While the chat was heatedly arguing that turn-based combat was a fatal flaw for this game, Cynthia didn't share their opinion.
Instead, she began analyzing seriously:
Turn-based battles look shallow on the surface, but they actually might have a lot of depth.
In fact, even Battle Road's mechanics are—strictly speaking—also a type of turn-based system. After all, those are still instructions processed by the program.
Especially in PvP, every time a player gives an order, there is a long processing delay.
The only difference is that Battle Road allows players to issue commands through voice, and because Pokémon AI in that game is top-tier, the effect feels very realistic.
So Cynthia actually had some expectations for this game's battle system.
That said, she still didn't think this game could offer her the same training-theory insights that Battle Road had given her.
Because any Pokémon battle simulator has a crucial problem it cannot avoid:
The developer must have deep, accurate knowledge of every Pokémon.
Their movepools, typings, abilities, base stats, and even their real-world biological traits — all of this must be faithfully replicated.
Only then does a battle system have true value.
Battle Road barely achieved this, but only because that game had a professional, triple-digit-sized dev team providing the database…
Even then, Battle Road constantly had strange bugs — like wrong Abilities or swapped typings.
A Grass-type Piplup…
A Flying-type Torkoal…
It wasn't that the devs were sloppy — with such a huge number of Pokémon, mistakes were inevitable.
But this Emerald she was playing now?
Made by one single person?
There was no way the accuracy could compare.
Thinking this, Cynthia shook her head lightly and returned her focus to the game.
With Grovyle's Pound, the Poochyena's HP instantly dropped by half.
Poochyena countered with Tackle, making Grovyle lose a sliver of HP.
The second Pound finished it off.
As the battle ended easily, the chat instantly erupted again:
[I knew it — turn-based really is kinda boring.]
[This doesn't look hard at all? Two hits and the enemy faints. So if every turn I just pick the strongest move, don't I just win? The game's intro really exaggerated the difficulty…]
[But the battle animations ARE surprisingly good. Every move has a matching animation, and the Pokémon are moving — not stiff at all.]
[Yeah, the art team deserves an award. Gameplay devs need to kneel and apologize.]
They still didn't know what Cynthia knew — that the game was made by one person.
To them, this definitely looked like something made by a full studio.
The quality so far was simply too high for a single developer.
After the battle, Cynthia's character followed Prof. Birch back to the lab.
As a reward for helping him, he officially gave her the Grovyle as her starter Pokémon.
Her rival — whom she had casually named "Black-Haired Boy" — chose Torchic. The moment he received his Poké Ball, his bravado flared up, and he immediately demanded a battle.
Just like the earlier battle, it was simple — Torchic was even one level lower than Grovyle, and Cynthia defeated him effortlessly.
After the rival left, Prof. Birch asked her to go north and find him, saying he had forgotten to give him something.
He also gave her five Poké Balls.
Cynthia obediently set off with Grovyle.
Before leaving, she opened her trainer menu and examined Grovyle's stats.
That's when she noticed something important:
The Pokémon's attributes were represented with numerical values, and every stat — Attack, Defense, Speed, etc. — had clearly defined numbers.
And her Grovyle's most outstanding stats were Speed and Special Attack, several points higher than everything else.
Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
She had assumed the game would inaccurately represent Pokémon details, but this seemed surprisingly precise.
Though she had never trained a Sceptile line personally, she knew full well that Treecko's evolutionary line was known for high Speed and Special Attack.
This meant the developer had accurately reproduced at least this Pokémon's data.
But could the game possibly have accurate data for every Pokémon?
The thought flashed through her mind—
And she dismissed it immediately.
Treecko's info is easy to find online.
That's not enough to prove global accuracy.
More obscure Pokémon would be far harder to reproduce without a database.
Still… the fact that the developer got this much right already showed effort.
After checking the stats, Cynthia followed the game prompts northward. On the way, she encountered many wild Pokémon in the grass and defeated them.
Thanks to the simple battles, Grovyle quickly leveled from 5 to 8 and learned Quick Attack.
Then, when she met "Black-Haired Boy" again, he proudly claimed his Pokémon had improved and challenged her again.
Chat burst out laughing:
[Bro is too sweet — he's literally a walking EXP pack.]
[Didn't even rest for two minutes before coming back to get farmed.]
[Bless him. Truly a kind man.]
But two seconds into the fight, Cynthia realized something was wrong.
Her opponent sent out Torchic again…
…but this time, it was Level 9 — one level higher than Grovyle!
A bad feeling hit her.
Level 8 vs. Level 9…
Could she actually lose?
No… that shouldn't happen, right? This is a beginner tutorial. Surely level 9 is just for show.
"Black-Haired Boy" should be just a guide-NPC, not an actual threat…
Thinking this, she commanded Grovyle to use Quick Attack.
