The Pallet Townies

My friend Brian recently told be to check out some really neat orchestral remixes of the original Red/Blue/Yellow tunes. I highly recommend them myself. Be sure to listen to “Viridian Forest”, “Mt. Moon” (preview above), and “Red’s Journey”. Heck, try the whole album, it’s pretty fantastic!

[iTunes linky]

Yep, that’s right, I’m back.

What, with all the chatter around the release of Black 2 in the States, and some free gaming-time at night now, I decided to continue my adventure once again.

So, a quick recap; I conquered Silph Co and made my way through to Fuchsia City…

After a little refresher-battling, I went after Koga, and his Gym’s notorious invisible walls, which are a little baffling really. Seemed like a cheap puzzle for the developers to throw in, to me. Still, better than slogging through a bunch of suckers in a row, right?

So, my squad, which, if you remember, consists of all 3 starters, a Haunter named Boo, and the unforgettable talking Pikachu, took care of them pretty easily, especially considering the level gap.

Soulbadge get!

But the main attraction of Fushia City? The Safari Zone, of course! While it contains some pretty exclusive Pokémon, it’s also a darn sight harder to catch ‘em. After many tedious Nidoran and Exeggcute encounters, I stumbled upon a Marowak, a Cubone, and eventually a Chansey. I didn’t manage to grab the latter though, those tricky things always running away. It would also help if I could actually throw a damn Safari Ball straight too. I guess that’s quite accurate with the real me, though.

  

I did manage to grab a Kangaskhan and a Rhyhorn, both caught on my first move, which I thought was pretty neat. I came across a Scyther too, but it got away after throwing a single ball. I really like Scythers too…

After a couple of visits, I snatched the Golden Teeth (presumably… false?) and nabbed Surf from the cabin at the very end. Pro tip: There’s a Nugget hidden inside one of the statues outside the cabin!

  

After seeing the once scary Warden, and taking Strength, Fuchsia was donesies, and it was onto Seafoam Island…

…Where my Wartortle evolved! Well, actually, I delayed the evolution because, well, as cool as Blastoise is, I could.

Also, here’s the full team, just as I landed on Seafoam.

  

So, until next time (which hopefully won’t be as long, this time 😔).

(Eagled eyed observers may have notciced my party is missing a Poké, and said persons would be right. I’m planning on grabbing Brittany (not fellow Townie Ms. Stevens, but the Eevee I named after her) from the Daycare dude next time I pass).

So as you all know, I’ve been done my Gen 1 Pokemon Adventure for a while now and I’ve been itching for some more Pokemon exploration. I’ve been toying with the idea of continuing my Pokemon Adventure by exploring the rest of the generations (Next up would be Heart Gold). Then a Ruby or Sapphire ROM (because my 3DS can’t play my Emerald cartridge) and wrapping it up with Diamond and Black (I’m going to have to buy Black to keep my save file of White in anticipation of BW2 :) ). 

Since I know most of you haven’t gone past gen 2/3 at the latest, what do you all think? Would you follow me on my journey to be the very best?

Like no one ever was?

Okay, so Vince is done, and the rest of us haven’t updated in a while, but do not fear! Contrary to the rumours, Team Rocket haven’t captured any of us (well, maybe Shawn, but…).

We’re all just a bit busy lately with other life-y things. It is summer after all.

I’ve been trying to fill in the gaps with odd jokes and funny pics here and there, but they aren’t all that interesting.

I’ll probably be updating my progress soon myself, though, so hang in there!

That’s right guys. I’m done. I’ve actually been done for about a week or so now but I’ve been waiting for someone else to update… (and I’ve been super lazy hehe). 

So after going through Seafoam Islands and catching Articuno, I made my way to Cinnabar Island and spending FOREVER in the Pokemon Mansion trying to figure out that little thing I had to do. After finally figuring it out and gaining access to the gym, I trounced Blaine with Dragonair and Blastoise. 

I went back to Viridian City to give Giovanni one last beatdown. Again, Blastoise and Dragonair did the heavy lifting (needed Dragonair to evolve!). And then the hell that is Victory Road.

