Pokémon Yellow: Pikachu ONLY Challenge!
Growing up, Pokémon was just getting hot while I was in 5th grade. I watched the Saturday morning cartoon, played the CCG with my bro, and faced off on Game Boy against friends. Often mocked as being a "kiddie" franchise, I could have cared less and could still care less. Fun game, solid entry level RPG all things considered. Being able to run a Game Boy Advanced emulator on my phone has afforded me the time to squeeze in a revisit of Pokémon: Yellow Edition in my free time (Which currently comes at a premium with a 5 month old around! :D) What's not to love? You get Pikachu right off the bat, he follows you around the game, you can check in on his mood, and get to play through the story more like the way the cartoon played out.
To make this more challenging on myself since at this point the straight up gameplay is all I care to do (the side quest of collecting 150 digital animals has minimal appeal to me at this stage of my gaming "career"), I am going through the game only using my initial Pokémon to do any/all fighting. If he is knocked out in a fight, I reset, reload, and try again. I decided that Pikachu, being my champion, needed an appropriate nickname. I settled on "Mouse Lord". I will of course be picking up a handful of other Pokémon along the way so I have a means to use the HMs Cut, Fly, Surf, and Strength. These are essential for progressing through the game and can't be learned by Mouse Lord.
Pallet Town & Viridian City
The start of the game is pretty ho-hum. I named my nemesis "Fart". He heckles you throughout the game, so he deserves the name of a lowly troll. Fart seemed appropriate. The first two fights against Fart weren't too rough. A potion was needed on the first one for some HP insurance, but by the time I faced him again I could hold my own just fine.
Pewter City
The fight in the Pewter City Gym against Brock is one of the two actually challenging gym battles in this entire self challenge. Having all Rock/Ground types, I had to tail whip 2 to 3 times before Quick Attack could do any significant damage. Coupled with a healthy stock pile of potions, I was able to clean house and win. Only took one attempt.
Once I found the TM for the move "Body Slam", I swapped that with "Quick Attack". Body Slam has a high accuracy and relatively high damage rating. The PP of 15 was not preferred but not a deal breaker. This gave me the ability to do some damage to enemies that Electric type attacks don't work on. The most time laborious part of only using one Pokémon that only has one normal type attack is running back to Poké Centers all the time to recharge PP. More time consuming than actually "challenging".
Mt. Moon
Strolled into the first cave of the game at level 22, which was more than sufficient against the early game Pokémon. Every RPG has caves, and every cave in every RPG generally sucks. Caves usually take you to where you need to go or give you a nice reward for grinding through. This cave provides passage to Cerulean City and the next Gym. Encounters with Geodude and Onix were pretty common, but I could run away from wild fights. Trainer fights I wasn't willing to gloss over. Lots of Ground and Rock Type battles meant lots of returning topside on foot to the Poké Center to recharge PP. Body Slam came in handy hear in combo again with Tail Whip to lower opponent's defenses, but only having 15 PP in Body Slam didn't get me through nearly enough battles. I found an Ether hidden under a rock which allowed me to restore some PP to Body Slam, but I ultimately JUST cleared the cave finishing the final mandatory battle with Team Rocket depleting the last of the PP in both Thundershock and Body Slam. Kind of a big deal because exhausting those skills mid battle would have meant starting over from my last save. I attribute all of the one hit KOs in my final battle to the Helix Fossil. It led me to victory.
Cerulean City
Misty had nothing to offer up against Mouse Lord's lightning fury! The trainer battle just before Misty, Mouse Lord learned Thunderbolt which assured one hit KOs on both of Misty's Pokémon. Next!
