Fan Site
Fan SitePokémon is my favorite video game franchise. It started back halfway through sixth grade when I saw one of my friends playing a fan game called Pokémon Uranium. Quite quickly after this, I started watching playthroughs of the game before being able to download and play the game myself. I continued to play more fan games like Pokémon Insurgence until one of my relatives came to visit California and gifted me a copy of Pokémon Sun, becoming the first official Pokémon game I played. Ironically, I got into the franchise from a fan-game that got copy-striked by Nintendo. To this day, I am still playing the games and engaging with fan content. The biggest reason I love the franchise is because of the diversity of designs seen. There are over one thousand Pokémon and I find myself in love with them for various different reasons, whether they be cute, cool, a combination of both, or something else entirely.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a wonderful experience. It strays away from the gameplay the franchise has relied on since Gen 1, with the ability to catch Pokémon in the overworld. The major gameplay shift also helps the game when it comes to fun boss fights, as they still feel challenging even with an over-leveled team. Although the game introduced a relatively small amount of new Pokémon and regional variants compared to other mainline games, I like pretty much all of them with a few exceptions. Some notable favorites are Hisuian Samurott, Hisuian Goodra, Ursaluna, and Hisuian Zoroark. It was a much-needed comeback after the disappointing release of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, though its lifespan was cut short because of the just plainly stupid decision to release Pokémon Scarlet & Violet later that same year. However, it showed that Pokémon was capable of shaking up their gameplay formula without having to suffer a massive financial failure and served as a sign of good things to come, such as the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
I had to include a Pokémon fan game section as that is how I got into the franchise in the first place. Although Pokémon Uranium was the first fan-game I played, I actually like Pokémon Xenoverse a bit more. The game has up-to-date gameplay mechanics while maintaining the pixilated 2-D graphics older Pokémon games had. I love how the game looks and how the sprites in battle are animated, which may seem not too impressive but remember: this is a fan game made by a bunch of people online for free. The game was initially released in Italian, since that is where the game devs WEEDle were located, but was later translated into English. The story was pretty nice, being the best of what a standard Pokémon story looks like. The best part of any Pokémon fan game is what kinds of fan-made Pokémon (or Fakémon) are introduced, and Xenoverse introduces some fantastic ones. My personal favorites are Xenoversal Shulong and Rexquiem.
I did call it, my team would change since I last made this site. I will not go into much detail here about the team as there is really only two new team members and will discuss them briefly.
Not necessarily a new team member since I already have Decidueye on my team, I just decided to use the Hisuian variant over the Alolan variant. The main reason is the Ghost type is not too helpful for the team considering Greninja's Dark type hits the same things Ghost moves do. Also since Pokémon Legends: Arceus is my favorite game, Hisuian Decidueye would naturally be one of my favorites. Although I picked Hisuian Samurott, I love Hisuian Decidueye's design and autumnal colors. I also shiny hunted a Hisuian Decidueye as it adopts the color scheme of Alolan Decidueye and it looks really nice. If you want more details about why I love Decidueye, check out its section here!
Corviknight is easily the best of the regional bird Pokémon (Bird Pokémon
that are found very early in the game, usually in the first few routes). Corviknight
has an excellet defensive typing in
Flying
and
Steel,
leaving it with only two weaknesses
to Fire and Electric. The reason I chose to replace Mega Lucario for Corviknight is
so my team has a member that resists Fairy type attacks. Sure, Lucario was part Steel
but it doesn't resist them as Fighting type is weak to Fairy and makes them deal
neutral damage. It doesn't helps since the only other member that resisted Fairy was
Hisuian Arcanine and half my team is weak to Fairy with the addition of Hisian Decidueye.
Although
Sword & Shield
were alright games, Corviknight was an easy pick
considering its good typing and early availability. Its
Gigantamax
form is also
pretty cool. Corviknight also the first Pokémon I ever shiny-hunted using
the
Masuda Method.
It took me almost a week of going over the same bridge on
Route 5
over and over again until I finally got my shiny Corviknight. Immediately after
I decided to shiny hunt Charizard and got it later the same day.
