Current Events > Attempting to replay Pokemon Heart Gold (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Context: I finished White, White 2 is apparently really hard to find. I just really want to keep playing and talking about these games while I work out a way to get the game because White was fun.
I last played this one about 10 years ago as well but I remember it pretty well because I played the hell out of the original GSC. Soul Silver was my main game when these came out, HG is the one I'm willing to start over. Back of the realm of one-time-use TMs and no Lucky Eggs I go.

Also, someone joked about how in the first few gens, everyone's teams are made of the same few Pokemon. Apparently in gen 4 it's a full on in-joke how similar everyone's teams were.

I hereby vow not to use a generic team.
In Platinum I took Turtwig, in White I took Snivy.
I have to pick Chikorita. I have to.

Chikorita is the GOAT gen2 starter.

the nba 2k11 of Pokmon games

Gold, Silver, and Crystal may always be my favorite of what I've played from the series, however there will also always be a special place in my heart for the originals, especially Blue and Yellow.

On a scale from generic HGSS rerun team to inspired HGSS expedition crew, where do Caterpie/Metapod/Butterfree sit?

I know I've seen a video of someone on Showdown using a Compoundeyes sleep Butterfree with Nightmare. Those moves might not exist for Butterfree in gen 4 though.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

where do Caterpie/Metapod/Butterfree sit?

Why not use Scizor or Heracross

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Why not use Scizor or Heracross

I'm right at the start.
I've got the lv13 Chikorita and the lv10 Butterfree.
I'm ready for Youngster Joey.

I picked turtwig in Platinum too, and Chikorita in HG as well. It was so fun. Running Body Slam, EQ, SD

That road up to the left of Violet City, the one blocked by Sudowoodo. Wasn't there a patch of grass you could find Growlithes there?

Anyway I just got done crushing Falkner up like an empty water bottle.
My lv17 Bayleef chuckling heartily at the crinkling noises.

Gym just seems dangerous on the whole. Heights. Monsters fighting. An elevator that ascends and descends 50ft in the air at that speed. Trainers going "Ooh be a shame if you fell hahaha, don't look down, right?"

Another team candidate.
Where does Slowpoke rank on the generic scale?
There's a mandatory area where it's one of only two Pokemon that spawn so that might hurt its rating, but still.

Edit: It's raining on the route next to Azalea town. I should take advantage of the boost to Water Gun and get some levels.

Currently playing Voltorb Flip and entertaining the idea of grinding for the Dratini. I heard there's a site that auto-plays the game for you so I'm guessing it's not all that rare.
The prices on these rewards are pretty outrageous. In the old game you could at least directly buy the coins.

Slowpoke bulldozed Bugsy and the second rival fight. I named Slowpoke Yadon, its Japanese name. I figured since Slowpoke is always behind it'd fit since it's like he doesn't know the game's been translated into English. Might even leave it unchanged after he evolves.

I've played enough Voltorb to buy a third of a team. You can save in front of the exchange guy and then just reset until you get an adamant Dratini and a modest Abra.
These aren't uncommon Pokemon to use, but the method of obtaining them is kind of strange. Hell, I think you can get wild Abras on the route south of Goldenrod. Still sounded funny to build a team this way.
Lots of people might end up using Dragonite considering Dragon's Den is coming up later too, so I'm wondering if I should go ahead and use it.

And that's a tag.

HGSS has a fucking bizarre level curve and it really hurts me from replaying it. That said, there's still a lot to like in it.

As far as Johto pokes, I'm partial to Ampharos and Donphan.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I hereby vow not to use a generic team.

I ended up using a Slugma for my current run (you can get an egg from an NPC in Violet City)

Chikorita is my favorite Gen 2 starter, which is why I'm sad that the games it's from hates it so much.

Just beat Whitney. They gave the Miltank a Lum Berry so it basically gets a free turn to try and Attract/flinch you while your status move gets undone.

Here's the current team.
Bayleef lv23
Pineco lv20
Slowpoke lv23
Dratini lv23

The Dratini they give you at the Game Corner has Leer and Thunder Wave so right away it's like they put it there so you could sabotage Miltank.

The Pineco came from the day care, has a better nature than the one I got from headbutting a tree. My plan was either this or I make do with the lv boosts the original Pineco got while I was cycling up and down Goldenrod.

