Pokémon Portfolio Page

Long History with Franchise:

Had gotten into the franchise from the anime - mainly because I recall the cute chunk of trouble that was me as a tot wearing a Pokemon T-Shirt with Ash and Pikachu. I'd watch the anime a lot through Cartoon Network since the family can get access to cable TV. Yet I still watched some PBS in the mornings before heading off for school anyways. My first game was Pokemon Yellow that was a secondhand copy. That too got played a bit before I went off to school...

I was stuck with playing a lot of the generation one games such as Pokemon Pinball - even though I was awful at that. Money was tight in my household so that meant I didn't get to experience the same games as everyone else did which is fine since I was content with my other favorite franchise on the Sega consoles - Sonic the Hedgehog. I got through a few more years until I was gifted Pokemon XD by my dad. The current Gamecube didn't want to read the game sometimes and it took a few attempts before I could play. Years later I would find out that some Disk based consoles are stingy about these games where some would play a game while others downright refuse to do so.

The only times I was able to experience the other generation in between one and three was through Pokemon Puzzle Challenge on the Gameboy Color. I want to say it was bought through a vintage game store loosely, but I loved the heck out of it as I played it numerous times. That and having Disney's Flubber with Robin Williams playing was the ideal nostalgia night for me. It was that game that helped not only improve my skills at Panel de Pon as a whole but establishing the bridge to generation 2.

Needless to say though, I haven't got a copy of any of the three Johto games to this day - but someday I'd like to get a copy of Silver version. Not sure if I want to stay in English or try a bit of immersion by playing in Spanish (European) or Japanese. To be fair though, I've done okay with just the 3DS Virtual Console versions of the Gen 2 games and their DS remakes HeartGold & SoulSilver. Mainly because it seems like the physical cartridges have grown in demand so much to the point of being over 70$...

Aside from XD, I have had a chance to play both Sapphire and Omega Ruby for generation 3. The Gameboy Advance originals are a bit more difficult than the remakes as it lacked the features of Super Training and Amie. Both do have the features of hidden machines and that you have to keep the mons with said moves on you... Flying in the sky for ORAS wasn't half bad but nothing close to being quick as using fly in my personal opinion.

Sinnoh is and shall always be a favorite of mine in terms of regions. Generation 4 also housed my personal nostalgic years as I played Super Smash Bros. Melee & Pokemon. XD rather heavily at the time while I wished my hardest for a copy of Diamond/Pearl along with a special DS. I had passed on getting the same shells that were on the said DS lites as I kind of preferred a emerald green transparent shell instead. I didn't get the DS until years later in the form of a 3DS & a copy of Pokémon Platinum Version years after.

Aside from emulation being my only window into the recent games for the GBA, I had tried doing so with the Nintendo DS and remembered getting whipped hard on Platinum by a Kricketot's Bide... I wasn't the most careful battler in that situation. NDS emulation ended after trying Pokemon HeartGold some and the same PC was brought down by a virus of sorts... Never touched it since. Never thought I would like generation 5 because of how much the idea of all new Pokémon being usable was instilled into my somewhat mallable adolescent brain.



Since the school I went to started giving us laptops for more technology enriched learning (aka - students were on other things that were not school work), I began watching a playthrough of Pokémon White Version through Marilland on YouTube. Because they didn't block YT as it was a Google site. I would play them alongside doing work quietly and sometimes during gym class. The storyline was enthralling enough to peak interest for the games, but the thing that won me over was the post-game areas opened up with older generation Pokémon. I would continue to open up towards generation 5 as in the last year of High School I watched through Pokemon. White 2 walkthrough from the same person.

Post graduation & now an owner of a 3DS - albeit a secondhand console, I ended up getting a copy of Pokemon White Version for myself along with a few other DS games to keep me playing it. Even as Pokemon X was the most recent entry into the franchise, I was enjoying Unova in full for myself as my lack of good memory of the story was enough to have a blind experience once again. Even after getting Pokémon X alongside the sequel White 2,I honestly played more of the latter even if I enjoyed the Kalos region with the introduction of mega evolution.



