Omega Ruby: Continued training my team and I got them all to their desired levels, which was 50 or above. All of them were fully evolved and had learned all moves they had to learn through TM or level-up. I flew to the Battle Resort and taught them the moves they needed through Move Tutors. But I had to do two small things before I could get back to the Maison. I went to my daily Mirage Spot which fortunately happened to be a Mirage Cave with smashable rocks, so I smashed the rocks until I had found a Plume Fossil. Went to Rustboro and restored it into an Archen as I would need one for a future trade with Alpha Sapphire. I also restored the rest of the fossils into Pokemon even if I didn't need them, will probably just store them on Bank later on.
Then I also had to get one certain item for the team that I was missing. A Light Clay, which can only be found on wild Baltoy and Claydol. I went to the Sky Pillar and started stealing items from wild Claydol until I found one, which didn't take long, fortunately. Now, I was ready to head back to the Battle Maison. Gave the team their items and entered the Super Rotation line. Started battling and won 10 battles so far. It is not much but a start at least. It took some time because the team plays quite slowly as it requires a lot of setup most of the time, and my opponents have done several unexpected moves which caught me off-guard. I also came very close to losing one battle, but I managed to win which was fortunate. I feel that I learned a bit from it and hope to put it to good use so that a loss hopefully won't happen. Going to continue and see how it goes.
Alpha Sapphire: With all preparations done, it was finally time. I was going to challenge the Elite Four and the Champion. At the Pokemon League, I entered the gate and took the challenge.
First out was Sidney. I lead with Milotic against him, got a Competitive boost thanks to Mightyena's Intimidate and defeated it with Surf. Then I used Mega Altaria to take down the rest of his team with Return and Moonblast.
Next was Phoebe. She was the one I had planned the least strategy for. I used Bellossom to defeat her Dusclops with Giga Drain, then Mega Glalie with Crunch and Milotic with Surf against the rest of her team.
Third in line was Glacia. I used Gallade to defeat her first Glalie, then Mega Blaziken to smash her remaining Pokemon with Blaze Kick and Sky Uppercut after a Swords Dance.
Fourth out was Drake. Mega Glalie demolished his team with Return, Ice Beam and Freeze-Dry. Three Ice-moves might seem unnecessary, but they all serve a purpose. Here and in other battles.
Finally, it was time for the Champion. Steven. I wasn't really sure how to handle him either. Decided to lead with Milotic and defeat his Skarmory with Surf, then Gallade used Close Combat to destroy his Cradily. It fell to his Aggron, so I sent out Milotic to defeat it and his Claydol with Surf. Decided to go with Mega Blaziken for the finale, sent it out against his Armaldo, used Swords Dance and then Sky Uppercut for a defeat. Used Blaze Kick against his Mega Metagross hoping for an epic finish... but it missed, and my Blaziken fainted to a Zen Headbutt. So that was a failure. I sent out Milotic to end things, used Surf to defeat the Mega Metagross while successfully tanking two Giga Impacts in the process.
With that, I had beaten the Elite Four and the Champion. While things didn't go exactly how I had planned regarding the battle against Steven, I did at least win. I entered the Hall of Fame and watched the credits. I like how they show the progress of my journey up to this point. Then I had a rematch with Brendan and won.
After that... the Delta Episode began. I played through it. Not going to go into any details this time either, I'll just leave it with that. While playing through it, I got to explore two areas I hadn't explored before, one was completely new. First was Meteor Falls. There, I battled all trainers, picked up all items as well as caught Barboach, Bagon and Clefairy. The second one was Sky Pillar. I picked up all items there and caught an Ariados.
Regarding the legendaries, I caught Rayquaza, only because I had to. Didn't bother getting one with good IVs/Nature, just caught it. The dragon turned out to be really strong and it could have swept my entire team, but I caught it on the first ball, fortunately. I didn't catch Deoxys though. Defeated it, but I will come back for it later.
With that, the Delta Episode was over, and I could get started on the post-game. Not sure if I will have the time to do everything I want to do here and in Omega Ruby before Sun/Moon are released, but I will try. Started by receiving a Latiosite from my mother, then I saved Professor Birch from a hostile Shroomish and got to keep a Johto starter, decided to go with Totodile since it is my second favorite. Flew to Fallarbor where I received the last Mega stone I needed for my team, the Galladite. I tried Mega Evolving my Gallade and it looks so awesome, just like I knew it would. Added it to my Pokedex as well.
Flew back to Littleroot. Now, my re-exploring of Hoenn began. I am going to catch all DexNav exclusive Pokemon as well as find most Mega Stones that I am missing. I had 24 Mega stones at this point which was about half of the ones that exist. Along the way, I am also going to visit Mirage Spots and start working slightly on Secret Bases. Left my home in Littleroot and saved Professor Birch once more, this time from a Machoke. He gave me a Unova starter to keep, I wasn't sure whether to go with Tepig or Oshawott since I like them about equally, but I ended up picking Tepig, this little pig is just so cute.
Then I got started. Not going to go into details so I'll just say that I have re-explored the first part of Hoenn, from Littleroot Town to Mauville City. I have caught all DexNav exclusive Pokemon along the way and found three Mega Stones. The Scizorite at Petalburg Woods, the Ampharosite at New Mauville, and the Lopunnite in Mauville itself. Speaking of Mauville, I also completed the New Mauville sidequest and got all items and things through that. Also visited Mauville Hills and got everything from there... that's where I got the Lopunnite too.
Then I have also visited my daily Mirage Spots and gathered more of them through SpotPass, found several items and caught a bunch of Pokemon on them. I also connected to the PGL and did a Game Sync for the first time here. I have obtained 52 medals in total so far which is good though there are a lot more to get and I will get to that at some point in the future. Regarding Secret Bases, I have started collecting flags and I have to my own surprise managed to obtain more than 30 already, which got me up to the first rank, this means I can now start farming Stones from my Secret Pals, which I will do in order to get all stones I need. Will continue re-exploring Hoenn while doing other things in the meantime.
This will also be the last time I post my team. I won't focus on training them anymore now that I am done with the main story and the post-game story, though I will keep on using them while working on the Pokedex and other things. They worked well during the main story and I hope that won't change for the post-game.
Team:
- level 62
- level 62
- level 61
- level 62
- level 62
- level 61