pholtos Text Adventures - Pokemon Crystal

[pholtos]

So I was considering making a change to the way I should do talking, given how annoyingly lengthy some of these people can be with their monologues.
This is how the image originally looked:

This is the experimental change:

The spacing is a bit iffy at points but for the most part I feel like I got it down.
Maybe I could split up the text a bit based on when the game has their name again but yeah.

[Alice]

Maybe I could split up the text a bit based on when the game has their name again but yeah.

I think it'd definitely be a bit more readable if you did that but otherwise this change seems like a decent one in my opinion.

[pholtos]

Maybe I could split up the text a bit based on when the game has their name again but yeah.

I think it'd definitely be a bit more readable if you did that but otherwise this change seems like a decent one in my opinion.

So basically if it looked like this?

[Alice]

Yup, that's a lot more readable in my opinion.

[Speedless]

So basically if it looked like this?

Looks good to me. Two-column text is nice and compact compared to one-column, and the text itself shows up much bigger than it does in the original image blocks (particularly when your browser window is narrow).

So about the legendary dogs... I don't remember if we've seen the roamers (or whatever they've been randomized to) yet. I can only imagine what it would be like to hear that panic-inducing alarm and then see that it's just an Arcanine or something. Would it run away from you if it's not actually a Raikou or Entei?

I'm also curious about events like the one that gives you full access to the Tin Tower. Would you need an actual Raikou, an actual Entei, and an actual Suicune? Does the game care about the status of the "real" dogs? (Bulbapedia isn't particularly specific... Man, I am not used to it being called the Bell Tower in later games.)

Despite this place being the town of dragons, that literally means four pokemon. Those would be dratini, dragonair, dragonite and kingdra. Which is sort of depressing if you think about it.

We only need one.

(More Dragons are always appreciated, of course.)

It's hard to be a dragon master if there's so few pokemon that are dragons, you know.

Wouldn't that make it very easy? You'll have them all mastered before the water master can finish training what they found in that tiny pond in Viridian City!

Is... is that... it's pasta sauce, that has to be pasta sauce. Why is your gym full of boiling pasta sauce? How is it boiling? Wouldn't it be bad if someone accidentally fell in? I have many questions.

Maybe it's a mudpot, and it only looks red because the player character is secretly a Dragon Quest character perpetually at 1 HP. I guess that's why only the Pokemon fight...

Since you answered the Dragon Master's questions correctly, you qualified for the special Dratini. Pokemon you get in noncombat events (like Surf the Totodile) weren't randomized, though, were they? So there's no random silliness to be had with that event, I guess.

[pholtos]

All right, thanks guys. Next session took forever to edit, due to some experimentation with the way the images look, and ended up having 71 images in total. So this is gonna be fun once I work towards posting it. :P

[pholtos]

Session 21: Descending Mountains and Climbing Waterfalls




Welcome back, last time we beat meanyface Claire and after a doofy sidequest finally got the 8th badge. Today we'll travel towards the Elite Four.





As I stated before, this town is sorta in a silly location, besides the Ice Path, the only other route leaving it is a Mountain Road.





Over here to the left is the Dark Cave, you may recall really early on in our adventure this place before. I have no interest in going through it and it would be a pain to do without flash. So nope.





This route is a pain, as there's basically one way ledges everywhere. I basically have to pick and hope I choose a good route.





And so begins experimental images time. I figured it'd be nicer to keep the beginning talks separated from the battles like I had before. I wonder if this guy just hangs out here all day hoping someone picks his path. Seems like a lotta waiting.





Experimental image idea 2: Rearranging the battle pictures like this. These mons are a tad underleveled after some of the stuff we recently went through but I digress, I can still lose to them if I'm not careful.





Experimental image idea 3: Combining images based on proximity. It provides a nice perspective on routes and stuff, woulda been sorta handy during the ice path. As you can see, we missed a trainer, and there's really no way to fight him sans returning to the start of the route and taking his path.





Max potion get.





My battle strategy is to snuggle all pokemon.





I'm really appreciating having an electric type on my team. Really helps in battles like this one.





Another split path, I chose wisely, woulda missed this guy otherwise. This guy actually has a good reason to be here, mountains seem to be a favorite spot for tough people to train.





...But with a name like that I dunno. Vulpy one shots his only mon.





I really need to clean out my bag at some point, but I keep forgetting to.





Only one possible path this time. I woulda missed the nugget had I gone down so yeah.





And taking that one path led to a revive. I'll probably end up using these items someday.





Why do I snuggle cutes? Because they're there.





I find bells to be a pretty good mon, so long as he gets to attack first. Bells is unfortunately saddled with terribad defenses.





Ok tough guy, bring it on!





Whirlwind is still an annoying move to deal with. Critical hits are still annoying to deal with. Blargh.





Final part of the route. No turning back now.





Here's the second of three entrances to Dark Cave. The third would be near Violet City.





Uh oh, this guy seems to have a lotta confidence in his mountain Pokemon. I better be care-





Well I seem to have met this guy a tad later than I probably could have.





Heading all the way down some more ledges and we're back on a familiar path. Time to return home.





I stop by my mom's house to see her for the first time in a long while.





I'm glad they put in a healing machine somewhere in New Bark Town, woulda been silly if there was no way to heal here.





Apparently I helped him out with research at some point, don't remember doing that, all I did was defeat a bunch of gym leaders and singlehandedly stopped a major criminal organization, nothing big.





Egg? I vaguely recall an egg sometime ages ago, but I think I lost it or something.





Time for a nice pleasant surf towards the pokemon league.





Graveler, what are you doing here. You're on the water, you can't be here. Stop breaking the laws of physics.





Apparently New Bark Town is right on the edge of the boundary between Johto and Kanto.





And so it is. Looks like the only difference between Kanto maps in R/B/Y and G/S/C is the path I'm taking and the leftward path.





If you're wondering why we couldn't go here earlier, well...





This moonstone was blocking the way.





More seriously, the 8th badge grants us the ability to use Waterfall, so we couldn't have progressed this way until we beat Claire.





Upon leaving the cave, we are instantly snuggled by a trainer.





No, I'm delivering a pizza.





Vaporeon used annoying tactics involving sand attack to defeat Bells. Also, the return of self destruct. Poor Horsea...





HOUSE!





Sandstorm has a very Niche use, and in this gen is even more Niche. I won't be using it.





I gotta wonder, what about me looks "strong"? Am I covered in battle scars or something?





Yow!






Guy with only a ditto fights me, knows he will lose.





No, I'm delivering a pizza.





Smeargle faints at the site of Vulpy's pure majesty.





I definitely should be careful of wild Pokemon, they'll eat the pizza I'm delivering.





Are you also doing a smol challenge? :3





Anyone who says something like this typically turns out to be a really easy opponent for some reason.





What? There's totally nothing weird about this image, why do you ask?





Actually I am sorta satisfied, I got to beat that meanyface Claire in the process.





I one-shotted that magneton so fast I forgot to take a screenshot of the ending message.





Heading up from the last trainer I find another house.





Which works as a healing station. Oh thank goodness, I was getting in pretty bad shape there.





NO! MY PIZZA! CURSES!





So clearly a person like this won't use cheap tactics or anything, that'd just be silly.