It actually wasn’t too bad this time. I remember it being dreaded playing on my friend’s Pokemon save file back in the day (because mine got stolen before I got there). But then I made it. I reached the Indigo Plateau.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting to make it through the first time. I was drastically underleveled (half of my Pokemon were just short of level 50) and I didn’t have Dragonite yet. But I pushed on with strategy in mind. I sold my unnecessary items, bought healing items and revived until I didn’t have enough PokeBucks to afford anything else and I pressed on. 

First was Lorelei and her Ice Pokemon. This was an extremely tough battle because I didn’t have any Fire, Rock, or Steel attacks and I totally forgot that Fighting was super effective against it until too late. So I had to go with secondary type advantage to win the battle. This meant Raichu was my frontline man. With his high speed and Thunderbolt, he could deal good damage but his low level could never OHKO anyone. When Jynx came out, I switched over to Blastoise and gave her a huge Bite that was super effective.

Next was Bruno. Easy smeasy with Kadabra leading the party. With his extremely high SpAtk and speed, Kadabra actually managed to OHKO a few of Bruno’s early fighting types. When Onix came out, I switched over to Dragonair and eroded them with Surf. Machamp managed to survive a super effective Psychic but I had Blastoise to tank the rest of the battle.

Agatha with her Ghost Pokemon served another big challenge. While Kadabra is strong against Ghost type, Dark and Ghost are also super effective against him. So anything that didn’t OHKO (which was a lot…) would just wreck Kadabra. I didn’t have type advantage for the majority of this match but it wasn’t too big of an issue. 

Finally, there was Lance. The entire time I’ve had Dratini, I’ve been grinding as much as I could and even gave him an Exp.Share to get some even when he was too weak to fight. But I was a few levels short before he evolved into Dratini. As everyone knows, Dragon is one of the most formidable Pokemon types. Only weak against Ice and Dragon and strong against the main elemental types (fire, water, grass, electric), Dragon type Pokemon are almost always (if not always) considered pseudo-legendary in competitive leagues.

Thankfully I remembered that I had a Blizzard TM that I gave to Blastoise. Since Lance always leads with Gyarados, I let Raichu out first to deal with it. The fight against the two Dragonairs was split between my Dragonair and Blastoise. Twister and Blizzard were formidable attacks against them. Aerodactyl was a scary fight because it had AncientPower which wrecked my Raichu and Zapdoes while Hyper Beam which wrecked my Blastoise. I brought them back while my weaker Pokemon took the sacrifice and managed to get him out of the way. The fight with Dragonite was terrifying. 

Dragonite’s high speed meant it would always have move priority. It’s Hyper Beam could wipe out my Blastoise at half health in one hit. Dragonair couldn’t do too much damage and all of my other Pokemon were on their last ropes. But I did it. I managed to narrowly finish the battle.

I had almost made it. Then… NOAH. I revived my Pokemon with only a few Revives to spare. Only 2  Hyper Potions left. I had to make this last battle count. Thankfully, Noah has a very type-varied team. Again, he starts off with Pidgeot so I start with my Raichu. Rhydon - Blastoise. Arcanine - Dragonair. Gyarados - Zapos. Alakazam - Blastoise. Venasaur - Kadabra.

And then I did it.

You’ll notice I never talked about Nidoqueen at all during my recap. If you recall, I wanted to replace Nidoqueen a long time ago but never found a good ground-type replacement for her. So I kept her around mostly to tank damage and provide a buffer while I healed my other Pokemon. 

After I restarted the game, I was put back into Professor Oak’s lab to discuss some interesting news.

Oooh yeah a sneak peak of Johto Pokemon! I went to Sevii Island (if you’re playing on FR/LG you’ll get a peak of Sevii Islands during your Cinnabar visit) and did some exploring.

Slugma, you are my first Johto Pokemon!

And yes. Sweet-ness. In one of the islands, you get a chance to partake in a small Battle Tower experience. When HOLY FUCK WHAT IS THIS?

My very first Shiny… EVER… and it’s on a ROM… and during a trainer fight. brb crying.

Anyway, after doing that, I found me a Mewtwo and did something downright heretical to some.

nbd 

And with this, I have concluded my Pokemon journey. 

This tune still gives me the creeps, nearly ten years after I first heard it…

Well, if things weren’t eventful enough for you in the last post I made, things certainly are in this. Take a deep breath!

