TRAINER'S EYE #102 - "Shundo Kyogre Surfing Hawaiian Waves" ft. FilmVlogs

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by FilmVlogs, a Pokemon GO Trainer from Hawaii

FilmVlogs shares his early experience with Pokemon from watching the anime. Eventually he would experience Pokemon through the video games and found similar connections between the Pokemon anime and video games.

Eventually FilmVlogs would dive into Pokemon GO and would engage the game through Pokemon GO Raids and Shiny Hunting. FilmVlogs shares insight into what motivates him to do Raids and shares some of his rarest catches, including a few Shundos!

Finally, FilmVlogs dives into his excitement and expectations for Pokemon World's in Honolulu! Join in on the Pokemon World's hype by listening to this local Pokemon story from Hawaii!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect With FilmVlogs: Twitch | Twitter

Transcript

FilmVlogs: 0:00

my name is FilmFlogs, and this is my Pokémon story.

David Hernandez: 0:42

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. Today, I'm joined by Film Vlogs, a Pokemon content creator from Hawaii. Film Vlogs, welcome to the show.

FilmVlogs: 0:57

Thank you, David. How are you today?

David Hernandez: 1:00

I'm doing pretty well, man. excited for Worlds coming around. You know, it's coming into your neck of the woods in Hawaii. And, you know, that's gotta be pretty exciting for you. I would be, if it was in my own backyard.

FilmVlogs: 1:12

I'm just very grateful. This is actually going to be my first time in worlds, so I'm going to have a lot of fun meeting with all the creators from Twitch and all the creators from YouTube. And some of my friends are also coming to Worlds. And one of my, film crew that I've Been hanging out with during the summer. They're gonna be Doing the promo for Pokemon worlds, so I'm super duper excited to see everything happening all those three days.

David Hernandez: 1:45

Wow. So you'll be able to see behind the scenes of worlds, you know, for all recording and production before it actually gets finalized. you know, with Pokemon worlds come into your area, how long have you been a Pokemon fan to kind of experience this?

FilmVlogs: 1:57

I've been a Pokemon fan for super long. I would say about when the Pokemon anime came out in the 1990s. I grew up at that time from the Indigo League Season 1, and I was really into that franchise for so long. And that's how I've gotten to know Pokemon a lot before the games with Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow came out I was like, okay, I gotta find out which colors I can play for that one game cause I wanted to play Pokemon Red because Charizard is like one of my favorite Pokemon of all time back then. And he was very useful in all of my battles for gyms and usually useful during Elite Force. I just love having all of my bigger teams with, like, grass types and water types with Charizard. And it's been really helpful with, The endgames to experience the grind.

David Hernandez: 3:05

So you mentioned how you started with the anime and before the games and you're watching, I guess, Ash and Pichu with their adventures.

FilmVlogs: 3:11

Yep,

David Hernandez: 3:12

did you stick with the anime? Like, did you stick with the anime throughout or did you kind of switch over to the games and stop watching the anime? Hmm.

FilmVlogs: 3:21

I was watching throughout the whole thing except for when Ash goes to the Pokemon League. I missed half of that because that's like part of when the endgames came out. So, I've kind of stopped at that point from watching, the Pokemon League and then just going through the in games that I saw on TV, they were advertised and I was like, really excited to play Pokemon Red.

David Hernandez: 3:48

When you're going through Red, did you kind of like imagine yourself almost like Ash was going through the different towns? Like, oh, I'm in Vermilion City where Pikachu guys butt kick by Raichu and all this kind of stuff.

FilmVlogs: 3:59

Yeah, actually, yeah, when I was in Familian City, yeah, it does remind me of that show as well. also Pokemon Yellow has that type of feel when you watch the series from the Indigo Plateau, Pokemon Yellow has that feel of being your buddy with Pikachu and when you're with Pikachu the whole time, it's like you're Going after Bulbasaur, from a different perspective than in the show. So, Bulbasaur was found, like, you know, in, if I remember, that was like, Cerulean City,

David Hernandez: 4:38

Yes.

FilmVlogs: 4:39

And then Charmander was, oh man, this was a while back,

David Hernandez: 4:44

I think Charmander was like in that route after you pass the bridge, the Nugget Bridge. I think it's like that far left corner, if I remember correctly.

FilmVlogs: 4:53

I think I remember that, yeah. The bridge, and then Squirtle was at Familian City, so it's a very different storyline that you go through in Pokemon Yellow, which is a little bit different. To get, when Ash gets Bulbasaur, Squirtle pretty quickly. it ties in a little different, but then, with the games and the anime, it's sort of the same.