BITE STRATS, SO MANY BITES, STAHP! STAHP! I didn't get a picture of it but I had to switch out horsea for chinchy to take out that gyarados. Oof.





Thank you for these words of wisdom, I surely did not know this.





Tiny blob takes out Bell, news at 11.





If I'm coming across someone saying something like this, I must be getting close. Since they're nearly ready, they must have a really good team, right?





Aw come on guy, I beat both your pokemon with a single Horsea. Come on.





It seems Banana got here before me. He's still singlemindedly pushing forward. I worry for the guy.





Bells faints again, news at 11.





Finally.





Aw man we're here, we're gonna be able to take on the Elite four, no more silly dungeons to go through, no more silly block pushing puzzles or constant pokemon encounters, just me and four trainers.





These guys block the way left and right. Left leads to a place we won't be going to for a while, the right naturally leads to Kanto if you just remember the map.





Ah dang it.





Item get. Max Elixers could prove useful.





I started to feel like I needed to do a little training so...





I did. :3





Here's a collection of moves I learned and did not learn while training. 34-37 seems to be a popular time to get moves apparently. Til next time everyone, we'll take on Victory Road.

[pholtos]

Session 22: A True Gauntlet

Gonna be splitting this one up a little bit.



Welcome back, last time we made it up to Victory Road. Today's we'll traverse through Victory Road then if that goes well we'll take on the Elite Four.





Found a couple items while wandering about.





Up a floor, we find a hole you can drop down. Leads to the Earthquake TM, which would be a really good TM to teach to a mon.









I have two ways I can go, going down just heads back towards the beginning, right leads back towards the end.





That's literally it for Victory Road, it's oddly empty. Not even a single trainer, just some wild encounters.





Hmm?






Banana! There you are! :D





I'm gonna be giving all battles in this session a closer look given how difficult the fights are gonna be and stuff. So first up we have a Kadabra that I one shot after switching in. As a note, it used future sight.





Next up is this Raticate that loved using Hyper fang. Normal types are actually a pain to deal with.





I almost one shot dratini with my Horsea but alas he was already low on health and dragon rage always deals 40 damage. Nease cleans up.





These poor psychic types have no chance against me.





*eye twitches* HIT. IT.





THANK YOU.





Unfortunately my health was chipped away at while I was subjected to Iron Tails bad Accuracy and so by failing to one shot the sandshrew, it took out Nease.





With that, we have defeated Banana. It seems constantly winning against the guy is slowly changing this guy after all. He's definitely not as hard headed as we was when we first met him ages ago.





It seems Banana is going to do some self reflecting and maybe some meditation or something, I dunno.






And we're out. We've at last made it to the Indigo Plateau.





They added a really nice thing here in case you needed to get back to Johto quickly for whatever reason. I will not be using it.





I remembered to deal with my items finally.





I figured it'd be a good idea, so I did a bit of buying and training. As a note, Chinchy was the one I didn't teach hydro pump, given that Waterfall is fine, and Nease didn't learn Agility.



So heading up these stairs leads to the first of the four. The wall closes behind us, which in hindsight seems sorta dangerous if there was a malfunction. Can you say, squished 10 year old?





Our first opponent is Will, the psychic pokemon trainer. So clearly he will have psychic pokemon. That's how it works.





Pfft. Elite four randomized to Elite Four. Well what do you know.





Woah woah woah, what are you doing with a psychic type?!? You're not supposed to have a psychic type!





Next mon is Aerodactyl, I barely win cause I'm faster.





Ivysaur is next up to bat, and gets flamed in the face. Hope you brought a burn heal!





I think this image speaks for the horrors that followed. Dodrio was in for a shocking surprise.





This noctowl turned out to be a pain. Bulky mon with take down and hypnosis and some other moves I forgot for one reason or another.





One Elite Four dude down!





I sure hope my own training pre-coming in here was worth the effort I put into it. So far so good.





That's dangerous you know, stop trying to smush me!





Koga got a promotion in the three years since R/B/Y. In those, he was the Fuchsia City gym leader. On that note, whatever happened to Agatha and Lorelei?
Also, FWAHAHAHAHA!





Inami has quite the pose, is he like... running in place?





Guy claims battles are more than brute strength, pulls out a muscle pokemon and throws a planet at me.





Easy rock types~





So far so good, although I don't appreciate being poisoned by my opposition. Blargh to you.





Remember what I said about normal types? Well... I start off by being greedy after Kanga misses the first time but, Mega Punch is uhh...





Quite the terrifying move to face. Nease survived one but not two.





And Charmy takes one, living on 1 health. As a note, poison doesn't activate mid-turn if you take out your opponents pokemon. So Charmy survived the fight.





But with a Flareon still to fight and only two low hp mons remaining on my side, I dip into my items for the first time in a long time to not lose outright. And poor Vulpy gets KO'd during that turn.





Fortunately I was able to defeat Flareon with Chinchy after the fact.





I barely won that one.





Two Elite Four dudes down!



pholtos barely escapes another door trap and enters the room of boiling pasta sauce! Who could be behind such a terrible interior design choice?





Ah, given his decor, he must do 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats and a 10 km run everyday.









These poor steel and grass type pokemon. They just can't do a thing to me.





Jin had the thunder bird with him. I'll use my legendary slayer to counter it.







and well... the remaining three all didn't really present too much of a threat. Sentret decided to be cheeky and use amnesia so I went fine and slapped him across the face instead.





Well I mean, you basically fought me with 4 dudes I essentially one-shotted and a legendary pokemon.






Nothing against you Bruno but uhh, you weren't really a challenge. I mean look at my health after the fight.





STAHP.





This person really wants to be entertained it seems. Don't you have a TV or something?





So as a note, that's three Yu Yu Hakusho characters in the Elite Four. So close.





We start off with easy to take out psychic type.





Next up is a Magby that annoyingly uses Sunny Day. Poor Horsea...





Another Weepinbell? What's up with these guys and using Weepinbell and Drowzee?





The Early Punch gets the Worm.





Aw crap. All right Legendary Slayer, we've got this.





Nicely done. :3





The Elite Four have been defeated. Only Lance remains...



Unlike the others, Lance is polite and waits til I'm far away before closing the stone wall.





I contest his claim as the most powerful trainer. I hardly beat that guy with the Kangaskhan a short while ago, there's no way you can top that.





Pfft. Hiya Cthulhu.





First mon is a Shuckle, I get an iron tail in and then...





It uses bide. So I throw balls at it.





Venonat survives way longer than it should have using para-hax strats.





Third mon is a Marowak. It only gets one hit in. So uhh... you uhh... gonna hit me with something strong next?







So uhh... about that "most powerful trainer" thing...





You uhh...





Whelp.





\o/





You truly lived up to your title, Mr. Champion.





I just hope I reach the point I don't get one shot by strong normal types. Oof.





Wait, how did she get here? Who told her?





All right, who told them I was coming here? Fess up.





Nooo! Not an interview! D:





Lance, realizing my discomfort, gets me outta here.





Muahahaha! >:D






So uhh... what do you even get as a "Champion" besides your name in this place? Do you like... get well known all over and stuff as a strong trainer?







...Stop being Cheeky with my, Oak.





After that, the credits roll, and cute mons do things on the top. Don't mind how awkward they look, they're in mid movement so they look sorta... split.





After the credits, it returns you to the title screen.