I do have to agree that it might of felt similar to Digimon a bit, but I kind of fell instantly in love with Mega Lucario. Going back to Unova though, it really surpassed the issues that were obvious to see at a first glance. Even with no third version and instead a set of sequels that added more to the same story and I loved the idea of how Memory Link activated various callbacks to your own experiences and campaign achievements from the original game. Zorua finally being available without an event was a huge bonus to these games, regardless of whether or not Memory Link was used.

I didn't do a whole lot with either Battle Subway or the Pokemon World Tournament other than the mandatory match, but I tried with the Musical which was a watered down Contest from generations 3 & 4. Pokestar Studios was another interesting sub-game that had good ideas but not much I have sat through. Maybe when I can get my DS/3DS issues situated, I'll give the games a good playthrough again. My secondhand DS Lite needed a new shell and fixed R shoulder button fix while my new 2DS XL's D-Pad needs the inners cleaned.

Returning back to X though, I wanted to love it but I can also get the complaints for it being too easy. When even a former Internet buddy was able to beat the champ compared to other games, it seems a little odd for the difficultly to drop. This seems more odd as the previous games BW & B2W2 were pretty difficult themselves. Although I think most of that is due to the addition of features that made training easier in the form of super training. Pokemon Amie made it even more easier as the affection stat made it to where Pokémon could dodge moves directed towards them and even heal status problems on their own. Although it does seem pretty cute when it happens because they love you.

Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire had the same issues, but the biggest issue was that some of the cartridges had faulty chips that failed years later as was the case for my copy... I do enjoy playing with the team I've grown close to through the journey and even with Refresh being a better successor only to have Camp dropping the ball. It took a bit of effort to build that affection up to max, but it was worth it for the extra dialog and having your trainer call them out with high hopes that they can do it. Then came Sun & Moon...

Looking back, I think this was where I began to feel the burnout for the franchise come into full fruition. I still enjoyed X & Y for the 3D jump as Black & White did with dynamic sprites. Sun & Moon changed the meta going forward. Alolan forms were a neat concept that were akin to how animals in real life with biodiversity in different regions. I was excited to see mega evolutions make a return - only to have them take the back seat to Z-Moves. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the mechanic, but it was a once per battle thing that was cool to watch for the first few times before it got stale.

Battle Tree locked the mega stones behind BP and it sucked. I heard a lot of horror stories on how difficult the Battle Tree was. Even as I disliked the Battle Royale as a cheap attempt of Free for All battles similar to how Super Smash Bros did, Battle Tree was a rough attempt of bringing the battle tower to generation 7 - and featuring trainers from previous generations. The most notorious part of Generation 7 that I've heard - was the amount of cut scenes throughout the game. Even after two playthroughs and half of Pokemon Sun, I believe that. I've played through games like Kingdom Hearts where cutscenes were prevalent, but Sun & Moon were more heavy with the cutscenes it ruined the enjoyment.

These were the set of games I was so excited for to the point of pre-ordering & got disappointed to the point where I thought twice on pre-ordering. Still haven't got whatever GameStop advertised as a pre-order bonus (poster I think), but even that would've been disappointing to the point I can care less now. I still played X and then Y after purchasing a used copy of the sister version over Sun & Moon. I was that disappointed to where I played the previous generations even at the risk of not having access to the megas introduced in ORAS. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were better in how the games handled, but they still had the same issue of having so much cutscene time. SOS battles were a mess in the original set but were fixed to be more tolerable in USUM.

To say I'm disappointed with Generation 7 & Alola region as a whole is an overstatement. I still love the idea of an island region with trials in place of gyms as it felt fresh. The island deities were cool in design and added more Fairy type Pokemon to the roster. Two big favorites were Type:Null and Silvally being interesting legendary mons similar to Arceus in functionality, but I always adored the cute Mimikyu. Mimikyu wanting to be loved like the mascot themselves is a bit heartbreaking and cute to where a part of the story in USUM covered that - and I loved it.

In between playing Ultra Sun & finishing Moon with the main goal being access to Lucario in a post-game area, Pokemon Sword & Shield dropped with the Switch years prior. Then the pandemic happened. I was still in college at the time and doing less than well in classes. Having to do my summer classes online were the last straw that broke interest in continuing post-secondary education in the current state of the world then. Having to stay inside was a blessing and a curse at the same time. I think I ended up playing more on my 3DS than anything else. Also had streaming access and watched shows. Years later I would get a taste of the Switch and loved it. No Pokémon at that time but instead I played a lot of both Trials of Mana through the Collection of Mans compilation and Pokemon Quest.

