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Pokemon OCD

Nyter

Island Challenger
I think many of us here have played the Pokemon core series games for many many years and we all have our own strategies and ways to go about our in-game journeys. For some, it may be ONLY choosing a fire starter, or others beating the Pokemon League and stopping to play the games after that. And then there are also those who ONLY obtain and keep shiny Pokemon. What particular habits do you have when playing these games (or any spinoff games really)?

For me, I have a habit of only carrying Pokemon with the sex that I feel suits their design best. Take for instance a Machoke. A Machoke looks more of a male to me than a female, therefore I would not keep a female Machoke and would keep a male Machoke instead. The same applies with, say, starters. Upon choosing a Fennekin, to me, a Fennekin and the rest of its evolutionary line look more female to me than they do male. So I would often soft reset to end up with a female Fennekin and would refuse to go on until I obtained one.

(Disclaimer: this is in no way a representation of how I view life. In the end, all Pokemon were born this way and Arceus makes no mistakes.)

Another OCD habit of mine is that I will refuse to move further into a game until I defeat all NPC trainers in an area. I have to have battled everyone to move on. I try to get as much grind as I can.

And the last one I can think of, even though competitively some moves are better than others, no matter what, if a Pokemon has a Signature move, I always keep that move for it. I find it makes a Pokemon unique and I try to keep my Pokemon true to that. Take for instance Chatot's "Chatter". I am sure Chatot has way better and more powerful options for a flying type move but it is its Signature move, so therefore I refuse to have Chatot forget it.

Sound off below!
 

Sakuyamon

Well-Known Member
For me I feel really compelled to complete the Dexes in all my games even if it takes a long time in the older games since you can't trade through the internet to get all the Pokemon in those games.

Also I hate it when my Pokemon get Pokerus. :(
 

Nyter

Island Challenger
For me I feel really compelled to complete the Dexes in all my games even if it takes a long time in the older games since you can't trade through the internet to get all the Pokemon in those games.

Also I hate it when my Pokemon get Pokerus. :(
Wow. You are the first person I have heard that frowns upon a Pokemon contracting the Pokerus.
 

Jesness

Togekiss Enthusiast
I really like to breed Pokemon. To that end, I always reset until I get a female starter as most of the time you don't get access to Ditto until late/post game. If there's some kind of way to easily EV train my Pokemon such as super training I will do that as well for each member of my team. On a second playthrough, I usually start with a completely fully bred/EV trained team of 6 pokemon with egg/TM moves and will only catch mons for breeding or dex completion.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I'm very particular about which kinds of Balls I capture my Pokemon in, especially the ones that I'll have on my main teams. I try to use Balls that match each individual Pokemon's color patterns.
 

Nyter

Island Challenger
I really like to breed Pokemon. To that end, I always reset until I get a female starter as most of the time you don't get access to Ditto until late/post game. If there's some kind of way to easily EV train my Pokemon such as super training I will do that as well for each member of my team. On a second playthrough, I usually start with a completely fully bred/EV trained team of 6 pokemon with egg/TM moves and will only catch mons for breeding or dex completion.
Yeah. I think I subconsciously do something of this sort. I always buy both versions of a game and I play one to test the waters. I catch several Pomemon and from that version, breed and train for the team that I want on my other game version. Then, on my second game version, I play exclusively with the Pokemon I bred and/or trained for from my first game version.

I'm very particular about which kinds of Balls I capture my Pokemon in, especially the ones that I'll have on my main teams. I try to use Balls that match each individual Pokemon's color patterns.

Catching Legendaries with a base catch rate of 3 and particular balls must be a challenge. Kudos to you!
 

Tsukuyomi56

Sky High Knight
Where possible, I try to obtain Pokemon in matching Poke Balls (colour scheme or particle effect when a Pokemon is sent out). Dynamax Adventures have guaranteed captures for everything notably makes things easier for the Pokemon obtained from it (regular Raids too when you are the host).
 

octoboy

I Crush Everything
I often find it very hard to replace party members and moves, leading me to often end up at the Elite 4 with early capture pokémon. I remember my cousin had to fight to have me make my swampert forget water gun after constantly losing in Sapphire. For some reason, sing and bide are the moves I stick to the most, every party I've ended up with having a carrier of those moves. In Diamond, my team had a kricketune which had both. Why those two attacks, I'm not completely sure, but I'm suspecting bide is sentimental to me because I taught it to the first pokémon I ever had with the first ever TM I'd earned in my first ever gym battle. Not to mention, it's pretty satisfying to turn an opponent's own brutality against it like that. As for sing, I guess that gives me fond memories of jigglypuff's shenanigans back in the anime. I guess those two moves also both fit my personality of the more passive path to victory, not making the first strike. That probably explains why I usually also have confusion-inducing moves on my team-members, as it's satisfying to see an opponent take itself apart.

Another thing that making this very post reminded me of is that I now always feel compelled include the acute accent on the "é" of "pokémon". I often will scroll through a thread I'm posting in hoping someone else did so as well, and commonly don't, and end up visiting Bulbapedia just to get an accute-accented E from there.
 