And we come back at our house in New Bark Town. Til next time everyone, we'll continue on, someplace.

[Alice]

I didn't know razor leaf dealt damage to its user.

Damned critical heals!

[pholtos]

Session 23: Surging to Kanto




Welcome back, last time we defeated the Elite Four! Today we'll uhh...





Take one step and immediately get a phone call.





It seems Elm has something for us. Guess we'll see what's up, since we're literally 10 steps from his Lab.





Well this is a nice surprise! Looks like I have a destination after all. It's... in Olivine... All righty then.








Traveling to the Port requires us to take an underground tunnel... interesting.





Here we have two people. Yeah not much more to say about that.







One flash of a ticket later and off we go.





And immediately after getting in the boat it takes off. That was fortunate.





We immediately get run into by an old man. He gives us our McGuffin plot for the boat.






As you can see by this doofy rendition of the top floor, the boat isn't that large. Also, most of these rooms have nothing in them. It was wise of them to add a healing room, given that I'm sorta stuck on the boat.





Why are you asking me if I'm alone? That's sorta creepy.





Jolpy why are you asking me if I'm alone?





The grandfather's room is in the lower right door iirc. I guess he's resting now.





Sure, I've got nothing better to do.





You're weak. You'll notice the giant glaring flaw of this section of the game, the trainers are really underpowered, especially after having to do the Elite Four. This... doesn't really improve much for the remainder.





When did I say that, I'm a silent protagonist. All I can do is say "..."





When battles go this fast, it's hard to come up with anything particular to say for them.





Oh noes, a fire breather!





Jolpy stop changing professions just to fight me again. :P





That's all for the upper floor, time to check out the lower.





Where we are immediately blockaded from accessing anything by a dude who won't let me pass unless I find a guy. Back up I go...





He was in the room to the right of mine.





Naps are good. -w-





It's all your fault... what? That you napped?





I can't fault him there. I can't handle physical work myself.





After finding sir naps, I can now proceed past Mr. Blockade.





A guy who is seasick on a boat... where have I seen that before...





Ah yes, the captain of the S.S. Anne, from R/B/Y. I see he's taking a vacation and also taken up Juggling! Good for you.



Here ya go... what do you mean this looks like it's from R/B/Y? Of course it's not.





I dunno man, if I'm on break I'd be too tired to do anything, let alone battle... on that note, how energetic is the protagonist? He seems to be able to do crazy amounts of walking, battling and crime fighting without needing to rest that much. I can't believe I never thought about this before.





One dumb fight where I lose Bells to getting confused by confusion later...





Last trainer on the boat. She appeared to be staring through the porthole.





And she had a lone walking batch of tentacles, with eyes. Tangela is a creepy pokemon.





Heading up this flight leads to the captain's room, which is really really far away from the entrance. Which seems counter-productive in a way.





The Grandfather's McGuffin has been found. She was bothering the Captain the whole time.





For finding McGuffin, Grandfather gives me an item that increases steel type moves power by a little. It also lets Onix and Scyther evolve.





With the McGuffin found, the boat arrives in Vermilion. I went back to the Captain out of curiosity before leaving since I got transitioned to the Grandfather after talking to the McGuffin.





Oh darn, I can't immediately reboard the boat. I am saddened.





So both sides have a "Grass is Greener" type person on the docks.





Once again having to go underground to enter and exit a port.





To the right of the port exit we find a Snorlax blocking the way. Seems we can't go this way yet.





There were a few points of interest in Vermilion, like this fishing guy and these guys talking about the Magnet Train in Saffron. I'll have to check that out eventually.





...Oh no... he's in here...





This guy loves his Rapidash to an... interesting level. It's clearly platonic. I hope...





Well we're basically done here so let's go to the Gym. What the heck does a "Lightning American" mean. We're not fast at all, we're slow and fat.





Assisting guy who gives us advice creepily laughs as he talks about traps.






Opponents still having drastically underpowered mons, hurrah.





Yes.





Politoed knew Doubleslap, Hypnosis and Perish Song. Real doofy. Nease got double kicked.






You can't help it.






And so we reach Surge. 5 Pokemon. Camo outfit and sunglasses. Interesting apparel.





Mon one was an Ariados with Night Shade, which really does start to get insane at higher levels. 44 damage a shot is nothing to sneeze at. Porygon2 went down fairly easily afterwards.





Given how slash is slightly weaker than strength with the only advantage being a higher chance to crit, I figured it'd be smarter to get rid of it in favor of a move which does set damage on the rare chance I need that.





Grimer was the third mon, Minimize is an annoying move.





Last two mons were easily taken out via flamethrower.





What? I totally didn't forget to take a screenshot of the start of the conversation. You're silly.





With Vermilion out of the way, our only possible path choice is up.





These two are speaking my language.





Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to solve this Power Plant problem, just like I've had to solve every other problem a place faces?





Given that all other routes have been blocked, Saffron City it is.





Til next time everyone, we'll explore Saffron. Til then.

[Alice]

What the heck does a "Lightning American" mean. We're not fast at all, we're slow and fat.

Speak for yourself. I'm much more agile than fast but I've only known a few people faster than me in my life.

How the heck does a pumpkin bald to begin with? They don't even have hair!

[pholtos]

Session 24: A Dash of Saffron




Welcome back. Last time we journeyed to Kanto and fought Surge. Today we'll explore Saffron City.





Our first stop is the Silph Company. In R/B/Y this was a major dungeon, so clearly this will be a large area to explore.





How anticlimactic. Ah well, we get an item I won't bother using in Up-Grade, which evolves Porygon into Porygon2 through some means. Probably trading.






Psychic is a pretty good move, I can't wait to teach one of my pokemon this. :D









Seems I'm going to have to check out this trainer house when I make it to Viridian.





GASP! I'M TALKING! No... no wait... that's the copycat. Oh man you fooled me there.





THEN WHY ARE YOU IN AN ALLEY?





Well I found the magnet train aaaand it's not working right now.





Once again reminded of the power plant, this time by Sir Snacks a lot.





We're basically done exploring Saffron at this point, so lets deal with the Gyms. Yes I said Gyms. Saffron has two.





The first Gym is really... empty. I wonder if I had come across the dojo master somewhere in Johto, my guess is no, given how they're talking about him now. A quick search reveals him to be in Mt. Mortar, which I didn't really investigate that much.





All righty then, second Gym time.





I dunno why but after the first encounter in Kanto with this guy I've become curious what he's gonna say. So here's his Saffron quote.






My snuggling is too strong.






At long last, I was able to replace water gun on Horsea. I can't wait to use it! :D






DUNSPARCE YOU JERK! It used Spite on me! D:





Lemme use that PP Up real quick...






It does pretty decent damage, even to a legendary with high special defense. Good stuff.





I wonder if in reality you could lose but still prove yourself worthy? I know a certain 10 year old in a terribad anime who did that quite a few times.





TOVA! That's... quite the outfit, Tova.





Confuse Ray and Fire Spin. Oy.





Charm, Sweet Kiss and Sing. Oy.





Well... that happened.





pholtos uses Whoops forgot a screenshot in the middle of a chat quickfix attack. It's not very effective.





I thought I already was a Champion. I'm a tad confused.





With Saffron done, let's head up.





Til next time, we'll explore Cerulean. Til then.

