Pokémon: 5 Reasons Nessa Is The Best Water Gym Leader (& 5 Reasons Misty Is Better)

Misty may be the OG Water Gym Leader in Pokémon, but Nessa has taken up that mantle in Sword & Shield. Who is better?

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Since Ash first started his Pokémon adventure, two things about the franchise have always been abundantly clear: the goal is to catch ‘em all and be the very best (like no-one ever was). The former tends to fall by the wayside for some players, but there’s no completing Nintendo Switch hit Pokémon Sword and Shield without dethroning Champion Leon and becoming the best trainer in Galar.

One step at a time, though. Before that, you’ve got eight Gym Leaders to topple. In Sword and Shield, the Water-type expert, Nessa, is your second opponent, just as Misty was originally, back in the days of Pokémon Red and Blue (and Green). Which of these Water Gym Leaders is the best, though? Let’s take a look!

10 Nessa: Her Gym Is Truly Imposing

Of course, this isn’t really a fair fight, considering that we first visited Misty’s gym in Cerulean City on our humble Game Boys in 1998. The chunky handheld has all the processing power of your average toilet flushing mechanism today.

Still, though. For a Water-type gym, there’s no doubt that Nessa’s huge arena, with its gushing torrents of water and maze-like design, defines the epic watery challenge we were hoping for.

9 Misty: She’s A Pokémon Icon

Don’t get us wrong, here. Nessa struck a chord with fans the world over as soon as her design was revealed. The fact that her gym was used as Sword and Shield’s playable demo only helped her popularity skyrocket further.

However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Misty is… well, Misty. The tomboyish mermaid has been a fan favorite for decades, whether she’s fearlessly putting Brock in his place or just being outright adorable. You’ve had a good start, Nessa, but it’ll be quite some time before you even approach this level.

8 Nessa: She’s Also Ruthless In The Role

For the protagonist of the Pokémon games, Gym Leaders are really just stepping stones. With their insistence on using just the one Pokémon type, they don’t tend to be the most fearsome opponents.

Regardless, though, Pokémon lore still regards them as some of the greatest trainers in their region. They don’t give those badges away upon their defeat for nothing, after all. As such, a huge part of the role is the Gym Leader’s confidence in their own ability, and Nessa certainly isn’t lacking on that front. She may have even more bravado than Misty!

7 Misty: She’s Totally Committed To Her Gym

With great power comes great responsibility, as wise old Uncle Ben once said. This is also true in the case of Pokémon’s Gym Leaders. Not only do they have the responsibility to take on uppity young pre-teens who only became Trainers a few routes ago, but they’ve also got to support their gyms in other ways during difficult times.

In one episode of the show, “The Misty Mermaid,” the Sensational Sisters at the Cerulean Gym need help attracting crowds to their shows. Misty is eventually convinced to play a mermaid in an underwater ballet, demonstrating her commitment to her gym, her city and her siblings.

6 Nessa: She Has A (Gigantic) Ace Up Her Sleeve

If you’ve played Sword and Shield, you can’t fail to have noticed the fact that Pokémon are suddenly growing to about eighty feet tall out of no-darn-where in Galar. Or, to give this phenomenon its official name, they’re Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing.

Needless to say, Misty’s Pokémon have never been capable of any such feat. Nessa is the first Water Gym Leader to bring something as fearsome as Dynamax Drednaw to the battlefield. In the Champion Cup rematch, she exceeds even that by Gigantamaxing Drednaw instead, an even more formidable prospect.

5 Misty: She Proved Herself From Such a Young Age

When we first meet the fresh-faced Misty in the early days of the show, it’s clear that she’s a very special young woman. She’s tenacious, she’s talented, she’s dedicated to her beloved Water-type Pokémon (the cute ones, at any rate). All her appearances testify to this.

Of course, Nessa isn’t lacking in any of these traits either, but she wasn’t quite the big deal from such an early age that Misty was. This isn’t to say that Galar’s resident Water expert wasn’t a young Poké-prodigy herself, though, as the information on her League Card makes clear.

4 Nessa: She (Somewhat) Covers Her Weaknesses

As we’ve already stated, one of the biggest weaknesses of any Gym Leader’s team is that it centers around the use of a specific type of Pokémon. That’s sort of the deal, after all, but it breaks the fundamental rule of building a good Pokémon team: don’t compound your weaknesses.

If your whole party is weak to Electric and you come across a powerful, speedy Electric type, that’s… well, that’s going to ruin your whole day. Water Pokémon are weak to Electric and Grass, so any mono-Water team is going to at least need to try to alleviate that issue with dual-typings. Misty’s classic Staryu and Starmie team does precisely zero good here, as have many of her others down the years. Nessa has a similar issue, but by the time of the Champion Tournament, she at least has a Quagsire (immune to Electric) and Pelipper (neutral to Grass) to help a teensy bit.

3 Misty: She Faces Her Fears And Gets The Job Done

Being courageous isn’t about having no fear. Not really. It’s about having that fear, but going right the heck ahead and doing it anyway, like the unstoppable legend you are.

Misty knows all about this. Her phobia of Bug-types is well documented, but there she was in that darn forest anyway. After that encounter with a Gyarados, too, her fear of them was more than understandable (it’s a gigantic sea monster the size of the Chrysler Building, too, which would probably make most of us just a little wary). Did that stop her? Well, yes, at first, but she overcame that too. That’s exactly the kind of spirit we want to see in our Gym Leaders.

2 Nessa: Her Gym’s Actually Quite Challenging

As we know, then, Misty and Nessa’s gyms are very different prospects. Misty’s classic gym is more of a leisure affair with a simple route to the leader herself, with nothing more than a couple of swimmers as obstacles. Meanwhile, Nessa’s Hulbury Stadium is much more intimidating.

The great scope of the building, the number of opposing trainers inside, the rather fiendish water puzzle… it’s only the second gym in the game, yet it still feels like quite a little feat to conquer it.

1 Misty: She’s A Gym Leader Through And Through

So, Nessa’s League Card reveals some interesting information about her (as do all of the Gym Leader’s cards). If you take a look at the rare version she gives you in the post-game, though, you’ll discover something quite interesting: she’s living a double life!

As it turns out, she’s just as successful as a model as she is as a Gym leader. Apparently, she can flit between personas depending on the work she’s currently doing. For all her talk about her commitment to crushing challengers, then, is she actually less dedicated to Gym Leader life than we may have thought?

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