Just finished the game two nights ago at 12:30 (on a school night, mind you) with a play time of just barely 25 hours. Definitely one of the best Pokemon games I've ever played, and I've played all of them. Probably my favorite, maybe tying with Platinum. I love the expanded pokedex, so many options to choose from D:. I kept a consistent team of six that I had planned to use since it first came out in Japan, and you could say I easily destroyed the game, in fact, I was wishing for a difficulty spike. It's a shame you can't play a full game on challenge mode =/. I won't review pokemon that have been getting lots of reviews with the exception of Oshawott, as my opinion about it hasn't been stated.
Oshawott: - Low Mid
Availability: Starter
Stats: Bulky HP, great mixed offenses, slight preference to special moves. Middling defenses, but it can take most neutral hits. Disappointing speed, I had a neutral nature and I felt like I was being outsped 70% of the time which is dangerous late game, as everything hits hard.
Typing: Water STAB is one of the best to have.
Movepool: You'll have no problem finding hard-hitting STAB to get through the game with. You get Surf after Clay, and by the time you have a Samurott, you should have at least one Heart Scale to relearn Megahorn, it's necessary. It can learn Return for great neutral coverage paired with Water, as well as Revenge for some Fighting coverage. I recommend Surf paired with Aqua Jet, because you won't be scoring many neutral OHKO's with Surf, but you can get a quick 1, 2 combo by using Aqua Jet afterwards, which will take many foes down. Not too wide of a movepool, but it has what it needs.
Major Battles: Great against Clay, and that's really the only gym he'll give you a 100% chance to win. Bad against Elesa and Burgh's Leavanny as well as Colress to a degree, especially when he uses Magneton/zone. Neutral against literally every other major boss battle, but that doesn't mean it's completely useless against those battles; it'll certainly contribute.
Additional Comments: Samurott doesn't excel at anything, it's just balanced. I seriously considered ditching it near the end of the game, it just wasn't performing at anything except super-effective hits. Maybe I just got one with bad IVs, but I wasn't at all impressed, and there are definitely some better water type choices out there.
Gigalith (the one you trade an Emolga for): - Upper Mid/Low High
Availability:Right before Skyla, a perfect time for it. However often you can find a wild Emolga; you might have to spend maybe ten minutes tops searching for one.
Stats:Bulky HP, Holy Attack and Defense, everything else is piss poor, but Sturdy and Rock Polish make up for the lacking stats.
Typing:Rock STAB is meh in this game just because of how many fighting types there are and the presence of a water type gym, but Gigalith hits most things neutral very hard, easily scoring OHKOs on SE hits.
Movepool:I'll be honest, his movepool sucks. The most useful level up moves you get (keep in mind, it comes at level 35) are Rock Slide, which it starts with, Stone Edge, and Rock Polish. You'll definitely want to spend 10 shards of whatever color it is to get Superpower, the coverage is needed, and it hits hard. You could use Strength/Return, but you'll want both Rock Slide and Stone Edge. I mean I GUESS Bulldoze is slightly viable, but meh.
Major Battles:Perfect for Skyla's gym minus Swanna, but you can have Sturdy for it. My Gigalith went toe-to-toe with Drayden's Haxorus and did a hefty 80-ish% with Rock Slide, but was forced out with Dragon Tail. Just avoid Marlon completely. Can take on all of the physical attackers on the Plasma Frigate with the exception of any Steel type, unless you have Superpower by then. Avoid Colress. For the E-4, keep him out of battle against Marshal and Caitlin. Not recommended for the other two, but he can do it. For Iris, I recommend switching in when her Druddigon is out and using Rock Polish; you'll outspeed all but the Archeops. He destroys Aggron with Superpower, and everything else is raped by STAB Stone Edge/Rock Slide.
Additional Comments:If you need a physical tank that can potentially sweep with massive 135 base attack, look no further. As he is a traded mon and you get him around the time Juniper gives you the lucky egg, he'll gain levels like crazy, easily catching up with your team in no time, if not already surpassing them. I believe it's always Adamant nature, so his attack was well over 200 before the fight with Iris. I highly recommend using him if you've got a space, he won't disappoint.
Espeon:- High
Availability:Eevee is a bit rare to find in the Castelia Garden, plus you have to run around like a maniac during the day time, not to mention that if you surpass level 21, you miss out on reliable Psychic STAB until level 37, so it's hard to evolve. Right before the third gym leader.
