17 March 2022
Crystal:I’m past Union cave and in Azalea town. Current team is Hoohoot, Wooper, Onix, Freshly Hatched Togepi, Gastly, and Bellsprout. Probably going to swap togepi for something since I don't feel like grinding it to Togetic for HMs. Going to try for Heracross soon and maybe a fire type. I don’t want to grind much since this is a “for fun” revisit more than anything. I’m starting to appreciate how exp is handled in later games. Yes, I know exp-share does make things easy, but it also feels like it takes forever to do… actual damage here. Then get actual exp. Honestly USUM it felt like it took longer for exp share to actually make things slightly too easy. I remember G/S being pretty forgiving for running underleveled pokes into type match battles, coulda been HGSS, USUM felt like it was forcing me to swap out multiple pokemon in my team to keep a spread for a zone. Don’t mind doing the swapping right now to get exp shifted around when I need it, but it just feels time waster over difficulty. Especially with how few moves are learned by leveling up here and how scarce TMs are. What will my save’s hour count look like when I feel like my team actually does something? I’m playing it side by side with a few other games on and off, so will certainly find out.
Also, forgot how harsh the trade pokemon restrictions are. The Onix is the one traded for early on so I could have a slightly easier time. Now it doesn’t listen to me. Didn’t notice for a while because I’ve just been mashing A while watching someone be cool at Elden Ring. Pressing A lot on those early battles feels worse on a 3DS than it does on the GBC buttons. Sitting here pressing A a lot just waiting to hear the opponent faint.
Beat Whitney with a Fury Cutter Heracross. Thanks to modern tools, I found the tree that can spawn one in my game and spent 30minutes smashing into it. After being reminded how weak the fighting options were; Fury Cutter, a bug move that becomes more powerful with each use, became my choice. I didn’t want to overlevel. It took several retries to get it to work, RNG was not in my favor. First time got almost obliterated because Whitney’s Clefairy decided to flamethrower. Never got around to actually using a heracross in any game, so going with it for this one.
Black: Got the first badge and did the events to get to the next town. Continues to somehow be more charming than the other games I’ve restarted. Nothing has felt tedious. Have had a few close call battles, damage has certainly ramped up faster than Crystal. I double checked at this point, I had forgotten that basically most of the game only has new pokemon. No reruns. Might've been the only pair to do so? B2/W2 I remember having some good picks from other regions. If this ever gets scheduled for a remake, it’s something I’d be worried about. Could they make something as worthy as one of the last times they were firing on all cylinders.
Emerald: Figured out where I was, just right after beating Roxanne. Did the story event to get the PokeNav and got to steelport. Just going to try things.Both Gen III games have Colosseum bonus disc Jirachi. Might continue using on Emerald for fun. I’ve actually played these games a lot back in the day, just might keep gardevoir as backup. Now stuck on the fighting gym because my Ralts was powerful enough for all the trainers before the gym leader, but not the leader himself. Jirachi might work, but they seem to be doing enough damage to make even Jirachi’s 1x weakness harsh. The bird I have is even getting 1 shot or two shot. I think there’s even a spike in levels. What a weird place to have a difficulty jump. I guess 2005 and earlier grinding = difficulty still existed. Most of the wild pokemon before this area are lv6, cave is around lv10 with stuff below and above. Most of the cave requires you to use Flash which you can only use if you beat the gym. I’m now placing the bet that everything got better tuned after Diamond/Pearl. HGSS and platinum are huge improvements overall. Gen V is wonderful and b2/w2 has unlockable difficulty.
I got a Ralts up to level and after getting through that, I blazed through basically every battle through the whole electric gym. Getting the feeling gym leader fights will be a big jump throughout. May seek less legit ways to train pokes if the grind is bad later on. After the fighting gym, there’s actually enough trainers in the leadup to that gym and getting the bike that it’s possible to get some sensible levels. Gym leader level bump, lack of revives, and a few other small things made it still a more difficult thing. Some of the difficulty stuff still just feels like “more time consuming over normal play”, but at least the gym trainers have some interesting 2v2 battles that actually don’t feel too bad. Will pass judgment when I finally get some evolutions with actual stats. There are enough pokemon now to have a good variety, and taking risks here felt better than earlier in the game.
