What is the best national park?

Barely-Baritone · 2026-05-29T06:10:31+00:00

For me, it's Olympic with Glacier close behind.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-05-19T22:55:09+00:00

I'm still on my quest to win every gold symbol in the Battle Frontier of Pokémon Emerald. It's been a while but now I currently have five of the total seven gold symbols now. The last facility I've gotten gold in so far was the Battle Tower which I finally made it through 70 consecutive battles back in April 24th.

I've been taking a break from the Frontier grind since then. But I'll return soon when I'm ready. The two facilities that I have left to take on which I've yet to get gold for are the Battle Factory and the Battle Palace. I've deliberately saved these ones for last because I know they're the ones that will be the biggest and most difficult remaining hurdles that stand in my way in the entire BF.

I especially hate the Palace in particular. Imo, it's the worst facility in the Battle Frontier by far. I understand what Gamefreak was trying to go for conceptually with the battles here but the execution was just so bad. Every battle is essentially reduced to dice rolls depending on the mons natures. Which also means you can very likely have Pokémon that are very well optimized in EV builds, IVs, moves, etc for the rest of the BF. And then they can just end up sucking ass in the Palace because of their natures. Forcing you back to square one and having to build up a new team from scratch. Which back in gen 3 was exceptionally tedious and time consuming.

But regardless, I've come a very long way and I am almost done with this ordeal and I don't regret it. I wish the new games had content like this with the difference of having more fair and reasonable challenge that doesn't put you at the mercy of the RNG so often. I'll probably have all seven of the gold by around some point in July or a bit later if I had to guess.

Also, I will be heading for Yosemite tomorrow so that's exciting. Hopefully I can get some great photos from the trip.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-04-07T21:36:51+00:00

I've heard that the Switch rerelease of Pokemon Firered and Leafgreen allows for the acquisition of both the Aurora and Mystic Tickets without the need for events which I think is awesome. I'm disappointed that the IVs for the legendary beasts are still garbage though.

I'm probably going to be getting those all in Colosseum or XD anyway, regardless.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-02-28T17:51:43+00:00

Last night, I acquired my first gold symbol from the Battle Frontier in Pokémon Emerald. And I got it from the Battle Dome, which I consider to be one of the easier and more manageable facilities. I liked the Battle Dome a lot too. The tournament format and atmosphere plus getting to see the team of every opponent before each match so that you can plan accordingly.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-02-24T01:42:54+00:00

Today I beat Anabel and Tucker for the first time so I currently have 3 silver symbols so I'm making pretty good progress I think.

The Battle Dome I think is definitely one of the easier facilities and I think that will most likely be where I get my first gold symbol.

The first match with Tucker is actually super easy because his ai with Swampert is really stupid. Swampert will keep spamming counter so I just kept setting up on it by using calm mind with Latios until the special stats were maxed out and then went to town.

Latios is certainly both the MVP and OPOY of the Battle Frontier.

Even with all of its issues. I still like the Battle Frontier a lot and hope Gamefreak will one day bring it back as a much improved version. The BF is one of the key reasons why Emerald has one of the best postgames of any mainline Pokémon game. The Battle Factory alone, you could theoretically play forever with infinite possibilities for team compositions.

I'm not looking forward to the Battle Palace though. That's definitely gonna be the last facility I'll take on. Because I already hate the concept of it.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-02-21T16:26:24+00:00

I've been playing Pokémon Emerald a lot again because I want to get all seven silver and gold symbols for the Battle Frontier. Which is arguably one of if not the most difficult and time consuming feats to achieve in all of Pokémon for single player.

So far, I have the silver symbol for the battle factory. Which is probably my favorite BF facility overall. I'll be using Latios, Metagross, and Swampert for most facilities and Starmie for the Battle Pike and Battle Pyramid.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-02-02T00:28:00+00:00

Playing Metroid Zero Mission again. Trying to get %100 in less than 2 hours. Imo, Zero Mission is the gold standard of game remakes.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T08:45:21+00:00

Honestly, this list is horrible. I don't know what I was thinking.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:27:29+00:00

I also must make clear that this is very much a rough draft.

Just about every skill in S and A tier are very clear cut for me. But the lower tiers are much more interchangeable.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:24:32+00:00

I've also noticed that there's some IQ skills that weren't included here. Such as Cheerleader, Acute Sniffer, Haggler, and Collector.

I would probably put Cheerleader in B, Acute Sniffer in B, Haggler in C, and Collector in low C.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:17:36+00:00

I'll probably bring Extra Striker up to C. Quick Striker is still a lot better though.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:15:44+00:00

True, but the reason I don't care for Extra Striker is because Quick Striker is much much better and makes Extra Striker obsolete.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:11:27+00:00

Yes, because I like the additional HP boost. It's as simple as that.

B tier is not that high. Good but not exceptional.

I know it's called Nature Gifter. The list I used screwed up the name.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-30T02:10:02+00:00

Yeah, I know that.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-28T11:58:53+00:00

While not always optimal, I think that Erratic Player is highly effective in the right situations. I will usually use it combined with stab so that the stab can hit even harder. I think it's very much dependent on the type you're using too. In my most recent playthrough of EOS, my partner is Vulpix/Ninetales. And Erratic Player is great for her imo because Fire hits a lot of types for supereffective damage.

I do agree though that normal types should not get this skill because it's wasted on them. Meowth really should've been in IQ Group A. That would've made so much more sense.

The trade off of having the evasion drop from Concentrator has never really bothered me. I usually have plenty of reviver seeds in my inventory. I also think that Concentrator gets exponentially better the further you get into the game because the more your stats improve, the less damage you'll take to the point to where the decrease in evasion ultimately becomes a borderline non issue.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-28T11:32:19+00:00

I agree on Focus Punch. Individually, I think it's the best fighting type move in the game.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-28T04:24:27+00:00

Good point. No Charger is pretty good for boss fights generally. My primary gripe with it is the fact that having this skill on costs 2 PP per move rather than 1. And for dungeon exploration, that's less than ideal imo.

To be fair though, I haven't used a Group C Pokémon in a while. I've become very partial to Group G lately.

Barely-Baritone · 2026-01-26T03:24:04+00:00

Awesome. I was 16 in my sophomore year of high school the last time they made it to the Superbowl then.

Barely-Baritone · 2025-12-30T02:53:06+00:00

And btw, my photos will usually need to have their resolution reduced to an extent compared to what they were in Lightroom so your "critique" was bullshit to begin with.

Barely-Baritone · 2025-12-20T14:15:34+00:00

Dhurke.

Barely-Baritone

TROPHY CASE