Almost never saving just once. It all started when I once forgot to save on Gold and lost a ton of progress. So now I'm super paranoid about that and often save, then question if I actually saved the game less than a minute later and save again.

A living dex every first playthrough. Started doing living dexes in gen 3 and I haven't stopped doing them. Even in the newer games where you have to wait to transfer old pokemon, I make sure I have a living dex despite being able to transfer things over a few months later.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
I'm very particular about which kinds of Balls I capture my Pokemon in, especially the ones that I'll have on my main teams. I try to use Balls that match each individual Pokemon's color patterns.

I've started doing this in Go. It's kind of ironic and funny to catch a Voltorb or Electrode in a Poké Ball. :p

Almost never saving just once. It all started when I once forgot to save on Gold and lost a ton of progress. So now I'm super paranoid about that and often save, then question if I actually saved the game less than a minute later and save again.

The newer games (after Gen 6) save so quickly that you sometimes forget if you really did save, so you double or even triple-save just to be on the safe side. When I played X, I'd always try to stare at the screen while I was saving, because it literally takes a second to save.
 

Fred Garvin

Drone Pilot
Depends on the game and how the main story is written, but since X/Y I generally will burn through the gym badges as fast as possible in order to get my main team brought over and under control. Once I have 100% control and my mains in place, I’ll finish up the story, the Looker or the ridiculous Sordward/Shieldbert, seek/destroy all wandering trainers, and since Sun/Moon: Dex completion.

Really though, it’s just completing the gym badges ASAP that I do every game first.
 

Teravolt

cilan lives forever in my heart
I think many of us here have played the Pokemon core series games for many many years and we all have our own strategies and ways to go about our in-game journeys. For some, it may be ONLY choosing a fire starter, or others beating the Pokemon League and stopping to play the games after that. And then there are also those who ONLY obtain and keep shiny Pokemon. What particular habits do you have when playing these games (or any spinoff games really)?

For me, I have a habit of only carrying Pokemon with the sex that I feel suits their design best. Take for instance a Machoke. A Machoke looks more of a male to me than a female, therefore I would not keep a female Machoke and would keep a male Machoke instead. The same applies with, say, starters. Upon choosing a Fennekin, to me, a Fennekin and the rest of its evolutionary line look more female to me than they do male. So I would often soft reset to end up with a female Fennekin and would refuse to go on until I obtained one.

(Disclaimer: this is in no way a representation of how I view life. In the end, all Pokemon were born this way and Arceus makes no mistakes.)

Another OCD habit of mine is that I will refuse to move further into a game until I defeat all NPC trainers in an area. I have to have battled everyone to move on. I try to get as much grind as I can.

And the last one I can think of, even though competitively some moves are better than others, no matter what, if a Pokemon has a Signature move, I always keep that move for it. I find it makes a Pokemon unique and I try to keep my Pokemon true to that. Take for instance Chatot's "Chatter". I am sure Chatot has way better and more powerful options for a flying type move but it is its Signature move, so therefore I refuse to have Chatot forget it.

Sound off below!
I wholeheartedly agree with having mons of specific genders. For example, in my play through of Sun, I got a male shiny Comfey. I almost cried because I wanted a female and I’d have to go through the SOS process all over again to get one.
 

Nyter

Island Challenger
I wholeheartedly agree with having mons of specific genders. For example, in my play through of Sun, I got a male shiny Comfey. I almost cried because I wanted a female and I’d have to go through the SOS process all over again to get one.
The way I share your pain right now!!!

That must have been excruciating. Did you get another one female?
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Nyter said:
Catching Legendaries with a base catch rate of 3 and particular balls must be a challenge. Kudos to you!

I actually do make some exceptions for most Legendaries, though. It's too difficult to capture them in specific Balls, so I have no choice but to use whatever Ball is most effective regardless of aesthetics.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Who does the "mashing A and B repeatedly to increase catch rate" thing? I don't personally, but it seems a lot of people do or have done in the past.
 

Italianbaptist

Informed Casual
When I was 8 and played Pokemon Red/Blue, I used to do this A LOT. I felt like I had some control over whether a Pokemon is caught or not.

It was a rumor started around in school.

The rumor at my school was holding down the B button right after you select the ball. It didn't help that Nintendo Power decided to throw a rumor of their own out there, "press B as soon as the ball explodes". This was in Gen 1 and I'm pretty sure I still do it out of habit.

There was also a modification in gen 5 I think where as the Pokemon was struggling in the ball, you were supposed to draw around the Pokeball logo with the stylus on the bottom screen. I was in college and I still fell for it ;)

As far as my own OCD moments, thanks to Pokemon Stadium I usually save only at a Pokemon Center. Not so much recently but at least through Gen 7.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
As far as my own OCD moments, thanks to Pokemon Stadium I usually save only at a Pokemon Center

Whenever I finish playing for the day, I always go back to my (in-game) house and save there. It seems logical.
 

Teravolt

cilan lives forever in my heart
The way I share your pain right now!!!

That must have been excruciating. Did you get another one female?
I have no clue. I think so, but that was almost 5 years ago.
 
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