8:45 There's also that she's clearly an avid breeder, because she has a Roserade with Extrasensory. It takes a double breeding chain to get a Budew with that attack, I remember quite clearly.
Cynthia’s team being on the same list twice sure is a fun turn of events, ain’t it? Could have been three times if you counted her surprise appearance in Gen 5.
I friggin love the Volo & Giratinas boss fight. Genuinely tough, although ultimately a lot of fun. It's even more fun watching peoples' reactions where their victory turns to dread.
I went in with a fun ghost only team because I thought it'd be fun to have a themed team, and I easily beat Volo... only for Giratina Origins to basically one-shot half my party because of super effective ghost stuff. Managed to win in the end first attempt but it was brutal seeing my whole team get wrecked and having to pull out revives and hope to beat him out of his aggressive form. *edit: forgot that he's beefy before aggressive, aggressive was easier because even the bulky form basically one-shot everyone so less defense helped.
Wonderful Video. Here's my thoughts: One, Red was always gonna be on this list. Two, if we wanna talk Legends: Arceus, then do the fights against the Noble Pokemon count? Cause Electrode was a PAIN for me. Three, I agree with your choice of Cynthia.
I'd also like to mention that PLAs different battle mechanics make Volo's 8v6 advantage much harder to deal with than in a more traditional Pokemon game. Mainly, when you KO somthing, he gets a free turn to send something appropriate in and retaliate before you can switch away. This is much worse than even the not-default Set style in traditional pokemon. In Set, your still gonna give him a free hit, but you can switch to soothing that'll take it. No such luck here. You use a ground type to easily get rid of Arcanine, well now Roserade gets to come in and KO it for free. The way his team is built, odds are whenever you get a KO, he'll have something to KO right back. It's especially punishing if you use a slow team (something the game does a bad job of showing you the weakness of since big trainer battles are sparse). It makes it hard to claw back the numbers, and keep your team up to weather the Giratina, even if you know it's coming.
Worth noting that with Greevil you can retry the battle as many times as you like if you miss catching a few shadow Pokemon. Since he's the final boss you can re-do the fight and whatever shadow Pokemon you missed will still be there.
The Volo/Giratina fight was the first Pokémon boss I’ve had to legitimately grind for since maybe the Gamecube spinoffs (which Evice is FUCKED difficult btw, it’s a miracle I ever beat him as a kid) and I think that’s awesome. By himself Volo is decently tough but not anything too terribly scary if you have something that can deal with his Garchomp, but throwing both forms of Giratina after makes you have to strategize even more during the Volo battle to try and keep Pokémon alive that can deal with it which is awesome and I’m so glad that they managed to make a genuinely difficult boss in the age of leveling up your entire party like it’s nothing
Very surprised you didn’t mention the unholy nightmare of Slowking with Skill Swap and Slaking. Other than that though, SUPER solid list. I agree with every placement here.
Special shout out to the Arceus fight in Legends as well. Gives you such little room for error with, like all the other bosses, no way to restore your character's health. I loved all the boss fights and that one was by far the most challenging.
There's also Legends Arceus' namesake. Arceus may be a noble fight, chucking balms, but it kick your butt no matter if it's you or your pokemon, and does so with efficiency.
I'd add the fight with Ghetsis in Black/White as being one of the toughest battles, although not *the* toughest. It comes right on the heels of defeating N so you have no time to prepare for it beyond your team being healed, and your team has likely been chosen to defeat N's. However, his are all different types, since it is also all Pokemon with types chosen to defeat N's final team, and at higher levels. And that Hydreigon is an absolute bitch.
Cynthia when her party is at its strongest is utterly ridiculous and ridiculously OP for a story based battle. I have fully trained EV and IV trained Pokemon and I usually fight the Elite 4 to level up other Pokèmon and this is just borderline stressful fucking annoying. I would expect bullshit like this in those stupid post game battle facilities that are just riddled with FAKE difficulty rather than here.
Imho Cynthia deserves the status she has as one of the most respected and loved challenges and characters in Pokémon. She’s got that fun kind of challenge where her team is well put together and strong but also surprising with some additions that are rare enough that you may not have fought them before. She’s running by the same rules as you are, and she makes for a fun challenge without necessarily bending the rules like Ultra Necrozma does. She’s also got a mature and interesting design that isn’t overstated *ahem Wallace* Some of the pokémon she uses across Diamond/Pearl and Platinum have also become some of my favourites. Garchomp, Spiritomb, Lucario and Milotic.
I've seen Werster(speedrunner) spam Fury Cutter with Croconaw on Whitney's Clefairy to one shot the Miltank in his most recent Pokemon Crystal speedrun.
Exactly if you don't 1 shot Milktank in ANY version where you fight Whitney it can easily 1 shot any pokemon so even after I traded to get the Machop on the Gold/Silver Crystal versions I STILL had Milktank 1 shot it at lv 25 IF if you don't beat Milktank in 1 hit.
Having Nuzlocked Platinum and Black/White Ghestis has always been harder for me. I haven't lost anyone to Cynthia, but I've almost wiped to Ghestis. The buff Sturdy got was the only thing keeping in the fight.
I honestly still think Evice is the hardest battle in the series. it's a double battle where the man's strategy includes baton passing a swords dance to his slaking and then using skill swap on it. for reference, without resisting either move, this means that slaking's crush claw does nearly as much damage as play rough from a zacian-crowned, and with a much more limited dex to find anything to outstrip its base 100 speed+overlevelling or survive that amount of damage. he's also packing 2 different mons with rock slide and a flying type for his earthquakes.
Well done, Will. I like the free-form and discussion. Gives the chance for more variety while keeping a theme. Reminds me of Zeltik, actually. I'm excited to see what you can do with it.
4:13 The funny thing about Red's Pikachu being level 81/88 is that Pikachu still sucks stat-wise (Speed being it only good point) which is the reason why he is the only one that has a held item in the remake, even then the item doesn't do much
in the G/S remake I still barely had 6x lv 65 Pokemon and no where to lv up since on the remake the E4 rematch their pokemon are just at high lved as Red's are so lv 65 pokemon in the Heart Gold/Soul Silver games against the E4 rematch lv 85 to lv 90+ pokemon really won't survive a single attack.
