In what ways do you progress through the story?

[ProfGrove]

I'm interested in what ways the Pokemon community goes about playing the Pokemon video games. Do you save your TM's for EV trained Pokemon once you complete the main story? How do you go about having someone teach your Pokemon moves, do you save those as well? In what ways do you progess through the story? Do you follow the story with a strategy guide or do you go through the game unknown? I guess my question is more around how everyone seperates their mind frame from playing the story to getting ready for Wi-Fi battles and in what ways that shapes your playthrough.

 

[T!M]

I EV train only post-game. If there's a game I've haven't played before I don't spoil anything until after I beat the game once. I catch party Pokémon according the Gym Leaders and Elite Four. Games like D/P and B/W that don't require you to catch Pokémon to register your PokéDex I still catch every Pokémon I don't have regardless. I don't use Legendaries ever as I find it's not fair and unsatisfying to beat trainers. I also don't AR as it's cheap and lame. To lazy to grind = failure as a trainer.

 

[Elaitenstile]

How I play through? Well, I generally beat through the game in "strands". First up, everyday two hours I play the game. Until I beat the Elite Four, I don't even care whatever, meaning NO EVs, NO nature-defines, not even selective Pokémon, heck, not even HOLD ITEMS. After I beat it once, I catch all the awesome post game Pokémon (restarts for good iv'd evented ones) and train them EV-based, give them all competitive style movesets, and then re-battle the E4. After this, I simply restart the game, and this time I use all kinds of good skills, even breed my Pokémon to perfection, restarts for my starter, all that. I check out the EV training, that's why I limit Audino-pounds (for BW and BW2).

 

[Aether★]

I use the most useful TM's the game will give me, I beat every single trainer available, even repeat battles with vs. seeker for grinding, I train my Pokemon a lot and I am always a bit overleveled. I always catch those Pokemon who are my favorite or just those which are playable. I do not EV train, I'm not a competitive player.

 

[Miau]

I don't really research everything beforehand and follow strategy guides, but I don't do blind runs either. So usually I check the Gym types, recurrent in-game events and that sort of thing, and I pick my Pokemon accordingly. I don't use legendaries, I don't chose the strongest Pokemon, I don't check their IVs, I don't do EV training, sometimes I may hunt for a certain nature or ability. Then I pick their moves carefully, and I usually design my strategies based on a certain move or move combo, a certain item or ability. Post-game, I don't really battle online, since I'm not that much into competitive battling, meaning that I know the ropes quite well, but I never tried it myself, apart from the occasional GBU tournament that I usually enter for the participant prizes, like exclusive berries or C-Gear skins. To me, the game still has a lot to offer, so I go around using as many different Pokemon that I can in the available battle facilities.

 

[✯Shigeru✯]

Ever since the 1st gen days I've been the type of person who really plays through the games slowly. I don't just focus on raising the six Pokemon I plan on using my team, but I try to raise most of the Pokemon I catch during the main game. I'm constantly switching out my party Pokemon (besides my starter of course) depending on the situation. As for TM use before 5th gen, I would just use them on a powerful Pokemon that doesn't learn the move naturally (i.e, teaching Earthquake to Blaziken). Once I finally get to the post game, I do much of the same, except I begin EV training, breeding and making competitive teams.

 

[Kikaito plush]

I will go through the game completing each area by catching all the pokemon and evolving them. I will only use TMs if I need a move of that type on a pokemon I am training. If I get stuck on a part I will check Gamefaqs for a guide( which I only used for the plasma friate)

 

[Amore]

I go through it trying to catch all pokémon I haven't seen (although if its something like Chimecho with 1% encounter rate I give it a miss), raising a team according to what takes my fancy at the time (if I'm replaying a game I normally plan 3 members of the team as your starter affects others, i.e. if you need to catch a water type). I try to save tms until I'm sure I won't be deleting them at a later point. I don't EV train until post-game, and even then it's not until Battle Frontier's the only thing left (in Black I don't bother as I just ceebs to complete the Battle Subway).
I generally try to stop myself becoming overlevelled. This becomes a lot easier when I have exp. share as I tend to raise pokémon that evolve at levels below or equal to that of my main team for a little bit to further complete the pokédex. Although this usually means I end up a little weak for the Elite Four, which means Champion battles are always nervy (especially Lance, two psuedos, a starter and three other generally strong pokémon means the levels really count).
In Hg/Ss I have this thing of catching and raising every pokémon I possibly can before entering the water in New Bark Town to get to Kanto, but I usually give up as its so time-consuming. (Although with PokéWalker assistance I could get the pokédex very near completion as I have a Mew, Celebi etc. :) )

 

[PlatinumDude]

Nowadays I EV train any new Pokémon I get before I proceed in the story. I try to keep my Pokémon at roughly the same level, with the starter a few levels ahead.

 

[Hikamaru]

I always try and catch every wild Pokemon I come across that I haven't caught yet, and I also tend to balance my team with both type combinations, stats and movepools into factor. I never usually EV train since I'm not a serious competitive player. Also, I sometimes try and get a few levels over if there's a tough fight ahead, thankfully it was much easier in 5th Generation due to all the Audinos so I always try and battle them if I found shaking grass patches. And also prior to 5th Generation I never used TMs much since you never knew when they learned an even better move. Also, I tend to prefer special attackers when it comes to my Water-type team member so I can make better use of Surf. Ice Beam is also a necessity for my Water-type since I tend to not use Ice-type Pokemon due to their weaknesses.

After I beat the main story, I train all my reserve Pokemon and evolve them for Pokedex data.

 

[Tetrakeet]

I wasn't aware of the term "EV Training" but later I found out I was doing it inadvertently without realizing it because I was collecting wings (in black). I have only EV Trained my Gyrados (Blue version when I was leveling my first caught Magicarp) and Lilligant (Black), because I like my favorites to be my strongest. I was so enthralled by the amazing evolutions of them both that I became obsessed with making them strong. ^ ^;