The Game Corner Abra's in the Day Care. The Abra evo line's a pretty obvious pick for any team so I'm really hesitant to use it. I think there's an Eevee somewhere in Goldenrod too. Another one to rule out pretty easily.
I named Abra "Um... Uh.." because I thought it'd be funny if the Name Rater did the whole "Hmm, Abra! That's a great name, but I can come up with a better one." speech and then couldn't come up with anything at all.

I've done the metal coat trick just to see if it's as easy as they say. Fainted Magnemite with Magnet Pull in the first position of the party, Stantler with Frisk in second. I have the Metal Coat before Morty but now I'm debating between Scizor, Steelix or neither.

I got a Scyther from the bug catching contest the other day and I put it in the day care with Ditto (Who hates everyone according to the day care man) the eggs are taking a while to hatch and adamant nature + Technician could take a while at this rate.
Onix would just be a run back to Union Cave. I'd be less determined to get it just right with Steelix, a defensive nature and I'd be happy.

Considering Shuckle later on, but I'm also wary that I'm going to turn into a bug type gym leader at this rate.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Where does Slowpoke rank on the generic scale?

Use Politoed instead.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

adamant nature + Technician could take a while at this rate.

That's half the fun. I've spent days getting eggs before. It's worth it.

GSC were my favorite aside from Yellow. Kanto and Johto were the best regions and I like that you get to have a Pokmon battle with Red on Mt. Silver.

Morty is beaten. 4 moves. Lv30 Scizor spamming Pursuit.
It was kind of a roundabout way of doing things but it was fun.

A weirdly specific 20 year old memory came to me and helped me EV train Scyther. I randomly remember playing Pokemon Crystal way back and spamming the good rod on the shore to the east of Olivine City, I was trying to find Corsola but kept finding Krabby and Magikarp instead.
Nowadays that translates to lots of attack and speed EVs, so score.

I had to trade the Scyther to evolve it too. On my Soul Silver I had some Pokemon from back when George Bush was president and Mario Galaxy 1 hadn't released yet. I had my Heracross from Sep 2007 and my Tyranitar from Oct 2007. A whole bunch of early 2008ers too. That whole PC box could have been titled "What I did while waiting for SSBB."

For this run at least, I draw the line at trading a bunch of OP/nat dex Pokemon over. There was a lv1 modest Rotom and an adamant Larvitar, a low lv Machamp with 3 elemental punches and EQ.

Anyway Morty's probably lucky his Pokemon were already dead because DEATHBORN the partially EV trained Scizor's a strong dude. Will probably have to use something else to keep things interesting.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

What I did while waiting for SSBB

I remember being really young and literally counting the days that brawl was out and I didn't have it. I think it was probably around a week.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/8/AAfe1wAAEzsA.jpg

Cemith posted...

I remember being really young and literally counting the days that brawl was out and I didn't have it. I think it was probably around a week.

Oh I got that thing day one. I didn't get a Wii day one though so I have an idea how grating that can be.
I feel like every time I talk about SSBB, the main thing I bring up is how much fun the wait was and how optimistic and creative people were at the time. It was good.

Chuck down.
Much faster than the gap between Whitney and Morty.
I remembered that Chuck is actually Chikorita's time to shine. Bayleef evolved into Meganium on the trip from Olivine to Cianwood too so it all came together.

I went back to Union Cave a while back and found Natu. It can't learn fly. Good thing I pre-emptively named it IMBECILE, I suppose.

There's a Safari Zone here. I totally forgot about this. It just opened after I gave Jasmine the Secretpotion and told her it'd cure Ampharos as if my character could personally guarantee that.
Gonna go there since Jasmine is literally the next opponent after Chuck otherwise.
I'm not expecting to find anything great in there but I'll give it a look.

The first time I played Heartgold, I made sure to get a Larvitar from the Safari Zone asap. It didn't evolve into Tyranitar before I beat the Champion, but I don't regret it.

Pryce down.
I wanted to play a bit more of the game before Jasmine, ended up doing the whole Lake of Rage/Rocket Hideout/Mahogany gym stretch. MVP was HOTCOLDMAN the Forretress. Didn't even have a steel move, just resisted everything and got a lot of mileage out of Headbutt/Payback/Bug Bite. Had Spikes too but I only really used that against Pryce.
If I find Stealth Rock soon and can swap it out, Forretress can probably stay on the team for a while.

