Fixing Johto's Gym Leaders

[@RoryTheFiend]

💬Comment your team comp ideas below I'd love to hear them! 🕰Also this video spent me many weeks to work on, and is my first long form video that has used a hefty amount of editing. So I'd really appreciate it if people are able to give me feedback on what worked / didn't work for future videos!

[@thatboycroi]

Maybe you should pin this comment too

[@HugeZorse]

You did great, man. I just assumed this was a big channel. And I genuinely loved almost every single team

[@Paul-vw9tq]

I would have given Clair a Tyanitar as the 3rd spot. Still fits the theme. Are you modifying the game like polished crystal or crystal kaizo?

[@boxninja577]

Whitney's Clefairy as to stay, it's part of her theme, cute and or pink pokemon

[@patatjebolle]

Jasmine might become too strong. Steel has in gen 2 also a 0.5 weakness to both ghost and dark moves. That makes a steel type gymleader already very strong . Elite 4 worthy and a strong one at that. And maybe too strong. Steel is weak to fire ground and fighting. Neutral to water. and defensive against all other types. - Fighting is covered by Skarmory / Forretress and semi by the strong defense of Steelix. Possible fighting type pokemon catchable are: primeape (Gold) or machoke (traded machop and leveled up). - Fire is covered by earthquake, spikes and raindance. You either have a fire starter or if you don't: Growlithe (Gold) Vulpix (Silver) or Magmar. Growlithe and Vulpix are statwise very weak. Meaning you must have a fire starter or catch Magmar. - Ground: you have graveler in your party or you won't have a ground type pokemon available. Other groundtype pokemon appear later in the game. For ground moves your only options are either having graveler or tm 26 dig. Too fight Jamine her team you are forced to have very specific pokemon or you will be guarenteed to be at a type disadventage facing an extremely hard gymbattle that is Elite 4 worthy. I think you boost her too much. This thought is based on playing a sologame without trading or hacks.

[@williamstensen5586]

I still think Whitney should have the Clefairy. I really love the unpredictability it brings with Metronome, and it pairs really well with Smeargle that you put in, so that you never really know what Whitney brings to the table. It'd be fun too if Smeargle's moveset was somewhat based on your starter, so it gets a super-effective move against whichever starter you picked out.

[@peanut4668]

Yeah I agree clefairy can add so much to the table with its moveset not to mention Whitney’s whole gym theme is supposed to look like a clefairy so removing it would sorta make a little less sense

[@deanonfire7503]

Keep the Clefairy, add a Snubbull. Whitney's aesthetic is cute Pokemon, so I can see her with a Snubbull knowing bite to shock the Gastly users early on.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

I strongly suggest in keeping Clefairy as well. After all... The gym is shaped like a Clefairy! How can you not keep it?

[@anand8727]

Agreed

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

​@@HighPriestFuneralIn any future interpretation it has to change though because Clefairy is solely Fairy now

[@nykolaiblichar2325]

I really like the Pokemon you gave them. It was really disappointing how little the gym leaders used Johto native Pokemon. Its one of the few regions not to highlight new mons in their gyms

[@RoryTheFiend]

Agreed! Gyms and other main bosses in my opinion should be highlighting and showcasing what the regions got to offer!

[@powerbolt2846]

i saw a comment somewhere that said that the johto pokemon were supposed to be secrative

[@tamerkoh]

That's because this wasn't an expectation or the norm at the time of its release. Johto was a pure sequel in concept and execution: The storyline picks up where it left off over a 3 year timeskip, and you're tying up loose ends left behind from Red's journey. Going back to Kanto in the postgame is not just a nostalgia trip, but also for you to get the context of how things changed after Red went through his journey, and how the region's moving on 3 years later. All of the Gyms in Johto are based on types that didn't get Gyms in Kanto. The in-game lore for the new mon was "newly discovered" Pokemon. "Native" wasn't even a thing yet, and is also not exactly defined the way you described. For example, just because Slugma was introduced in Generation 2 does not makes it a Johto-native Pokemon. It can only be found near Cycling Road in Kanto in the postgame, and very rarely I might add, which actually means it was a Kanto-native Pokemon (at this time). This is why some people thought it was a Generation 3 Pokemon, since they're more commonly and easily found in Hoenn in any of the Gen 3 games. Something I find very unfair to criticize games for, is applying modern expectations or standards to games where they didn't exist. It's fair to criticize the quality of life in things, like say how Pokemon Gen 1 forced you to open the menu every time just to use an HM instead of just being able to press A at the obstacle like in Gen 2 onwards. However, it's not fair to criticize them for something like using Gym Leaders as megaphones for the new Pokemon, when such concepts didn't exist yet.

[@RyanReta97]

That will always be funny that they don't use johto mons 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@joshsimpson1283]

My one complaint with your rebuild is that you kept several aces being Kanto Pokemon. I would prefer to make the aces be from Johto as much as possible

[@derekprice2013]

I genuinely thought I was watching a multimillion sub channel with the look and feel of the content, this was amazing!!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Your comment really brought a smile to my face! Thank you so much :--) Been on and off editing over the years so I at least know my way around it. This video took me weeks to do, most of July tbh so I'm glad people are enjoying it!

