JustMalamar
Captain Bryce Malamar
- 1
- Posts
- 100
- Days
- Age 22
- Seen Sep 14, 2024
Pokémon is quite the franchise, and while many things could be argued about it, I find that they are re-playable games thanks to things like Nuzlockes or challenges in general.
In this thread (and soon to be more assuming I'm not doing this wrong) I will give a rough re-telling of my experience using an anime style ruleset I crafted, and for those wanting to try it out; These rules are NOT gospel. Play and modify them as you wish! We're here to have fun after all. Here are the rules-
1. Your starter MUST be able to appear in most if not all regions so that they can join you on your journey. (How you go about this is up to the individual!)
2. You have to have at least ONE Pokémon not fully evolved on your team at some point across your multi-region journey!
3. For Gym Leaders, you can only use as many Pokémon as the Leader has (You can use all 6 on the Elite Four)
4. You only get one shot at the Elite Four/Champion, once you lose you must move onto the next.
5. Once you beat the 8th Gym Leader, you have access to your PC full of Pokémon from your previous leagues! Remember your PC gets bigger every league you beat/lose to!
My Anime Team:
-Grovyle was the starter I chose, he will be my main partner going into the rest of the games. While it is probably not great to choose a relatively frail Pokemon for a Partner. Explorers of Sky really reaffirmed my love for Grovyle, so I'm sticking to him.
-Dustox was honestly the second biggest surprise during my experience, a weak, early game, bug type Pokémon wouldn't do anything crazy but she absolutely did the unthinkable. Although one crazy moment doesn't completely justify her...lack of overall presence-
-Swellow is my favorite Flying-Type Pokemon and she did not disappoint me during this run. While Guts Facade was NOT used during this journey, she pulled her weight and justified their position on my team of rag tag, low stat dreamers.
-Skitty was absolutely NOT a Pokémon I ever used or even considered using at any point. But she genuinely surprised me by what she was able to pull off, especially given her lack of evolution for this run.
-Grumpig is easily one of the more overlooked Generation 3 Pokemon, While I admit he is not the best Psychic-Type, he absolutely worked out for me, especially after beating Tate and Liza!
-Milotic. I never used this Pokemon before, and for my first experience, I get the hype. He really cleaned house when I needed it to and was bulky enough to really wall out some notable issues, INCREDIBLY useful in Double Battles.
With that out of the way; let me tell you the (hopefully brief) story of how I beat Pokémon Emerald with my Anime Team:
Chapter 1
After picking up Treecko I was kind of just going through the motions, at this point I didn't plan ahead on anything, not my team, not the future games, not even for the Gym Leaders, I just sat down and really let myself enjoy the game for what it was. It didn't take long for me to start catching my team. I saw Wurmple and decided "Yeah Dustox should be good for this" and thankfully it did in fact evolve into Cascoon without needing to find another. Quickly finding Taillow afterwards I finally decided to sit down and think about my approach for my team. Upon arriving at Rustboro I told myself. 'I should use Skitty, it just sounds like something an anime character would use and go far in the anime with'. My impeccable logic in mind I took shockingly only like 10 minutes to find Skitty.
In previous challenges *cough cough*Professor Oak*cough cough* finding Skitty was...well a disaster and a half. Finding her so quickly this time made me happy as it was just in time for it to see Treecko solo Roxanne's team. Treecko evolved into Grovyle and I knew the Everstone was located in Granite Cave. I played Emerald basically my whole life so I went in without needing to use Flash. After that I boxed Skitty and let Taillow put Broly's team into rehab. I pulled Skitty back out and continued onward trying to figure out my last two slots. (I have a Zigzagoon for HMs at this point). Shockingly Skitty wasn't too bad in fights (y'know with high IVs and maxed out EVs). It was really slapping Pokemon around with ease, maybe not as much as the others but It still worked out!
Now, Wattson was the point of realization, the realization that Attract is busted and needs to be used more. Going into the Gym I was 99% sure I was going to get my first black out, but oddly enough no, Skitty carried most of the fight, and it was shocking how well Attract really shut down his Manectric, giving Skitty enough time to basically solo him! Now to be fair, I have a soft level cap, so Skitty was partially overlevelled, but the fact that she beat Manectric at all astounds me! By the time I got to Jagged Path I decided to try and see if Grumpig would be a valid choice for the team.
