3rd Gen Hardest Rival Battle?

[The Serious Table]

We all remember those annoying horribly planned moments in Pokémon games, when the rival challenges you just when you think you're in the clear? When you have less than 20hp on your Pokémon and a surprise battle forces you it faint and return to a Pokemon centre? Share your pain here, in this thread here because I can't be the only one!

Keep in mind this is only for RSE!! For example my hardest was the battle just after you best the weather institute!

 

[Pendraflare]

Not sure if this belongs in this forum unless it's only talking about RSE specifically, but either way, i'll bring up mine.

The hardest battle that Brendan/May have ever thrown me, aside from in my first play of Ruby over ten years ago before I really knew what I was doing, was in my Ground Monotype last August while on Route 110. Brendan's Grovyle was really wrecking me, and Absorb was getting me low even though I had Nincada, especially once Overgrow had activated and powered up his attacks. I couldn't keep up, and I failed to that darn thing at least twice. It was a very unpleasant time, but I did eventually get past him.

 

[Altairis]

Definitely the battle with under the cycling road! I don't know why it was so hard, but it took me several tries each time I played the game to get past them. ~_~

 

[Apollo]

I'm also going for the Cycling Road battle! I also had a particularly hard time facing Wally in Victory Road in my first Emerald playthrough - he was the reason I never completed the game. It was probably because I was underlevelled at the time, haha.

 

[The Serious Table]

Wow.. Almost everyone I talk to says the cycling road battle. I found that one pretty easy, because I'd always have tons of Pokémon by then. I like to catch every pokemon in an area before advancing, so I had an extremely large coverage range. Easy battle for me.

 

[Dying Light]

Lilycove City. OH MAH LORD. That was annoying. On my first playthrough, I had arrived in Lilycove, and was like, "Eh, I will go to the Department Store and pick up some TMs." and then Brendan/May comes outta nowhere and is like "Let's battle rolololol..." and I haven't bothered myself with going to the Pokemon Center either. My Swampert struggled that day, but I got through it. Afterwards, immediate Ice Beam TM purchase.

HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, GROVYLE?

 

[The Serious Table]

Lilycove City. OH MAH LORD. That was annoying. On my first playthrough, I had arrived in Lilycove, and was like, "Eh, I will go to the Department Store and pick up some TMs." and then Brendan/May comes outta nowhere and is like "Let's battle rolololol..." and I haven't bothered myself with going to the Pokemon Center either. My Swampert struggled that day, but I got through it. Afterwards, immediate Ice Beam TM purchase.

HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, GROVYLE?

Hey wanna hear something funny?? Trollvile

 

[Hikamaru]

I'm also on the bandwagon that says Route 110 here.

The first time I battled Brendan there, oh boy that Grovyle of his (Mudkip was my starter, so it was expected he'd have the Grass starter) was fast and destroyed a good chunk of my team, didn't even help I wanted to keep my at-the-time Marshtomp away from him as much as possible due to the fact Grass has a total advantage against Water/Ground.

I did eventually end him with a Flying-type I had, which I think at the time was a Pelipper. But I know for sure that when I get around to playing OR/AS I'll be dreading that one particular battle that's for sure.

 

[Tetra]

Route. 110. Don't know why, but that one was exceptionally hard. Especially at that time in the game. Yeah, if you grind enough they become fairly easy, but still a threat. If you chose Mudkip, oh how scary that Grovyle was. It could Absorb spam you and get its HP back, and you'd be losing Pokémon left and right! D:

 

[Hiatus]

Personally, I found the battle against them in Lilycove City to be most difficult. When I'd first fought against my rival there, my Pokémon was very under-leveled, so they didn't have much trouble damaging me and taking my team down. Did manage to get them beaten eventually, but had to use recovery items to back myself up.

 

[Bounsweet]

For whatever reason, I remember I kept having difficulty with the battle on Route 110, right after you first visited Slateport and start making your way to Mauville, underneath the bridge. I think now that I have more experience playing Pokémon games it would be a piece of cake, but when I was younger and I got all the RSE games, I remember that battle standing out as being difficult. :\

 

[Altairis]

Hm.. I wonder why we all had such trouble with defeating our rivals at Route 110. We had just come from battling Brawly, who had level 16 Pokemon and our rivals' were only 2 levels above that. Maybe it was just the Pokemon that they used? Or do you think they just used Gamesharks to hack their way to victory? :P

 

[Hiatus]

Hm.. I wonder why we all had such trouble with defeating our rivals at Route 110. We had just come from battling Brawly, who had level 16 Pokemon and our rivals' were only 2 levels above that. Maybe it was just the Pokemon that they used? Or do you think they just used Gamesharks to hack their way to victory? :P

I can't imagine it to be latter, as they usually don't perform such things in-game, haha. Some of their Pokémon's stats could be higher than average, but I believe that's nothing illegitimate; if you train enough, gain boost in EVs, and perhaps also breed yourself for IVs, I'm sure those could all be achievable.

One reason I've found them to be sort of tough there is because of the amount of Pokémon that they had, which, if I remember correctly, was three. If it were two, or maybe even just one, it would've been a lot less difficult, surely!