This team will most likely change as the series goes on and more Pokémon are introduced. However, this best represents how I go about playing the games. The team has a fairly balanced roster with few major defensive holes and most of each member's weaknesses are covered by another. I will go into further detail on why I like Pokémon and some reasons they got a team slot. Some reasons are because they are really good in-game or because I simply like them. Anything underlined is a link in case you want to look more into it (though I understand if you don't)
Greninja is my favorite Pokémon. It is a
Water
and
Dark
type and like a
ninja, it is quite fast and sports great attacking stats. Its signature move
Water Shuriken.
Water Shuriken is a
Special
Water type multi-hit move that has added priority. According
to its dex entries, Greninja's Water Shurikens are sharp enough to cut through metal.
It gains other Water moves like Scald, Surf, Hydro Pump, and Liquidation and some
decent Dark type moves with Night Slash and Dark Pulse.
It also gains a plethora of coverage moves like Acrobatics, Ice Beam, Extrasensory,
Grass Knot, and Sludge Wave. Its hidden ability
Protean
changed Greninja's type with
every move it uses. For example, if it uses Water Shuriken, it becomes a pure
Water type. This ability made it quite powerful in competitive single battles in Gen 6 & 7.
The ability got nerfed in Gen 9 where it only swaps to the type of the first move used as
it clashed with the Gen 9's gimmick
Terastallization
(which changes your Pokémon's
type and give it a silly crystal hat).
I started loving Greninja
right around when I started getting into the franchise and watching the Pokémon
XY & Z anime on Netflix. During the third season? (I think) I was introduced to
Ash Greninja,
where the main character Ash Ketchum and his Greninja synchronize and
become one.
The "bond phenomenon" acts similar to the main gimmick of
Pokémon X & Y:
Mega Evolution.
Through the power of friendship, the Pokémon goes
Super Saiyan and gains a new look, higher stats, and sometimes a new type.
Though it was not introduced in the XY games, Ash Greninja was introduced via
the Pokémon Sun & Moon Demo where it could be transferred to the main game
after completing the demo. Greninja's appearance in the anime alongside its appearance
in the video game
Super Smash Bros. 4
is probably what shot Greninja up so high in popularity, even winning Google's
Pokémon of the Year vote.
It is quite a basic pick, but it means a lot to me.
Decidueye is my second favorite Pokémon. It is
Grass and
Ghost
type and
has a somewhat balanced stat spread with high attacking stats and has
decent defenses and speed. It gains (in my opinion) one of the most creative signature moves
Spirit Shackle.
It is a solid
Physical
Ghost move with 80 base power and preventing the opponent from switching out.
Although the act of shooting an arrow is not necessarily new, I have always found Decidueye
using one of its hoodie strings to fire the bow to be really cool. Other interesting
Ghost moves it learns are the always helpful Shadow Ball and priority Shadow Sneak.
In terms of Grass moves, it really only needs
Leaf Blade
(one of my favorite moves in both name and how it is animated) but also gains Seed Bomb, Giga Drain, and Energy Ball.
It has some limited coverage in Acrobatics, Brave Bird, Low Sweep, and Steel Wing.
Rowlet,
and by extension Decidueye, was the first Pokémon I chose in an
official Pokémon game. Initially I was going to pick
Litten
as I had an
extreme bias towards Fire type Pokémon until I saw the silly lil round owl
spin. Thank goodness I did because Decidueye has an amazing final design. It sports
a green hooded cloak with
hoodie strings it can use to hide its face when it sleeps. As mentioned earlier,
its hoodie strings double as a bowstring whenever Decidueye wants to use Spirit Shackle.
My love for this Pokémon also extends to its Hisuian variant introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Replacing the Ghost for
Fighting
type, it gains a more traditional Japanese design with
a straw hat instead of a hoodie. It also sports more autumnal colors, something that is
not seen too often with Grass type Pokémon and is a welcome edition. It was
also the only Pokémon I actively shiny hunted in Legends: Arceus. Although it lacks
Spirit Shackle, it gains an equally good, if not better, signature move in
Triple Arrows.
Triple Arrows has a solid 90 base power and has several great secondary effects: increased
chance to land a critical hit, to drop the target's Defense by one stage, and
to flinch.
