30/08/2018

Pokemon Sapphire: The Skitty Solo Run


Despite cruising once with Skitty, I had some unfinished business with the pink kitten. Not only did my Skitty's Normalize rob me of most of the Type advantages I could have derived from her Move pool, but it also made my run a pure nighmare by making that all too normal feline unable to take down Ghost 'Mons. The truth is that Skitty's full potential didn't get to shine at all in that run, and I was left with a burning desire to give the kitten another well-deserved opportunity to shine on the battlefield. And since Skitty is a Gen III 'Mon and I haven't played much of that Gen yet, I decided to let the cute feline strut her stuff on her home ground.

Having said that, it's quite ironic to see how painfully furtive Skitty is on her own turf. The pink kitten only has a 2% chance of appearing on Route 116, and I needed more than 100 encounters to even get a glimpse of a Skitty. It took so darn long that I started thinking that maybe I hadn't read properly when browsing Bulbapedia and that Skitty was not present in Sapphire after all. I was actually about to give up and turn my GBA off in sheer frustration when my Skitty finally appeared. Oh, the joy! And what a relief when that much-coveted, much-awaited Skitty turned out to be of the Cute Charm variety! My sister, who was holidaying with me and witnessed the recruitment of the cute feline, suggested the name 'Sakura' based on said cute feline's colour and overall cuteness; needless to say, that most fitting name was instantly adopted.

I was initially planning to evolve Sakura, but the Gen III Skitty sprite is so utterly adorable that I found myself wanting to stick with it. On top of that, I had yet to tackle a solo run with a non-evolved 'Mon; and since I had already run with a fully evolved Skitty albeit a slightly crippled one the time was ripe and the occasion perfect. To my slight bewilderment, my little Sakura performed really well despite lacklustre stats. Even at lv. 85, most of her stats lounged lazily around the 100 mark in fact, with a base Attack of 45 and base Sp.Attack of 35, Skitty is probably one of the weakest 'Mons I ever cruised with, if not the weakest. And yet, my little Sakura managed to one-shoot opponents quite smoothly and surprisingly often, which is quite a mystery to me. Are the Gen III games really that easy, or is Skitty just tailor-made for her home turf? Heck, even the Pokemon League was mostly a cakewalk, with only the Champion requiring a handful of Battle Items to bite the dust.

And since we're touching on Skitty's battle prowess, the pink kitten is definitely a slow burner. She's pretty weak at first, with only a handful of crappy offensive Moves; and with her stats being as shitty as they are, she has to rely on vicious roundabout tactics to ensure victory tactics such as Cute Charm and Attract, i.e. the most underhand Move ever created. Then, the feline slowly but surely grows into an offensive powerhouse, gaining access to really powerful Moves with a much greater Type coverage; that change is probably supposed to coincide with her evolution into Delcatty, although said evolution didn't happen in my run. Just compare my first Move pool, which comprised Faint Attack, Tackle, Covet and Attract, with my final Move pool made of Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball and Return, and you'll see the full extent of Skitty's potential for growth.  

I loved Hoenn even more than when I played Emerald. Of all the Pokemon regions, it's probably the wildest and most untamed one, while still giving off a cute, wholesome and reassuring vibe. It's also really tiny and sweet, with my run clocking at roughly 11 hours when subtracting the hour of roaming required to recruit my Skitty. The pacing is probably the swifter I've seen in any Pokemon entry, with a constant and palpable sense of urgency pushing you forward; some might call that game rushed, but for a player who loves short and compact runs such as myself, this is just a complete blessing not to mention that this unwavering focus on charging ahead greatly enhances that sweet, sweet dungeon crawling feeling I like to get from my Pokemon runs. And gosh, how I love not being forced to capture the resident Legendary and fight with it in order to progress! (I'm looking resentfully at you, X&Y. Oh, to think that you shove the Legendary at the helm of my team in lieu of my One and Only without asking me...) Even aquatic Routes were not that bad this time around, all the less so as I skipped large portions of them.

So indeed, Skitty is perfectly at ease on her home turf; and despite her pitiful stats, she's great solo run material in her Cute Charm version. Incidentally, she's also one of my favourite 'Mons ever: not only is she an adorable kitten, but she's also an unassuming 'Mon that still gets the job done neatly on the battlefield. Some 'Mons out there have kick-ass stats, so you expect them to rock in battle and you just love them for their fighting prowess; but somehow, a passable 'Mon that still manages to pull off regular one-shooting and take down Pokemon League opponents with base stats three times higher is just as endearing, if not more. Taking a Flareon or an Absol all the way to the Elite Four is pretty much a given; a non-evolved Skitty, not so much. This is the kind of feat that makes you feel like a genuine Pokemon Trainer, who lovingly nurtures a 'Mon and helps them realize their full potential on the battlefield. And with that said, dear fellow gamers, my summer Pokemon spell comes to an end! Thanks for reading all those Pokemon adventures, and please be my guest anytime!

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