4th Gen Partner Trainers

As you know, the Sinnoh games include a series of quests (two mandatory, the rest optional) in which you explore an area of the region alongside other Trainers: Cheryl, Mira, Riley, Buck and Marley. Said Trainers, after the quests have been cleared, can become Tag Battle partners in the Sinnoh Battle Tower as well as opponents in the Battleground (in Platinum only). Sadly, no future games have followed up on this feature.

What do you think of it? Do you have a favourite among these Trainers? Did you like the quests themselves? Do you want this feature to come back in a future game, or should it be better known as a feature exclusive to the Sinnoh games?

Tbh the only one I remember is Cheryl, even though I played SP not that long ago. The rest are more like 'oh right, those exist'.
The quests were okay. I usually just used them to train up my team though =p

I never used the Sinnoh Battle Tower though, so I'm pretty much just judging them based on their quests I guess.

Cheryl ofc was iconic because you needed to team up with her to progress through the main storyline (was it the same with Riley? or was Iron Island completely optional? I forget). I didn't even know Mira existed until very many years after I first played through Sinnoh, via a random Let's Play video on Youtube lol.

They didn't really leave much of an impact on me I think. Love Marley's design, and Buck's dungeon was the coolest out of all of them imo.

Y'know I just realized, Cheryl was the only partner trainer wherein you didn't traverse a cave, but a forest instead. That's cool to know.

Roni said:

(was it the same with Riley? or was Iron Island completely optional? I forget).

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I think that Riley was only mandatory in Platinum, since you get Strength from him in that game while you get it somewhere else in DP and BDSP

I liked them because they allowed me to grind easily since they fully heal you after each battle. Especially Cheryl early on in the games - I tried to battle wild Pokémon as much as I could to level up with her around before moving on! So they are a plus on I'm my eyes. :D

…except I completely forgot Mira existed until I saw her again in BDSP, and even then I was like 'is this a new character?' for a while haha.

I have personal and permanent vendetta against the Mira girl. She defeated a shiny Zubat with her Kadabra in Diamond and for that, I will never forgive that girl. Ever.

As for the rest of them, I thought they were pretty cool. Cheryl was pretty nice. Didn't mind it being mandatory to help her get out of the forest. Riley is pretty cool because he gives you a Riolu egg, which is the only way to get Riolu in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum at all. Marley is alright, don't really have much to say about her other than she has interesting lore with Shaymin, and Buck is pretty interesting since he is the brother of Flint.

Everyone except Mira gets to be in the cool club. Fuck Mira. My 14 year long grudge against her will not cease until I get a Shiny Zubat again.

I'm kinda mixed on that subject. In the vanilla games, i found them SLIGHTLY annoying but they made up for it with auto heals, and i could work around the trainers accidentally killing something i wanted to catch via repels. Oh, and Cheryl gave you a soothe bell, not to mention Riley's Riolu egg. (Oddly enough the only way to get Lucario in gen 4???)

But in Renegade Platinum (A fanmade DPP hack by Drayano) I DESPISE them. All 5 of the stat trainers (Mira, Cheryl, Riley, etc.) are now REQUIRED instead of being optional, and now they battle you whether you like it or not. Then they have the GALL to do a 180 and say "Oh well i just battled you for no reason but i actually want to tag along with you against your will lmao thanks". I hate those 5 for that reason alone. Outside of that hack specifically i don't have an issue with Cheryl or Riley.

Oh, and don't even get me started on Sacred Gold and Storm Silver. The Safari Zone gets taken over by Team Rocket before you can challenge Jasmine's Gym and now you're REQUIRED to go all the way over there and do FIVE Multi Battles with each trainer that i mentioned previously. That's why i have a love/hate relationship with Drayano's hacks and why i have a slight disdain for Gen 4 in general. I hope there's a good Gen 4 ROM that doesn't stray too far from the original that might make me like Platinum again.

I don't think I've ever met all of them, since I've always only did challenges in Sinnoh games and never fully explored Sinnoh. The only one that comes to mind is Cheryl. I usually use her as free healing for grinding.

The only ones I ever really use are Cheryl and the guy who gives you the riolu egg.

And obviously Cheryl is second best girl sooo....