Good day, trainers!
I hope that you are all training hard and catching lots of Pokémon! Elite Trainer Chord is here to bring you up to speed on the coolest and most fashionable trainers of our time (Hey! It’s secretly me, Jorel! Chord is my avatar’s name in Pokémon Sword. Don’t get confused!). Today we’re going to look at a trainer who has been all over the world of Pokémon and been on many adventures. This trainer also loves to write and has dreams of becoming a famous author. Yes, this trainer is none other than Bailey Day! To her friends in the Galar region, she is known as Livian, but for now I’ll refer to her as Bailey Day. Let’s start talking, shall we?
Bailey Day became a fan of the Pokémon series when Pokémon Heartgold and Pokémon Soulsilver released on the Nintendo DS back in 2009. Soulsilver immediately became one of Day’s favorite video games of all time. The first ever Pokémon she received was a Totodile which she named FLUD (she meant to name him “Flood”, but she was still learning how to spell at the time). She went on a grand adventure through the Johto region with FLUD by her side. Once FLUD evolved into a Feraligatr, that instantly became, and still is, her favorite Pokémon species. She put at least 400 hours into that game, and it led to her playing more games from the series. She got hold of Pokémon Diamond when she was about 10 years old, and she has since played that game for over 800 hours! Whoa! Those definitely aren’t rookie numbers! She has played through Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon White and Pokémon Black 2, Pokémon X, Pokémon Moon and Pokémon Ultra Moon, Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu, and the latest mainline game, Pokémon Shield. And I’ve been there every step of the way, playing each listed game’s counterpart (Except for Pokémon Y. I skipped that generation for some reason. Oh, and instead of playing Pokémon White 2, we just played Pokémon Black 2 together). She was my greatest rival. We helped each other out with our Pokédexes and always encouraged each other to get stronger. We thought Pokémon battling was super fun; I wish you could have seen some of our battles because they really were the stuff of legend. Don’t tell our parents this, but when we were younger, we sometimes even played our games in bed past our bedtime to get in a few more battles, and communicated through Pictochat on our respective Nintendo DSs. Sorry Mom and Dad!
One cold winter morning, Bailey Day woke up and learned that The Pokémon Company had announced new Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. She could hardly contain her excitement and wanted to play them as soon as they came out. So, being the totally awesome guy that I am, I bought her her very own (used) Nintendo Switch and both of the games; one game for each of us. She chose to play Pokémon Shield, therefore I played Pokémon Sword. Bailey Day named her avatar Livian and got started on her Pokémon adventure through the Galar region. Bailey Day decided that she wanted to make a team of Pokémon that she had never seen before that were native to the Galar region. Want to meet the team? Let’s see them up close and personal!
Achelous
I once asked Bailey Day that if she could be a gym leader in a Pokémon world what type of Pokémon she would specialize in. Not surprisingly, she said “water.” The Water Type has always been Bailey Day’s favorite type of Pokémon, so when it came to choosing a starter Pokémon to take on her adventure through Galar, you know she had to choose the Water Lizard Pokémon, Sobble. She named the timid little thing Achelous after the Greek river god Akheloios, and he has been by her side ever since. He has since grew up from a little Sobble and into the Secret Agent Pokémon, Inteleon. Yes, you read that right. Secret. Agent. Pokémon. How unexpected! That little crybaby lizard grew up to be a master of stealth and marksmanship. His name? Achelous. His mission? To protect Livian at all costs, and look really cool while he’s at it! He loves to prove his skills with his Snipe Shot move on distant targets. Once, he managed to knock out a Hippopotas that was wandering around in the Dusty Bowl while on the bridge connecting Route 5 and Hulbury. That’s some serious sharpshooting! His eternal rival is Firestar the Cinderace, a Pokémon belonging to none other than yours truly. Although the type matchups are in his favor (Water beats Fire), he always seems to have some trouble taking her down. Could Firestar have some sort of trick up her sleeve?
