4th Gen Do you think Barry is overpowered?

[Amore]

Well, we've got the thread asking if Red's overpowered in HgSs. However, the reason Red's so powerful is actually because in Platinum Barry's so powerful.
In GSC Red's pokémon range from lv.73 (Espeon) to Lv.81 (Pikachu). And in Diamond/Pearl Barry's pokémon at the weekends in the Battle Zone range from lv.58 (Staraptor) to lv.64 (Starter).
However, in Platinum Barry's pokémon level up after you defeat him enough times. Starting out slightly stronger than in DP, they increase by 10 levels after 10 battles, and a further 10 after 20 battles, leaving his pokémon ranging from lv.79 (Rapidash / Floatzel / Roserade depending on which starter you chose) to lv.85 (Starter). In other words stronger than Red.
This meant that in HeartGold/SoulSilver they had to make a decision - do we keep Red as he was in GSC, or do we bump him up so he's stronger than Barry? They chose the latter - Red's pokémon now range from lv.80 (Lapras) to lv.88 (Pikachu). Hence the other thread complaining about Red's strength.

So my question is, do you think Barry is overpowered?


Personally I don't. I think we just have to assume by the time you've had 20 battles a few years have passed - Red took 3 years to hit them levels, no way Barry hits that strength in 5 months. It kinda makes sense that other people can hit levels similar to Red though - after all, many of the subsequent game protaganists actually surpass the achievements of Red (in GSCHGSS by defeating him), so surely the rivals and champions can hit a similar level.

EDIT: Just noticed most people are commenting on how easy he is to beat. I have to agree. And I'm pretty sure if I trained my pokémon in the 20 weeks it takes him to hit lv.80s then I'd probably have lv.100 pokémon.

 

[Brendino]

When you look at Barry from a rival standpoint, I don't think he's all that overpowered, especially since his Pokemon gradually grow after each battle. And it was nice for a change to face a trainer with such high-leveled Pokemon, since it'd been two whole generations since we got that much of a challenge (outside of Battle Tower, Frontier, etc.).

For his character, though, I found it hard to believe that he would be able to train his Pokemon that well, even if his father's the head of the Battle Tower. His personality suggests that he doesn't focus on one thing for very long, so it never made sense to me that he of all people would be the first trainer to out-level Red. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it just never made sense to me.

 

[Aslan]

I kind of find it unbelievable that Barry could even carry such high-levelled Pokemon. Sure, he's been on the same sort of journey that you've been through, beating the gym leaders, exploring caves and new places but, when you think about it Barry has one of those impatient personalities. It doesn't seem that he'd be one of those people who would bother to spend hours training in the long grass- since he can't even wait ten seconds to sprint. Training your Pokemon to such a strength, takes time and patience, which Barry obviously lacks.

To answer the actual question however, I don't really know. I don't think he's weak but I don't think he's overpowered either. So I guess I'd say I'm at half, half. After battling with you hundreds of times, it's understandable that his Pokemon would be so high-levelled, but his personality sort of makes that iffy, if you know what I mean. :x

For his character, though, I found it hard to believe that he would be able to train his Pokemon that well, even if his father's the head of the Battle Tower. His personality suggests that he doesn't focus on one thing for very long, so it never made sense to me that he of all people would be the first trainer to out-level Red. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it just never made sense to me.

^ This exactly. :]

 

[Aether★]

That was only high levels, that's it. Barry was an truly easy opponent.

 

[SubVirus]

I can't say i've ever had an issue beating Barry. When i'm underleveled i just use Toxic and Spikes and maybe Leech Seed and then cycle my pokemon until he runs out. So far in any situation i've come across no NPC was able to combat this except to use a full restore or full heal once or twice and not any more for the entire battle.

 

[Halloween Bomb]

Honestly it depends, if you grind like crazy then he's really weak but if you hardly ever grin then he'd really hard.
So in truth it's the matter of how strong you're pokemon is.

 

[curiousnathan]

No way! Barry has probably been the easiest of rivals. The onyl challenge with him though, would be his Snorlax. It was a bulky pain in the butt especially for my team which didn't comprise of any fighting types or useful fighting moves. The most effective move against it would have been my Torterra's earthquake. Other than that though, Barry was a breeze. I would have much preferred if he proved to be more of a challenge but oh well!

