How I Beat the Insane Pokémon Roguelike 

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Grunty boi is my new therapist after that speech

Now we need team sky to beat pokerouge

PSA: The Reviver Seed is NOT from PokéRogue! It’s actually from the spin-off series, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. It’s just that it had its properties changed from that series to here where you only pack 1, but it acts like a held item version of a Revive.

You might be the only youtuber who will play a seperate character (of yourself) quarter of the way into the video to give yourself a pep-talk and i don’t question it in the slightest

Real talk: Grunty Boi's speech was fantastic, not just because it's a sweet and inspiring reminder everyone needs from time to time, but because the speech in itself proved the truth of the message. (I feel like there's gotta be a term for that, that I just don't know.) Creativity is what most makes the videos across the MandJTV channels great! I know I am not subscribed to them for the gameplay itself, but for the storytelling, performing, and overall playful fun of the videos. Mikey wrote that speech for an endearing character he's got us all attached to over the years as a creative way to add some storytelling and relatabilty to his retelling of his Pokerogue experience... And it's a speech where the whole point is how his talents lie in all of the above. That's just super cool! And I can't help rambling, because in my opinion Mikey's content, as good as it's been for years, has taken after him in 2024: It has "grown the beard" and that's a joy to watch.

6:55 Stunningly wise words; from someone who's probably going to take a kid's lunch money in 15 minutes

Welcome to the winner’s circle buddy! No Sea Bears allowed

I just love and appreciate how Grunty Boy has been the voice of truth while being just himself over the years:"Comparison is the thief of confidence, self-appreciation and joy".

everyone's a gangsta til grunty boi did not start with "haha! it is i, grunty boi!" and instead outright chose violence he then ended with _that_ aww. like spit em facts brotha indeed

Grunty Boi came in clutch TBH Also I think I'd want Grunty Boi as my therapist

Reviver Seeds are not exclusives to PokéRogue, they are from Mystery Dungeon.

Grunty Boi has a point. You're more of a creativity storyline type of Pokémon Trainer/Poké-Tuber. Nothing wrong with that. It makes you more unique to be honest, & that's cool.

FINALLY! A PokeTuber that bothers explaining this game. Every time I see the game, it's pure gameplay with the player assuming everyone knows this game.

i never knew grunty boy was capable of such deep thoughts

22:09 Hey wait a minute I'm the Alola Region Champion, not Hau. Why was I not put into the game? I would've allowed it.

Dont feel bad Mikey, Alpharad didnt get to 195 on his 1st attempt, he refreshed the browser to restart the battles xD

“Perhaps because the types of playthroughs you do don’t require any skill” YEESH THATS HARSH

team sky might like this because each time you go up floor, YOU GET CLOSER TO THE SKY!

Castform with three health bars: FEAR ME MORTAL FOR I AM THE GREATEST ENEMY- Mikey: Gyarados use Waterfall! Castform: You got me!

GRUNTY BOI WITH A SICK BURN ?! GRUNTY BOI WITH THE *WISDOM?!*

Grunty Boi breaking the fourth wall was hilarious

Grunty Boi's speech isn't something I thought I needed today but I'm sure glad to have heard it

mikeys halucinations coming to roast him, do a sponser segment and then giing him advice before leaveing

Everyone gangsta until raichu pulls out his zippyzap and splishy splashes you. Personally i love the lets go move names and was upset i couldn't use them outside of lets go.

7:10 God Grunty Boi spitting facts no printer. You are crazy creative Mikey and team sky and your challenges are just as great as Nuzlockes imo. I love both so much 💕💕💕

I freaked out when I saw this. Mikey + Pokerogue = Best thing is the world.

Grunty boi smiling at the camera... cheeky fellow knows we love him.

