Why Pokemon Gen 2 Is The Worst In The Series 

"The rival is also a total edgelord." This is hilarious in hindsight due to his recent cameo in Jaiden Animations.

Gen 2 was the first game to let you skip the “how to catch a Pokémon” tutorial and it took 6 generations for them to bring it back.

The Houndour thing actually blows my mind. Its introduced so late into the game that I thought it was a Gen 3 Pokemon.

I always thought Skarmory was a gen 3 pokemon. He shows up once as a wild pokemon after the 8th gym, at like a 5% encounter rate. He's not used by a single trainer in the entire generation. It's not even like he's some kind of pseudo-legendary or something that would justify him being so hidden. It's just a wasted slot in a game that already only has ~100 new pokemon to begin with.

I love the rant about Unknown, I vividly remember being a kid and catching the entire damn alphabet of Unknown because obviously something cool needs to happen if you collect them all right? I mean the ruins where you catch them is weirdly empty and mysterious, clearly there was some secret to uncover.... No, there was nothing, just wasted time and broken dreams

i was dreading for you to get onto Quagsire, but when you said, “Quagsire: great,” i felt a joyous smile spread across my face

Fun fact: out of the 58 Pokémon used by the 16 gym leaders, only ten of them are Johto Pokémon. That is roughly 17%. If you include the elite four and champion fights, it changes to 19 Johto Pokémon out of 90 Pokémon total, or 21%.

I'm surprised you never addressed my biggest gripe with gen 2: All the TMs suck. You have to rely on elemental punches with limited distribution for coverage, the only decent fighting-type move is 50% accurate, and all the ones that are _actually good_ are in Kanto. What really pisses me off is that the only way to get Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower is to waste all your time gambling, and _only_ in Crystal! Oh, and they did my boy Heracross dirty. Why even _make_ it a fighting type if you aren't going to give it any fighting STAB options? All that does is make it weak to the psychic types it would otherwise counter! What, was Megahorn too good? And why does it take until level 54 to learn it??? _AND WHY AM I NOWHERE NEAR THAT LEVEL WHEN I GET TO MOUNT SILVER???_

I really wish Heart Gold and Soul Silver would have moved Houndour into Johto. Just have it so you find Growlithe and Houndour in the same spot. One dog for day, one dog for night. It makes so much sense.

How to play Gen 2: 1. Catch Abra 2. Learn Elemental Punches 3. Sweep

The fact you can only catch Houndour in one specific spot after 11 bloody badges is actually ridiculous, I don't get why some Pokemon are like that, so rare/late that they're just unpractical to use on a play through, Nuzlocke or not.

When the most memorable part of the region is the fact you can go outside of it, you've done something wrong.

Feraligatr didn't get a species name, it got a username.

Gen2 had the best rival...that dude straight up has the cops looking for him

As much as I love Gen 2, it definitely has huge issues. You can tell Game Freak wasn't quite sure with how to proceed following the unbelievable success of Gen 1. So they decided to make the newer Pokemon weaker and essentially add a whole second region with Kanto postgame. That's what made Gen 3 so great - they were clearly much more proud of their new mons and the balance curve/pacing was much more thought-out. All that said, Gen 2 has this very unique charm to it that I adore to this day. It feels... esoteric? Spiritual? Very, very Japanese? No other games in the series capture that vibe for me.

I remember as a kid i had my friend trade me a larvitar, a scyther holding the metal coat, and a seadra holding a dragon scale at like gym 5 or 6 just so I could use pokemon I wanted to use because everything else was either Gen 1 pokes or they sucked... man I still love Gen 2 but holy shit was it a mess 😔

"The designs are genuinely very ugly." [Furret at the center of the screen] "Peace was never an option."

"Never have I been so offended by something that I 100% agree with."

My biggest problem with Gen 2 is the evo stones. You basically beat 8-11 gyms just to get a fire stone. I remember replaying Silver with a vulpix and having it unevolved up until you make it to Bills house in fucking kanto where you get the stone.

I feel like HGSS ruined Giovanni by having him try to return. For the longest time, I always assumed Giovanni never showed up because after losing to Red, he knew that trying to brute force his way with power was the wrong decision. He sees remnants of his old team and he's ashamed because they're a desperate collection of grunts who are looking for him, and he sees himself in them, and he doesn't acknowledge them. But Celebi showing you that Giovanni tried to return to power ruined that sentiment. Also, why does a mythical pokemon give a fuck about what the mob is doing?