[@jayarrtheking]

I'm not going lie I thought the exact same. I was getting ready to binge his catalog, a sub will suffice

[@RubytheFolf]

Me as well

[@Yooouyo]

fr

[@AEtherPi]

For sure, this is really polished

[@lichlance518]

Instead of Smeargle, you could also have gone for the Togetic route. It has it's cuteness for gym matchup and metronome for the randomness.

[@mesmorrow]

The problem is that Togepi and its evolutionary line was supposed to be a brand new Pokémon not yet discovered, that's why you get an egg of it and are told by the professor's assistant that they have no idea what Pokémon will hatch from it.

[@Shalakor]

I love how a lot of team ideas people have unintentionally amount to "make sure every single gym has at least one flying type whenever possible." Whitney was the only team in this video that didn't gain a flying 'mon besides it being impractical for Chuck.

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

People seem to forget also that Whitney and Clair have a pink and blue theme for their teams

[@AmeliaBerdel-xv3wp]

@LJK401 oh yeah...I didn't know that either 😂, guess it does fit the color theme

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

@@AmeliaBerdel-xv3wp Whitney moreso, but considering Clair is blue, has blue hair, and even in HGSS has only blue Pokemon on her first team. For some reason not in rematches though, even though Salamence, Garchomp and Altaria were right there, thankfully she has them on her BW2 team but they also evolve her Dragonair which I hate.

[@raccoonmyroom6861]

I like how you powered up the gym leaders but didn't make them unreasonable. I wish Whitney had a Teddiursa. I feel it fits her vibes. I also love the elemental TMs on Furret.

[@creakingskull7008]

The Stantler in Morty's team reminded me of the teams gym leaders had in Pokemon Stadium. They usually had pokemon that weren't their main type but that fit in with the vibe of the gym leader. I think a video giving gym leaders from other gens teams like that would be very interesting

[@DrakeKnight99]

When I created my own region I kept them in a theme instead of typing though typing was a thing Example one of my gyms was a haunted house and the leader carried ghost, poison, bug and dark types because they were spooky Another was a chef and her team was based off sea based dishes like Kingler, Crawdaunt, starmie and the like

[@d4ws125]

Dude, with content like this you're gonna be up there with the biggest in the community one day. So fun to watch

[@cybernator5000]

Great video, i would say however that using Hidden Power on a gym leader might be too confusing for casual players, particularly with morty using 2 different hidden powers

[@dragoniteisbased]

Great teams! I think I’d swap out thunder punch on primeape for HP Ghost to help with haunter and psychic types, and maybe give Lapras thunderbolt or psychic over body slam to either hit water or fighting types. But you did a great job of making the teams more threatening, but not overpowered(which is a mistake many people I have noticed tend to make)

[@RoryTheFiend]

Appreciate it yeah it's really easy to overdo it so I tried carefully to not do that. Good suggestions there for Primeape and Lapras, I love how many moves Lapras gets to learn really cool mon tbh

[@obambagaming1467]

​​@@RoryTheFiend Thunderpunch on mons like Primeape or Hitmonchan wont do anything except if their special is raised to like atleast 80 or more. Their special is so low, that even a resisted fighting type attack would do more damage. Edit: Ok I calculated it, if the Primeape attacks Gyarados with Thunderpunch, it will do more damage than Rock Slide. So my argument of "Thunderpunch being weaker" is kinda wrong, but consider that it would only be useful for 2 mons. But regarding Hitmonchan... the Elemental Punches are the worst

[@JoaquinHerraez]

Really great video! But I must point out that Claire can't have an Extreme speed Dragonair, since she never succeeded on the dragon sage's trial 🐉

[@vibrantoucan8890]

I really liked this video. It was edited well and nice to listen to and I loved all your team from a theorycrafting perspective. The reason why Pryce sucked so bad was because after Morty there is actually kind of a split path and you could either do Chuck or Pryce, but that just ended up making whatever one you did last (usually Pryce) way to weak. Therefore I actually like the change as it solidifies the "intended" path. And while I do like Montys team, I just feel like I should point out that (if someone tried to mod these teams into Crystal) Montys team wouldn't work. For each NPC trainer all their Pokemon share the DVs, which are determined by the trainer class, so it would be impossible for them to use different Hidden Powers. Mortys default Hidden Power would be Rock and while you could change the DVs, without some pretty big reprogramming using different Hidden Powers on the same NPC is not possible.

[@RoryTheFiend]

I appreciate it, this video was my first one where I actually felt pretty comfortable using my editing software! Yeah the split path thing is weird what pokemon should really do is add an adaptive difficulty to where the Gym Leaders have different teams based on how many badges you have. Oh wow I never knew that they shared the DVs based on trainer class that's really interesting, thanks for letting me know!

[@ryanamburgy2791]

Monty?

