I remember the days when Pokemon Diamond/Pearl was first released in Japan, and all of the news and leaks following the game's release. I was still a young kid at the time, and I remember following all the updates on Serebii.net. On an early day in October 2006, I laid my eyes on one Pokemon that particularly caught my attention.
The very first image of Gallade, straight from Serebii.net
It looked like a Pokemon related to the Ralts evolution line! This particularly caught my interest since Gardevoir was one of my top favorite Pokemon at the time.
I read the description above the picture. The Pokemon was named "Erureido", a Psychic/Fighting-type Pokemon, and it evolved from a male Kirlia when exposed to an Awakening Stone (the Dawn Stone's Japanese name). It was essentially the male counterpart to Gardevoir, and it was number 475 on the National Pokedex.
I looked at its design and thought to myself, "This Pokemon looks very interesting. I don't know if it can beat Gardevoir in my favorite Pokemon list, but it looks cool nonetheless."
Now, we flash forward to December 2006. During this month, Pokemon Battle Revolution was released in Japan, and you know what that meant? The first glimpse of all the generation 4 Pokemon with 3D animations! I remember Pokebeach was one of the first websites to reveal some of the first videos of the game following its Japanese release. There, the first video I watched showed an online battle where both players used an "Erureido", the Pokemon that particularly caught my interest about a few months back when Pokemon Diamond/Pearl was first released in Japan. Curious, I watched the battle, and before long, I was witnessing how this Pokemon looked in 3D.
Here's the video I'm talking about.
When I watched how "Erureido" looked in the video, I started to develop a strong liking toward it. I really liked its various animations. It stood like a heroic knight ready to battle its opponent head on, and I noticed it had blades on its elbows. After watching the video, I thought to myself, "Gee, 'Erureido' is a pretty cool Pokemon. I'm going to try and raise one on my story team once Pokemon Diamond/Pearl come to the States."
"This Pokemon is looking even cooler the more I look at it."
Months go by, and its the final days leading up to Diamond/Pearl's release in the U.S. A few days before the games were out, the English names were starting to get leaked. I learned that "Erureido's" English name was going to be Gallade, a pun of the words "gallant" and "blade". I thought to myself, "Cool name. I still can't wait to try out Gallade when the games came out." Eventually, April 22, 2007, arrived, and I finally had the chance to play Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I was shocked when I learned you couldn't obtain Gallade during the main story, even though it is a new Pokemon. I was a bit disappointed about that, but I thought to myself, "Well, I definitely raise one once I beat the champion."
Before long, I clear the story, gain the PokeRadar, and learn that Ralts can be obtained in Route 203. I caught a male one and managed to evolve it into a Kirlia. At that moment, I told myself, "It's finally time." I used the Dawn Stone I saved until this very point, gave it to Kirlia, and then I witnessed its evolution. The evolution was complete, and I heard a sword-like sound the moment I saw Gallade. I immediately checked my Pokedex and read its Pokedex entry: "A master of courtesy and swordsmanship, it fights using extending swords on its elbows."
"It
is an awesome knight," I thought to myself. I leveled up my Gallade as I witnessed it learn some very cool moves. Among them: Psycho Cut, Close Combat, Night Slash, and Leaf Blade. Psycho Cut was a cool looking attack, and I thought it fit Gallade well as his signature attack. Close Combat was also an interesting attack for me, as I imagined Gallade attacking with a barrage of slashes and punches. Night Slash was the sort of "Oooo, cool Dark-type attack", while Leaf Blade caught my interest since it used to be Sceptile's signature attack, and seeing Gallade use such an attack made me think "This Pokemon
is the sword master in the Pokemon world!" Along with other slash attacks like X-Scissor, Slash, and Fury Cutter, it was definitely the case.
A few months later, Pokemon Battle Revolution was released in the summer of 2007, and I was very excited since I had the chance to experience the game for myself. Before long, I got to see Gallade on my own big screen. My interest for Gallade went up even further once I got to see all of his attacks and animations in 3D.
Things got even better when the 10th Pokemon movie came into the picture! I was excited when I learned Gallade was going to appear in the film. When I got to see it, I remember being very happy when I saw Gallade make his anime debut. He jumped from tree to tree and made quite a leap to reach Ash and friends, then cut a tree using Psycho Cut when it sensed Darkrai's presence. Take about an awesome anime debut!
One of my favorite scenes from the 10th Pokemon movie
From that moment, Gallade became my favorite Pokemon, easily overtaking both Swampert and Gardevoir.