After finishing up in Celadon, but before heading out, I went round the back of the Celadon Mansion, where a secret entrance allowed me to access a secret area of the building. This secret bit led up to the top floor, where a (secret) guy claiming to know anything and everything (secrets) was hanging around (I can’t verify his statements, we never did have a quiz together). It’s here I grabbed one of the more unique Pokémon one can find, an Eevee. Seeing as fellow Townie Brittany is such a cool cat (she made my new avatar!) and is a big fan of the little cutester, I named the critter after her.

Next up was to see how my Magikarp was going with the Daycare man. The useless brat was more than ready to evolve, so after carting the sod around a few matches (he only knows Tackle and Splash) I got the Gyrados I’d envisioned since I bought him off that salesman. I decided to drop Eeevee off at the Daycare for now, seeing as I don’t really have room in my squad, and ditching her in the PC would be a gesture that Brittany might see as a little cheeky.

Next up, I wanted to grab a Gastly and blaze through Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. Gastly is my favourite evolution chain (as I probably mumble on a bit too much about) and I’ve been dying to get a hold of one.

After trouncing all the Channelers (with consummate ease) and whatnot in the Tower, and freeing poor mummy Marowak’s spirit, I met the fabled Jessie and James once again. I wiped the floor with them, and in doing so was treated to my Gastly evolving into a very sinister looking Haunter. Nice.

Picking up the Pokéflute from Mr. Fuji (nice man, has a big bald spot) I changed my plan a little and woke up that damn Snorlax blocking the path. After a bit of a struggle and a tense moment where it was on a slither of HP and still refused to be caught, I just about grabbed the sucker.

Heading back to see the Name Rater, I decided to give some funky names to some of my crew. I couldn’t think up of much, but I decided to name my Haunter “Boo”, akin to the aptly named baddies in Super Mario, and because that’s pretty much what ghosts do. I decided to name my Gyrados “Gary” because, well, my rival is called Douche, so there is no Gary.

At this point I put into action the plan I made for Boo’s move-set. Once she learnt Hypnosis, I taught her Dream Eater from a TM I grabbed off a random guy I met on my travels earlier. I also taught her Psychic, thanks to Mr. Psychic of Saffron. This gave her a pretty formidable move-set, which, when combined with her immunity to all physical attacks, makes for a Pokémon that will not go down easily. This was evidenced in my later exploits in Silph Co., my next target.

Silph Co. is surely one of the most confusing places in this game. The warp pads make it seem much bigger than it actually is (until you get the key card, that is). I pretty much trounced every Rocket trainer in there easily, with only a couple of quick dashes to the Pokémon Centre (which I soon sorted by stocking up on Revives after).

I was pretty surprised to bump into my rival once again, and this time he proved to be a little bit of a handful. Not because my squad isn’t strong enough, but because I hopped onto the warp pad before healing-up. I managed it, though, even with only half of a team left.

I am a little suspicious as to how he got so far in there without anyone so much as batting an eyelid. In fact, I’m almost certain he’s working with Team Rocket, which wouldn’t surprise me given his name.

After sending him packing, I was treated to another surprise by a Silph scientist in the same room, grateful for my rescue attempt. He nicely gifted me a Lapras, which he assured was a clever little ‘Mon.

Next up was my inevitable rematch with Giovanni, but wait… Who’s that closing in? Why it’s Jessie and James once again! Like I have an annoying habit of foiling their plans, they have an annoying habit of failing to prevent me so.

Unfortunately, I once again forgot to heal-up. My rival had weakened my team to just a couple of Pokés left, so some quick in-battle Super Potions and a Revive were put to use.

Once I’d, yet again, removed them, that Giovanni rematch was ahead. After a little trash-talk from the Rocket honcho, I ended his reign over the people of Silph.

Sending him packing shortly after his underlings, I got a very sincere thank you from the boss of Silph, and, after emptying some of my pockets into the conveniently located PC, obtained the catch-23 Master Ball. My Ivysaur decided to take this opportunity to evolve into his final evolution, too.

After a little respite flooring everything in the Fighting Dojo, thanks entirely to Boo’s immunity to those petty little kicks and punches, it was on to Sabrina (not the teenage witch, although she does know psychic-y magic-y stuff…).

EDIT: I picked up Hitmonchan after beating the leader.

