Unless you’ve been under a rock and haven’t been noticing the Fantasy Premier League this week, you’ll have noticed Rooney’s scoring in both the first match, and his quad in the second match. Those combined with all the bonuses, and most importantly captaincy, resulted in this:

Bloody brilliant. Except for the fact that just-about everyone in the game did the same…

Then came the finding out of the news that the HeartGold and SoulSilver arc for PokéSpecial has been announced as actually going to happen! Just as bloody brilliant as well – GSC is my second favourite arc of the series (after RS of course!) and Gold is one of my favourite characters of them all. It will be interesting to see what happens, especially if he and Silver are now both coming of age – seeing as they were thirteen in their last appearance in the Emerald arc, and now they’ve taken on the qualities and facial structure changes as what Red looked like in FRLG when he had turned sixteen.

Besides, the HGSS outfit is even more win now that I see how manga Gold looks in it. It was badass enough on the in-game Hibiki, but with the youth of the kid… Now though, with teenage Gold, with his same goggles and snooker cue as before…

Let’s just say I now have a fuck-ton more research before Nom-Con…

Also, three-page preview courtesy of Coronis is even more win, despite the fact that there’s not all that much in it, other than the blatantly obvious evolution of Ataro to an Ambipom.

Just. Win.

There’s been an awful lot of playing, a lot of editing, rendering and definitely a lot of uploading. On average, each video takes about 12-13 minutes of gameplay, about 20 minutes raw editing, between an hour and a half to two hours of rendering, and depending on where I am and what sort of connection I have, anywhere between seven minutes and four hours to upload to YouTube.

The result is this:

I’ll be back amongst the living soon though, don’t worry! Especially with college starting up again at the end of the month. I really should work on a nice backlog of gameplay in the meantime…

Logo

Right, let’s start to rip on the interim Japanese version logos. Yes, we’ve made it very obvious that they are Gold and Silver, you don’t need to go absolutely overboard on the colours and the shine. Also, I fail to see how the "heart" is reminiscent of Ho-oh, it’s just a heart, possibly in the form on wings. And how is Lugia a soul…? Sometimes I don’t understand these Japanese people and how they come up with the most random things like these and expect people to be wowed by them.

Player characters

Where to start? Well the first choice of who to rip on absolutely has to go on the new female player character. Why introduce a new one, when we had Kris in Crystal? Way to break with continuity. Sure Leaf was kinda considered a new character since there was no female player in RGBY, but she was supposed to be a revamp of a female character that was supposed to be in the game originally (but supposedly removed near to release) but remained in place in the manga (as Blue), and Blue was revamped to Leaf in FR/LG…

Also, copy and paste on official artwork FTW. Faces look exactly the same on the pair of them… and they both seem to have hoods on their jackets? Hard to tell at this point in time. And to stay true to form, again the female has the absolute skimpiest shorts ever, as if trying to compete with Dawn’s micro-micro-mini skirt. I’m just glad there’s no way you could actually look up there.

Oh, and as for Gold… all I can think of is the TF2 Scout. An incredibly young Pokémon trainer version of him that is. Waiting for the first video of him with the Scout’s in-game dialogue super-imposed!

Also, this will screw up the manga somewhat, provided we’re going back to the original ten after the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum arc of the story. Gold will likely be updated to match the new look, but what’s going to happen with Kris, and how is this new female going to be intertwined with the story?

And the other shit

Some interesting new official artwork for some of them. Blissey’s turned into quite the fat bitch, for sure…

And as for those two, I hope they get a complete nerf. I absolutely hated it with those who played Silver, caught Lugia and swept the Elite Four with that and their starter. They really need to fix that…

Ranting Review Score

As this is only a preview of course, there’s no score for this at the moment. But as soon as it’s out in the Autumn and I download it, there will be a proper rant and nitpick etc. here!

BTW, if I ever have to link that fucking article again since you have no idea what on earth I’m talking about, I’m seriously going to have to kill you.

While the occasion itself isn’t for another half a year, the addictive personality inside of me wants everything to be sorted and ready now. Which unfortunately means I need to start researching where to get the different bits of the outfit, where to get the materials for the details, figure out how on earth to use a sewing machine! Amongst other things.

Since I’m probably going to end up referring back to this post in the future (and because it’s ten to two and I don’t feel like sleeping at all), may as well go into excruciating detail. Whoop-de-doo…

The one odd thing about this outfit, is that I never really understood the bottom half of it. By that I mean, is it a pair of baggy long shorts over his track bottoms, which themselves are long enough to be tucked into his sneakers; or are they three-quarter lengths over really loose-fitting leggings? I could never really tell myself. The games may seem to go with the second option based on the in-game sprite (off to the right there), yet official artwork may contradict that. Also from what I’ve seen of the fanbase, it’s the second option as well, but again it’s iffy.

Other than that, top half is simple. Gloves should be easily modifiable from… well, anything. The epically wild hat shouldn’t be too much of a problem, just need to get a hat somewhere close in shape, or even just grab a white one and modify it (in case you were wondering, it IS a hat, not some weird anime hairstyle!). Finding a big headband shouldn’t be a big deal either! And if I were to spend enough time browsing through The Bag Shop, I’ll find one that’ll do. If not, I’ll just see what I can do modifying a yellow bag I already have into it (Ruby’s bag remains yellow in the manga, not emerald green).

From left to right: Ruby’s official artwork for the manga series (and overall what I’m going for), Brendan’s official artwork from Pokémon Emerald, a different cosplayer’s created outfit based on Brendan.

If anyone wants to help me out in this quest, it’d be a great help. You may want to consider me a rookie in this field for the moment, so don’t get all too technical on me! If there are any details I may be missing (or if you’re as highly inquisitive as I am), let me know, I should get around to it, when not being distracted by fancy things flying around the offices.

Oh and by the way, anyone want to go with me as Sapphire? You might need to be able to bear the cold quite a bit though!

PS: I haven’t touched the content of the post at all from what was in the draft. All that was added were the images.

Just before I start, let me take the chance to say that this has got nothing to do with the Kaiser Chiefs’ song at all. Rather, it’s a Ruby of a different kind. Think more “imaginative”, more… Oh, screw trying to come up with clues, it’s the Ruby from the Pokémon Adventures manga. See here. Go brush up on your knowledge before delving deeper

On my first read-through of the entire series, Ruby was the first character that really stood out to me. He’s the first character in the series whom I really liked. It’s probably also why the Fourth Chapter (also known and the Ruby/Sapphire arc) is my favourite out of the six chapters so far, although that may change when volumes 27 onwards come out in English and Ruby and Sapphire make an appearance in the Sixth Chapter

The second time I read through that story arc was over the last two long weekend, where I had time to head home. I brought along the books with me to get a chance to read over them again during time I had to myself that wasn’t otherwise used taking advantage of Magnet’s digital TV
Believe me, whether you have 17 or 70+ channels, at some point, there will be absolutely NOTHING on.

The entire manga series seems to put an emphasis on a lot more details of all of the characters. Such as their birthdays, ages and, which I find quite odd, their blood types. Not as if there has really been many scenes in which blood has been involved (the only one that springs to mind is the Ruby vs. Salamence scene in which he obtained the scar on his forehead), which makes it rather a peculiar thing to mention. More to the point, it is these fine details which have made me realise that Ruby is actually quite similar to myself, which is probably why I “connect” with the character so well.

Alright, so there are only two things about us that are similar. Both of us were born on July 2nd, and our eyes are myopic, hence why we both wear glasses (although one of us not as much as they should!). Yes, when one detail matches, you’d probably say “coincidence”, yet two traits makes for more of a “WTF – they seem to have copied me”.

Maybe it’s also the evolution of the character that intrigued me as well. At first, you can see that he is just a self-centred little kid (alright, I will admit that it is sort of like what I used to be) focusing solely on outer appearance and masking inner strength. However, once you hit the end of volume 20 onwards, were the outfit change and the dive to the Cave of Origin takes place, his character drastically changes. From this point, he no longer looks nor acts like an 11-year old kid addicted to Pokémon Contests. You could say, he rivals Red at this point

Oh yea, speaking of the outfit change, that is one point that does make no sense to me. Yes, I know that characters change appearance over time, but why the sudden change before going down to the Cave of Origin? And how did he do it so quickly, given he changed looks in the time it took him to get from Slateport Hospital to Sapphire and Walo? Well, there are some things that remain unanswered. But you could answer me this: What is with the shorts on top of his trousers? One of the two would have made more sense. Probably the shorts on their own, since they seem to match the rest of his outfit. Then again, it wasn’t Hidenori Kusaka’s (author of the manga) idea for his appearance, rather whoever was in charge of character design for Pokémon Emerald, which was “drafted” into the manga.

So, you can probably tell that I really like the character. Probably a little too much for my own good. But hey, I guess that’s part of my obsessive nature.

Reading over this is actually making me think about the quality of the crap I used to write just one year ago. I guess it was the fact that I finally found a proper blogging community as to why my writing style and attitude changed. Whether it was for the best – well we’ll soon find out.

Seriously though, nothing major does occur as you simply walk (and Surf, and Rock Climb etc.) onwards across the mini-sea, then through the grass, then down through a sandstorm (this place gets all types of weather…) to the Resort Area. Now, of all the three towns on this island, Resort Area is the one that was changed the most. Not just scenery-wise, but the entire place is different! It was pretty much all to make room for this huge building in town. Some kid asks you something about it. Saying no means you walk away, say yes and in you go with him…

Yea, but from what my research entails apparently you own the place and can trick it out with all sorts of overly-priced and expensive furniture. Seriously, everything you can buy from the catalogue (conveniently already given on a table) is in six figures. So, you won’t be buying everything in one go!