*Sudowoodo Me: Don't you dare say anything bad. *Cool design. Me: Good

This man just blew my mind with the charizard and thyplosion stats.

This is an old video, but I just want to mention: Spinarak/ariados sucked hard back then, but it would have still been better than kakuna on Bugsy's team. Let's switch metapod for pineco too since we are at it. Seriously, why does the 2nd gym leader uses arguably the worst pokemons in the entire game? I understand scyther is busted stat-wise, but metapod and kakuna is just idiotic. They at least had offensive moves though.

Fun fact : the other johto starters stats are the kanto starters stats, except shuffled. Like it was just too hard for them to create 9 new stat spreads. That's 54 whole numbers they had to come up with. LITTERALLY 54 bytes of data.

I thought you were gonna do my boy Typhlo dirty then I realized the game did.

My least favorite part about the abysmal level curve is that it’s basically impossible to add a Pokémon to your party past the 3rd gym unless you want to grind for literal hours. Want to add a post-game specific mon to your team like houndour? Have fun leveling it up 40 levels by fighting nothing stronger than level 25 wild Pokémon.

I'm more annoyed that Heartgold/Soulsilver didn't actually fix some of the more blatant issues that plagued these games. - The horrible low-level curve after Ecruteak City is still there. - Johto gym leaders are still lacking Pokemon from the damn region they're in. - The Johto villain story is still the same boring and simplistic "Team Rocket want their boss back" storyline. - Kanto overall still feels really barren with hardly any additional story or updates to the world setting. HGSS is super overrated.

Another thing that bugs me about the Gen 2 national dex is that it's not really in 'order'. Usually they're in order of the route or area you would usually encounter them; this is easier to see in later dexes, even in Hoenn. Meanwhile, you got Scizor somewhere in the middle, despite Bugsy having Scyther, and Chinchou/Lanturn fairly near the start. It's just complete chaos.

There's an easy way to let people challenge gyms in any order without making them all easy: have the leaders maintain multiple teams, and fight you with one based on how many badges you have. I mean, you figure that must be how it actually works in-universe, right?

The ONLY reason the fight against red is "hard" is because he's WAY overleveled compared to everything else in the game

I only played gen2 once and with a bug-only team: made the mistake of getting heracross which made it too easy. REALLY enjoyed having ledian as an opener with no attacks and just buffing and baton passing though

The real problem, to me, is hardware limitations. Most of the problems, stem from. Them letting Kanto in also, and as a result, the rest of the game suffered. Oh and the leveling is insanely bad. Like what were they thinking? The champion has a lvl 50 ace dude Jesus. It was 65 in gen 1

Good thing Fletchinder didn’t exist in Gen 2, we didn’t need to see anything named Fletchindr alongside Feraligatr.

The fact that you don’t see a single Tyranitar (the strongest non legendary new Pokémon) in the whole game really says it all. I didn’t even know it existed for months 😰

“Wtf is Dunsparce???” Made me laugh more than it should

I have a friend that keeps saying "Gen 2 has the best post-game, they somehow managed to add 2 whole regions for you to explore" when in reality the reason they managed to add Kanto was because Johto was so barebones in innovation that they had to fill the rest of the cartridge with a copy paste

Did you laugh when two of the gym leaders refused to hand over their badges directly after losing? One was Whitney, and the other being Claire.

Before watching: HOW DARE YOU?! After watching: the man is on to something.

Most of Gen 2's problems especially the story and the sense of progression was fixed, made better, and moded by Drayano through Sacred Gold and Storm Silver. It's what Heart Gold and Soul Silver could've been. Even in the Goldenrod event, you get to actually fight Giovanni after defeating the sub-leader in Team Rocket. Drayano also buffs weaker 'mons in his rom hacks and they become useable. That's why I love his rom hacks and this is why the rom hacking community is important: they bring out the best in every previous Pokemon games out there.

Looking back, I never realized how this generation was pretty much held back to due to relying too much on nostalgia. Most of the Gen 2 Pokemon felt like junk rares and are overshadowed by those from Gen 1. It's pretty much why Game Freak almost wiped the slate clean when developing Ruby and Sapphire.

