09/09/2020

Pokemon Y: The Vivillon Solo Run

 

Here comes the last of my three reader-inspired solo runs, starring Kalos' resident butterfly. Vivillon was suggested by my fellow Poke-fan and Bug 'Mon lover Kumiko, who expressed her curiosity about which pattern I would land. The thing is, I know for a fact that my country gets the Meadow Pattern i.e. the default pattern, the one that appears on Viola's Vivillon and on Bulbapedia. There was thus no suspense whatsoever, and I needed a plan B. That plan involved going on Random.country and refreshing the page until I landed a country that was featured on the 2DS list. That fateful country turned out to be Swaziland which also became my Vivillon's name and it granted me the Sun Pattern. Pretty enough, and certainly better than a number of other patterns out there.

The ensuing run proved wildly interesting in the strategic department so interesting, in fact, that I'm going to write a detailed post about my Swaziland's battle prowess and hardships. For now, I'll focus on the usual nitty-gritty of solo run reports, starting with Nature. My Swaziland's Quiet Nature granted him higher Sp. Attack, which was a blessing given his learnset, and lower Speed, which was perfectly tolerable. With Infestation, Tackle, Struggle Bug and Stun Spore, his early Move pool was nothing to brag about; however, things quickly got better with the arrival of more powerful options. You can see above the pretty nifty Move pool I used for most of my run: Draining Kiss saved my hide more times than I care to count, Bug Buzz was crazy powerful, and Hurricane was the best thing this side of Earthquake. It would have been even deadlier, had Swaziland been endowed with Compound Eyes instead of Shield Dust and gained an Accuracy boost; but hey, it was awesome enough as it was. Also, I've refined the art of reaching lv. 100 right before the Pokemon League: Swaziland hit the big 100 upon beating the last 'Mon of the last Trainer on Victory Road. Perfection!

Even after all these X&Y runs, I'm still spotting details I've never noticed before, such as the cultish nature of Team Flare. There is that one girl in Lysandre Café, who says she's nearly saved 5.000.000.000 pokedollars; later, you meet a grunt in Geosenge who claims she bought a new life for the same amount, which may or may not be that same girl from before. I'm also wondering about the relationship between Sycamore and Lysandre. Sycamore is quite the socialite, chatting urbanely with all of Kalos, from Diantha to Dexio and Sina; however, there seems to be something more to his relationship with Lysandre. In Couriway, Sycamore apologizes on Lysandre's behalf, claims he knew of Lysandre's extreme convictions, and deplores not having stopped him sooner all things that indicate a measure of intimacy between the two, which makes me wonder if they are childhood friends, former colleagues or something. A quick search revealed the existence of a Sycamore x Lysandre ship, which means that I'm definitely not the only one who spotted a bond there. 

All this makes me wanna discover Kalos more, both in terms of lore and topography. There are a number of spots I have yet to explore, especially in Lumiose and Waterfall-locked areas, and I'm gonna wait for my shiny new X&Y strategic guide to indulge in discovering them. At any rate, this was a delighful run, which I obviously dedicate to my fellow gamer Kumiko. I'll see you all soon with the dedicated Vivillon battle report, and a couple of extra solo run reports after that. The Pokemon Summer Season 2020 is still a thing, oh yes it is!

4 comments:

  1. Aww, you didn't have to worry over the pattern that much. Like I said, I get the Marine one, so any pattern that isn't blue is good for me. Especially pink and yellow ones, since those are my favourite colours.

    I always assumed Sycamore and Lysandre met during Pokemon college or something. Maybe Lysandre wanted to be a professor as well, but changed his mind and that's why Sycamore regrets not stopping him from going down his current path. I also think Sycamore is the french guy you meet on S.S Anne in the first generation; clearly he did some time as cruise worker over the summers to pay for college.

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    1. Don't worry, dear; I hunted for a new pattern for my sake as much as yours. :D I really didn't want to be stuck with the vanilla Vivillon pattern, which I've gotten seriously sick of after seeing it a million times in Viola's Gym.

      "I also think Sycamore is the french guy you meet on S.S Anne in the first generation; clearly he did some time as cruise worker over the summers to pay for college" Now that would be neat! :D

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  2. Nice run! That sun pattern looks pretty cool.
    Bug type runs were always a nightmare until Gen IV finally started having a decent Bug type movepool. I remember doing one in the 90's with a Caterpie/Weedle/Venonat/Scyther/Pinsir (plus an HM slave I'd wager) on Red and even with the MissingNo glitch for infinite Rare Candies and whatnot, only Scyther was any good at all.

    Gen VI really needed an expanded version, the rumored Z Version. It really shows that they wanted to do a lot more with X/Y but the development time probably suffered due to being the first 3D Pokémon game (developed by GameFreak). Perhaps the possible remakes in a decade from now will finally give the attention this world deserved?

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    1. The only Bug run I performed in pre-Gen IV games is my Crystal Venomoth solo run; and although I have the fondest memories of that run, Venomoth's Move pool in that game was nothing to write professor Elm about. And gosh, I wouldn't even dream of performing a Bug run in RBY.

      As much as I love Gen VI, it feels kinda unfinished indeed. The absence of the Z version really hurt - and still does - and ORAS should have been packed into a massive Emerald remake. We'll see if remakes pop up on the Switch in a couple of years - although after hearing about the fabled Gen IV remakes for years and not seeing anything coming, I'm seriously starting to think that GameFreak are moving away from their serial-remaking habits. But hey, fingers crossed anyway!

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