Let's Play: Pokemon X

[Dragon Lord]

So I've been considering going back and doing an actual full play through of Pokemon X, but I thought, why just do a normal, boring play through of it? Why not have some fun and let other people decide how the game goes for me?

So that's where this topic comes in. I labeled it a "Let's Play", even though it's not really going to be much of one, but it's the only label I felt was appropriate for my goal here.

So, as everyone knows, I'm fairly picky with what Pokemon I like, especially from newer generations where I take the boomer route of sitting there going, 'Back in my day, Pokemon designs were actually good!"

So how do I fix that? Lord knows I'll never actually do it myself, so instead I'll let you guys decide what Pokemon I use. That's right, ya'll get to decide each and every single Pokemon in my team.

Now, I'm not quite sure yet on how I'm going to go about deciding what Pokemon I catch from routes yet. Maybe I can just list all the Pokemon available in a route and you guys can name the one you think I should get and use, and we'll see if we can get any where that way. Obviously the starter is easy, and of course I can't start a play through without knowing my starter, so we'll start with deciding that first.

Who do I take as my starter?

1) Fennekin
2) Froakie
3) Chespin
4) Only use starter until you obtain your second Pokemon (if this option wins, then I'll just pick whichever I feel like since it'll be ditched anyways)

Either list the name or 1/2/3 for whatever starter you want me to use. Which ever one gets the most votes will be chosen, or if there's a tie I'll just flip a coin to decide it. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for how I should go about deciding which Pokemon I can catch, let me know. We can either do it on a route-to-route basis, or we could just decide the entire team from the start and I can only catch those Pokemon when I eventually get to them.

Also, might as well get this out of the way too, but yes/no to using a Gen 1 starter. If you say yes, please also list which of the Gen1 starters you want me to take.

I may or may not post updates on the play through here once I get started on it, depending on how lazy I feel about it.

[Moonface]

By all means don't feel the need to actually do this, but if you want to maximize the use of "other" Pokémon maybe consider something like an Ironmon run? You could just swap out a Pokémon once it faints as is the typical Ironmon way, or if it's viable swap in a totally different team for each gym. It would also let people pick Pokémon that can't be obtained early on because they're on later routes or just not lock the run into just early route choices from people. And if you really wanted to satisfy your craving for older Pokémon you could make one slot be just for one of those who gets swapped out in some fashion. Dunno, just word vomiting what popped into my head as I was reading your post.

Anyway, for starter I'm gonna go with Froakie because that was who I chose. Not sure whether to go with the ditch it after obtaining a second Pokémon or not, plus if you go for anything I said above it might negate the need to ditch it quickly.

[Dragon Lord]

I did consider making this a Nuzlocke run, but was unsure if that would make me enjoy the play through or not considering I had difficulty finding enjoyment with X before.

I'm not too worried about later game Pokemon being chosen for the team either, if that's the route I go with. I'm fine with going through a huge chunk of the game with just one, two or three Pokemon while I wait to fill up my team.

Maybe I will just go the Nuzlocke route and that way I can only catch one Pokemon per route and that would make the voting process much easier, as you guys would only have to vote on the one Pokemon I'd be allowed to catch from the route.

I don't plan to start the play through quite yet though, so there's plenty of time to figure out the details. I just figured that since I had trouble getting into X before, maybe doing a play through where I have other people choose my team for me would make it a little more interesting.

[Moonface]

Oh that's right it's called Nuzlocke. Darn, I don't remember what Ironmon is but had the term in mind because someone said it on a stream recently.

Also, I'm guessing choices aren't so much picking a specific Pokémon within an evolution line (excluding cases where a line has multiple choices) and more just saying what line to use in general? For example, if I were to pick Bunnelby would you lock it to being just that or would it include its evolution? Same goes for things where say a Pokémon is only found in an evolved form in the game, would that mean anything before it is off the table? I don't mind if that is the case for the last question, I just wanna know so myself or no one else picks something that while present in X isn't obtainable without catching an evolved form and then breeding it to get the earlier form.

[Dragon Lord]

If a Pokemon has a split evolution path, then there could be a second vote on which path to choose after that Pokemon gets chosen.

As for pre-evolved Pokemon, I would be willing to breed them to get the base evolution version of it if that's what ya'll would want. Like I said, you guys will get to choose my entire line-up. So I have to catch/use what you guys decide on, even if that means having to go out of my way to obtain it.

[Moonface]

As for pre-evolved Pokemon, I would be willing to breed them to get the base evolution version of it if that's what ya'll would want. Like I said, you guys will get to choose my entire line-up. So I have to catch/use what you guys decide on, even if that means having to go out of my way to obtain it.

So does that mean we get to choose if our chosen Pokémon can evolve or not too then? I'm guessing yes but I just want to make sure. XD

[Mr EliteL]

Should let evolutions take place, I mean it's part of the enjoyment getting a stronger version of the Pokémon you have...even if the design might not be ideal so it can tank opponent's hits better. Although I know some people could do runs with unevolved Pokémon, I just don't see why DL has to do that here. But I'm all for it too if it's decided no evolution is preferred, just know my vote is for allow evolving.

