Playthrough Ruleset - Opinions?

[suicuneman]

For my Omega Ruby playthrough, I'm planning to try out a certain set of rules. I like having a team of six Pokémon, but I kind of feel bad for all the monsters that I catch just for the Pokédex and then leave in the box for all eternity. Also, I can never resist catching and using my favourites like Sandslash and Pikachu, but while I don't want to stop using them, I do want to give other Pokémon a chance to shine.

There's also the fact that I recently finished the National Dex thanks to the Bank, so I won't be catching everything I see for the Pokédex anymore. I don't like the idea of no longer collecting Pokémon, though, so I'd like a good reason to fill up at least a few boxes with new catches.

Here's how I've tried to resolve all this:

• No grinding.
• Deactivate Exp. Share. (Optional but I'll be doing it unless I find the game REALLY hard.)
• Catch every Pokémon that you encounter which you don't already have.
• Give every Pokémon a nickname. (Optional?)
• You may only own one of each species of Pokémon in order to make each one special, but you may have multiple Pokémon on the same evolution chain if you wish, as long as they are never the same species at the same time.
• After you have obtained at least 7 Pokémon, every time you hit a new Pokémon Center 'checkpoint', deposit all Pokémon and withdraw up to three unused Pokémon of your choice from the PC.
• If you have no unused Pokémon, you may withdraw up to three Pokémon that have been used between previous checkpoints, as long as you didn't deposit them during that PC visit.
• If you white out, replace your party, the same as if you'd hit a checkpoint.
• Don't return to a checkpoint till you've reached the next one. If a Pokémon faints, either use a Revive or wait until you've reached the next PC checkpoint where you will deposit your party as normal.
• If a lengthy mission or dungeon takes place within a town or city (such as Pokémon Tower, Pokémon Mansion or the GoldenRod Radio Tower), you should treat it as though it is a route between checkpoints.
• Towns, as long as they're safe from trainer battles, can be used as hubs where you can have any Pokémon in your party to evolve them with stones or by trading them, spending time with them in Amie, feeding Pokéblocks/Poffins or entering contests or Pokéathlon.
• The point is to try to make sure everything you catch gets some notable amount of time in your party, so you can develop a relationship with all of your Pokémon and not just six of them. Therefore you should try as much as possible to give each monster the same amount of party time.
• For Gym challenges and the Elite Four challenge, you may make a team out of anything in your collection. Gyms, like routes, must be played through in an Elite Four-styled gauntlet fashion. If you white out, replace your party as usual. You may not reattempt the same challenge with the same Pokémon until you run out of different Pokémon to use.

What do you think? I know for some games it might be hard to stick to all the rules, but I guess they can be bent however one likes depending on the game. For the Hoenn games, I think they're probably okay.

I was thinking of just always using the lowest-levelled Pokémon rather than all this convoluted stuff, but then, what if you obtain a really underlevelled Mon halfway through the game, like the Plusle in Colosseum, or if you decided to hatch an egg? Then you'd be stuck with that Pokémon in your party for a good long while, and I want the party to be constantly changing.

Another thing I want to mention is that I recently finished my first nuzlocke challenge (LeafGreen), and I didn't really find it very exciting, just frustrating. As I understand, along with increasing the difficulty, the permadeath rule is meant to make you feel more sentimental about your party members. I experienced this a little, but mostly that rule only served to annoy me, and by the final battle against Blue I was shamelessly using save states because I knew the only other way to beat him was by grinding for hours. With my rules, I'm trying to make each Pokémon special in its own way without the pressure of always having to keep it from dying. Even so, this set of rules should still increase the difficulty somewhat because it means all the experience and EVs will be spread out across everything you catch.

So, any suggestions to improve this list, and do you think it's something you might try at some point? (Or are the rules too specific to my own preferences?)

 

[Muur]

no revives in battle

play on set

 

[Tyrfing]

I personally couldn't do it; I grow too attached to my mon's, but I like the idea of your challenge. I would also ban legends.