[DISCUSSION] My Cross-Regional Adventure! Our Teams Throughout The Years!

[ScottyThunder]

As of today, April 15th, 2018, over a year after its conception, I have officially completed my quest! 

          In January of 2017, with the purchase of Pokemon Yellow for the Virtual Console, I made it my personal goal to complete at least one game from every generation, starting anew every save file on every game I owned and buying games I didn't have. The purpose of this was to sort of rekindle my love for the franchise, as up until then, it had slowly dwindled to the point where the Pokémon Theme no longer brought tears to my eyes upon hearing it, as it always had in the 17 years I have lived. So, I thought it would be fun to create my own sort of canon Pokémon adventure, where I journeyed across all seven regions using the same trainer name: Scotty. The only rule with this adventure was that I could not have a Hall of Fame team with a repeat Pokémon on it, ensuring I used a wide range of monsters, including some I had never even used before. In honor of this, I would just like to showcase those teams, now all sitting quaintly in my PC Box on Ultra Sun, and perhaps spark some discussion on the teams you have used throughout your adventures, and some stories of your triumphs and failures. 

So, without further ado, let us begin!
 

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Generation I: Pokémon Yellow
  
 :lapras: 
  

          Hall of Fame Team:
Bahamut the Charizard, named after the great Dragon Lord from Final Fantasy.
Ness the Lapras, named after the famous Lochness Monster.
Eddie the Exeggutor, named after Eddie the Head, the mascot of Iron Maiden, one of my favorite bands.
Bolt the Jolteon, named after... lightning. Also 'cause he's fast.
Théoden the Nidoking, named after the great King of the Mark himself. 
Gawain the Dragonite, named after the protagonist of the old english folktale. 

          Discussion: All around awesome lineup. Lots of references to characters and series I loved as a kid, plenty of fun battles and training sessions, and tons of love for each and every one of them. In all my years, I've played through Kanto countless times, but never have I used Pokémon like Exeggutor or Lapras, as I've often overlooked them. They ended up being an incredible team, and swept through the E4 quite easily after grinding them up high enough. They now rest together happily in my PC Box, along with all the other Pokémon whose names are written in history.

  
Generation II: Pokémon Heartgold
  
   
  

          Hall of Fame Team:
Blaze the Tyhlosion, named after the first Tyhplosion I ever trained.
Red the shiny Gyarados, named after my original Red Gyarados.
Vines the Victreebel, named after my original Victreebel.
Thunder the Ampharos, named after my original Ampharos.
Wings the Pidgeot, named after my original Pidgeot.
Qwerty the Tyranitar, named after, you guessed it, my original Tyranitar.

          Discussion: This team is identical to my original team from the first time I played through Heartgold, nearly ten years ago. Same nicknames, too. As you can tell, I wasn't all that creative as an 8 year old kid. Regardless, this was basically the spritual retelling of my first ever Pokémon adventure. I even beat Red with these guys, taking on his level 88 Pikachu with fire in their hearts. It was an incredible experience, and I cannot wait to play through Gold on the Virtual Console when I get the chance!
  

Generation III: Pokémon Omega Ruby
   

   

          Hall of Fame Team:
Kojiro the Blaziken, named after one of the characters in my old manga.
Nuzlocke the shiftry, named after the original Nuzleaf that gave birth to the Nuzlocke Challenge.
Watcher (in the Water) the Tentacruel, named after the seacreature that guarded the Doors of Durin.
Jesse the Swellow, named after one of my favorite characters in the Clone Wars animated series.
Titan the Aggron, named after the mighty gods of Greek mythology.
Damascus the Magnezone, named after the steel alloy used to forge many swords in the past.

          Discussion: This was simultaneously the greatest- and least-greatest experience I have ever had playing a Pokémon game. If you did not know, I recently embarked on my first Nuzlocke Adventure, which led to this team. Many friends fell on the journey to the Elite Four, but these brave souls are the ones that were able to outlast their foes and claim championship over the region of Hoenn. Kojiro, Nuzlocke and Jesse were mainstays since before the first gym, with the rest coming in to replace some of the others that died in battle. It was an awesome team nonetheless, and was certainly an interesting experience. I hope to do one of these again some time in the near future!
  

Generation IV: Pokémon Platinum
  

  

          Hall of Fame Team:
Wukong the Infernape, named after the great Monkey King from Journey to the West.
Weasley the Floatzel, named after the gingerboi from the Harry Potter series.
Lola the Roserade, named after the Kinks song of the same name.
Gygax the Luxray, named after my cat, named after Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons.
Stormcrow the Staraptor, named after Gandalf the Grey.
Jaws the Garchomp, named after the classic film.

          Discussion: Ah, Sinnoh. One of my favorite regions, mostly due to nostalgia. I love the music, the scenery, and definitely the Pokémon. I don't really have much to say about the team, other than it was really fun to play through the game with, especially considering how hard the League was in this generation. This is also the only team aprt from the Yellow one where the Pokémon featured are purely from the region the game takes place in. What an awesome bunch. They fought hard and battled well, and in the end, even Cynthia's perfect Garchomp was no match for the squad!  
  

Generation V: Pokémon Black 2
    

   

          Hall of Fame Team:
Smugleaf the Serperior, named after the meme.
Lennon the Walrein, named after my idol John Lennon. He was the walrus.
Duma the Arcanine, named after my friend's dog.
Guirus the Flygon, named after the Kaiju Magaguirus.
Usain the Zebstrika, named after the famous athlete Usain Bolt.
Kitsune the Zoroark, named after the Japanese mythical creature.