Ylvis
Ah, yes. The Fox Pokémon, Thievul. Once a little Nickit from Route 1 who had to survive by secretly robbing the local Skwovets of their berries, Ylvis now gets all of the curry he wants as a part of Bailey Day’s team. He was named after the singer who sung What Does the Fox Say. Yeah. Remember that? And yes, he is aware of the stereotypes surrounding his species thanks to Team Yell, since Thievuls are a Pokémon often used by them. But make no mistake! He’s a good Thievul, and he knows better than to partner up with those goons! Though Ylvis has grown up into a full-fledged Thievul, his thieving tendencies only got worse (or, as he would say, his thieving skills only got better)! He constantly tries to find out just what he can get away with, though under the trained eye of Achelous, he doesn’t get far with a lot of things. When playing ball in the camp, he’ll often try to steal the ball from his other team members. He’ll also try to steal a few extra berries from Livian’s bag for himself. Once he even tried to take the blueberries out of Gouda’s swirls, which earned him a Dazzling Gleam to the face! He makes up for it though by finding helpful items on the ground and gifting them to Livian. What a sweetheart! He’s your go-to guy if you want to deal with those tough Psychic types; his graceful mastery of Dark type moves will leave them disoriented and helpless.
Gouda
When Bailey Day encountered a floating blob of cream on Route 4, you know she had to add it to her Pokémon team! She named the Milcery Gouda, most likely gaining inspiration from its cheesy looks. Bailey Day really wanted her Milcery to evolve, and she stumbled upon the solution by complete accident. She had acquired a Berry Sweet, an item that Milcery seem to love, and gave it to Gouda to hold one day. While in a Pokémon center, Bailey Day had the sudden inspiration to spin around several times and strike a cool pose, and to her astonishment, the Berry Sweet combined with the spinning/mixing motion had transmuted Gouda’s chemical structure and physical makeup into that of a rich, ruby, frosting-like consistency, resulting in her evolution to an Alcremie! Wow! Now that Gouda was in her most supreme form, she was ready to fight her way to be the best Alcremie ever! Whenever she is needed in a Pokémon battle, she’ll rush in and show the opposition who’s boss. She can be a bit hasty when it comes to choosing moves though, which can lead to her accidentally helping out the opposing team. Her true potential shines in double battles, where she can power up her teammates while they do most of the heavy hitting. In any case, Gouda is always ready to cream the competition (‘slaps knee’)!
Wondra
Once Bailey Day heard tell of the Apple Core Pokémon, Applin, a small, green, worm-like dragon Pokémon that lives inside an apple, she was determined to hunt one down and add it to her team. After scouring Route 5 for what seemed like ages (it was actually only about 10 minutes), she finally caught one, and named it Wondra after her favorite apple orchard in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. However, it turns out that Applins are USELESS! They can only know two moves, and their offense and defense are very lacking. Livian didn’t let that stop her though. She loved that Applin. But in the city of Hammerlocke, she had to make a difficult choice. A lovestruck young man needed to express his love to his girlfriend before she moved away, and the best way to do that would be to give her an Applin, a symbol of devotion and commitment. Ultimately, Bailey Day begrudgingly decided to help out this young man, but once the young man’s girlfriend found out that he did not catch the Applin, she couldn’t accept the gift. Rather, she said that she would wait for the day when he catches one himself (Awwww 😉). The young man returned Wondra to Bailey Day along with a gift. A Sweet Apple! Using the Sweet Apple on Wondra caused him to evolve into the monster you see before you now, the Apple Nectar Pokémon, Appletun! What a strange creature. It’s like an apple pie and tortoise hybrid! Wait, that’s exactly what it is! Wondra enjoys long walks through the Wild Area and eating Sweet Apple Curry. He likes to race against his teammates, but he rarely ever wins. He is madly in love with Gouda and tries his best to impress her, but I don’t think she is all that interested. In battles, he’s a tank that’s able to absorb a lot of hits, but he better watch out for those Ice Type and Bug Type Pokémon! And don’t worry, Wondra doesn’t hold any grudges towards Livian for almost giving him away; he’s not entirely sure what happened anyway!