If I am to rank 5 boss fights in mainline Pokemon games based on how hard they are, it's like this: 5. Cynthia - Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (It's because her Pokemon have held items) 4. Arceus - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl/Legends: Arceus (I can't tell which of these games had the hardest Arceus fight) 3. Mewtwo - Pokemon Let's Pikachu/Eevee (I had a hard time with this in my playthrough) 2. Ultra Necrozma - Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (All of it's rise at the start which will wipe you out if you're not prepared. It took me two attempts) 1. Volo (Post game) - Pokemon Legends: Arceus (You don't get to heal your Pokemon between phases. What also makes this fight harder is the game's battle system. Giratina's signature move, Shadow Force gives it evasion which can screw you over. I beat this on my first try because I had to overlevel.)
fun fact; if you use action replay to steal Cynthia's Pokémon, you can see 1st hand that they all have perfect EV and IV just for the extra challenge. and that was back in gen 4
I hope this becomes a trend, RabbidLuigi, in not using the “Top 5” titles anymore. RUclips has evolved since 2016, and Top 5 and 10s don’t incite interest nearly as much as more vague titles do, with how more broad they are in comparison.
The Gen 7 games were significantly harder than X/Y and OR/AS, even outside of Necrozma. There were multiple totems that kicked my ass. What is he talking about??
We need all Pokemon champions ranked from easiest to hardest as a countdown. If you wanna make it extra interesting, a tier list that classifies each champion's title defenses (ex: Cynthia DP, Platinum, Platinum rematch, BDSP, BDSP rematch)
ESRB ratings aren't so much about what age a game is for as whether or not it contains depictions of sex or violence that could be deemed objectionable to show to children. Ocarina of Time had an instance of red blood that had to be changed to green to avoid a Teen rating. It's entirely possible to make a game not really aimed at children that would end up with an E or T rating for lack of anything that would make it an M.
I feel kinda bad that the Volo fight was easy for me. I came in with a lvl 100 Typloshion, lvl 100 Alpha Lopunny, lvl 70 Alpha Gallade, and a lvl 56 shiny Gardevoir. All fully grited out with beneficial natures. I beat Volo's whole team with just Typloshion, it fainted to Giratina, and then I used Lopunny to finish both forms. Story wise it was a great twist and the form change was magnificent. Gameplay wise it was just another battle I wasn't worried about losing at all. And I feel like I missed something because of it? Like I read all these comments on how overwhelmed everyone was, and how many times they had to retry, and I don't get to experience that. Suffering from success I guess.
I mean, you literally went in with multiple Alpha Pokemon and multiple Pokemon at level 100. That's not a casual playthrough, that's devoting hours and hours to grinding so as to make any and all battles immediate victories. Like, I feel you probably could have tried the fight with your Typhlosion and Lopunny at level 80, and it would have been a little harder for you.
@@onijester56 Oh no, I understand *why* it was so easy. I was saying I regret the grinding. I didn't expect the game to have a battle like this, so I thought over leveling wouldn't change my experience that much. Shows what I know.
Cynthia is the reason why Torterra is my favorite starter of all time. He just tanks Garchomp so much that I can heal-stall until I can get two earthquakes in to kill Garchomp.
I like Legends Arceus's take on the Exp. Share. All your pokemon in your team will get Exp, only if they haven't fainted and only after a battle. And since you can't switch after defeating a Pokemon, it gets a little brutal sometimes
So, it's been a long, long time, but I always love seeing you use the footage from your old let's plays, particularly when it comes to Pokémon. Always puts a smile on my face to see Walnut or Biggles or Riptide pop up in one of your videos.
I've played Pokemon since the 90s. Some of the hardest pokemon fights for me have been: 1. the original Champion Lance (was underleveled, and no counters for the D-nites basically), 2. the original Whitney (Miltank stab stomp flinches or rollouts, couldn't counter it then and it seemingly always hit), 3. Red in G/S (a very high leveled and versatile team), 4. original first Commander Mars (an underleveled Purugly, knew fake out, very hard to take down), 5. D/P a random Gyarados trainer in the rain on route 212 - for some reason I remember it being Milotic though?, 6. Cynthia in both D/P and Platinum, 7. Guzma's Masquerain, good coverage, speed and high spA, takes you by surprise in an otherwise very easy game, 8. US/UM Ultra Necrozma. Haven't played gen 5 so the infamous N fight etc. aren't familiar to me. Maybe the games have become easier, but it's also a bit harder to counter stuff like Whitney's Miltank when you're 11, barely know the language of the games, and don't know it's there, than it is when you're over 30 and already know about it. :P
So no mention of the slacking + Skill Swap Slowking combo in the final boss of Colosseum? That was the fucking nastiest combo of my childhood removing Slacking's hindering ability and just wrecking my team.
Ah, Cynthia. So when I was a kid and believed everything on the internet, I fell for someone's prank (something about mew, I think) that something special would happen if you beat elite four + champion 50 times. I had trained a Garchomp that could take them all out with one single heal after the forth fight, but every fight takes 20 minutes. I at least think it did? So I spent the better part of a summer doing that. The last special thing that happens, in Platinum only, is at 25 wins and that is the last piece of furniture for your house. Goes without saying, I had everything possible to that house. So then I bought Brilliant Diamond and overleveled a Garchomp and went up against Cynthia again. The rest of my party was a bit lower in level, but that mattered less. Still managed to defeat her first try due to my speed-focused garchomp, but that was just barely... We need more battles like Cynthia in the games. I would love for a code to input that you could access on the Nintendo website, that just makes the game a lot harder. Since it is on the website, there's less risk of a young child getting their experience ruined and even less so if it has to be entered when you start a new game and EVEN LESS SO if you have to do it every time you start a new game. But apparently we needed more hand-holding, so we got Sun and Moon... Glad the last two games didn't have that and they were great!
@@Robbie_Haruna I totally forgot about those games; I didn't like what I was hearing about them and decided to not be a cheep for once and didn't buy the game. So I tend to forget that Sword/Shield and the Let's Go games exist :P
The Volo/Giratina fight was frustrating for me until I raised a TANK of an Alpha Goodra. My girl was taking blows and dishing them out until I switched her in for Typhlosion and finished that fight in style.
Pokemon Stadium has some fights that are absolutely brutal if you don't import your cartridge teams. Here's what some of the R2 fights have: Prime Cup finals has a Mew that he's guaranteed to choose and a Tauros with a straight up competitive moveset (Body Slam, Earthquake, gen1 Blizzard). Petit Cup has an Abra that's basically unkillable before it kills you first. There are also multiple Dragon Rage users in the tournament that are extremely powerful since everything is only level 25. Pika Cup is a format where your rentals are all level 15, and the opponents have multiple Dragon Rage users. Pika Cup semifinals has a level 20 Gyarados that SURVIVES THE RENTAL RAICHU'S THUNDER, also it's a speed tie and it OHKOs you in return with Double Edge. The alternative is a level 20 Arcanine with Dragon Rage. Pika Cup R2 finals is the real nasty one though, almost certainly the hardest fight the series has ever seen. He has a level 20 Alakazam with over a 50% chance to 2HKO the rental Chansey and just flattens everything else, the only way to win is to either freeze it (you'll probably only have 1 opportunity to try, if even that) or hope the opponent doesn't choose it. And then instead you'll fight a level 20 Dragonair with Dragon Rage and gen1 Wrap. And if you lose and run out of continues, you need to start from the beginning of Pika Cup, and even reaching the finals is already extremely difficult.
Jinx (and Mr. Popo) was never problematic, they didn't have that stereotype of black people in Japan. It was us forcing our culture and its baggages onto them that forced it to be "problematic".
Absolutely loved hearing the Colosseum music, and I kinda knew exactly where it was going. Greevil is a fucking brutal fight, and the top notch music in those games makes it so satisfying to beat him
My god the Volo fight kept me on the edge of my seat. I made it through Volo himself *relatively* unscathed, and then Giratina kinda fucked me up but I won, AND THEN HE CAME BACK FOR MORE and all I had left were three Pokemon at very low health. I remember thinking "oh shit I'm so screwed." SOMEHOW I scraped by thanks to my Togekiss, but he was my last Pokemon, and he was in the red. I have no idea how I won that fight, but man, that was so much fun. Still sad about Volo being a bad guy though. I liked him a lot.
So uh Rabbid you mind explaining why the footage show someone bring a LUMINEON to the Elite 4? Anyone who has played a pokemon game knows that Lumineon is one of the worst water types in the franchise. Unless you have some godlike build and S-tier luck, that thing shouldn't be anywhere near the E4 much less Cynthia.
Now look what you've done. Whitney is crying because she wasn't on this list. Her Miltank has two attacks that can inflict status ailments, one that heals it up, and once Rollout gets going to full power, it's as powerful as Hyper Beam.
If I had to describe the Volo fight in one sentence is would be: A champion-level trainer followed by fighting Ultra Necrozma... twice (minus being overleveled and not being able to be cheesed by Zoroark).
The perfect description. They stacked a double Ultra Necrozma on top of Cynthia, all wrapped up in Legends very unbalanced battle mechanics that means most battles end up becoming a mess of trading KOs since you can't switch away after KOing something before you get hit (possibly twice). 8v6 already gives some sense of how this battle is stacked against you, but PLAs mechanics make it very difficult to claw back those numbers, requiring heavy use of grit, high levels, and carefully planning what you have on the field at any given moment.
Could've mentioned that the Elite Four have *two* bonus rounds in BD/SP and Cynthia's Garchomp on the third encounter ties Red's Pikachu from HG/SS for highest level trainer Pokémon in the series.
On the spoiler subject for Legends: Shout out to the fight against Volo’s theme, it’s a remix of Cynthia’s champion theme with several motifs reworked, and the main leitmotif shifted into a minor key on piano. It ties the whole fight together between the past and future with a fresh texture that makes the piece shine. In addition going back and playing the game after watching my spouse beat it, Volo’s reveal is an amazing ‘hiding in plain sight’ vibe. Even his name gives the game away when you realize it’s Latin for ‘I want’ and what he wants kicks off the whole plot. On the subject of Ultra Necrozma, I went in blind and ended up having to Toxic Stall for the first time in the single player. And one final not so much challenging fight on its own, but more a curious little wrinkle: Gyms/E4 who have a super effective type when doing a monotype run. I’m doing my second Dragon-only run (first in Shield and now in X) and getting through Opal came down to luck and my deliberately unevolved Trapinch. I’m almost to Valerie, and living in eternal fear of Diantha and her Gardevoir.
9:00 I find it funny that people were telling me how brutal Cynthia was in the remakes, and while Gastrodon and Garchomp gave me trouble, the rest of her team fell pretty quickly. I am happy that I can genuinely say that I beat Cynthia on my first attempt. Thank you Mew and Empoleon. You were the biggest helpers.
@@Shantae1188 I was lucky as well. Garchomp didn’t even use Swords Dance. Milotic was the worst because Milotic is always a problem for me. The battle ended between my Charizard and Garchomp.
10:19 I grinded exp by rematching two trainers around the center of Pyrite town. It's tedious, but effective. 11:54 I feel like I know what's coming up next, with that being said. When I think about it, maybe we got that difficulty increase because of how much everyone were asking for that. If Gamefreak is actually listening to the players' feedback, we can expect a good gen 9 game, this year.
Some people say he was hard and that wasn’t my experience. His ai was bad. Mantine happened to be my lead against his spiritomb. I took half its health with an air slash. And he swaps to Arcanine. Which gets one shot by a water pulse and then he sends in his Rosersade. Which, spoiler, didn’t take an air slash well. Our levels were pretty equal but him giving me 2 and half Pokémon for free made that fight way to easy. It was definitely the worst decision making I’ve seen a Pokémon AI ever make.
