While the comments were heatedly discussing how "turn-based combat" was a failure for this game, Cynthia held a different view in her heart.
She pondered seriously: Turn-based mode looks like it lacks depth, but perhaps it has a lot of room for development.
In fact, the mechanics of Battle Road were, in a sense, also turn-based. After all, it was still a program executing the game's content.
Especially during PvP; whenever both players input commands, there would be a long response time.
It was just that Battle Road added the function of executing commands through player voice input. Coupled with excellent individual Pokémon AI, the effects presented in battle were more realistic.
So actually, she was slightly looking forward to the combat performance of this game moving forward.
However, having said that, she didn't think this game could improve her understanding as a Trainer like Battle Road could.
Because for any Pokémon battle game, there was one unavoidable issue: the game developer's understanding of every single Pokémon had to be extremely sufficient!
From the moves they could master, their Types and Abilities, to their Base Stats, and even the realistic characteristics of each Pokémon—everything had to be perfectly recreated to have true battle value and meaning.
Battle Road barely managed to achieve this, but behind it was a professional team of hundreds providing the database...
Yet even so, Battle Road often had various bugs and mix-ups in this regard, such as a certain Pokémon having the wrong Ability, or issues with Types...
Like a Grass-type Piplup, or a Flying-type Torkoal...
This wasn't because they were slacking off. It was actually normal. After all, there were so many Pokémon. If they were all turned into game data, it was inevitable that there would be problem areas.
But this Emerald game she was playing right now was developed by an individual creator... which was obviously an even bigger problem in this regard.
Thinking of this, Cynthia shook her head slightly and refocused her attention on the game itself.
As Treecko used "Pound," the Poochyena's HP bar instantly dropped by half.
The Poochyena countered with "Tackle," and Treecko lost a sliver of health.
Treecko used a second "Pound," and the Poochyena completely lost the ability to battle. The fight ended.
Seeing this, the chat erupted into another heated discussion.
[I knew it would be like this. Turn-based really is a bit boring.]
[This doesn't look hard either. The opposing Pokémon went down in two hits. As long as you pick the high-power move every turn and use it, you're fine, right? Where's the exaggerated difficulty mentioned in the intro?]
[I didn't expect the battle details to be this good though. When the Pokémon use moves, they have corresponding animation reactions, and their sprites keep moving. It's not stiff at all.]
[True. Regarding the art, there's really nothing to criticize. I think the gameplay dev team needs to kowtow to the art team.]
Unlike Cynthia, they didn't know this game was developed by one person alone. They thought it was a game developed by a studio or a large company.
After all, judging from what they had seen so far, the quality of certain parts of this game was quite high. No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible for one person to have developed it.
At this moment, as the battle concluded, the character Cynthia controlled returned to the town's research lab with Professor Birch.
As a reward for helping him, Professor Birch gave the Treecko to Cynthia as her starter Pokémon.
Her rival, "Black-haired Boy," chose Torchic as his starter. The moment he got the Poké Ball, he immediately had a testosterone overdose and demanded a Pokémon battle with Cynthia.
This battle was just like the previous one; there was no difficulty. The Torchic's level was even one level lower than Treecko's, and it was easily defeated by Cynthia.
The rival left, and Professor Birch told her to head north to the road at the top to find the rival and bring him back, saying he ran off before receiving something. He also conveniently stuffed five Poké Balls into her hands.
Cynthia dutifully set off with Treecko.
Before leaving, she opened the player panel and glanced at the status of the Pokémon in her bag, roughly understanding the difference between this game and others.
Under the condition that Abilities and Types were fully recreated, the Pokémon's capabilities were indicated by numbers.
And for her Treecko, the most prominent stats were "Speed" and "Special Attack," which were several points higher than the other stats.
This made Cynthia raise an eyebrow.
She originally thought this game wouldn't do a very good job of recreating the reality of Pokémon, but the situation before her exceeded her expectations.
Although she had never raised a Grovyle before, she clearly knew that the characteristic of this Starter Pokémon, Treecko, was its prominent Speed and Special Attack.
Clearly, the game creator had recreated this point.
Then, can I infer from this that the data of every Pokémon in the game can also be recreated?
