Not Leveling Up

Usually by now I have a Venusaur.

Let me explain--when I played Red version, my Ivysaur evolved after I battled Giovanni for the first time--before I fought Erika for my 4th badge...this is not a one-time thing, the idea of me not spending millions of hours leveling-up my pokemon before entering a new area is very new to me!

Currently I have six badges and Pignite is only level 34. Granted I'm almost there but I guess this says something about the way I'm playing this game now. I'm not grinding levels like a madman--and I'm constantly shuffling my team, which I guess is too much to say for Ash Ketchum...

Ash's Pikachu HAS to be level 500,000 by now considering how much he uses it. Now I have to ask this because nobody else is: how is he still losing battles? He has no right to be losing battles with a level 500,000 pokemon--even a Magikarp could one-hit KO any pokemon in existence if it was level 500,000--and not just KO--a level 500,000 Magikarp's Tackle would have to be about as powerful as an H-bomb (and would leave nice, adorable Magikarp-shaped holes in the victims)...


The TV show should be less about Ash's journey to get gym badges, and more about how entire towns and communities are destroyed in his wake as he scours the land looking for something else for his Pikachu to murder.

This is most likely why I'm struggling so much as well...but to be honest, the game is a lot more fun this way... I mean, sure its funny the first few times you 6-0 sweep an opponent's team with a level-100 Metapod, but at some point you need to start challenging yourself...

Current Squad:

There is no Magikarp guy...

Something slightly disturbing I noticed today was that I have yet to encounter "The Magikarp guy".

I broached this subject with a friend of mine and he knew what I was talking about immediately. There is, in every game, one trainer who is usually named something like "Fisherman Dale" or "Swimmer Arnold" who has thought it fit to have caught six Magikarp and believes himself to be unstoppable. Because Magikarp don't learn any attacks that cause damage until level 15, he spends the whole match using splash for "No Effect!" Really, he is just the game's biggest time sink.

I have found a "Basculin guy" who trains six Basculin (which apparently come in two flavors: red and blue), but he was actually a capable foe.

This would normally not be important but for the fact that I haven't found ANY old pokemon in the game at all. Where I would normally come across Zubat (namely: everywhere) I have found "Woobat" (real clever Nintendo...), there are no Wurmple, Caterpie, Pikachu--I haven't even come across a single Ratatta (what most would dream of doing).

I think this means that there are no old pokemon in this game--or at least that they don't become available until after I beat the main game...I'm not sure if this is awesome or sad.  I would be ALL FOR so many new pokemon if the pokemon I were seeing didn't look so lame. (Pictured: Klink, the gear pokemon...not kidding).

I guess what I'm saying is that if you're going to erase all your cool old pokemon, don't replace them with this: