#trainerclasses

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So, welcome back after my inexcusably long absence. Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and Gay Yuletide to all Pokemon fans!

Do I have any Christmas treats for you? Not really, I’m afraid. But the last episode of “Pokemon Evolutions” was sure a great Christmas present from TPCi, especially for such Pokemon Trainer maniacs like me. So, I’m posting a scene from it. The five Nugget Bridge Trainers - from left to right: Lass Ali, Bug Catcher Cale, Camper Kevin, Lass Reli and Youngster Timmy. They’re identifiable through the Pokemon that they have - these are evolved forms of the Pokemon they use in LGPE. Makes sense, considering that Green meets them during the “post-game” part of the story (after Elaine caught Mewtwo), so they’ve sure gotten stronger by that point. Also, their boss (the disguised Rocket Grunt) can be seen in this episode as well! I also love how Ali has a wholly unique design for her (to distinguish her from Reli), but keeping the defining feature of a Lass - the miniskirt. So, how do you feel about “Pokemon Evolutions”? It was pretty nice, I especially liked the last episodes. Not just because I’m biased towards Johto and Kanto, but also because I think these two episodes featured the most interesting characters. I'm a big fan of how the Kimono Girls were presented and the Mewtwo episode... just caught the spirit of Kanto right. It took me back to the childhood, when everyone was excited about the ultimate Pokemon of the time, Mewtwo, and wanted to get it first on their Game Boy! Also, I loved the decision to make Green the main hero, seeing Trace and Elaine felt refreshing too.

I got lengthy as usual... but after such absence, I owe you something, people. I’ll try to make up with some new posts. And my wish for 2022 is that we get more alternate Pokemon animes. 2021 was sure abundant in them - Poketoons, Twilight Wings, Evolutions - they were all great and offered a new view on the Pokemon world. I still haven’t got enough of that and want to see more and more!

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In this (almost) weekly Trainer Class Tuesday... A Gambler, in his Sinnoh incarnation, as seen in the Pokemon Special manga (Platinum Saga). A Trainer Class with an incredibly problematic name... Due to the anti-gambling measures in the West (which eventually led to the total removal of Game Corner from Pokemon games), this Trainer class was first renamed to “Gamer” in FR/LG and then “P.I.” in DPPt. The latter name implies that they are detectives, rather than gamblers. It works... r-right? The coin? Just ignore it. Strategy involving the usage of random-effect moves? Typical detective stuff. Dialogue centered around gambling? Oh, don’t be so picky. The next (and last) time this Class was featured was LGPE (due to it being a remake of original Gen I) and this time NoA chose the “Gamer” route again. If we get our Sinnoh remakes sometime in the future (I see it as quite inevitable, the question is “when”), what do you think NoA will choose as the name for this class? I personally prefer the “Gamer” option - at least it relates to what they really are, unlike “P.I.” which is just blatant censorship. I’d sacrifice the consistency with the original in this case - it was a bad decision they made years ago, no reason to repeat it. Also, what might pass unnoticed in sprite graphics may be much harder to cover-up in more advanced 3D models.

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Trainer Class Tuesday, Lady, as shown in a “SM: Remix Bout” TCG card, illustrated by kirisAki. Even though the card was released during Sun/Moon period, it shows the Unova design of the class.

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Trainer Class Tuesday, Lass (FR/LG design), as shown in the “Pokemon Masters” animated trailer.

Never had any expectations about that gacha app but that trailer has sure fueled the hype train.

[pokechars]

Too late for a Trainer Class Tuesday this week, I’m lagging with updates again. To compensate for that, let’s have a Trainer Class Tuesday that is a special feature.

