I wonder if the minion rules in PF2 and the way level affects your stats would make it an ideal candidate.
What are the Minion rules like in PF2?
See, one thing I had in mind, instead of starting up every Pokémon out there and adhere religiously to their relative powers in the game (because the game is designed to be a satisfying single player experience, not a party-based system) would be to reduce Pokémons to basically their types, one of three size category (small, medium, large) and MAYBE a bonus to one stat.
From there, each Pokémon gives you access to a few 'classes', usually using vocabulary from competitive: physical sweeper, special sweeper, tank, wall, cleric. Or the ones from the new Pokémon Masters game: Special Striker, Physical Striker, Support and Tech. Each of those classes then exist separately for your size category and they're the one giving you your base stats.
Then you just throw a level or half-level bonus on top and boom! Simple level appropriate Pokémon.
And instead of having movesets you just need to fulfill some qualifier to get access to a move, like having a specific type or class. MAYBE I'd throw in a few 'keywords' qualifiers like 'tail' 'wings' 'levitate' 'hooves' etc?
I'd also simplify types like they do in Pokémon Masters.
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