In yet another maze of warp pads, I did eventually manage to find my way to her. With all 3 of her Pokés being at a whopping level 50, this was definitely going to be a challenge. I don’t have any bug-types at a decent level, so it was down to my mainstays to really prove their mettle. I made sure to pick up some more Potions and Revives beforehand, and it was a damn good job I did. This certainly made for the most difficult battle I’ve had so far.

Boo was called into battle early, using Hypnosis where possible to slow them down, but being a ghost, didn’t last too long. Neither did Abby C. Pikachu didn’t stand a chance either, and while Wartortle weakened Kadabra, the annoying thing kept using Recover, eventually taking the chance to finish off my water-turtle. Venusaur finished off Kadabra, and did quite a bit of damage to Alakazam, but was taken down eventually. Charmeleon eventually took down a lot of health from Alakazam, but it took some slugging. I managed to revive Venusaur before the end to deal the final blow that earned me that almost elusive badge.

Marshbadge get!

So, after this long post you’re welcome to go away and have a rest. This was a mammoth.

My line-up post Gym battle:

Because I used Boo so regularly in Silph Co., she’s much higher levelled than the rest, making the team a little off balance, but I plan on working on that.

Until next time!

Too much awesome in one shirt.

I haven’t really had time to post lately due to work, but I have been playing! 

After arriving at Lavender Town, I immediately went to Saffron City to get that Silph Scope. The first thing I did was go to the Dojo and have Kadabra wreck all of the fighting Pokemon trainers and receive a Hitmonchan. I went to the Silph Co. and went through the terrible maze and eventually beat Giovanni. 

After receiving the Silph Scope, I went back to Lavender Town and traversed through the Pokemon Tower, freeing Marowak’s spirit. Then I went to Celadon City where I had an absolute field day. First thing I did was pick up my Eevee and go to the Department Store. As it stands, I still don’t know what I should evolve my Eevee to. I have no Fire type so Flareon would be the logical step except… Flareon is terrible

PokeMechanics talk: Flareon’s best stat is Attack. In Gen 3, Flareon has NO Physical Fire attacks. Therefore, any Fire attack it would learn would not benefit from its stats and thus be weaker than a Fire Pokemon that actually excels in Sp.Attack

So I have a plain Eevee. I may decide to get a Jolteon because it has a much higher Sp.Atk and Sp.Def rating than Raichu and I already have two other Pokemon that excel in Atk/Def.

Anyway, after all of that, I went and got my coin case.

And thus started my gambling addiction. Although even at a young age I realized that the slots were terribly against your favor and would take forever. Forever… for this:

Oh yes, Dratini. So I went and bought those coins like hot cakes. Because hot cakes are delicious. And while talking to people, I realized something super dark about this game.

But I was still going to buy me a Dratini and love it forever. So I went downstairs of the Gaming Center, beat up Team Rocket and went to the Celadon City Gym.

… Creepy old man. 

Using my type advantage, I trampled through the gym with Kadabra and Pidgeotto and then left for Fuschia City. While there, I went to the Safari Zone and nabbed a few rare Pokemon, got Surf, and the Warden’s Gold Teeth (to get Strength). Went to the gym and beat Koga. This gym was actually not as quick and easy as the previous gyms mostly because I didn’t have a pure Dark Pokemon. Post-gym battle, I taught every Pokemon that could learn it, Surf because Surf is one of the best Water attacks, hands down. 

I surfed down towards Seafoam Islands and caught a Slowpoke. BECAUSE SLOWPOKE ARE ADORABLE. Oh and I actually accidentally ran into this guy:

I say accidentally because I literally forgot that Articuno resides in Seafoam Islands. After a tireless battle and constant PokeBall throwing, I caught it and spent the rest of the time trying to get out of that cave. And that’s where I am now! 

Party:

• Kadabra (lvl 40)
• Dragonair (lvl 42)
• Nidoqueen (lvl 40)
• Raichu (lvl 41)
• Blastoise (lvl 41)
• Pidgeotto (lvl 34) - After Pidgeotto evolves, I plan to replace him with someone else. Possibly Articuno until I get Moltres so I can get a Flying/Fire combo.

Also, since I actually like talking about Pokemon Game Mechanics, feel free to ask about something and I’ll do my best to explain it to you :) EV/IV Points, Natures (yeah, that’s part of breeding and thus a later generation, but it’s still a pretty complicated process), etc.!

Gimme gimme!