MandJTV, let me just say I've been a fan of you since 2020. I know that's not as long as you've been on RU-vid, but its when I started watching your videos regularly. I remember when you still had Pokevids in your channel name. I hope you never quit RU-vid. I can't imagine not watching you. Thank you for entertaining all of us over you many years of videos.

grunty boi is self aware now LMAOOOO

Getting to see Michael's growth over time has been an amazing, inspiring journey. The videos have been accompaniment for me through good times and bad, through some of the hardest times in my life, and through some of the best. Seeing his creativity flourish, especially these most recent years, has been incredible. I feel like this video, in its presentation, the speech by Grunty Boi (and the fact that Michael himself realized that and wrote it- I mean uh, Grunty Boi totally thought of it himself, growth too!), the sheer magnitude of the challenge here, all of it. This video is the culmination of everything so far, and I cannot WAIT to see all the amazing, creative, and awesome content coming up next.

A casual player feeling bad because he's comparing himself to a competitive player, the Nuzzlocke King, and Smallant.

21:52 fun fact, the reviver seed isn’t a pokerogue exclusive item, it just came from mystery dungeon instead

I love this game and it is so addicting. Personally I am 2900 waves deep in Endless but I will always remember the first clear I got for Classic. Charizard, Meowscarada, Squakabilly, Crobat, Gyarados and the Clutch Master Breloom. Leech Seed single-handedly help me beat the rival at 195. Can’t wait to see Mikey’s final team.

Grunty boi Is right he does have a pretty face

Your love for castform has earned you good Karma. Castform knew you needed a break and made your life easier.

"Grunty Boi was right," delivered in such a serious tone legitimately broke me. love this

4:49 It’s because this game has the computers acting like competitive players. You have to treat it like competitive Pokémon.

Proud of Mikey for challenging himself with a Roguelike

21:49 actually, the reviver seed originates from mystery dungeon and just like with PokeRogue, is one of the most valuable items in the game

As someone who is relatively new in following poketubers (not Pokemon, but yes tubers), yes I have watched some of the more competitive/harder content too which can be entertaining, but I found your channel(s) like a few weeks ago and its so much fun that I watched the entirety of your plays (Sky, Grunty Boy and basically all other characters you have written this far) until I had nothing else to watch. Your content is amazing and your acting superb, you're super fun to watch and would never want that to change over beating yourself over to make content 'harder', so shut out to Grunty Boy for being so real!!

Grunty Boi giving the most inspiring speech and then being really embarrassed tho.

Gruntyboy teaching Mikey was so sweet!!!!!

28:24 I love how he plays dragon quest 11 music. I finished the game and it still brings me to tears about the good times when I played the game

I said this on a past video but I’m gunna say it again. You are the only RU-vidr that I will sit through the ad reads for cause you make them very entertaining. I really liked this one as well, you pointing it out and Gun-ty-Boi snapping you out of it. Chef kiss good sir 😂

4:46 DAMN

7:13 Congrats, Grunty Boi. Your motivational speech successfully got me to watch the entire ad. Normally I skip them, but that was completely worth it. 20:38 Castform?! 29:54 Man, that mistake really stinks. 31:04 Congrats on victory!

A Team Sky run of a Mystery Dungeon game could be interesting. Explorers of Sky would be the obvious choice on which Mystery Dungeon game

Lets gooo he beat it he beat the brutal funny Pokémon fan game

Only halfway through but that's fine I didn't need my heart today jfc that speech. You are /so/ creative and that's why we all watch you!!

That Grunty Boi speech truly sums up why I watch this plays channel. Are the playthroughs that you do among the most challenging across the board? No, not really. Monotype runs or other themed runs are definitely harder than a normal playthrough, but is still a glorified casual playthrough. And that's okay. Not everything needs to be a shiny only ultra hardcore nuzlocke of Pokemon FireRed with just a Bulbasaur. You know more about Pokemon than a large portion of the fanbase mainly because that's been your job for the past several years. And while people find the fun out of optimizing everything about the game, you found your own fun by creating characters, telling stories and often hitting emotional beats depending on what you've got to work with. With VERY few exceptions, Pokemon content creators are either insanely good at the game or are incredibly creative with the source material in either one or multiple ways (Mikey for characters and storytelling, GlitchxCity for music etc).