It was a weird game for them to drop but it was enough to scratch the itch. Nowadays though, it felt like a rough experiment with the new console. I understand there's fans of Pokemon Quest that enjoy this game, I'm just not one of them. Between the reliance on pure randomness & DLC only to get Pokemon faster through soups, I don't enjoy this game other than having a background thing going on while reading or drawing.

I did eventually get Sword for myself but that was after getting the new Sinnoh remakes. Sword wasn't half bad, even if I felt like Hop wasn't a memorable rival compared to Hau or even Silver from generation 2. The character development he goes through I got to give it some praise, otherwise nothing that would keep me going back to it - unless it was just Shiny hunting for Pokemon only available in the games.

Remember that dexit stuff they got going on in Sword & Shield? I find it a little funny how they planned to do it a generation earlier in Sun & Moon but most of the mons can still be transferred - just no national dex to complete anymore. In some ways, I understand how lengthy getting all 1k+ Pokémon would be. Moreso the case as they seemed to make the amount of available storage boxes smaller in recent titles. Might be me saying that as I'm struggling to find room. It doesn't help how Pokémon Go has been helpful with most of the missing entries needed, but Home still makes it harder and pushes the emphasis on trading with other players...

Pokemon Camp was cute in Sword & Shield, but it's a more watered down Refresh... I think credit is due in the added mechanic of getting visitors with an exclusive curry mark. I do love the idea of giving an extra bit of charm of getting ribbons in previous games. Not a ribbon master type of player, but it's neat for that extra customization & connection. Shame it didn't carry over to the generation 4 remakes, but for reasons...

I ended up with Sword because the legendary wolf creature looked better to me than the shield-maned dog. No disrespect towards Zamazenta but I guess other than needing it for dex completion credits, I don't see myself using him a whole lot... That and the Trainer cards being akin to sports cards is neat.

Which leads us to the one set of remade games lot of folks I've seen love to hate on: Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl. I admit it's a one to one copy of the original Diamond and Pearl with the only Pokemon available being the first four generations with no mega evolutions, no Sylveon, no regional forms - and on top of the storyline being the same as the original Diamond and Pearl games. That also meant no additions Platinum added, aside from the new forms for Shaymin, Giratina, & Rotom of course.

I'm not going to play keyboard warrior for these games but at the same time, I understand the complaints. I had played Platinum first before the original Diamond on the DS and they were like day and night in gameplay. So going into BDSP with the knowledge that this was a faithful remake as a lot of folks love to point out (I got that the first time), I remember picking up Shining Pearl (since I had Diamond and wanted to play opposites when it came to remakes sometimes...) with the mindset of what I would've been like if I was able to snag Pokemon Diamond on the original DS as a kid. The fact that they brought back the same events including the Manaphy egg instead of it being locked to Ranger for obvious reasons is still pretty neat to see and experience. Minus the Platinum outfits being an early purchase bonus - bogus deal considering that should've been a permanent mystery gift instead of timed.

I was more surprised to see the fairy type still prevalent - but again, it would be extremely difficult to cut out said type. Sucks they didn't put Sylveon in the game for various reasons... The chibi style didn't bug me as that was how ORAS was in the overworld and some cases XY. The trainer customization was small, but very welcomed to me. The additions of the shiny charm (a bit broken to most, but whatever) and the oval charm were just Quality of Life additions from Gen 5's sequel games.

It does have its issues such as the debacle with Spinda and Nincada, as well as the lack of Platinum storyline changes. Although the shiny locks being nonexistent in these games would've made up for that, right?

At least Legends: Arceus felt like a proper Sinnoh homage as it was made by the proper company (yeah, I forgot to mention the same people that made Home did BDSP). The changes to the formula of the games were welcomed dearly and it has since become a favorite Pokemon game for most. I still have yet to finish this myself but I think that would change in due time... The Hisuian forms for the starters of a distant region added a lot of depth and lore to Sinnoh of a distant time - Hisui. I also liked Sneasel and Sneasler in the games too... I still haven't gotten used to the Origin Forms for Dialga and Palkia with one being a weird horse and the other that looks like he's got something stuck in his throat... I do enjoy it for being more fast paced and the only time one could finish the dex on their own - proven that they have both the other two gen 8 games (Sw/Sh and BD/SP; not necessarily all four).

