This is something that I can’t recommend enough for fans of the series. I think everyone who is a fan should play the Battle Frontier at least up to the Silver Symbols, maybe even the Gold Symbols. The tl;dr of this is that it’s a formidable challenge that was introduced in the early days (I can’t believe I am saying this, but it’s true- gen 3 is considerably closer to the first two gens than gens 4+) and was the pure essence of postgame for the entire series.

For a bit of background, I started my journey to get a Gold Trainer Card in late 2017 when it came to my Emerald save. I played on cart without an internal battery. My intentions were to 100% the game without using injections or external hacking devices. The challenges are some of the hardest in the entire series, and the patience you need to actually do this on cart is downright saint-like. I finally finished the last challenge with on again off again battles all the way in 2021. The time from 2017 to 2021 I was in the middle of a few career changes, a transfer into a new college, an entire pandemic, and my new (and current) job that I enjoy a lot.

At this point you are probably wondering why. Why should you play the Battle Frontier?
The answer to that, put simply, is that you will have some of the wildest heart pounding battles of your entire life here. You will go up against teams with Pokémon that Quick Claw Sheer Cold you. You will get walled by a Blissey and win, only to then go against a Chansey that has the same strats. You will see a Focus Band proc 3 times in a row (that’s a 1/1000 chance!). You need to win many battles in a row, and the AI only needs to win once to nullify your progress. Your teambuilding and decision making is tested at every point. Masahiro Sakurai’s recent video series that include his idea on giving players stress in order for them to feel pleasure in overcoming that stress is on full display here. That’s not even factoring in the Frontier Brains, that have a bit more well thought out teams for the format you are in. Listen to the theme below and tell me that when you come face to face with a Latios, a Suicune, a Raikou, or any of the non legendary really effin’ good mons like Salamence or Umbreon that you’re not in full panic mode.

You get a good grasp for the gameplay loop and what the developers intended for you to do to train your team. You pretty much nail the mechanics of the game down in order to even start this process. One of the prime examples of this is breeding. Breeding is an iterative process, but I have to back up first. In order to get good potential parents for an offspring, you have to catch a lot of Pokémon, but you also have to make sure you get beneficial natures! To do this, you have to catch a LOT of Pokémon with the ability Synchronize. This is because Synchronize allows you to encounter Pokémon of the same nature if the Synchronize user is at the front of your party. Eventually once you nail that down, you can start breeding so long as the female parent has the correct nature. Then you can give the female parent an Everstone to pass down the ability 1/2 of the time (later gens guarantee that the nature is passed down, but no such luck here). Eventually, you pretty much continue that process until you are satisfied with the IVs. IVs can be checked by a man in the Battle Frontier in one of the random houses(?) there.

What I’m saying is- is that it is a lot. That’s not even factoring in things like EV training or getting Egg Moves or Tutor Moves. I eventually had enough BP to spend on getting an “Elemental Punch” Alakazam, which is an Alakazam with Fire/Ice/Thunder Punch and Psychic. This is 144 BP to do. Your first round of 7 trainers in the Battle Tower nets you ONE BP. My final BP count was over 2000! I was able to afford the gigantic Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur plushies for my Secret Base (which are 256 BP a pop).

The formats are some of the most fun formats that GameFreak ever made. Forget things like Little Cup, Metronome Cup, Triple Battles (I may have made some of the Japanese Twitter Triple Battle fans angry if they are reading this, sorry!). We’ve got:
Bring 3 pick 2 Pokémon, but you and your opponents can scout ahead and get info about your team
An entire dark pyramid to explore where your wins expand your view and you have to find items and get to the exit- kind of like PMD, but mainline
A game of pure chance where your 1/3 decision based on your luck may make or break you
Battle where “judges” (really just conditional comparisons) rank your moves after three turns if no KO happens and you can win, lose or tie a 1v1
A facility where you literally CANNOT PICK YOUR MOVES, your Pokémon “chooses” (really it is just random, but natures influence what type of move is used)

While that list doesn’t appeal to everyone, I have to say that it is a lot better than “Battle Tower but” x format that gen 4’s Battle Frontier has. If the phys/special split is a dealbreaker, I hate to say it, but a player would still be missing out on a lot. When it comes time to teambuild, you’ll find that different Pokémon do better in different facilities. I used Slaking in the Battle Pyramid because you get a lot of 1v1s. When I found a Choice Band, it was GG for any wild Pokémon that I encountered. The rest of my team didn’t get much use, but I did bring Flygon and Blissey (actually I lied, Flygon won me the Gold Symbol because it knew Rock Slide at the time). Starmie and Blissey helped a lot in the Battle Pike because they both offered ways to negate the ever present threat of being status’d. I sacrificed my Blissey near the final battle to use Aromatherapy so my Metagross and Starmie could win the battle against Lucy. Sceptile, one of my favorite Pokémon of all time, got me through both the Arena AND Palace, because I built a defensive one that Leech Seeded and Double Teamed. During the final battle against Palace Maven Spencer, that same Sceptile was able to land a crit Giga Drain on a +3 Calm Mind Suicune after it tried using Blizzard against me and MISSED. I remember these battles years later because, simply put, they were down the the wire.

At the end of the day, the streak based system is really satisfying for arcade-y players. The promise that you can keep improving and keep teambuilding and playing, even comparing and mixing records with your friends if you play together, is honestly something that series hasn’t done at this level in a long time. We normally get a pity Battle Tower clone, albeit gen 8 was a bit better at giving players some things to do. I can definitely say though that if Emerald is ever rereleased for the NSO Virtual Console, I will be replaying the Battle Frontier. I may even limit myself to Kanto Pokémon only since many Kanto/Johto Pokémon are rare in Hoenn. It might be a fun challenge. I will leave you all on one of my favorite clips of all time from a streamer named LWisey who I was watching progress the Battle Frontier.