i might be scrambling to finish as much of this about section as i can before scarvio arrives because i know it's all over at that point. (edit: i failed. sorry)
i didn't really own any sort of game console, handheld or otherwise, until the gba. ruby was my first pokemon game. i had a mudkip. it still knew tackle up until victory road because "it's good for catching pokemon". please be nice to me i was like 12. or 10. this shit came out in 2002? i have no idea how old i was actually. anyway.
these days i like to draw lil doodles of my team as i play through the game to watch how it develops. i've done it for a few games now and i'm doing it for scarvio too! when i find the rest i'll probably just dump them all here. i like to draw gijinkas of them too sometimes. i've never finished a whole team's worth but maybe i'll share those too.
anyway here's my pro strat for playing through the storyline: just don't level grind. or at least level grind as little as possible. newer games love to dump the exp on you and if that makes the game less interesting for you then i'm pleased to say you can just ignore it. obviously like run around a bit to find new pokemon and stuff but you don't have to overstay your welcome. just make things harder for yourself. that's my pro tip. (you could also just do a nuzlocke or w/e i GUESS if that's what you're into.)