[pholtos]

Session 25: Cerulean Power Hour




Welcome back. Last time we beat Sabrina in Saffron. Today we'll explore Cerulean.





I figure I might as well start with the gym, since it's right next door.





Umm... where is everyone? Spooky.





So if this place has moved to Johto and has been locked, why are there lights on? I suspect foul play!





This was so silly I had to include it.





...OK ALREADY. I'LL GO INVESTIGATE THE DUMB POWER PLANT. GEEZ.





But first, gossip about a Cape. It flutters in the wind and couples ride it as they profess their love for each other... what do you mean wrong Cape?





I'd just like to stop for a second and talk about how amazing the Diglett sprite is in this game. Just look at it.






Talking to this guy reveals an item's location. It's... what the heck is that?





Oh. So it's basically Swagger the item. Gotcha.





Found a protein along the route, naturally gave it to Nease.





Not much more of interest around Cerulean, so lets go take care of the stupid power plant.






Note to self, do not anger this guy.





Upon attempting to leave, a call comes in revealing the thief's location to be... where I just was. Naturally.






Heading into the Gym leads to... Wait aren't you...






This guy... I swear I've seen him before...














With that mysterious man out of the way, I recover the soaked machine part.





And for returning the completely covered in water machine part to the guy running the generator, I get zap cannon.





Apparently they didn't think about the whole water is wet thing when thinking up this plot for the game. Nothing bad happened despite the part being dropped into a pool.





So now randomly Misty is up here with some mysterious guy. Naturally, I must interfere with all hand holding, so I rush in, spooking away the guy. Misty is not happy.





And suddenly the Gym is full of people. What.





...





NOOOOOOPE. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.






Trainer one.





But... dude. I just... oh fine whatever.





JOLPY!






Trainer three.






Although I've typically given these Gym leaders a more thorough showing in these, Misty was... really easy. So yeah.





Misty clearly is only looking for a good time battling.





So after finishing up in Cerulean, I head back down to Saffron, given that the Train should now be working.





Unfortunately, you need a pass to ride it. Seems kinda exclusive wouldn't you say?






Returning to the Copycat's house, she tells us that she'll give us a pass using nods and shakings of the head, as well as plenty of "...".





Which we discover in Vermilion's Pokemon Fan Club.





The guy who found it was nice enough to return it.





And upon returning it, gives us a pass. We can now travel to Goldenrod whenever we would like.





And now a quick vote for you guys. Want me to head left to Celadon City, or right to Lavender Town? It's up to you.





Til next time guys.

[Alice]

You should head up to the out of bounds area and crash the game.

[Speedless]

Well, Misty herself had some Water-types, but overall, I guess this was secretly the Bug Gym.

As for direction... hmm. I'm leaning Lavender Town, particularly if you're planning to pay a visit to Silence Bridge.

I dunno man, if I'm on break I'd be too tired to do anything, let alone battle... on that note, how energetic is the protagonist? He seems to be able to do crazy amounts of walking, battling and crime fighting without needing to rest that much. I can't believe I never thought about this before.

Well, considering that he can run a lap around the main loop of Johto in probably just a couple hours, he must be a superhero with super speed. Or perhaps the Roadrunner. Or you could blame it on almost everything related to the passage of time being abstracted out, but isn't saying "meep meep" and running away from people a better idea?

What the heck does a "Lightning American" mean. We're not fast at all, we're slow and fat.

Lt. Surge evolved his Raichu too soon, tragically missing out on all of Pikachu's speed-based moves. This haste manifested in all parts of his life, and when the sign people dropped by to ask him what they should write, he simply rattled off the first thing that came into his head. And so it was that he was forever doomed to have a nickname that was just two things related to him mashed together. Truly the saddest of all stories.

[pholtos]

Session 26: Wandering All Over




Welcome back. Last time we dealt with the Power Plant and beat Misty, as well as got the ability to use the Magnet Train. Today we'll...





Head towards Lavender Town and see how things go. (It won with a whole 2 votes, with Celadon getting 1.)





Things of interest on our way there, the guard tells us of a Radio Tower in Lavender Town, that town that used to have a large tower full of gravestones. Also, weird house.





Welcome to Lavender Town.






Now this is just depressing, what sort of monster would dare abandon cutes? D:









Hm... Name Rater... That's a fairly decent name.





ALL RIGHT ALREADY I'LL CHECK OUT THE STUPID RADIO TOWER.





Seems just like in Johto, unless something happens here I'll only get to explore this floor.





By talking to this specific guy after taking care of the Power Plant, we get a card for our thing whose name I forget at the time, I'm half asleep at the moment, give me a break. :P





It gives us access to a whole three Kanto stations, one of which just sounds like drunken rambling, one having music based on the day of the week and Poke Flute.





Don't be square is a phrase I don't really hear that often anymore.





Oh sorry, I guess the hero and savior of Johto's Radio Tower will just leave then.





Heading up from Lavender we reach... Nope.





*ehem* Heading down from Lavender we reach some sorta bridge, and a detour to the left which meets up with Vermilion City.





On our way there, Bells levels up and tries to learn his final move. Slam is an 80 power normal move with 75% accuracy. Nope.





Our reasoning for going this way was to deal with Mr. Snorlax over here. So let's have him move, shall we?





Raticate, please stop this hobby of yours of wearing Snorlax costumes to cause problems for the Village. Thank you.





By dealing with "Snorlax" we now have access to Diglett Cave. It leads to near Viridian City, which we'll deal with later on.





Continuing our journey down this route we come across a house. How mysterious.





And after a nonsensical amount of time in this game we get the best rod.





Found a couple good items on the way, gave them to whomever I thought needed them.





That's quite the outfit, Tova.





The threat of Electrode is with us always. Even here, far away from the Seas of Cianwood, an Electrode may swoop in at any time and blow up in your face.





So here's the route I took in a very crude and doofy looking manner. Many routes were traversed, and I even passed through Fuchsia, which I'll get to a bit later. Route 17 is a bicycle only route, and it has an annoying slope to it so it took forever to traverse.





Til next time everyone, we'll complete Celadon City. Til then.

[pholtos]

Session 27: Celadon't Know What To Call This Session




Welcome back. Last time uhh... *Checks the previous session since it's been 5 months* we uhh... *rustles some papers* we ah yes we did stuff in Lavender town and fully explored a bunch of routes in the Fuchsia area eventually reaching Celadon. Today we'll deal with Celadon.





So first things first we'll stare at this door to a large mall but not go in! Muahaha! So evil.





Instead let's explore this mansion.






Starting with this old lady who lives happily with her cutes.






Going up a floor we're able to easily read someone's mail. Man we're quite rude.






Up one more floor we meet some people who are really strange. How did this guy know I was working on the Pokedex?





I... you... huh? You want me to gamble? I'm 10. Dude come on. I thought adults were better than that.





Uhh... that's... nice?




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsJc2ZhbXIg





And this guy is the opposite of me, I am not a big fan of high places.





Hmm a dead end...





NO DEAD END CAN STOP ME!





Ah all right, only at night. Gotcha... what time is it?





...Nevermind I don't care.





Well since that adult told me I should gamble, OK! It's smart for kids to listen to adults.





. . .





So where were we.





Surfing over to this old man reveals the fact that GRIMER have taken over his poor pond.





