02 04 2022

Emerald: Beat Liza and Tate. I actually forgot about the double battle and didn’t set up for it cleanly. Still won, just had to heal and swap more. The jump in levels between leader and gym trainers still bothers me. What are these trainers doing here? Shouldn’t they be training more? There were a few duos that had tough but fun combos… supported by paper thin pokes. 

    After the Gym, Team Magma storms the space center. They're stealing rocket fuel. To make the volcano explode. I think the intent of this section is Team Magma is so desperate now that Groudon has disappeared that they’re just going to go full terrorist and pompeii everyone to expand the land… Ok, I typed it out and thought that was silly so I’ll definitely be revisiting the plot of this game when I beat it.  I kicked Maxie’s butt with Steven to help and actually it’s a little tough. They then suddenly have a change of heart and you get Dive. I actually don’t like Dive. Something about all the surfing and water navigation is annoying. I think waterfall is also in this game. You’re expected to put three water traversal TMs on a pokemon that can learn four moves… I don’t think I really run into anything super interesting. Underwater caves should be the coolest thing!. I think I found it less annoying in ORAS? Maybe they changed up a bunch of that.

    After Team Magma realizes they screwed up, you dive down to find the place where Kyogre is and beat up Team Aqua. Without even trying, Archie screws up as the orb just automatically activates the legendary pokemon. A call comes in for Archie as he hears the rain is too much. He then realizes he screws up too. I kinda want to replay ORAS now to see if anything like this is handled better. I feel like something got lost in trying to cram the dialogue onto the tiny gba screen.  Everyone resurfaces as the two team leaders talk out how much they need to take responsibility. To Sootopolis! It’s a city in a giant crater that you have to enter by going under water and resurfacing in the lake there. It’s cool! Well, it's more chaotic right now. When resurfacing, Kyogre and Groudon are actually right there fighting. Because of them fighting, the weather here is flipping between super sunny and heavy rain. Archie and Maxie are trying to control the pokes through the orbs, uselessly.  (and certain zones? I forget if some zones only have rain or extra sun.) Steven guides the player to the cave of origin where only powerful trainers are let in. In a room with red and blue orbs, Wallace asks you about a pokemon to quell them and where you might think it could be. I remembered Sky Pillar so I put that in. I think I got a call from the rival kid that he saw a green pokemon in the sky near a town but I don’t know how you’re supposed to get the idea to select Sky Pillar. I had the Bulbapeida walkthrough open and it had the Regis on optional content before going to sky pillar so I went and caught them. I forgot how annoying the catch rate was on these! Y’know what. Maybe making the later games easier in some ways was nice!

Platinum: I had forgotten there’s an area full of Cowboys/Cowgirls. Why does this region have yeehaw in it? I gotta look up the Japanese version. They’re still cowboys, but what cartoonish voice did the JP script use? Please be something I can read. Worked my way to Veilstone and quickly dealt with the Gym. I had trained up a bird and made quick work of Maylene’s team. Lucario got hit by a mud bomb by Gastrodon, was a close call since that Lucario is such a powerhouse. I had trained up expecting the high levels here. After that, Lucas says his pokedex got stolen! And… the Galactic grunts are just waiting for him to come back so he can fight them for it? Ah well. Duo battle kick their butts. Looker the weirdo detective arrives on the scene. He’s actually the highlight even though I’m not sure if I like him or not here. It’s certainly nice having a bumbling detective but… Zenigata nor Colombo he ain’t. He let’s me just take a Fly HM laying around the warehouse Galactic were working out of. DPPt’s trainers are on the younger side of the player character trainers and so it’s like he’s letting some like 6th grader just have something from what basically is a crime scene. 

Black: Went into the desert, got a Sigilyph, a Plume Fossil and a Yamask. Kinda like how there’s a Doctor in this zone to heal up, the sand gimmick in this game are that darker patches can’t be biked through and are slower. It’s not too big of a zone but it still feels large. Still grinding up my Drilbur. I actually ran back and got Archen from the fossil, I used Sigillyph a lot my first time in this game and I think also in Black 2. There’s a risk to using Archen so it’ll balance out me using traded pokemon. Next route has Gothita/Solosis might catch them both and trade a Solosis over. Noting down Escavalier for future get. I think I got one but never really used it last time. May end up with a team that has trouble with fire, but may just be able to power through.

Yellow: Finally sat down and Finished the S.S. Anne. I had completely forgotten about the rival battle near the end, but I had already gotten a quite varied team. First battle that felt most like newer games where I was able to do damage. I know this won’t last long, Lt. Surge’s Gym is a level bump and I don’t have anything that high. I will be underleveled from here on out. 

    However, I forgot something important. Something significant. By this point in the game you can have several pokemon that are ground type. Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Sandshrew, geodude, etc. Finding one that does a lot of ground type damage is difficult. At least, if you forgot Diglett Cave and wrote it off. The Diglett and Dugtrio in this cave come with Dig. The Diglett I have in my box and ditched was too low level to have dig. I had forgotten to pick up a second moon stone in Mt. Moon, so decided to back track early. So once I was in Diglett Tunnel, I caught a Diglett when I saw one, did my loop around Mt. Moon to get a Nidoking with a moon stone, got a few more levels… and then two shot Lt. Surge’s Lv. 28 Raichu with a Lv. 20 Diglett. Celebrated our new hero by… throwing it into a box and putting a Squirtle on my team. I had to get Squirtle on the team, ground types were wrecking a lot of my team. I had forgotten Lt. Surge’s badge unlocks Fly. We don’t have Fly yet. Let’s see if I get a Charizard by the time I can get Fly.