 

[Hikamaru]

No way! Barry has probably been the easiest of rivals. The onyl challenge with him though, would be his Snorlax. It was a bulky pain in the butt especially for my team which didn't comprise of any fighting types or useful fighting moves. The most effective move against it would have been my Torterra's earthquake. Other than that though, Barry was a breeze. I would have much preferred if he proved to be more of a challenge but oh well!

Basically what Nathan said there. Barry isn't really that strong but he does have pretty wide type coverage as far as his team goes. The Snorlax is a bit of a pain though if you lack a strong Fighting-type, but since Infernape was my starter most of the time I was able to beat it easily. I would have loved it better if he proved to be a challenge, but in Platinum he once did have the highest-level Pokemon of any Trainer outside of Battle Frontier stuff, only until Red's Pikachu got level-buffed in HG/SS. Barry was a pushover for me since I usually packed types that could wipe his team easily.

 

[Therizinosaurus]

i only played diamond, but i thought his team was pretty good. the levels were good and the team had wide coverage, but like most rivals you can pretty easily counter them by switching. and im glad Red was stronger, because red is the ultimate trainer in the pokemon universe, he has to be the strongest. but when you think about it, out of all the NPC's, what character would you pick as the second strongest to red? blue and cheren both gave up training for master status to be gym leaders. silver seems to have effectively given up training to bond with pokemon, and the rival from RSE, the other rival from DPPt, and bianca only think about collecting. that leaves barry. sure he cant be as good as red, he doesnt have the motivation or the skill, but hes one of the few rivals that still trains competitively by the end of the game.

 

[Elaitenstile]

The thing is that combining Re-Elite Four, Battle Ground etc. will eventually make your Pokémon stronger than that of Barry's. That's why he's easy. He's not actually tough tbh, so yes that means he was easy to grind off.

What you actually must want to mean is was he a 'surprise'. Like ten levels jump on a sudden is obviously a surprise. In fact, he startled me a lot, but no he wasn't hard.

Thing is, he was only hard when I kept re-battling him as a form of training. Almost lost after the level jump lol.

 

[Sableye~]

Considering they only level up after 10 battles, it's not like their power spikes up quickly. Then again, I haven't ever bothered to (voluntarily) re-challenge him yet.

Perhaps a bit, though. Especially if he switches Pokemon to his advantage like Red.

 

[Shrew]

I actually check-boxed both Yes and No in this poll. I do not believe that he's overpowered, but rather I believe that in a game that allows pokemon to go up to lv100, I believe the other training options are underpowered. I think opponents should go up to lv90, because grinding against lv60's in the Elite Four is no fun.

 

[Hyzenthlay]

Nope. When I play Pokemon Pearl and bump into him, I'm just like, 'Ugh, you again?' and pretty much KO all his Pokemon in a hit or two.

I use Empoleon for his Rapidash, Luxray for his Floatzel and Staraptor, Rapidash or Staraptor for his Heracross, anyone for Snorlax and Rapidash for his Torterra. Pretty easy with this team, no matter how much higher his level is. Snorlax can get a bit harder than the rest with his high HP and Attack, though.

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I never had a whole lot of trouble with Barry so I would say no. Yes he is one of the tougher rivals, but that is a good thing. I have yet to see a trainer that I would classify as OP.

 

[XeroNos]

I always beat Bary whenever I battled him so I would disagree with the thread's statement

 

[Synerjee]

Nope, not at all. He's a little weaker than me every time I battle him and I almost always beat him without much trouble. He is pretty good, but no match for me at all.

 

[Sheep]

He had pretty good Pokemon by the end but their levels weren't very high. His strength as a rival was somewhere in the middle for me and I really wished he toughened up a bit more by the end of the story. So yeah.. he isn't very impressive as a battler but had quite a lot of potential.

 

[BlueEspeon]

Not really. I never had trouble with him.

 

[Nakala Pri]

I'm currently in the Plasma HQ after saving Barry's buns, so I have a response!

Nope-nope-nuu.

He is pretty darn easy, but then again, I AM over-powered-ly awesome! High five, sistah! :D

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

Nope, but his Pokemon have good sets. In the final battle (when his starter is level 85), Staraptor knows Brave Bird which hurts like hell. Heracross and Snorlax are also annoying because of their high power. At least his starter is not that tough but imagine if Infernape had Flare Blitz or Stone Edge.