So, Stark Mountain is where we should be going next as that’s where Buck originally mentioned beforehand back when I (note I, and not we) was pwning Flint and Volkner. I can say that the area does look a lot more volcano-y and ashy than before, but still has the same lame Pokémon, lame trainers, lame dialogue, lame falling ash that makes no change to the battle weather etc.
Whatever let’s go in and unlock Heatran and complete the extra storyline already.

But wait, what is this waiting inside the door? It’s… Team Galactic? What the hell are they doing here? Seriously now, this was not part of the script back in DP. Pluto and a couple of guards stand back, while Mars and Jupiter approach you, uttering some inane drivel as always.

And of course, they just have to fight you. It’s not an evil enemy team boss admin corporation encounter thing without a boss fight! At least they take it in turns, just unfortunately straight after each other with no rest…

Yea, so with those loser bitches gone, and the big old man in further, I guess it’s time to explore the place. With Buck, as always. So, while now every battle will be a double battle, at least it means free reign to do some training without any need to worry about PP or health! One of the things I like about these partner bits

A note about the video. I did record the audio separately using the narration in Movie Maker, which was all fine and dandy sounding, and looked to be working out really well until I got to editing, when the audio started going out of sync. I thought it was an MM problem, so I went and played them separately – the audio in Media Player and the video in Photo Gallery. Still out of sync. Tried recording the video again and the audio again with Audacity. Still out. Decided, fuck it, just post it anyway.

I’m now looking to upgrade my camera for one that has a line in port so it can record the perfect sound as well as the video in perfect harmony!

Double Lack of Trouble

Training is boring and tedious, but pays results. That is all. Seriously. I mean it. I’ll get back to you once I’ve gone through this annoying, zoomed-out large place thing. Y’know…

This has been in my drafts for so long since I wasn’t bothered to encode/upload the videos…

So, since Rotom is the elusive #152, I went after it and caught it, given that it was during the night when I was playing and so it would be around

Yes, it was long-winded and all I was doing was throwing balls at it, hence the double speed.

And then after that struggle I went around to list the lake trio in my ‘dex. Now being bored of long-winded legendary battles already (yes, I only had two, but after Rotom and the debacle that was Giratina, I was sick of trying to catch them), I noted to myself that I would throw five Quick Balls as soon as the battle started, and if they failed to stay in, they were getting eaten up by Garch.

Garch was quite happy with his extra special feed

And so, with the Sinnoh Dex completed, it was off to Rowan to get this thing finally upgraded to a National Dex so that I can actually play the game properly! So mandatory speech down, in walks Oak, upgrades the ‘dex and walks out again – as if he was always around and his appearance wasn’t one of complete mystery. He also mentioned Route 221, the one that leads to Pal Park, which reminded me that I didn’t actually clear out that route, not even during the normal run of play. Oh well, it can wait.

Side-tracking

It finally feels good to know that there is once again undiscovered places (at least in this particular game) I can venture into and roam around. Although there was one place which did come to mind when I was going through the completed Sinnox Dex – now that I’ve beaten Cynthia, she’s no longer blocking the way into Turnback Cave with her fat ass

So, it was off to Sendoff Spring, and through the cave puzzle thing – now with added fog! (if I recall correctly). The prize at the end? Well a Rare Bone is good for selling, but the juicy bit is a second portal to the Distortion World! Inside, it’s just as distortiony and torn as before (see how I combined both the “old” and “new” names for it there…), and you still get to walk on the wall for all of about 10 steps, but at the end of the linear path is the whole point you came here: The Platinum Orb. With it, Giratina’s Dragon and Ghost moves have double the power, and you can have Giratina in it’s Another Forme (that snake thingy) outside of here!

Right, back to what’s more important

Battle Zone

With National Dex in hand, setting forth is simple as there are no wide-asses stopping you. The whole tropical aspect of the island is continued on through the routes as well as the cities, which does start to make the character’s new wintry outfits seem a little out of place…

Route 22…whatever still has the same mix of trainers, free loot, grass, and Cut trees as before – I seriously should have brought my Cut slave with me… – just all tropically. Same goes for the Survival Area. The Top Trainer Café is here, although locked at present. Plus WTFH isn’t here either to do his weekend rematch thing (he moved from Fight Area), which is even more odd. Oh well, better move on.

Now on Route 226, I found this little Rock Climb bit which brought me back to a house at the very far noth of the Survival Area, inaccessible from the main part of the village. Inside, I found the third of the Platinum move tutors. This guy is actually more of a big deal than the other two, because of one particular move he teaches: Seed Bomb. It’s one of the few physical-based Grass-type moves there are since the physical/special split occured and one which really plays into Leaf’s strengths. Needless to say, Leaf forgot Magical Leaf before I could even get to the dialog box

Current party: Empol (Lv61), Garch (Lv64), Togek (Lv62), Leaf (Lv60), Doom (Lv61), Luca (Lv60)

I would have recorded the entire credits for you to enjoy (or at least the top half of them ), but tagging them onto the back of the Cynthia video went over the 12 and a half minutes my camera can record. I really do need to buy a memory stick larger than 1GB for the complete video play-through…

As before, you end up in your room just like when you started, only this time with a kick-ass party around your belt! Heading downstairs and your mom greets you with some shite, but WTFH? was mentioned in there somewhere as well. Why, I have no idea. Well, actually I do, but for the purposes of this play-through, I don’t

First stop was Sandgem Town to meet Professor Rowan to see what the story was with getting my National Dex. Well, I have 206 seen out of 210, which unfortunately isn’t good enough for the lazy shit. So that means no fancy new features like swarms, Pokéradar or the like for a little while… Fail

The one other thing that unlocks following beating the Elite Four is the Battle Zone – the island in the north-east which contains the Battle Frontier, and more “exotic” Pokémon – i.e. those not in the Sinnoh Dex. So, the port of call is Snowpoint City, and try and figure out a way to get the sailor to give me a ride on his boat, especially as I have no ticket this time. Yes, you don’t get given a ticket Key Item, so how do you get there?

Well, it turns out Cynthia just happens to be in town, and she goes on about whatever it is, and somehow that makes the sailor start giving you rides back and forth from the Battle Zone. I have no idea what it is she said or did, but I think it must have involved the two of them getting a room later down at Valor Lakefront. On arrival, guess who it is who’s waiting like a stalker, checking out everybody getting off at the pier looking for you? No prizes for correctly guessing WTFH. Anyway some drivel later, and the pair of you end up battling Volkner and Flint in a double battle right there and then! What the hell is up with these sudden battles?!?!

If I’m not mistaken, then WTFH was astounded at how Palmer, supposedly his dad, came rushing out and bumped into him – seeing as how they never met in D/P. Then Palmer went on to mention how the Battle Tower has now become a complex of five different facilities to make up the Battle Frontier, before promptly fecking off. And then Buck must have mentioned Stark Mountain seeing as that’s where you normally meet him. But all this is a presumption seeing as how I can’t read Japanese

Yea, that battle threw me off course… Anyway the Battle Zone itself seems to have turned into the complete opposite from the rest of Sinnoh – it’s now a lush, warm, tropical island off the coast of a freezing wasteland. Quite odd… I would have explored the rest of the island, but alas, for some reason ordinary people won’t let you leave the Fight Area without the National Dex! So I guess that means it’s a trip back to the mainland to find those four missing Pokémon. Well,I know that three of them are the lake trio, but what is the identity of the mysterious Pokémon #152?

Checking out the Sinnoh Dex gives this: #146-#148 are the lake trio: Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf; #149 Dialga, #150 Palkia (both added from the Spear Pillar event), #151 Manaphy (see a book in Mr. Backlot’s mansion to add it), #152 ??????, #153-4 Gligar-Gliscor. But who is it in that elusive spot? It’s not Giratina since it’s down at #210, it’s not a pre-evolution of Gligar because that doesn’t exist – so who could be residing at that spot and why can’t I think of it off of the top of my head?

Well, a little Internet searching later informed me that it was indeed Rotom. Yes, that little pixie that hides in a TV in Eterna Mansion and only comes out at night. Now that I know what it is, it does make sense seeing as how Rotom is a bit of a big deal what with his five extra Formes that give it increased stats and unique moves. And if I had known it was available so easily sooner, I might have tried to work it into the team in place of someone else – Leaf may have been chopped out, or possibly turned into a different Eeveelution and replaced a different member. Either way, I now know the identities of the four missing Pokémon – so I guess now’s the time to find them… I just hope it’ll fit in 12 minutes…

Current party: Empol (Lv58), Garch (Lv63), Togek (Lv56), Leaf (Lv58), Doom (Lv61), Luca (Lv57)

Training was becoming a bitch, so I’ve stuck with the age-old tactic of just doing Elite Four runs and losing if need be. Since you no longer pay out half your cash when you lose, it’s a more viable strategy, earning not only precious Exp. Points, but also making a profit

One thing I noticed on my recon runs is that although the levels start low enough, they shoot up rather quickly. Aaron starts on 49-53, but Cynthia at the end is ten levels higher a 59-62! Also, what is essentially a mirror match with Cynthia is tough as well. So, you can see why so much time was taken out for training (and candy feeding, but we’re not going to get into that!)

