[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] - Introduction

Hey everybody, TheLightningspirit78 here. I would like to welcome you all to my first text-only Let’s Play which is on Pokémon Platinum. With Pokémon Black & White coming out in less than a week, I decided to say farewell to one of my more favorite generations of Pokémon with a bang. Now I know I have already done a small Let’s Play of all the boss battles in the game on my channel already, so I decided to spice this up a little bit. During this Let’s Play I will be abiding by the rules of a “Nuzlocke Challenge” which is something I’ve attempted to do multiple times but have never succeeded in doing. For those that are unfamiliar as to what a “Nuzlocke Challenge” is, it is basically when you play a Pokémon game following these mandatory rules:

§  Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and must be released (or you can store them in a PC box marked “Graveyard” and never use them again but I will be releasing them (unless it’s something amazing like a freaking shiny.)

§  The player may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else. If the first Pokémon encountered faints or flees, there are no second chances.

§  Players must also nickname all of their Pokémon, for the sake of forming stronger emotional bonds.

§  A black out/white out is to be considered a "game over," even if there are Pokémon left in the PC and you must restart your file. Whether you start the challenge up again is up to you.

With that said, these are all the mandatory rules I could find from various Pokémon forums and Bulbapedia. There are multiple optional rules you can follow in order to make it even harder on yourself (like this isn’t tough enough already) such as not using items outside of battle or limiting the number of Pokeballs you can get from stores. However, I will only be following 1 optional rule which is to change the battle style to “Set” which means I will not be asked to change Pokémon after defeating one of an opponent’s Pokémon in battle.

So with that said, I can say that I have tried doing “Nuzlocke Challenges” before in Pokémon Leaf Green & Sapphire but sadly they both ended in defeat. I decided to take my chances with the Sinnoh region and well, here we are. Before beginning I would like to say that “Nuzlocke Challenges” are indeed worth trying but before jumping head first into one (like I did with Pokémon Sapphire) know what you are getting into. I can say that it really does put the series into a new perspective because during normal playhroughs, when you lose a Pokémon, you can just rush to a Pokémon Center and heal. However, this is not the case here. These challenges teach you that the little things in our Pokémon games that we often overlook are not to be taken for granted. It teaches you to care for your Pokémon like they are your little pets, and when you lose on in these kinds of challenges it does hurt because you have to release them from your game knowing that you can’t get them back. So, while these challenges are meant for those dying for a challenge, they can also be related to life in many ways as I have just shown. So I recommend that if you are one who truly cares for the Pokémon you get and would hate to let them go, I can say this challenge is probably not for you. I do hate losing members of the team very much but knowing I can continue the challenge thanks to their contributions to the team gives me the fight to carry on with the game for the team member that are still around. Now, I know that I’m sounding totally crazy talking about this stuff and acting like Pokémon are real (which I know they are not, I’m not that crazy), but as an owner of real life pets of my own and with Pokémon being a big part of childhood, these kinds of things tend to touch me for some reason. One last thing I would like to say is that in the event I do get a “game-over: the text Let’s Play will end there. So this could be 1 part or 40. You never know. Ok, now that I’m done explaining the deep details of these runs and sounding like Ash Ketchum I think I can safely say that it is time to begin.