[@Promatim]

Some changes feel like bringing the game up to the difficulty level of Emerald, and other changes feel closer to a Drayano hack. While the Drayano games are very fair, the easiest of the difficulty hacks, I do wonder if a kiddo would have answers to Jasmine's Skarmory, esp when it's not even her ace. I think I would have retained some Gen 2 goofiness (like Delibird needs Present), but overall I love what you did. Vast improvements, well thought-out choices.

[@metleon]

For Clair, you could have potentially given her Arcanine. I'm pretty sure it's based on a mythical creature that's a mix of a dog, tiger, and dragon, but I can't find the specific name of it right now. That's why it can learn Dragon Breath and Dragon Rage. I think the only other dragon-like Pokemon you could really give her would be Lapras and Feraligatr, since Tyranitar would have to be underleved.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

Arcanine is a shisa, Not a Kirin Thr legend of the Shisa is about killing a dragon, Not it being a dragon

[@T0rtureKill3r]

If you wanna go for fire, why not simply give her a Charizard? I know it's Fire/Flying but it literally looks like a fire-breathing dragon.

[@metleon]

@@T0rtureKill3r Charizard is definitely the more dragony Fire type, but Lance already has one. I feel like they should only share Gyarados and one member of the Dratini family.

[@MMR_LM]

I hate how the only challenge from the second half of the Johto gyms comes from the constant level ~25 pokemkn from Morty to Pryce, then suddenly you're faced with a level 40 Kingdra with nowhere suitable to grind beforehand. It was bad enough in GSC but completely unforgivable for not fixing the level curve in HGSS. Fantastic work on this video, very much enjoyed it

[@Wizzkidwas]

Damn Rory, this blew up! It's a very well made video and the humour in it is fantastic, I think you deserve it mate!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Got a lot to improve but thank you wizz glad you liked it big dog

[@taymeywey1429]

You've made some very unique and appropriate choices here; This is one of the best Johto repair pieces I've stumbled across.

[@thegoldenpepper8702]

For the longest time as a kid i thought the ice gym was the 5th gym and chuck was the 6th. The timing of the story events and the levels just seemed like the natural place to go from morty

[@christopherbrewer6972]

It's always great to see someone blow up like this. Your presentation is top notch so I hope you continue to grow!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Thank you for your kind words :) was a massive surprise to me, it has been so cool (and been a bit nervous) seeing all the attention! Still think I can improve a fair bit with commentary (still getting into the swing of it)

[@mazyyKaizo]

When I met Rory, one of the first things he said was, I cant believe how the ghost gym was so bad. Great job bud and well deserved! ❤❤

[@chippedgoat]

Interestingly, You can fight pryce before you fight chuck or jasmine if you go to the right... might explain why his levels are comparable to Chuck despite being the 7th gym leader and why his levels are less then jasmine... I think if the games were made today, Pryce would be the 6th gym leader, and jasmine would be the 7th, but thats just my idea

[@SillyBanjo]

This is exactly right and what Game Freak wanted; branching paths.

[@chippedgoat]

@@SillyBanjo that’s what I did as a young kid, I took out pryce before chuck and jasmine, I think it’s cool that it branches and I wish more Pokémon games did more branching stuff… but I can kinda see why they don’t given the fact that, if you do pryce first chuck is gonna be a cake walk, and if you do chuck first l, pryce is gonna be way easier, I wish it scaled but it IS a gbc game so i dunno

[@Modie]

It also makes a bit more sense considering that is the area where you fight the Rocket hideout, who all have very weak Pokemon. I think if they had just put him as 5th, it would make way more sense.

[@akaneriyun4774]

I honestly hate branching paths. Personally, I love nuzlocke runs so branching paths mean gym leader levels don't have much distance between each other which means I have to change my team since it's impossible to not overlevel before the next match. I love that romhacks fixed this by just FORCING the player to go left instead of right in Ecruteak.

[@chippedgoat]

@@akaneriyun4774 I mean its both a good and a bad thing, I like how your not super railroaded and can take on Cuck, Pryce, The rockets, and jasmine at your own leasure, I will concede, its not balanced perfectly. But I see it as a good time to add a new team mate or two with how many weak pokemon you fight in that section.

[@byronholt2031]

Giving the second gym leader self-destruct is just evil

[@EpicSlash]

Wow! Normally I don't care much about subscriber stuff. But its a crazy thought that according to this video, 7 months ago you only had 400 subs. Now you are at 10k in 7 months! Congrats dude!

[@ASHymn]

Could you do a video on how you’d improve the Elite 4 for Kanto using the National Dex? Agatha having more Poison types than Ghost types makes sense for the Gen 1 Pokédex, but surely with the number of Ghosts we have now means that we give her Pokémon that actually match her type specialty.

[@joegraham5461]

Loved this! I thought it would be Murkrow instead of Stantler but in hindsight I love the pick. Would have liked to see Ampharos on Jasmine’s team!

[@Fly-the-Light]

It would be cool to see you do this to other gyms, especially Gen 6 onwards to try and make them tougher

[@RoryTheFiend]

Totally will do more at some point, Gen 6 is a good suggestion since don't they all only have 3 pokemon and some especially are weak (that grass old dude comes to mind)

[@belodie]

As much as I love Gen 5, the BW gyms especially are too low on the number of Pokémon in their teams too. This is definitely a concept you could make a series out of.