Eventually, Pokemon Platinum came into the picture, and I remember one of my wishes leading to the game's release was for Gallade to be catchable during the main story. Sure enough, my wish was granted. I caught a Ralts in Route 208, evolved it all the way to a Gallade, and added it to my story team. Obviously, Gallade became a memorable component of my team as it helped through many battles, and I even carried over my Gallade from Pokemon Diamond as one of my main Battle Frontier Pokemon. Yet again, Gallade proved his worth in various battles, and it was even the Pokemon I used for the Battle Hall thanks to his diverse movepool. I also remember Lucian becoming one of my favorite Elite Four trainers at this point since his new signature Pokemon became Gallade, and seeing Darach of the Battle Frontier use one too heightened this happiness further.
When Heartgold/Soulsilver came around, I transferred my Pokemon Platinum team into my copy of Soulsilver for the Kanto postgame, with Gallade still proving his valuable assistance. Likewise, I transferred my Battle Frontier team as well, with Gallade among them as he filled the same roles as he did in Platinum. A few months later, the anime finally reached the Grand Festival finals, and I was surprised to see Gallade getting featured there. Though I wanted Dawn to win, I secretly rooted for Gallade for obvious reasons. When I witnessed Zoey becoming the winner, I felt quite happy that my favorite Pokemon got some major spotlight once more.
Generation 5 came into the picture, and it wasn't long before I had my hopes to try out Gallade in those games as well. Unfortunately, the Ralts evolution was practically unattainable in those games (unless you had the Dream Radar or access to White Forest in the postgame), thus throwing out my wishes to put a Gallade onto my story team. Yes, Gallade has become this big of a favorite that I wanted to add one on every story team for all the Pokemon games I play.
Luckily, generation 6 came into the picture, and when Mega Evolutions were first revealed, I remember crossing my fingers for a Mega Gallade. Gallade was an OU Pokemon in the early days of Diamond/Pearl thanks to his attack and wide move pool, but he lost his fame on the competitive scene in future games thanks to its mediocre speed stat and the existence of stronger Fighting-types. I wanted Mega Gallade to happen so that he could rise to competitive glory once again.
Unfortunately, in the days nearing to X/Y's release, it was revealed Gallade didn't get a Mega Evolution but his female counterpart, Gardevoir, did. I was upset about this since it felt unfair that one evolution counterpart had the Mega Evolution spotlight while the other didn't.
Luckily, this didn't deter my interest in Gallade. I was excited to learn you could obtain the Ralts evolution line during the main story, so I planned to obtain a Gallade for my story team. When I reached Route 4, I relieved the experience of Route 102 as I searched through every patch of grass until I finally encountered a Ralts and caught it. I raised it to a Gallade, and before long, he became a memorable member of my team as he took down most of Team Flare's members ("Team Flare's Worst Nightmare" I liked to call him), a decent number of gym leaders, two elite four members, and the champion. He was also the Pokemon I played with the most in Pokemon Amie; I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him bow to me every time we started playing. Seeing his head movements when feeding it Poke Muffins and playing the face game also made me smile.
Pokemon Amie with Gallade sure is a blast!
In the days between X/Y and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire, I remember imagining how Mega Gallade could look like. I imagined it with a tuxedo-look to complete Mega Gardevoir's design. I was thinking that Mega Gallade should be included for the upcoming titles since they were remakes of two games where his evolution line first debuted in, so this was a golden opportunity. This long period of imagination came to an end on September 10, 2014. I remember checking Serebii.net early in the morning, and I noticed the September CoroCoro scans have been released with new OR/AS information. The one that immediately caught my attention when I first entered the website was this very scan.
The very first image of Mega Gallade revealed to the public
I screamed on the inside as I reacted with pure excitement. Gallade finally has a Mega Evolution, and an awesome looking one too! I loved how it gained a set of capes on his back, along with some cooler looking elbow blades. I was even shocked it became Wally's new signature Pokemon.
Pokemon OmegaRuby comes along, and immediately following Wally's capture, I relieved the Route 102 experience of catching Ralts; it took a while, yet it felt so nostalgic. Rather than relieve this nostalgia further by raising it to become a Gardevoir (which I will likely do sometime in the near future), I decided to raise it to become a Gallade so that I can use his Mega Evolution during the story.
I learned that you didn't get the Dawn Stone until the near end of the story, so when my Kirlia was close to evolving, I played through Super Training to obtain a Dawn Stone of my own and use it to obtain Gallade before the 5th gym. Gallade shined once more. Eventually, I fought Wally in Victory Road, and I won't forget that battle. I really felt like Wally was a far better character in those games, and the atmosphere of the battle captured it perfectly with the flowery setting and epic music. When he used his Mega Gallade against me, I remember choosing not to Mega Evolve any of my Pokemon and let him get at least two chances to attack me out of my respect for Gallade.
I was saddened when I learn you couldn't obtain the Galladite until you beaten the Delta Episode. Oh well, I eventually got my hands on it and was able to experience Gallade's Mega Evolution for myself. Like what many people say, you don't get to truly appreciate something until you experience it for yourself. Seeing Mega Gallade's animations and uses in battle provided me with a deeper liking for the awesome Blade Pokemon than I previously had!