@@ForgedCalamity I actually just fought him, he wasn’t that hard. But then again my lowest level Pokémon was 82 so I was probably way overleveled. The Pokemon I used were Typloshion, Dialga, Palkia, Manaphy, Shaymin, and Darkrai. I only lost Typloshion by the time he brought out Giratina. By the time I beat Giratina, I also lost Dialga and Darkrai. Overall Volo was definitely not has hard as I anticipated, though others may have a different experience.
@@EldritchErik94 My team consisted of Mantine, Scizor, Steelix, Leafeon, Togekiss and Cyndaquil. Togekiss and Cyndaquil we're my strongest mons at Lv 68. Had to go back and check.
Before watching the video I’ll list some of the battles that are considered pretty hard (main game only and no battle tower/frontier/mansion/etc) -Cynthia battle (especially BDSP second rematch) -ultra necrozma -volo (legend arceus) -Whitney (specifically miltank) -red (HGSS)
Haven't watched the video, but I have a vote for hardest battle which I'm CERTAIN won't be in the video: Any random trainer in a battle facility when you start to feel good about your win streak. Impossible to defeat.
I legit had absolutely no trouble with Volo and i don't get why so many people did. This game pretty much lets your whole team reach level 80 before the credits roll with no issue whatsoever.
I would like to add the mewtwo that comes out of nowhere from lets go pikachu and eevee and the trainers that need you to have a well trained pokemon from the same games to this list XD
I had 5 pokemon left once I got to Cynthia's Garchomp I then got it down to what must've been 1 hp with 4 pokemon left Then she healed and within 4 turns my team was destroyed This is what happens when only 1 of your team members isn't weak to ground And that one team member was weak to dragon so I was fucked
Ultra Necrozma to me was GameFreak's way of acknowledging people who try to do blind Nuzlockes. USUM got a lot of narrative issues, but I still remember having to effectively rework my entire team to beat that thing.
For the BDSP Elite Four, try doing it on Set Mode with a level cap, no items in battle except held items, and restarting gauntlet if any of your pokemon faint.
Hey mate, here's an idea for a video you could do. I'm not sure how feasible it would be, but it might be a fun one to look into: *Top 5/10 Games and/or Franchise Evolved by Fans* In other words, games or franchises that the fanbases for have turned into something more than what it originally was. Or heck, even did a complete 180 on what the original was to do their own thing with it. Did that make any sense?
My view on the subject is that the thing that makes Pokemon "challenging" is lack of information, not knowing what's coming up next, and not having a proper answer for it. Depending on how your party looks, you might have a better or worse time with some fights than other people. Like with Brock, his Pokemon resist almost everything that's available to the player, unless you picked Bulbasaur or Squirtle, or caught a Machop in Yellow, in which case he loses nearly all challenge.
8:45 There's also that she's clearly an avid breeder, because she has a Roserade with Extrasensory.
It takes a double breeding chain to get a Budew with that attack, I remember quite clearly.
Very similar to how chansey gets ahold of seismic toss.
...I'm imagining Cynthia now with a blissey, and that's horrifying
She gives you a Togepi egg in Platinum, so not surprising.
Cynthia’s team being on the same list twice sure is a fun turn of events, ain’t it?
Could have been three times if you counted her surprise appearance in Gen 5.
Legend's story is pretty funny when you realize it all happened due to one-person simping over Arceus.
Maybe volo has been holding a grudge over the fact it took his long to get the azure flute event in pokemon
Pretty much
I friggin love the Volo & Giratinas boss fight. Genuinely tough, although ultimately a lot of fun. It's even more fun watching peoples' reactions where their victory turns to dread.
I went in with a fun ghost only team because I thought it'd be fun to have a themed team, and I easily beat Volo... only for Giratina Origins to basically one-shot half my party because of super effective ghost stuff. Managed to win in the end first attempt but it was brutal seeing my whole team get wrecked and having to pull out revives and hope to beat him out of his aggressive form. *edit: forgot that he's beefy before aggressive, aggressive was easier because even the bulky form basically one-shot everyone so less defense helped.
tough?
@@timewarriorsaga Compared to a Nioh boss or Nyx in P3FES, no. But compared to any other battle in the Pokemon series since generation 3, yes.
I lost to volo like 5 times then to giratina 5 more times
Wonderful Video. Here's my thoughts: One, Red was always gonna be on this list. Two, if we wanna talk Legends: Arceus, then do the fights against the Noble Pokemon count? Cause Electrode was a PAIN for me. Three, I agree with your choice of Cynthia.
I'd also like to mention that PLAs different battle mechanics make Volo's 8v6 advantage much harder to deal with than in a more traditional Pokemon game. Mainly, when you KO somthing, he gets a free turn to send something appropriate in and retaliate before you can switch away. This is much worse than even the not-default Set style in traditional pokemon. In Set, your still gonna give him a free hit, but you can switch to soothing that'll take it. No such luck here. You use a ground type to easily get rid of Arcanine, well now Roserade gets to come in and KO it for free. The way his team is built, odds are whenever you get a KO, he'll have something to KO right back. It's especially punishing if you use a slow team (something the game does a bad job of showing you the weakness of since big trainer battles are sparse). It makes it hard to claw back the numbers, and keep your team up to weather the Giratina, even if you know it's coming.
*hears two pianos playing*
ARE YOU SURE THIS IS SAFE?
Worth noting that with Greevil you can retry the battle as many times as you like if you miss catching a few shadow Pokemon. Since he's the final boss you can re-do the fight and whatever shadow Pokemon you missed will still be there.
Volo on the other hand, not only do you have 3 battles to worry about, but if you slip up at any point, you have to do all 3 battles over again.
That still doesn’t make the initial battle any easier.
The Volo/Giratina fight was the first Pokémon boss I’ve had to legitimately grind for since maybe the Gamecube spinoffs (which Evice is FUCKED difficult btw, it’s a miracle I ever beat him as a kid) and I think that’s awesome. By himself Volo is decently tough but not anything too terribly scary if you have something that can deal with his Garchomp, but throwing both forms of Giratina after makes you have to strategize even more during the Volo battle to try and keep Pokémon alive that can deal with it which is awesome and I’m so glad that they managed to make a genuinely difficult boss in the age of leveling up your entire party like it’s nothing
Very surprised you didn’t mention the unholy nightmare of Slowking with Skill Swap and Slaking. Other than that though, SUPER solid list. I agree with every placement here.