Current party: Empol (Lv58), Garch (Lv62), Togek (Lv56), Leaf (Lv58), Doom (Lv60), Luca (Lv56)

Right, let’s get this shit over with…

You don’t want to know how long that took to record and get onto my computer… Several things you may want to note are how the rooms have all been re-designed to more suit each particular member’s dominant type. Also, the battle backgrounds in each room also reflect that colouring. I’d show you what the touch screen is like, but I can’t record two things at once!

But it’s still not over, there’s the final and usually long-winded battle against Cynthia to come. How fun…

So, it wasn’t as long and as drawn out as I thought. Being able to outpace her entire team is a great asset, especially as you get to the point where one-move KOs are quite a common occurence. Yes, the Elite Four is done and dusted with, you are correct in noticing it took me 35 hours to do so… (I’m not happy about that fact) and that’s the main part of the game done. But it isn’t the end of the notable battles, or even the Playthrough itself at all. There is still the extended story in the Battle Zone, and the completely overhauled Battle Frontier has plenty more opportunities for videos (as well as giving me more chances to hopefully improve my editing skills!)

While I’m on the subject, I’m starting to seriously think about how I’m going to go about my plans to completely record every part of my playthrough of the American version once it comes out this March. I’ve been playing around with several PC-based emulators to see if there would be more effective, and provide better quality that my basic camera recording, as well as possibly giving me the opportunity to show whatever’s on the Touch Screen as well. It does play a bit of a role in the cut-scenes, and it’s a bit more “dressed-up” than in D/P, so leaving it out is missing quite a bit.

I’ll go into more detail about this closer to the actual release date itself. I plan on going through with the same team as this one, and maybe actually narrating it. Also, if you watch raocow’s videos, you might remember what he calls “chipmunk time”? Well, I might just have a bit of “Baby Bear time”

iDeaS now has a 1.0.2.8 beta out. I wonder if that will fix the Platinum transparency issues?

Damien wants you all to donate your phones to help the Jack and Jill Foundation! I accidentally mistyped “kill” there…

The Guild Season 2, Episode 4!

I’d cut down on the Left 4 Dead if I were you…

And sticking with VG Cats – Super Effective shows you how your characters get their prize money – and why the losers always stand in the same place after you beat them…

So Ranger 2. Yes, it’s a sequel of Ranger 1. No bonuses for getting that right. Once again, you are thrust right into another new region, this time known as Almia (hence the title). You start off as a student in the area’s Ranger School learning the ways of a Ranger with your wimpy School Styler (that thingy they use to “capture Pokémon with). Note that capturing in this sense means it follows you around until you decide to use it – and by use that means… well whatever it can do, be it tackle something, fly you somewhere, give you a ride down a river or the funniest one of all, stink out a room of bad guys so that you can pass through unhindered. I like that bit

To save all the boring details, you graduate, become an official Ranger, start kicking the asses of the bad guys “Team Dim Sun”, become a Top Ranger, get to use the fancy Vatonage Styler like in the anime, save the world, yadda yadda yadda…

To the nitty gritty details. The gameplay is basically the same as before, you need to use the stylus to draw loops around Pokémon to capture them. Unlike before, where you had to circle them a set number of times without stopping or having the line break, by hitting the Pokémon or a hazard, or being hit by an attack; this time each Pokémon has a sort of a HP bar, and with each loop, you do “damage” to them. Fill up the bar and it’s captured. This means you don’t have to circle endlessly (I remember playing the original Ranger, and circling that Rayquaza 13 times was practically impossible – I had to enable the 1 loop cheat to get it…) to get the bosses, some of whom can take over 100 loops even if you have a really high level!

One thing that the game seems to have problems with is trying to decide which genre to be in. There are several cases where it seems to take on a Mario-esque behaviour by making you dodge things that are flying around while you move from one place to another, because getting hit deals damage to your Styler’s energy… And given that you have to repeatedly do those bits, wteher it be because you made a 1-pixel error judgement that forced you to start again, or because you have to go through the place on new Quests makes them very annoying indeed…

Oh, I forogt to mention the side quests. Well, they’re side quests. Doing them all gives you the opportunity to get new partners and also earns you bonuses for your Styler that reduces the damage you take from certain types of attacks, and a couple of other effects. Oh, and your choice of partner isn’t restricted to the Pikachu wannabes Plusle or Minun. Instead you can have a choice of 17 partners, one for each type, although you only unlock three during the main storyline – you need to do the quests for the other 14.

Another big problem with the game is the fact that it does kinda end. A Pokémon game that has an ending fails. In Ranger 2, there is sort of a limit to what you can do. You can complete the storyline missions, then complete all sixty side quests, and then register all 267 available Pokémon in your Ranger Browser by capturing them all. While it may seem like a lot, it’s actually quite short, as shown by how long it took me:

Completed all storyline missions: 19 hours, 11 minutes
Completed all side Quests: 25 hours, 1 minute
Caught all 267 Pokémon in the Browser: Eh, I’ll get it done eventually, but let’s say around 25 hours, 52 minutes

By that I mean, I’m at the big boss fight for the final boss Pokémon, Regigigas. I’ve only tried to beat him once, but he’s fucking tough! When a boss can deal 18 damage to you just by walking (and when you have 97 hit points…) things are going to to be tough… All I know is my play time at my last save point (just a bit before him) was at 25:40, and I don’t expect it to take longer than 20 minutes… 

UPDATE @ some point… : 25:48 was the total final time. He actually wasn’t that much of a bitch as he could have been. 84 seconds of partner Gible’s Draco Meteor assist, followed by the Electrifying from a Magnezone couple with some very fast looping took him down

With that, when you actually do complete the browser, you get a cutscene where you have everyone gathered around you on the roof of the Ranger Union just to congratulate you on completing the Browser, at which point your pause screen displays a little Pikachu head symbol to denote so. Then the game is officially DONE. There is nothing else worthwhile to do afterwards

So in brief, you run around, make Pokémon act as slaves, finish the entire game quickly, transfer the free Manaphy Egg, Riolu and Darkrai to your copy of Diamond, Pearl or Platinum (and thanks to the miracle of save backups, I could possibly transfer one of each to my legit Diamond, my Pearl I haven’t played in ages, AND my Jap. Platinum )

Ranting Review Score

Gameplay: 7/10. The story is quite good, but the sudden changes from… whatever genre Pokémon is in, to Mario style gameplay detracts from it…
Replayability: 2/10. Once you finish the game, that’s it. Unless you want to run around catching Pokémon for the fun of it. Or do the Capture Arena or Wi-Fi missions.
Engrossness: 9/10. I only wanted to play another game once during the whole 26 hours of it. Pretty good, then

Total Score: 18/30. Not bad, but still has flaws…

Part 9…

At this point nothing is coming to mind about what I should do. However, I do feel that I need to report back to Rowan since he’s the one who sent me out in the first place. So, a quick Fly down to Sandgem (using the very nice Starly HM slave) and to his lab, to – woah! – find him and Dawn standing in front of the door like a dog waiting for it’s master to come home from work. He goes on about some crap, all I understood was the numbers 60, 167 (the number of Pokémon I’d seen already), and 7 (number of badges). With that out of the way, the blackout guy has moved on… Weird.

Flint still came up to urge me to challenge Volkner, I still found him in the lighthouse and convinced him to go back. Now at this point there I wanted my team to get just a little bit more powerful, so a couple of side excursions to Fuego Ironworks and the Surfing bit on Route 213! I’m not going to detail them, they’re that minor. But they do help to lead up to the battle with the Electric-n00b Volkner. Well, that is after this:

Evolution: Garch -> Garchomp

It seems funny how his Electivire is the strongest one on his team, yet when faced with a Ground-type, all he can do is Quick Attack…

Current party: Empol (Lv47), Garch (Lv48), Togek (Lv50), Leaf (Lv46), Doom (Lv46), Luca (Lv47)

I still fail to get the point of having Jasmine there, other than to give you Waterfall. It’s thanks to her inclusion that message boards all over were going ripe on the very slight possibility that there would be a Gold/Silver/Crystal remake at some point in the future. But given you can get Johto starters in Emerald and import them that way, I highly doubt it. Also, to note, WTFH ran into me when I was talking to Jasmine. At this point I was fresh out of the Gym and hadn’t even gone to the Pokémon Center yet, which did make me go “You have got to be shitting me…”. And as if the game senses it would have been horribly mutilated and ridiculed had there been a rival battle, it sensibly didn’t force one upon me

So, now it’s time to hit the road to the Pokémon League. As before it’s a short Surf up, a Waterfall, a cave, and another Waterfall on the way. And combined with high level wild Pokémon, strong Trainers, and the usual lark. Thankfully, no Strength puzzles. Although speaking of Strength puzzles reminds me of the Victory Road from Red/Blue/Yellow. I remember I had an Onix, and Rage was one of it’s moves. Now back then, once you chose to use Rage, that’s all your Pokémon would do until it was KO’d or the battle ended. All that Raging for only 1PP. It was good and had the nice effect of getting more Attack whenever you took damage, but I also had the unfortunate circumstance of having a Rage battle between my Onix and a wild one. I think it went on for about 10 minutes, all thanks to the incredibly high defense of Onix… Thank god they nerfed the move…

Back to the modern day, Victory Road is just another cave with Trainers. Although the Trainers, and even the wild Pokémon in a way to tend to throw a few curveballs. One in particular is the addition of wild Gabite on at least the main floor. I guess they’re trying to push Garchomp a bit since it may not be as effective as other pseudo-legendaries? To cut the cave short, I got through it. I won’t bore you with any details (since it’s all the same!)

Up the final, huge Waterfall and into the castle that is the Pokémon League. Yes, the castle is the same. At least from the outside.

