Pokesav

Commissioned by

The following are HIS words, I don't even know what half of this stuff is

"Hello again, fellow Pokemon Trainers and fans. Once again I've got everyone's attention through JHall's work, and just as in the past, I'd like to make the most of it. Hopefully this is a LITTLE less controversial than the last commission, but I know this will probably still rile up a few hardcore players.

Some of you might not get this, while others will right away. Basically, I'm advocating the use of Pokesav, a save editor program, to edit/create a competitive Pokemon team as opposed to some of the current requirements to train a "battle-worthy" team.

Why? No, it's not because I'm too lazy to put in the work - it's because some of the work just isn't fair.

*EVs. vs. IVs - This is my absolute biggest gripe with the current system at the moment. EVs, or Effort Values, simply put, are extra stat points your Pokemon can gain by defeating certain Pokemon in battle. If you beat a Pokemon that has a high Special Attack stat, your Pokemon will grow stronger in Special Attack, beating a fast Pokemon gives you extra Speed, and so on. It's a bit more complicated than that but that should pass as "close enough" of an explanation. This is a perfectly valid requirement for Pokemon training, as it's something that is 100% within the Trainer's control, and those extra stat points, with the right training, are easily put where needed. (For example, a tank will get extra defense and HP, and a quick sweeper will get extra Special Attack and Speed.)

IVs, or Individual Values, are set values between 0 and 31 that are randomly generated when a Pokemon is caught. While there are ways to tweak these through generation upon generation of breeding, and having certain Pokemon in daycare hold certain items, it still boils down to a glorified dice-roll. And what of Pokemon that one might want for a competitive team, but cannot breed? (For example, there have been official tournaments in the past, and there most likely will be again, where some Legendaries are allowed at 1 or 2 per team maximum.) Do Nintendo and Game Freak expect a player to stand in front of said Legendary right before saving, and catch them over and over AND OVER until they get the right combinations of IVs to randomly drop in? Now I know there are methods of "RNG jacking" that would eventually allow someone to know when those proper values are going to be there for the next Pokemon they catch, but honestly why can't these values just be altered after the catch through a sidequest?

*Natures - same thing. Set in stone once you catch the Pokemon, 20 out of the 25 natures raise one of your stats by 10% and lower another by 10%. Every comeptitive team has one specific nature that will benefit each Pokemon, giving it a boost in a much-needed stat while taking a 10% penalty in one that doesn't really matter too much (for example, a Pokemon with all Special moves getting a +10% to Special Attack and a -10% to physical attack.) Once again, this is something outside of the player's control, so in addition to hoping for the right IVs, getting 31s in the right areas, the player ALSO needs to have the right nature.

*Abilities - in the same vein, some Pokemon can have multiple different abilities; usually only one of those is worth having, and adds another coin flip to the already massive amount of randomness that comes with IVs and Nature.

Training is supposed to be about putting in proper work; I don't see proper work being sitting down and figuring out what the next batch of random numbers are going to be that dictate what your next catch is going to have, or breeding the same Pokemon over and over for another roll of the dice, so to speak. Therefore, until there's an in-game method to change a Pokemon's IVs after the catch, change a Pokemon's nature after the catch, and for a Pokemon that has multiple abilities to have a way to switch abilities after the catch, I fully support anyone using Pokesav or any other editing program with the caveat that it's only used to do things that are within the bounds of what is legally possible in the game.

I hope that someday, the World Champion of one year's official Pokemon tournament, after collecting their prizes, annonces that their team was Pokesav'd and uses it as a platform to force the next generation of games to have more Trainer-friendly changes in going about training up a competitive team.

As always, thank you JHall, for letting me tap into a large portion of the Pokemon fanbase through your work!"