David Hernandez: 5:20

It sounds like almost to where. you know, you get the starters are different compared to like Charmander was abandoned. Squirtle was a part of, I think, a mischief squad and Bulbasaur was, I think it was, uh, somebody who was a protector or something like that from a daycare. But then when you get into the anime, you kind of draw that connection, even though, like you said, it's just a different kind of story around them in the games compared to anime, but you kind of still draw back to the anime in a sense.

FilmVlogs: 5:43

Yeah. also Squirrel was part of the Quil squad, and that's how I think, Quil has a choice of being with the Squirrel Squad the whole time or being with Ash. So that doesn't happen in the end games, but usually it's a different type of story to obtain a squirtle infra alien city. And then Ash gets squirtle from Squirtle squad

David Hernandez: 6:08

Did you stick with Pokemon throughout all the games, like after like Gold, Silver, and Crystal, Hoenn, and all that?

FilmVlogs: 6:13

Oh yeah, definitely. I've been trying to choose gold and silver, during that time. I chose gold because holo is just a really majestic orange color that I saw in the first episode, as like a cameo for the beginning of Pokemon Indigo. And I was thinking of just going for gold because I didn't recognize Lugia at that time before the movie Pokemon and then that time I was playing throughout the whole Johto and the Unknowns, Unknown Patterns, and then that was probably the time I didn't really go through as much With the elites, I was really busy that time at school. so probably around, I would say, 5th and 6th grade, I have ton of homework that time. So, that was the time I stopped then. And then, Last was Ruby and Sapphire. I chose Ruby because I like the Groudon red color. And I was into dinosaurs. So I like that form of Groudon that is like a dinosaur.. that comes from a volcano, which is cool. And, Playing through that RWBY, it was really fun. I really enjoyed going after, Gen 3 And my starter was Mudkip, Mudkip was like a really cute Pokémon, and the water versatiles really, really really strong didn't really touch upon Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. that was probably the time high school was out, and I was very busy with studies then.

David Hernandez: 7:55

So, you basically, after Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, you took a break and didn't come back to Pokemon until Sword and Shield? Or, I'm sorry, Pokemon Go, probably?

FilmVlogs: 8:02

so, Pokemon Go came out when I moved to college at around NorCal, and I actually started playing Pokemon Go at around the summer of two days before the game came out, on July 6th, that was the time I was really busy, and I couldn't open the game until the 8th. So I had a free day during that time, and I started playing Pokemon Go at that time, catching Pokemon. In the Pokédex, just walking with, one other friend He says, Oh, open up Pokémon Go. Let's go catch some Pokémon. And I said, Oh, cool. I didn't know it was just out. So I just go outside, catches just some of the Pokémon, not as many, because we want to slow down and keep on progressing the Pokédex for Gen 1. And it's a lot more fun to just go couple more catches at a time to see how your progression goes.

David Hernandez: 9:02

Did you like, uh, go out and stay out late playing this game? And like, how engaged did you get with the game?

FilmVlogs: 9:07

Yeah, so, actually, I was actually an XB Grinder. because level 40 was the end level cap back then that I wanted to achieve. So, I kept playing it every day, trying to make sure that I get my school homework done during the day. And then afterwards, I just go through my day, and try to go through as many catches and as many. candies, and going through gym battles. I like Proceeding in the gym battles back then, where you have one Pokemon where you have Pokemon in one sitting, but not all the Pokemon that are in the gym. I miss that really much, cause it shows like, okay, which Pokemon should I battle first to use my counters with? Because that's the fun and beauty of battling a gym. Which is like, almost like Elite Four, or battling a gym member, where you battle each Pokemon. and yes, I heard the complaints about the Blissey being buffed up.

David Hernandez: 10:15

Yeah, yeah, Bliss. Jim's square thing. Mm-Hmm.

