This is more of a general question than a proposition, as I'm not familiar enough with it to decide. The oft touted shining feature of the Persona games is the Social Link feature. I find this mechanic interesting from a mechanical point of view. The use of gameplay mechanics and time management with the expressed purpose of forming a bond with someone.
Now I think that a lot of people would think that this question would apply to person to person relationships, but I'm far more interested in the possible applications to Trainer to Pokemon, Pokemon to trainer, and Pokemon to Pokemon.
Generation 3 introduced a lot of new things into Pokemon, but one of the most important things was the idea that every Pokemon was an individual. While EVs and IVs served to emphasize this, the introduction of Natures served to examplify it. Now each Pokemon you had was truly unique.
This is why I'm so against the removal of IVs. As a competitive battler, they are an annoying inconvenience, but as a lover of Pokemon, they are an integral component. Through mechanics, EVs, IVs, and now Natures serve to humanize Pokemon. IVs represent a Pokemon's genetic make up. Fact is, sometimes you're just delt a shitty genetic hand, but you have to work with what you have. That's where EVs come in. They represent what you can do. If you work hard, you can truly overcome your own weaknesses, within reason.
This newest edition, Natures, is the most interesting. Resting somewhere in the middle, your personality is something that is based on preferences. Your natural gift. That "it" factor. It makes sense. Someone who is hasty would naturally be quicker, but it's believable that they might let their guard down and not pay attention to the details. In Pokemon, this equates to a Pokemon having uncharacteristically high speed, but also uncharacteristically low defense. For generation 3, that did a lot to make Pokemon feel like real breathing things with feelings, goals, strengths, and weaknesses to overcome. They were more than just a species.
Unfortunately, that system has begun to show grey hairs as Pokemon has increased in fidelity. (hehe) Now, natures don't feel like personalities, but like stats. They're simply numbers. Because we can see our Pokemon in fully rendered 3D with nice models, we can also see that they don't really have a personalities to match their Natures. A hasty Pokemon doesn't act hasty. A jolly Pokemon doesn't act jolly. As far as we can see, every Pikachu acts the same as every Pikachu, and that stinks.
I think that the simple act of naming your Pokemon does a great deal to distract from this issue, but to me it's still an issue.
Pokemon Amie feels like Gamefreaks recognition of this issue and, while I appeciate the effort, it just doesn't really work. Pokemon Amie isn't fun or engaging, it's repetitive, and the outcome is the same for every Pokemon. But it does prove something. Gamefreak is at least interested in putting the effort into conveying emotions for every Pokemon. That is why I posted those mugshots earlier.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon does something unique for the franchise in portraying the personalities of Pokemon themselves. One reason they can do this effectively is because they use mugshots to convey the emotions they are displaying while they speak their dialog. Obviously the emotions they feel depend on the personalities they have. This is used in a lot of visual novels for the same reason. I think that the main series of Pokemon may be able to learn something from this, now that the means are available.
Now I don't this can realistically be implemented this generation because of the way Pokemon currently structures its world. The best way to personify anything is through character interaton. In otherwords, through NPCs and scripted event that take place in the overworld. Because Pokemon takes place in an overworld with chibi models, Gamefreak would have to literally remodel every Pokemon into a chibi version of itself, and then find someway to make a mugshot covering every emotion for every species and form. It just doesn't seem very realistic to do right now.
However, in the next generation, if we assume that Pokemon has an overworld that is done to scale, Pokemon can just use their in battle models while in the overworld, and the biggest problem is mostly solved. Now, the interactions with NPCs can factor in Pokemon. I can't imagine this would be to difficult at all either. Say you have a Pokemon out and talk to somebody. Gamefreak could program contextual triggers that activate when specific lines of dialog are said in the presence of Pokemon with specific Natures/species/gender/types. Because Pokemon is so full of NPCs, it wouldn't take long before every Pokemon is well accounted for in terms of interation.
These interactions wouldn't even necessarily need to be multi-dimentional. As long as the emotions are convincing and remain faithful to the Pokemon's personalites, it would be effective. Increasing the depth of these personality based triggers during important story based events, and Gamefreak can create an effective way to maximise the potencial believability of your Pokemon. This would, of course, bleed into the battle screen, where a pokemon's expressions during battle would be based off their Nature. Again, even being one dimentional is fine, because it's more personality than they currently have. Combine that with the effects that pop up when your Pokemon's new Affection stat is maximized, and Gamefreak will have implemented a potentially huge way to immerse a trainer into their world through their Pokemon.
Taking things a step further, one way to make this system even deeper is to allow limited interations between a player's Pokemon. I've never had much of a problem thinking about how my Pokemon would interact with me, but I've always had trouble imagining how my Pokemon feel about each other. With such different personalities, as well as genders, there's so much possibility to expand upon this. Again, it doesn't even need to be complicated, but simple, more fleating tricks to make your Pokemon feel like a group of intimate teamated with group dynamics instead of isolated individials only tied together by their association with the player would go a long way in making them feel real. Nothing to deep. Just things like Calm pokemon are irritated by Hasty Pokemon, or Jolly Pokemon really get along with Hardy Pokemon, or Timid Pokemon tend to have crushes on Brave Pokemon. These are simple and cute interactions Pokemon can have with each other that add up to make your Pokemon feel fleshed out.
Now this all lead to the main point. Could Pokemon benefit from a Persona-like Social Link system. So far, I've only gone through what it would take for these theoretical Social Links to work. Can't have a social link with a Pokemon that has no personality. But now that they, in theory, do, how would it work? Would it even work?
One thing that maybe could be done is that the region is litered with trainers that can activate these social link-like quests with them, but they only work with Pokemon of a specific Nature/species/gender/type. Doing these quests would flesh out the NPC, your Pokemon, and boost your Pokemon's effection stat, giving you in battle benefits. They might even benefit the player in other ways. For example, maybe you can't rematch a gym leader or other important characters until you do three Social Links with them, but in order to do them, you need to have a Pokemon of their gym type. Maybe there's a couple that rewards you with a master ball, but only does a social link if you bring two Pokemon that have romance compatible natures, and you get a cute little sequence of your Pokemon crushing on each other through some silly task.
I don't really know the answer, which is why I'm not asking this question rhetorically. Do you see any benefit to Pokemon integrating s Social Link like feature to the main games? I personally think that it would fall in line with Pokemon's theming of bonding with your Pokemon, and I feel like a system like this would fit Pokemon well.