The first thing to notice when entering the Pokémon League proper is that the entry hall has been changed completely! Less of a Pokémon center, more a lobby for something more important in back (duh!). I do remember that before, your rival rushed you just as you were about to take the challenge, and now, it’s no different. Sigh

As usual, easy to kill, but he has gotten to the point where he has started to teach his guys TM moves (Earthquake, and U-Turn – not on video) and relearning old moves (Ice Fang). And if you’re wondering why the video cut off so abruptly, I ran out of room on the camera (it’s 1GB and also had Volkner and a couple of pics on it), and I was not about to redo the whole thing just to include the bit of text afterwards that I can’t even understand!

Now all that was about two weeks ago. Since then I’ve been training up my team before taking on the Elite Four. My first go at it on Diamond with a team just past Level 50 was really hard work and did stretch me, my items, and my patience to the limit! Even with the slight level reduction for Platinum, I still want to get a good few more levels on these guys before I start. That and I’ve been backing up this much for too long now, and I want to get back on course. Plus, it’ll likely take a while to get all the battles done. My camera only holds at most 12 minutes of video, so if I am going to go for it, I have to do one battle, take it off the camera and onto my computer, before recording the next one. If the battle against Cynthia from Diamond is anything to go by, I’ll be pushing that limit…

But I’m not going in completely unawares. Being the Elite Four, any one of their Pokémon could be hiding a super-effective move, even when I have the natural type advantage. Such things have included at some point in time: Stone Edge on Bertha’s Hippowdon; Thunderpunch on Flint’s Infernape, Thunderbolt on Flint’s Magmortar, Ice Fang on Aaron’s Drapion. Which is why I’ve been making “recon runs”. This is I save before entering, and go in with the full team, but won’t heal them at all. Not only does it help find the curveballs, but also lets me see who will do well, and who will struggle to keep their vitality and spirit!

Oh, and not intended to be a spoiler or anything at all, but Aaron will crash and burn. Literally and epically.

Current party: Empol (Lv56), Garch (Lv54), Togek (Lv54), Leaf (Lv53), Doom (Lv55), Luca (Lv54)

First off, I really haven’t had the time to record. Because of my current state in the game, not being able to record means not being able to continue onwards, given that up next are five long tough battles that need recording as they are notable. As such, I’m stuck – and at most can just level up if I want. But that brings me into reason 2.

I have new games to play. Recently released Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Trackmania DS are keeping me busy from time to time, as well as Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 which I’ve started to play again (on the card though this time, even though I do actually own the game itself – although that was just to get the free cards ). Ranger 2 I can actually play this time, unlike when I tried to play Battonage (JAP version) since I couldn’t understand the text and had no idea where to go. Unlike the main games you really do need to know what they’re saying to be able to carry on in the game! And Trackmania DS is just fun. It’s like Trackmania United, only on a mobile platform
Do I really need to explain more?

Also, GameVee has been hiccuping as of late. I tried to upload the latest two videos for the latest part of the series, but they apparently wouldn’t process. A few hours later and GameVee went down for a couple of days. Although it’s back up now the GameVee Blog link now leads to gotgame.com… I’m not sure whether GameVee are merging in with them, but I’m now seriously considering whether to go and upload everything up to YouTube instead. At least on YouTube I can add annotations rather than having to narrate them myself – although after posting my most recent video where I actually talked on it, it’s not all that much of a bad choice. Only I again need a place similar to the scenario I need to be able to record, so…

I might give the narrating a shot tonight, depending on what time I arrive home and whether people are doing tax returns or not
Just to warn you, my Windows Move Maker skill isn’t all that great

Part 8, The big one

Now at this stage, my team looks pretty solid with one exception: Luca. Luca was a late arrival into the team (being at the end of Iron Island), but did hatch quite quickly, and has been holding the Soothe Bell ever since being Exp. Shared up to Lv14. The only real issue is that to evolve him requires a high enough happiness rating (as was the case for Togek as a Togepi to evolve into a Togetic). I’m still kicking myself for not checking it, but I can’t remember where to get the Happiness Checker Pokétch app, so I’ve been in the dark as to how happy he is with me. So, I’m off to check with the woman in the back of the Pokémon fan club in Hearthome.

Currently, as a guide, the first four members of my team (Empol through to Leaf), all get a rating that has the first sentence ending in !, and a second sentence ending in !!. I take this as Level 1 happiness. Doom and Luca both have the first sentence ending with !, but the second has nothing at the end. I take this as Level 2 happiness. Since I’m not completely sure if Luca will evolve in his current state, I’m taking stock right now and waiting until morning to see whether he will evolve or not. If so, whoop-de-doo, I can Exp. Share him and keep going. Otherwise, it’ll be an hour or so of just riding around like crazy adding to the happiness rating until he does evolve. Time consuming, but I would prefer a six-strong team by the time the big, most important battle of the game so far comes up…

So, I did check to see where you picked up the app, and I was actually quite surprised and a little annoyed that you got it in the Eterna Pokémon Center. Apparently, the woman in the bottom-right of the centre gives it to you. I could have sworn I talked to her my first time in there… So, with the app in hand, I knew that Luca would need to be trained quite a bit to get somewhere half-decent, so it’s time for a side quest!

Wayward Cave

The one side quest where the levels are modest, between those of when you are with Cheryl and those where you are with Riley – is the quest to accompany Mira out of Wayward Cave. So, I drop off Doom to bring along an HM slave for Cut and Rock Smash, and make my way there. In the grasses en route, Luca almost levelled up, but wasn’t at a high enough rating, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to “miss” a move by evolving a level later. Luckily though, when I did level him up just before entering the cave, the level-up happiness bonus was enough to reach the evolution threshold!

Evolution: Luca -> Lucario

And that’s basically all there is to say about t- no wait, there is one thing. Now during this quest, Luca levelled up from Lv15 to Lv28. Some of the level-ups produced some quite interesting stat boosts, a lot of +3′s and the odd +4. I thought nothing of it, until I was back in the center dropping off my HM slave, when I checked Luca’s stats, and noticed this very light-purple “status condition”. My first thought was “Woah, where did he get that?”, but then I did begin to wonder. A subsequent check revealed that the HM slave and the rest of the team, except for Doom, had this status.

This all but confirmed by thoughts, which were made rock-solid after healing up my team, the nurse then began to rattle on about something after giving me back my Pokémon – but didn’t again. It was then I knew, that Luca had picked up the Pokérus. Which is really good – and with one guy in storage who can “re-infect” others, I have a lot of possibilities. I just need to hurry and take advantage of it, because it only lasts so long before the Pokémon becomes immune to them!

Mt. Coronet

And so began the long trip up Mt. Coronet to thwart Team Galactic, as always. Nothing actually differs from the original, so I won’t bore you with the intricate details. I walked, picked up a shitload of hidden items, battled some Grunts, used Strength, Rock Smash, Rock Climb and other HMs, had to deal with annoying Hail-y snow etc. One thing that is new, is that the door leading to the path upwards looks to have been “knocked down” by Galactic to get up there. As you approach it, Handsome appears, says more crap and gives you a Black Flute. I’m not too sure, but I think it decreases the wild encounter rate. Or at least it seemed to!

I won’t go through the boring trip from there to the peak – it was all so boring. But get what you can this time through, since you might not get a chance to come back! Up at the peak, at Spear Pillar, you’ll have your last Grunt battle, a double battle against what I think they classed themselves as the best of all the grunts (referring back to Diamond here). Up ahead though is when the real test starts. First off, Mars and Jupiter want a piece of you for their previous defeats and try to gang up on your 2-on-1, but suddenly WTFH shows up and makes it a true double battle.

It’s a pity he was so god-damn useless, except for healing you afterwards… And it’s also a pity I had to end it on a cliffhanger there. Unfortuntely, the next brilliant set piece took place across both screens, and I could hardly record both at the same time (let alone recording the Touch screen is impossible…). However, thankfully Marriland has the best bits of it, so watch his side of it

So with Cyrus being dragged into the Torn World, it’s time for myself and Cynthia to follow suit… Wheeeeeuugh…. Now this place is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. First off, no wild Pokémon so no need to worry if you’re short on supplies. Secondly, the laws of physics and gravity don’t apply here. You can walk on 90-degree walls or upside-down. And you DO surf down a waterfall that is falling up.

There was a little Strength puzzle to solve (god, they do take you back to the Red/Blue days, don’t they!) to continue on. It’s not too hard, just a pain having to go through it. The three pixies, who are also in here, help you out with some pointers on where to push the rocks and then what “slots” to pop them in afterwards.

Another thing to note is that things will randomly appear and disappear based on where you are standing. Sometimes I had to jump off a ledge that seemingly had nothing off it, only for it to appear as I was jumping. And a whole section where the “trees” came up and down as I went around them. Like I said, this is nothing you’ve ever seen before, and it might not be for the faint of heart!

Near the end, you finally bump into Cyrus. Cynthia originally approaches him, but he pushes here aside and instead challenges yourself to a battle! Now this is the true Galactic battle. No holds back here that’s for sure!

What a great video debut for Luca. One-shot-kill on a Weavile 12 levels higher with a critical quad-effective Base 60 move

With Cyrus defeated, he ran off somewhere leaving an enraged Giratina behind. And yes, that means it needs to be fought. Another quick heal, this time from Cynthia, and then you need to face the big baddie hi-he-ITself!