Stats:Awful physical bulk, middling special defense, but who cares? It's a goddamn Espeon. It has massive special attack and will be outspeeding everything it needs to with its 110 base speed.
Typing:Psychic is okay STAB in this game, due to the large number of Dark types due to Team Plasma, who also carry lots of Poison types. It will OHKO neutral, non-bulky opponents with Psychic, and there's a lot of things neutral to it.
Movepool:Yet another shallow movepool, but it gets just what it needs. Psybeam and Psychic will be your main STABs, with Psyshock added in later to replace Psybeam (shallow movepool=you need two STABS). You can teach it Signal Beam for pesky dark types, and it'll usually be awhile until you get TM Shadow Ball, so keep both. Through the mid game I literally had Flash on it, so I guess that's cool for Mistralton Cave. But yeah it's bad movepool is bad.
Major Battles:Espeon is neutral to every single gym except Burgh, but you won't have an Espeon before him. It's useable, however, if you need a strong, special hit in desperate situations. It doesn't like Colress' Steel types, and destroys half of Team Plasma. You can easily destroy 3/4 of Marshal's team with Psychic, just be aware that Sawk has Sturdy and Payback, so you're going to lose your espeon very early if you don't recognize that (I had to learn the hard way
)
It doesnt fare well against the Dark E4 member (blanking on the name) or the Shauntal, but you have coverage moves that hit all of them, just don't expect OHKO's. Same goes for Caitlin's Psychic type 'mons. Espeon is neutral against most of Iris' team, minus the Hydreigon and the Aggron. It especially doesn't like Hydreigon.
Additional Comments:I'm not gonna lie, it took a long time to evolve my Eevee, and it was underlevelled by about 5 levels from the rest of my team. But when it did evolve, I knew I made the right choice to use it. STAB psychic type moves aren't particularly great in this game, but with 130 base Special Attack, anything that doesnt resist is going to be 2HKO'd, and the 110 base Speed has so far proven useful in the post game, where everything outlevels you. If it wasn't such a bitch to obtain, Espeon would be top tier material.
Joltik:- Mid
Availability:Right before Skyla (perfect timing) decent appearance %.
Stats:Very frail, and is 2HKO'd by most neutral hits. Its attacking stats are also middling, with Special Attack being slightly higher at 97 Base, but Galvantula has Compoundeyes Thunder to compensate for being slightly weaker. Its attack stat can allow it to run 1 physical move, sucker punch, which works well sometimes. It's a very fast pokemon too.
Typing:Bug/Electric is cool typing, allowing it to hit many things supereffectively. Plus, STAB Thunder and Bug Buzz is also pretty cool.
Movepool:Galvantula doesn't have a HUGE movepool, but its better than Espeon's. By level up, the most important moves you get are Signal Beam, Bug Buzz, and Sucker Punch if you plan to use it, but it only gives extra Ghost coverage, so not really worth it. By TM, you can teach it Thunder before the Humilau gym, and you get Volt Switch from Elesa, which will be your main Electric move for awhile. Charge Beam is a useful move, allowing Galvantula to sweep, and I used it in conjunction with Thunder to knock out weakened foes and set up a sweep. From Move Tutors, I think the most important move it gets is Giga Drain, but you can get the TM for Energy Ball from Aspertia without having to collect lots of shards for Giga Drain. All in all, it gets what it needs.
Major Battles:Joltik and eventually Galvantula easily destroy Skyla and Marlon all by itself, needing zero help from its teammates. Keep it away from Drayden because electric is resisted. It's decent against Team Plasma, able to wipe out their Dark types not named Pawniard, but thats about it. Galvantula dismantles the Dark E4 member and Caitlin. For Iris, if you have Bug Buzz, you can lead with Galvantula to 2HKO Hydreigon, as Flamethrower doesn't OHKO Galvantula.
Additional Comments:While certainly not the best Electric type out there, Galvantula gets its job done. It has the best movepool for electric types, minus the slow-and-bulky Elektross, that dual STAB helps. I would recommend Galvantula to anyone who opted against Jolteon or Electabuzz, as they are two other great, fast Electric types.
Those are all the reviews I'm going to do, but I just wanted to say, Lucario and Moxiedile for Top tier. Literally they rape everyone and everything in this game, and easily carried my team.