As soon as this thought popped up, Cynthia dismissed it herself—Probably not.
Information on Pokémon like Treecko was relatively easy to check online; everyone knew it, so making it accurately didn't prove anything.
For other unpopular or uncommon Pokémon, without access to a database, it was unlikely the author could recreate them.
But to achieve this level so far, the creator has clearly put their heart into it...
After checking the Pokémon info in her bag, Cynthia followed the game's prompts, heading all the way up, passing through a small town, and arriving in front of a patch of grass at the northernmost point.
Walking here, she encountered quite a few wild Pokémon in the grass along the way and battled them all.
The battle process was very easy. Treecko's level had smoothly risen from the initial Level 5 to Level 8. While its stats improved, it successfully learned a new move, "Quick Attack."
But when she spoke to "Black-haired Boy," the other party declared that his Pokémon was no longer what it used to be and demanded another fight.
At this moment, the chat laughed heartily.
[This bro is actually pretty nice. Isn't this purely a mobile experience pack?]
[It hasn't even been two minutes, and he's rushing to deliver XP again.]
[Good people have safe lives. Good people give birth to eight kids.] (TL/N: XD)
Amidst the laughter and joy of the chat, Cynthia also entered the battle.
However, two seconds later, she realized the severity of the problem.
Because the Pokémon the opponent sent out was still that Torchic.
But... its level was actually one level higher than Treecko's, reaching Level 9!
Cynthia suddenly had a bad feeling.
Level 8 fighting Level 9...
I won't lose, right?
No, surely not? No matter how you look at it, this is just a novice tutorial flow. Level 9 is probably just to look scary.
This "Black-haired Boy" I named should just be a character like a novice guide, only responsible for teaching me some basic things...
Thinking this, she commanded Treecko to use "Quick Attack."
Treecko strode forward, twisting its body at extreme speed, its tail slamming down heavily.
The HP bar above Torchic's head dropped by less than a third.
And in the next moment...
Torchic opened its mouth, and a ball of flame spewed out!
[Torchic used Ember!]
[It's super effective!]
The HP bar above Treecko's head fell like a roller coaster, dropping rapidly, instantly falling below half and turning yellow directly!
Cynthia had guessed that with the level advantage, Torchic's super-effective move would deal a lot of damage to Treecko.
But she didn't expect this single hit to take half of Treecko's life!
In this moment, she suddenly remembered that when she passed through that small town earlier, she had entered a blue building. Discovering it seemed to be a shop selling items, she had casually bought a Potion that could restore a Pokémon's HP.
She hurriedly opened her bag and chose to use the Potion on Treecko. As a purple mist sprayed out, Treecko's HP bar instantly filled up.
However, before she could sigh in relief, Torchic made another move. A ball of flame spewed from its mouth, instantly knocking Treecko's HP bar back down to below half!
At this moment, Cynthia realized that unlike other games, using an HP recovery item actually counted as using up her turn!
Then in this situation, isn't it unsolvable?
Whether Treecko uses Pound or the newly learned Quick Attack, it can only take away less than 1/3 of Torchic's HP.
However, Torchic only needed to use Ember twice in a row to cause Treecko to faint.
The Potion she just used merely delayed her inevitable defeat; it didn't solve the fundamental problem!
What now?
It seemed that no matter what she did, she was destined to lose.
Facing this situation, her battle instincts as a Champion allowed Cynthia to calm down rapidly and begin thinking of a way to break the deadlock.
However, a few seconds later, a notification suddenly popped up on the screen.
[Since you did not issue a command to your Pokémon in time, the opponent has made their move first!]
[Torchic used Ember!]
[It's super effective!!]
Crimson flames surged and struck Treecko. The screen shook violently, and the HP bar above its head emptied instantly!
Two Embers, amplified by the type advantage, had instantly one-shot Treecko!
[Treecko fainted.]
[You have no more Pokémon!]
[Strawberry Ice Cream blacked out...]
As the notification appeared, the game interface instantly went black.
Cynthia froze in front of the computer.
Immediately after, the scene switched, and the game character reappeared inside the Pokémon Center in the town.
However, the difference was that the "Money" in the top right corner had been completely wiped out.
