Pokemon Hall of Fame!
This page is dedicated to the pokemon that carried me through my various
playthroughs, starting with games I've completed as of December of 2025.
I would love to retroactively enshrine my many teams from over the years,
but alas, they have been lost to time.
Each custom trainer card indicates an entry into its respective game's hall
of fame. You may notice that some playthroughs I nickname my pokemon, while
I do not with others. Every time I play a Pokemon generation for the first time,
I always refrain from nicknaming my team members to help me remember what they
are all called through that first playthrough. Naturally, if you see nicknamed pokemon
on one of my trainer cards, that means I have beaten that game in the past.
Pokemon Y
Adventure started: September 14th, 2025
Entered Hall of Fame on: December 28th, 2025
Time: 41:02
For a long time, I've been a "2D Pokemon" elitist. My favorite Pokemon generation has
always been gen 5, and I always assumed that gen 6 was where the series suddenly
started its downward spiral. A few months ago, after getting a new 3DS XL, I was
thinking of what games to play besides Monster hunter and finally decided to give
Pokemon Y a shot with an open mind. I'm glad I did! I'll be honest, I still think
it's a bit of a decline in quality after gen 5, but I was very pleasantly
surprised with how much fun I was having, and how it really didn't feel that different
from the games that came before.
Something I didn't know about before was the incredible variety of the Kalos dex.
The main pleasure of Pokemon for me is the teambuilding, and Kalos was like a
candy shop for me! I can safely say that, out of all the series I've played,
Kalos has my favorite pokedex. Every single one of my favorite pokemon were there,
to the point where it was hard to choose what combination of members I wanted for
my team. I was absolutely spoiled for choices, and I can't wait to try other team
compositions.
Pokemon Y isn't without fault though. The story felt rushed and lackluster, and honestly
the locations were very forgettable and the characters shallow. Normally, I wouldn't care
about these complaints too much (it is a Pokemon game after all, they aren't exactly known
for pushing the envelope in those departments), but I guess I just had some higher hopes
for the games following up after gen 5. In the end, it's not really a big deal though, since
I play Pokemon mostly for the teambuilding aspect anyway, which as I said earlier is
something this game excels at.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Pokemon Y. Playing and enjoying it has also
motivated me to try out gen 7 next to see what it has to offer. Other than that,
I will definitely be replaying gen 6 sometime to experiment with all the teambuilding
possibilities!
Pokemon Platinum
Adventure started: November 16th, 2025
Entered Hall of Fame on: December 21st, 2025
Time: 61:13
This was one of the most gruelling playthroughs of any Pokemon game I can remember.
I had beaten Pearl before and assumed it couldn't be too different, but boy was I wrong.
Platinum is far more difficult than Diamond and Pearl, and has significantly more content.
Personally, I felt the pacing was unbearably slow at times, and there were a significant
number of random level spikes throughout the game that I simply had to grind past, something
I've never had to do in a Pokemon game before. It honestly wasn't the greatest
experience, and I'm more relieved to be done with it than I am happy I played it.
The silver lining to the experience is that, due to the difficulty, teambuilding was
very fun and challenging. Also the distortion world was pretty damn cool. Overall,
it was a bit of a mixed bag, but I'm very happy with how my endgame team turned out.
Pokemon Omega Ruby
Adventure started: January 8th, 2026
Entered Hall of Fame on: June 8th, 2026
Time: 27:46
If you couldn't tell by the start + end dates and the total play time, this was
a game I played a little at a time with many breaks. I did have a good time playing
through this game for the first time, but I also started it a long time ago and
through two changes in living situaton, so it wasn't exactly an organized push.
I also want to start by saying that I absolutely love Pokemon Emerald. It is
one of my favorite games in the series, and most likely the one I have beaten
the most times out of any other. I started playing Pokemon on emulators on
an old tablet and, eventually, on my phone. Due to the lack of funds for buying
other games and the constant accessibility of the game, I've probably beaten
Emerald somewhere between 3 and 5 times. It would be fair to say I'm familiar
with the Hoenn region.
Finally starting with my thoughts on the game itself. I did like it quite a lot.
I felt like it had all the accessibility of X and Y but with the pacing issues
and boring region fixed, both of which are owed to Omega Ruby being a remake.
I did like how some new story elements were integrated and changed, and I liked
seeing a 3D interpretation of Hoenn for the most part. There were a few locations
that I feel really missed the mark, the worst of which being Mauville (which
became a giant mall that's awkward to navigate), but overall it was cool to see.
I liked seeing the updated character designs and mega pokemon too, something I
can't always say about the post-3DS games.
With that being said, there isn't a ton of stuff I feel this game did better than
Emerald, but I wouldn't exactly say it's worse either. I have, however, hear that
ORAS post-game makes the game. I will definitely try out the post-game
at some point and report back with an addendum.
I will also note that I've noticed a big shift in my gaming habits since moving,
mostly due to my work schedule and lifestyle being very different. Because
I now work 10 hour days and I'm usually too tired after work to play something
mentally intensive or especially immersive. Combine that with the fact that I now
have full access to my own clean living room with a big comfy couch, and I've been
playing a lot more games on portable consoles. Playing more games on portable
consoles means more Pokemon games.
I've been on a solid Pokemon kick recently, and immediately after finishing Omega
Ruby I started playing Pokemon White, which I've been having a ton of fun with.
Expect to see that playthrough documented soon!