That is one scary Grimer.





So I tend to walk around looking at the ground and I don't get dizzy? What's the deal with that?





Oh boy an eating contest! Let's go eat foods.










Well then, guess I'll just take this food I found in the garbage instead! How do you like that, huh? Gonna have that on your conscience. Couldn't be bothered to feed a kid.





They had more to say but I was quite disappointed in the Chef so I didn't really pay much attention.





Found an item to help out one of my low PP moves, always nice.






And cutting away that plant leads to the Gym, hiding away in the corner.





I cannot help but imagine this guy sounding like Master Roshi.





GYM!






Battle one was no problem.





THEN WHY ARE YOU A GYM TRAINER?!?





That's it.





Why do I feel like this question is similar to the "does this dress make me look fat" question?





Another simple battle.





Guys... I think the flower is talking to me...





Oh nevermind, it's just Tova wearing a flower costume.





Erika sounds high.





Poor Bells got one shot cause Bells is slow.





Badge get!







And that's that. Til next time guys, we'll take on Fuchsia. Til then.

[pholtos]

So uhh... ha ha... I almost completely lost most of my progress. I loaded state instead of loading the hard save and ended up back in Cianwood... with level 24 or so mons... and 5 badges.
I then found out that if you load a state in bgb, the hard save is also set to the last save made before that save state was made. So basically I had reset my progress to only 5 badges.
Fortunately there's this thing in Windows called "Previous Versions" which you can reach in the properties of most files, and my save file had a previous version that was where I was in Fuchsia. So yes. Thank you Windows 10 backup system.

[Alice]

So uhh... ha ha... I almost completely lost most of my progress. I loaded state instead of loading the hard save and ended up back in Cianwood... with level 24 or so mons... and 5 badges.
I then found out that if you load a state in bgb, the hard save is also set to the last save made before that save state was made. So basically I had reset my progress to only 5 badges.
Fortunately there's this thing in Windows called "Previous Versions" which you can reach in the properties of most files, and my save file had a previous version that was where I was in Fuchsia. So yes. Thank you Windows 10 backup system.

That's a really odd decision for the bgb devs to make. Have you looked in the emulators settings to see if you can disable it?

[pholtos]

That's a really odd decision for the bgb devs to make. Have you looked in the emulators settings to see if you can disable it?

Yeah I tried looking around and couldn't find anything that seemed to change it, so I simply deleted the save state from my computer so it wouldn't happen again.

[pholtos]

Session 28: ConFuchsia Says

(Yeah that's a terrible title. :P)



Welcome back. Last time we defeated Erika in Celadon, today we'll explore Fuchsia City and face the Gym.





Let's start with the house near the Gym.





Hmm hmm yes very interesting.





Oh man the Safari Zone is in Fuchsia. I can't wait to explore there! :D





Oh well I guess that's all right, guy deserves a break every so often if he runs a place like that.





B-but I... I...






IT'S PINK! PINK I SAY! CAN'T YOU SEE? BEHOLD ITS PINK GLORY! LOOK AT HOW PINK IT IS!





Also, the most pointless building is just to the north of that sign.





But I don't wanna.





Also, there's a berry bush.





Koga's daughter eh?





Guess it's time to tackle the Gym. Just gotta go in and fight the Gym Leader.





...Quintuplets eh?






First up, Janine.





Second up, JaWario.





Clearly he isn't number one.





Third up, JaNot.





No you didn't.





Fourth up, JaFooled.





JaFooled by Potato.









I don't believe you.





It's JoJolpe! The Stand User!





Oh boy, the ability to be rude to others over the internet! Thanks JoJolpe!





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bq-wU41vmU





Hmm? Boulders? Don't worry, I'm the protagonist. I got this.





Pfft, taking a detour? I don't need to do that, I'm the protagonist.





Step aside man, I'm the protagonist. I can move a silly boulder.





. . .





*cough*





You're the first person to visit me in ages, here have 50 bucks.





To Pewter City!





Right after this Trainer... *gasp* It's... It's...





DISGRUNTLED GAMMLER!





I hit him with three shells. He did not appreciate that.






Til next time everyone. We'll take on Pewter City. Til then.

[Speedless]

You were right! It was indeed an Inspector Gadget-level match.

There was a decent amount of Poison in the Poison Gym, but other than that, it turned out to be more Rock than anything... Something just occurred to me. According to Bulbapedia, the original Janine's two Weezing and Venomoth (levels 36 and 39, respectively, for those keeping track of who got randomized into whom) knew Toxic, which they wouldn't get by leveling up. Worse yet, Ariados, which we know turned into Miltank, had the TM-only Giga Drain! What does the randomizer do with TM and egg moves that are specified like that? In this case, I think all of her randomized Pokemon could learn Toxic, but if there's no adjustment or failsafe, you could end up with some wildly illegal movesets!

... I also just noticed the dithering on the pop-up city name sign. It's that goofy kind of one-pixel-wide dithering that ends up looking like a zoomed-out platforming level with horrifically long spike jumps if you look at it too closely, but it never bothered me on the original hardware, so it must have been doing its job.

[pholtos]

Session 29: We're Gonna Rock This Town




Welcome back. Last time we finished Fuchsia City and then took the journey to Pewter. Today we'll do Pewter City and the surrounding areas.





Welcome to Pewter City, full of only a few things and not much to show. So here's an old guy who falls asleep.





Since it is clearly the morning in game, this is not very useful for the impatient me to know.





Welcome to Pewter City, where reading a sign turns the world gray.





How dare a non-protagonist take an important item like the Silver Wing! Only protagonist level characters can have items like that!
(Remember back ages ago when I talked about Whirl Islands? No? Well it was this thing near Cianwood. Anyways with the Silver Wing, the place actually has somewhat of a purpose other than just being there, in that Lugia can now be found there. But I personally don't care to walk all the way back there, so yeah.)





In the continuing adventures of Pewter has nothing interesting, a boy and his shaking Nidoran.





Pewter City, where the only thing to talk about is the Gym.





They're renovating so hard that they forgot to put in the door.



Good job.





So with this super interesting city explored, time for the Gym.





We better be prepared, battles could take a long time. Ready guys?





Phew, that one almost took two turns!





It's time for Brock, the mighty Rock type gym leader. Let's see what he's got.






First up we have the mighty Meganium, the ultimate rock pokemon.





Next comes a crockodile.





Then bouldersaur.





And the rest.





Clearly he was the strongest trainer we've ever faced.





He's also a butt that didn't give me a TM. How rude.





Now I know Pewter was super interesting but we're gonna move on to the right, towards Mt. Moon... which now apparently has a Gift Shop. What are they gonna sell there, rocks?





Route 3!





Battles!





...Stairs?





Inside Mt. Moon we're greeted by Banana! :D





Banana has learned much over the course of the game, but he is still no match for me.





Banana's overall attitude has really changed since the beginning of the game. So he was training here in Mt. Moon eh? Wonder what he was facing...





SO STRONG!





...Stairs?





So as a note, Mt. Moon is super tiny now, if you head about 10 steps from the entrance you reach that... staircase and end up here, go into the entrance south and you're about 6 steps from another exit that leads out to Cerulean. They really shrunk the Cave.





Inside the Gift Shop is the all mighty... basic shop with stuff you could buy in a vending machine.





This must be the square of the Square. Also, probably where those Clefairy dance at night.





So with the incredibly interesting Mt. Moon done, we exit out towards Cerulean.





...Stairs?





Items get.






So this guy... what in the world is with these levels? A 12 and a 34? Who does he think he is, me when I first played Crystal as a like 9 year old and basically went through the game with 5 level 10s and a level 70 Typhlosion?





Um... You... how did you get two legendaries?





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKq4uoGdnFw





Heading south from Pewter we encounter the doofiest replacement in the game, Viridian Forest has been replaced with a bunch of blockade style trees that emulate what the forest originally looked like.








So heading right into the last building on the route we find one of Oak's Aides who somehow knows our name...






And that finishes the giant loop. Up top is that house with the guy who gave us a Nuggest last time.





Heading south after the "forest" we find two more trainers.





And we have finally arrived in Viridian City.





So til next time everyone, we'll travel further south to Pallet and then down to Cinnabar to see what happened there. Til then.

[Speedless]

Welcome to Pewter City, full of only a few things and not much to show. So here's an old guy who falls asleep.

Maybe this was the point where they were really starting to run out of cartridge space. I never really noticed how little of interest was happening here, possibly because I was distracted by the fact that one of the few Mint Berry trees is here. Mint Berries sound oddly tasty.

Welcome to Pewter City, where reading a sign turns the world gray.

Does it actually do that in the game? That... does sound familiar, now that I think about it.

In the continuing adventures of Pewter has nothing interesting, a boy and his shaking Nidoran.

I think some of these people are supposed to be the same ones who were NPCs in the Gen I games, so maybe the bulk of the "content" here is supposed to be little nostalgia bits.

...Stairs?

I guess they're talking about the ladder inside, but now that you mention it, the gap in the ledge does appear to have little steps drawn on it. It's a nice touch, a visual hint that the ledge actually does separate an upper level from a lower level.

Inside the Gift Shop is the all mighty... basic shop with stuff you could buy in a vending machine.

The gift shop has one key advantage, however: Bulk. The drinks (that is, the three vending machine drinks and Moomoo Milk) have always been the healing items with the lowest cost per HP restored (aside from the vanishingly rare case where a single Pokemon needs more than 500 HP healed at once). In these games, Fresh Water and Lemonade were the two best buys--and there's not even much point to keeping a stock of regular Potions to heal minor injuries when Fresh Water is cheaper. Here, you can buy 99 of each in one fell swoop, rather than having to press A 300+ times to get that many from a vending machine.

So this guy... what in the world is with these levels? A 12 and a 34? Who does he think he is, me when I first played Crystal as a like 9 year old and basically went through the game with 5 level 10s and a level 70 Typhlosion?

In the original game, he had a Pidgey and a Pidgeot. I don't know what his dialogue was off the top of my head, but maybe he's using the Pidgeot to train the Pidgey, as a reference to the way players can switch-train? I'm going to guess it's made that way for flavor, not as an interesting battle.

Then again, this comically underleveled orb the randomizer has given him makes him more of a reference to Juggler Irwin...

Come to think of it, you haven't done any phone rematches. What would happen to those trainers' teams when they're upgraded? Do their Pokemon stay the same if they don't evolve? What if they do? (For example, what would Inspector Gadget-Marisa's top percentage Koffing (?) become if you fought her level-21, 30, or 34 team, where Youngster Joey would have a Raticate?)

Heading south from Pewter we encounter the doofiest replacement in the game, Viridian Forest has been replaced with a bunch of blockade style trees that emulate what the forest originally looked like.

Aaaaand this is where they were really running out of space.

So heading right into the last building on the route we find one of Oak's Aides who somehow knows our name...

Well, to be fair, you're the Champion of this region's Pokemon League. Lance may have foiled DJ Mary's plot to interview you at the instant of victory, but I doubt that a new Champion could be crowned without any publicity at all. Also, these Aides have a history of being sent out all over the continent specifically to help people the Professor gave Pokedexes to...

We're about to meet the Gym Leader whose fight is basically the opposite of Janine's from last episode, and it comes with a bit of a level increase. The levels don't get really crazy until later, but this next one always seemed to be a pretty noticeable step up as well (possibly because I always had a Water-type and an Electric-type with me in these older games, making Brock more or less a non-issue). Stay tuned for that!

[Alice]

So this guy... what in the world is with these levels? A 12 and a 34? Who does he think he is, me when I first played Crystal as a like 9 year old and basically went through the game with 5 level 10s and a level 70 Typhlosion?

Only level tens? I played much the same but I at least got up to the 20-30 range by this point, lol.

Also what the heck is up with Mt. Moon and stairs?

[pholtos]

So this guy... what in the world is with these levels? A 12 and a 34? Who does he think he is, me when I first played Crystal as a like 9 year old and basically went through the game with 5 level 10s and a level 70 Typhlosion?

Only level tens? I played much the same but I at least got up to the 20-30 range by this point, lol.

Also what the heck is up with Mt. Moon and stairs?

Mighta been level 20 somethings. It was a long time ago. :P

[pholtos]

Session 30: Cinnabarely Anything There




Welcome back, last time we dealt with the stuff around Pewter City. Today we'll deal with the stuff around Cinnabar Island.





Route 1! Trainers!





Oh man it's Pallet Town. (I really haven't much to say about this place. :P)





My first act in Pallet Town is to go upstairs into Red's room and play his video games. I am so evil.





I then head to Blue's house and my Chinchou gets a cleaning. It is quite content.





This lady scares me.





Town sign!





Never change guy, never change.





Pokemon Lab!





Hey I thought this was a Lab, not a Gossip corner.





My next devious act is to read a stranger's email! Muahaha!





You can save in this game? Huh.





A gift? :o





Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Oak.





This route is full of weird people. One of them is bored by fishing.





Cinnabar Island!





Seems the Gym has been moved, makes sense, given the state of the island.





There's literally four people on this island, three in here and a guy outside.





BURN BABY BURN...





Blue talks a loooooooooot. Also, sorry about that bit on the left, a bunch of cutes needed to cross the road at that point. After he converses about things, he floats straight up and out of sight.





Candy!





Route 20! Robot Butler!





Over here at the extremely small Seafoam Islands, we find Blaine's Gym.





I wasn't kidding about that when I said extremely small.





Wah... It's-a me... Wario. Wah.





Wah. I changed my name to be Kurama... Wah.





First mon almost took out Vulpix, he shoulda had a burn heal!





Second mon was a Staryu that got taken out in one shot.





Ech, I got one shot, it's ok though, Flaffy is almost out of HP by now.








Curses!





Overall not too bad. Badge get.





Good luck to ya on that Blaine. It might be a while before Cinnabar gets back to normal.





. . .Where'd this guy come from?





Oh, it's the stalker. Hiya stalker.





Route 20 other trainers!





Route 19 had some more interesting trainer peoples. Like the Couple of Jolpy and Nitori.





Route 19 also had the most devastating of Pokemon on it, I had no choice but to run.





These guys' dialog has changed since last time. Nice touch. Didn't bother to check the officer dude inside.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKq4uoGdnFw





Til next time, we'll finish up with Viridian City, the final City of Kanto, and get the last badge. Til then.

[Alice]

This lady scares me.

What's wrong with forcing pokemon to be your personal bodyguards??