At this moment, the comments refreshed frantically.
[WTF? Is this really a novice NPC and not some Elite enemy??]
[Even with type advantage and being one level higher... getting two-shot is a bit too exaggerated, right?]
[Bro said he wanted a spar, I thought he was here to give XP, didn't expect you to actually go for the kill, bro!!]
[No wonder he wanted the streamer to pick a Pokémon first, so he was waiting for this! Deliberately picking the counter type, that's too shameless, right?]
[Quick, call your invincible Garchomp to think of something, Sis!]
[No, bro, where's my money? Why does Pokémon battling involve robbery? Is Team Rocket here?]
As the bullet comments flew across the screen, Cynthia recovered from her daze.
She now seemed to understand why the introduction mentioned the game's difficulty was extremely high.
In other games she had played—even the PvE modes of Battle Road—the core concept was always "satisfaction."
The player's level could easily suppress those NPCs, especially in the early stages. Only as the game progressed to the mid-to-late stages would the NPC strength slowly increase, but they could always be suppressed and defeated by the player.
But the NPCs in this game were clearly coming at you with "fair competition" right from the starter village!
No, it was actually "unfair competition"—type advantage plus a level advantage; this was simply unfair to the player!
Moreover, if the player took too long to think during their turn, the game would skip the player's turn entirely!
All these circumstances could only be described with one word: "Hardcore."
But facing this situation, instead of feeling put off, Cynthia felt as if something within her had been ignited, and her interest surged.
As a Champion, having gone through countless trials, she knew clearly that only challenges and difficulties could make a person grow the fastest.
If everything was always smooth sailing, neither the Trainer nor the Pokémon would ever be able to unleash their true power, even if they reached a high level of strength.
And at her current stage of power, there were very few difficulties that could stop her anymore, yet this game had given her such an opportunity once again!
Exhaling slightly, Cynthia quickly adjusted her state of mind and made a decision.
——Since that NPC is one level higher than me, I'll go to the nearby grass to grind Treecko's level first and see if it can learn some new moves.
Facing a powerful opponent she couldn't beat, the best solution was to get stronger before facing him again!
With this thought, Cynthia controlled her character to walk out of the Pokémon Center and began searching for wild Pokémon to battle in the nearby grass.
Rattata, Poochyena, Pidgey, Wurmple...
Treecko fought every potential Pokémon that could spawn in the nearby grass.
Ten minutes later, as a Poochyena fell, Treecko's level finally rose to Level 12!
A notification popped up along with it.
[Your current Pokémon level has reached the cap for this stage: 12. You must reach the next city to increase it further.]
At this moment, the chat began to discuss this as well.
[There's actually a level cap?]
[I think it's quite reasonable. Otherwise, staying in the starter village until level 50 or 60 and then becoming the Demon King of the starter village to crush everything would be boring.]
[+1]
[Now that it's Level 12, there shouldn't be any problem beating that Level 9 Torchic, right?]
[I think it should be fine. A three-level difference; it should be able to tank at least four Embers, right? Lots of room for maneuvering.]
[True. If she loses this, I'll eat my shoe!]
Meanwhile, Cynthia had already gone to the Pokémon Center to restore Treecko's status. She returned to the grass at the very top of the road and chose to speak with her rival.
The "Black-haired Boy" paused, then smiled:
[Eh? You seem to have improved quite a bit.]
[But I'm no pushover either, I definitely won't fall behind!]
[Since our eyes met, let's battle!]
At this moment, Cynthia stared at the screen with a serious and focused gaze.
Treecko was now Level 12 and had learned two new moves: "Mega Drain" and "Detect."
She would definitely win this time!
The intense battle music rang out again, and the prompt appeared:
[Rival: Black-haired Boy challenges you to a battle!]
He threw the Poké Ball in his hand. White light flashed, and that same Torchic appeared!
Everything seemed exactly the same as before.
But there was one thing that seemed different from the previous situation.
That was the number in Torchic's level box—
Lv 13!!
Cynthia: ?????
Livestream Viewers: ??????
[No, bro, how come when the player grinds levels, you grind levels too??]
[Are you serious??]
(End of Chapter)