Obviously if I'm trying not to use what everyone uses, Red Gyarados is right up at the top of the banlist with Ampharos and Crobat. Ah well. My ticket to an EXP Share at least.

It's hard to make much uniqueness of the Rocket Hideout. It's linear, it's mostly the same onslaught of grunt Pokemon. I can't think of anything that would want to be EV trained by fighting Zubats, Drowzees and Koffings either.

Again, I don't want to go straight to Jasmine and beat two Gym Leaders back to back, so I'm gonna go train something. Something heinous.

Edit: Current team.

Forretress lv37
Slowbro lv37
Dragonair lv30
Scizor lv33
Meganium lv34

Jasmine down.
In three turns.
Modest Kingdra + Mystic Water + Surf'll do that.

It always feels nice having a Kingdra. Way back in gen 2, I really wanted one but didn't know how to get one. I knew about trading Seadra with a Dragon Scale but I didn't know where to get the scale. I never found the one in Mt Mortar or the karate guy who gives you Tyrogue in there either. For some reason I kept levelling the Seadra. I'm not sure why, probably a refusal to give up on the Pokemon.

Team Rocket showed up at the Goldenrod radio tower. All the distractions and obtuse ways of doing things made me forget about this part. I'm not sure what to use. Maybe I'll stick with what I have since anything else would probably end up sabotaged by wildly mismatched EVs.

I'm finding out that they took the VS Seeker away again. Instead it's turning the clock back a minute before the hour and then calling the person you want to rematch.
The opponents are low level in this game so it's not all that bad. I won't have to level new Pokemon as much.
I do miss Audino and the free Lucky Egg though. Two tiny changes and suddenly raising Pokemon is free dopamine.

I'm gonna follow in the footsteps of my White playthrough and make a second grass type for the team. Clair's next and everyone knows dragons are famously helpless against grass.

Clair is defeated.
I have to jump through some hoops to get my badge though. Dragon's Den's theme doesn't have the same droning sound it had on GSC.

This is the point where the game starts handing you dragons, so Dragonair is exiled from the party. Off he goes to try and regroup in the unforgiving wilderness with Meganium, Butterfree and the Kadabra who got all his levels from the day care and never learned anything but teleport.

I caught an Oddish, left it in the day care until I got an okayish nature and just now my Bellossom took out Gyarados, two Dragonairs and Kingdra. I bought Slowbro in to eat hits from Kingdra while I used healing items but I'm still pretty happy overall. It's like Lilligant in gen 5 but with Sludge Bomb instead of 4 grass moves.

I played around with some levelling methods just to see what was fast, so some Pokemon came into the 8th gym pretty tanked up.
Current team
Kingdra lv43
Bellossom lv45
Scizor lv43
Forretress lv38
Slowbro lv38

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Clair is defeated.
I have to jump through some hoops to get my badge though. Dragon's Den's theme doesn't have the same droning sound it had on GSC.

This is the point where the game starts handing you dragons, so Dragonair is exiled from the party. Off he goes to try and regroup in the unforgiving wilderness with Meganium, Butterfree and the Kadabra who got all his levels from the day care and never learned anything but teleport.

I caught an Oddish, left it in the day care until I got an okayish nature and just now my Bellossom took out Gyarados, two Dragonairs and Kingdra. I bought Slowbro in to eat hits from Kingdra while I used healing items but I'm still pretty happy overall. It's like Lilligant in gen 5 but with Sludge Bomb instead of 4 grass moves.

I played around with some levelling methods just to see what was fast, so some Pokemon came into the 8th gym pretty tanked up.
Current team
Kingdra lv43
Bellossom lv45
Scizor lv43
Forretress lv38
Slowbro lv38

I can give u a politoed of u want

Poorly posted...

I can give u a politoed of u want

It's a dangerous time to be a water type team member.
I just found out Corsola can't learn Waterfall. I need a Waterfall user and I might put Whirlpool and Rock Smash on it for good measure.

Also DS Wifi's been gone for a while.

Still, I could take that Frisk Stantler down to the well and get a King's Rock off a Slowpoke. I have a Poliwag in the PC too.

Oh, right. They make you fight the Kimono Girls then go to Tin Tower.

Critically acclaimed Stealth Rock mascot, Moltres (Johto regional form) won't know what hit him.

Ho-Oh Pokedex entry.