Mikey: scared for his life because of floor 170 Floor 170 Castform: *cute voice* hail yeah

You and alpharad should do a collab sometime! You both are awesome! It’s great to hear that we watch the same channels lol

I have seen many grunty boi, this has been best grunty boi

Your sponsorship transitions are flawless as always, and genuinely enjoyable to watch (probably one of the only ones I tend to just let play through even if I've watched the video before xD). Grunty Boi's little blurb was also spot on. Well done. I needed to hear that. I don't even play Pokemon but I kind of want to try PokeRogue... Just to see how much I've learnt from watching you, PM7 and other Pokemon content creators. I have a feeling I will die frequently haha

Your type challenges have inspired me to do my own, Mikey. Not just focusing on type but on building a story around each character for the runs. It felt way less scary than trying for a Nuzlocke straight out the gate, and the accessibility is good. Thank you for the viseos you do, they're always a blast and an inspiration. I and my Bug type specialist working his way through Pokémon Shield salute you.

I've been waiting for this vid for too long lol. One or two tid bits of info incase you continue to play: Ivy battles you at the same levels every time (8, 25, 45, 95, 145 and 195) Champions always have one legendary Gym Leaders appear evvery 30 floors after their first appearance, so either 20, 50, 80, 110, 140 and 170, or 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180. Great vid as always, what a journey

Grunty Boi breaking the 4th wall (and being completely right that your creativity is what makes you such a great creator) was brilliant

Woah, man. Grunty Boi’s speech was actually really helpful. I’ve started running track and I haven’t been doing that well recently, so I think I needed to hear that. I know it wasn’t the intention, but thanks for the advice.

23:37 hearing a grown man angrily shout “SPLISHY SPLASH!” Is so funny to me

You could have easily done a BetterHelp commercial with that Sage advice that Grunty Boy gave you 😂😂

Grunty Boi just starts off spitting harsh truth😮 Mikey is someone who desperately avoids nuzlockes at all cost after all. But damn, he could have at least leaned into it in the start😢 I think Grunty Boi just became everyone’s favorite spirit animal

My team when I won was Enamorus, Xatu, Ursaluna, and three Linoones. The Linoones had Pickup and whenever they picked up a berry I’d throw it onto my Enamorus and just wiped everything except for Eternatus with the Enamorus. I also got really lucky with my Gym Leaders, getting 3 Grass types, 2 Bug types, and a Ghost type, which was good because it had Oblivion Wing AND Mystical Fire.

Oh boy! Can't wait to see what playthrough is next. Also, Grunty Boy interacting with Mikey outside the sponsorship is amazing.

The Reviver Seed is in a Pokémon game series, the mystery dungeon series, it does the same thing as it does in poke rouge but it’s not a held item

Oh, the Reviver Seed is actually in the PMD games. I think it Revives you to full there tho, but I don't think I've ever seen you really cover those games in all the years I've watched your content. (The stories are some of the best Pokemon's got, especially Explorers! The gameplay can be pretty tedious tho, so it might not be your thing.)

This was a REALLY great video! I could tell that you had a lot of fun with it! Keep on doing what you’re doing and Go Team SKY!!!!

Once you get buzzwole, he is a huge sweeper. He gets access to twineedle early on, and combined with beast boost, he can max out his huge attack Stat early on

Grunty Boi spoke some facts🫡🫡🫡

I knew Ivy looked familiar... She's just a female Hau.

Honestly, I really love the grunty boy skit In this video. Calling yourself out and everything, and the overall message of it was seriously impressive and inspiring.

I can also confirm the Venusaur and Skeledirge stuff. I just completed my first run with a final squad of Venusaur, Skeledirge, Slowking, Flamigo, Gyarados, and Bronzong, and both Venusaur and Skeledirge are the reason I took Eternatus down. That and Venusaur winning a 1v4 against the rival fight at floor 195. Both are absolute monsters

7:02 GRUNTY BOY PREACH?!?!

Haven't even watched it. Already know it's a banger.

