While the chat was hotly debating whether "turn-based combat" was a fatal flaw for this game, Cynthia held a different opinion entirely.
She thought carefully: turn-based combat might seem shallow on the surface, but it could have tremendous potential for development.
Actually, "Battle Road's" mechanics were also a form of turn-based system, since it was just the program executing the game's content.
Especially during PvP matches, whenever both players input commands, there was always a long response delay.
Battle Road added voice command functionality, and with the excellent individual AI of the Pokémon, the battles felt more realistic.
So, she was actually somewhat looking forward to this game's upcoming battle performance.
That said, she didn't think this game could provide the same level of trainer understanding improvement that "Battle Road" offered.
Because any Pokémon battle game faced an unavoidable problem: the developers had to have extensive knowledge of every single Pokémon!
From the moves they could learn, their types and abilities, to their base stats, and even each Pokémon's real-world characteristics—everything had to be perfectly recreated to have genuine battle value and meaning.
"Battle Road" barely managed this, but they had a professional team of over a hundred people providing their database behind the scenes.
Even so, Battle Road frequently had various bugs and mix-ups—like Pokémon with wrong abilities, or type errors... like Grass-type Piplup or Flying-type Torkoal.
It wasn't that they were slacking off—it was completely normal. With so many Pokémon to convert into game data, problems were inevitable.
And this game she was playing now was developed by a single individual, which obviously made this an even bigger issue.
Thinking this, Cynthia shook her head slightly and refocused on the game.
As Treecko's Pound connected, Poochyena's HP instantly dropped by half.
Poochyena countered with Tackle, and Treecko took some chip damage.
Treecko's second Pound knocked Poochyena out completely, ending the battle.
Seeing this, the chat erupted in heated discussion again.
[I knew it—turn-based is pretty boring after all.]
[This doesn't look hard at all. Two hits, and the opponent's Pokémon is down. Just pick the highest damage move each turn, and you're good? How is this as difficult as the description claimed?]
[Though I'm surprised, the battle details are pretty well done. The Pokémon have proper animations when using moves, and their sprites stay in motion—not stiff at all.]
[True, the art team really delivered. I think the gameplay team should bow down to the artists.]
They didn't know, like Cynthia did, that this game was developed by one person alone—they assumed it was made by a studio or major company.
After all, looking at the quality in certain areas so far, it definitely didn't seem like something one person could create.
As the battle ended, Cynthia's character returned to the town's research lab with Professor Birch.
As a reward for helping him, Birch gave Treecko to Cynthia as her starter Pokémon.
Her rival, the "Black-Haired Boy," chose Torchic as his starter, and the moment he got the Poké Ball, his competitive streak kicked in hard—he immediately demanded a Pokémon battle with Cynthia.
This battle was just as easy as the previous one. Torchic was even a level lower than Treecko, and Cynthia defeated it with ease.
The rival left, and Professor Birch told her to head north to find him on the upper route, saying he had forgotten to give him something before he ran off. He also handed her five Poké Balls.
Cynthia obediently set off with Treecko.
Before leaving, she opened the player menu to check her Pokémon's status in her bag, getting a sense of how this game differed from others.
With abilities and types fully recreated, Pokémon stats were displayed numerically.
Her Treecko's most outstanding stats were "Speed" and "Special Attack," several points higher than the other stats.
This made Cynthia raise an eyebrow.
She'd expected this game to do poorly at recreating real Pokémon, but the situation before her was surprisingly good.
Though she'd never trained a Sceptile before, she clearly knew that Treecko, being a starter Pokémon, was characterized by high Speed and Special Attack.
Obviously, the game developer had recreated this accurately.
So could she deduce that every Pokémon's data in the game was properly recreated?
As soon as this thought emerged, Cynthia dismissed it—probably not.
Treecko's information was easy to find online and well-known, so getting it right didn't prove much.
Other obscure, uncommon Pokémon would be nearly impossible for the developer to recreate without access to a proper database.
Still, managing this level of accuracy showed the creator put real effort into it.
After checking her Pokémon's info, Cynthia followed the game's guidance northward, passing through a small town to reach the northernmost patch of tall grass.
Along the way, she encountered many wild Pokémon in the grass and battled them all.
The battles were easy, and Treecko's level rose smoothly from the initial 5 to 8, improving its stats while learning a new move: "Quick Attack."
After talking to the "Black-Haired Boy," he claimed his Pokémon was now completely different and demanded another battle.
The chat burst out laughing.
[This guy's pretty nice—he's basically a walking experience pack!]
[It's been like two minutes and he's already rushing back to donate more exp.]
[Good guy living a good life—may all his good deeds be rewarded.]
Amid the chat's cheerful laughter, Cynthia entered the battle.
However, two seconds later, she realized how serious the situation was.
Because her opponent sent out the same Torchic as before.
But... its level was actually one higher than Treecko's, reaching level 9!
Cynthia suddenly had a bad feeling.
Level 8 vs level 9.
Could she actually lose this?
No, that couldn't be right. This was clearly just part of the tutorial quest flow. Level 9 was probably just for show.
This "Black-Haired Boy" she'd named should be like a tutorial guide, just there to teach her some basics.
Thinking this, she had Treecko use "Quick Attack."
Treecko charged forward at high speed, twisted its body, and brought its tail down hard.
Torchic's HP bar dropped by less than a third.
And then...
Torchic opened its mouth and spat out a burst of flame!
—[Torchic used Ember!]
—[It's super effective!]
Treecko's HP bar plummeted like a roller coaster, instantly dropping below half and flashing yellow!
