The Avian Solo Runs, Episode 2: Swellow in Pokemon Emerald

Welcome again, dear fellow gamers, for the second instalment of my Avian Solo Run feature! Our lone flyier this time is Taillow, a bird that can be described as the polar opposite of Pidgey: not only does it don a sleek, aerodynamic frame and cold-toned plumage where Pidgey was all ruffled feathers and warm shades, but it's also as gloriously unknown and ignored by fans as Pidgey is recognized and celebrated. As a matter of fact, I don't remember having encountered any mention or even picture of Taillow anywhere before playing Emerald. Sure, it's the regional bird of Hoenn, so it makes sense that it won't be seen anywhere beyond the region's frontiers; but heck, I sure knew about Pidgeot before playing the generation I and II games. Taillow, on the other hand, is hardly ever featured in fan art, is never mentioned again after generation III and certainly didn't benefit from a cool update in later generations such as a flashy Mega-Evolution. Is it because of its sober looks? Is it because it has only two stages of evolution? Is it because it looks way to much like its real-life inspiration? Is it because its final form looks ridiculously smug? Whatever the reason, I find this lack of fame mostly unwarranted given how amazingly that lithe bird performed in my Emerald solo run.

As you obviously noticed already, I went for the original Emerald rather than for the ORAS remakes. There were two reasons for that: first, I prefered the Taillow and Swellow sprites from the generation III games; and secondly, I wanted to experience said generation III as it was originally meant to be before diving full force into the remakes. I've only been dabbling briefly in Alpha Sapphire a couple of years ago, but gave up quickly on my playthrough for fear of spoiling my experience with Emerald. It seemed more logical and righter to play the original before the remakes, although I sure let a lot of time pass before finally tackling that Emerald playthrough. But better late than never, as they say; I now have a run of Emerald under my belt, and my, what a fine run it was. I know that the gen III games were the black sheep of the series for the longest time (until the gen V games snatched that dubious honour away from them); but that sure wasn't due to their pacing, storyline or to the Hoenn region in itself, because all these aspects are quite stellar. I found myself embroiled in a delirious and hectic adventure, rushing from mountain tops to ocean floors through what can only be described as one of the most varied and interesting Pokemon region ever created; I faced two incredibly touching and riveting Pokemon rivals and found myself squeezed between two vilain teams at loggerheads with each other; I got to meet and fight my dad for the first time ever in a Pokemon game and I Surfed so much I could hear the Beach Boys in the background, and I enjoyed the whole ride tremendously.

I also enjoyed Taillow quite a lot. Despite its lack of fame, this is a stellar bird 'Mon that can do a stellar job on the battlefield with enough training and dedication. Sure, we were off to an incredibly rough start, with the very first Gym being choke-full with Rock 'Mons. This was a serious roadblock that I managed to overcome only with an awful amount of preparations. First thing first, I level-grinded until my beloved Taillow reached lv.20, knowing fully well that this alone wouldn't do the trick; Taillow's main strength is his sky-high Speed Stat, but the bird is not especially stellar on the Attack front. So I made good use of a particularity of Emerald, i.e. the presence of Battle Items in Rustboro's shop — which, en passant, seriously challenges the notion that Pokemon entries only got easier with time. I bought all the X-Atk and X-Defend I could with my meagre funds, which didn't amount to much at that early point in the game; but I needed the edge they would provide to make my Gym strategy work. Said strategy involved stuffing my Taillow with Battle Items at the very beginning of the fight and spamming Double Team until the game told me it had no effect anymore in order to reduce damage; then, I would unleash my Taillow's not-so-destructive blows while praying for Double Team to work its magic and keeping an eye on the health gauge. This was a bit of an ordeal, but it worked finely in the end, and it gave me the (too) rare opportunity to strategize a Gym showdown from beginning to end.

After that mother of all Typing roadblocks, I pretty much spent the whole game one-shooting everything that moved. Sure, the Electric Gym that followed stung a bit (no pun intended), but it was still easy-peasy compared to its Rock counterpart. Over the course of my run, I put together a nifty Move roster made of normal moves Return (a beloved classic!) and Double-Edge (a move quite handy to wipe out 'Mons my Taillow was weak to before they could move a toe, knowing that being hit by said 'Mons would hurt more than the damage dealt by Double-Edge itself), flying move Aerial Ace (a bit weak on the long run, but never missing its aim) and steel move Steel Wing (a welcome breath of fresh Typing air despite its unperfect accuracy). I'm quite glad I got to use a different Move set and thus different strategies than in my Pidgey solo run, despite the fact that both Taillow and Pidgey are Normal/Flying 'Mons with tons of Moves in common; I was fearing that my Avian Runs would all play the same, but reality is proving otherwise — and much more interesting. I was also fearing that the lack of Physical/Special split for move would hamper my Taillow's performances, but I noticed virtually not difference on that front compared with newer entries. Guess these aging mechanics were really crippling only for a couple of unlucky 'Mons, such as Dark-Type Absol and his Stats that were often at odds with his Moves' assigned damage category.

In a nutshell, I loved everything about my Taillow Solo run, from the distinct GBA graphical touch to the swift pacing, without forgetting my gorgeous Taillow-turned-Swellow himself. But wait, you may ask, what did you think about Emerald's and Hoenn's most enduring legacy, the one that ultimately gave birth to the infamous "Too much water" meme? Well, I'll be blunt: I absolutely adored Emerald's overwhelming aquatic terrain. I loved the Surfing and the Diving to pieces, the latter even making shivers run up and down my spine: I used to be terrified of depths when I was a kid and that fear lingers still a bit in me, and my inner bathophobic found Emerald's representation of deep seabeds pretty convincing. That being said, I have a gripe about the water Routes featured in the second half of the game, i.e. 124 to 130; and that gripe is how wide and confusing they are overall. I got repeatedly lost on these Routes and it took me way more time than necessary to reach my goals, be they above or under water. That's pretty much a pet peeve, but I sure hope that the 3DS remakes improved on that aspect and made the maritime routes easier to navigate — no pun intended.

With that said, dear fellow gamers, I'll see you again for the third episode of my Avian Solo Runs feature, which also marks the halfway point of this whole ride. With that third episode, I'm going to dive back into the games that started it all for me as far as my love for Pokemon is concerned; games that, coincidently, I haven't played for the longest time. Hopefully the reunion will be fulfilling and heart-warming! Until then, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!