Sylveon is my favorite of evolutions or Eeveelutions. Before it was the Psychic type Espeon, but I have since changed my mind. More or less because I like Sylveon's color scheme and Fairy is just simply a better type than Psychic, having good matchups into Dark, Fighting, and Dragon types in addition to an immunity to Dragon moves. Its coverage is limited, but the few moves it gets like Mystical Fire and Psychic cover Sylveon's main weaknesses. Sylveon also has a more interesting offensive ability in Pixilate, which turns Normal moves into Fairy type and gives them a damage boost on top of that. It helps that Sylveon was introduced in the same generation as my favorite Pokémon Greninja. Also it happens to be really popular, scoring #6 in the Pokémon of the Year vote, right behind another Eeveelution Umbreon. I don't have any real deep here, I just think the design is neat :)
Lucario has been a fan favorite Pokémon, although Pokémon kinda planned
it considering they gave it its own
movie and it also
appeared in
Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Oddly, it did not gain too much traction in the game it was introduced because
it was available quite late into the game. Luckily, it got its time to shine because
of its earlier availability in
Pokémon Black 2 & White 2
and the game just gifting you a Mega Lucario in
Pokémon X & Y.
It's no wonder why it got the silver medal in
Pokémon of the Year vote.
Lucario's "signature" move
Aura Sphere
is basically the Hadoken, even the Japanese pronunciation sounds similar to it.
(I put it in quotes as many other Pokémon learn this move by leveling up and other means).
It is a solid 80 base power move that never misses, which is nice as many players joke about the
move
Focus Blast
always missing despite a 70% accuracy. Despite the introduction of the Fairy type in
Gen 6, Lucario was not all that shook considering its secondary
Steel
type, which not only made Lucario neutral to Fairy attacks but also gave it
a way to deal super effective damage to them with moves like Flash Cannon and Meteor Mash.
Its Mega Evolution is also pretty good since it is just given to you in X & Y
as mentioned earlier, but further expands on Lucario's strengths, being it
high Speed and attacking stats. It also gains an amazing ability in
Adaptability,
which makes moves that share a type with Lucario deal even more damage.
It is also another case of a Pokémon that I have started to like more because
of the
anime,
with Lucario being the only Pokémon Ash Mega Evolved.
Garchomp is the team's resident powerhouse and yet another Pokémon that showed up on
Pokémon of the Year vote.
This
pseudo-legendary
sports a
Dragon
and
Ground
type. The Ground type is more important to me as I always like to
have a Ground type or at least a strong Pokémon that learns
Earthquake
to handle
Electric
type Pokémon. Garchomp has a great stat spread, with more invested into
its Attack and Speed. What makes this stat spread truly fantastic is how none of
its other stats are lacking. It still has great bulk and its Special Attacks pack
a punch. Garchomp is a pretty popular Pokémon, scoring #7 in the Pokémon
of the Year vote in 2020. The main reason I love it is because of the game
Pokémon Platinum.
In this game, you have access to its first stage
Gible
right after beating the second gym. Its early availability in these games
coupled with the current lowest level to evolve it of all psuedo-legendaries
(Level 24 for
Gabite
and Level 48 for Garchomp) helped it to become a staple
on Sinnoh teams. It also helps that the game's champion
Cynthia's
ace is Garchomp.
As if it could not get more absurd, Garchomp also has a Mega Evolution. The funny
thing about this is that most players just use regular Garchomp. Despite a massive boost
to its Attack stat, it got a bit slower. This slight dip in Speed killed several
good matchups Garchomp had as Speed was more impactful than Attack, and it certainly did
not need too much help there.
The final member of my team. It was a little difficult choosing a
Fire type, but
ultimately settled on Hisuian Arcanine. The first and most important reason
is because Arcanine is a really big puppy dog.
Although I could have used the original Arcanine, there are several key traits that
made me choose the
Hisuian variant.
Balancing my team is important, and its secondary type was
a key factor. Unlike its Kantonian form which is pure Fire, Hisuian Arcanine had the
Rock type.
This does leave this version of Arcanine in dire straits against Ground and Water moves
considering both Fire and Rock are weak to these attacks. However, the Rock type helped
against Decidueye's weakness to Flying moves. Since no other team member had a type
advantage versus Flying types, Hisuian Arcanine made a perfect fit. Another reason is
because of Hisuian Arcanine's abilities, specifically
Rock Head.
