# Anyone else give their playthroughs themes?



## Deleted member 125418 (Aug 23, 2014)

I don't know if this is a common thing or not, but i i got the idea many years ago playing with certain tools on sapphire trying to change the playable gender sprites to lass and hiker to make the playable trainer themed around only using certain kinds of pokemon. it's kinda like how some people do nuzlockes or other challenges to make the games feel fresh/different, past 3rd generation i was getting bored with my usual playthroughs so i started giving my characters loose backstories and themes while I played the newer games instead of just "starting over my journey in a new region" as i always had...

 - for example in Platinum I themed my character as a ghost trainer since she would eventually end her journey catching a ghost dragon in the netherworld (i got a shiny ninetails as her signature pokemon bc it looks like a ghost fox)
 - soulsilver was a triad enforcer who's goal was to destroy the remnants of team rocket!! (and get phone numbers and pictures with womenz!!) themed around collecting real-myth pokemon and eventually my heartgold character would trade over the fenghuang (ho-oh) to him because she's just a researcher who only cares about filling out the pokedex! (i've never actualy filled out the pokedex in any game, so i figured i would take this as an opportunity to try, but still haven't finished because i got bored)
 - white1 i didn't do anything special because i felt it had a more engaging story... but in white2 I played it straight out with mei being a movie star so after every gym battle i forced myself to do at least 3 movies each time, and all her pokemon needed to star in movies (lucario stars in the riolu girl movies, etc.)
 - x is my diamond version's legendary hunter/collector on an overseas vacation, i transfered most/all legendaries from other versions to diamond, and then last year to the pokebank
 - with the gen3 remakes coming up, because of the primeval legendaries, i'm planning to use ancient or fossil pokemon like relicanth as a surfer and aerodactyl as a flyer, etc. and actually use those fossil pokemon i tend to neglect


~
i'm a neeeerd


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## Yami Munesanzun (Aug 23, 2014)

you're going to use _Relicanth_ as a Special Attacker?


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## Deleted member 125418 (Aug 23, 2014)

well the metagame's not really the point, the point is using pokemon in the main game journey i don't normally use, i'd like to go explore a shipwreck or float down leftward currents with a rock fish  and skip the typical HM slavery


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Aug 23, 2014)

Cuckold monsters


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## Yami Munesanzun (Aug 23, 2014)

well, the In-game gets difficult if you don't use a Pokemon's appropriate offensive capability.


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## Deleted member 125418 (Aug 23, 2014)

in theory maybe but in practice i never found it to be overly difficult, you can clear most gyms with just 1-3 solid pokemon give or take a few wasted moves, the elite 4s might be a different story but by then you've basically just gone on an interesting adventure! in platinum if i ever used a non-ghost type for any reason, it had to know a ghost move, ergo many who could learn it learned shadow ball


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## Aduro (Aug 23, 2014)

Yami Munesanzun said:


> well, the In-game gets difficult if you don't use a Pokemon's appropriate offensive capability.



The in-game is only difficult if you're doing a Nuzlocke or taking on Youngster Joey's OP top% Rattata. Other than that its just a matter of preparing your team a little.

The closest I came to a themed playthrough was a flying-type run in HG. I could only use flying types and couldn't transfer flyers from other games except in exchange for a pokemon of equal or greater power ie Articuno for Raikou. It was pretty fun, although Lt. Surge was a real pain as it takes a while to train a decent Gligar.


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## Deleted member 125418 (Aug 23, 2014)

I had also considered a flying type run for HGSS since Ho-oh and Lugia are catchable in both and they seem to be "king of birds" type pokemon, also for ORAS because of the sky pillar. These definitely also made me more willing to incorporate legendaries in my teams, or trade them away since some cartridges would fit better with certain legendaries than others


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## Drunkenwhale (Aug 24, 2014)

I pretty much ignore the main story altogether - I don't assume I'm some rookie kid who is first starting out on a journey who has this rare talent to be able to train pokemon easily and is some kid of destiny who wiped out the local evil team and became the champion.

*I just assume the role of an (often retired) pokemon veteran who spends most of his time breeding pokemon.*

It's because of this I find gamefreak's desire to play up the initial single player story, at the cost of minuscule post-game areas and content as well as forcing down rules for multiplayer (I loved the auto Lv. 100 thing from Gen 4) to get a tad annoying.


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## Deleted member 125418 (Aug 24, 2014)

i assume most people feel the same and so breeze through the campaign just to get on with the postgame battling, ev training & iv breeding with the new mechanics and moves, and transfering their starters/legendaries/shinies. Which i find to be a shame since it always felt like gamefreak kept the stories simple and formulaic to let people come up with their own journeys, but by doing so people just stop caring about them

i like to headcanon that the vast majority of serious trainers in the world are elite, competitive battlers who travel between regions in order to defeat leagues and champions, and collect regional badges to promote their international street cred. And by extension all ace trainers or veteran NPC's you see in the games who don't appear to be that strong are just people doing challenge runs, or in the middle of ev training their weakest pokemon


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## Island (Aug 29, 2014)

kijogigo said:


> i like to headcanon that the vast majority of serious trainers in the world are elite, competitive battlers who travel between regions in order to defeat leagues and champions, and collect regional badges to promote their international street cred. *And by extension all ace trainers or veteran NPC's you see in the games who don't appear to be that strong are just people doing challenge runs, or in the middle of ev training their weakest pokemon*


This is a headcanon I can get behind.

As for challenges, I did a Joey challenge a long time ago, and recently, I did a Dunsparce-only challenge in X.

I would do a wonder trade challenge, but I don't want to reset either of my games. D:


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