O…M…G… That thing did not like staying in a ball, did it… By the time the battle had passed around 6 minutes, I was wondering if it was ever going to end. Unfortunately, at the time I was running out of DS battery, camera space, Pokémon and patience. So, I just threw the Master Ball to get it over with. At least this time it was a worthwhile capture, and not a Level 52 wild Beldum that only knows Take Down, and then Struggles afterwards to take itself out, all the time in a Sandstorm… I even went back through the battle under non-recording circumstances to try and get it in some other ball instead, but again failed twice

So, anyway with that big monstrosity dealt with, the exit portal leaves you and Cynthia out in Sendoff Spring. You know, the original location of Giratina in the older games. She won’t let you in again at present, but why would you need to go there again, other than to have fun with walking on the odd-perspective walls and surfing? So now, with everything sorted it’s time to head to Sunnyshore! Or maybe not since the blackout guy is still there… What else is there to do?

Current party: Empol (Lv44), Garch (Lv45), Togek (Lv47), Leaf (Lv45), Doom (Lv45), Luca (Lv37)

Part 7

One thing to not forget when going up to Snowpoint City – oh wait, hold the lesson one sec.

Egg hatching: Luca, the Riolu (Lv1)

Anyway, as I was saying when going to Snowpoint, you need to take the top end of Mt. Coronet to get there. The bottom end is used later on, for more important and legendary purposes. Speaking of purpose, I think it’s time someone got the Exp. Share. Or maybe the Soothe Bell… Soothe Bell would give happiness quicker, but given it’s not during the day (at least as I’m playing/writing this) getting the happiness up isn’t paramount. So, Exp. Share it is! (Only so far though, don’t want to miss more important moves that can only be learned by an evolution). And comiing from Eterna needs Rock Smash as well… * runs back to get HM slave *

Party so far: Empol (Lv41), Garch (Lv42), Togek (Lv42), Leaf (Lv41), Doom (Lv41), Luca (Lv7)

Since I have no idea what HMs I’m going to need down here (and since I don’t fancy going through it twice, given the fog) I’m going to leave Empol behind to bring my HM slave. It’s not like I don’t have others who can take out the wild Pokémon in the cave on the way… Besides, it’s an ideal Leaf and Togek training ground, since they have Magical Leaf and Aura Sphere

Turns out I will need to go back at some point, since I need Empol’s Surf to grab two of the items. Ah well, can’t have them all. On the way out, there’s another conspicuous square cave. This one has a bit of a blue tinge and a NeverMeltIce in the center. Beginning to see a pattern at all?

DON’T let it snow

Yup, it’s the snow route, meaning all battles have Hail falling throughout. And the Trainers themselves are just as annoying as the weather. First guy I battled on the route, had a wimpy U-Turning Ambipom, and a Porygon2 that just wouldn’t die and stop Recovering. And then when he did weaken half my team before going down, his Ambipom went and took out 5 of my team with Double Hit (one of them was the HM slave) meaning I had to stall to Revive Togek so I could Aura Sphere it’s ass. What a fucker…

Given my situation, it was alarm bells ringing like mad until I could get to the cabin just up the road. Doesn’t help when the game likes to put unavoidable Trainers in your way, and you have your wealking out first because at the time your entire team was still alive, he was well down the order… But thankfully crisis was averted, and I did make it to the cabin intact, only just.

These Trainers are pretty hard, and unfortauntely I’m only through the first batch. Now to tackle the major blizzard that is Route 217. One thing that is new, is that Maylene comes and says something to you, as she’s en route to Snowpoint (presumably). Whether she has a jacket on, I don’t know, because her sprite is still the same. It also makes me wonder what that girl in Snowpoint who used to say “aren’t you cold in just that scarf” will say now, since both Lucas and Dawn now have more “bulky” outfits…

Anyway, one thing I am doing here is going through the place with a fine-toothed Dowsing Machine. This place is full of hidden items under the snow, you just need to find them! And just because I’m getting the hidden stuff, doesn’t mean I’m not getting the visible stuff. Particularly HM07
(sorry, HM08 – you also get TM07 here, very confusing ) which is still hiding out by that cabin as before. I thought they’d have made it easier for people to find, but no….

The first thing you’ll notice on arriving on Acuity Lakefront is that it has been completely redesigned. The basic layout is slightly different, but most important is that you now need Rock Climb to get up to the lake itself. On first approaching the climbable wall, WTFH yelled down to me seeing that I was there. No idea what he said but I presume it involved sqaying I needed the badge. Not like I wasn’t planning to get it anyway! You’ll find Maylene in the Pokémon center. What she actually does there, I don’t know. She might do something, she might not (at least she doesn’t before the badge). Snowpoint Gym itself is largely the same, except the snowball “puzzle” is different. It’s less of a puzzle now, since you don’t need to take down all the snowballs to open your way to Candice. Probably to make it easier for people, since before it was quite a bitch to do…

Let’s get this thing over with.

(This was my second time battling her, the first time I only had room for 6:05 on my camera and I ran out. Breif synopsis: Froslass is fucking fast and Blizzard kills, especially when combo’d with her Abomasnow. Togek only just survived twice.)

Y’know Candice doesn’t seem to play much of a major role in the games. All she does is give you a Gym battle and give you access to the Snowpoint Temple later on. But enough about that, we’ve got to get to Lake Acuity! First step is to unfortunately put Rock Climb on someone in the team, since none of my HM slaves can handle it. So for now Garch will be burdened with a below-par HM move. Up to the lake, to find WTFH being beaten by Jupiter, before the pair of them run off. That’s it? All that work getting a Gym badge and wasting a moveslot to have them both storm out on me…?

Grrr, at least there will be time for revenge. All that will take is a quick trip down to Veilstone City. And no, I’m not going to walk all the way – * hitches ride on slave Starly *

Galactic Time!

Woo, it’s now time to kick Galactic’s butt. Or at least part of it. First order of business would be to get the card key thing, but strangely the grunt that normally clumsily drops it doesn’t have one this time round. Instead, after talking to him Handsome showed up saying he has a key and that he’d let me in down at the warehouse. Ah well, works either way. Inside though, nothing’s changed. Still have to battle and pick up items. OK, maybe the overall puzzle is slightly different. And OK, maybe it’s not completely the same.

Yes, one big change is this rather huge room where there are a lot, and I mean a LOT of grunts, waiting for a speech from their leader Cyrus – who arrives on the platform upstairs to motivate his troops! Still have no idea what he said. Through that room and it’s normal again, same grunts, same healing bed (although with a free hidden battle item present), and so forth. Up to Cyrus’ room to take him on man-to-…well I would presume boy given all the player characters are supposedly 10 as they start out.

Once defeated, unlike most others, Cyrus partially admits defeat. He tells you that you can take the warp tile to go find Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf in order to rescue them (pity you HAVE to). But you can have a little nose around his speech platform by taking the other one

Through to the laboratory we go. It seems that everyone working here was doing it out of fear and loyalty, rather than wanting to themselves (actually I’m still basing this on what I remember from Diamond and Pearl, so don’t quote me on that!). There’s still rather a lot of test tubes regardless… In the very end room are the three legendaries, with Saturn and Pluto by the screen. Talking to Saturn and he’ll say some crap, before fighting you again!

After Cyrus though, Saturn is nothing in comparison. He stepped out of the way allowing me to click the button and release the lake trio back to their homes. Cue another mini-speech from Saturn and we’re done. Pluto doesn’t say much (as he usually doesn’t) unless you specifically talk to him, and even then it’s some crap (or at least I think it is). Nonetheless, bad guys beaten for now, and so it’s time to deal with an even bigger problem on hand. Yup, Cyrus is off to Mt. Coronet again!

Current party: Empol (Lv43), Garch (Lv45), Togek (Lv46), Leaf (Lv44), Doom (Lv45), Luca (Lv14)

Part 6, The Surfing Days

First and foremost – Empol needs to forget Brine and learn Surf. Although Brine is good with it’s double-power-when-below-half-HP, until then you have to deal with a base power of 65 and 10PP. Whereas Surf is 15PP and 95 base power across the board. Let us now make our way through Mt. Coronet towards our next destination, Canalave. Only stopping to beat Trainers (such as taking out a Bronzor with a crit-Fire Fang after it Iron Defensed twice), or to acquire TMs (like Psych Up from that creepy guy who is a little too self-confident), it wasn’t all that eventful…

Ummm, wait one sec. I have a little problem here, and that’s the lack of Strength… I remember you used to get it at the top of the Lost Tower, but they moved that. I guess it wasn’t to the bottom of the Solaceon Ruins since that’s where you get Defog. Maybe I’m forgetting somewhere…? In the off-chance that I don’t yet need it, I’ll just take out my little Starly HM Slave and Fly back to Jubilife. Yes, I know it’s a shortcut, but at least this way I can still keep going

While I’m here I may as well check out the upgraded GTS, since I now have a badge… All I can say is… Well actually, I can’t say it, I can only express it in smilie form:
I really can’t describe it, but the only flaw I can point out is that when you go to the globe to register your location on it, you no longer get to pick the location on the globe, instead you have to pick from a long list of country names in Japanese. No thanks…

To Route 218 we go, and onto Empol we ride. There’s no much to say other than – WOAH – Surfing is now a lot faster than before. I’d say you go at double the speed you used to (almost like Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald speed), making those water journeys much quicker than before

Once in Canalave City, everything is the same as before. Same people, same buildings, same place where you rival ambushes y- fuck…

I’m beginning to hate this ambush-style major battle gameplay… Whatever, to Iron Island! Now remember how I said I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to already have Strength given how you used to get it in the Lost Tower? Well, I’ve just figured out it’s new location. When you arrive on Iron Island, Riley will be waiting in front of the cave. Talk to him and he will give you HM04, before going in. Presumably, there is still the same reward at the other end (on top of the “reward” of being with a partner to make training much, much easier), so may as well take the shot

Current Party: Empol (Lv41), Garch (Lv38), Leaf (Lv38), Togek (Lv37), Doom (Lv35)

Whilst in Iron Island, nothing much happened… I know, I’m boring that way. However, once you reach the end of the caves, there is a new room available just before the exit. Inside it is just a normal room with a Metal Coat sitting in the middle. It’s true purpose? Well, I do know what it is, but I’m not saying anything just in case

Also, I was going some more “research” on my party, and apparently I should have picked up a Shiny Stone somewhere in there?! Checked and yes, there is one. I think we all know what that means

New Pokémon acquired: Egg, yet another egg that needs hatching and raising from Lv1.
Evolution: Togek -> Togekiss

Good thing I still have Heart Scales left over, because Togek is going to need a couple of moves relearnt! Side-quest completed, it’s now time to take on Byron for badge number six. I figured I may as well ue my new evolution, just to see how strong it is.