To be VERY transparent, once I get a Pokemon I allow myself to search for good IVs, train the EVs and if I deem it fine, give it an Egg or Move Tutor move (after all, in the anime Pokemon can just LEARN moves without much prompting so I felt it was fair). SPOINK (not Grumpig) SPOINK! DECIMATED Flannery's team with Extrasensory (minus Camerupt, I had Swellow and Grovyle tag team him instead). When I was younger I didn't have a solid grasp on IVs and EVs, but as an adult, it REALLY lets you see the potential some Pokemon have (oh trust me this isn't even Grumpig's biggest achievement).
At this point life is great, everyone pulled their weight in some category, the difficult fights ended up being easy and even though I didn't have a Water-Type yet I could always find one later. Stepping into Norman's gym was a wake up call to how NOT bulky my team was. Faint after faint after faint I was genuinely worried about my battle with Norman and was scared I would get wiped out. In this fight I boxed Dustox, which I know is not fair but Dustox was just not the play in this gym. (I didn't specify, but I box Pokemon so that my team matches the size of the gym leader, I'm saying it now as to not have to specify it again later).
I start the battle and once Spinda was taken out I swapped to Skitty in hopes of using Tail Whip a few times to make the fight against it easier. But I noticed it was a Male. It was a long shot but I had Skitty use Attract and...that was it, it was over. Attract + Truant made Slaking literally useless, allowing Skitty to take it down all by itself. I was going insane because I did NOT expect Skitty to do so well, especially as it fainted often in the trainers leading up to Norman. After that I switched back into Swellow for her to handle the rest of the team. It was a genuinely unexpected surprise and one I quite welcomed as I won my 5th badge and still haven't wiped out once.
Chapter 2
I still needed to decide my last team member and didn't know which Water-Type Pokemon to use. I tried fishing for a Wailmer but got bored after a while, I considered Crawdaunt but the physical/special split didn't happen yet. That was when I decided to finally use Milotic and...I used an online calculator to find the Feebas spots (I know, I'm a fraud). After a bit I finally caught him and with that my team was complete, just in time for Winona. Now normally Winona is genuinely scary, but I had a Milotic. After freezing all of her bird Pokemon so that they can be shipped to restaurants I left with a smile on my face, finally having some bulk AND STILL not wiped out I was excited to fight Tate and Liza, I have a solid surf user after all so what's the worry?
I'm skipping over the story beats due to them not having anything crazy happen besides Skitty shockingly still being helpful against the Grunts. Upon the battle starting, Dustox immediately went down. (This is why you don't use early game Bug Pokemon folks, especially if they're a Poison-Type). Of course it didn't take long for...Skitty to also go down. Shadow Ball was not as helpful as I thought- But hey Attracting the Xatu was worth it! Thankfully Grovyle and Milotic were able to settle the fight and give me my 7th badge. Dustox held the Lax Incense and I had hoped it would work here (it works later, don't you worry).
After helping Steven destroy Team Magma attempts to take over the Space Station I left for Sootopolis City. After doing all the story beats I taught Grumpig Shock Wave and Calm Mind and just zapped Juan outta existence. With all 8 badges in hand I prepared for the Elite Four. I was largely on auto pilot until Tate and Liza, every fight from now on was going to be a noticeable struggle. I grinded (and I do mean grinded, and thanks to the Hariyama's in Victory Road) I got everyone to Level 50. (For those curious, most of my team was defeated by Wally but Grumpig managed to pull the weight [this was before the grinding]).
Going into the league I was worried, and unfortunately my worries were justified as I lost Skitty and Dustox against Sidney. Thankfully Swellow stepped up and showed why creatures with beaks are pretty peckin' dangerous! After healing, Skitty alongside Milotic and Grovyle handled Phoebe with slight struggle. Glacia was nearly solo'd by Grovyle but Grumpig had to hop in and help finish them off. Honestly at this point I was smiling, I still haven't whited out and my team was working together so well. But here we are, Drake the Dragon Tamer of Hoenn. I had a lot of worry going into this fight. Despite sweeping most of it with Milotic, I was worried he couldn't One-Shot the Salamence.
