Platinum Team

My Platinum team! One of my most favorite teams I've ever put together, both functionally and aesthetically. Also name-wise! Naming 'mons is serious business. Notice they all start with different letters and end on different sounds, as well as having a deeper meaning (Hershey like a Hershey's Kiss, since she's a togekiss, Voltaire being an electric type, Melusine being a beautiful sea cryptid, and Emiliano... I dunno. Sounding sort of like oregano, I guess? I ran out of steam on that one).

This was actually the first time that I played through Pokemon Platinum, and I had such a blast! The fourth generation is my favorite (definitely not because it was the first generation I started playing, no sirree) -- I think the aesthetic is so wonderful, and I love the region, the mythos, the pokedex, and the sprites of all the pokemon. 3D models may be better from a technical perspective... But there's something so charming and wonderful about the original sprites. I actually find myself replaying the older games more often than the new ones because of that. But anyway -- my first game was Pokemon Diamond, which I played and loved. However, I got it just a little before Pokemon Platinum was announced. This new version always looked so awesome and interesting from the trailers, but since games are expensive and I was young, I never actually bought it, which I always regretted. So, years later, I felt a wash of nostalgia and went looking for a Platinum cart up for sale... And I found one! Plaything through Platinum was worth the almost decade-long wait.

"Giratina Used Fly!"

I've always had a soft spot for origin form giratina (to the point where I spent about a year of my life SRing for the shiny version... Which I did eventually get!), and even though the big ghost leviathan wasn't part of my team in my Platinum replay, I always kept it in my party. As my fly user. I just wish that the HM cut-scenes were specific to the pokemon you were using, because we seriously missed out on this pink-clad preteen riding through sunny blue skies on a tentacled monstrosity.

This was a quicker drawing, but was very fun! It was good practice for more complex figures, since giratina is, well, complex.

"Griffin and Aisley"

"I’ve been replaying Pokemon Mystery Dungeon lately (specifically, Explorers of Sky) and, for all the many years that I’ve had this game, this is the first time that I’ve actually gotten all the way to the end of the after-game! Which is why I thought it’d be appropriate to draw my protagonist and her partner: Aisley and Griffin! I must have hundreds of hours in this game across all the saves I’ve had… PMD always has such a special place in my heart. Though newer games like Super PMD and Gates to Infinity are pretty good, the Explorers series will always personally be my favorite.

(Also, I’m running Sing + Dream Eater on Aisley, and it destroyed every single non-ghost type (agh, normalize) in the game right up until enemies started having Non-Sleeper… At which point it sorta became useless. Rest in peace, example of how broken linked moves are – you will be remembered.)"

 - 2018 Brennan


I still dearly miss that combo. It was so good while it lasted. I never had the heart to remove it from her moveset, so I just beat the post-game with effectively two moves on her. Luckily, +7 tackle kind of just... Ruins everything. So I was alright.

"Afternoon by the Riverbank"

"What a lovely day for a kid and his numel to look at some rocks.

I love this drawing so much. Words can't even describe how much I love it. I'm so happy with the color scheme and the water and the landscape itself and- Aghhh! It's so good! This is the first drawing in a while I've been extremely happy with, so it's a good feeling."

 - 2016 Brennan

"Fugitives"

"Daylene (the purple, cat-like creature) has been accused of something awful, a crime that she did not commit. While her companions, Atlas and Trapezoid, believe her, the rest of the world does not, and the three embark on a journey to find information to clear her name. However, there is always a fear of those hunting the group from the shadows..."

 - 2015 Brennan


I was So. Dang. Proud of this when I drew it. I still think it looks nice! If you can't tell, it's based very roughly on the plot of the first Mystery Dungeon game.

"Thousand Arrows"

"Zygarde is the balance pokemon, meant to keep the world in order. If it perceives a shift, it will stop at nothing to correct it.

It's also my favorite pokemon in the whole wide world."

- 2014 Brennan


And it still is. It's a giant dugesia flatworm that's also a dragon made of hexagons. What's not to love?

"World Killer"

"I remember this clearly; this was when I figured out how to use overlays. With this drawing, my artwork became much more colorful and pretty."

 - 2014 Brennan


And to this day, I'm still using them.

And I still have an affinity for Pokemon.