Key

Gym Battles In Pokemon Games

You know how Pokemon games go, you level up your Pokemon, take on gym leaders that are spread across the whole region, then finally meet your fate at the Pokemon League or Elite Four as they are otherwise called. Both gym leaders and elite four members are groups of trainers that are above average as far as Pokemon they use and how they use them in relation to the other trainers in the game. Often times, these are meant to be tests of your abilities and training and to see how you have progressed through the game. And believe me, in a lot of these games, these challenges can be both very fun and very challenging. Though again I will say that probably in the later games, these challenges got easier and easier. In the early games, this wasn't as much the case. Either way, these particular battles are a staple in the games because it gives the player an added challenge on top of tackling the world you see before you. And I'm going to talk about some of the battles that I both really enjoy and ones that gave me a really hard time upon first playthrough. A lot of these will probably be from earlier games so...here we go:

First off, we have Tate & Liza from the third generation. This is one of those battles that I will probably always remember because if I remember correctly, double battles were not a regular thing amongst gym leaders so while that was unique on its own, they also came packing with two rather strong Pokemon that work well with each other; Solrock and Lunatone. Both very powerful Pokemon if you didn't bring Pokemon that can resist both ground and psychic attacks. This is one of those battles that will surely test you so make sure you come prepared.

Next up, Whitney from Goldenrod City. Whitney is pretty well known for being a relatively difficult gym leader, especially with how early on you fight her. She comes equipped with several Pokemon but the one that has always given me trouble as well as other players is that dreaded Miltank. Rollout is an amazing move if you can use it right, and man...that Miltank used it right. I honestly think Whitney is the gym leader across all games that I've probably lost the most to. It's just that fighting a Pokemon this strong early on is pretty tough because at this point, there aren't a lot of good opportunities to train so it can feel like a slog. But, once you beat her it's worth it because again, that damn Miltank is tough.

Norman from Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire is another gym leader that I would consider to be relatively tough compared to the others in the game. He comes equipped with some pretty strong Pokemon in both Vigoroth and Slaking. Honestly, him using both of these Pokemon made me want to get a Slaking of my own, until I realized that it has an effect that makes it so you don't attack as often as other Pokemon. So, usually I would just keep it at Vigoroth and reak havoc. And boy, this combination of Pokemon can be pretty tough because they also come equipped with a move called "Facade" which can be detrimental to your team if you're not prepared. Obviously, just come packing with some really strong Pokemon and you'll prevail. Slaking is a pretty tough Pokemon as well as Vigoroth so yeah, come prepared.

The last one I want to talk about is Brock from the first generation of games, but more specifically, Pokemon Yellow. A lot of people already know what I'm going to talk about here but here's the basic gist of it: Rock Pokemon which is what Brock specializes in are immune to electric type Pokemon / moves, and given that the starter Pokemon in Pokemon Yellow is indeed an electric type Pokemon with electric type moves, it provides an additional challenge on the player. Do you over train your Pikachu and just use slam or something to take down the foe, or do you search the grass below Pewter City to acquire a different Pokemon that can take on Brock. While this gym battle is not necessarily too difficult in Pokemon Red / Blue, it's definitely a lot more challenging in Pokemon Yellow just simply for the fact that you kind of have to think outside the box and find some way to take down both Geodude and Onix this early in the game when all you have is a Pokemon that can't hurt it. But man, after this gym battle, you can continue on playing and the rest of the game certainly gets easier as the next gym battle is strictly water Pokemon, but yeah, this one is a doozy for Pokemon Yellow players, like myself.

And as I said, there may even be more that I'm forgetting to talk about but unfortunately that's due to two things: not having played a lot of the later Pokemon games and simultaneously, the later games don't provide nearly as much of a challenge as you'd think they would. Comparatively, the earlier Pokemon games up until about generation 5 provided some sense of challenge when it came to both the gym battles and elite four. They're still fun to do in the later games, but I remember not even finishing Pokemon Sword / Shield because I was just bored by the time I got to the elite four. I just didn't even bother fighting them.