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Short posts for this run. The Switch Era is so strange. The trainer battles are so rare, and that's where the real challenge of a mono-run comes in. Most of PLA is just running around, throwing Pokeballs; not worth blogging. At this point, I would not recommend playing PLA as a monotype challenge. It's just not different enough from a regular playthrough. I'm debating whether to play into the postgame just for the final Volo fight.
Spoiler: Gameplay
I made it to the Noble Liligant fight. Theatre actually learned Gust, which packed a big punch in this fight.
Other than that, I should actually be moving much faster in this game, but I keep getting distracted. I caught a Turtwig and added him to the team. I was going to try to farm up all the evo items for my team (there are lots of them that require special items to evolve, if I keep the current tram), but with little luck.
I also became obsessed with catching alphas. I've swapped out my whole starting team for alphas. It seems kind of wrong to just abandon my OG team, but it's so easy to rank up stars on this run, and it's easier in many cases to find an evolved alpha, rather than farming up the evo items by other means.
I farmed up about half the team, and went to the Noble Arcanine fight. Metalwork II was able to take down a couple of the Misfortune sisters, and Cuisine cleaned up. This Noble fight is another one where I didn't actually pull out a Pokemon, but Cuisine would have done great here.
With the new zone unlocked, I advanced to the point that I got Sneasler for climbing, and ran around some more filling out the team and farming up some grit. After I had a team I was happy with, I moved on to the Noble Electrode encounter. Architecture II made quick work of the warden's team, and Dance helped me out with the Electrode fight.
Sorry for the double-post, but I finished this run on Legends Arceus. Having done a monotype run on the three non-remake Switch games, I would say...save your time and play the older games. I'm not 100% knocking the new games, but I had a much more engaging experience with Gens 1-7.
The MVP in this game would probably be Onix / Steelix. Granted, I replaced it twice, but that's a Pokémon that's consistently good, start to finish, and it's easy to catch higher-level versions to skip some grinding, as you gain more stars. Steelix is especially strong in this game because DPP was not designed with fairies in mind, and the inclusion of them in this game can be hard to deal with, if you don't have a strong Poison or Steel monster on your roster. Gliscor racked up a lot of kills too, but that's probably because I tend to lead with my lowest-level Pokémon, and it struggled to keep up, level-wise with the other guys. The inverse of this is Torterra, which probably would have been very strong, but was relegated to the back of my rotation from the moment I caught it. The other monsters all performed adequately, and they all had roles to play in critical battles near the end. I'm a little sad that I abandoned my Wormadam so early on, but once I had committed to all-alphas, there was no going back, and farming up an alpha Wormadam sounds like a nightmare.
Side note, I was watching Ronin with my wife, and playing this game during commercial breaks or English-heavy portions. That's a fun experience!
Spoiler: Gameplay
Went to the tundra. Chased down the warden. Explored the temple. Glided down to fight the Noble Avalugg. Went back to base. Got exiled. Fought Kamado. Fought the dragons.
Decided to take on the endgame. It ended up only taking an hour or two, past the end credits. I was right to farm up the late-game alphas, as most of the fights are in the 60s-70s range, so they're well-situated for it without a load of grinding. However, the combat is weird in this game and very swingy, right to the end. Even up to the Volo fight, there is not a ton of strategic planning in this game. It's just a matter of being within 10 levels of the thing you're fighting, and going all-out with strong STAB moves. I will not be completing the Pokedex and trying to catch Arceus on this run.
Here's how the final battle went.
Literature hit Spiritomb with Outrage. Spiritomb subbed out for Togekiss. Literature got a crit with Stone Edge, to KO Togekiss.
Garchomp came out next. Literature KO'd it with a strong Outrage.
Lucario subbed in and KO'd literature. Dance came in and KO'd Lucario with Bulldoze.
Roserade came out, and Dance picked up the OHKO with strong Aerial Ace. Arcanine came in and was worn down by repeated Bulldoze.
Spiritomb came in and outsped us to revenge kill Dance. Architecture II came in to return the favor.
Giratina was summoned. Architecture II hit with High Horsepower, but it barely made a dent.
Cuisine came in to spam Ice Beam, and Giratina couldn't stand up long against that elemental onslaught. It shifted forms, and Cuisine held out for a couple of turns. Bonsai II came in to finish it up with Outrage.
Sayonara, Hisui.
Spoiler: Coronet Highlands Team
Bonsai II - Torterra α (M) Lv. 72
- Outrage
- Headlong Rush
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
