#and why are they making new gen1 characters?? I was totally expecting her to be gen3

[worm-in-a-trenchcoat]

Why does that Lenore lady look like Twyla in her early thirties?? 💀

[ianmrid]

...Nothing Can Stop You...

Pokémon Diamond: Completed!

One very noticeable thing about the Sinnoh region in Diamond (and Pearl) is the weirdly unbalanced Pokédex. There are 107 new pokémon introduced in Gen4 with only 151 in total in the Diamond and Pearl regional ‘Dex. Strangest of all, this doesn’t even include all 107 new pokémon with most, but not all, of the new evolutions to previous pokémon, plus a selection of the Legendary and Mythicals, all held back until the post-game/National Dex. This isn’t a big deal but definitely leaves some types a very unbalanced, most egregiously of all, the Fire-type. Sinnoh introduces only five new Fire-type pokémon: the Infernape line (consisting of three pokémon), as well as Magmortar (the new evolution to Magmar) and the Legendary Heatram, the latter two of which are not in the Regional ‘Dex and only available in the post-game. This leaves the Elite Four Fire-type expert, Flint, with only two out of five of his team actually being Fire-type (and one of those being Gen1s Rapidash). Weird choices there, Game Freak.

Still, with only 151 pokémon in the Regional ‘Dex, it is relatively easy to at least see them all so my first journey through Sinnoh read: 151 seen / 73 caught. This is pretty decent since my focus was mostly on catching Gen4 ‘mons as I could fill in the gaps with Pal Park and didn’t have to basically start all over again like I did in Hoenn. Once I got the National ‘Dex in the post-game, this bumped up to 263 seen / 105 caught. Overall I spent 75 hours and 18 minutes on Pokémon Diamond - longer than I was expecting, but at least gave me plenty of time to spend with my team. Let’s take a look at them:

Kurmaraja the Torterra: Initially, I wasn’t sure which was to be my first Sinnoh starter, but having played through the game with Torterra, I am confident I made the right choice. Torterra has good HP, Defence, and Special Defence, making it nice and bulky, but it still has the ability to dish out powerful STAB Earthquakes. It could have done wit another Physical Grass-type STAB move (I ended up sticking with Razor Leaf as I didn’t like the recoil damage from Wood Hammer), but it also was built to last with Leach Seed and as long as I kept it away from its 4x Ice weakness, it was able to grind a lot of things down. To counteract it’s slow Speed stat, I gave it the Quick Claw - and item that will randomly fire at the start of the turn and let Torterra move first, regardless of how quick the opponent is. This came in very handy on many occasions, but certainly isn’t the most reliable strategy around!

Screamo the Staraptor: Screamo - named since it has the most emo hairstyle of any pokémon ever - is absolutely one of the best regional birds in all four generations so far. It is quick and hits really hard with STAB Brave Bird (another recoil-dealing move!) but most important of all is that it learns Close Combat. It is very rare for a Flying-type to learn a Fighting-type move, especially one as strong as this, but having it allowed was for Screamo to face off against the Ice- and Rock-types that are usually strong against it since it would often out-speed and could take them out first, especially given Close Combat was powered up further through use of the Fist Plate, a held item that gives a boost to all Fighting-type moves.

Jetta the Floatzel: As with all the generations so far, a Water-type is pretty much required on every team for all the Water-type HM moves that no one else can learn. However, even without this I always planned to use a Floatzel as I really like it as a pokémon being a sort of mix of an otter and life-jacket. My Floatzel was a female named Jetta who carried the Splash Plate to power up her standard Surf and Waterfall moves, but I also taught her Crunch for coverage and gave her Aqua Jet for priority. In hindsight this priority move might have been a bit of a waste since she was lightning quick - comfortably the fastest member of the team by the end of the game. I really do look forward to one day being able to craft proper movesets on all these pokémon once HMs are no longer required!

Dottir the Weavile: I decided that I definitely needed some Ice-type coverage on my team and since Weavile is one of the few new evolutions to existing pokémon available before the post-game, I decided this would be a good choice. However, I didn’t just catch a Sneasel then level it up (at night whilst holding a Razor Claw, obvs), instead I wanted to chain breed the move Ice Punch onto it first as this is the strongest Physical Ice-type attack Weavile can learn. This involved getting a male Meditite and evolving it into Medicham for it to learn Ice Punch naturally. I could then breed Medicham with female Buneary to eventually get a male Buneary that had the Ice Punch move passed down to it. Then breed that Buneary with a female Sneasel to get a new Sneasel with Ice Punch passed down the chain. It seems complex, but it didn’t take too long and when she was hatched I named her Dottir (Icelandic for daughter) and soon her evolved her into a Weavile to become the final member to join my team.

Bolt the Luxray: Bolt (not the most inspired name for an Electric-type pokémon, I will admit), was one of the four pokémon I was expecting to use on this run (the others being Toreterra, Staraptor, and Floatzel) as I think of it as an iconic ‘Sinnoh’ pokémon and it is available nice and early in the game. Luxray looks very cool - I mean what is not to like about a blue and black lynx with electric powers - but it definitely feels like it should also be a Dark-type. This didn’t matter too much since I had Dark-type coverage from Dottir, but it would have been nice to get STAB on Crunch. Aside from that it was another Physical Attacker benefiting from the Physical/Special split with the move Spark. I think I overloaded my team with Physical Attackers - not really leaving enough room for Special Attackers - but the good thing about pokémon games is that are pretty easy, so you don’t really get punished for this sort of imbalance as you can just over-level to compensate!

Bunnytrap the Lopunny: Last up is my Lopunny. This pokémon gets a lot of flack and it’s not hard to see why since it is oddly sexualised for a character in a kids game. It is seemingly based on the idea of a Playboy Bunny and it’s cry sounds suspiciously like a wolf whistle - and you definitely do not want to google some of the fan-art of this pokémon! Despite all this, I kinda love Lopunny. Originally brought into my team to be an HM mule, there was an immediate use for the Cute Charm ability it possesses. This ability gives a 66.67% chance that the a pokémon encountered will be the opposite gender. So when hunting for a female Combee using the Honey Trees (hence the ‘Bunnytrap’ nickname), this came in very handy since my Lopunny is male. Additionally, being male despite the pokémon species having such a heavy feminine styling, enshrined into my head-cannon the fact that Bunnytrap is a badass rabbit pokémon drag queen. What’s not to love?

And here they all are:

Despite the weirdly unbalanced Pokédex, Sinnoh is a great region with some excellent new pokémon and an interesting storyline. Let’s do it all over again, shall we?