Recognising your old Pokémon?

Last few weeks, I got to play and beat the one half of the latest Pokémon game pair: Pokémon Sun.

I fought familiar faces, the oldest happened to be 20 years ago. Some of my own Pokémon are now 10 years old, starting life on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.

During the Battle with Anabel, who previously appeared in Emerald as the “Salon Maiden” of the Battle Tower, I thought, “It wouldn’t be weird if I beat her with the same party I had from Emerald. Would she even comment on it?

Anabel is one of many of the returning characters, who are significant to their original game, and often act like a boss within their game. Could they also recognise an old Pokémon?

At Time of writing, Pokémon Bank has not been updated to support Pokémon Sun and Moon to allow older Pokémon visit Alola, most of the the info I use to backup my point will have come from Previous games.

Could the game even know I used those Pokémon in the Pokémon Emerald’s Battle Tower, after the one way trip through several games to reach Pokémon Sun?

Could the Game even know I had Pokémon in Emerald?

Every game since Pokémon Crystal, has included information about where they where caught or in the case of hatched Pokémon, where they hatched. During the transfer to Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold or SoulSliver, the location was reduced to the name of region, Hoenn, Kanto or in a few cases Distant Land, depending on where the Pokémon was found. This information is still present in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, there is even a special Diploma that can be seen in Lilycove City, can only be obtain by having Pokémon from Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald in the party. JWittz even shows how it is done.

But is there anyway for the game to know if your Pokémon beat the Returning trainer in another game?

Out of the many characters three of the returning characters are Champions of their original game, and is effectively the final boss of their games. They are Blue/Green aka Gary, Red, and Cynthia. Once you beat one of these characters in their original game, every Pokémon in your Party got a Ribbon.

Ribbons are introduced in Ruby and Sapphire. They can be added to a Pokémon that have done certain tasks. As of Sun and Moon, There are 4 named Champion Ribbons, with a 5th Ribbon (The Ledgendary) for beating Red in HeartGold/SoulSilver. The Sinnoh Champ Ribbon is gotten after beating Cynthia in Diamond, Pearl or Platinum.

The Champion Ribbon your Pokémon get for beating Blue is harder to nail down. You can also obtain the same Ribbon for beating the Hoenn Champion in Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald.

Grimsly from Black, White, Black 2 and White 2 has a large issue. While he is an Elite Four member, all four games that he appears in, the Champion that you fight after him doesn’t present a Ribbon. Colress, a considered Villain from Black 2 and White 2, also has no ribbon awarded to let future games know. Unlike previous games, no ribbon was actually given out during gameplay any of the four games. The only Pokémon that could have a Ribbon in Black, White, Black 2 or White 2, had to be either an Event Pokémon or had been awarded them in previous games.

Hoenn’s Wally is harder to nail down. He is the last trainer in Hoenn’s Victory Road, which is before the Elite four and Champion. He appears in 5 different games, with two Ribbons for the Champion of the games. The older Ribbon is Champion Ribbon, which is shared with Blue. The Newer Hoenn Champion is only for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire’s Champion Steven.

The Battle Tower in Emerald where Anabel is, gives out two Ribbons, several Battles after beating Anabel in two of several modes. An issue appears in Generation 6 when both Emerald Battle Tower Ribbons where combined with another 6 Battle tower got combined in to one Ribbon with the number earned attached. If the Number is 7 or 8, then the Pokémon must have been in both the Hoenn and Sinnoh/Johto Battle Tower.

Finally, X and Y’s Dexio and Sina never fought the player. However this pair where regularly seen and where even present during the Ceremony to Crown the Champion. As these two trainers supported Professor Sycamore, these characters could have seen the X and Y players own Pokémon on more than one occasion.

Out of all the returning Pokémon Trainers, only two Trainers guaranteed to have fought a certain Pokémon, Red and Cynthia. Since the player can change his party after battling Wally and Anabel before earning the ribbon, there is no definite way if they fought a certain Pokémon, but could comment on seeing it. Blue’s Ribbon is shared with two other trainers, Steven and Wallace, does not really help Blue’s recognising a Pokémon.

So what could they say?

Many things: Grimsly could comment on any Generation 5 and older Pokémon in saying, “I think I saw that Pokémon with the Unova Champion.” As that is the limits of known data of the Pokémon. Wally, Dexio and Sina could comment events behind certain events within their respective games.

With Red, his lines have always been “…..” However in Sun and Moon, Blue speaks for Red, and I would expect him to comment about Red’s loss on Mt Silver. I would like Blue to even comment about Leaf to Red. (Leaf is Female player Charter in FireRed/LeafGreen.)

To get back to my initial Question: Would Anabel recognise a Pokémon that previously appeared in the Battle Tower? She could mention “seeing it in a tower”, but as she has already stated that she lost her memory may not comment about it at all.

Personally, I doubt that most returning trainers say anything, but I’d be still taking a few Pokémon around Alola that have been around in other games once Bank gets upgraded.

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