Yea, that’s strong alright. I kinda feel like I cheated my way to victory given how quick and easy it was. In fact, just for the challenge, I’m doing to go this again, but without going the Togek route!

Either way, WTFH was waiting outside the Gym, to get me to come along to the Canalave Library, as Rowan and Dawn were waiting there for us. As usual, it’s to discuss the lake crap, so I’m off to Valor, WFTH is off to Acuity, and Dawn to Verity. But then, things suddenly change as an earthquake hits! Checking out the TV shows a massive explosion took place at Lake Valor! I guess it’s time to take off and see what the story is.

Which turns out to be Team Galactic after setting off their massive bomb, blowing up the lake, leaving Magikarp strewn all over the place. In the centre cavern waits Saturn, the third of the Galactic commanders. Says some crap, as they all do, and then he challenges me! God sake, I hate these unexpected battles

With Saturn out of the way, Saturn says more crap, mentioning that there was one of his compatriots at Lake Verity with Dawn and the Prof. Which means I have to do another rescue mission… A long bike ride back (gotta get the steps in to hatch this Egg! – and when did it rain on Route 213?), and sure enough Galactic are swarming all over the lake. A couple of double battles later (the grunts all attack you in pairs), and there’s Dawn, helpless as always. And with her is none other than our friend Mars. And again, a fight…

She doesn’t half rant on after beating her, but the Prof. did mention WTFH so I guess that means a trip up to Lake Acuity to see what the problem is. Woo, new route/city!

Part 5, Veilstone Gym

Maylene’s gym seems to have turned from a Pokémon training gym into a real, human gym, what with all the punching bags, weights, boxing rings and everything around. It’s actually a little un-nerving I must say. Anyhow, puzzle completed, trainers defeated it’s time to take on this little adolescent (or is she?).

Yes, this one was a bitch owing to the type-advantage being on her side most of the match…
And who’s waiting outside the gym for you, but your friendly stalker Dawn, who as usual has let Team Galactic find her Pokédex, and she’s acting like the damsel-in-distress and wants you to help her get it back. Ummm, how about no? Unfortunately, I can’t decline (because the game doesn’t give you an option to!). Anyway, after that Handsome shows up again (gee, I forgot he was in this game). Says something, makes Dawn feck off and then drags you behind him into the Galactic warehouse. Inside he sees that the door is locked and then brings you over to pick up HM02 (how subtle…) before leaving you to your devices. Can I go to Pastoria now?

Current Party: Empol (Lv38), Garch (Lv33), Leaf (Lv32), Togek (Lv33), Doom (Lv32)

Now that most of the Veilstone set pieces are out of the way, I should now be able to go get this next badge to continue with the story. I see WTFH got his ass out of the way. Right in we go. Or maybe not, as he’s running up behind us… He better not be doing what I thin- oh, fuck you! God dammit, I wasn’t ready for that. Since I hadn’t saved since the Pokédex battle with Dawn, and I didn’t have my recording method setup yet, I had to start again from Veilstone

Right, now that I know where he’ll be coming, I’m prepared for it!

He really did get some levels on those guys, didn’t he…

Pastoria Gym

Although this is a Water-type Gym, it’s weird how my Grass-type won’t have any advantage here, and instead it’ll be my Flying-type… Leaf still doesn’t have any Grass-type moves yet (and from my research the next one is Magical Leaf at Lv36 – good move, but it’s Special-based and Leaf is stronger physically), and so my strongest against these Water-types will be Togek… Odd, I know. but it wouldn’t be this way if that Move Tutor didn’t want so many shards that I don’t have!

Skip around fifteen minutes while I take out the trainers and run to the restaurant to beef up my Magical Leaf carriers (and/or learn it!), and it’s time for the fifth Gym Leader battle (and my fourth video in quick succession, given I only recorded the second Galactic video from the save backup earlier today…). I like how he chose “Crasher” Wake, given how badly he crashes and burns

I love seeing people being owned by their own signature TM move!

Back into the fresh air – and WTFH is there again. Jeez, go away! I already battled you unexpectadly before the gym! After listening to some drivel, Wake comes out. The pair of them say a lot of stuff filled with exclamation marks before the pair of them run off. Where to? I have no fucking idea… Apparently they ran to the Great Marsh. Wake stands in front stopping you from going in, but once you talk to him another set piece triggers. It’s interesting this time, although I define “bomb explosion” as interesting…

Yes, the Galactic dude who has been scheming outside the Great Marsh set off a bomb inside. Wake rushes in to see what has happened, while WTFH stops you from going in, meaning as usual you have to go give chase to the Galactic grunt. It differs this time, first Handsome is following the pair of you, stops you at one point, and talks with the hotel receptionist. Also at the point where Cynthia shows up to give you the Secret Potion, the rival also shows up, says something hurriedly and takes off after the grunt… Jeez, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder, especially as I can’t understand a single word of it!

With the Psyduck out of the way, the road is now clear to go to Celestic Town and deliver that thing I do believe I just volunteered myself to deliver on behalf of Cynthia… Only thing in the way is the foggy part… God, I hate this bit. It’s as if all your moves only hit half as often as they used to. At least is makes this the perfect spot for training Togek and Leaf since Magical Leaf never misses But you also have to deal with the annoyances of enemies with other guaranteed hit moves, or your Bite missing five times in a row, while the enemy Grotle throws up six Curses… Oh, and another remedy – changing the weather to a Sandstorm thanks to Garch!

Current Party: Empol (Lv40), Garch (Lv34), Leaf (Lv37), Togek (Lv36), Doom (Lv35)

So yea, apparently there’s a Galactic guy being a nuisance by the ruins in town, so I guess it’s up to me to fight him and quell this disturbance. Did I just talk like that…? So, with that guy out of the way, the old lady comes over and says something and, I think, gives me something. I say I think since although the “item acquired” sound played, it didn’t mention me putting it in any pocket, nor was it highlighted at all… Anyway, in we go, to go investigate the odd painting inside the ruin. So the lady goes off for ages, when Cyrus barges in! And he has his own special speech to say… but then he challenges you! Where did that come from!?

Obviously he IV/EV trained those Pokémon, given how they were so tough to beat (I didn’t want to use Empol for once…)

You know I think I just figured out what the “item acquired” sound was for earlier – it was emphasising the fact that I delivered the thing Cynthia asked me to. Nonetheless, we have HM03, so it’s time to get the fuck out of here and towards Canalave City. Although when we get there the badge is second priority, first on the list is getting our sixth team member!

Part 4

With Fantina out of the way and another badge in my case (which really looks out of place now…), I can get out of this hellhole and keep going towards my next goal, which I don’t really know what it is. I noticed that your rival no longer stops you as you try to leave (aww, and I saved just beforehand especially), and the hiker no longer tries to pawn off a Happiny egg onto you (in fairness you did get a free Togepi and Eevee!). So, off through the gatehouse… crap, WTFH is there. Nip back out before he notices I was even there! Crap, I guess he did see me…

What surprised me even more was that as I was coming into Solaceon Town, there he was again, ambushing me. I was like “Dude, we just battled – you’re not seriously wanting to battle again?”, but thankfully it was more of an annoying meeting rather than a battle. Had no idea what he said, but I do know he was mentioning the Solaceon Ruins (because they’ve changed around a couple of things).

There were more important matters, though. Leaf was getting quite levelled up, and was getting quite close to the point where I wanted to evolve it. So, it’s time to head off to the secret locat-… ahh, fuck it there’s only one place accesible right now that I can to evolve it – and that’s Eterna Forest. Yes, I will be evolving it into a Leafeon!

Skip the next hour or so (or however long that bus ride into town was), and Leaf is now levelled up to the perfect point, and is now evolved. (The perfect point was Level 29 – therefore he learned Bite as an Eevee, and Synthesis as a Leafeon). Gardenia was standing in front of the Old Chateau as usual, but unfortauntely it seems that an English-language copy of Sapphire does NOT spawn Haunters (and Gengars in that special room)…

Evolution: Leaf -> Leafeon

Ride back to Solaceon, and now tackle the Lost Tower, if only to see what you can get there… Which turns out to be nothing at all. It looks a lot fancier now, eerie and dark. But it has some annoying fog on the upper floors, which we all hate, especially when you wouldn’t have Defog at this stage… Returning from the disappointment, it’s time to go see another “famous” place, those Solaceon Ruins.