Core-game Trainer Classes in side series games... You all probably remember the Gym Leader Castle and various Cups in Pokemon Stadium series, where you battled all core game Trainer Classes in the way to the top. Also, several generic Trainers (among them a Gentleman, Swimmer or Beauty) appeared on your way in the much-beloved Pokemon Puzzle Challenge. Later came the GameCube games Pokemon Colosseum and XD, which featured a fair number of Orre-exclusive Trainer Classes, with only a few of them being the same as the core game classes (e.g. Cool Trainers, Sailor, Beauty). That’s known to all avid Pokemon gamers. However, what Pokemon fans in the west are missing is the Japanese-only arcade game Pokemon Battrio, which relies on special pucks that allow you to challenge virtual opponents in unique cel-shaded graphics. Just like in Pokemon Stadium, you’ll also meet various Trainer Classes, much like these from core series. Their designs are strongly based on their Diamond/Pearl depictions (as the game comes from the Gen IV era), yet very unique.

The scan below includes a (probably) complete list of generic Trainer designs from Pokemon Battrio.

They are (from right to left, as this is the order they’re supposed to be read): 1st row: Youngster, Lass, Camper, Picnicker, Hiker, Aroma Lady, SwimmerM 2nd row: SwimmerF, TuberM, TuberF, Fisherman, Beauty, Rich Boy, Lady 3rd row: Gentleman, Socialite, CyclistM, CyclistF, BreederM, BreederF, Collector 4th row: Pâtissier (original class), Veteran, Snow Kid (original class), Ace TrainerM, Ace TrainerF, Scientist, Softballer (original class) The characters in subsequent rows are Battrio-exclusive characters (mostly Boss Trainers), with the two first ones from the right in the 5th row being Riders (the masked one is male, the blonde female), a Trainer Class known from Pokemon Colosseum and XD. The material about these Trainers is scarce and it’s practically impossible to find good versions of their artworks. Fortunately, Animesque sent me some more scans from Battrio-related materials (of varying quality). Here they are:

The character on the top is a Battrio-exclusive Boss, named Battrio Leader Dai.

However, I am still looking for more material with these classes, as full-body and as high-quality as only possible. There are a number of Japanese-only guidebooks for Battrio but I’ve no idea what’s inside of them, so I can’t really tell whether they’re a good buy or not (and which ones). They were also sometimes featured in press such as CoroCoro and Famitsu back when the thing was new. Also, the situation is further complicated by the fact that there were several versions of Battrio (Battrio Super, Zero, V etc.) which feature slightly different artwork, so there are multiple versions of these arts. It’s obscure and poorly documented material but if we aim to create a Pokemon character archive spanning all core and spin-off games (or ideally, all officially-licensed material), then characters from Battrio (as well as its successors, Tretta and Ga-Ole, which don’t have core series characters but I’m still interested in them, like all Pokemon obscurities) are inevitable for it to be complete.

Thanks Animesque for the scans (except for the first one, which comes from my collection - I believe the source was Filb.de, as it used to have a CoroCoro scans gallery [removed awhile ago for reasons unknown]). And if anyone has more of (and bigger/better quality) Battrio character artworks, I encourage to send them to me, I’ll certainly make a good use of it. But there is one more reason why I’m posting this now. As everyone probably knows, we’ll soon see core series Trainer Classes in a spin-off game once again. This time it’s a mobile app named Pokemon Masters, which allows the players to battle various famous Pokemon Trainers from the past in the whole new format. While I'm still not convinced about that “gacha” format, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing all those iconic characters in full 3D. The first trailer indicates that we’ll see a mixed bag of Trainer classes from various generations, which sure got me curious about this new side title and I can’t wait to see more of it, as we wait for Sword and Shield.

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Trainer Class... Saturday (yeah, I’m really sorry for being so idle lately). A new artwork promoting the new Robo-Pikachu Pokemon Center toy. It also features two Super Nerds - RGBY and HGSS design. Obviously, the Robo-Pikachu is a part of the latter design. I really like the idea of making it into a toy.

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Long time no see, today’s your Trainer Class Tuesday. A Hiker, as seen in the elusive “Pokemon 1P Comic”, a Japanese-only gag manga from good old Generation I times. The manga was scanned in full by Pokescans and it’s obviously where the picture was taken from.

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Trainer Class... Thursday. This time, a much-overlooked Trainer Class appearing only in Unova - Depot Agent.

Scan comes from the Black/White official Quiz Book, scanned by Pokescans (I really miss updates on her blog, she brought us so much goodness back in the day...).