[@Detective_asparagus]

Definitely X and Y, the only gym that gave me any real challenge was Grant (and that's mostly the level difference)

[@thelegacyofgaming2928]

Gen 3 had the perfect difficulty. Where Gen 4 having a level spike for Cynthia was ridiculous, and Gen 5 gym leaders having only 3 pokemon. Gen 3 Emerald did everything correctly.

[@Detective_asparagus]

@@thelegacyofgaming2928 haven't played the og gen 3, but ORAS was pretty alright with difficulty, so long as I didn't use the Lati twin lol

[@Leetz88]

Sometimes, the KZbin algorithm actually works and shows me videos from small channels that are actually worthwhile . Great work, dude 👍

[@Minshifu_911]

The changes you've done were amazing turning these gym leaders to an actual threat but I think clair could get Pokemons from the dragon egg group with an arbok as a 5th Pokemon Having 4 mons for the last gym leader is okay but 5 is more fitting And thanks for your time to read this

[@Yes_I_Would_Kent]

Got recommended this video and makes me smile that you mentioned at the start 400 subs & after a day you have over 400 comments & 4x the subs! Love this video, great work!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Thanks, yeah this video went crazy for me, can't wait to make more content on stuff like this!

[@NarutoBunshin18]

The Jotho region is meant to be an extention of the Kanto seeing as they share the same League. I would prefer the Jotho to have mixed teams of Kanto and Jotho mons. So let Falkner keep the Pidgey as an homage to his Pidgeot in the anime while an underleved Noctowl for his ace. I think the creator of the Crystal Legacy rom hack made reasonable changes/fixes to the Johtho gym leaders

[@harrisonhurst6480]

I can explain why the Gen 2 Gyms are weird. After Morty, the Player actually has an open field. They can to Mahogany Town, Oliveine, or Cianwood. So because the Gym 5, 6, and 7 could be challenged in any order, they made them all very similar in level and power.

[@hannarowan8735]

I think a neat replacement for one of the other dragonairs on Claire’s team would be Feraligatr. Yes, it’s not a dragon type, but it does learn dragon moves in later gens (and I think this Gen too, and it could tie Claire with being a sea dragon master while Lance is an air dragon master.

[@calebrodriguez9546]

Nice video! Though, I’d like to believe Jasmine didn’t have Magneton because she was still searching for that 3rd Magnemite

[@zaclittlejohn2701]

Delibird only learns 2 moves in gen 2. It's TOTAL moveset WITH tms is drill peck and present. Other than that I think Falkner shouldn't have 3 Pokémon, but natu+ hoot hoot feels too weak. Evolving either of them is a bit too much power though, so I'd add confusion to natu's moveset so it has a stab option and swap tackle for hypnosis for hoot hoot for a bit of sleep cheese.

[@RoryTheFiend]

I looked up delibirds learnset again in case I got it confused but it gets all the moves I put in the video It gets fly from the hm Mud -slap and thief with TM Ice beam by a move tutor Good move suggestions for natu and hoothoot, i could see that working for his team!

[@yorecf9641]

Delibird doesn’t get Drill Peck in Gen 2, but it does learn a number of TM and egg moves, including Icy Wind, Aurora Beam, Thief, Future Sight and Fly.

[@ianweston310]

Hey, the algorithm pushed ya! Glad to see! Good video, and I'm glad people are seeing it. Congrats! 🎉

[@Hafaechaes]

Actually, Flint's non-fire type choices all fit the theme if you assume his theme is heat instead of fire. Steelix is said to be able to dig towards the world's core. Drifblim is a hot air balloon. And Lopunny is a hot bunny girl :D

[@jonglejuice]

Plssss how did I never get that driftblim was a hot air balloon until I read this comment 💀💀💀

[@robertlupa8273]

lopunny is also very fluffy and thus very warm :3

[@Detective_asparagus]

I knew Driftloon was a balloon but it really didn't click that Driftblim was a hot air balloon

[@Justpassingby204]

This was hard to read

[@carlosalvesdossantossantos6645]

​@@Detective_asparagusthat's why he gets flare boost as ability lol

[@marktaylor4962]

There's an elegance about a gym leader only having 1 or 2 Pokémon. They don't always need to have 3+ party members.

[@Aleph3575]

15:55 At least with Jasmine, I think her weakness as a gym leader is thematic. I believe HGSS confirm she was originally a Rock Type gym leader but had to emergency switch types because her Onix evolved which is why it still has a move that weakens water but strengthens fire and her only other steel types are Magnemite which can be found right outside the city.

[@Onmur]

Falkner's Pidgeotto is not cheating, actually! It's a neat reference: In the Pokémon anime, Ash catches a Pidgeotto at Viridian Forest, and so in Pokémon Yellow, which was made to reference the anime, you can catch level 9 Pidgeottos in Viridian Forest. And the next one is just a guess, but I feel Chuck's team might be kind of a reference to how people must have complained that Bruno had two Onyx instead of a Primeape and a Poliwrath. He could have had five fighting types, and well, here are the two he didn't have.