Rock Head prevents the user from taking any recoil damage, which is extremely good,
allowing your Pokémon to use high power moves without drawback (since several
high power moves, moves with a base power higher than 100, have the user take some
damage as a counterbalance). It works especially well for Hisuian Arcanine has access
to several strong moves it can spam without fear of recoil damage:
Flare Blitz
for its primary Fire attack,
Head Smash
for an absurdly strong Rock attack, and even
Wild Charge
to deal super effective damage to the Water types that threaten it.
Charizard was once my favorite Pokémon (being dethroned by Greninja).
The main reason Charizard got booted was to
make the team balanced. Although I needed a
Fire
type, Charizard's
Flying
type
did not help the team too much defensively, especially with no team member
naturally having a good matchup against other Flying types. This is why I chose
Hisuian Arcanine over it as its secondary
Rock
typing was simply more helpful.
Its popularity was a major factor in why it got a slot on the team and it isn't
too hard to see why.
A pretty simple yet effective design helps Charizard to become one of the most
popular Pokémon.
This popularity does come with one major issue:
Oversaturation.
Not in a color sense, but how much this Pokémon is pushed
in its marketing. This was first apparent in Gen 6 where Charizard got 2
different Mega Evolutions.
Although unnecessary, both of them are pretty cool.
Mega Charizard X (left) is my favorite due to its dramatic color change from warm
orange and yellow to a bruising black and blue. The new color scheme is more
in line with what I like to wear. It also gains the
Dragon type
many fans noted that Charizard lacked for several years (for balancing reasons).
Its new ability
Tough Claws
boosted the damage of moves that made contact with the target.
Mega Charizard Y (right) is more
in line with a Charizard evolution, expanding upon already existing design elements
base Charizard had. It gains the ability
Drought,
which boosts the damage of Charizard's Fire moves and lets it spam
Solar Beam against any pesky Rock or Water types.
Initially, Mega Zard Y was my favorite until I watched
Pokémon Origins on YouTube.
Although this was obvious favoritism, most people are not complaining too much
about it because
Venusaur and
Blastoise
were both available in the game and they
also got a Mega Evolution
(it's probably just a vocal minority, but I think it is still important to note).
The Charizard favoritism got more blatant in
Pokémon Sword & Shield
where Charizard was not only revealed to be the
ace of the game's champion
Leon
but also the only Kanto starter included in
the base game. Venusaur and Blastoise could only be transferred in from Pokémon
Home or could be obtained in paid DLC (at least its Gigantamax form is cool).
However, this might just be me seeing specific gripes people had with the release of
Sword & Shield.
Although oversaturation is a big reason why it kind of kills this Pokémon's
enjoyment for some people, it did not impact me too much since I just joke
about it to myself and move on. Charizard still remains one of my favorites, so
I'm not too fussed whenever it appears again.
Snorlax is my spirit animal, just a big guy who eats and sleeps all day.
Like Charizard, Snorlax did not help much with the team's balance.
Normal type
basically offers no defensive properties outside an immunity to Ghost attacks,
which is nice but rendered obsolete with Greninja's Dark type, offering both a
resistance to Ghost moves and a way to deal super effective damage. While
Normal types have been given an absurd amount of coverage attacks, the ones I
would've given Snorlax are already applied to other Pokémon. Snorlax's
moveset would have consisted of
Body Slam,
Crunch,
Thunder Punch, &
Earthquake.
Body Slam is a Normal move and I'm okay without it, Crunch is already covered by
Greninja's Dark moves, Thunder Punch is outclassed by Arcanine's Wild Charge in
terms of power (and Arcanine's
Rock Head
ability blocks Wild Charge's recoil damage),
and Earthquake hits much harder from Garchomp considering its higher
Attack stat and moves that share a type with the user deal more damage. Still,
if I could add a seventh member to the team, it would probably be this guy.
Didn't mention it above, but Snorlax has a Gigantamax form and I think it fits
pretty well. It's also kind of funny when you look at
the history of Snorlax's sprites.