Reflections and Looking Ahead

One team down, 15 to go! It took longer than I was hoping to complete, but moving forward I think I can streamline the process so that each game doesn't take three months to finish. I'm going to try two games at a time and alternating posts. I'll put in the title which game is lined up with which character, hopefully, that makes the whole process faster.

Looking back, I discovered things I never would have expected, like how Mudsdale is one of my favorite GEN VII Pokemon. I never would have thought to use a horse covered in mud in a game that features all kinds of more inventive and creative Pokemon, but it ended up being one of my favorites. I usually pick my favorites of a generation based on how cool it looks, and its battling usually matches up, Scyther, Zangoose, and Tyrantrum are all examples. Mudsdale has a pretty plain design, but power and a useful ability puts it on par with those Pokemon for me.

I was 10 years old when I got my first Game Boy Color and Pokemon Blue. I got at least one version of each generation since, and each time loved how they updated the graphics and game play. It was around the Fourth Generation games (Diamond and Pearl) that they started getting repetitive, and I was in high school at that point. For a few of those play throughs I did monochromatic (single-type) teams, and I did it again a bit in the Generation Six games, only that time getting them all through wonder trade. I think moving forward from here, the challenges I've chosen are a little more creative that simply picking a type.

Through out the hundreds of times I've played these games, I've certainly developed my own style, hit hard and fast as possible. Even with just this challenge, while I could choose anything I got through Wonder Trade and I got a pretty wide variety, I decided to go with Pokemon I mostly hadn't used before, Absol and Salamence being the exception. Pokemon has always been about finding the pokemon and the style that works best for the individual player, and starting with 150 different Pokemon (151 if you could manage to get Mew) among about 70 different evolutionary families. The variety has only expanded since then. The games have always been about choice, and giving as many choices as possible to build your perfect team.

The self imposed challenges are about restricting that freedom of choice. The Nuzlocke has become the most popular self imposed challenge, but there's as many challenges as there are Pokemon. This is what's great, as there are more and more Pokemon to catch and regions to explore, there are new challenges that arise to match.

I'm looking forward to these challenges that I've never done before, and to see what kinds of teams and tactics each one will produce.