Cynthia had anticipated that with a one-level advantage, Torchic's type-effective move would deal heavy damage to Treecko.
But she hadn't expected one hit to take half of Treecko's health!
At that moment, she remembered passing through that town earlier and entering a blue building—it seemed to be an item shop, and she'd casually bought a Potion that could restore Pokémon health.
She quickly opened her bag and used the Potion on Treecko. Purple mist sprayed out, and Treecko's HP bar instantly filled back up.
But before she could breathe easy, Torchic attacked again, flames shooting from its mouth and instantly knocking Treecko's HP back below half!
At this moment, Cynthia realized that, unlike other games, using healing items also counted as using up her turn!
So now this situation was basically unsolvable?
Whether Treecko used Pound or its newly learned Quick Attack, it could only take down less than 1/3 of Torchic's HP.
But Torchic only needed two Ember attacks to knock Treecko out.
That Potion had only delayed her loss, not solved the fundamental problem!
What now?
It seemed like no matter how she played, she was going to lose.
Faced with this situation, her champion-level battle instincts kicked in, and Cynthia quickly calmed down to think of a way out.
But seconds later, a prompt suddenly appeared on screen.
[Since you didn't give your Pokémon a command in time, your opponent attacked first!]
[Torchic used Ember!]
[It's super effective!!]
Crimson flames erupted, Treecko was hit, the screen shook violently, and its HP bar emptied instantly!
Two Embers, with type advantage, had one-shot Treecko!
[Treecko fainted!]
[You have no more Pokémon left!]
[Strawberry Ice Cream's vision went dark...]
With the prompt appearing, the game screen went black.
Cynthia sat stunned in front of her computer.
Then the screen switched, and her character reappeared in the town's Pokémon Center.
The difference was that the "Money" in the upper right corner had been completely zeroed out.
At this moment, the chat exploded with activity.
[Wait, what? This is really just a tutorial NPC, not some elite enemy??]
[Even with type advantage and being one level higher... getting two-shot is way too extreme!]
[Bro said he wanted to spar, I thought he was here to donate exp, turns out he was here to throw hands for real!!]
[No wonder they made the streamer pick her Pokémon first—they were waiting for this! Deliberately picking a type-effective counter, that's so dirty!]
[Quick, call your invincible Garchomp for help, Cynthia!]
[Wait, guys, that was over 1000 yen! Why does Pokémon battling come with mugging? Did Team Rocket show up?]
As the chat flew by, Cynthia snapped out of her daze.
Now she understood why the description mentioned this game's extreme difficulty.
All the other games she'd played, even Battle Road's PvE mode, had one core principle: "fun."
Players could easily outpower NPCs, especially early on. As the game progressed to the mid and late stages, NPC difficulty would gradually increase, but players could always overcome them.
But this game's NPCs were clearly playing "fair competition" from the tutorial village!
No, it was actually "unfair competition"—with type advantage AND a level advantage, it was just unfair to the player!
And if players took too long thinking during their turn, the game would skip their turn entirely!
All of this could only be described with one word: "hardcore."
But facing this situation, Cynthia didn't feel discouraged at all. Instead, something ignited in her heart, and her interest surged.
As a Champion who'd been through countless trials, she knew clearly that only challenges and difficulties could make someone grow the fastest.
If everything were smooth sailing, neither trainers nor Pokémon could unleash their true power, even if they reached a high level of strength!
At her current level, few challenges could stop her anymore, but this game had given her such an opportunity again!
Taking a soft breath, Cynthia quickly adjusted her mindset and made a decision.
—Since that NPC was one level higher than her, she'd first go train Treecko in the nearby grass and see if it could learn some new moves.
When facing an opponent you can't beat head-on, the best strategy is to get stronger first, then face them again!
With this thought, Cynthia moved her character out of the Pokémon Center and began constantly seeking out wild Pokémon battles in the nearby grass.
Rattata, Poochyena, Pidgey, Wurmple...
She battled every Pokémon that could spawn in the nearby grass.
Ten minutes later, when a Poochyena fell, Treecko finally reached level 12!
A notification popped up:
[Your current Pokémon level has reached the stage limit: 12. You need to reach the next city before further improvement is possible.]
The chat started discussing:
[There's actually a level cap?]
[I think it's reasonable. Otherwise, you could just camp in the tutorial village, grind to level 50-60, become the newbie village demon lord, and steamroll everything. That'd be boring.]
[+1]
[Now at level 12, beating that level 9 Torchic should be no problem, right?]
[I think so. With a 3-level advantage, she should be able to tank at least four Embers, right? Plenty of room to work with.]
[For sure. If she loses this, I'll eat my words!]
Meanwhile, Cynthia had already healed Treecko at the Pokémon Center and returned to the northernmost grass patch, choosing to talk to her rival.
The "Black-Haired Boy" paused, then smiled:
[Huh? Looks like you've made some real progress.]
[But I'm no slouch either—I definitely won't fall behind!]
[Since our eyes met, let's battle!]
At this moment, Cynthia stared at the screen with serious, focused eyes.
Now, Treecko was level 12 and had learned two new moves: "Mega Drain" and "Detect."
This time, she would definitely win!
The stirring battle music played again, and a notification appeared:
[Rival: Black-Haired Boy wants to battle!]
He threw his Poké Ball, white light flashed, and the same Torchic appeared!
Everything seemed exactly like before.
But there was one thing different from the previous situation.
The number in Torchic's level display—
Lv.13!!
Cynthia: ????
Stream viewers: ??????
Wait, bro, when the player levels up, you level up too??
Are you serious??