Pokémon is an action-battle-adventure game with lots of different factors revolving around building a small team of monsters to battle other monsters in a quest to become the best. Pokémon first originated 26 years ago with their first two hits. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Ever since then, they’ve evolved a lot.
The basics of Pokémon are the 16 types, 9 regions, evolutions, starters, champions, gyms, the base storyline, etc. Starting with the types, there are 16 types of Pokémon: normal, fire, water, grass, fairy, dark, dragon, ghost, rock, ground, steel, ice, bug, poison, fighting, and electric. Each type has weaknesses and advantages on each other. For example. ice beats dragon. bug beats dark, ground beats electric and so on.
There are 9 regions: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, and Paldea. and each region has over 100 different Pokémon. EAch follows their own “style” and biomes. For example, the Alola region is more tropical and paradise-like as it’s based off Hawaii, compared to Galar region, which is more “civil” and diverse in areas, as it’s based off the United Kingdom. Pokémon can also come in variants. For example, there is a Pokémon called “Tauros” which resembles a brown bull with the normal type, but in the Paldea region, Tauros appears as a black bull which has the fighting/water typing or fighting/fire typing, depending on which version you catch.
Each region has 3 different starters, each having 1 water type, 1 fire type, and 1 grass type starter. In the beginning of the games, you will be given a choice on which one you want to begin your journey with.
To add on to regions, did you know the Sinnoh region wasn’t originally named Sinnoh? It was called ‘Hisui” instead. Hisui takes place in the game “Pokémon: Legends Arceus” which the storyline travels back in time to how the Husui region was more “ancient” and is very different from current Pokémon as to how it used to be. For example, in the Hisui region, even the best of the best Pokémon trainers could only catch 1-2 Pokémon…at best 3? And there were no gym trainers, there was no such thing as a “champion” and there was only one town and not multiple throughout the whole region.
Finally, some Pokémon regions have their own “catch” as you might call them. The Kanto region has a phenomenon called “Mega Evolution” which allows a Pokémon to evolve during battle into their final phase, which gives them power-ups and better damage to win the battle. In Alola, their phenomenon is called “Z-Crystals” which allows a Pokémon to have a one-time use special move during battle that does more damage than the average attack. Galar has “Dynamax” which allows a Pokémon to become a giant version of themselves with their moves becoming bigger and stronger as well. Galar also has an even better version called “G-max” which stands for Giganta-max, which gives only certain Pokémon a special Dynamax form, while also giving them a special move that only that certain Pokémon can do when Giganta-maxed. And lastly, Paldea has “Terastilization” which allows Pokémon to change their typing mid-battle and boosts all attack’s damage that the Pokémon’s type changed into. These are just fun ways that make the game special and more fun than their traditional battle-system.
The main story line in each game is this: You are a 10-year old child who is getting their first Pokémon (one of the 3 starters) and you are competing in the gym challenge. Every region has 8 gyms, which is called the “Gym challenge”. These consist of gym trainers that specialize in 1 singular type of Pokémon. For example, the first gym of the Galar region is owned by a trainer named “Milo” who specializes in grass type Pokémon. Some regions have what’s called an “elite four”, which are 4 trainers who are “the best of the best”. So, you must complete the gym challenge by beating the 8 gyms, doing the elite 4 (if the region has one) and completing it with beating the champion of the region. If you beat the champion, you become the champion until someone beats you.
Did you know not all Pokémon evolve the same way? The natural way to evolve a Pokémon is by getting it to a certain level in the games. Some Pokémon evolve 2 times, 1 time, or don’t evolve at all and just because they don’t evolve doesn’t mean they aren’t good. All Pokémon in the game are good in different ways, depending on how they are used. But not all of them evolve by levels. Some Pokémon require funky-special ways to evolve them. For example, for Milcery in Pokémon Sword & Shield (the Galar region), you must give it some sort of sweet item like honey, or a strawberry and spin your character around and it will play the evolution screen to evolve into Alcremie. Another example is Gimmighoul in Pokemon Violet & Scarlet (the Paldea region). Once you have collected 999 Gimmighoul Coins (the max you can carry), add a Gimmighoul to your party and level it up once and it will then evolve into Gholdengo.
Something lots of Pokémon fans don’t know about is that the yellow, electric rat we all know and love, Pikachu (the face of Pokémon) wasn’t intended to be the face of Pokémon at all. Gamefreak, the creator of Pokémon, picked Pikachu as the face, feeling that it gives a better friendly vibe that kids would like more instead of their original choice, “Clefairy” was still added into the game, but instead of it being the face, they chose Pikachu, which studies show that they were correct. Most people would prefer Pikachu instead of Clefairy, which ended up being a good choice on their part.
So with that in mind, jump into the world of fantasy and build your own team! Like the slogan says, “Gotta catch em’ all!”
