Gym Leaders, more hype than actual skill?

[phunboy]

Something has always been on my mind about Gym Leaders, that being are they more hype than having actual skill in there abilities as Pok?mon trainers.

What I mean is think about it each Gym Leader is always beat by newb trainers, I mean you start out in any of the Pok?mon games and then catch a few Pok?mon then go against a Gym Leader and beat them with ease usually.

Gym Leaders I find are a bit weak considering the illustrious position they have, I mean being such good Pok?mon trainers you would think they know not to make a team made solely of one type or close to it as it make them vulnerable to a trainer who knows this and takes advantage like having Electric-type Pok?mon in your team when you go against a Gym Leader using Water-types mainly such as Misty.

Plus the fact they often have only have a few Pok?mon when you have 6 in your team as well as more stored by the time you get to them making you much better at being able to adjust strategy wise in battle where they have such an obvious flaw in there team design by the amount and type theme.

All in all I feel Gym Leaders are at best supped up trainers you will face on your journey where as I feel they should be a thorn in your side on your journey making you have to work harder for your badges.


What do you all think of this???

 

[DavidG]

I always thought it was a bit silly that the normal trainers you meet later on are far tougher than most of the gym leaders...

 

[dqle]

You do have to consider why the programmers decided to change the Gym Leader's levels to such low levels. If all of them were to have, say, level 50 Pok?mon, the player wouldn't be able to advance for days on end, perhaps giving up even before the first Gym since leveling up on level 2-6 Pok?mon is really not a great way to gain exp...

And, according to the way gyms work thus far, and with a little info from the show, I suppose Gym Leaders either are required to choose only one style as their primary theme, the Gym Leader actually loves that type, or both. This is to broaden the range of Pok?mon the player has. Otherwise, the player is more likely to run through the game with just one team.

True that most of the Gym Leaders have less than six Pok?mon, but that's due to neglectance on the player's part. There're two primary ways to beat a Gym Leader: finding the right type(s) of Pok?mon to combat against the Leader's, or out-leveling the Leader's Pok?mon. The latter of the choices helps the player for later against the Elite Four of the region.

And, yes, Gym Leaders are no different than other trainers, except for the fact that they carry a title, a badge, tougher Pok?mon, and their own gym. Other than that, Gym Leaders are supposed to be nothing more than trainers.

And if you really want to see a challenge from Gym Leaders, try Pok?mon Stadiums 1 or 2. Gym Leaders should be the way they are in both N64 games, but that'd make the GB games MUCH more tougher.

 

[phunboy]

dqle I can see what you mean in terms of making Gym Leader a bit easy for pleasant game progression but like you said they have the title and all that and are usually famous yet possess the abilities of an ok trainer at best.

As for the Pok?mon Stadium Series Gym Leaders, ya there a bit tougher and probably how they should be in the other games.

 

[Chiru]

My two cents...

Regarding the low levels of earlier leaders' pokemon: In the games the gym leaders' pokemon have obviously been watered down a bit to make the game more "realistic" gameplay-wise. The game would be too hard if you had to start out fighting level 60 pokemon. It doesn't really make much sense if you think about it, but if you think about it even more all games are like that. If someone were trying to destroy the world in real life and you wanted to do something about it, you probably wouldn't have all sorts of people willing to give you the exact things you need at the exact time you need them. You wouldn't conveniently find a sword or something right before a battle with a big boss. Heck, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who took you seriously. They'd probably want you to go home and let the military handle everything. Video games are supposed to bend reality to give you an idea of what the world would be like if you could rise up from a crowd of "nobodys" and become a hero. It's the same way with Pokemon - yes, in "real life" a newb trainer would probably never be able to defeat someone of such a high rank, but since it's a video game that's changed so you don't have to spend hours leveling up to defeat the first gym leader. The game just wouldn't be fun that way. Also, I always thought the games were centered around you starting out as a trainer who turned out to be remarkably above average and destined to become the greatest master or something like that.

Concerning the whole single-type team thing, I think the reason behind that is to show that, even though this trainer uses only one or two types of Pokemon, they have strategies that can overcome almost anything despite every team member sharing the same weaknesses. It sort of adds more affect to the emphasis on the gym leaders being such strong trainers - if they all had perfectly well-rounded teams and the best movesets and stats and item combos ever, it wouldn't really be as interesting and it'd be obvious why they're supposedly so strong. I've tried going through a game with a team of all dark pokemon (ROM edit) and it is NOT easy. However, I suppose my views make more sense if you take the anime into consideration (and, of course, anime =/= games).

In conclusion, I think the gym leaders are interesting characters and I love just about all of them. Whether or not they are overrated, well, this is actually a very debatable issue and a cool topic idea :P. I'd like to see others' opinions on this.

 

[nick-xx]

is more popular than anyone, but is not to though! Still the "misteriously" trainer is thougher than the leaders.