"Legends claim this Pokemon flies the world's skies continuously on its magnificent, seven-colored wings."
Yeah well not any more. It's about to crash land in PC Box 14. The box isn't even getting a funny name.

It's nickname is beanbag (all lower case) and its PC box will not have the sky wallpaper.
I considered Who-oh, since that's the sound people make when they hear there's a legendary nearby, get their hopes up and then this thing comes tip-toeing in with its big anti-entry hazard clown shoes on.

I haven't forgotten about the lengths Ho-oh made me to go to to catch it back in Colosseum.

I've reached the Indigo Plateau and levelled Forretress up.
Now I just need to go back into Victory Road and level Slowbro up. And then decide on a sixth team member to take into the E4.

Maybe a rock/ground/fighting type would be nice. Donphan seems too obvious. Gligar's cool but I used it last game. Hmm...

Okay scratch that, I tried the league, figured I'd get some levels even if I didn't win.
But then, Scizor soloed Will, Slowbro soloed Koga, Slowbro and Bellossom beat Bruno, Scizor and Kingdra beat Karen, Slowbro took out Lance's Gyarados and gave Kingdra the green light to start spamming water and ice moves.

I used a dragon type, so that lets Lance keep some of his pride, thinking he was at least using the right type.

I wish I could get the SS Aqua ticket from Professor Elm and realise what was happening for the first time again. It's gotta be one of the best surprises in any game.
But maybe I should tweak my team first. Slowbro's been great but it's also tempting to go there with a full Johto themed team.

It took me two decades, but I finally found the karate guy and the Dragon Scale in Mt Mortar and got the Tyrogue. I wonder if he tells you to make room in your party if you're already carrying six. I hate that, just warp it to the PC like when I catch a Pokemon.

I wonder what I was doing wrong all those years ago. Probably going in the wrong entrance for starters. Nobody I knew had found him either, after a while I stopped being convinced he was real.
But here we are.

You don't have to time machine a Hitmonchan/Hitmonlee over from RBY and use the day care. It's real.
A silver lining though. Eggs were 1/64 to be shiny in that game and the first Tyrogue I ever got or saw ended up being a shiny. My first aside from the red Gyarados.
I got really used Tyrogue's shiny color scheme and when it finally turned up in another game with the normal color scheme, I was kind of weirded out by how wrong it looked. Still looks a little off to me years later.

Hmm.
"The two play with other Pokemon rather than with each other..."
I can't remember if this means eggs are rare or no eggs at all. I can't even remember what causes this. Something to do with natures?

Each Pokemon is in it's own 'egg group' (breeding group). The flavour text is a hint as to whether the two Pokemon can breed or not.

I can't remember exactly how it works, but that might be a sign the two Pokemon can't breed.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Hmm.
"The two play with other Pokemon rather than with each other..."
I can't remember if this means eggs are rare or no eggs at all. I can't even remember what causes this. Something to do with natures?

That is the only line that will produce no eggs.

Any other text just indicates how long it is likely to take (more specifically, what % chance each "egg cycle" is to produce an egg). Them "not getting along" just means the % chance per cycle is low.

Oh right. Thanks.
It doesn't say the egg groups in the game, does it? I just have to mentally group things with similar physical configurations together. And I'm pretty sure there were two different water groups so that's probably what's gone wrong.

Maybe I should focus on the other missing party member while I figure that out. Teddiursa's gotta be somewhere round here. Wonder how many people actually use that? Even if Natu can't learn Fly, I bet Xatu can. I probably lose a few Johto points if I evolve Gligar, Yanma or Sneasel. Choices.

While I'm cycling up and down Goldenrod City. I gotta say I really don't like what they did to the theme.
I know it's early in the game but they really made it sound like a starting town.
Or like an early scene in a movie where everything's whimsical and the character's just walking around being wowed by the sights. Stops fitting after a while.

Hold a note once in a while would you please, HGSS Goldenrod soundtrack? It's a gold tinted city by the sea in the centre of a rural region in a game pumped full of nostalgia. Let it have some gravitas.
Edit: At least they didn't do anything like this to Violet/Olivine City's theme. That's the real nostalgia song.

When I get the thing that turns the music 8-bit, I will restore order.

Random opinion on each town while I train Pokemon to help me lay siege to Kanto.