I'm pretty sure a lot of people would actually consider that a reward.

[EarthPhantomTS]

I'm pretty sure a lot of people would actually consider that a reward.

Hiya !

(Sorry, couldn't resist !)

[Speedless]

My first act in Pallet Town is to go upstairs into Red's room and play his video games. I am so evil.

I'm not sure it ever occurred to me that it's kinda weird to be able to do that. Possibly because I was Red before I was Kris. In a meta sense, it's like being in your own room as you remember it from your childhood... only as you, in the present, after being away for a long time.

Never change guy, never change.

"You can now trade Pokemon
across time.
You know, like e-mail!"

Hey I thought this was a Lab, not a Gossip corner.

They're probably researching something classified. Gossip is all they can legally discuss with you!

Blue talks a loooooooooot. Also, sorry about that bit on the left, a bunch of cutes needed to cross the road at that point. After he converses about things, he floats straight up and out of sight.

That cute parade was... not four long, you might say? (That's more or less what he said there.)

Wah... It's-a me... Wario. Wah.

Waaa-ha-hah! You better have BURN HEAL!

First mon almost took out Vulpix, he shoulda had a burn heal!

Second mon was a Staryu that got taken out in one shot.

Ech, I got one shot, it's ok though, Flaffy is almost out of HP by now.

I love that you actually managed to get a burn... in this fight... on him. On a related note, it's amusing to me how conspicuously missing Fire is from his team. He's got the Water and the Grass for a starter type core, but he forgot to bring the one type he's actually supposed to have!

So this is what I meant when I said Blaine's fight was the opposite of Janine's. She has a "full" team (as full as Gym Leaders ever seem to have) of five, but since they're all below level 40, none of them can usually put up much of a fight. Blaine, on the other hand, has only three Pokemon to most other leaders' four or five, but those three are all at higher levels than Brock's strongest, one of them is the only level 50 Pokemon in the first seven Gyms, and a second one has a certain elemental punch to cause trouble for those looking to sweep Blaine with the Surfer they had to have to get there in the first place. I remember the Blaine fight being tricky, if not as nightmarish as Sabrina, because I used to use a lot of "elemental" special attackers and didn't quite grasp the wonder of Earthquake--STAB, non-Quagsire Surf was often the only super-effective attack I had with me.

Route 19 also had the most devastating of Pokemon on it, I had no choice but to run.

While Magikarp's Attack is extremely low, so are the defense stats of a lot of unevolved Pokemon. A level 15 Magikarp can do a surprising amount of damage if you're not prepared to deal with it immediately. This very game, when not randomized, throws one at you on Route 32, when your team is probably only level 10 or so.

Of course, even now, when you can deal with it if you want, it gives you so little experience that all it's doing is wasting your PP--and I remember from trainer battles that when it's near your level, it can tank some neutral hits, wasting even more. Ignoring it is clearly the most efficient option.

[pholtos]

Session 31: Feeling Blue




Welcome back. Last time we got the seventh badge from Blaine, and saw what happened to Cinnabar. Today we'll explore Viridian City and get that last badge.





Pretty sure I went there already, but nice to know, thanks.





As I recall, this guy has a similar story if you visit him in Gen 1. Might be a different TM like rest but it's fairly similar.





Heading up to this building, we find a place. I am the most descript.





Have you heard of TRAINER HOUSE? It's happening!





This is actually a fairly smart idea given the location, yes.





I too have traveled all over, I shall never be defeated!





Pokemon battles are hard work. You have to stand there, you have to yell things, you have to point. It's... surprisingly like a certain game about a spiky haired guy wearing a blue suit.





Was this coincidence or does everyone somehow know I'm from Johto? What, are the clothing styles different or something? Is it cause I keep my hat on backwards? What's giving me away?





Ah boo, only once a day. Oh well. Let's face a touhou.





Wow Nitori you uhh... you look... just... like... me. Well.





Dunno if the number of mons or levels change, but a trio of 50s is give or take Blaine level. So that's nice.











GREEN!





Ha... naming your pokemon such simple nicknames... who does that. Eh heh heh... *whistles* (Get back in the ball, Chinchy)





I don't believe you. Also, what kinda threat is that, if he were a bit younger he'd... what, show me how to catch a pokemon?





Luck? Pfft... I don't need that, I'm the protagonist. I never lose.





It's LEGO LAND!





Mr. Talks a Lot has a bit more to say. I'll have you know I almost lost to a Gym in Johto, and that hasn't happened since I came to Kanto, so take that Mr. Snooty Pants.








I am the night.





Oh... oh geez. Ok uhh... dugtrio... fast powerful mon... that's like 8 levels highter than me. Ok, no worries, like 4 of my mons have super effective moves against it.





And it takes out one of them before it even gets to attack. Uhh...





Ok no worries, I got this. I may be down 2 pokemon already and Nease is already close to fainting but no big deal.





See? A Houndour. I've got this. I've definitely...





Oh... no...





Ok ok... so it's a level 58 mew... Oh dear...





So Mew at level 58 has learned all of the moves it possibly can. This includes Psychic and AncientPower.





But don't worry, Chinchy paralyzed it, and confused it.





Metronome swords dance to self confusion hit! Ok just one more hit and I should hopefully-





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s






...Well I've got some training to do.

[Griflion]

Stupid Blue with his full restores D:

[pholtos]

Session 32: AI'm not sure what's going on.




So last time I lost to this guy, and I said "hey I should do a training montage" but screw it, there's like no place to train that wouldn't take ages. :P

The following video is required while reading the next image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSK5Gtf5bkA




WHAT ARE YOU DOING BLUE. STOP THROWING SAND AT MY POOR PLANT. >:O





Pokemon two this time was a Pichu. Took a few hits cause the guy has full restores.





Oh boy here we go.





So with a bit more fortune, including two Sp. Def drops and the fact Mew first used Metronome, led to me managing to take it out this time.





Pokemon four is ANOTHER POWERHOUSE. OY.





I'm fortunate that Mega Kick has crap accuracy. Otherwise this could have gone a lot worse. Like something tells me if Hitmonlee had hit Horsea with a Mega Kick it woulda fainted.





Oh geez.





Oh geez.





So at this point I was like "screw it, you used two full restores? I'll use a revive and a full restore."





In hindsight the Paralysis did not matter, as Hyper Beam causes a turn of inaction. Final pokemon is that Houndour.





AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





AAAAAAAA- I mean this was totally planned and not at all fortunate what do you mean.





Fear me and my great fortune and ability to somehow get lucky with the AI!





I am fortunate to have beaten that, the reason being...





I now have access to the final area and the best spot to train. So NOW I'm gonna do my training montage. :P





Shut up Oak.

[Speedless]

Pokemon battles are hard work. You have to stand there, you have to yell things, you have to point. It's... surprisingly like a certain game about a spiky haired guy wearing a blue suit.

Complete with hazards like getting whipped or, as of Gen V, doused in boiling hot beverages!

Dunno if the number of mons or levels change, but a trio of 50s is give or take Blaine level. So that's nice.

The person who shows up in the Trainer House is, IIRC, the last person you did Mystery Gift with. If you've never done that to begin with, you get Cal (here randomized into Nitori), whose team of Meganium, Typhlosion, and Feraligatr is more defensively sound than Blaine's, at least. Sadly, I don't think Nitori will give out as much experience as Cal did.

