[COMPLETED] Those Were The Days - A Blue Nostalgialocke (2024)

First up, we have Lorelei, the "Ice Master". Interestingly,
except for Jynx, ALL of her other Pokémon are also
Water-types. Sweep incoming, folks

Ah Dewgong...what could have been. Dewgong is too
similar to Seel in my mind. There should have been
something more to distinguish it

By this point in your play through, you may have realized
that Cloyster has a strong defense. But, WHY would you try to
take this thing on with anything other than an electric, ground,
or grass-type move?

Once again, Slowbro. The "Shellder" mystery is still unsolved, sadly

And here is the threat, the Mono Ice-type. Given that most
of my team is weak against Ice types, the play here was to
Thunderbolt into submission

And then, Lorelai's final Pokemon: Lapras, which at most you've
seen ONCE before this, and then only if you obtained it in Saffron City

Round 2 is against Bruno, the...Fighting type Master? I'm a
little confused here, and I think Bruno is too. Why, you ask?
Well, you shall soon see...

I'm skipping his first Pokemon, as I will "critique" that in a moment,
and jumping right to Hitmonchan, which is a bit concerning, as it
has Thunder Punch and Ice Punch. If Skeet's Drill peck misses,
or doesn't OHKO, I lose a Pokémon 100%.
Good news: Skeet brought it down

Following 'Chan is 'Lee. Jump Kick and Hi-Jump Kick are
the only "concerns" here, and Hi-Jump can be easily countered
with Fly if he moves first. That being said, Skeet is a Dodrio,
so...yeah, Skeet's moving first

And now, I will roll Bruno's first and fourth Pokémon into 1 critique.
That critique is this: WHY DO YOU HAVE ROCK TYPES IF YOU ARE A
"FIGHTING" MASTER? Onix can't even learn any Fighting-type moves.
My guess is that this is a sort of "book-end" moment. Our first major
"League Opponent", Brock, had one Onix. This is simply a callback...maybe?
That's my best guess, other than the fact that Bruno has no other options
besides, say, Machoke...

...And Machamp. This is certainly the most imposing member of
Bruno's team, but with any Psychic or Flying-type, of which I
have both, this is easy to overcome. However, if you aren't
prepared, you're in for a world of hurt. This Pokémon has Fissure,
a OHKO move...

Round 3 is against Agatha. She's styled as a Ghost-type trainer,
however, looking at her team, this seems wildly inaccurate. Sure, she
has 3 Ghost-types, but she has 2 non-ghost types as well. Now, there
were only 3 Ghost-types in Gen 1, and all 3 are from the Gastly line. But,
I think that she's better billed as a Poison-type master, as ALL of
her Pokémon share this. The problem is, of course, that Koga exists

Once again, I'm skipping Pokémon #1 and moving to #2(?),
the Golbat. While it does show "personality" and "character",
I like that in Yellow they removed the tongue

Haunter followed the Golbat, and has a decent move set...
if Hypnosis could actually hit. I guess that's why it also has
Confuse Ray: to increase odds of it surviving until it can put
your Pokémon to sleep

Arbok...the decidedly not Ghost-type. Bite, Screech,
Glare, and Acid. It's...ok, I guess?

Then the Gengar duo. Gengar #1 has the same moveset as Haunter,
making it just a beefier version of that Pokémon. Gengar #2, however,
is just...messed up. Here are its moves, see if you notice any glaring issues:
Confuse Ray, Night Shade, Toxic, Dream Eater.
If you said "why does it have Dream Eater when it can't put your Pokémon
to sleep?", congrats! You correctly realized that unless one of the two
Pokémon Agatha has can put your Pokémon to sleep, this move is wasted.
And if they could...she's not switching her Pokémon anyway, so you'd have
to just send a sleeping Pokémon out against this Gengar.
WAY too situational to be a good choice here...

At last, I reached Lance. Now, for the most part, it's been
pretty easy for me. I've had to use a few Full Restores,
but nothing that isn't manageable. But now, I must face
Hyper Beam on EVERY Pokémon Lance has...

Speaking of which, this is really my first experience where I
had to use Ice Beam multiple times. I should have led with
Dash, but I simply thought "Dragons are weak against Ice, so...".
That being said...Gyarados isn't a Dragon-type...

Following the Gyarados, who Hyper Beamed me because
"why not?" Lance sends out 2 Dragonair. This duo is much
easier to handle, with Ice Beam wrecking them. In fact,
that's how the rest of the battle goes...

Aerodactyl, also not a Dragon-type, is a threat simply due to
its speed, and does manage to damage Steve further
before falling to Ice Beam

And then we reach the final Pokémon: the Dragonite. I lead
with a Full Restore, fully expecting to take a Hyper Beam
to the face. Lance instead uses Barrier, because...plot armor?
I don't know, but it lets me get two free Ice Beam's in,
conquering the beast

But as we all know, it doesn't end there. I actually enjoy the
fact that the Rival manages to win first, and it's tragic his tenure
as Champion lasts only mere moments (or longer, I guess,
if you take forever to grind). The real question is...
who was Champion BEFORE the Rival? WAS there a Champion?

Now we see the final state of the Rival's team. It's pretty
well balanced, but with Charmander as the starter,
his team has a glaring weakness to electric-types

In fact, even with it's high Special stat, STAB Thunderbolt
on a strong Special is just too much for even an Alakazam
to tank...

Rhydon is next, and this is a solid choice for the rival...
if you picked Charmander. Picking Squirtle or Bulbasaur
makes this too easy

The "Three Stooges" Pokémon is up next, and with the Rival
picking Charizard, this is a solid choice for a Grass-Type

The Rival also has his Gyarados, which is a threat no matter
what starter you pick. It's only reliable weakness is too Electric-types

At last, we end with Charizard. I'd have loved to end this with a
"Starter vs Starter" battle, but that type advantage he'd have
is just too strong. So, Steve ends this with a Crit

And so, I have won. The mission I set out to do has been
accomplished, and my team can finally rest, being entered into
the Hall of Fame...
​