6:14 Gruntie boi is his shoulder angel! wise ol grunty

Let's gooooo, was looking for this a few weeks ago and was sad that he hadn't made a vid yet!

Almost finished a flying only run of pokerogue, got to floor 190 But alder and his stupid tera electric zekrom keep killing my team >:( (Gliscor dies to a draco meteor)

I just want to add that I agree with Grunty boy. I don't care about Pokerouge, I don't care about extremely unnecessary hard self imposed rules of pokemon playthroughs or entire roms for sweaty challenges. But I certainly care about Mikey's playthroughs or summaries and every new theme those have

Mikey: Reviver seeds are a Pokerogue exclusive. Could you imagine if this was in real pokémon?! Me: Someone's never played a Mystery Dungeon game. A reviver seed *fully* heals a pokémon on your squad that feints there (and for some battles ya need it; don't get me started on the final dungeon of the post-game story line).

"I got icebeam as a reward" *immediatly saw one of the other option was a vitamin, wich are HUGE if you intend to keep a pokemon I just screamed when I saw that. For a gameplay explaination : unlike regular pokemon games there is IVs, btu not EVs, so using vitamins are just straight permanent stats upgrades for the pokemon

This is the last game I would expect Mikey to play but I’m 100% here for it

YES IVE BEEN HOPING FOR THIS

I love tryhard mode Mikey !! It was amazing to see you really strategize and push your limits. And being so wise about it too (well, grunty boy was, at least). Great job and great video !

It’s crazy cause Mickey has been such a good story teller all this time. Bringing more intense stakes actually created even more peak content!

I literally just opened youtube and this popped up. I'm not upset though, an MandJTV upload is guaranteed to be a great day

OH MY GOD HE ACTUALLY PLAYED IT MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE

Love how mikey had absolutely no problem beating floor 145. It took me 100+ attempts with retries on to beat it, and 4 separate runs with them off.

Grunty Boi going from cartoonishly evil face of sponsors to showing up (mostly) to encourage Mikey to use his strengths and give him the push he needed to see the challenge thru is the character arc I didn't know I needed.

Yes new video

That was the sweetest grunty boy segment ever

Reviver Seed, for anyone curious, is a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon item meant to be used when dungeon crawling. In later games, you can also find it's less potent version, Tiny Reviver Seed. After being consumed to revive, the Reviver Seed becomes a Plain Seed that can be sold for 1G or can be consumed for 1 Belly Point (as Belly is a PMD* Stat.) Reviver Seeds (to revive) and Joy Seeds (which up your level by 1) are incredibly important components to traversing post game dungeons in PMD games that have one hundred or more floors and revert your level to 1 upon entering. I surmise the PokeRogue Creator determined that the PMD Dungeon Crawler item was a good fit for a rogue-like. Hope this helps anyone confused!

The thing I like about ivy is the fact that she actually acknowledges freakishly strong we are

We love you grunty boy, thank you for that incredible speech

Omg I was waiting for this for sooooo long

We love you grunty boi!!

Reviver seeds aren't exclusive to poke rogue, they're also in pokemon mystery dungeons same effect just mandatory on the poke rogue game not optional in the mystery dungeon games 😊

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward for you 'specifically' to play this game. While everyone else doing videos on this is great and all, seeing how you approach Pokerogue is a lot more in line to casual players, and thus more interesting to me. Good stuff Mikey, you did great!

Thank you Michael for being a huge part of my childhood watching your videos thank you

21:40 Words can not express the pain I felt when he called the Reviver Seed a "PokéRogue exclusive item" and "imagine if it was in real Pokémon" I half expected the editor (if it's not Mikey himself) to fade in an image of at least ONE of the Mystery Dungeon games My PMD heart felt like it got stabbed... And like - at first, maybe the clarification would be that it doesn't have the same effect as it does in PMD... but then I realized that... it practically does! Mikey- the Pokémon RU-vidr whose strength lies within his storytelling... isn't aware of several of the best stories in the franchise. /j, while I am hurt, this comment is a dramatic retelling, please don't hurt me

Keep up the awesome work and videos Mikey love the video