New Bark Town: They made the song too slow and also the stairs in the player's house are on the left instead of the right. Lyra and Pikablu are here forcing tutorials on me now. Hmm. I used to beat the league a lot so this was always where I'd plan what to do next and review how fast something was levelling up after skipping through the credits.

Cherrygrove City: In this game you can see that the Mystic Water is actually a necklace. I used to like thinking that the guy just scooped up a quarter pint of water and handed it to you. I have a weirdly vivid memory of a screenshot where the Pokemart had SHOP written on it instead of MART. I think it was either in the enclosed instruction book or on the back of the box.
He's not really a citizen of Cherrygrove but you gotta feel bad for Mr Pokemon. His first of its kind egg discovery has been downgraded to him predictably getting excited about another egg. Weird name.

Violet City: You know how when games are in pixels, sometimes your brain gets busy imagining what the places are actually meant to look like? This place was a big one of those for me. There was a lot of space and clusters of trees round the side. Seemed like a nice, chill place.

Azalea Town: This place always felt cramped to me. There's the well way over on the right then every other building is compressed into a small rectangle on the left. If you lose to the rival it becomes apparent what a small box he's got you trapped in. Bugsy was curiously unhelpful when it came to team rocket.

Goldenrod City: I like this place a lot. It doesn't seem real. In a good way. Pink brick road, golden buildings, a one-off theme, uncharacteristically modern landmarks you wouldn't find anywhere else in Johto, the fact you go there to beat the Gym and then the game calls you back there later for the radio tower takeover. I get a real city that doesn't sleep vibe. At night all the lights come on and I think because of that I can only really imagine this place at dusk or dawn at most, never in the dead of night.

Ecruteak City: I used to not care for Ecruteak City. For some reason I always through it was lame the let you climb Tin Tower where every floor looks the same, but they don't let you go deeper into sub-levels of the Burned Tower. Feels weird that such a quiet, traditional town is just a short walk away from Goldenrod. It's nice, but it's not exciting or anything.

Olivine City: Even though Cianwood was a short surf away, this always felt like it was the end of the world map. The "Man, if those rocks weren't inconveniently lined up, I wonder where I could surf to if I held down long enough." area. It's where you get on the SS Aqua to Kanto as well, so that feeds into it. The zigzag shape of town and the beach/lighthouse off to the sides make it feel really spacious. Gym Leader does more than stand in a gym and wait for you. I usually call the song the Violet City theme, but I think it works best here. Really comfy place.

Cianwood City: Feels like an afterthought. Everything you'd want to do is all condensed into one area. Fight Chuck, get Fly, see Suicune and fight Eusine, get Shuckle. All in a few minutes. In this game there's a route to the Safari Zone. Maybe it'd feel a bit more lively if the Safari Zone was on the west part of town rather than there being a route between them.

Mahogany Town: I didn't know what to make of this place for a while, but at this point it feels like a place where nobody settles down. Only buildings are a Pokemon centre, an unconventional shop which doubles as a villain lair and a gym I'm surprised they built there. You'd think Pryce would do something about the Rockets coming and going. Feels like a small rest stop built built to make the walk to Blackthorn easier.

Blackthorn City: What a bunch of dorks. A dragon gym where half the trainers have Horseas and Seadras? Full of lava and fast spinning platforms? Old dudes in a temple you need Whirlpool to access asking you basic questions about Pokemon?
If you can't fly and you want to go on holiday, you can choose between walking a lap of Johto and returning through the ice cave (Which is confirmed to be a dangerous place considering a kimono girl gets stuck in the remake) or not returning because it's a one way system.
I do like that Clair refuses to give you the badge though and tries to make things difficult. All while wearing that cape.
Good place, high concentration of very traditional weirdoes getting up to who-knows-what in a remote area. Maybe they put something in the water supply.
I wonder if they exile people by pushing them off the ledge at the bottom of town.

Took a while, but it's just about ready.

All Johto. Immune to most gen 1 criticisms. Forged in the land of wild lv20s and the legendary trio that put instantly fleeing from battle on the map, literally. (Crowd boos) I can't tell why you're booing is it what I said or the fact they do that? Or both?
Scizor lv51
Kingdra lv50
Bellossom lv48
Hitmontop lv46
Lanturn lv48
Forretress lv48

Anyway, here's a punchline. I still have to trade one out for a Cut user because Lt Surge still has that tree blocking his gym. As if he's absolutely terrified of what later gen ground types might come out of that harbour and he needs to buy himself time.