My heart: HOW THE HELL CAN HE SAY THESE THINGS My brain: He do be kinda right tho

One problem I’ve noticed: *How did Lance get WEAKER since the last time you see him?!*

One option would be to give each gym leader 8 unique teams so that they would scale appropriately regardless of which order you battle them in. Canonically, we know that each gym leader matches the level of their pokemon to something appropriate for the challenger (at least according to the anime). Obviously, this wasn't feasible for this game with the technology at the time (I suppose)

I’ll always have a special place for gen 2 in my heart but your commentary was dead on. There’s a reason I ended up only leveling like 4 or 5 Pokémon in my playthroughs lol

"Miltank is okay" *Several flashbacks* No,.. It's not okay.

This is why I loved Black/White 2. They did the whole "reexplore the old region" bit but actually scaled it, so you're on early routes from the previous games that have level 50s wild Pokemon and trainers who you aren't breezing through.

The biggest problem is the internal battery used for the day/night system, which stopped working after a few years. Now I can’t pick up my silver cartridge and play again without an emulator. EDIT: also, I was six when G/S came out, so I mostly remember the anime, being excited to get Togepi, and my folks telling me not to stay up too late trying to catch HootHoot (I love owls).

I played through all the pokemon games as a child, and I always wondered why I could never remember gen 2 very well. This video reminded me why. None of the mons interested me, and according to my GameBoy that I had to dig under my bed for, I only got to the third gym badge and gave up playing.

The non-linearity can be easily solved with Gym teams being dynamic based on progression.

Man I REALLY felt that "Starter, Ampharos, Shiny Gyarados" call out at 7:30. Dude just described every Gen 2 team I ever built. Love Gen 2 but this is so true.

You've expressed my frustration with this generation of Pokemon. Johto feels so incomplete with a lackluster story (I gotta ask what even was the point of Lugia and Ho-oh being here?) and very little representation of the region because many of the Pokemon introduced in this generation don't appear until the late game or are in Kanto.

I don't think the game opening up once you reach Morty would have been so bad if the levels in Ice Path/Blackthorn had been high enough to account for the fact that you're completing three separate questlines before that. Chuck/Morty/Jasmine/Pryce being roughly the same level doesn't bother me very much, and Clair's levels are also fine, but every trainer battle outside of her gym leading right up to the Elite Four is like, Level 20-30, with maybe one or two exceptions. I honestly don't know what they were thinking.

It pains me that I absolutely love Gen 2 and agree with everything in this video.

Wow, all the time my friends and I spent arguing about Typhlosion vs Charizard seems silly now

There's this concept from fanfiction where the gym leaders use different pokemon and teams depending on how many badges you have. That could have solved the pacing problem so well. Like if you fight the same gym leader with three badges they use relatively low levelled and weaker pokemon, but if you have like six badges they'll use pokemon that are stronger like pseudo legendary and final stage pokemon. Also like the thing from breath of the wild where the monsters got stronger as you progress through the game you could make the grass pokemon stronger the more badges you have.

There was nothing worse as a kid finally getting to Red with level 40-45 pokemon, only to realize his team is like 75. Then realizing the only way to grind is on like level 30 mons or the Elite 4. I never actually beat Red. Even as I kid, I would just get to the Elite 4 and start over cause the level curve problem was so frustrating to me.

Watching somebody dunk on Gen 2 is strangely cathartic, because I always feel like it has a lot of issues nobody talks about. The level curve in particular is enough to make me get bored halfway through any given playthrough.

"Weeeeeell, you can go to Kanto" is all I ever wanted as a ~10yr old. It blew my damn mind at the time.

I’m playing Johto for the first time right now in HGSS and my biggest issue is this: why the fuck did they make headbutting trees such a major mechanic for finding Pokémon when there is only like 6 Pokémon total in the game that can learn headbutt by level up and you don’t get the tm until RIGHT BEFORE or IN Goldenrod. This causes another issue because Whitney is weak to fighting but the only fighting types accessible before goldenrod is machop (through trade) or heracross (through headbutt)

Also! Grass types really got shafted in this gen because there're hardly any fights that a grass type would be useful in. The only pokemon is Chuck's Poliwrath

“So these are the last Pokémon games, Gold and Sliver?” “Yes, they are.” “I guess the only ghost type Pokémon are Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, right?” “No, there’s Misdreavus too.” “What? Where can you find it?” “You can only find it on Mount Silver.” “That’s a bit strange for a new ghost type only being found in Kanto after you get all 16 gym badges, but I didn’t find it on Mount Silver.” “It’s only found at night time.” “W-Why?” “And it’s nowhere near as strong as the other ghost types, so it’s not even worth it. Yep, that’s the only new ghost type added! Great idea!”

