Well, this has been a fun, if not occasionally stressful journey. This is the first time I’ve done a complete Nuzlocke run, or anything remotely close to complete. The last attempt I made, I died at the Pewter Gym (which is why I overleveled like a mofo coming into it this time). But I needed to overlevel, if Chuk almost dying was any indicator. After that point, the game got easier, up until towards the Elite Four. Cerulean would have been much more nightmarish had I done this run in the original Red version (No counters to Starmie = BAD). Once I got past that, the game became pretty much faceroll until Cycling Road, where the trainers were a bit tricky due to a lack of Psychic type on my end. After that, the game became mostly easy. The only reason I lost 3 pokemon before the Elite Four was due to a combination of stupid crap (Destiny Bond, Selfdestruct) and lack of foresight on my end (Not remembering Selfdestruct, not just one-shotting Gastly, and forgetting that Tentacruel was vulnerable to Ground moves because Poison is a sucky type).
The Elite Four are worth talking about completely separately. On normal runs, I usually have a LOT of pokemon faint during the battles, since I always come in underleveled. Additionally, I usually use a crapload of items in battle. Since in the case of the former, I needed all the help I could get towards the end (if the last battle was any indication), and in the case of the latter, the standard Nuzlocke rules prevent me from doing so, I not only had to level a lot more than I’m used to doing beforehand, but I also had to do a bit more thinking, and every move I made felt like that much more of a risk (What would have happened had I lost a pokemon back at Lorelei, for example?) It really did make it more suspenseful, even if the battles 2 and 3 were facerolls on my end (#2 moreso, it helps that I got lucky with #3). Had Charizard woken up before getting K.O.’d, the last battle would have been a LOT more favorable for me, and I probably would have lost at least 2 less of my pokemon. I guess the whole “This is happening for a reason” run-on theme in the original Nuzlocke comics applies here as well. Had it not been for that, the last battle wouldn’t have been anywhere as suspenseful.
Additionally, I have to come clean on something. On the first Snorlax battle, I had a blip in judgment and used my Pokeflute to wake Charizard up. However, I believe that the battle would have played out similarly had I not used it, so I just disregarded that it ever happened. Other than that, everything I did was perfectly within the rules of my run.
Speaking of the rules, if I do end up doing a Nuzlocke run in the future, what rules will I end up changing? Well, if the beginning and end of the game were any indication, my rules seemed to present an adequate amount of challenge. Anything further (limited Pokemon Center visits, level caps) probably would have made the game virtually impossible for me. However, it is worth noting that I got lucky with encounters, and ended up encountering almost no duplicates. However, in a future run, I may apply a no-dupe rule. Similarly, I may also end up allowing myself to use gift pokemon. But we’ll see when that time comes, yeah?
Finally, I had been tempted to do some art for key moments in the run (e.g. the Elite Four), but A. I suck at drawing, and B. I didn’t feel like putting in the extra effort. It’s not out of the question to do something like that in a future Nuzlocke run, or possibly even do the entire run in comic format. Once again, I’ll see where I am when that time comes. However, with real-life stuff coming up for me real soon, it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to update a Nuzlocke with the frequency that I have this run.
So I think that’s just about the entirely of my thoughts regarding this run. I hope you enjoyed this (at least after I figured out how many screenshots to use) as much as I enjoyed producing it.
Until next time,
-Darkie
The Elite Four are worth talking about completely separately. On normal runs, I usually have a LOT of pokemon faint during the battles, since I always come in underleveled. Additionally, I usually use a crapload of items in battle. Since in the case of the former, I needed all the help I could get towards the end (if the last battle was any indication), and in the case of the latter, the standard Nuzlocke rules prevent me from doing so, I not only had to level a lot more than I’m used to doing beforehand, but I also had to do a bit more thinking, and every move I made felt like that much more of a risk (What would have happened had I lost a pokemon back at Lorelei, for example?) It really did make it more suspenseful, even if the battles 2 and 3 were facerolls on my end (#2 moreso, it helps that I got lucky with #3). Had Charizard woken up before getting K.O.’d, the last battle would have been a LOT more favorable for me, and I probably would have lost at least 2 less of my pokemon. I guess the whole “This is happening for a reason” run-on theme in the original Nuzlocke comics applies here as well. Had it not been for that, the last battle wouldn’t have been anywhere as suspenseful.
Additionally, I have to come clean on something. On the first Snorlax battle, I had a blip in judgment and used my Pokeflute to wake Charizard up. However, I believe that the battle would have played out similarly had I not used it, so I just disregarded that it ever happened. Other than that, everything I did was perfectly within the rules of my run.
Speaking of the rules, if I do end up doing a Nuzlocke run in the future, what rules will I end up changing? Well, if the beginning and end of the game were any indication, my rules seemed to present an adequate amount of challenge. Anything further (limited Pokemon Center visits, level caps) probably would have made the game virtually impossible for me. However, it is worth noting that I got lucky with encounters, and ended up encountering almost no duplicates. However, in a future run, I may apply a no-dupe rule. Similarly, I may also end up allowing myself to use gift pokemon. But we’ll see when that time comes, yeah?
Finally, I had been tempted to do some art for key moments in the run (e.g. the Elite Four), but A. I suck at drawing, and B. I didn’t feel like putting in the extra effort. It’s not out of the question to do something like that in a future Nuzlocke run, or possibly even do the entire run in comic format. Once again, I’ll see where I am when that time comes. However, with real-life stuff coming up for me real soon, it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to update a Nuzlocke with the frequency that I have this run.
So I think that’s just about the entirely of my thoughts regarding this run. I hope you enjoyed this (at least after I figured out how many screenshots to use) as much as I enjoyed producing it.
Until next time,
-Darkie