[@frapippo420]

The production value are through the roof! Thanks for the video, you just gained a new sub ❤

[@nathaninnes8945]

Phenomenal video, dude. It must be insane to see 1000+ subs in one day. Of course art isn't about the numbers, but it's good to see some appreciation for your work. What you said with Morty resonated with me. I've always thought about how I would compose teams in a Pokemon game, and I thought it would be really cool if every gym leader had one "wildcard" aka not of the gym leader's type. It would be nice to break the monotony of sweeping an entire team by spamming one super effective move, although these games were never meant to be too difficult (although I wouldn't mind if they were). Similarly on that note I'd go even more radical and say that the elite four and champion shouldn't have a type theming at all. I mean just imagine what the 5 best trainers in the region would use for their teams, I'm gonna guess it wouldn't be limited to 5 pokemon 2 of which being onix. I don't know anything about competitive pokemon or anything close to the like of more dedicated fans, but without understanding what I'm saying I think the elite four teams would do something to reflect different playstyles and advanced tactics. Anyway that's a bit of rambling from me but once again, great video. I'd be eager to hear more of your ideas in future videos

[@Rob-b2q8p]

The one thing you overlooked was that the gym should be using the TM they give you

[@momokyuu69]

Giving Pineco self destruct in the second gym is genius! I Can imagine myself walking into the second gym and getting blown away

[@Pishooter]

"Whitney should lead smeargle" 💀

[@Billbobs678]

Yknow the team you gave Claire is literally just her HGSS team

[@trickysmithy9154]

I loved this video. I really enjoy having gen 2 discussions about how easy it is. I would love if you did this with the other games or even did an updated version of this video with HG and SS. Either way great video!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Appreciate it! I've just began working on the script for the Johto Gym Leaders and honestly just thinking about it I'd love to do this for the gen 1 games, working within the limited pokemon and moves selection sounds like a fun challenge!

[@Moss_Dude]

I actually really like Chuck just having two steroid-filled pokemon instead of a full team, it made him way more memorable to me.

[@iowa89357]

I like morty with the thunderpunch and hidden power-electric. Not directly mentioned, but helps counter the normal birds (spearow, pidgey, hoothoot lines), as well as croconaw's biting

[@RobotnikPlays]

The problem with Pryce is that its technically possible to fight him after Morty, before Chuck and Jasmine. Because of this, Chuck, Jasmine and Pryce all have similar levelled Pokemon. This doesnt excuse their team composition though 😅

[@UrbanBeauty166]

This is great! For Whitney, I'm thinking she should also have Snubbull/Granbull thrown in, and a Teddiursa as well. Teddiursa is very powerful early on because of its high attack stat ❤

[@TheEpsicle]

Small note about Marty’s team. All Pokémon of the same trainer need the same DVs so he can’t have 2 different hidden powers sadly

[@MagnetonPlayer_2]

Love how everyone is “The type Master” and then Claire is The Dragon Type User lmfao

[@AdeptCharon]