Lt Surge and Misty down.

The sign outside Lt Surge's gym confirms that his nickname is still The Lightning American. That is something worth turning toward the camera while barely suppressing a grin over.
He used Double Team and he used electric moves on a Lanturn with Volt Absorb twice. Throwing myself at the gym puzzle and waiting to luck out was tougher than him.
I can't shake the image of him nervously staring out the gym window, hoping no trainers with post-gen 1 ground types sail into town.

Every time I play a game with Kanto in it I forget what a winner the gen 1 battle theme is. The Kanto town themes too.

Misty got an okay deal in this game. There's gym trainers and there's repurposed nugget bridge trainers. There's the machine part thing. She got a better team than Lt Surge too. I talked to her after the battle and she said something about visiting Johto. Are gym leaders allowed to take the gym challenge in other regions? There's no electric or grass gyms in Johto so she'd probably curbstomp all eight.

Celadon City. Maylene is here. Crasher Wake is here. Stealth Rock tms for 2000 moneys are here.
If I remember right, Gens 1 and 3 happen at the same time, 2 and 4 take place at the same time. And then it's some interdimensional parallel universe chaos stuff.

"Haha this gym is great! It's full of-" Badly dubbed voice: "Strong trainers."

Beat Erika. Her fight was a lot of fun. Forretress has Stealth Rock and her Jumpluff using U-Turn. You see what happened. It was mostly switching between Bellossom and Forretress to bait/tank U-Turns and then when she was down to only Jumpluff and Tangela, I bought Scizor out.
I was hoping Bellossom could get more EXP here but since it's a gen 1 grass gym, that means everything's gotta be part poison type. I gave her the EXP Share and did pretty well anyway. And got Giga Drain.

Saffron's literally right there. I should go there next. The route between Celadon and Saffron really is miniscule. I think it's also where Murkrow and Houndour finally show up. Odd choice.

The gen 1/3 and 2/4 thing was loose fan theory that I dont think has been supported in universe. It came about due to the time travel in gen 2 which wasnt referred back to later after the GTS mixed everything together.

The only canon fact is that gen 2 is a few years after gen 1. And while I havent played gen 5, I believe thats clearly years later still.

Dark_Arbron posted...

The gen 1/3 and 2/4 thing was loose fan theory that I dont think has been supported in universe. It came about due to the time travel in gen 2 which wasnt referred back to later after the GTS mixed everything together.

The only canon fact is that gen 2 is a few years after gen 1. And while I havent played gen 5, I believe thats clearly years later still.

I'm gonna roll with it. I like how it sounds.

5 feels like it'd take place later just for how accommodating it felt toward new players. I was gonna say the technology feels recent but it's just the graphics playing tricks on me. Kanto had advanced stuff like Bill's crazy machines and the Pokemon Mansion too.
Still though, that Team Plasma castle at the end was on a whole other level from the looks of things.

I've got a suggestion for when you finish. This remake introduces gym leader rematches. You get each of their numbers at certain times during the week, then call them at certain times to get them to agree to battle. They go wait for you in Saffron City at what used to be the fighting dojo.

Call them without battling them. Wait until they're all there at the same time. Make a team, and do a gauntlet. All 16 gym leaders in a row.

DarkChozoGhost posted...

I've got a suggestion for when you finish. This remake introduces gym leader rematches. You get each of their numbers at certain times during the week, then call them at certain times to get them to agree to battle. They go wait for you in Saffron City at what used to be the fighting dojo.

Call them without battling them. Wait until they're all there at the same time. Make a team, and do a gauntlet. All 16 gym leaders in a row.

I do this in Emerald with the eight leaders followed by Steven.

Saffron City gym.
Even the guy by the front door just went "Haha no man you don't need me telling you how to beat Psychic types! You got this!"
I feel like Sabrina's design has gone through quite a few changes. Someone at Gamefreak must like her.
Her personality amounts to "Heh I had a premonition of your arrival. I know what's going to happen." Then she proceeds to do nothing about the STAB X-Scissor that's about to one-shot her ace.

Her gym doesn't seem like a fun place to be. The constant motion from the teleporters, everyone in there is crazy.
Meanwhile next door there's a humble and friendly wooden plank puncher who's invited all the gym leaders from both regions over for recreational sparring. Easy choice.