Hot on the heels of my first playthroughts of Unova Red and Kalos Crystal, I decided to replay Moon Emerald.
This was a mistake.
Moon Emerald does not work as a sequel/entry to the Unova Red and Kalos Crystal. There are a ton of gens one to four pokemon found in it and the gameplay was of lesser quality. Team Aqua using Mukrow and Stunky as signature pokemon was immersion breaking, when Alolan Rattata and Alolan Meowth were right there. The 0.9 number for the game was indeed accurate, and it was also glitchy with laggy moves and froze once, while the gym leaders were to strong in relation to the rest of the games level curve and poorly designed.
Flannery for example did not use a Turtonator. She instead opens with her strongest pokemon, a level 30 Magmar which knows Fire Blast, Earthquake and Thunderpunch. This is in a game which otherwise has the same level and difficulty curve as regular emerald. Her next strongest pokemon is a level 28 Fire Blast using Arcanine. She still has a Torkoal but the rest of her full team are a punch of lnonfully evolved pokemon at the expected level curve who are easily dispatched. She still hands out the Overheat TM, despite having her standard move be Fire Blast. The fight is terribly designed.
The Gym Leaders, Victory Road and Elite Four/Champion fights were a fun challenge needing multiple tries each, but they made the rest of game feel overly easy since the difficulty levels don't match.
The comparison to Unova Red and Kalos Crystal made the game feel worse. As did several of my teammates not matching my expectations. (Toxapex dealing terrible damage, Rock Head Tyrantrum not learning Head Smash on time/at all, Pallosand losing water abosrb, Alolan Ninetails not getting moonblast and only getting Dazzling Gleam via level up.)
My first permanent team member, Maximus a lax levivating Vikavolt I caught as a Grubbin at the start of the game. I also wanted a Shiny Vikavolt because it looks great. Maximus's good early movepool made it decent pretty soon and I kept Crunch and Acrobatics due to lack of better special options. Reaching his final form post Norman, his high power electric and bug special moves were great against Winona, Juan and Grimsley.
Grimalda the Bewear, caught as a brave Stufful in Rosturf Tunnel. I have never used this line before, and it's available early this game. Did great early on, even if bad against Brawley, and the first team member to reach his final form. She hit hard and was relatively fast, and her gut's ability came in useful several times. She was a solid reliable teammate.
Barbara, a Limber Topapex caught with an old rod at Slateport as a Hardy Mareanie. I had never used this line before, and wanted to give it a try. Great at taking hits, but hard problems with both learning good attacking movies and later low attack stats. Not useful against Watson, Flannery due to not having a water move, and decent against Norman. With Surf and a Leftover I stole off Norman using Maximus's Bige Bite, became better but still took so long to evolve and even then not good at dealing damage. The sheer power of strong trainers meant she could rarely set up spikes and the existence of full restores made Toxic Venoshock a poor strategy. Even against Champion Wallace, a fairy user, she struggled due to his love of psychic moves and full restores. Finally, with the aid of healing items she Toxic Stalled his Water/Fairy Milotic and allowed me to revive and heal up the rest of my team.
Isabelle, the Relaxed Pallosand caught before Watson. I have never used this line before, really liked this lines Shiny form, and after finding out this line has Water Absorb in this game during the previous playthrough I was really excited to use one. So I hunted a Shiny One with Water Absorb, only for it evolve late game and change abilties to Sand Viel post evolution. As a Sandyghast she had a ton of immunities, and while she started out with a terrible movepool she steadily improved as she learned more abilties throughout the game. Her Slow speed, Losing Water Absorb before Juan and going up against Dark and Ghost elite four members made her vulnerable and short lived, but she hit hard and her hypnosis proved vital to beating Drake's Dragon Dancing Kommo-o.
Anastasia, the Modest Alolan Ninetails with Inner Focus, caught as a Vulpix post-Watson. I always wanted to use an A-Ninetails, and she was a non-pregen5 pokemon that avoided tripling up on weaknesses. She was my teams fastest member, and was very good at sniping off weakened mons or taking advantage of ice and fairy coverage. She was great against Winona, the ground using new third elite four member, and was vital against Drake, outspeeding and OHKOing his opening Mega Garchomp and devastating much of his team.
Tyra, my calm shiny rock head tyrantrum revived from a fossil after flannery. I always wanted to use a Shiny Tyrantrum and wanted to use one that could take advantage of Rock Head. Sadly does not learn anything to take advantage of said ability during the playthrought. Tyre hit fairly hard and fairly fast, and had great offensive coverage. She was a consistently good team player, being my teams second fastest pokemon and second physical based attacker, she filled several wholes. Given a King's Rock for thematic reasons, but provided vital to beating Normans opening Alolan Ninetails by giving her a focus band and reseting until it triggered and she OHKOed said Ninetails using Iron Tail.
