Most Exciting Build-Ups To Battles

Highlights

• The battle against powerful trainers like Cynthia, Red, Cyrus, and Giovanni is the most exciting part of
  Pokemon
  games.
• Winning against these formidable opponents is more satisfying when the game slowly builds up to the battle.
• The surprising reveals and challenging battles against these characters make for the most exciting and well-deserved victories in the franchise.

The most exciting part of any Pokemon game is the battles. It doesn’t matter if it is against a random trainer on a travel route or a powerful gym leader, it is always fun watching what a great team of Pokemon can do. Also, it is more exciting to overcome a hurdle that has taken a while to achieve.

Then there are the other types of battles in the Pokemon franchise, the ones that the game builds up to over most of its story. These are normally held against a rival, a Pokemon Champion, or the leader of the evil team in that region. The games slowly introduce these characters throughout the story until the player gets to face them in battle. Winning in these situations always feels good, but it is far more satisfying when the game slowly builds up to the battle.

6 Cynthia

Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

By the time the fourth generation of Pokemon games came out, players were used to seeing specific characters appear on multiple occasions in the region. However, not much is given away when the player first meets Cynthia in the Sinnoh region. This random woman appears in Eterna City to first comment on the player’s Pokedex and then give them the HM for Cut. Cynthia then keeps showing up to offer the player more help in their journey. However, there is more to this woman than meets the eye.

After players defeat the Elite Four at the end of the game, they will walk through a set of doors to face the champion of the region. Then they are greeted by Cynthia once again. This reveal is far better during a replay, as this ever-helpful NPC is one of the most ruthless trainers in the series. Beating her and her Garchomp is not easy, and the overall battle is vastly more entertaining knowing that Cynthia is really just a nice person who helped the protagonist so much to get to this point.

5 Red

Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

The sequels to the first games in the series had a lot of expectations to live up to. For the most part, the second generation of Pokemon was a huge success, and the games’ reception was greatly improved by the addition of the Kanto region in the post-game. Traveling through the map of the previous game is a real treat for fans, but there was one more surprise in store for players.

Anyone who played the first generation of games was familiar with the protagonist of that region, Red. Even those who were new to the franchise were given details about the events of the first game throughout the story. That made it all the more satisfying when players got to face-off against Red as the last battle in the game. It is something the franchise has yet to repeat, but this epic fight is made all the more momentous because of its surprising build up.

4 Cyrus

Pokemon Platinum

Team Galctic are the evil team in the Sinnoh region. Their ultimate goal in this generation is to use the legendary Pokemon, Palkia and Dialga, to reshape the world according to their leaders’ wishes. The leader of this team is Cyrus, and he takes his plan one step further in Pokemon Platinum by heading into the distortion world to release and capture the most evil Pokemon of all, Giratina.

The player meets Cyrus and battles him a few times throughout the game. During all these interactions, Cyrus is measured and honest about his plans. As a result, he makes for an intimidating figure and proves that a world made by his ideas would be awful. This makes the final battle against him in the distortion world feel like a real event, as the player desperately tries to beat Cyrus so that his evil plans fail.

3 Giovanni

Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow

The first mystery surrounding Giovanni in the Pokemon games is unknowingly presented to players when they discover that the gym leader is absent when they arrive in Viridian City. The player then gets to face off against the evil leader of Team Rocket first hand on two occasions throughout their adventure. The first is when they foil his plans in the Celadon game corner, and the second is when they stop his takeover of Silph Co. in Saffron City. Both of these battles are worth fighting, as they reveal that Giovanni is hell-bent on stealing the strongest Pokemon in the region.

Everything comes full circle, though, when the player enters the Viridian City gym to discover that the eighth and final gym leader in the region is the notoriously evil Giovanni himself. Defeating this man once and for all causes him to disband his evil organization, something that feels especially good after all the times the player has had to battle him and his minions.

2 Kieran

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

When players first meet Kieran in The Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, he is a shy young boy from Unova who loves Pokemon. During this part of the story, Kieran is obsessed with the legendary ogre Pokemon, Ogrepon, but is understandably upset when the player and Kieran’s sister, Carmine, lie to him about meeting and discovering the truth about this mysterious legend. Things are made worse for the boy when the player is given the chance to catch and befriend Orgepon and not him.

This experience changes Kieran, and he is a very different person when players reunite with him in the second part of this DLC, The Indigo Disc. Kieran is now the champion of his school, and rules the rest of his team by bullying and belittling them. The player must beat this team and face off against Kieran again to bring him back to reality. The devastation on Kieran’s face when he loses his title is palpable, but it would mean nothing if his story hadn’t been set up so well for so long.

1 Blue

Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow

Blue is the first ever rival in the Pokemon franchise. He is a snarky and rude character who has no time for the protagonist in these games. His rudeness is made worse by the fact that he continuously shows up to battle the player with a really strong team throughout the story. Blue is truly unlikable, and he doesn’t change despite being beaten by Red at every turn.

This feudal relationship makes the reveal at the end of the game even worse. After the player finally manages to beat all the members of the Elite Four, they find out that someone has beaten them to this point already. This trainer is Blue, and the player must beat them in battle to become champion and finish the game. This surprising reveal is good enough on its own, but the fact that Blue is once again standing in the way of success makes the ensuing battle the most exciting and well-deserved victory in the franchise.