RabbidLuigi: "I have a four year old back home-"
Me: *Idiot* "Wait, since when?! ...well, since around four years ago, I guess."
Yeah first time I heard he had a kid. I guess he probably brought it up a while ago but this kind of thing rarely has a reason to come up.
Special shout out to the Arceus fight in Legends as well. Gives you such little room for error with, like all the other bosses, no way to restore your character's health. I loved all the boss fights and that one was by far the most challenging.
There's also Legends Arceus' namesake. Arceus may be a noble fight, chucking balms, but it kick your butt no matter if it's you or your pokemon, and does so with efficiency.
Amount of retries I had to do against it during the dodging phases
It was quite fun with my heavily drifting joycons. Thankfully using continues in the fight doesn't heal it to full.
Man I haven’t seen one of your videos in years. I LOVED your Top 10s back in the day
I'd add the fight with Ghetsis in Black/White as being one of the toughest battles, although not *the* toughest. It comes right on the heels of defeating N so you have no time to prepare for it beyond your team being healed, and your team has likely been chosen to defeat N's. However, his are all different types, since it is also all Pokemon with types chosen to defeat N's final team, and at higher levels. And that Hydreigon is an absolute bitch.
Cynthia when her party is at its strongest is utterly ridiculous and ridiculously OP for a story based battle. I have fully trained EV and IV trained Pokemon and I usually fight the Elite 4 to level up other Pokèmon and this is just borderline stressful fucking annoying. I would expect bullshit like this in those stupid post game battle facilities that are just riddled with FAKE difficulty rather than here.
I feel like Rabbid made this video SOLELY because of Volo and his battle, and the subsequent discussions they sparked in the community.
The Volo fight had me trembling and grinning ear to ear at the same time as soon as the theme kicks in, such a iconic battle theme
The funny thing about the ultra necrozma fight is that I one shotted it with a lv 47 zoroark
Everyone when USUM came out: "Oh my gosh Ultra Necrozma is so hard noooooooooooooooooooo!"
Me with Primarina: "hee hee special tank go brrrrrr."
It was still tricky. I had to rely on my Toucannon and Jolteon until I was able to bring her back. For the record, I got lucky on the type guess.
Imho Cynthia deserves the status she has as one of the most respected and loved challenges and characters in Pokémon.
She’s got that fun kind of challenge where her team is well put together and strong but also surprising with some additions that are rare enough that you may not have fought them before.
She’s running by the same rules as you are, and she makes for a fun challenge
without necessarily bending the rules like Ultra Necrozma does.
She’s also got a mature and interesting design that isn’t overstated *ahem Wallace*
Some of the pokémon she uses across Diamond/Pearl and Platinum have also become some of my favourites.
Garchomp, Spiritomb, Lucario and Milotic.
There is one memorable fight:
Miror B.
Two ludicolo with water dish and rain dance. The fight is not hard to win but it drains your will to fight
I was going to be so mad if you didn't bring up Volo, that fight is absolutely incredible for a character I find to be incredibly fascinating.
Whitney's milktank definitely comes to mind. Then again that fight is bs in general with how hard it really is.
And wow I'm surprised there's no Whitney and her milktank. Then again no gym leader difficult fight at all.
Honestly, that fight gives me no trouble...after I've traded for the Machop.
I've seen Werster(speedrunner) spam Fury Cutter with Croconaw on Whitney's Clefairy to one shot the Miltank in his most recent Pokemon Crystal speedrun.
Exactly if you don't 1 shot Milktank in ANY version where you fight Whitney it can easily 1 shot any pokemon so even after I traded to get the Machop on the Gold/Silver Crystal versions I STILL had Milktank 1 shot it at lv 25 IF if you don't beat Milktank in 1 hit.
I think speeder said Clare from Pokémon heart gold and soulsilver is difficult
Pianos are a scary instrument in pokemon
I'm surprised Ghestis from the original u nova games wasn't on here. I was stuck on that fight for a month
Having Nuzlocked Platinum and Black/White Ghestis has always been harder for me. I haven't lost anyone to Cynthia, but I've almost wiped to Ghestis. The buff Sturdy got was the only thing keeping in the fight.
I honestly still think Evice is the hardest battle in the series. it's a double battle where the man's strategy includes baton passing a swords dance to his slaking and then using skill swap on it. for reference, without resisting either move, this means that slaking's crush claw does nearly as much damage as play rough from a zacian-crowned, and with a much more limited dex to find anything to outstrip its base 100 speed+overlevelling or survive that amount of damage. he's also packing 2 different mons with rock slide and a flying type for his earthquakes.
Not to mention his Dragon Dance Salamence or his Machamp that already feels way more tanky than it should be even BEFORE it starts using Bulk Up.
Well done, Will. I like the free-form and discussion. Gives the chance for more variety while keeping a theme. Reminds me of Zeltik, actually. I'm excited to see what you can do with it.
Love the new writing/editing style!
4:13 The funny thing about Red's Pikachu being level 81/88 is that Pikachu still sucks stat-wise (Speed being it only good point) which is the reason why he is the only one that has a held item in the remake, even then the item doesn't do much
in the G/S remake I still barely had 6x lv 65 Pokemon and no where to lv up since on the remake the E4 rematch their pokemon are just at high lved as Red's are so lv 65 pokemon in the Heart Gold/Soul Silver games against the E4 rematch lv 85 to lv 90+ pokemon really won't survive a single attack.
Light Ball pikachu is broken I use him in vgc
A Rabbid Luigi video not sponsored by Keeps? What world am I living in?