Vermilion City
A quick run down to the S.S. Anne to rub the Sea Captain's back and be given HM 01, "Cut"... Which I could not graciously accept because my inventory was full. Thanks to newer versions of Pokémon, I had completely forgotten how limited my inventory was in this early edition of the game. I went on a TM tossing tear in the Captain's cabin. Once given HM 01, I taught it to an aptly named Bulbasaur named "Cutman" I was gifted by an NPC. The Vermilion City gym although obnoxious with the trip switch puzzle, wasn't challenging at all. Another case of Tail Whips combined with Body Slams on trainers and a one hit on LT. Surge. Upon leaving the gym I was gifted a Squirtle by a sad sack of an NPC which gave me an effort free Pokémon to teach Surf to later on.
Rock Tunnel
I didn't waste time getting the HM "Flash", let alone teaching it to Mouse Lord. The side quest needed to earn Flash required catching some quantity of Pokémon. Wasn't worth it. I just went in and felt around in the dark for awhile till I found my way out. I had a healthy supply of escape ropes just in case. I accidentally rubbed up against a few trainers and ran from all wild encounters.
Celadon Gym
Pulped the mass of plant Pokémon with Body Slam in this Gym. Chump Gym. Mouse Lord leveled in the high 40s at this point. I have been making sure I hit the vast majority of the trainer battles along the way to maximize XP gained. So far, the XP gained has been overkill for using just the one Pokémon. Pikachu is a glass cannon to begin with, but my opponents seldom get a chance to land a blow. At this point, I'm starting to feel like the "Gotta catch 'em all!" mind set has no place in this game.
Team Rocket Hideout & Pokemon Tower
The little arrows that make you slowly spin across the floor in Team Rocket's Hideout, easily the most obnoxious "challenge" so far in this run.. Boss battles were no problem here, still clipping along with minimal resistance. Giovanni, easy peasy. At this point Mouse Lord was leveling in the low 50s.
The Pokémon Tower was not too bad, but getting nailed with confusion every few trainer battles wore my patience down quickly. Not being able to swap to a "sane" fighter made the tower take far longer than it should have. I didn't want to run from the chance to pick up some more XP though, so I put my head down and powered through. Did this a bit out of order.. had to return after completing the fight in the Silph Co. tower with the Silph Scope to actually "complete" the tower. Whoops.
Silph Co. & Saffron City Gym
Teleported to every room on every floor of the Silph Co. Tower to make sure I cleared all trainer battles. I had to make a few trips to the Poké Center to recharge PP and HP. Team Rocket and Giovanni were once again a cake walk. Nothing of any interest to report really. At this point, the Pikachu only challenge is turning into kind of a grind. Starting to feel a little bit like I'm playing Diablo minus the hope for fun and exciting drops.
Fighting Dojo in Saffron also a non event. Completed all fights in the Dojo for XP and for a Pokemon I could eventually teach strength to. Picked the Hitmonlee and named him "Toejam" for funsies.
Saffron Gym wasn't too rough, but wasn't completely forgiving. Confusion got in my way again here, wasn't able to always one hit in all of the bouts. Needed to make one trip out to heal, which took over 5 minutes to remember the teleporter pattern (Also, running the emulator at accelerated speed caused me to fumble more than anything else. Being stubborn I refused to slow the emulator down and just kept going onto the wrong teleporter pad.). This, honestly, kicked my butt more than the floor arrows that make you slowly spin across the floor..
Fuchsia City
Finally cashed in my bike voucher out of necessity. The bike path was the one place I didn't fight many of the trainers. I've been playing with accelerated emulation so I could get through the game faster than normal. A replay of an RPG really requires accelerated emulation for the grinds. I flew down the path so fast, redirecting wasn't really an option. I went with the flow rather than fighting the current.
Koga wasn't a problem at all. At this point I was around level 60. Everything is still turning up Mouse Lord. Safari Zone I ran from everything and went straight for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Seafoam Islands
I tried to catch the Articuno that was hiding in the cave here so I could have a luxury pokemon to fly on. At level 65, I couldn't delicately damage it enough to capture it. I knocked it out, took the 1500 some points in XP, and went on my way. The only thing legendary about this Pokémon was the whooping it received from Mouse Lord.