FilmVlogs: 10:19

like, Blissey was very tough, very tough to beat. you're trying to get as much Machamps to try to beat it up. so, Having a Machamp would be pretty much a solid to get as much of these Pokécoins. I went to small events that Niantic, advertises like from the Viva Calle San Jose. That's like a, Pretty much small venue where they have people do like a A run a thon, and Niantic is sponsored with them for like, just the day, and then they usually, carry like some small prizes from Niantic, and there are also some really fun things that they carry, which is like, they have like Pokestops where you go through, Numbers 1 through 10, and then you read like a description in the Pokestop, like where to go next in order, like that was a lot of fun doing that. And when you get to 10 of those Pokestops to complete it, you'll get a prize. this was really uh, interesting and rare experience to go through with this. but I would love to see that. Come back with other, sponsored events. I think that would be cool to bring it up. Like, just like with GoFest, you see, like, throwback loading screens. And they have it by numbers. So, it's something similar to that, what Niantic has branched in. And, I would love to have it in some type of sponsored events.

David Hernandez: 11:58

It kinda, almost like it pinpoints your adventure and it's like a walkthrough time kind of thing. think about those, you know, I, we'll talk about here in a little bit, but the Go Fest and you see all the loading screens and, you know, you go and time, it's kinda like a. A trip through time, if so you will. That's kind of how I can compare it.

FilmVlogs: 12:12

right. And you take a snapshot with your Pokemon for that. So, it's the same type of thing as what they did for the small event. For Viva, yeah, from San Jose.

David Hernandez: 12:24

You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. So when it came to Pokemon Go at this time, you know, you said you started playing because you wanted to get XP. You're trying to grind to 40 early in the game, which was difficult, of course. And then, you know, you're into hatching eggs. And when that was introduced with the incubators and all that, what's been your motivation to kind of keep playing the game? Are you trying to get higher stats? Trying to get all the Pokemon

FilmVlogs: 13:27

Yeah, so I think my motivation to grind is to go after shinies. And going after Raid Legendary Shinies and going for like Shadow Shinies, I think that those are like the key points of Pokemon is to like grind for those Pokemon that you want for Raid Battles or PvP and GPL. Um, so I usually like to focus more on the raid aspect, where I like to raid Pokemon with my counters. I want to say shout out to LeetDuck and also Kupoi Gaming for making a graphics sheet for counters. that really helps me figure out putting those teams into the slots that I can use to battle with Legendaries, and they help manage the legendaries to go down quicker in raid battles, and also catching them, hopefully. Like, pretty much I basically like to keep on going to see if I get hundos, shundos, or like a rare XL candy, or getting more XL candies, That's mostly, like, one of my favorites in raiding, and usually, I like remote raiding too, as well, like, in person and remote at the same time, because I usually connect with my online community too, and I have, like, my own discord. And I create, like, all types of, ways to get into raids as a community online. And then I just call out my online people, like, oh, hey, we got a, Rayquaza coming up in about two minutes. Are you guys down for that raid? And then they come in and say yes. And. Just making sure that everybody is in and also just, going through Rayquaza's like as many as possible to see if they get their shinies is pretty much a fun and exciting way to play Pokemon Go

David Hernandez: 15:32

What is like, on top of your head, you know, what's a Pokemon that you're trying to hunt that you haven't gotten yet? Is it Shundo? Is it a Hundo? Is it a certain Pokemon?

FilmVlogs: 15:39

I think Shundo's was pretty much for me and my skill sets and raids, I think Shundo's it was a lot harder for me, to get Shundo's. My first Shundo was Kyogre, so I was really lucky when Shiny Kyogre came back, I got the Shundo and I was in shock. it was like my first time getting the Ashundo Legendary and, I posted it on Twitter and everyone was saying congrats and I just felt really overwhelmed because it was my first time just encountering Ashundo Kyogre was incredible. and then, I hatched, a Shundo, uh, Alola Meowth. That was from 7Ks. I was mind blown when I checked the stats. And I was just ready to evolve it into a shiny Alola Persian and trying to save up, more XLs to try to max it out to level 50. afterwards, like a year later, was the Shundo, Um, Shunno Fritzian. So,

David Hernandez: 16:49

one. I love that.

FilmVlogs: 16:50

yeah. Yeah, I, I rated that, I was inviting people for that one remote, and then I saw 1727. And my heart was racing, just hoping it was a Shundo, and it just happened.

David Hernandez: 17:08

So you just like visualize, you saw the CP. I'm like, oh, please be a Shundo. And then all of a sudden you see it sparkle, dude. That must have been crazy. Mm

FilmVlogs: 17:17

wish it was on video, but I just, I was constantly in the car. Just parked in, and I, Couldn't get my camera to get it I just didn't know what it would could happen. So but yeah, Last but not least I did Shadow Raikou Raids, After I was checking the, rewards and all that, and I saw the CP, and it was saying 1943, which is actually around the 13/13/15, as a shadow. And I was saying, that looks like a purifiable sh hundo, with a shiny. And so I, I was like, okay, let's catch it. I understand that Shadow Raikou is much, much better in battles as a 20 percent damage in shadow form. But. it's hard to get Shundos at that time. I was always wanting to get a Shundo Raikou, for a very long time. So, what I chose was to purify And just save it as a collection. And, yeah, it was really cool having a Shundo obtained for this long.