Now I don’t get why there is so much emphasis places on the ruins in this game. Contrary to popular belief, the Unown are there from the start – I bumped into my first one in the room after the Ruin Maniac (and if I remember correctly, top right, bottom left, top right, top left, top left, bottom left – although I need to confirm). You then get a little load of items as well as the usual Unown spelt sentences. Although the game cart is Japanese, the words are spelled out in… Japanese. Shit. Yea, nothing big here, only HM05 – which you actually really don’t need to get through the game.

Time to get out of this dump and keep going around this little loop in Sinnoh. One thing that did strike my mind was that all those “farmer” trainers seem to have dumped whatever they had and picked up Ponytas (or a Rapidash, in one case), which means no more 6 Bidoof trainer Moo-Moo Milk now comes in packs of a dozen in the Cabin Café thingy as well, for easy purchasing!

Evolution: Togek -> Togetic
It’s about time is all I have to say…

Route 215 definitely cleared smething up for me: of all the in-battle animations, a good few of the weather-based ones have changed, no matter how slight they are. Hail now actually looks like ice crystals falling, instead of snow (which I got via Togek’s Metronome). Another major change I saw, if you remember the last two trainers on the route, who before used to be very tough (or at least they were for me back in Diamond), are now easier. They do have more Pokémon but they’re not insanely over-levelled or uber-powerful.

Veilstone City

The city of stone (and not of veils), now looks more stone-y. All the old “platforms” appear quite smooth, as if the stone was polished and buffed to a shine. If you think back to English-language versions of Diamond and Pearl, there was a guy in the middle of town who spoke in a foreign language (I presume Japanese!), and he asked you an arbitrary question. Lo and behold, guess what he speaks in this game? English

Q: Hello, Trainer! Do you love Pokémon?
If answer is Yes: Excellent! So do I!
If answer is No: I don’t think so!! You travel with your Pokémon gaily!

Gaily? WTF? Whatever… Picked up something quite handy in the department store’s new basement floor – Lava Cookies. In this 4th gen, they changed the mechanics of your bag so that there was no limit to the amount of items you could carry, in any pocket. Which made the need to go out and always buy Full Heals because you could save more room in your bag was thrown out, and instead you could get the individual healers (Antidode, Awakening, Parlyz Heal, Burn Heal, Ice Heal). But, with the advent of the Lava Cookie being so readily available, you can now chuck out all the individual items (costing between $100 and $250 a piece I think), and pick up a bunch of Lava Cookies. They’re only $200 each, which is sort of an average of the individuals, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the $600 for a Full Heal!

OK, I ranted on a bit too much there, let’s go onto Route 214, but not before heading to a guy in a house near the Pokémon Center to get a free Porygon. Yes, you don’t have to blow 5000-9999 coins to get one, you get it for free!

Current Party: Empol (Lv37), Garch (Lv27), Leaf (Lv30), Togek (Lv28)

I haven’t gone to thrash Maylene yet, mainly because I don’t feel like it until I get the rest of the routes out of the way, so that I can go back and beat herself and Wake in quick succession (which also means I can record them both in one night!), and I need to go pick up something first. An annoying thing about the Route 214 grass, is that 7 times out of 10, you’ll find a Graveler… But you can get lucky once in a while, find the gender you want first time round, get it in two balls, and most importantly avoid it using Roar!

New Pokémon acquired: Doom, the Houndour (Lv22)

Yup, party member number 5 is the Dark/Fire Houndour. Platinum added a hell of a lot of new Fire options, in comparison to the Ponyta/Chimchar choice of D/P. Firstly, Ponyta gets Flame Wheel, it was lacking a reliable Fire-type move until it got Flare Blitz at Level 60 (all it had was Ember around 16, and Fire Blast around 35-40) – and then you can also choose to take on a Houndour, Flareon, and I think something else.

Something that did surprise me while heading along this route:

Evolution: Doom -> Houndoom

Yea, that was quick… Other than that, the Restaurant still offers you several double battles per day, but you do have to deal with the gay opening times. And all the other stuff, blah blah blah.

Pastoria hasn’t changed at all with the exception of a billboard in front of the Great Marsh that you can stand behind and look like a Croagunk. Yea, they really made the effort here… However, WTFH is here and he’s blocking the way into the Pastoria Gym for now. Git. Now excuse me twenty minutes or so while I go scour the Underground for some more Heart Scales, since Pastoria is the location of the Move Relearner, and I have some moves that need relearning. More specifically, Togek needs Magical Leaf, which it normally “learns” at Level 1. I would also throw Razor Leaf onto Leaf (ba-dum-tish…) but I have better plans and movesets in mind that I could use that Heart Scale for. Free super-effective negating berries are still available though

May as well go full circle and complete the trip around back to Hearthome. The marshy ground has been changed to a more black colour rather than the brown of before, but now if you look closely enough you can see there are some slightly darker patches. It’s those patches where you will get stuck and have to wriggle around to get out from. At least now you can avoid them. The only other change is to the mansion with the Trophy Garden. The top half of the boundary wall is now a wrough-iron fence, and there a lot more maids running around. A cool new bit is the “maid battle” scenario, where you can battle five maids, one after the other. I’m not too sure if it really is worth it, given when I first did it, they all had a single Clefairy, starting at Lv25, and increasing two levels each battle. And there wasn’t even a reward for completing it!

With the round trip-and-a-half (continuing all the way back around to Veilstone again) complete, the story insisted that the next Gym to challenge would be Maylene’s. Dawn as ever stalking you, was waiting in front and said something or other, but then Crasher Wake came out of the gym, singing merrily to himself (that I could only tell by the musical note icons in his speech) and pissing off back to his own Gym. And no, that did not make WTFH get out of the way in Pastoria, so I guess you absolutely HAVE to deal with Maylene first. Sigh…

Part 3

With the badge finally out of the way, it was time to deal with Team Galactic. So heading to the north of the city for the first time, and once again WTFH ather unceremoniously ran head-first into me. And then before I had a chance to dust myself off, I’m being dragged to the legendary Pokémon statue, where Cryus is standing spewing out some crap. It seems like evil crap, since he tells us to get out of his way (or something to that extent) as he’s leaving.

While I’m up here, I remember that Route 211 is ripe for the owning. If I’d have remembered that when I was training Empol, it probably wouldn’t have taken so long. So after thrashing the Route, and heading back to the center for a quick heal, Cynthia comes up. Says the usual garbage, and hands over HM01 – yea yea, thanks bitch, but it’s about time! So now, I’m free to go bash up Team Galactic

Now the Galactic building is different in so many ways. Not least is the building redesign with a big weird spinny thing on the top. And inside is a lot different too. The interior is so different, I can’t really explain it, especially with the two staircases heading up to each floor. The grunts however, are just as weak as ever though

Anyway, at the top is Jupiter, after stealing the Pokémon of the bike store owner, who came (and failed) to try and get them back. Which unfortunately means I have to fight, and demolish, her. Sigh…

*yawn* – too easy…

(I have to admit I wasn’t playing the game as I wanted to wait until I had this battle recorded first, but I couldn’t wait – so I made a save backup to use to record later, and then I kept playing! In the battle where I continued, her Skuntank used Smokescreen, which made my next Bubblebeam miss. Then she hit me with Poison Gas, but my next Bubblebeam hit and KO’d )

With the bike owner saved, a quick run down to get my bike and I’m out of here! Or maybe not… There are people at both the west and south ends of Eterna stopping me from leaving, saying something I don’t understand. After 5 minutes running aroung ragged with no idea what the heck to do, it then dawned on me that getting the Explorer Kit is mandatory, and not optional

Oh right, and I now have an egg that Cynthia forced upon me. I know what it is, but let’s not ruin the surprise for you

New Pokémon acquired: Egg, the… well egg.

On the road again

Current Party: Empol (Lv34), Egg

The only way to progress is south, so that means Cycling Road. A nifty new bit about the gatehouses though is that you do get to stay on your bike through them – but on the road itself you still have to endure the annoying “riding bike” music… At least I picked up the Exp. Share from Rowan’s aide, which will make it much easier to level up all the other future party members, who will be really low levelled in comparison to Empol.

The actual road itself now has lights and a fancy archway halfway. And Trainers that can be easily avoided (pointless in levelling up Empol some more until I get another one to share the experience with!). Reaching the end of Cycling Road, it’s time for a quick detour through the cuttable trees and to the grasses and caves underneath – and yes, there is a point to this!

The next destination would be Wayward Cave. But not the main Wayward Cave – oh no, I’m heading in the “secret” entrance hidden under the Cycling Road itself. Why? Well, I’m doing some hunting. Since in Platinum you don’t actually need Strength before you can go through this part, I’m going to do my business now instead of later!

Ah there’s my target… but it’s female… Think I’ll look a bit harder. I’m very adamant that the Pokémon be the gender that I want them to be. In this case, it’s an all-male team (I hope!), but if this egg turns out to be female and I could have mixed, then I just turned down a very ripe target

Yes, male target! Right, let’s leat with my weakest move, Peck – and we’ll see how we can go from there. Ow, Dragon Rage… Much more of that and Empol won’t last! SHIT! Empol’s down… Thank god I have a Revive in storage for afterwards… Oh come on, more Dragon Rage? That’s all the utility Pokémon down for the count (and all in one hit…). Ball – 3 shakes – and it’s out… Since I can’t trust the Dragon Rage, better heal Empol up to full health. Oh shit, this thing knows Take Down – it better not take itself out with it… Another ball – and it’s in!