I wound up using a master ball on a spearow eventually just so I had something to teach fly to. Didn't really need fly at this point because without doing side challenges and just playing the game straight up, it can be rather linear. I did however want a means to fly back to the prime shops Celadon to stock up on choice combat items.
Cinnabar Island
At this point, Mouse Lord was leveling in at just almost 70. Waltzed through the Pokemon Mansion for the Secret Key, then on to the Gym. Blaine wasn't too bad, he did manage to get some hits in but I didn't need to reach for a potion at all. Going in I did skip the trainer fights and answer the quiz questions for funsies. I got them all right of course. I am for reals, a Pokémon Master.
Viridian City & Power Plant
I went straight to the gym thinking it would continue to be a cake walk, I couldn't have been more wrong! Finally, a true challenge! Giovanni actually brought his "A" game to a brawl for the first time this entire game. Giovanni's Nidoqueen, Nidoking, and Rhydon DESTROYED me. Being ground types, I had to rely on Body Slam. Every attack from these three was Earthquake, which forced me to heal. I had to leave, level up a bit, and try again. Still, the best I could do was make it to the Rhydon.
Rhydon would use earth quake and take me down to 20 HP, I would use a Hyper Potion, and repeat. I figured, he will run out of PP, I'll wait out the storm and go on the offensive. Fun Fact: Somehow he doesn't run out of PP for Earthquake EVER.
I flew over to the power plant to clear it out and level some more. I thought I could capture the Zappdos to have as a super cool ride, but no dice. I took the XP and carried on again.. I flew on my Spearrow (weak @$$ ride) to celadon city to stock up on some defense X. When I went back to Viridian, I used my stat pumping items while fighting the Dugtrio in round one then healed up and carried on. This plus the extra levels (now level 78) allowed me to hold my own and win like a boss.
Victory Road & The Final Four!
Another bland encounter with my rival Fart begins the final chapter of this Pikachu only challenge. This guy is a total turd. I'm always happy to slap him around. The path down victory road was not particularly challenging. I ran from the wild encounters to preserve PP, and wound up using an escape rope once to recover PP at a Poké Center. I didn't want to waste the Max Ethers I had on hand just in case I needed them on the Final Four.
In the caves of victory road I encountered a Moltres, the last of the three legendary birds. At this point, I was mostly over trying to catch one for the sake of having a Cadillac of all flying Pokémon to ride on the back of. Instead, I ripped him to pieces with Mouse Lords unwavering rage.
The trickiest part of the Final Four was the necessity of having two Max Ethers on hand. I needed to rebuff both Body Slam and Thunderbolt after the first three battles. Since you fight 5 battles back to back with a total of 26 Pokémon of mixed types back to back, running out of PP using only a single Pokémon is the hardest part. There is nothing amazing to comment on from the fights because they were relatively lackluster. I beat the final portion of the game over a five minutes span while standing in my kitchen talking to my wife. As I was watching the credits scroll, she wandered over and looks at my phone, then looks at me "You were playing Pokémon while we were talking?". I proudly say "Yes." The last battles were so uneventful, that I was able to hold a discussion while owning. The sign of a true pro.
The final battle with Fart was an absolute non event. The real take away from all of this is that the game is completely doable with only a single Pokémon used to fight all battles. The trainer battles alone give you the XP you need to level up that one Pokémon into a power house, a force to be reckoned with. The core game doesn't necessitate the capturing of all possible Pokémon, it's largely just franchise immersion.
That being said, I still had a blast playing through the game! Brought me back to the days when the franchise was first breaking out and was all the rage. Epilogue: Mewtwo
Having crushed all opposition, I went up against the only truly worthy opponent in the game: Mewtwo. Quite a bit of back and forth in this fight! Every time Mewtwo was able to get off a powerful psychic attack, I was left reaching for Hyper Potions. We had around 7 rounds of combat and I ultimately prevailed, but definitely had a few close calls. With no opponents left to challenge me, this run is as complete as it can be.
