It should surprise no one that my first solo run of Pokemon Sun starred the feisty Fire Starter Litten. Because, you know, cats. Fire Starters are not my favourites when it comes to solo runs, but the fiery kitten was the obvious choice and did a fine job during the 17 hours I spent cruising Alola by his side.
I can safely claim that this solo run was the hardest and most challenging Pokemon
solo run I've ever tackled. It was even harder than my Purrloin solo run of Black,
and that's saying something given that Purrloin is overall a crappy 'Mon whose
evolution Liepard belongs to the NeverUsed Tier. The difficulty level was
definitely ramped up in Sun and Moon, and the game's wide array
of Trials, Captains, Totem Pokemons and random Trainers roughed me up on a
regular basis. Even more telling, my Litten-turned-Incineroar only boasted a
paltry Lv. 64 when I finally reached the Elite Four headquarters, which is just
the most unusual thing ever; at this point in the game, my lone 'Mons usually
boast levels between 90 and 100 and can pretty much one-shot their way to the
champion accolade. Not so in that case; I had to fight 'Mons that were a mere
ten levels below me, and believe me, it was a struggle.
Not that I would let ramped-up difficulty stop me, mind you; before long, I had
found a brilliant and reliable solution to get myself out of any bind and
compensate for my Litten's weaknesses. This solution was none other than the
regular and diligent use of some items I had neglected until now, i.e. Battle
Items. Anytime I had trouble with a battle, I stuffed and buffed up my Litten
with X Attacks, X Defense and the like, and voilà! Formerly impassable
battles suddenly became manageable and I could progress unhindered. I can
shamelessly claim that I would never have taken down the Elite Four and the
Champion without those wonderful Battle Items, and I'm immensely grateful for
their very existence. And now that I've learnt to assess their wonderfulness, I
can go back to my unfinished Purrloin solo run of Black and finally put
an end to it with the help of a huge stock of X-whatever.
Litten's move pool was decently varied, but not staggeringly so; and while his
double typing was interesting, it didn't hold a lot of novelty for me given
that I had already played a solo run with a Dark-type Cat Pokemon. Is there
some kind of hidden rule at Game Freak stipulating that all feline 'Mons must
belong to the Dark type? Anyway, I had already wielded Dark moves on a regular
basis and knew them well enough to be a bit blasé towards Litten's ability to
learn them. I was also not impressed by the teeny-tiny number of Fire moves
Litten can learn over the course of his evolution: we're talking about a meagre
four moves there, and I don't think it's enough for a Fire 'Mon. More fire
moves can be learnt through the use of TMs, but one must get their paws on them
first, and I have to admit that I didn't perform honorably when it comes to
acquiring these precious items and thus ended up with a very small choice of
Fire moves.
I also have to admit that for all my love for Litten and his middle evolution
Torracat, I had a shock when he finally crossed the ultimate evolutionary
threshold. When Incineroar appeared before my incredulous and horrified eyes, I
had to fight a very strong urge to turn off the game, erase my save file and
try to forget I had ever witnessed that. I mean, how did this happen?
How did we go from Love Meow to John Cena in a single evolution? That's
certainly not how I expected Torracat to evolve, and it took me a very long
time to get used to Incineroar's deviant art-infused design. It certainly
didn't help matters that I had to repeatedly massage the creature's heavily
muscled chest during the Pokemon Refresh sequences, making me feel like I had
gotten myself stranded in a bad case of fanfiction. But hey, time heals all
wounds, and I finally managed to get used to Incineroar's questionable design
and to stroke his bulging muscles without cringing. Thanks a lot, Game Freak,
for giving me the unforgettable opportunity to get up close and personal with
an humanoid cat looking like Machamp's long-lost brother. I'll remember that
solo run, oh yes I will.
Game Freak's dubious design choices aside, my Litten solo run of Sun was
a fairly entertaining one. It was so entertaining, in fact, that I started
exploring postgame segments with enthusiam, before realizing that what I really
wanted was to relive the early stages of the game with another 'Mon. I thus
started another solo run with another Starter; and that's a story I'll tell you
in my next run report, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading, and be my guest
anytime!
4 comments:
Finally, someone else who doesn't
like Incineroar's design! Everyone I've talked to loves it because "omg,
wrestler pokemon, so cool", but I can't help but look at Incineroar and
think he belongs on a episode of Thundercats more than the Pokemon world. And I
don't even get why people are so awestruck by the wrestler pokemon theme, we
already had that. Did everyone forget about Emboar, who was the final evolution
to another fire starter (tepig, if you don't know)? It seems everyone hated
Emboar, but now they go nuts for Incineroar just because he avoids the fighting
type...I don't get it.
Also, most of the cat mons were normal type until gen V when dark type Purrloin
was added. Then we also got psychic type Espurr in gen VI, which to me meant
that they were trying to diversify the cat mons. But now I don't know why GF
added two more dark type cats in gen VII...Litten I get since his secondary
type has to fit into the other two starters secondary types, but why alolan
Meowth? Any other type would have been more interesting.
I dislike anthropomorphic Pokemons
as a rule, and Incineroar is a really bad case of it. That's a lot of wasted
potential, if you ask me: GameFreak could have created a really badass feline
'Mon and they went for this goofy design instead. (Gosh, it reminds me of those
atrocious pictures of humanoid Sonic characters that can be found in the
darkest recesses of Deviant Art.) But hey, I guess they wanted to keep the
badass feline design for Solgaleo.
On a more positive note, I love the overall design of non-starter Alolan
Pokemons, with many of them making me itch to play solo runs with them. As a
matter of fact, I'm currently cruising solo with one of these newcomers... But more on that later! ^^
> How did we go from Love Meow to
John Cena in a single evolution
Ha! Not a big fan of the Sun/Moon starter evolutions either. I was a Rowlet guy
on my Moon playthrough and the end result is.. questionable. Slightly
effeminate, but still weirdly masculine? Can't quite figure out what they were
going for.
On another note, I bought the Sun/Moon dual steelbook pack so I still have a
sealed copy of Sun on my shelf. After finishing Moon I'm considering doing a
solo run; never tried one of those before. Speaking of "seal"ed
copies, I think I'm going to go with Popplio, who was my second choice behind
the lovable owl.
How long was the solo run, would you say? I assume most of usual timesinks
(like catching and training Pokemon and cutscenes) pretty much fly by when
you're just burning through with a single 'mon.
Isleif10 January 2017 at 11:50
I was also not too fond of
Decidueye's design, although I deem him the best Grass starter ever created by
far. Instead of looking like a bird, he looks like a man in a crappy bird
outfit. His wings are especially poorly designed and look more like folds of
fabric than like genuine bird wings.
My Litten solo run was roughly 17 hours. Overall, Pokemon solo runs last
between 15 and 20 hours depending on the entry. Running solo in Pokemon game is
an incredibly smooth and swift experience and has become my favourite (and
exclusive) way of playing the series. It usually makes the games much easier
and removes the need to grind, providing that you beat every Trainer you
encounter and don't shy away from most random battles. It also creates the most
amazing bond between you and your chosen 'Mon. And of course, there's also the
thrill of being able to one-shoot your way through whatever region you're
exploring as your lone 'Mon slowly but surely becomes overleveled.
When it comes to Sun&Moon, Litten and Rowlet are not the best choices for a
solo run and you must be prepared to some hassle if you pick them up for the
deed. I'm currently running solo with a native Alolan Pokemon that's doing a
much better job at one-shooting everything that moves than these two... But more on that soon! ^^
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