First of all, the quality of the presentation/editing on this video is amazing. Here's my gripes with the suggestions or rather which ones I'd do differently: -Falkner I do kinda like how Hoothoot is an ace of the top Bellsprout tower sage, so I would rather have Falkner either keep the Pidgey or actually use a Spearow as the lead. While I agree that every important gym leader SHOULD have at least some Gen-2 representation on their team, ultimately Gen-2 simply is conceived as Kanto 1.5, so the rule to inject Gen-2 Pokémon shouldn't be enforced too strongly. Besides featuring Gen-2 Pokémon, important NPCs in Johto should also be an opportunity to use Gen-1 Pokémon that hadn't been prominently used in Kanto (great example from the originals being Poliwrath on Chuck or Scyther on Bugsy). ...which is also why I LOVE Farfetch'd as Falkner's ace. It's the perfect kind of Pokémon to be an ace of a first gym, since it doesn't evolve further... but even moreso, the whole leek aspect kinda fits in with the Bellsprout association of the town as a whole. Natu is a pretty good choice as well, and I like that its wild location is just over in the Ruins of Alph (albeit deliberately VERY convoluted/confusing to find), so it feels quite natural despite such an exotic type. -Bugsy Replacing the cocoons is the way to go, and Yanma is an amazing choice (showing off a new rare mon that isn't featured anywhere else otherwise anyway). Pineco does feel very appropriate as well given the Headbutt-mechanic obtained just in the forest next to Azalea.. but I would hesitate giving it to Bugsy specifically because I'd rather save the whole "family" for Jasmine. So I'd rather opt for something like Beedrill (kind of fits on a team with Scyther thematically I feel like) -Whitney Yes, Miltank untouched, Furret seems perfect. I think Smeargle is a bit much though. It just feels too much like something she'd have in a ROM-hack that has gotten too excited about spicing things up. Given that Clefairy inevitably gets retconned to a pure Fairy type, I do like the idea of going away from it... but I have to point out that the layout for Whitney's gym resembles a Clefairy, so it shouldn't be dismissed immediately. My "solution" to that aspect though, is to replace Clefairy with the other pink round fairy creature, which DID keep the Normal type despite gaining Fairy: Jigglypuff. -Morty Stantler is a great choice on Morty! Alternatively, I thought he could be using a member of the Koffing line as well (they're even found in the burnt tower) -Chuck I know we only have Hitmontop and Heracross to work with for Gen-2 representation.. but for some reason Heracross feels out of place on the seaside Fighting specialist theme for Chuck... I could see Heracross being reserved for an E4 member (which also happens to include a Fighting specialist who has to fill even more partyslots lol, and I'd want to avoid repeats between different important NPC teams). I like the idea that a clear distinction between Chuck and Bruno would be that the latter exclusively uses the Kanto-Hitmons while the former exclusively uses the Johto-Hitmon. Primeape, Hitmontop, Poliwrath.. and if I really had to give him a fourth Pokémon, honestly I think I'd look for physically intimidating non-Fighting Pokémon options... Ursaring immediately comes to mind! -Jasmine Great suggestion. Just what I mentioned with Bugsy, I'd keep her Forretress strategies unspoiled until this fight. -Pryce No objection to Jynx and Delibird for further variety. Yeah, Lapras is a must IMO (especially when Johto establishes itself as a place where Lapras can actually be found in the wild, in the Union cave). Honestly, Lapras might as well be Pryce's ace... at least until a generation that let's him use Mamoswine. -Claire ...I think the key with these Gen1-2 Dragon specialists is what the original games already hinted at, and lean heavily into the Dragon TAMER concept (similar to how Falkner feels more like a Bird Keeper than a Flying specialist), where the specialty is Pokémon of the dragon EGG GROUP. I mean, it's no surprise that Claire's trainers also use Seadra and Gyarados, the Water types that happen to be in the dragon egg-group. Granted the list doesn't get that much bigger in Gen-2 yet, but makes the Ekans and Charmander lines further options... and I wanna point out the literal lava aesthetic of the gym in further support of Charmander-line (and if justification for using a starter on NPCs is needed, there's some trainers in Union cave and elsewhere with middle stage Kanto starters in GS... as well as more recent cases like Leon in SwSh literally flexing Charizard the entire game). ~Arbok ~Dragonair ~Gyarados ~Charizard ~Kingdra

[@jonmartinlangaker9185]

GREAT video dude! Yeah Game Freak was smoking some funky shit when they made Gym Leader teams in gen 2, not much to be desired 😅 Would also be kinda fitting to give either Pryce or Morty a Sneasel?

[@RoryTheFiend]

Appreciate it big dog, I would love to know the thought process of giving Pryce's Ace FURY ATTACK thinking it's a good move. Yeah I could totally see Morty having a Sneasel, and pretty sure I gave Pryce a Sneasel in a modified Crystal Rom I made a few years back!

[@mcmikk]

I really like how you included elements of the in-game world and lore to build the teams, like with Morty's Stantler and the Punch TMs at the Department Store. Great job on this!

[@saiyan4414]

The anime fixes most of your gripes with these teams, also I think kakuna is fine for Bugsey because of poison sting. Also the reason Jasmine doesn't have any extra trainers in her gym is because it's supposed to signify that by beating the ones in the lightHouse you've already done enough. also clefairy signifies the randomness with metranome, you can never know what to expect.

[@geckohunter123]

Why not a beedrill at least? 😅

[@DarkonFullPower]

"On our way to 400 subs." _two weeks later_ KZbin: Did you mean 4k subs?

[@RhodeynRusty]

Dude!! I just read your post about 500 subs and here you are at 900!! WELL DONE ❤❤❤

[@thisrandomdude2880]

The fact that you have less than 1000 subs is astounding. That's some quality fucking content right here. I loved the idea of Stantler for Morty, it felt thematically perfect. I also hope you could do a quick sweep over the Elite four. They're not as abysmal as the gym leaders, but they have issues.

[@NoName-cz3wn]

It would be awesome if you did a follow-up video on hypothetical "rematches" against high level teams (like between Blue and Red's teams levels).

[@Ceaseroni]

Hazard setters and Hidden Power? He's swimming in the competitive sauce!

[@sykotiksonik]

I'd think you could also potentially give Morty a Xatu, seeing as how Xatu is said to be able to see into the past with one eye, and the future with the other, and Morty is said to be "the mystic seer of the future", it fits really well in my book

[@RoryTheFiend]

That's an interesting choice that I would never have thought of but I can see it working!

[@blvck5943]

Yup

[@PersonOfRandomnesss]

12:12 "Reliable coverage": Has deam eater as coverage option lmao Dont get me wrong, I like that you kept it, but it just made me laugh.

[@RoryTheFiend]

to be fair I was meaning moreso thunderpunch but I get you hypnosis dream eater is not reliable

[@PersonOfRandomnesss]

@@RoryTheFiend I know, I just thought it was funny

[@TransLatios]

Wonder how you’d change the gym leader’s teams in the remakes. More options there along with the physical/special type rework.