I love the Pokemon Colosseum games SO much, glad to know someone else remembers them haha
If I am to rank 5 boss fights in mainline Pokemon games based on how hard they are, it's like this:
5. Cynthia - Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (It's because her Pokemon have held items)
4. Arceus - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl/Legends: Arceus (I can't tell which of these games had the hardest Arceus fight)
3. Mewtwo - Pokemon Let's Pikachu/Eevee (I had a hard time with this in my playthrough)
2. Ultra Necrozma - Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (All of it's rise at the start which will wipe you out if you're not prepared. It took me two attempts)
1. Volo (Post game) - Pokemon Legends: Arceus (You don't get to heal your Pokemon between phases. What also makes this fight harder is the game's battle system. Giratina's signature move, Shadow Force gives it evasion which can screw you over. I beat this on my first try because I had to overlevel.)
fun fact; if you use action replay to steal Cynthia's Pokémon, you can see 1st hand that they all have perfect EV and IV just for the extra challenge. and that was back in gen 4
Even the Garchomp?
I hope this becomes a trend, RabbidLuigi, in not using the “Top 5” titles anymore. RUclips has evolved since 2016, and Top 5 and 10s don’t incite interest nearly as much as more vague titles do, with how more broad they are in comparison.
Fingers crossed
Did Will just gloss over he’s been a father for 4 years and we never knew of it?
The Gen 7 games were significantly harder than X/Y and OR/AS, even outside of Necrozma. There were multiple totems that kicked my ass. What is he talking about??
Cynthis is
We need all Pokemon champions ranked from easiest to hardest as a countdown. If you wanna make it extra interesting, a tier list that classifies each champion's title defenses (ex: Cynthia DP, Platinum, Platinum rematch, BDSP, BDSP rematch)
There was also a secret rematch with her post-game in certain seasons in BW. I was never able to defeat her.
@@ebagentj That's NOT a champion match, it wouldn't even remotely count.
@@SupremeMarioGamer You didn't specify it had to be only her appearances as champion.
@@ebagentj now I have, thanks
I'm really glad Ultra Necrozma featured here. It's definitely one of my favorite battles in the franchise.
Genuinely shocked that you didn't mention Cynthia's jumpscare of a surprise appearance she makes in Gen 5. Missed opportunity there
ESRB ratings aren't so much about what age a game is for as whether or not it contains depictions of sex or violence that could be deemed objectionable to show to children. Ocarina of Time had an instance of red blood that had to be changed to green to avoid a Teen rating. It's entirely possible to make a game not really aimed at children that would end up with an E or T rating for lack of anything that would make it an M.
Evice's Slaking evolves children to scarred adults, that thing and Cynthia's Garchomp probably go on vacations together.
I feel kinda bad that the Volo fight was easy for me. I came in with a lvl 100 Typloshion, lvl 100 Alpha Lopunny, lvl 70 Alpha Gallade, and a lvl 56 shiny Gardevoir. All fully grited out with beneficial natures.
I beat Volo's whole team with just Typloshion, it fainted to Giratina, and then I used Lopunny to finish both forms. Story wise it was a great twist and the form change was magnificent. Gameplay wise it was just another battle I wasn't worried about losing at all.
And I feel like I missed something because of it? Like I read all these comments on how overwhelmed everyone was, and how many times they had to retry, and I don't get to experience that. Suffering from success I guess.
I mean, you literally went in with multiple Alpha Pokemon and multiple Pokemon at level 100. That's not a casual playthrough, that's devoting hours and hours to grinding so as to make any and all battles immediate victories.
Like, I feel you probably could have tried the fight with your Typhlosion and Lopunny at level 80, and it would have been a little harder for you.
@@onijester56
Oh no, I understand *why* it was so easy. I was saying I regret the grinding. I didn't expect the game to have a battle like this, so I thought over leveling wouldn't change my experience that much. Shows what I know.
Cynthia is the reason why Torterra is my favorite starter of all time. He just tanks Garchomp so much that I can heal-stall until I can get two earthquakes in to kill Garchomp.
"It's time to check the time" would be a better final sponsor bit
I like Legends Arceus's take on the Exp. Share.
All your pokemon in your team will get Exp, only if they haven't fainted and only after a battle. And since you can't switch after defeating a Pokemon, it gets a little brutal sometimes
I like the new format! Here's hoping your subs keep going up! You are my favorite "ranking" RUclipsr, you deserve all the praise!
"Cynthia is a hard fight", me beating here with my only remaining Pokémon during my nuzlock series after losing the other 5 to Beartha earlier.
@@BJGvideos Stig the Drapion
@@BJGvideos I can post a link to the vid if your interested
@@IRISHANDROID95 ok woman hater leon red simp. BDSP cynthia and volo are the strongest
I think you forgot to talk about Team Rainbow Rocket Giovanni. He should be at least notable because he has a Mega Mewtwo.
cynthia has no chill.
So, it's been a long, long time, but I always love seeing you use the footage from your old let's plays, particularly when it comes to Pokémon. Always puts a smile on my face to see Walnut or Biggles or Riptide pop up in one of your videos.
Man, I haven’t watched a Rabbidluigi video since the top 9 TF2 and the Video Game Easter Egg days. It’s good to be home 💕
"Cynthia became the gold standard for Champions."
Gamefreak: Yeah, we're not going to touch on this that much in the future.
I've played Pokemon since the 90s. Some of the hardest pokemon fights for me have been: 1. the original Champion Lance (was underleveled, and no counters for the D-nites basically), 2. the original Whitney (Miltank stab stomp flinches or rollouts, couldn't counter it then and it seemingly always hit), 3. Red in G/S (a very high leveled and versatile team), 4. original first Commander Mars (an underleveled Purugly, knew fake out, very hard to take down), 5. D/P a random Gyarados trainer in the rain on route 212 - for some reason I remember it being Milotic though?, 6. Cynthia in both D/P and Platinum, 7. Guzma's Masquerain, good coverage, speed and high spA, takes you by surprise in an otherwise very easy game, 8. US/UM Ultra Necrozma. Haven't played gen 5 so the infamous N fight etc. aren't familiar to me. Maybe the games have become easier, but it's also a bit harder to counter stuff like Whitney's Miltank when you're 11, barely know the language of the games, and don't know it's there, than it is when you're over 30 and already know about it. :P
So no mention of the slacking + Skill Swap Slowking combo in the final boss of Colosseum? That was the fucking nastiest combo of my childhood removing Slacking's hindering ability and just wrecking my team.