David Hernandez: 18:29

I mean, it's a tough choice because, you know, the rule we always hear is you should never purify a legendary, almost. Especially Raikou, because like you said, it has more use outside of other Pokemon. But, for me, I'm like, damage is temporary, a Shundo's forever, so why not purify it to get a Shundo? Like, when are you going to have another chance?

FilmVlogs: 18:48

Yeah, it just depends, but I've learned mostly when I did Shadow Mewtube that I just never want to purify because it just looks really dope with those red eyes and like that green just feels so menacing. So

David Hernandez: 19:05

Hmm,

FilmVlogs: 19:06

keeping Shadow Mewtwo as it is. like, I've learned it from other creators to just not purify it, to just keep it as they are and like use it for raids or use it for like, Master League.

David Hernandez: 19:21

I know that you've also had a chance to attend some live events hosted by Niantic like GoFest and stuff like that. What are some of the most memorable ones that you've had a chance to attend?

FilmVlogs: 19:30

I would say Pokemon GO Fest 2019 was my most memorable, it was very memorable because I got a chance to invite my friend that was from California and we both got tickets together to go to GO Fest in Chicago and, going to Grand Park just has that GO Fest feeling, like, you're like at a Disneyland feel, because there's like a lot of flowers and there's just water fountains and flowers all over and snow, for like theme habitats, it just It's such a good blend that I would just stay at GoFest for a long, long time. and meeting with so many communities is incredible. I got a chance to meet up with Reversal, a content creator from the Netherlands. And he's very genuine, really nice guy. He taught me about what content creation for Pokemon Go is about. And, you know, that's how I continued learning through as I go, putting more content out there, for YouTube and, like, a year later, I started my platform on Twitch. So that I can be able to play games with the community. That way I can pretty much learn and grow from this platform and to connect with people that are going through COVID, you know, it's, it's a time that we want to keep the entertainment going content creation on Twitch. And so I started Pokemon Sword and Shield doing Dynamax Adventures with people. and it was a lot of fun connecting with others. And yeah, that's where everything is now and we're just now doing shorts for TikTok so that growth will pretty much come through over time.

David Hernandez: 21:23

One thing I want to ask is that, you know, you said during 2019 GoFest you met Reversal and he gave you advice in regards to what his Pokemon content creation was about. What advice did he give you?

FilmVlogs: 21:35

advice he gave me the, so he says, bring your energy to an extent, like try to have your energy. More upbeat because he told me about this during, his live stream before, he was saying, in one of my videos that I make, he likes my editing style, but I think also he wants me to see me more upbeat and more energetic with the community that alone just, I feel, is a good learning tool and advice from Reversal that I can do that that I can go through the mirror and start learning my scripts and be able to energize with the community whether it's on a community day, whether it's like at a GoFest. I like staying happy and more energized there That will bring the community more smiles,

David Hernandez: 22:33

So it's almost sounds like you have to bring your GoFest, you know, what you're feeling there onto the content platform, whatever that may be, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitch or whatever, and exude that in that space. So that way it spreads to the viewers.

FilmVlogs: 22:45

Yes,

David Hernandez: 22:46

Well, very cool film vlogs. Uh, we are towards the end of this interview. Before we go, I do have to ask the last question. Say somebody was gonna come to Hawaii and battle you in a Pokemon battle. What would your team be?

FilmVlogs: 22:57

Ooh, six Pokemon. so, my picks are, Archenform, Garatina, Mewtwo, Wikwaza, and the last three, Raikou, and then, Bicephalon, and my last one would be, Darkrai.

David Hernandez: 23:17

There you go. FilmVlogs, thank you for coming on the podcast. Before you go, if people want to check out your content, if they want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

FilmVlogs: 23:27

Alright, so I have a YouTube channel called FilmVlogs, and also I have a TikTok platform called FilmVlogs and a Twitch, for FilmVlogs. It is twitch. tv slash FilmVlogs, and I also own the Discord as well for FilmVlogs, and that's pretty much it.