GREEN!

pholtos.

pholtos, no.

The one with the green goggles is the Emerald City, pholtos.

(I do like these little edits for the signs. It's a nice touch.)

I am the night.

That... that logo has two heads. Is that the symbol of Bat-Search Man?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING BLUE. STOP THROWING SAND AT MY POOR PLANT. >:O

That feels like the thing they had in Gen I (I forget when they fixed it) where the AI would use "super-effective" moves (Psychic on Poison-types like Bulbasaur, for example)... even when they didn't deal damage (leading to silly things like Agility spam).

Pokemon four is ANOTHER POWERHOUSE. OY.

I'm fortunate that Mega Kick has crap accuracy. Otherwise this could have gone a lot worse. Like something tells me if Hitmonlee had hit Horsea with a Mega Kick it woulda fainted.

Ah, Mega Kick. Lt. Surge's Raichu in Yellow gave it an extremely flattering showing when I tried to Diglett him the first time, but 75% accuracy is well below the Megahorn threshold, so it's realistic to hope for a miss.

I now have access to the final area and the best spot to train. So NOW I'm gonna do my training montage.

Let's hope Red's room is full of Chansey and Blissey.

[pholtos]

Let's hope Red's room is full of Chansey and Blissey.

Knowing my luck it'll either be full of stupidly powerful mons or full of one shottable mons. :P

Watch him have a Kakuna and a Goldeen along with a Zapdos and a Tyranitar.

[Griflion]

Session 32: AI'm not sure what's going on.




WHAT ARE YOU DOING BLUE. STOP THROWING SAND AT MY POOR PLANT. >:O
[/sp]

This somehow reminds me a lot of a certain Pokemon fan comic i read ages ago. Found it:

hmm, i wonder what the last update was when i was still reading it.

EDIT: Alright, the web comic is apparently dead

[pholtos]

Session 33: Finale




Welcome back, please help, I think this bike's brakes are broke-





Phew, thanks door. So upon talking to Oak after getting all the Kanto badges, we have access to over here.





THE GREATEST SIGN.





And then slightly to the right a little bit is the outside area of Mt. Silver. I am happy to say the game designers were nice and added a pokemon center right outside the cave.





I feel I can go anywhere because I'm the protagonist.





Going right from the pokemon center leads to a path that takes us to this house.





Oh boy a TM! I can't wait to teach this to one of my pokemon! :D







Bah.





Items!





Path and guy at the top! The first floor is dark, which makes it annoying to navigate without flash. Fortunately, I have the internet. A simple search and ta da I have a general idea what direction to go using the items on the ground as anchor points.





Training montage time! Moves learned/not learned!





Here's basically a full list of all the mons I found while going through the two outside areas and the three inside areas. Lots of em. It took a while but my mons went from 48 or so up to 60.





Also, I found a Shiny near the end of my training... and fainted it! Muahahahaha!





With every mon at 60, I figure I have a pretty good shot at beating the final fight, despite my potential for getting destroyed if he has a level 81 legendary. It all comes down to his first mon, and so I chose Chinchy as my lead off as it was the most durable mon I had, and had a good set of moves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxk9DqdYsJ4





A man of few words, eh Professor?





Pfft... first mon is Smeargle. So the thing about Smeargle is it only had one move, Sketch, which copies the first move the mon sees from it's opponent. Unfortunately for Red here, his Smeargle was faster than my Chinchy, and so the move failed. As a result, all it could do was Struggle til it fainted.





Mon 2, Magneton. I've got a couple fire types, so this shouldn't be too bad so long as I don't get hit too hard.





I am faster! Muahaha!





Magby eh? All right, water type it is.





Sunny day, fire blast and confuse ray. You absolute pain in the neck.





Mon number 4, Mankey. I wasn't sure what would be best to send out against this one, so I went with Vulpy after some thought.





Which turned out just fine. Thanks for using Seismic Toss instead of something like Cross Chop.





Hue hue hue... Mon 5 is Wobbuffet. Oh man do I have a plan for this one.





*does the poisonpowder actually had a use dance*





Final mon, Umbreon... this... could be a problem.





That... was a +6 Sp Atk Razor Leaf. Umbreon is a tanky beast, it's statline is 95 HP, 65 Atk, 110 Def, 60 SpAtk, 130 SpDef and 65 Spd.





So I figure Nease would be a good swap in given it would have a dark move and not much else (I totally didn't start off by using shadow ball, nope, definitely not, that would be stupid). Faint Attack, Screech and Moonlight. What a pain in the neck final mon. High Defenses and a healing move.





So I send Horsea in next and use dragonbreath to get a paralysis. I figured it'd be wiser than poison anyway, given Bells is down and out. I then hit it with smokescreens til Horsea faints cause Horsea misses a prime opportunity to finish it off with Hydro Pump. Blargh.





And at long last, Charmy comes in to finish it off with the help of Paralysis. Phew.





I have defeated the strongest trainer in Crystal.





As such, my journey has reached it's conclusion.





Thanks for reading guys. Hope you enjoyed this adventure. It took me a long time, nearly two years, but I finished it. Til we meet again in a new Text LP someday.

[Speedless]

Nicely done! That last fight felt pretty representative of this playthrough as a whole (the main thing that was missing being a random legendary out of nowhere, which we at least got in the random encounters).

Out of curiosity, what would you say gave the best XP during your grinding? I noticed that one of the highest-level slots went to Crobat, which I'm guessing was a contender, since back in Yellow, the Golbat in Victory Road and Cerulean Cave seemed as good to train my Pikachu on as anything.

Also, I found a Shiny near the end of my training... and fainted it! Muahahahaha!

Those eyes are a little scary. If it were me, I think I might have gone with all-black outlines there. Or maybe used blue instead of red or something.

... I wonder how they decide on the shiny colors?

Magby eh? All right, water type it is.

Sunny day, fire blast and confuse ray. You absolute pain in the neck.

The silly thing is, despite everything that was working against Chinchy here, I'm pretty sure he was still the absolute best choice. Of the four team members who resist Fire, only Vulpy has anywhere near Chinchy's special bulk (and with 50 less HP, who knows if his extra 14 points of Special Defense would have been enough to tank a Fire Blast?), and even in sun, I think super-effective Water still does a little more than resisted Fire.

All in all, this has been a very good time. Random opponents tend to make the no evolutions rule a lot less restricting than I expected it to be, and we get to see all sorts of intriguing setups that never show up in the official games. I appreciate how refined the layout of the images is getting, too, and the actual edits to them as well. I'm 100% ready to jump right into Emerald!

[pholtos]

Out of curiosity, what would you say gave the best XP during your grinding? I noticed that one of the highest-level slots went to Crobat, which I'm guessing was a contender, since back in Yellow, the Golbat in Victory Road and Cerulean Cave seemed as good to train my Pikachu on as anything.

I did most of my grinding outside, Crobat only showed up for me once in the last room, so it was fairly rare. As for what gave the most, Arcanine and Omastar tended to give over 1k exp a shot, so they tended to be the best things, and they were in the area right outside the pokemon center.

It woulda been a pain to go all the way through that dark room every single time I needed to go back to the pokemon center, especially near the end of the training when I wasn't fainting as much.