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Hard Enough - Pokemon SI

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Yeah, I don't think there are trainers that Giovanni can get his hands on that can actually do more than put some dust in Steven's suit.
 
Cute peek into Sabrina's mind

I hope Lance does well setting up, he's a good guy. I like him, it's not his fault the place he took over is broken

I am still not a fan of Karen's particular form of Darkness, whether it's effective or not. It may be easier to control than what Brock has but I hate the petty cruelty
 
Lance seems to have some issues with an aging and complacent bureaucracy that clearly must not have had enough of a shakeup from the war.

Giovanni and Blaine, on the other hand, look to be about two tinfoil hats short of actual conspiracy theorists. Also, Sinnoh was an "undiscovered" region? Really? That actually surprises me... and makes me wonder just how bad both Lance's and Steven's teeth are gonna get kicked in once Cynthia rolls on up with that goddamn Garchomp of hers.

And lastly, Sabrina. Once again, Sabrina is an absolute delight, and I cannot wait for her Ralts to hatch. I can only guess at the interactions, but I have zero doubts they will be utterly adorable.
 
Viva01 said:
Ah teenagers, they made it so easy sometimes. She shot a quick message to Brock asking what he thought of her match.

He didn't reply until the next day. 'Ah! I forgot! I had to read the twins and Munchlax a story! Sorry! I'll get the next one! How'd you do?'

Karen shut her transceiver away calmly, and in no way, shape, or form, threw a hissy fit.
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Ouch lol
 
October Daye said:
I got you covered.

Assuming this is what you were after. And yeah... only a matter of time until Cynthia shows up and kicks everybody's teeth in.
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Oh yeah, I hadn't really thought about what official first contact would look like with other regions. Got a bunch of those in the future to look forward to I guess. Does it run by prison rules where we have the Champions/Elite Four/Gym Trainers all beat each other up to see who's top dog?
 
October Daye said:
and makes me wonder just how bad both Lance's and Steven's teeth are gonna get kicked in once Cynthia rolls on up with that goddamn Garchomp of hers.
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October Daye said:
And yeah... only a matter of time until Cynthia shows up and kicks everybody's teeth in.
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As someone that hasn't played a pokemon game since the 90s (but has remained peripherally aware of certain things in the franchise), what's the context of Cynthia and her Garchomp that's gotten her to meme status?
 
Pi In The Sky said:
As someone that hasn't played a pokemon game since the 90s (but has remained peripherally aware of certain things in the franchise), what's the context of Cynthia and her Garchomp that's gotten her to meme status?
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Compared to the other Champions, and the relative lack of diversity or power to their teams, Cynthia comes out of left field with a team that is actively difficult to handle.

Her Spiritomb lead, at the time, had nothing that could hit it super effectively because Fairy didn't exist yet. Combine that with string special offense and decent overall bulk, and Spiritomb was the barrier to entry.

The rest of her team was no slouch either. She had a number of strong Pokémon with diverse types and move sets.

But none of that prepared you for her Garchomp. If memory serves, that thing had maxed out IVs, was high level, and the AI on it just went up a notch. Dragon/Ground is a nasty type, and if you brought Ice to the party, it had Brick Break ready for you. And if you were cheeky enough to bring a Froslass… well, STAB Earthquake or Dragon Claw was basically a guaranteed OHKO on her too.

To sum it up, Cynthia was the moment the Dark Souls music started playing for a lot of younger Pokémon fans. She was a challenge that even Red, high up on his mountain, couldn't match.
 
And then for the remake, to address criticisms of the games being too easy nowadays, they kept the whole game mostly the same… except they buffed Cynthia to competitive battling standards of move sets and items. The AI and levels are worse than an actual human could get to, of course, but still. Good held items make a big difference.
 
Cynthia v Lance would be interesting to see. It would probably also be a chance for Kanto and Johto to come together under the flag of "our champion is better than yours".

As well, since I keep waking up tonight, I think I see where Ash is heading. With Pewter Gym booked for the foreseeable future and no chance of even getting near Brock's home to challenge him due to Graveller, Sabrina, or Lileep, Ash decides to keep going in hopes of reaching the newly announced mini tournament hosted by the League. Perhaps at the same time, one of Brock's siblings asks if they can go enter the same tournament. He okays it, and that is the sibling who ends up meeting Ash.

And thus Ash returns much later for his 8th and final badge, making both sides feel accomplished in their goals when he eventually wins.
 
October Daye said:
Compared to the other Champions, and the relative lack of diversity or power to their teams, Cynthia comes out of left field with a team that is actively difficult to handle.

Her Spiritomb lead, at the time, had nothing that could hit it super effectively because Fairy didn't exist yet. Combine that with string special offense and decent overall bulk, and Spiritomb was the barrier to entry.

The rest of her team was no slouch either. She had a number of strong Pokémon with diverse types and move sets.

But none of that prepared you for her Garchomp. If memory serves, that thing had maxed out IVs, was high level, and the AI on it just went up a notch. Dragon/Ground is a nasty type, and if you brought Ice to the party, it had Brick Break ready for you. And if you were cheeky enough to bring a Froslass… well, STAB Earthquake or Dragon Claw was basically a guaranteed OHKO on her too.

To sum it up, Cynthia was the moment the Dark Souls music started playing for a lot of younger Pokémon fans. She was a challenge that even Red, high up on his mountain, couldn't match.
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Thanks for the info! On the one hand I'm sad that I fell out of the games after G1 and never got to experience it at the time, but on the other hand knowing how certain things in games made me turbo-mad when I was younger { :oops:} it sounds like I would have probably broken my Game Boy trying to beat her.
 
For more context, Garchomp as a Pokémon was so strong that it ended up in the same competitive tier as the big legendaries like Kyogre and Mewtwo, the only other non-legendary to manage that at the time was Wobuffet/wynaut (which is just a very OP gimmick Pokémon)
 
Pi In The Sky said:
As someone that hasn't played a pokemon game since the 90s (but has remained peripherally aware of certain things in the franchise), what's the context of Cynthia and her Garchomp that's gotten her to meme status?
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She leads with a pokemon that has no weaknesses and is pretty defensive, so it turns into a dustup.. but it has a move called Embargo, which when used prevents you from using items. When you consider the attacks that it uses have additional effects, any prolonged back and forth has a high change of triggering an omniboost for her (Silver Wind), causing you to flinch and lose momentum (Dark Pulse), or shearing your special defense off bit by bit (Psychic). And on top of that, its special ability is Pressure, which causes opposing pokemon to use up their move points quickly. This is absolutely devilish, since it trips up players who load up their lead with strong moves with few uses and neglect the rest of their team (ie. everyone except the nerds who pvp). The rest of her team is just as competently designed, so you gotta slog through them only to run into the literal devil himself: Garchomp, her ace, which has absurd stats... actually better stats than most players would have unless they specifically grinded their stats. That's when you find out you've been playing the game like it's Animal Crossing but the final boss is Sephiroth with a comically large sword in hand.

It's not an impossible battle if you're playing correctly, but the difficulty spike when you run into her is like waking from a fever dream to find you're driving the wrong way on a freeway, if you've just been bullying your way through the game like in past Pokemon games.
 
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