To clarify something, in a past run in Soul Silver I managed to get a Shuckle to defeat a Dragonite (with help obviously). I thought I could recreate that miracle. So I held my breath, clicked Toxic and it landed, Salamence missed Rock Slide. I instantly popped Protect and blocked his second Rock Slide. I swapped out and let Skitty go down, bringing back in Dustox. Going for Protect again Rock Slide got blocked. I click on Silver Wind and Rock Slide missed AGAIN! I stalled enough turns for Salamence to go down thanks to the combined efforts of Skitty and Dustox. THAT is why you have faith in the little guys, because you never know when they might STEP. UP.
Going up to Wallace, I had only one plan in mind, if I got hit by a crit or got unlucky I might wipe. I didn't look up damage numbers for this, I just went in and hoped with all my heart my Pokemon wouldn't get unlucky. Wallace sent out Wailord and I sent out Grumpig. Wailord desperately spammed Double-Edge but with heal spam I managed to weather the storm and got +6 Special Attack and Special Defense. That moment there, it was over. Grumpig psychically overwhelmed Wallace's team with a mixture of Extrasensory and Shock Wave. Let me you tell you I was so hyped to see the credits after all the potential wipe moments, and frankly I can't remember ever being this lucky before in a run. (Especially comparing to my 30+ failed Ruby Nuzlockes)
Chapter 3
After mashing through some text I left the starting house and pondered what to do next. I COULD do the Battle Frontier and see if my are Pokemon good for it. But I also considered doing the final Steven fight. In the end I just wrote down the details of my awesome team and turned off my game. This post is already long enough and I can imagine most people don't want to hear about me attempting after game content with...such a crowd. I loved my team but I don't think I'd be so lucky and fortunate against Steven and the Frontier Brains. This was thankfully a two day playthrough.
I already see BW2 and USUM taking a LOT longer...but that's for when I actually go do them. To be honest I have no idea which game to do next, I could double back to Generation 1 or even hop into Generation 4, I just know that either way I hope to see my future playthroughs to play like this one. Where there were memorable moments that made me pop off. That, at its core is where the journey can reach its peak. Your Pokemon, knowing they don't have the best bells and whistle, still pull through when you need them most. Those moments are rare, and RNG isn't fun sometimes.
But enough yapping, I hope to see you all when I do my next game, and I certainly am considering siding Grumpig back into the team in future League runs, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to enjoy yourself!
In this thread (and soon to be more assuming I'm not doing this wrong) I will give a rough re-telling of my experience using an anime style ruleset I crafted, and for those wanting to try it out; These rules are NOT gospel. Play and modify them as you wish! We're here to have fun after all. Here are the rules-
1. Your starter MUST be able to appear in most if not all regions so that they can join you on your journey. (How you go about this is up to the individual!)
2. You have to have at least ONE Pokémon not fully evolved on your team at some point across your multi-region journey!
3. For Gym Leaders, you can only use as many Pokémon as the Leader has (You can use all 6 on the Elite Four)
4. You only get one shot at the Elite Four/Champion, once you lose you must move onto the next.
5. Once you beat the 8th Gym Leader, you have access to your PC full of Pokémon from your previous leagues! Remember your PC gets bigger every league you beat/lose to!
My Anime Team:
-Grovyle was the starter I chose, he will be my main partner going into the rest of the games. While it is probably not great to choose a relatively frail Pokemon for a Partner. Explorers of Sky really reaffirmed my love for Grovyle, so I'm sticking to him.
-Dustox was honestly the second biggest surprise during my experience, a weak, early game, bug type Pokémon wouldn't do anything crazy but she absolutely did the unthinkable. Although one crazy moment doesn't completely justify her...lack of overall presence-
-Swellow is my favorite Flying-Type Pokemon and she did not disappoint me during this run. While Guts Facade was NOT used during this journey, she pulled her weight and justified their position on my team of rag tag, low stat dreamers.
-Skitty was absolutely NOT a Pokémon I ever used or even considered using at any point. But she genuinely surprised me by what she was able to pull off, especially given her lack of evolution for this run.
-Grumpig is easily one of the more overlooked Generation 3 Pokemon, While I admit he is not the best Psychic-Type, he absolutely worked out for me, especially after beating Tate and Liza!
-Milotic. I never used this Pokemon before, and for my first experience, I get the hype. He really cleaned house when I needed it to and was bulky enough to really wall out some notable issues, INCREDIBLY useful in Double Battles.