[@mesmorrow]

I like how this video tries to stay true to what the devs worked with and how they handled gen 2 at the time, there are way too many people that starts changing stats, give held items and generally tries to min max the teams to be the most effective at their level range or not even respecting the default level range and by the 8th gym you are expected to fight level 70 Pokémon lol, great video and worth a watch.

[@captaincaterpie]

considering johto also wanted you to go through kanto I think the lower levels is fine, and I also think that's why both chuck and morty kinda sucks. i think chuck was supposed to be water and morty was supposed to be psychic considering he is "the mystic seer of the future" and his entire gym is based around teleporting back to the start. However because the game also had kanto they didn't want to use gym leaders of the same type. so they made chuck into a fighting type and just kept poliwrath as his ace, just changed him gym and they made morty ghost because they can just make it ghost themed. i also think this happened to jasmine as the lighthouse is technically her gym so I think she was electric type just changed to steel. considering the only type not used in a gym is dark, with the only useful dark type being houndoom, the ace of archer, and tyranitar, too powerful for the 4th gym, I think ghost is fine.

[@RoryTheFiend]

Wow I never thought about that but I think you could be right with chuck being water and Morty being psychic, it'd make a lot of sense!

[@georgeDeming]

yeah , and you would end up needing to scale up the wild encounter pokemon levels, and the random trainer levels if you're increasing the gym leader levels since if the player is trying to evenly level a full party they will most likely be horribly under leveled when they reach the gym leaders unless they grind wild pokemon alot more

[@renatoramos8834]

@@georgeDeming You lack imagination.

[@scrapinator8898]

You WILL Get over 10000 subs, you deserve it. A+ content and editing!!!

[@Blockhead-lc6fr]

Can someone tell me why bugsy's kakuna and metapod are the only cocoon pokemon foes to know their pre evo moves Also a reminder that you can fight chuck as the 7th gym leader, meaning the penultimate gym leader has 2 mons

[@yorecf9641]

Bugsy raised them from their larval states.

[@Blockhead-lc6fr]

Yes but explain how all cocoon mons were born as their pre evo that had other moves than harden And wild metapod and kakuna only know harden

[@yorecf9641]

@@Blockhead-lc6fr wild Pokémon don't play by the same rules. That's why you can find level 9 Salamence in Alola even though Shelgon doesn't evolve into it until level 50.

[@plazmatic2664]

This is peak content. THIS will be the youtuber I watch grow. Don't forget me!!

[@sleepi866]

im your 500th subscriber :)

[@RoryTheFiend]

LETS GOOO!! SLEEPI!!! thank you :)

[@sleepi866]

@@RoryTheFiend congrats, keep making high quality videos like this

[@piacrt]

There's a reason no trainers use Thief. In Gen 2 if an AI were to use the move on you, the item would be lost forever!

[@Ze_Carrot]

More professional than a big channel

[@Nobody-el2eb]

If I heard correctly Pryce's delibird in the manga defeated a ho-oh

[@coconutwindsurfer5589]

I'd say the new teams are pretty great, but I disagree with a few points. Whitney: she uses pink pokemon, so let's keep it: add back her clefairy, instead of smeargle, snubbul Morty: keep curse on Haunter instead of thief since it's always been a signature of ghost pokemon and a different Hidden Power on Misdrevous since Gengar has thunderpunch Chuck: poliwrath, submission instead of dynamicpunch with leftovers or a gold berry for recovery Pryce: instead of Jynx, sneasel. Jynx is a mistake, and we dont need another Kanto pokemon. Clair: Gyrados moves thrash, surf, fire blast, hidden power dragon (bc she's a dragon trainer) or ground to counter electric types and holding a bitter berry to cure thrash confusion

[@hawaiiboiskeezah8084]

Ending of the video I was not expecting such a kick ass background I’m a huge fan of the gen 2 Pokémon I’ve always loved them gen 1-3 will always be my favorites! Awesome vid man if we had this team comp back in the day it would be a welcome challenge keep it man ✌🏽🤙🏽

[@RoryTheFiend]

Appreciate it :) Definitely if pokemon had a difficulty option this would be the hard one aha also the person who made the animated background at the end of the vid, can't find the video of it but the picture of it is here: twitter.com/zaebucca/status/1372342302962749441

[@hawaiiboiskeezah8084]

@@RoryTheFiend shout out for the link my guy stay blessed man 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽

[@BlaqueT]

I'd absolutely love to see another vid to go over the E4, Champion, and Kanto Gyms! This was a great watch and inspired me to think about what sort of changes I would make! Thanks!

[@whoszmnwho]

youtube randomly recommended this and i’m glad i watched this was really good. i’d love to see more of these especially for hoenn and kalos

[@valritz1489]

Thief on Delibird also gets bonus cheeky points, since Pryce is in Team Rocket in the manga.

[@RoryTheFiend]

yup totally intentional, definitely! Glad you approve anyway this delibird isn't giving presents it's TAKING THEM!

