Battle Tower
Now we’re moving onto an addition with substance, as Pokemon Crystal was the very first instance of a Battle Tower in the series. It’s common knowledge in the games that the challenge level is not particularly steep, with some gym leaders being felled primarily through their own incompetence. How these bumbling loons managed such a prestigious position is anyone’s guess. Even Johto’s Elite Four can be easily dispatched with a quick swap in to an advantageous matchup that allows you to spam your most powerful moves. Rinse and repeat, and you are the Champion! May none ever question your reign, and why you were allowed to freely shuffle through Pokemon when none of your opponents were afforded the same courtesy.
Cocky trainers strutting their stuff into the Pokemon Tower were about to get wrecked, however, as it played by a different set of rules. Three entrants, no items, no free swaps, and finely tuned AI that wanted nothing more than to see you dead. Do you remember the first time you ran afoul of that tournament-standard Blissey? Under its jolly pink exterior laid the empty soul of a fiendish ghoul. It was finally time to really test your mettle, and we were all better tacticians for it. Or we gave up and cried, then wrote about it in our feelings journal.