With that out of the way; let me tell you the (hopefully brief) story of how I beat Pokémon Emerald with my Anime Team:
Chapter 1
After picking up Treecko I was kind of just going through the motions, at this point I didn't plan ahead on anything, not my team, not the future games, not even for the Gym Leaders, I just sat down and really let myself enjoy the game for what it was. It didn't take long for me to start catching my team. I saw Wurmple and decided "Yeah Dustox should be good for this" and thankfully it did in fact evolve into Cascoon without needing to find another. Quickly finding Taillow afterwards I finally decided to sit down and think about my approach for my team. Upon arriving at Rustboro I told myself. 'I should use Skitty, it just sounds like something an anime character would use and go far in the anime with'. My impeccable logic in mind I took shockingly only like 10 minutes to find Skitty.
In previous challenges *cough cough*Professor Oak*cough cough* finding Skitty was...well a disaster and a half. Finding her so quickly this time made me happy as it was just in time for it to see Treecko solo Roxanne's team. Treecko evolved into Grovyle and I knew the Everstone was located in Granite Cave. I played Emerald basically my whole life so I went in without needing to use Flash. After that I boxed Skitty and let Taillow put Broly's team into rehab. I pulled Skitty back out and continued onward trying to figure out my last two slots. (I have a Zigzagoon for HMs at this point). Shockingly Skitty wasn't too bad in fights (y'know with high IVs and maxed out EVs). It was really slapping Pokemon around with ease, maybe not as much as the others but It still worked out!
Now, Wattson was the point of realization, the realization that Attract is busted and needs to be used more. Going into the Gym I was 99% sure I was going to get my first black out, but oddly enough no, Skitty carried most of the fight, and it was shocking how well Attract really shut down his Manectric, giving Skitty enough time to basically solo him! Now to be fair, I have a soft level cap, so Skitty was partially overlevelled, but the fact that she beat Manectric at all astounds me! By the time I got to Jagged Path I decided to try and see if Grumpig would be a valid choice for the team.
To be VERY transparent, once I get a Pokemon I allow myself to search for good IVs, train the EVs and if I deem it fine, give it an Egg or Move Tutor move (after all, in the anime Pokemon can just LEARN moves without much prompting so I felt it was fair). SPOINK (not Grumpig) SPOINK! DECIMATED Flannery's team with Extrasensory (minus Camerupt, I had Swellow and Grovyle tag team him instead). When I was younger I didn't have a solid grasp on IVs and EVs, but as an adult, it REALLY lets you see the potential some Pokemon have (oh trust me this isn't even Grumpig's biggest achievement).
At this point life is great, everyone pulled their weight in some category, the difficult fights ended up being easy and even though I didn't have a Water-Type yet I could always find one later. Stepping into Norman's gym was a wake up call to how NOT bulky my team was. Faint after faint after faint I was genuinely worried about my battle with Norman and was scared I would get wiped out. In this fight I boxed Dustox, which I know is not fair but Dustox was just not the play in this gym. (I didn't specify, but I box Pokemon so that my team matches the size of the gym leader, I'm saying it now as to not have to specify it again later).
I start the battle and once Spinda was taken out I swapped to Skitty in hopes of using Tail Whip a few times to make the fight against it easier. But I noticed it was a Male. It was a long shot but I had Skitty use Attract and...that was it, it was over. Attract + Truant made Slaking literally useless, allowing Skitty to take it down all by itself. I was going insane because I did NOT expect Skitty to do so well, especially as it fainted often in the trainers leading up to Norman. After that I switched back into Swellow for her to handle the rest of the team. It was a genuinely unexpected surprise and one I quite welcomed as I won my 5th badge and still haven't wiped out once.
Chapter 2
I still needed to decide my last team member and didn't know which Water-Type Pokemon to use. I tried fishing for a Wailmer but got bored after a while, I considered Crawdaunt but the physical/special split didn't happen yet. That was when I decided to finally use Milotic and...I used an online calculator to find the Feebas spots (I know, I'm a fraud). After a bit I finally caught him and with that my team was complete, just in time for Winona. Now normally Winona is genuinely scary, but I had a Milotic. After freezing all of her bird Pokemon so that they can be shipped to restaurants I left with a smile on my face, finally having some bulk AND STILL not wiped out I was excited to fight Tate and Liza, I have a solid surf user after all so what's the worry?