Arson
During Bailey Day’s Gym Challenge in Motostoke, she was challenged to catch or defeat Fire Type Pokémon before her opponents did. One of those Pokémon was the Radiator Pokémon, Sizzlipede. After a tense battle with things going south a couple of times, Bailey Day was able to catch that Sizzlipede, and even knocked out her opponents Pokémon in the process. Arson would prove to be a valuable asset to Bailey Day’s team, and after several levels of training, he evolved into Centiskorch, a big upgrade from a little Sizzlipede. And might I add that Arson is a very fitting name for this guy; he just loves to set things on fire. He once set the end of Wondra’s tail on fire, and Bailey Day and Achelous had to chase Wondra around in order to put it out (Achelous got some good practice in on moving targets though). But Bailey Day has trained him well, and put his fire-starting abilities to good use. Whenever Bailey Day sets up camp, she has Arson light a fire for the curry, and when there are some dark caves that need exploring, she lets Arson light the way forward. On those cold, chilly nights on Route 10 when the team needs some extra warmth, everyone just crowds around Arson to keep warm. He may look mean, but he’s a kind giant fire centipede at heart.
Broozer
Broozer was the last Pokémon that Bailey Day added to her team. She found him when he was just a little Clobbopus on Route 9, flailing his tentacles around and competing with the resident Octillery for territory. But he has put the past behind him and has since evolved into the Jujitsu Pokémon, Grapploct. And though you may think that since he is a martial arts octopus that he would be a Water/Fighting type, think again! He is a pure fighting type, which does, I suppose, have its advantages. Broozer often feels disconnected from the rest of his team. His goal is to get ever stronger, so you’ll often see him practicing his jiujitsu in the distance. He’ll try and throw a boulder as far as he can, or put a tree in a headlock. He especially loves to train with Livian by his side and put some wild Rhydons into submission. And though Broozer feels more comfortable apart from his team, he has proven that he is an excellent conversationalist when around them. He often discusses conversation topics that tend to bore everyone he talks to though. Still, he’s a valuable contributor to the team and everyone is very appreciative of that.
With this team, Livian would go on to defeat her rivals Hop, Bede, and Marnie in the Gym Challenge, save the entire region from the Darkest Day’s wrath, and beat the unbeatable Champion Leon and become the new Champion of the Galar Region. As for the battles that Livian and I held between ourselves, we were pretty much an equal match for each other.
And now, a review of Pokémon Shield written by Bailey Day herself:
“It was a really fun game. My favorite part was all the new Pokémon. The story was fine, though I felt it could have had more punch to it, you know? Now that I’m done with the story, I just like to train my Pokémon. Overall, it’s a good game and well made.” – Bailey Day
Thank you, Bailey Day, for that nice and concise review.
GameFreak has since announced that the Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield games will be getting new DLC (Downloadable Content) which will include more areas to explore and more returning Pokémon to catch, but Bailey Day seems less excited to play Pokémon these days. She has a lot of work to do as an author and she has a hard time finding a free hour or two to play any video games.
And it pains me to say this, but. . . maybe the magic has gone from the Pokémon series for Bailey Day. She is almost 20 years old now, and the Pokémon series has always been a game meant for children. Maybe Bailey Day has just. . . grown up? Much like her Pokémon? Maybe it’s for the best. But the Pokémon series has given both Bailey Day and I some awesome memories, so thank you GameFreak for your legacy of amazing video games. And thank you Bailey Day for being the greatest rival I’ve ever faced. It’s been fun.
Thank you for tuning in to Trainer Talk. This is Elite Trainer Chord, telling all you trainers out there to keep doing what you love, whether it be taming Pokémon or otherwise.
(Jorel, signing out)
Pokémon and all of its respective characters belong to The Pokémon Company.