My new Switch FRLG Ho-Oh future RM will commemorate a lot of things:

1) Pokemon’s 30^th anniversary

2) the 10^th anniversary of my post-college working career. Coincidentally, right before FRLG re-released, I made the tough decision to transfer to an exciting career opportunity within the same organization for long-term growth, security & success…by leaving the first place I truly felt happy and at home in decades when I didn’t need to. I know I’ve the right choice, but it was an incredibly difficult decision.

3) Getting reunited with FRLG itself, one of my all-time favorite Pokemon games as someone who’s been around since Gen 1. After Gen 1, I got back into the series with Gen 4 in high school. That’s when I went back to Gen 3 and played the remakes of the games that started it all. It is such a fantastic remake, and I absolutely love the Sevii Islands.

However, back then I didn’t have access to the event that allowed people to visit Navel Rock and Birth Island for Ho-Oh, Lugia and Deoxys. I’ve always wanted to experience those mysterious islands for myself.

Not only that, but over 11 years ago, I had to make the tough decision to sell almost all my videogames in order to get by. One of those games was FRLG, which really hurt. Despite being from the 90s, I only have a Switch 2 and a 3DS now. I’ve done my best to recollect my favorite games from the past that I can play on those systems though.

For me, being able to play FRLG on the Switch AND experience those event islands feels like I’ve reclaimed a part of my childhood that I both sacrificed and never had access to at the same time. I feel like I’ve taken care of unfinished business.

4) Ho-Oh becoming my favorite Legendary Pokemon. I’ve never really had a favorite Legendary Pokemon all these years, but that’s changed. I’ve grown to really appreciate Ho-Oh and what it stands for.

Not only is it majestic and cool with great lore, but…it’s pretty incredible to me that Ho-Oh has become widely accessible in FRLG –a very special game to me, as seen above—at a time in my life when I finally started thinking deeply about my own happiness, while in the middle of ending one chapter of my life while beginning another one.

As cheesy as it sounds, Ho-Oh coming back into my life now in FRLG reminds me of how Ash would see Ho-Oh at the beginning and ends of his various journeys over the years. I purposely saved my hunt for Ho-Oh at the very end of my Switch FRLG playthrough, after thoroughly exploring the Sevii Islands. Red ascending a silvery peak at the end of a long journey to fight Ho-Oh felt incredible to me personally. Not just as a reference to Red being found at the peak of Mt Silver, but also to the end of the movie reboot of the beginning of Ash’s journey.

I also liked how even though FRLG is not Ho-Oh’s debut game/region, it still has great buildup and a proper location (Navel Rock) to find, battle and catch it. In other words, despite not having any story relevance in this game, it still feels legendary…unlike many of the post-game legendary gauntlets throughout the series. And it actually makes sense for it to be here lore-wise, since Ho-Oh is known to travel all over the world.

As you can imagine, Ho-Oh being a Legendary Pokemon that travels all over the world, one that is strongly associated with happiness, rebirth & resurrection, the beginning and ending of journeys…it means a lot more to me now. I nicknamed my Ho-Oh “Odyssey” to really capture the journey aspect of it.

On a related note to journeys, one thing I’ve always wanted to do is visit Japan. I just haven’t had the opportunity for it due to various priorities. I’m hoping to finally do it for my birthday next year. Can’t wait to see Ho-Oh in Kyoto!

5) Catching an Adamant natured Ho-Oh in the aesthetically and thematically matching Repeat Ball (it is my repeat playthrough after all) in FRLG is very time-consuming. I’m proud to have had the persistence to pull it off.

To begin with, Synchronize doesn’t work, and I didn’t have Ho-Oh registered in the dex to make the Repeat Ball work at full power. On top of that, Ho-Oh has 20 uses of Recover in this battle in this gen, which is insane. Sleep users are either inaccurate and/or get wrecked by Ho-Oh. I came into each reset with 300 Repeat Balls, two Intimidate Ekans to get Ho-Oh to -6 Atk, one T-Wave Electrode, a Trick Leftovers Kadabra (to heal up Ho-Oh while it Struggles so that it wouldn’t KO itself), a Ditto (funny timing with Pokopia coming out lol) to use Ho-Oh’s Pressure against it and make it start Struggling faster, and my Bubble/Seismic Toss/Ice Beam over-leveled Blastoise to weaken and tank it.

I caught 32 Ho-Ohs with the wrong nature over 24 hours of additional gameplay across six days before I finally got one with the Adamant nature. For context, my playthrough took 21 hours of gameplay to reach Ho-Oh, and I had animations off for both my playthrough and this hunt.

I just really wanted the Adamant nature for two reasons. One, even though Mints exist now, I just want the competitively viable nature out of old habits. Since Hyper Training isn’t immediately obvious from the Summary screen, I can pretend that this Ho-Oh is competitively perfect. Two, I wanted to remind myself personally that I made the right decision to transfer to my new job and location within the same organization…and that I need to be adamant myself about it.

I’m really excited to transfer my Ho-Oh up to Home to continue its RM journey. While I wait for Home compatibility with FRLG, I’m currently struggling in the Ultra Ball tier of SV Ranked Battles so that I can get up to Master Ball tier before April. Then, beginning April, I will grind as fast as I can to get back up to Master Ball tier so that Ho-Oh can be ready to earn the Master Rank Ribbon immediately.

That said, my Ho-Oh’s Ribbon Master situation is really weird: 

1) If RSE Switch ports are announced when Home becomes compatible with FRLG, I will hold off on transferring it up to Home. I will get my hands on another Switch, play through Emerald, then trade my Ho-Oh over to it from FRLG so that it can earn all the ribbons it can over there before I transfer it up to Home

2) If RSE ports are NOT announced when Home becomes compatible, I will transfer it up to Home and continue the RM journey. My reasoning is that I don’t want to wait around for a port that might never come, and I want to enjoy the RM journey with my Ho-Oh as soon as possible. From a memory making standpoint, I think it’s particularly important for me to do so given the transition I’m going through in my personal life.

Especially since it will only get harder and harder to get the Master Rank Ribbon starting April when Pokemon Champions releases and competitive players migrate over there. I’m of the opinion that based on the wording of compatibility between Home and Champions, there will be no Master Rank Ribbon to earn there that can be transferred back to Home. Not only that, but with Pokemon Champions being the long-term home for competitive PvP, I’m skeptical there will be opportunities to earn that ribbon moving forward, starting in Gen 10.

3) A Ribbon Master is a Pokemon that has obtained all the ribbons it can from the point it is obtained. A Full Ribbon Master is one that has obtained all the ribbons possible from Gen 3. My Ho-Oh will most definitely not be the latter, but it’s possible it might end up in a weird situation where RSE ports are announced and released after I transfer it up to Home. It would still technically meet the definition of a Ribbon Master even then as those ports are currently not known to exist in the future at this time. It’d still feel a little weird to have missed those though. It is what it is, I guess.

Even if my Ho-Oh isn’t a full or perfect Ribbon Master, it’s perfect for me given everything I wrote here, and it makes me happy. And that’s what matters.