          Discussion: This was an interesting playthrough, as I never really got on with the Unova region. I didn't like the anime, I hated half the roster's designs, and I was too young and dumb to understand the story when I played it the first time. This time, more than 5 years later, however, I actually had a really fun time playing through the game. I had a great team makeup utilizing Pokémon I had never trained before like Walrein or Zebstrika, found a new respect for the generation I grew up hating due to internet toxicity, and just and all around great time. Someday, I hope to play through the original Black and White again, to fully experience what was arguably the best generation of Pokémon we have ever had.

   
Generation VI: Pokémon Y
 
   
  

          Hall of Fame Team: 
Jinn the Chesnaught, named after the main character from my old manga.
Genbu the Blastoise, named after the Island Turtle from Naruto.
Simba the Pyroar, named after the protagonist from the Lion King.
Blue the Raichu, named after our good old Gen I rival.
Lance the Aerodactyl, named after the Johto Champion.
Anubis the Lucario, named after the Egyptian God of Death.

          Discussion: This team was much harder to come up with. After a good six generations, the Pokémon available start to come back around, and the options start to dwindle. I was especially bummed 'cause I couldn't use Charizard this time around like I always have when playing though Kalos, so I instead had to settle for Blastoise. That didn't make much of a difference gameplay-wise, thanks to the diffuclty. I was able to breeze right through the game over the course of about a day and a half, and that was basically it.

   
Generation VII: Pokémon Sun
  

  

          Hall of Fame Team:
Rob'n'Hoot the Decidueye, named after the legendary outlaw Robin Hood.
GeddyLee the Slowbro, named after the Rush frontman. Get it?
Keahi the Magmar, named after the Hawaiian name meaning "The Fire"
'Murica Jr the Braviary, named after his Father, 'Murica.
Dwayne the Golem, named after the famous wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Pendragon the Kommo-o, named after King Arthur Pendragon.

         Discussion: It was fun playing through Alola again now that I've experienced all the games that came before it. The storytelling was fantastic ompared to older generations, even if the handholding in the early game made progression feel slow. The region is absolutely beautiful and I love the roster, and it made for a really fun time building another team, even though I repeated a few Pokémon from the last time I played through Sun. They were a mighty force to be reckoned with, and couldn't be stopped by anyone who stood in our way, all the way up to the very end. 

In Conclusion: I have played Pokémon for over ten years. That's more than half my life. Some of my earliest childhood memories are associated with Pokémon, whether it be watching the anime at my grandmother's house, playing the card game with kids at school, making up Pokémon with my younger brother, or just playing the game. It has been a huge part of my life, and this adventure has truly been a spiritual experience. Games like Heartgold and Black 2 that I haven't played in 5+ years flooded my brain with nostalgia just hearing the music. Stuff like that never leaves you. And at the same time that I was looking back at old memories, I was making brand new ones. New Pokémon I have never trained up became some of my best friends. Regions I never cared for became something for me to turn to when I had nothing else. Over the course of one year, I re-experienced my entire childhood. I cannot recommend enough that you do something similar. It'll change you, as stupid and cliche as that sounds. I guarantee it.

If you have ever done something like this, or you want to share teams of your past, talk about that one special Pokémon that you love, or even just want to share some stories about your past adventures, please tell me about it in the comments. I would love to hear what you have to say! In the meantime, this took about 3 hours to write and I have school in the morning, so I'm off to bed. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and have a fantastic night!

[Black Waterfall]

@ScottyThunder Great job! 

This is something I plan on doing too in the future — I need to catch up with some old games I missed, especially in Generations IV and VI.

[TheAlmightySancho]

I usually name my pokemon something relating to the first letter of their name, except for my shinies which I name after completely random game/movie references.

Also, I personally prefer Sunny Afternoon to Lola

[ScottyThunder]

(Apr 16, 2018, 08:38 AM)TheAlmightySancho Wrote: Also, I personally prefer Sunny Afternoon to Lola

Lola certainly isn't my favorite, but it's kinda hard to fit "Rock and Roll Fantasy" or "Wait til the Summer Comes Along" into a 12-character nickname XD 

Rock on, brother

[ScottyThunder]

(Apr 16, 2018, 07:07 AM)Black Waterfall Wrote: This is something I plan on doing too in the future — I need to catch up with some old games I missed, especially in Generations IV and VI.

@Black Waterfall thanks man, it was an awesome experience. Especially playing through Heartgold again. Sadly, I no longer own my physical copy as it was lost in the move, so I had to play it on a glitchy phone emulator. Still a super nostalgic journey.

[TheAlmightySancho]

(Apr 16, 2018, 11:56 AM)ScottyThunder Wrote: it's kinda hard to fit "Rock and Roll Fantasy" or "Wait til the Summer Comes Along" into a 12-character nickname

You got a point there.

Always great to find a fellow fan.

[Black Waterfall]

(Apr 16, 2018, 11:59 AM)ScottyThunder Wrote: thanks man, it was an awesome experience. Especially playing through Heartgold again. Sadly, I no longer own my physical copy as it was lost in the move, so I had to play it on a glitchy phone emulator. Still a super nostalgic journey.

@ScottyThunder HeartGold is gold! (Pun detected)

Joking aside, I really loved HeartGold! ...man, I just wish Game Freak would continue that feature of having your lead Pokemon follow you. The coolest thing ever 

[RetroTyphlosion]

@ScottyThunder I just want to see your cat...