Grovyle sprinted forward, twisted its body, and struck with its tail.
Torchic's HP dropped by less than one-third.
Then—
Torchic opened its beak and spat out a burst of flame!
"Torchic used Ember!"
"It's super effective!"
Grovyle's HP bar plummeted like a rollercoaster, dropping to less than half in an instant, flashing yellow!
Cynthia had expected the type disadvantage to hurt.
But half its HP in one hit?!
She suddenly remembered that while passing through town earlier, she had visited the blue-roofed shop and bought a Potion.
She quickly opened her bag and used it.
Purple spray misted around Grovyle, filling its HP.
But before she could breathe a sigh of relief—
Torchic used Ember again, instantly knocking Grovyle back to half HP!
Cynthia froze.
Unlike other games, using a healing item consumes your turn!
Which meant… this was unwinnable.
Grovyle's Quick Attack or Pound could only shave off less than ⅓ of Torchic's HP.
But Torchic only needed two Embers to KO Grovyle.
The Potion merely delayed the inevitable.
What now?
No matter how she calculated, she would still lose.
Facing the hopeless situation, Cynthia's champion instincts kicked in — she forced herself to stay calm and search for a solution.
But only a few seconds later—
A new message suddenly appeared on the screen:
[Because you didn't issue a command in time, your opponent moved first!]
[Torchic used Ember!]
[It's super effective!!]
Flames surged.
The screen shook violently.
Grovyle's HP emptied instantly.
[Grovyle fainted!]
[You have no usable Pokémon left!]
[Strawberry Ice Cream's vision went dark…]
The game faded to black.
Cynthia stared blankly at her monitor.
Then the scene shifted, and her character reappeared in the Pokémon Center.
Except that the money in the top right corner was zero.
Chat exploded:
WHAT?? This is the beginner NPC, right?? Not some Elite Four?
Even with type advantage and +1 level, two Embers to KO is crazy!
Bro said "friendly match," but was secretly trying to murder her team!!]
No wonder he made the player pick first — he deliberately chose the counter type! What a shameless NPC!
Cynthia, quick, call out your unbeatable Garchomp IRL to deal with him!
Bro, I had like a thousand dollars left— why does losing a Pokémon battle feel like getting mugged? Where's Team Rocket?
As the flood of messages filled the screen, Cynthia finally snapped back.
Now she understood why the game intro warned that the difficulty was extreme.
Every other game she had played — even Battle Road's PvE — had the same philosophy:
Make the player feel powerful.
NPCs were easy early on, and only scaled slowly in mid-late game.
But this game?
The NPCs wanted fair competition from the very beginning.
No—
Even unfair competition.
Higher level, type advantage — pure bullying.
And if the player hesitates too long?
The game skips their turn!
Only one word could describe this:
Hardcore.
But instead of feeling frustrated, something inside Cynthia ignited — her excitement soared.
As a Champion, she knew all too well:
Only challenges and obstacles can create real growth.
Smooth, easy victories teach nothing.
And at her level of strength, real challenges had become rare.
But this game.
Gave her that thrill again.
She exhaled deeply and made a firm decision.
If her opponent was one level higher.
Then she would grind levels until she surpassed him.
When you cannot defeat a strong enemy —
You get stronger and return.
With that resolve, Cynthia walked out of the Pokémon Center and began grinding in the nearby grass.
Rattata, Poochyena, Pidgey, Wurmple.
Everything that spawned got defeated.
Ten minutes later, after downing a Poochyena, Grovyle finally reached Level 12.
A new notification appeared:
[Your Pokémon has reached the current level cap: 12.
To raise its level further, you must reach the next city.]
Chat immediately reacted:
[There's a level cap??]
[Honestly makes sense — otherwise people could grind to level 60 in the starter town and steamroll the whole game.
+1
At level 12 now, beating that level-9 Torchic will be easy.
Three-level advantage, she should tank at least four Embers. Lots of room to play.
If she still loses, I'll eat my desk!
Cynthia healed up in the Pokémon Center and returned to the northern patch of grass.
She spoke to the rival.
Black-Haired Boy smirked:
Oh? You've improved quite a bit.
But I won't fall behind!
Our eyes met — let's battle!
Cynthia straightened her posture, eyes sharp.
Grovyle was now Level 12 and had learned Mega Drain and Detect.
This time, victory was certain.
The battle music blared.
Rival: Black-Haired Boy challenges you!
He tossed his Poké Ball.
White light flashed.
Torchic appeared — again.
Everything seemed identical to before.
Except for one small detail.
Torchic's level.
Lv. 13.
Cynthia: ???
The entire chat: ???
Bro..
The player grinded,
So YOU grinded too??
Are you serious???