I feel like with Unown they could've done a wishiwashi type of thing. In the movie it showed how when tons of Unown came together they could do amazing things, and they could've done that with the games.

I thought I was insane for years thinking gen 2 was mega ass

I would say you are 100% correct about gen 2. But I also have more to add to your list and that is the personality of 2 gym leaders, Whitney and Claire. Why is one a crybaby and the other a sore loser? Whitney is arguably hard at the stage she is at and when you do finally beat her she cries and calls you a meanie for beating her. Claire for unkown reasons (or reasons I can't remember) doesn't give you a badge despite you beating her fair and square. As a gym leader you're supposed to test trainers on their skill not beat them everytime.

Wow I learned something new today. I never knew that slugma was gen 2. I always thought he was 3 wtf

This is the hardest part about playing older games. Everytime I start playing through, I start thinking I want to do something different than I usually do, use a different Pokemon from a different route. Then as you start leveling them up, you realize how awfully weak they are compared to your starter or the normal standard Pokemon used in playthroughs and their movesets blow. ROM hacks are definitely the way to go with a lot of these older games because they generally fix a lot of the mundane experiences you have playing through the vanilla games and offer more a unique experience from playthrough to playthrough.

Definitely the biggest insult of the game is the stats for a majority of the gen 2 pokemon (except for baby pokemon as their weak stats actually make sense), and any of the gen 2 pokemon that actually had good stats were mostly only obtainable post game, which is just silly.

This comment section proves that gen 2 fanboys are worse than "genwunners." Pretty funny to see them dismiss any criticism the games rightfully deserves and comment insults lol

Here I am, a year later, still laughing my arse off at the Charizard/Typhlosion line comparison. That shit gets me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Fun fact: You wanna use ampharos in gen2 right, that line isn't even in Crystal AT ALL

I really love the comparisons between the non linear path here in Kanto and the complete open world for Scarlet and Violet. Like they took the opposite path with having a predetermined level for each gym which may or may not be too high and you only know once you get there and lose the battle (or look it up but that defeats the purpose). I really hope they find a clever solution inbetween these two. Whether that be having dialogue between the rival and the player about what level they are and giving statements to say they can take on the gym or creating 8 different teams for each gym leader... Lot more work but then they can have a level flow between them

I started with Gen II and went back to Gen I. Kanto without the Pewter Museum, the Safari Zone, Cerulean Cave, the legendary birds, and the Seafoam Islands cave is...sad and dull. If Kanto was going to be in Gen II, it should've been fully fleshed out like it was in Gen I. Also, why can't elemental stones be purchased? After the sidequest with Bill's grandfather at Cerulean Cape, the department stores in Goldenrod and Celadon should've started selling the stones so as to give you a reason _not_ to trade Pokémon back to Gen I to use stones on them.

“Iconic TRASH” literal LMAO

i think the “nonlinear” problem could’ve been solved by adjusting gym leader levels and maybe adding a pokemon or two to their teams based off the order you fight them

Honestly, you make very solid points, so let me add one more: Gamefreak royally f*cked up with the dark types in gen 2. Literally all of them except Umbreon are locked in post game locations, except for Sneasel if you're playing Crystal, but as you said, Sneasel is screwed in the early gens because its stats are meant for a physical attacker and both of its stab types are special in gen 2. Houndoom has pretty good stats and is one of the better gen 2 pokemon, and what do they do? Make unattainable in Johto. Houndour could've easily been an encounter in the Burned Tower or something, and it would be really good in playthroughs.

The fact that Houndoom and Tyranitar aren’t even accessible til the post game always rubbed me the wrong way. Why are the Pokemon native to Johto, not in fucking Johto?

3:45 "Sunkern, iconic trash!" What an honor that must be. An honor the YT Comments share.

"Everyone has a starter, Ampharos and shiny Gyarados". I played Gold YEARS ago all the way, beat Red and I'm blown away about how accurate that is. I literally only remember those as my roster (And Gyarados took until he said 'go east for red gyarados'). And I suppose Ho-oh in end-game despite already having a fire type.