[@LukerYT]

Genuinely really nice to see you were approaching 400 subs, and the video isn't even a day old yet you're over 1k. Congrats! This is really well done. Hope your channel keeps progressing, it deserves to with this kind of quality.

[@A10Gaming-Nevi]

Rory I'm so happy your hard work truly payed off! 22k views in one day is outstanding!! You done really well with this video. My kudos to you my friend!!

[@RoryTheFiend]

Kevin ur a legend

[@A10Gaming-Nevi]

@@RoryTheFiend I am? Nahhhh youuuu look at your growth in one day

[@1originalaccountname]

I think Morty's Stantler should be running Shadow Ball over Bite, just to better tie it into the ghost typing theme

[@PokemonPOTUS]

I like your ideas

[@pokemonmonkey24]

Can’t believe you have less than a 1K Subs! This video is great. The editing was top tier. Definitely subscribing!

[@OmegaBrandonXD]

Great Video! Personally i would change a few things : - Give Jasmine Ampharos - Give Clair 6 Pokemon

[@Tristan_Shuler]

Fantastic job with this. Screenshot each gym team so I can always refer back to it!

[@Nikolaj11]

Instead of another Dragonaire I think it could actually be fun to give Claire a Dunsparce. Not a dragon but just vaguely wyrm-shaped I suppose. With Rock Slide, Headbutt, Glare and Screech it could serve to catch unprepared players off-guard with some cheeky paraflinching, even against opposing ground types :)

[@RoryTheFiend]

Yeah I think thats a fun idea! at the time I hadn't even considered alternatives like Dunsparce and Arbok to fill her roster but I am totally down for Claire to have that!

[@omega197]

THANK YOU THAT PRYCE WAS BEAUTIFUL He should literally capable to level anyone who tried to go pryce first before chuck.

[@Kamikoroshiteageru]

Hey, the yt algorithm randomly recommended me this video and it was very well made and fun to watch. I hope you make more in the series! Keep up the good work

[@ElGarri-cr2ic]

New sub. This is an amazing video in terms of editing and naration! Im checking out the rest of the vids and you are great.

[@SuntanAlbino]

You effectively did what I've longed since dreamed of doing and I love it. I've always wanted to make my own Crystal version rom/patch where I do exactly this, revamp the gym leaders so they're more of a challenge and utilize the Johto pokemon on their teams. I tried looking into how to do all of this but I'm too smooth-brained to accomplish it so seeing that someone out there (you, in this case) has done it makes me really happy

[@SillyBanjo]

SmithPlays Pokemon is doing exactly this

[@NickJamNG]

Congrats on the success of this video! I did a double take when I heard you were trying to reach 400 subs and looked down to see 1.81K exactly ONE DAY after upload! Huge success and well-earned. Great production quality!

[@Gdebbie3]

Great video! And much needed!! I would have made a few changes like girafarig over stantler, heracross as the ace over poliwrath, and Pryce not having a sneasel is WILD.

[@trainerkels]

Excellent video Rory! So proud of you!

[@Rda95]

This is my 2nd video of yours I've watched after your follow up to this in Red and Blue was recommended to me. I was legitimately taken aback when you said you almost had 400 subs in this video. Keep it up, your content is great so far.

[@pacoramon9468]

I have the same idea for Bugsy, makes no sense that he uses two cocoon.

[@IgorNahan]

Really good vid! I specially love your take on Falkner because you paid attention to him being a bird keeper, not simply a Flying-type master. His team looks balanced, unique and very on theme. The others seem good too, but I think Whitney and Morty missed a little bit. Whitney seems to particularly love cute and "feminine" Pokémon, so Pokémon like Clefairy/Clefable, Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff, Snubbull/Granbull, Togetic and Chansey could fit better here. A Smeargle or a Furret don't feel so out of place, but together they remove the team's personality imo. And when it comes to Morty, I'm not against including Stantler in his team, however, when inclusions like this are made, it's good for the oddball Pokémon to at least know a move of the team's type. For example, Aaron's Drapion knows X-Scissor, Flint's Steelix knows Fire Fang and Sunny Day, Flint's Lopunny knows Fire Punch and Sunny Day and Flint's Drifblim knows Will-O-Wisp. In gen 2, Stantler can learn Confuse Ray, Nightmare and Spite - these aren't great moves, but it's definitely possible to do something with it.

[@notaidandobbins]

feeling like a found a hidden gem with this channel, your content quality feels like that of a 100k+ sub youtuber, keep up the great work!

[@weggpudding]

your voice is very nice to listen to and you explained your thought processes and reasonings for each change so well! im glad the algorithm was kind to you, giving you that boost in popularity thats very much deserved! congrats :3

[@revolverhero7931]

Keep up the great work and please make this a whole series I love the in-depth look

[@kumarpatel81]

We need a part 2, this was a great video!

[@Cr1me-wavE]

I just finished johto on a soul silver playthrough, and i think these gym leader rosters are 1,000,000x more interesting and suiting to the region and their leaders. Really well thought out and awesome video!