I'll be awkward and choose Fennekin as starter as that's what I'd have picked if I ever played X/Y as I went for Snivy in BW, though I did go for Scorbunny in Shield but the difference there was I would've kept Fennekin much longer than I did for Scorbunny which got benched as soon as I got Growlithe and only used it for evolving.

As I never played X/Y I've got little to no clue what Pokémon did appear in the game, so off to Serebii to check the Pokédex. Oh damn the Gen 1 starters are there, genuinely forgot about that, thought you were go to send it over to yourself, doesn't change my choice for starter though. Ah Gym 8 is Ice so Fennekin's line would be good for that, but you could've switched Fire-types by then. Wait...Fletchling is one of the early Pokémon it looks like judging by how close it is to the starters in the listing and evolves into Talonflame, dang, I'm torn now. *checks when the Fletchling line learns Fire moves* Wow pretty late and only two or three. OK I was going to suggest catching a Fletchling but Pidgey-Pidgeot looks to be so much better than Fletchling-Talonflame. I'll keep my starter vote.

I of course allow you to get yourself a Sylveon at some point, another new Pokémon from that gen I would like to see get added is a Tyrunt but that might be too far into the game I'm not sure. Those two were just early pickings from me. Not sure on the rest at the moment but will see how stuff is decided on.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I'm not going to limit evolution for this one. I just feel like that would take enjoyment out of the play through for me as it's not supposed to be a challenge run.

I was considering how I wanted to handle the fact that Eevee is available in the wild from a pretty early point in the game. I considered allowing myself one pick (which would go to Eevee), so that I could have a Vaporeon or Espeon in my team (depending on which starter I end up with), but trying out Sylveon could be a good option too to both get to have my Eeveelution while also using something I haven't before.

It'll definitely be hard to pass up on my Vaporeon or Espeon though, haha. Buy I did say this playthrough was supposed to be about breaking out of my normal habits and getting forced to use Pokemon I would never even give a look at.

[ShiraNoMai]

My choice is for Fennekin because Delphox is honestly a pretty solid mon, with the Fire/Psychic typing, a pretty solid SpAtk and SpDef, with plenty of good fire and psychic moves.

I picked Chespin on my playthrough of Y when this released, and while I adore Chespin, its evolutions were ass. Being 4x weak to Flying was awful.

[Moonface]

For anyone who wants to see what Pokémon are available on what routes, I found this map that shows all of that info: https://imgur.com/x3V0mjw

I'm stumped on what to pick right now because if I try to only pick one out of everything shown on the map I'm worried about picking something really late into the game and causing DL to run with a very small team for a lot of the game. But if I pick something early then it makes later stuff redundant too.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm assuming Santalone City is the first area with a gym leader to face, so I'll start my vote by choosing from the three areas before then.

Route 2 - Weedle (X exclusive)
Santalone Forest - Panpour
Route 3 - Pidgey

I forgot about version exclusive Pokémon so just went with that one, Panpour because Simipour is one of my favourite Pokémon and Pidgey because it was going to be my original pick from Route 2. I'll try to steer my choices away from Gen 1 though because that's my bias Gen.

Also I've gotten the urge to do my own playthrough of Pokémon Black 2 mainly because I've never touched that one (I bought both White 2 & Black 2) after being inspired by this and watching a Nuzlocke run with different people using the same save file (I don't want to do that because I want to use my own poor neglected game cartridge). I'm not 100% sure though yet and it won't be a type of audience participation either like this one, and if I do, I'll also keep record of the run in it's own topic.

[Karo]

Well if your purpose is to go for POkemon you wouldn't normally use I honestly think I would go for Chespin? As I feel like most grass starter tend to be the most underused starter at least I feel like they are and if you want to experience Pokemon you normally wouldn't choose this would give you room when you potentially get eevee for vaporeon or espeon as neither is going to conflict with Chespin's final evolution.

[Moonface]

Because I was struggling to keep tabs on it myself, I figured I'd gather up the actual Pokémon suggestions made so far to help @Dragon Lord and anyone else who might find it useful:

Starter Choice

1. Fennekin (2 votes)
   
2. Froakie (1 vote)
   
3. Chespin (1 vote)
   

Pre-Santalune City Areas

• Weedle - Route 2 (EL)
  
• Panpour - Santalune Forest (EL)
  
• Pidgey - Route 3 (EL)
  

I don't know if there are any Pokemon you would use normally in the routes towards Santalune, so I'm just gonna provide my top three choices per route so if something I give is a choice you'd make anyway you can skip to a choice that is something you wouldn't normally pick.

Route 2

1. Fletchling
   
2. Scatterbug
   
3. Zigzagoon
   

Santalune Forest

1. Pansear
   
2. Pansage
   
3. Panpour
   

Route 3

1. Dunsparce
   
2. Burmy
   
3. Crawdaunt
   

[her]

Fennekin FTW.

[Moonface]

Any plans on when you might start this or who you'll initially pick based on the comments so far @Dragon Lord?