This will come as no surprise to literally anyone who knows anything about me, but I play a LOT of Pokemon.
I have essentially been playing Pokemon non-stop since 1998 or 1999. In one form or another, in one generation or another, I’ve been playing a lot of Pokemon for the last twenty-plus years. I remember playing Red on my laptop in college after accidentally stumbling across the show and finding it ironically charming.
I remember downloading a laughably badly translated ROM of Pokemon Gold before it was available in America. The move “Leer” was referred to as “Eye Beams”, and characters said some hilariously nonsensical things. You have no idea how often I wish I still had that ROM (though, if I recall correctly, it petered out entirely around the third gym).
I’ve played every generation of the core games except for Sun and Moon because I didn’t feel like playing them on my busted 3DS. I’ve played Go on my phone and the TCG both online and with physical cards.
I have multiple games with saved files over 500 or 600 hours.
So yeah… I play a lot of Pokemon. In case you can’t tell.
(with the notable exceptions of Snap or any of the Mystery Dungeon Games, neither of which did I ever get into)
About a year ago, on my previous site (which no longer exists), I started an article series where I played a HeartGold Radomizer Nuzlocke. I still have the ARTICLES saved as Drafts here, but the images I took are gone with my former site. Which is a shame because it was a lot of fun… until the one chapter that obliterated my team. But such is Nuzlife!
Anyway, as the months have moved on, I knew I wanted to do another playthrough series over here. People seemed to enjoy following along with my HeartGold adventures.
The only question was… what kind?
I wanted something fun, but also a challenge. I just did a Nuzlocke, so there was no reason to go right back into that. So I started thinking about what other challenges there, and one stuck out at me… one I’m not sure I ever played all the way through.
A Monotype challenge. And due to this, I’d play it on the most recent game in the franchise, Pokemon Shield. See, in almost any other generation, doing Monotype is extremely limiting until at least mid-game, depending on the type. But with Shield’s Wild Area, I could have a team well before my first gym challenge!
Exactly as it sounds, a Monotype challenge forces you to play through the game with a team where every member is part of the same type. It is, therefore, harder to take advantage of strengths or weaknesses and forces you to be a bit more studious in your training.
But Pokemon as a game has eighteen different types? Which should I pick?
Well that is where I used a bit of the ol’ Random Number Generator and the Twitter account! I used the RNG to randomly select me four types–the max for a Twitter poll–and then I went to Twitter and had folks vote on a random number without even knowing what it was all for.
Based on the order in which the four randomly pulled numbers corresponded with the types named on this Pokemon Wikia article, my choices were Fighting, Flying, Bug, or Dark. All eminently workable. Somewhat workable. Dark might have been difficult; who knows?
From there, it was up to the Twitterverse, and… with our followers having no idea what the poll was for or what the numbers meant, #12 won in a landslide! So it would be a Bug Type challenge for me.
Out of the four choices, I was ecstatic. Bug is generally a weak type with a ton of weaknesses and not a lot of offensive strengths, but it has a lot of coverage in the form of good Pokemon with useful secondary typings.
ALSO!
It meant I could use my absolute favorite Pokemon ever.
I was really just happy about that part.
So come with me as we start this journey of… Pokemon: A Bug’s Life!
(Better name pending)
As is the case in Pokemon Shield, young sWo woke up in his home village of Postwick and watched a Pokemon battle on TV starring the champion, Leon. Sure Pokemon battles looked fun, but everyone used giant flame dragons or monstrous beasts of the sea or psychic demons. Who was standing up for the little man? Who could be the one to show the world that lowly bug Pokemon were a bigger power than any of them knew?
One day when he was just a small child, sWo was roaming the streets between Postwick and Wedgehurst. He was practicing dribbling his basketball, and was almost up to twenty consecutive dribbles! But on his last try, he lost control of the ball at seventeen. As he chased it down the road, a small, yellow dog with stumpy legs emerged. sWo reached out to make friends with the cute pup, but it growled in return! sWo tried to back away, but the dog sparked with electrical energy, raised its fur, and stepped forward!
Before the Yamper could attack the scared boy, a swarm of Caterpie emerged from the tall grass. The tackled and abused the ferocious pup until it finally fled. They turned toward sWo, eye contact made, and a bond was formed. Then, they slinked back into the grass.
So Leon and his ilk could keep their flame dragons. sWo would enter the Pokemon League using the strongest bugs he could find!
sWo’s neighbor was Hop, Leon’s younger brother who was so desperate to follow in Leon’s footsteps that everyone could smell the stench of it on him. But Hop could be useful; getting close to Leon meant that the Champion would approve sWo for his quest.
So when Leon next visited, he came bearing gifts: Pokemon for sWo and Hop!
sWo reluctantly took Grookey, figuring if nothing else, he would be useful to help attract and catch superior insect-based Pokemon.
After getting his little grass monkey, sWo found Hop wandering into the Slumbering Weald, a mysterious woods conveniently located right next door to sWo’s house. Feeling a responsibility for the champion’s brother, sWo followed him in.
They stumbled around in the fog searching for a lot Pokemon, and any chance of making it back home seemed slim. Things went from bad to worse as sWo and Hop were approached by a threatening Pokemon!
Grookey was completely incapable of hurting this strange beast, no doubt because he wasn’t strong like a bug! Pfft, silly monkey.
Luckily the red and blue creature fell back into the fog, allowing sWo and Hop to flee the Weald.
After saying goodbue to their families, sWo and Hop took a train to start their League quest. But before they could arrive in Motostoke Town, the train broke down in the Galar Wild Area.
sWo looked out into the expansive park land. Now was the time to begin catching his fearsome horde…
SWO Productions 