I'm skipping over the story beats due to them not having anything crazy happen besides Skitty shockingly still being helpful against the Grunts. Upon the battle starting, Dustox immediately went down. (This is why you don't use early game Bug Pokemon folks, especially if they're a Poison-Type). Of course it didn't take long for...Skitty to also go down. Shadow Ball was not as helpful as I thought- But hey Attracting the Xatu was worth it! Thankfully Grovyle and Milotic were able to settle the fight and give me my 7th badge. Dustox held the Lax Incense and I had hoped it would work here (it works later, don't you worry).
After helping Steven destroy Team Magma attempts to take over the Space Station I left for Sootopolis City. After doing all the story beats I taught Grumpig Shock Wave and Calm Mind and just zapped Juan outta existence. With all 8 badges in hand I prepared for the Elite Four. I was largely on auto pilot until Tate and Liza, every fight from now on was going to be a noticeable struggle. I grinded (and I do mean grinded, and thanks to the Hariyama's in Victory Road) I got everyone to Level 50. (For those curious, most of my team was defeated by Wally but Grumpig managed to pull the weight [this was before the grinding]).
Going into the league I was worried, and unfortunately my worries were justified as I lost Skitty and Dustox against Sidney. Thankfully Swellow stepped up and showed why creatures with beaks are pretty peckin' dangerous! After healing, Skitty alongside Milotic and Grovyle handled Phoebe with slight struggle. Glacia was nearly solo'd by Grovyle but Grumpig had to hop in and help finish them off. Honestly at this point I was smiling, I still haven't whited out and my team was working together so well. But here we are, Drake the Dragon Tamer of Hoenn. I had a lot of worry going into this fight. Despite sweeping most of it with Milotic, I was worried he couldn't One-Shot the Salamence.
To clarify something, in a past run in Soul Silver I managed to get a Shuckle to defeat a Dragonite (with help obviously). I thought I could recreate that miracle. So I held my breath, clicked Toxic and it landed, Salamence missed Rock Slide. I instantly popped Protect and blocked his second Rock Slide. I swapped out and let Skitty go down, bringing back in Dustox. Going for Protect again Rock Slide got blocked. I click on Silver Wind and Rock Slide missed AGAIN! I stalled enough turns for Salamence to go down thanks to the combined efforts of Skitty and Dustox. THAT is why you have faith in the little guys, because you never know when they might STEP. UP.
Going up to Wallace, I had only one plan in mind, if I got hit by a crit or got unlucky I might wipe. I didn't look up damage numbers for this, I just went in and hoped with all my heart my Pokemon wouldn't get unlucky. Wallace sent out Wailord and I sent out Grumpig. Wailord desperately spammed Double-Edge but with heal spam I managed to weather the storm and got +6 Special Attack and Special Defense. That moment there, it was over. Grumpig psychically overwhelmed Wallace's team with a mixture of Extrasensory and Shock Wave. Let me you tell you I was so hyped to see the credits after all the potential wipe moments, and frankly I can't remember ever being this lucky before in a run. (Especially comparing to my 30+ failed Ruby Nuzlockes)
Chapter 3
After mashing through some text I left the starting house and pondered what to do next. I COULD do the Battle Frontier and see if my are Pokemon good for it. But I also considered doing the final Steven fight. In the end I just wrote down the details of my awesome team and turned off my game. This post is already long enough and I can imagine most people don't want to hear about me attempting after game content with...such a crowd. I loved my team but I don't think I'd be so lucky and fortunate against Steven and the Frontier Brains. This was thankfully a two day playthrough.
I already see BW2 and USUM taking a LOT longer...but that's for when I actually go do them. To be honest I have no idea which game to do next, I could double back to Generation 1 or even hop into Generation 4, I just know that either way I hope to see my future playthroughs to play like this one. Where there were memorable moments that made me pop off. That, at its core is where the journey can reach its peak. Your Pokemon, knowing they don't have the best bells and whistle, still pull through when you need them most. Those moments are rare, and RNG isn't fun sometimes.
But enough yapping, I hope to see you all when I do my next game, and I certainly am considering siding Grumpig back into the team in future League runs, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to enjoy yourself!