Ah, Cynthia. So when I was a kid and believed everything on the internet, I fell for someone's prank (something about mew, I think) that something special would happen if you beat elite four + champion 50 times. I had trained a Garchomp that could take them all out with one single heal after the forth fight, but every fight takes 20 minutes. I at least think it did? So I spent the better part of a summer doing that. The last special thing that happens, in Platinum only, is at 25 wins and that is the last piece of furniture for your house. Goes without saying, I had everything possible to that house.
So then I bought Brilliant Diamond and overleveled a Garchomp and went up against Cynthia again. The rest of my party was a bit lower in level, but that mattered less. Still managed to defeat her first try due to my speed-focused garchomp, but that was just barely...
We need more battles like Cynthia in the games. I would love for a code to input that you could access on the Nintendo website, that just makes the game a lot harder. Since it is on the website, there's less risk of a young child getting their experience ruined and even less so if it has to be entered when you start a new game and EVEN LESS SO if you have to do it every time you start a new game.
But apparently we needed more hand-holding, so we got Sun and Moon... Glad the last two games didn't have that and they were great!
The last two games?
I mean Sword and Shield had just as much handholding as Sun and Moon, just with less story thrown at you.
@@Robbie_Haruna I totally forgot about those games; I didn't like what I was hearing about them and decided to not be a cheep for once and didn't buy the game. So I tend to forget that Sword/Shield and the Let's Go games exist :P
The Volo/Giratina fight was frustrating for me until I raised a TANK of an Alpha Goodra. My girl was taking blows and dishing them out until I switched her in for Typhlosion and finished that fight in style.
Pokemon Stadium has some fights that are absolutely brutal if you don't import your cartridge teams. Here's what some of the R2 fights have:
Prime Cup finals has a Mew that he's guaranteed to choose and a Tauros with a straight up competitive moveset (Body Slam, Earthquake, gen1 Blizzard).
Petit Cup has an Abra that's basically unkillable before it kills you first. There are also multiple Dragon Rage users in the tournament that are extremely powerful since everything is only level 25.
Pika Cup is a format where your rentals are all level 15, and the opponents have multiple Dragon Rage users.
Pika Cup semifinals has a level 20 Gyarados that SURVIVES THE RENTAL RAICHU'S THUNDER, also it's a speed tie and it OHKOs you in return with Double Edge. The alternative is a level 20 Arcanine with Dragon Rage.
Pika Cup R2 finals is the real nasty one though, almost certainly the hardest fight the series has ever seen. He has a level 20 Alakazam with over a 50% chance to 2HKO the rental Chansey and just flattens everything else, the only way to win is to either freeze it (you'll probably only have 1 opportunity to try, if even that) or hope the opponent doesn't choose it. And then instead you'll fight a level 20 Dragonair with Dragon Rage and gen1 Wrap. And if you lose and run out of continues, you need to start from the beginning of Pika Cup, and even reaching the finals is already extremely difficult.
Jinx (and Mr. Popo) was never problematic, they didn't have that stereotype of black people in Japan. It was us forcing our culture and its baggages onto them that forced it to be "problematic".
Don't underestimate a child's ability to persevere
This is just the main stream games. There are probably harder battles in the spin offs
Part of me was hoping to see Mewtwo on Super Hard mode in Pokemon Puzzle League.
Red, Steven (in Emerald), the fifth post-game rival rematch, the fifth post-game gym leader rematch, Whitney.
I'll never forget the shock of ultra necrozma sweeping me after a steady steam roll through the game
I love this new style. 10/10
Absolutely loved hearing the Colosseum music, and I kinda knew exactly where it was going. Greevil is a fucking brutal fight, and the top notch music in those games makes it so satisfying to beat him
My god the Volo fight kept me on the edge of my seat. I made it through Volo himself *relatively* unscathed, and then Giratina kinda fucked me up but I won, AND THEN HE CAME BACK FOR MORE and all I had left were three Pokemon at very low health. I remember thinking "oh shit I'm so screwed." SOMEHOW I scraped by thanks to my Togekiss, but he was my last Pokemon, and he was in the red. I have no idea how I won that fight, but man, that was so much fun.
Still sad about Volo being a bad guy though. I liked him a lot.
Ultra Necrozma was a lesson from Gamefreak saying shut up about difficulty
I beat Ultra Necrozma by sending Magnezone and copying its buffs with Psych Up. 🙃
So uh Rabbid you mind explaining why the footage show someone bring a LUMINEON to the Elite 4? Anyone who has played a pokemon game knows that Lumineon is one of the worst water types in the franchise. Unless you have some godlike build and S-tier luck, that thing shouldn't be anywhere near the E4 much less Cynthia.
I literally make the same joke in my head regarding that Giratina fakeout whenever it pops up.
Now look what you've done. Whitney is crying because she wasn't on this list. Her Miltank has two attacks that can inflict status ailments, one that heals it up, and once Rollout gets going to full power, it's as powerful as Hyper Beam.
If I had to describe the Volo fight in one sentence is would be:
A champion-level trainer followed by fighting Ultra Necrozma... twice (minus being overleveled and not being able to be cheesed by Zoroark).
The perfect description. They stacked a double Ultra Necrozma on top of Cynthia, all wrapped up in Legends very unbalanced battle mechanics that means most battles end up becoming a mess of trading KOs since you can't switch away after KOing something before you get hit (possibly twice). 8v6 already gives some sense of how this battle is stacked against you, but PLAs mechanics make it very difficult to claw back those numbers, requiring heavy use of grit, high levels, and carefully planning what you have on the field at any given moment.
Ultra Necrozma is giving me painful memories... *Shudder*
Could've mentioned that the Elite Four have *two* bonus rounds in BD/SP and Cynthia's Garchomp on the third encounter ties Red's Pikachu from HG/SS for highest level trainer Pokémon in the series.
On the spoiler subject for Legends:
Shout out to the fight against Volo’s theme, it’s a remix of Cynthia’s champion theme with several motifs reworked, and the main leitmotif shifted into a minor key on piano. It ties the whole fight together between the past and future with a fresh texture that makes the piece shine. In addition going back and playing the game after watching my spouse beat it, Volo’s reveal is an amazing ‘hiding in plain sight’ vibe. Even his name gives the game away when you realize it’s Latin for ‘I want’ and what he wants kicks off the whole plot.