Scarlet & Violet were a bit mixed as they still are a bit iffy at the current time of this writing (Aug. 7). Terastalization feels more akin to the delta set of the TCG, but it sure doesn't make it better than either Mega evolutions or daresay - Z-Moves... It does indeed add more strategizing to team building, but I don't play competitively that often. I do have a small handful of favorites I like such as the electric frog (pardon me for not remembering its name) and Tinkaton. She may not be the Mawile I love, but she's a good one. I also liked the poison-rock flower one too. At this point, I forget the names of the new Pokemon except for a small handful because it seems like they don't stick as strongly as the previous gens did.

I still play ScaVio and still working on a complete dex for the Indigo Disk over beating the Elite Four of Blueberry Academy. Shows you how much I favor exploration over completion sometimes... Even now, I still have yet to get Legends ZA which is the recent title to come out for the Switch. I've been trying to ignore the Switch 2 for various reasons - one being how much Ninten treats buying the console as "renting" it and that I wouldn't own it. Just keep building the list of reasons to not invest further on Pokemon guys because it just means I can focus on other games.

I think the only reasons for getting ZA is that A) I loved the Kalos region for the environment when X came out and I still played it despite the watered down difficulty & B) MEGA. EVOLUTIONS. I remember seeing the Pokemon Day highlights showcasing the preview for Legends ZA and seeing the mega helix - I blooming got stoked.

The last time megas were usable was back in Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee, and those were just the Kantonian mons which was limiting. PoGo had some but because I had issues with getting around to finding local raids I didn't have ease of access. I'm still working on getting better connections. I think I got more stoked as more new megas were dropping like crazy: Mega Dragonite? Mega Victreebel? Even Mega Froslass? Yes please. Even with the fact that they already planned DLC for the game, I sighed at it becoming more and more commonplace in today's era, but I'd still get it - long before Mega Lucario Z dropped.

At first, the Hatsune Miku inspired design was a bit odd on top of no type changes - but I guess it grew on me after a bit. Plus the shiny for it looks so cool. It's purple and reminds me of my mother (who's favorite color is purple).

By the time info was dropped for Waves & Winds, I was completely burnt out of the newer games. Between the constant FOMO-like gifts that began from XY with the Blazikenite Torchic up to even ZA's Ralts holding Gardevoirite (although that last bit felt more like an early boost as the mega stone is available without the gift). Most of ZA's FOMO comes from the Battle Royale gifts of the Kalosian Starters' mega stones. I have heard the battles are engaging & they made it easy for even the most casual of players to have a chance, but it still seems like they base the whole experience on getting to experience it while the events are still active.

To me, it's fairly stale at this point and with the prices of things continuing to go up further - it leaves those unable to afford the said luxuries feeling like they are inferior & missing out on the fun. Champions further solidifies issues as it becomes pay to win & despite them trying to push it out as the official tournament-compatible game for all, it feels limiting with only a small handful of mons & another gacha game. At this point, I think TCG packs in real life are more exciting of a gacha in the form of I at least get my money's worth since the cards are tradable with others.

I tried Champions once and it was okay as I won the initial battle but the other two I got a loss handed to me. Maybe I'm super casual to the point I need to practice, but with whom? I hardly have friends that play as I'm the only person that does anymore. Most of the family members that had played stopped around Gen 3 or 4. So unless you're willing to teach me a few things, ease up on the critique of my battle skills.

I hate having to end this whole block with negativity but I think the stopping point being Generation 9 is it. After Legends ZA, I might be relegated to just the previous 9 gens. I will still do my best to help out with dex completion on Home and other games, but I stand firm on stopping at Generation 9 before retiring from the new game hype train.

For those that read this far, thank you for reading the long dump of text. I'm more than happy to be a trade partner on the games as well as with Home - and hopefully after some cleaning up on the Switch storage, Champions practice because I want to like it but feels barring for a casual player. Feel free to send in corrections if needed as I tend to forget some mega stone names and of course, Generation 9 mons...

Need Some Pkmn Stamps? Feel free to send me some more! (send me Lucario ones...)

    

Last Updates: August 7, 2026