Gen 2 Johto is equivalent to like a DLC

kanto was literally supposed to be like a single city in the beta of gold and silver, if that doesnt scream rushed idk what does

Just a small nitpick really, but can we talk about Chikorita in Gen 2? Chikorita has a good matchup against Chuck's Poliwrath, and Will's Slowbro. That's it. The entire game, those are the only two notable pokemon Chikorita has a good matchup against. Bruno's Onix if you count it. On the other hand, Chikorita is at a disadvantage against Faulkner, Bugsy, Morty, Clair, literally every pokemon on the Rival's team, some of Pryce and Jasmine's pokemon, all of Team Rocket, Koga, and Lance. I probably forgot something. Who looked at that, and decided it was okay?

This game would've been really good if exp gains were actually decent, you find trainers with level 20s when you have 15 badges.

the gym order problem with open world routes can be SO easily be fixed. Just give every gym leader a set of different Pokemon level. like a set with lvl 10, with lvl 20 and so on. if I choose the 8. Gym for my first badge the Pokemon would be just lower 20's but if it would be my 6. Badge the Pokemon would be in the higher 30s or whatever.

Hot take: Gen 2 is Gen 1 dlc

Gen 2 was growing pains. Gen 3 was where modern Pokemon really started existing and was more or less fully formed in gen 4.

"Ampharos is on everyone's team, great pokemon" except for like 10 year old me who only had crystal version and no trade cable. How is Ampharos not available in Pokemon crystal when it was in both gold version and silver version with nothing anywhere near as good available as a replacement for it. What my 10 year old self did is I ended up buying the Thunder Punch TM and then seeing what pokemon I had that could learn it. I saw that typhlosion could so Typhlosion ended up being my electric type pokemon even though he isn't an electric type...

The charizard typhlosion comparison was genius. I never knew this haha

13:24 they could have done the gym leaders you can beat out of order the way crystal clear(open world gen 2 romhack) does it, by having diffrent teams or even just levels for the gym leaders Pokémon depending on how many badges you have, that way you always get a challenge.

This is why I love Gen 4, the fact that they completed a lot of unfinished evolution lines

The fact that the champion has no Pokémon introduced from the generation ...

I've seen this video multiple times, and I just now came up with an idea to fix the gym leaders, with the focus being on the early game. My idea is to slightly switch up the order of the gym leaders so they are able to use their aces. The order will be 1. Morty 2. Falkner 3. Whitney 4. Bugsy 5. Chuck 6. Jasmine 7. Pryce 8. Clair If we make Morty 1st, then we can give him a Gastly and have Misdreavus be the ace, and the location would make sense as the gym is next to Sprout Tower. If we make Falkner into the 2nd gym leader, then his team could be Hoothoot, Natu, Noctowl, or Hoothoot, Natu, Xatu. Whitney can be 3rd, and since we don't want to make her that much harder, we can give her a Cleffa and Igglybuff to show the players that baby pokemon exist, and do so in a way that makes the battle all that much harder. For Bugsy, his team can be Yanma, Ariados, Scyther, Herracross as the ace. The reason why Herracross goes to Bugsy over Chuck is because it feels more like a Bug type, also I don't wanna give Bugsy a Ledian. If I did give it to Chuck, the team would be Yanma, Ledian, Scyther, Ariados. For Chuck, give him Machoke/Machamp, Poliwrath, Primeape, and Hitmontop as the ace. I'd only give him a Machamp if he didn't get to use Herracross (refer to Bugsy entry). For Jasmine (she is now guaranteed to be the 6th in this example), since she is basically a Steel/Electric gym leader, shes a lot easier. Her team can be Magneton, Forretress, Ampharos, and Scizor and Steelix can be dual aces. From Jasmine onwards I'm basically using SmithPlays Pokemon's ideas, so watch his videos for a more in depth analysis as for the reasoning. Pryce can have Delibird, Sneasel, Jynx, Cloyster/Tentacruel, and Piloswine. Clair can have Dragonair, Gyarados, Aerodactyl, Tyranitar, and Kingdra. Her team is a mix between Lance's FRLG and HGSS teams, and the reason for the similarities to those teams is because, just like in the games, she's supposed to be a weaker Lance. I don't like putting Charizard here because it is a starter, so I put Ttar instead. If you don't mind having both and having a greater difficulty spike, then having both at once can make sense. The reason why I made Morty first is because I wanted Misdreavus to be usable, and the 1st gym is almost always boting. From Gens 1-8, it went Rock, Flying, Rock, Rock, Fire/Water/Grass, Normal, Bug, and Grass, which is pretty boring in my eyes. Since Falkner is too early to have a unique team, I decided it was best to shift everyone around. Like I i said, this is like my 3rd or 4th time seeing this, and I got this idea because of SmithPlays Pokemon (watch his videos, they're really good) also because I thought it would be interesting if the gym order was switched to make the first 4 gym leaders better. Its also like 5 am rn, and I'm tired of typing, I hope this makes sense to whoever reads this long ass comment. Nite

