From Luck to Strategy

[ehh123]

When did Pokemon battles stop being gag based and winning on pure luck (Pikachu, the horn!) and start to actually resemble game battles with strategy?

Not to say that winning by luck doesn't still happen. An example includes Georgia's Beartic winning a battle by falling on the Joltik it was fighting. However, I can accept that because this is a giant polar bear and tiny spider we are talking about. The latter was lucky it wasn't crushed and instead got the swirly eyes of "being unable to battle".

 

[MizuTaipu]

Satoshi's fight against Matis is one of the earliest examples, but I think it started around the Orange Islands with Satoshi's battle against Ziggy being a mixture of both luck and skill.

 

[ivantuga2]

I would guess starting from the first full battle of the show, Ash's/Satoshi's battle against Drake/Yuji in the fight for the Orange League trophy.

 

[matt0044]

Honestly, all battles (not just Pokemon) rely on strategy and luck. For the viewer, it can feel like a good sense of spontaneity, a neat twist or a cheap cop-out.

 

[Torterrius]

For full-on effect, I can say the vast majority of Gen IV relied on strategy over luck.

It seemed to me a lot of the Advanced Generation series involved two strong Pokemon just bashing each other until one fell on its face. I reference 90% of the BF saga and the final CONTEST battle: Ash v. May; Blaziken v. Sceptile. Before that, idk, but Drake v. Ash in Pummelo is correctly referenced, especially trying to beat down Dragonite.

 

[Jaye]

Any battle where the character have chosen a Pokemon that has a type advantage over the opponent and uses that to their advantage would resemble the way battles work in the games. It is the most common form of battling in the games, after all.

I wouldn't say there was a shift between "gag" battles are "proper" battles down the line, either. Sure, most of the earlier battles aren't as good as some of the latter ones, but it wasn't like the earlier ones were just done for a giggle. Inevitably there will be large elements of luck, since 1) this is anime and 2) the anime battles are not constrained to a system of numbers and equations. Even in DP, there were large elements of luck involved in even the most strategic and most "game-like" of battles.

 

[Cybersai]

Anime battles are so different than game battles you can't compare them.