How do you play the Main Story in Pokemon Games?

[Mewtwofan259]

Here's an intresting question. I'm not intrested in knowing how you raise your competitive or Shiny teams, I want to know how you raised the Pokemon, or how you got your team, through the main adventure of the games. I've seen people do this many different ways, but this is how I do it.

When I first started Pokemon, my team was something like this.
Level 87 Starter
5 Random Pokemon usually about level 10.
I was foolish. Now I dabble in competitive play, and I know that people usually carry more than one good Pokemon. I never finished that game until a few years later.

After that, I developed a rule for when ever I played the main adventure. Raise my starter to a really high level, then have the rest of your team be legendary or Mega. I mean, this was my Alpha Saphire team.

But after that, I replayed Pearl, and I developeed the way I play main adventure games now. I never use legendaries. I always track them down just because, and I put them in my PC until I want to either use them for competitive purposes or for some other complex ORAS method of getting other legendaries. But my main team, I would make sure no Pokemon would get stronger than another. Each time a Pokemon leveled up, I switched to another Pokemon and leveled it up to the same level, and then I went on until all Pokemon were the same level. Then, I leveled up my first Pokemon again and the cycle started over. If a Pokemon was a level too high, I wouldn't use it until the rest of my Pokemon were at the same level as it. I mean, I played through half of Moon with a level 39 Slazzale until all my Pokemon were on the same level as it. You may call me a fool for doing this, but beleive me, it payed off. After this, I NEVER lost an Elite 4, Champion, or Superboss battle. Because if one of my Pokemon gets knocked out, I will have 5 more with equal strength.

So, I'm intrested, do you have specific way you play through the main adventure of games? If so, please share in the comments.

 

[robinspea]

Hey Mewtwofan!

I'm pretty much started out the same way, with the whole over-leveled starter thing (I think everyone pretty much did). My first game was Black (I was a Pokemon fan for a long time before then, but was never able to buy a DS until right after it came out), and I loved my Samurott to death. I remember one NPC said early-on the game that you should always keep your favorite Pokemon in front, and since Oshawott's line was my favorite, I just always kept her in front. I thought I could beat the league with just Samurott, but ended up dying after the second battle. I eventually grinded up five other Pokemon to make a good enough team and beat the game.

After my first game, I became a more casual player, choosing and leveling up either random Pokemon I found and liked, or a pre-picked team, as I went along. I did use legendaries in some of my teams, such as Giratina in Platinum and Cobalion in White 2, but I don't think I was completely dependent on them. I remember that, in my first Y playthrough, I had asked people to trade me a Chespin and Fenniken, so that I had all three starters. I felt like Ash playing through that game.

Eventually, through some replays of old games I had, I started changing my gameplay style a little bit, and by the time I got Omega Ruby, I became a lot more strict with my grinding methods. Every time I was about to challenge a gym, I would look at what the median level of the gym leader's Pokemon were, and grind all my Pokemon (not just my team, but all the Pokemon I had in my PC) to that level. Also, as I was going through the story, I would remove and replace a Pokemon in my party whenever they leveled up, and add someone else in their place. This meant I always had a large amount of Pokemon with equal strength. As you can imagine, this meant the game took FOREVER to get through, and several trips to the PC. To speed it up, I kind of cheated and stopped leveling up Pokemon that wouldn't be useful against any gym leaders or the league. On the bright side though, I found several random shinies throughout my playthrough (I even got to use a shiny Zangoose on my final team!), and ended up with several battle-ready Pokemon at the end of the game. I didn't cheat on this method when I played through Moon.

But yeah. My playing style summed up: excessive grinding.

 

[CycloneSpin]

I remember back when I started out with Sapphire I would really only use my starter and then reset my save when I got bored. Which would mean I would have a level 30 pokemon when tackling Wattson's gym and a kinda buff 2nd party member from double battles. And usually when I got to the 7th gym I would have like a level 60+ starter (usually Swampert) and like a level 46 Pelliper and then everything else would still be in the low 20s to low 30s.

I didn't start making normal teams until Gen 4 rolled around and I made teams based on type coverage. Like 1 pokemon each for Grass, Fire, Water, Flying, Ground, and Electric which would end me up with a team that was pretty cut and dry. Gen 4 was also the first game where I kept my entire team around the same level

White and Black 2 were the first games where I got out of that comfort zone and tried new types. Like in White I ended up raising up a Leavanny, a Krookodile, and a Reuniclus. And this was the first time I had considered a Bug, Dark, and Psychic type and I had a blast learning about how each of those types worked against and with each other and what-not.

Black 2 was the first time I swapped out party members throughout the story mode. My Magniton got traded to a friend for an Electabuzz. My Lillipup did me some great justice on my team until I realized that Riolu was doing it's job way better so he got retired to the PC. But Black 2 was the game where my love for my favorite top 2 pokemon came into being. Crustle and Golurk. Those 2 put in so much work for my team that I will never not appreciate them.

And it was through this that I started playing through Gens 6&7 by playing pokemon that caught my interest rather than filling a set type table. And this let me raise pokemon like Pangoro, Crabominable, and even Kecleon

 

[Sciencewars]

I started out very similar to @soulonawing : Playing Pokémon White with an overleved Samurott until I got demolished by the psychic type trainer. It was as that moment I fell in love with Psychic types.

I didn't play Pokémon again until Y. This time, Greninja was my man. I still wasn't going to make the same mistake...

Until I made a different one. Half of my team was water. That ended up bad, but I won eventually.

Then AS came along. I had learned. Planned. Me, my mostly-even team, and my super powered Metagross strolled through the game and online modes.

Now with Moon, I'm getting into competitive and using Pokémon I never did, but wanted to (A sweet Shiny 4IV Vinilluxe included)

I think I've grown, but sometimes I like just going onto my White file and crushing Pokémon with my starter.

 

[glaman5266]

I'm pretty much started out the same way, with the whole over-leveled starter thing (I think everyone pretty much did).

Nuh-uh. I never did that until I played through Crystal (I started in gen 1). Ran through it with Typhlosion and Victreebel. Didn't do it again until a year ago for another Soulsilver run. I'm actually trying a solo run with Feraligatr in Silver at the moment. Never tried a solo run. Never took Feraligatr until now either... What can I say- water types aren't exactly my favorites. Anyway, I actually sometimes overlevel the other Pokes to compensate for the overall statistical differences.

I keep 4 or 5 Pokes with me for battle (version-dependent) and 1 for a HM slave. I try to keep them within 3 levels or so of one another, but that's just a general guideline. I used to allow myself a legendary, but it makes the game too easy. No more legendaries for in-game teams.

For composition I am more flexible than I used to be but still go for a slight focus on bulky offense. I've begun enjoying using the "lesser" Pokes within a particular game or gen, but I won't shoot myself in the foot because of lack of attack power or bulk. I may run Sentret, Raticate or Magmar in a Silver run, but I will make sure to pack a Lapras, Quagsire or Ampharos for insurance.

The newer games allow for pretty much any Poke to be viable for an in-game team, so I've loosened up quite a bit over the years. On the other hand, the games have become way too easy due to the newer Exp. Share mechanics. Give and take I guess.