Gen 1 and 3 are miles ahead in every aspect (actual pokemon, world design, story).

TL;DR: (slightly paraphrasing) 1. A significant chunk of the Gen 2 Pokemon are weaker than gen 1, stats-wise. So much so that new Gym Leaders still use primarily Gen 1 Pokemon, not the new ones. 2. A lot of the new Pokemon have weird evolution restrictions. (Friendship, evolution items only available post game) 3. There isn't a lot of "new" Pokemon to get hyped about using in a new game. Everyone defaults to using Ampharos, Gyrados, and their starter because the rest aren't very good. 4. A lot of the wild Pokemon/trainers/gym leaders are underleveled. 5. The game feels unpolished because it was quickly chruned out. (New names are dumb, stats of new starters are copied from Gen 1, possibly because this was supposed to be the "last" Pokemon game) 6. 2nd half is "non-linear" so the 2nd half isn't as challenging. 7. 2nd half story has no impact. No buildup or progression beyond "After the 7th Gym, the bad guys from the first game returned!" 8. The ending to the rocket storyline is a bit of an anti-climax. "We want Giovanni to reappear!" And then he doesn't. 9. Pacing slows everything down (Phone calls, lack of a bike for a long time, lots of "caves" and nothing else) 10. Kanto is there... But nothing feels like it's changed. Wasted potential.

Gen 2 is like the second head attached to weezing

GSC did Johto a massive disservice, cause so much of it relies on gen 1 that the new Pokémon that stand out are either 1% chance encounters or they’re held off until post game. And it sucks because johto itself is such a fun region. The music, the traditional/Shinto inspired towns, Silver’s a rival you love to hate, and it has one of the only gyms in the series that forces the player to actually strategize instead of throwing their overleveled starter at everything (outside of self imposed challenges). Kanto really does bring everything else down fr, Johto deserved so much more.

It baffles me that the Gen 2 dex is overall so horrible and especially that way too many Pokemon there didn't evolve until Gen 4

They could give Unkown a similar ability to wishiwashi as its hidden ability. So it gathers all the Unknown until it goes under 25% HP

Team Rocket's end goal in Gold and Silver was to re-establish team rocket as the power house it was before. I felt like this was really clear. Red defeats team rocket, Gold disrupts their return to power. One of the major themes in Gold and Silver is escaping the shadows of the heroes that came before you. It's why the game cumulates into a final showdown between Gold the current protagonist and Red, the protagonist of yesteryear.

Bruh 99% of gs player's teams are made of 5 gen 1 pokémons and 1 gen 2 pokémon, the starter. Second gen dex is terrible (aside from my boy politoed, the best pokémon ever). Also the whole game is based on just being a sequel to 1st gen games, without being real sequels due to not having a real plot aside from "the bad boys from the first game lost their boss and now they are bad again". The lore around the legendaries is kind ok interesting but it's not really narrated in the games. The themes sounds like remixes of 1st gen soundtrack, except for some good tracks like dark cave. And the whole post game is just a literal copy and paste of the 1st gen games. Man they really fucked up with these games.

13:52 I wish they would do what the devs who modded crystal clear and make an open world pokemon game in which the gym leaders automatically tier based on how many you've defeated. So Bugsy doesn't have to be the second gym leader you battle; he could be the 8th gym leader. If you battle him 8th, instead of having metapod, kakuna, and scyther, he has Butterfree, beedrill, and scizor all at higher levels. This format is the best overall gameplay experience I've ever had with a pokemon game.