I'd imagine Colosseum is still fun even now since it's more story-driven than most)
i wanna play as a middle-aged businessman who gives up his time in the cubicle to go become a pokemon master after a riveting talk by the watercooler i'm only half-joking
I was like "I'm tired of this wunderkind shit, I want to play as a character that decided to stay in school instead of go on their pokemon adventure. they have a degree and everything. whole-ass adult, and they go, 'okay, NOW is my time for adventure'."
like all my pokemon nsfw fandom invovlement aside, that's not even a factor here, even if i ddin't draw pokemon smut i'd be overjoyed to have adult protags
it'd be better for kids, too, to learn that they don't have to accomplish big things before they're 20. people end up 30s and just now discovering themselves and now they're like "it's too late for a career change"
It'd be nice for Nintendo to give us another one of those. (Tho I'd imagine Colosseum is still fun even now since it's more story-driven than most)
i'm only half-joking