Purugly, and by extension its youngish form Glameow, is many things at once. She’s one of the rarest regional cats in the whole series: not only does she solely appear in Pearl in her home region, but she can also only be found in the wild in White 2 and AS&OR beyond that — and in ridiculously elusive locations to boot. She’s also, according to my personal theory, a hilarious and over-the-top Pokemon translation of the real-life phenomenon that sees sparkly teenagers morph into grumpy housewives over the years (Diggersby being the just-as-hilarious-and-over-the-top male version of that phenomenon). Last but not least, and that’s the point we’ll be focusing on here, she’s the most exaggerated version I’ve handled so far of the regional cat trope — that is, a cute and weak kitty evolving into a badass full-grown feline powerhouse.
I’ll say it: cruising with Glameow for 38 levels was horrible. I’ve handled a number of frail kitten ‘Mons over the years, from Skitty to Purrloin to Litleo to Litten; and none, none of them performed as poorly and struggled as mightily on the battlefield than my Stormcloud. The first Gym was the most epic roadblock of them all, a bastion so formidable that it deserves a dedicated post; yet even after that, my poor kitty was not out of the woods. She took so much damage and failed so invariably at one-shooting that I resorted to a combination of Fake Out + another offensive Move while holding the Metronome to take down foes and escape battles unscathed.
The weird thing is, Glameow really shouldn’t have struggled so hard, at least on paper. She boasts base stats similar to Skitty’s, with a higher total than the latter to boot; on top of that, my Stormcloud boasted even higher Attack thanks to her Lonely Nature. Glameow is also blessed with a pretty decent learnset including Aerial Ace, Thief, U-Turn, Shock Wave and Thunderbolt — all Moves Stormcloud came to learn before evolving. Last but not least, she had Own Tempo, which prevents Confusion and blocks Intimidate. So how come I struggled so mightily with her, while I managed to clear a full run with a Skitty? I have no explanation at hand other than the regions themselves, really. Maybe Hoenn is Skitty-friendly, while Sinnoh isn’t Glameow-friendly. Maybe the remakes also ramped up the difficulty, how knows? What I do know is that for the first time ever, I skipped the Junior Trainers in a Gym, and I carefully avoided all Hikers until I hit the much-awaited Lv. 38.
Indeed, things changed for the better after that. Purugly is sturdier and hits way harder than Glameow, while remaining uber-fast; this means that I could at long last one-shoot the opposition, and withstand damage when necessary. Not only that, but Stormcloud also got to wield sweetly powerful Moves such as Slash, Body Slam, Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw. Combined with Stormcloud’s nifty Lv.80 and the Metronome, my ultimate Move Pool featured above should have guaranteed an easy ride against the Elite Four… Except it didn’t. I hit a wall, just like in my Jirachi run; and only endless trial-and-error and the copious use of Battle Items ensured my final triumph. That final showdown was neither fun nor fulfilling, that’s for sure; but somehow, it also didn’t feel right. Yep, it sure doesn’t feel right to have a hard time with the Elite Four after hours of smooth sailing. And not just once, but twice… Hey, do you know what it feels like? It feels like a difficulty spike! A difficulty spike teeming with Wake-up Call Bosses, which I cannot remember encountering in Gen IV.
And you know what? I won’t bother checking that assumption, even for the sake of scientific curiosity. Following that post’s convenient advice, I snatched myself two Lucky Eggs, which I’ll use in future BD&SP runs. It’s not just a matter of making thing easier and smoother for lazy little me, mind you: I just dig the feeling of reaching Lv.100 by the end of a run, as it reveals my lone ranger’s full potential and gives me a nice and neat sense of completion. As a matter of fact, this may become an unwritten rule for future solo runs — but hey, that’s a story for later.
Anyway, that’s two BD&SP runs under my belt! That’s a birthday gift well enjoyed, methinks ^^. I’ll let the pair rest for the time being; but when I’m done playing them more, I’ll write a post about my overall impressions. For now, suffice to say that I was not disappointed at all, and that I deem these remakes a worthy addition to my Pokemon collection. Until I see you soon with more gaming goodness, take care of yourselves, dear fellow gamers!
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