Fun themes or restrictions for playthroughs

[MDM1 Beans]

Hey all, so I'm having a bit of trouble. Rejuvenation v11 was the first Pokemon game I ever played that was not an official Nintendo game, and the first game I'd played that went beyond gen 3 pokemon and mechanics. And I loved it so much. I loved the story and the increased difficulty, I loved being challenged by the game and having to actually learn a bit about the game, stats and battling. I played all the way through, completing as many of the sidequests and all as I could, and had a blast. I then took all this newfound knowledge about EVs/IVs, natures and abilities, physical v special attacks, and team building and played through Reborn. I built a much better team that was better equipped for tough fights, but the building of that team became much more of a grind. I understand some people enjoy that grind, the resetting or chain breeding, but it's not for me. So after finishing Reborn (which I also enjoyed), I played through Desolation but used a debug mod, not to add anything in but just to more quickly refresh stats and natures to reduce the grind. I love this style of game, and every Pokemon game I've played since I've been looking for similar games. 

 

The trouble I'm having is that I've since come back to Rejuvenation and am struggling to find a way to play through it that I enjoy. I deleted my original save file as I didn't like my team at the time and wanted to see all the early game changes the team put so much time into. I still love the maps, the stories, the characters, but for some reason I still haven't made it to any of the v12 or v13 content before I get burnt out on my run, despite the fact that I very much want to. So I was hoping that anyone who has read this far could share some ways they've played through the game and built or restricted their teams that they found both fun and challenging, so that I can try something new to get through the early game and on to the new content.

[Dry Ham]

One of my favourite challenge playthroughs was only allowing myself to use pokemon that were classified as untiered on Smogon. It forces you to use a lot of weaker pokemon which require more creative tactics to succeed in some of the fights. Other than that, a lot of people on this forum use monotype teams to make new playthroughs more interesting. So, for example, only allowing yourself to use dark type pokemon. There's also things like nuzlockes, but they're extremely difficult and frustrating to do in Rejuvenation and Reborn because of how the games are structured, so I wouldn't recommend them.

 

Edit:

Also I'd just like to add to this. Don't be afraid to take another break from the game until you're in the mood to try playing again. Reborn and Rejuvenation are extremely long, slow paced, and text heavy games. Like you said, it's very easy to get burnt out by playing them. I go through periods where I can't even get past the first gym without getting bored. But then I take a few months break, come back to play them again, and have a great time.

Edited October 14, 2021 by Dry Ham

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

there are actualy untiered mon which are good altaria so in the run is mega form of those mon allowed .but seviper(actually an untieered mon) destroyed a half a team of good mon in little time seviper is one of  my first partner in the poison run it has a crest and omg is that girl a monster we can with the help of money and heart scales make our team really good .ev.en though i have to use a single revival item in a poison team to beat a buff up steel gym was a great achievement for me . you can do so much monorun and different kinds.so if you do a untiered run yu might get a chance to use some great  mon like ramparodos it is actually atleast take down one or two mon so it is really good .you can use good mon so its great opportunities for a run i 

after some time you use almost every mon a use can get some giood moments

[Cyphre]

You can try and do a run with only pokemon that can be used with crests. Obviously you dont have access to most of the crests early on, but you are allowed to use pokemon that can get them in the future. Like you can get Seviper super early on, for example, and use it even before you get a crest. Since this can be only done in Rejuvenation and some crests change playstyle of some pokemons considerably. 

Another way you can restrict yourself is forbid yourself from using TM's and move relearner and when pokemon learn a new move, you HAVE to replace some older move with it. This way you will absolutely have to use only moveset that is available to a particular pokemon. 

[bruhtonium]

Depends on what mode you play. I played on intense, which meant that any mon with stat boosting is really good. If you do not want to get burnt  i would recommend normal and on that mode you can basically go ham. I would try to gather the teams of various rivals/trainers/champions. Did you know you could get every cyntia team. If you did not get a togekiss from the mystery egg, you still use her diamond team which has an gastrodon

[pizzagod13]

You can try playing without items (potions and such are banned, held items/pokeballs are fine) and on set mode. Makes things much more challenging. For actual challenge runs, some people do mono type runs, you can also do a challenge using only low tier competitive Pokémon for example, or maybe only using gift/event mons? 

[MDM1 Beans]

@Dry Ham I have tried a monotype run in the past, but I think I didn't like the lack of diversity, though it's possible I just didn't pick a good typing. However I do really like your idea for using only untiered pokemon, I think that could be a really good mix of new mons and a good challenge, thank you! And I totally hear you on taking a break, which is what I've been doing for a while now and I'm itching to play now.

 

@Cyphre I like the idea of just using crest pokemon, that could be interesting! Especially since I've never actually made it to a point where I could use crests before. Thank you!

[Dragon116]

One of my favorite styles is Russian Roulette. Every badge I get forces me to release one of the pokemon on my team (picked via random.org), and requires me to pick a new one to replace it. I have paired this with a Rainbow Gen run (1 from each gen, alternating which one comes in as I lose team members). Let's me keep a decent team without ever being complacent and just going with my favorites. It's the reason I learned how good Sudowodo was as a utility mon.

[SAF]

Speaking of challenges, I kinda thought of banning one type per chapter (or per gym/trial if done in the mainline games), determined via random.org or something. Once you finish a chapter/gym/trial, re-roll for the next part's banned type. I haven't tried one yet, though.

[MDM1 Beans]

19 hours ago, Dragon116 said:

One of my favorite styles is Russian Roulette. Every badge I get forces me to release one of the pokemon on my team (picked via random.org), and requires me to pick a new one to replace it. I have paired this with a Rainbow Gen run (1 from each gen, alternating which one comes in as I lose team members). Let's me keep a decent team without ever being complacent and just going with my favorites. It's the reason I learned how good Sudowodo was as a utility mon.

 

This sounds really interesting. So you initially just make a team of 6, each from a different gen, or 8 team members? And then each badge you release someone random, but how do you determine who to add to your team next?

[Dragon116]

Woops, didn't see the reply until now. Sorry for the late response.

 

I start off with 6 pokemon, each from a different gen. The last time I did this, only Gen 1-6 were available pre-Julia, so Gen 7 was the first one on rotation since I didn't want my starter to be Gen 7.

 

After I release, then the gen on rotation comes in. So after Julia I had to pick a Gen 7 to put on my team. Whichever gen was released (I believe it was gen 1 when I did it) goes on rotation. So after florina's release, the next teammember has to be from Gen 1.

 

I also had a few other restrictions like no duplicate evolutionary lines and no swapping once they were on the team. Forced me to stick with Gumshoos and Liepard for so long it was terrible.

 

If you look at my run, you'll get the idea