On the subject of Ultra Necrozma, I went in blind and ended up having to Toxic Stall for the first time in the single player. And one final not so much challenging fight on its own, but more a curious little wrinkle: Gyms/E4 who have a super effective type when doing a monotype run. I’m doing my second Dragon-only run (first in Shield and now in X) and getting through Opal came down to luck and my deliberately unevolved Trapinch. I’m almost to Valerie, and living in eternal fear of Diantha and her Gardevoir.
9:00 I find it funny that people were telling me how brutal Cynthia was in the remakes, and while Gastrodon and Garchomp gave me trouble, the rest of her team fell pretty quickly. I am happy that I can genuinely say that I beat Cynthia on my first attempt. Thank you Mew and Empoleon. You were the biggest helpers.
I beat her on my first time as well. But I would still definitely call her hard, even if all my Pokémon were Fire types. Was a fantastic battle.
@@jembozaba4864 Oh absolutely she was hard. I just couldn’t believe my luck
@@Shantae1188 I was lucky as well. Garchomp didn’t even use Swords Dance. Milotic was the worst because Milotic is always a problem for me. The battle ended between my Charizard and Garchomp.
My Crobat basically carried me through that battle.
10:19 I grinded exp by rematching two trainers around the center of Pyrite town. It's tedious, but effective.
11:54 I feel like I know what's coming up next, with that being said.
When I think about it, maybe we got that difficulty increase because of how much everyone were asking for that.
If Gamefreak is actually listening to the players' feedback, we can expect a good gen 9 game, this year.
The friendship mechanic is the only reason I didn’t spend hours on Chynthia
Volo is laughing rn
Some people say he was hard and that wasn’t my experience. His ai was bad. Mantine happened to be my lead against his spiritomb. I took half its health with an air slash. And he swaps to Arcanine. Which gets one shot by a water pulse and then he sends in his Rosersade. Which, spoiler, didn’t take an air slash well. Our levels were pretty equal but him giving me 2 and half Pokémon for free made that fight way to easy. It was definitely the worst decision making I’ve seen a Pokémon AI ever make.
@@ForgedCalamity I actually just fought him, he wasn’t that hard. But then again my lowest level Pokémon was 82 so I was probably way overleveled. The Pokemon I used were Typloshion, Dialga, Palkia, Manaphy, Shaymin, and Darkrai. I only lost Typloshion by the time he brought out Giratina. By the time I beat Giratina, I also lost Dialga and Darkrai. Overall Volo was definitely not has hard as I anticipated, though others may have a different experience.
Volo definitely gave me some trouble, but I also managed to win on my first attempt
@@EldritchErik94 My team consisted of Mantine, Scizor, Steelix, Leafeon, Togekiss and Cyndaquil. Togekiss and Cyndaquil we're my strongest mons at Lv 68. Had to go back and check.
Fucking Ultra Necrozma had me so stressed
cynthia in bdsp is too hard
Always fun to look back at these.
Now try a Hardcore Nuzlocke. Of a Difficulty ROM Hack. That's where the real fun begins
Before watching the video I’ll list some of the battles that are considered pretty hard (main game only and no battle tower/frontier/mansion/etc)
-Cynthia battle (especially BDSP second rematch)
-ultra necrozma
-volo (legend arceus)
-Whitney (specifically miltank)
-red (HGSS)
In Brilliant Diamond, my Clefable held on because of its affection and I was able to get one last Ice Beam to finish off Garchomp.
Haven't watched the video, but I have a vote for hardest battle which I'm CERTAIN won't be in the video:
Any random trainer in a battle facility when you start to feel good about your win streak. Impossible to defeat.
Rom Hacks are crazy to see in terms of champion fights, absolutely no holding back from some devs.
I was hoping you'd touch on the 'Nuzlocke Killer' Ultra Necrozma.. I am not disappointed.
Srsly wtf was that difficulty spike with him!?
I legit had absolutely no trouble with Volo and i don't get why so many people did. This game pretty much lets your whole team reach level 80 before the credits roll with no issue whatsoever.
God…I love Colosseum and XD. I REALLY WANT ANOTHER GAME IN THE SERIES!!!
I would like to add the mewtwo that comes out of nowhere from lets go pikachu and eevee and the trainers that need you to have a well trained pokemon from the same games to this list XD
Yvetal is really challenging in Pokémon super mystery dungeon
Ngl, I had no problems with him. And I was Blaziken and Torterra.
I had 5 pokemon left once I got to Cynthia's Garchomp
I then got it down to what must've been 1 hp with 4 pokemon left
Then she healed and within 4 turns my team was destroyed
This is what happens when only 1 of your team members isn't weak to ground
And that one team member was weak to dragon so I was fucked
The Volo fight wasn't really difficult. The war of attrition and resulting drain on max revives isn't the same as challenge.
I only wish for some of the boss battles we could rebattle the team as many times as we would like just to try out different teams.
Ultra Necrozma to me was GameFreak's way of acknowledging people who try to do blind Nuzlockes. USUM got a lot of narrative issues, but I still remember having to effectively rework my entire team to beat that thing.
FEAR Rattata > Ultra Necrozma
For the BDSP Elite Four, try doing it on Set Mode with a level cap, no items in battle except held items, and restarting gauntlet if any of your pokemon faint.
Hey mate, here's an idea for a video you could do. I'm not sure how feasible it would be, but it might be a fun one to look into:
*Top 5/10 Games and/or Franchise Evolved by Fans*
In other words, games or franchises that the fanbases for have turned into something more than what it originally was. Or heck, even did a complete 180 on what the original was to do their own thing with it. Did that make any sense?
theyre gonna be piss easy
My view on the subject is that the thing that makes Pokemon "challenging" is lack of information, not knowing what's coming up next, and not having a proper answer for it. Depending on how your party looks, you might have a better or worse time with some fights than other people. Like with Brock, his Pokemon resist almost everything that's available to the player, unless you picked Bulbasaur or Squirtle, or caught a Machop in Yellow, in which case he loses nearly all challenge.