Pokémon Platinum journal - entry six

It took me three full runs through the Elite Four and a little over a half an hour grinding in Victory Road to gather enough experience points to best Cynthia’s team of Pokémon. While I found the combination of different types she brought to the fight kept me on my toes, her Togekiss led me to be the most annoyed, as most of my Pokémon that stood the best chance of taking her Togekiss down had weak defense while most of the others simply had a natural weakness to Flying type moves. The resulting choice for her Togekiss to spam a single attack over and over got old rather fast, despite the fact that I had more than one Pokémon whose speed stat or moveset allowed them to move first.

The Elite Four proved very different than previous incarnations. While the typings commanded by the Elite Four members were curious, the gauntlet run setup as a whole felt lackluster when compared to that of Soul Silver or the generation V titles. Really, the only notable challenge came from Cynthia, and I don’t feel that my having chosen a different Sinnoh starter would have made much of a difference in this scenario.

While I did stick with the core team I set out to use for Platinum up through my first attempt at defeating the Elite Four, I came to realize that Chimecho was acting largely as a support member to my team. While this was fine for the gyms and trainer battles that had led up to that point, Chimecho’s lack of versatility and moves that only allowed for so much in the way of offensive power led me to swap him out in favor of another Psychic type. While I briefly considered Bronzong, I knew my team already had a significant weakness to Fire Pokémon, and opted instead to seek out the three Lake Guardians. As soon as I realized Mesprit was determined to wander Sinnoh in the hopes that I might chase him, I gave up on that venture, focusing instead on Uxie and Azelf. Uxie’s higher defense stats, while impressive, ultimately led me to select Azelf and his higher attack stats. I wanted a Pokémon that could learn a couple of strong Psychic moves, but that could also be useful in countering other types not as well accounted for by the rest of my party. Azelf hit the opponent Pokémon hard and fast, and that was just the edge I needed.

So here it is – my Pokémon Platinum ‘dream team’, consisting of Empoleon, Blaziken, Venusaur, Aerodactyl, Froslass, and Azelf. I’m glad I stuck with these six core typings from start to finish, even if I did swap one team member out at the eleventh hour. As I am posting this, I have already captured Giratina, Dialga, and Palkia (to surprisingly little resistance and small number of catch attempts with the latter two). I have yet to explore the majority of the postgame content, so my review will be a little ways off yet. But do know that this is likely the final journal entry for my Pokémon Platinum playthrough, and that my next journal series will focus on the sixth generation Pokémon games (though I am currently still unsure as to which title I want to purchase between Pokémon X and Pokémon Y).