And the identity of my target?
New Pokémon acquired: Garch, the Gible (Lv20)

Right, so give him the Exp. Share, and we can continue like normal – except now there’s two in the party! Now when I was giving Garch the Exp. Share, I was presented with a Yes/No (I think) selection, so I guess he was holding an item when I caught him. And on further research, it appears to have been a Haban berry. (Used to weaken a foe’s super-effective Dragon type attack). Free rare berry FTW! Anyway, better finish this section and go all the way to end and pick up TM26 (Earthquake).

Evolution: Empol -> Empoleon
I know I said I wasn’t going to level up Empol, but the grasses were full of Ponyta, and the cave full of Geodude as I was going through them! Especially when I couldn’t get a clean run through the bike jumps! Oooh, new bike jump animation.

PS: I really fucking hate Bronzor.
PPS: Was that a Gligar in the grasses on the way back to Oreburgh?

Current Party: Empol (Lv36), Garch (Lv21), Egg

Everyone’s favourite stalker again finds you just as you’re about to go through Mt. Coronet. It’s different to meeting you after Cycling Road, but you still get the Vs. Seeker and the Dowsing Machine just the same. Why she only gives them to you now instead of ages ago, is beyond me <_<

Mt. Coronet is a lot darker than before, more sinister and eerie. Cyrus still shows up, says his shit and forces you out of the way, yadda yadda yadda… Still got the Odd Keystone, still got the Berry Locator, still got the free berry from the Berry Master – who now has more flowers in his house, and the gatehouse is new, so I guess all the gatehouses in Sinnoh were changed.

Hearthome City

Hearthome City has changed a bit – the roads are more “pedestrainised”, in you want to put it that way. Buneary still runs into you and you need to go to the Contest Hall, but that’s for later. Right now there are more pressing matters. Especially when your former complexion of being a one-trick pony changes so suddenly, like:

Evolution: Garch -> Gabite
Egg hatching: Togek, the Togepi (Lv1)
New Pokémon acquired: Leaf, the Eevee (Lv20)

Yea, that’s a lot of changes. Togek was a bit of a surprise hatching, and thankfully was male first time round (luckily I had actually saved about 10 steps before the hatching, just in case!). Also Leaf was female first time around, I considered sticking with the female, but I told myself to give it another shot, and I’d take whatever gender it was the second time around. It was male I guess you can tell from the nickname what I’ll be evolving it into, but that’s not for a little while longer.

Contest Hall, Poffin House, that church where music doesn’t play…, am I missing anything? Oh right, the new and improved Amity Square. By improved, I mean they threw in some more scenery, and those structures in the back are now warp you places. Oh, and you can bring your starter in too, along with the same Pokémon as before. Other than that (and possibly a couple of TMs), there’s nothing to see here.

Unfortunately now I was in the predicament of having to level up one guy to a certain point before evolution, another needed to be raised from Lv1, and the other needed to get a better damaging move than either Sand Tomb or Dragon Rage (Oh wait, I forgot about Take Down…). So, I’m going to cut out the next half hour or so while I go back, hit the Trainers I skipped on the Cycling Road on the way down the first time, and take the pictures I would have on my first go through but couldn’t because of the “environment”. (Hint: bright, loud computer lab)

Party before “the break”: Empol (Lv36), Garch (Lv24), Leaf (Lv20), Togek (Lv1)
Party after “the break”: Empol (Lv37), Garch (Lv25), Leaf (Lv23), Togek (Lv16)

PS: I hate the move Endeavor… It was Empol against a trainer’s Staravia. My Intimidated-Metal Claw knocked it down to 6HP, and then the fucker used Endeavor… Empol went from a full health 117HP, down to 6. Good thing I still had Aqua Jet, otherwise with any luck that Staravia would have Quick Attacked, and Empol might have been KO’d… A level 37 Empoleon being taken out by a Level 21 Staravia, that wouldn’t have looked nice…

So, to Hearthome Gym. The puzzle to get to Fantina is completely different. You now are in a dark room, with a flashlight. Your job is to find the blue tile, shine your flashlight on it, and then go through the door with the corresponding symbol, as well as avoiding the other Trainers inside, with flashlights of their own trying to find you (or the other way round if you need the experience!) Going back or taking the wrong door brings you back to the start

Also, don’t think that you can memorise which door, the symbol on the tile, the tile’s location, and I think the door symbols all change every time. After 2 rooms (that all?), it’s time for Fantina! (And she better be a pushover, because I want to get going ASAP. Battling Ghost-types is annoying, especially with two Normal-types and a load of Normal-type moves…)

Who needs Normal-type moves?

This originally was much larger and more detailed, but then my comp crashed and I lost all of it (since Notepad++ has no restoring or autosaving feature).

Off to wherever…

Party so far: Empol (Lv10)

A quick skip down Routes 201 and 202, leads to Jubilife City. On first arrival, the little stalker Dawn was waiting there, dragging me over to show me a really odd man who was trying to hide behind some lamp posts – and failing miserably. Turns out he’s a detective, codename “Handsome” (although he doesn’t looks so good in the opening sequence) and he’s there to investigate Team Galactic’s goings on, or something to that nature.

Anyway, with that set-piece out of the way, parcel delivered (which as before contains two Town Maps, once of which gets cast aside and given to you), and Pokétch acquired (just kept pressing A, thus answering the top answer each time, and apparently they were all right ), it was time to continue down the linear, but set-piece free path to the first badge

Cleared out Route 204 quite quickly, and picked up a couple of HM slaves for later. Starly is very useful for the flying HMs, while Bidoof can handle the rest (Bibarel can even use the water HMs). On arriving on Oreburgh City, the kid who always drags you to the gym when you don’t have the badge, did so. WTFH was waiting outside, apparently saying that Roark wasn’t there. So I guess it was up to me to go find him and bring him back.

Oreburgh Mine is quite different this time. The old coal conveyers that were either closed, or not operational, were now moving coal out of the mine and to the processing plant. There was also a heap of scrag that had a pair of items, and a hidden Heart Scale. Who knew coal had items in it? Inside now looks a lot more like the Underground that a normal cave, which makes for much better scenery. As always there are the usual workers who are willing to slack off the job long enough to give you a quick battle.

Evolution: Empol -> Prinplup

Oreburgh Gym

After making Roark return to the gym, it was time to make quick work of it. The two trainers en route to the leader were disposed of very quickly, essentially making it a nuisance-free straight line to Roark. Since this is such an important battle, rather than describing it in writing, I recorded it

Back through to Jubilife City, and Handsome was waiting at the entrance, although this time he didn’t give you anything. Just said some crap and ran off. Up the northern end of the city were Rowan and Dawn being abmushed by a pair of Galactic grunts, which you and Dawn fight in a double battle. One quick thumping, and they scurried off like the cowards they are. Aftering watching the battle a TV guy came up and handed me a Fashion Case. OK?

Route 204 had nothing interesting except the Pachirisu double battle twins who refused to battle me with only one Pokémon in my party. Quick dash back for some vendor trash to fill the gap and asses were spanked

Current Party: Empol (Lv18)

Floaroma Town

Though the archway to Floaroma Town I went. Other than those arches, nothing else has changed. The Sprayduck is still acquired in the Flower Shop, and Galactic grunts still block off the way to the Meadow. Outside though was a little girl who was all upset because her dad hadn’t returned from the Windworks yet. Reluctantly, I was “volunteered” to be the hero and resuce him. A Galactic grunt blocking the door didn’t help, nor did him locking it after I walloped him. Back to the Meadow then…

This time, it seems the “Sweet Honey” grunts might not be as obsessed with it as before, since they don’t say too much. One, two spankings and off they run, obviously brought back to their senses. And for my good deeds, 10 pots of honey from the honey guy and the works key. There was a Move Tutor in the house inside the meadow, but I didn’t have enough shards to even see the movepool. The Tutors I’ll probably touch upon later, since I do plan on using them at some point!

Inside the Windworks, a pair of grunts brushed aside along the way – although their weakness did sort of play down the “seriousness” of the whole affair – was Galactic Commander Mars. However, joining herr on this assignment was the other new character of the game, Pluto. Although his role is very minor at this point. Anyway time to own this bitch!

Another deed done it seems

Current Party: Empol (Lv22)

Eterna Forest

Before you ask, Route 205 was so easy I blitzed through it in five minutes. There was nothing interesting apart from the gay-looking Shellos. Eterna Forest is now quite cloudy, as is shown by the shadows on the ground. It’s not as easy to see on the camera though… Cheryl will tag along with you again, meaning all battles are double battles, and you’re fully healed after every fight. The perfect place to train low-level Pokémon, that is if I had any…

Nothing much to note from here. You do get to battle a Burmy, and a Wormadam later, in both Sand and Trash Cloak (unlike in D/P where they were all Leaf Cloak, unless you caught one and mde it switch cloak). Also, the battle animation for Hidden Power is WAY cooler.

Eterna City

First place I went to straight from the forest was the Gym. Gardenia was waiting outside, and after talking to her and listening to her drivel, she went in to wait for you. No longer a game of hide-and-seek, the trainers on the way were brushed aside, and the centre watch-thingy rotated to allow me access to the Gym Leader.

Current Party: Empol (Lv29)

Now, although the trainers were relatively easy, Gardenia was not. I will admit, that on my first shot I got beat. So I tried again, and failed again. And again, again, again… In all, I wasted a whole hour failing around 9 times (I lost count). Action needed to be taken, and REALLY taken.

Skip half an hour, and throw another three levels onto Empol, and so it was time for another shot at it.

About fucking time…