Huh. Well, in a shocking turn of events, reaching the end of a calendar didn’t end the world, so I guess I have more posts to do. Maybe hitting the end of the calender in the kitchen this Dec 31st will have more luck.
More shockingly, my pokemon weren’t healed when I won, so I end up having to escape with no more than a poisoned serperior on its last few hitpoints.
Anyway, outside! The ice has melted, and the formerly frozen trees are now…
…dead husks? Or maybe the idea is they were blasted by the ship taking off? There’s also a crater here for some reason.
Japan, I know you’re a little hazy on the whole “nature” thing, but come on. Trees. You have to know that pine needles don’t spontaneously disappear if they’re frozen and thawed, or if they’re knocked over.
(Also, if the trees are this messed up by this, then any creatures in the area are going to be dead as well.)
Hey, it’s oldschool Plasma. Chat?
Rood: Oh! You’re safe! I’m so glad! As for Team Plasma’s ship, a man in a white lab coat appeared.
And you ARRESTED HIM BECAUSE HE’S A CRIMINAL, right?
He said that a Trainer had given him the answer he’d been seeking,
And then you ARRESTED HIM BECAUSE HE’S A CRIMINAL, right?
and, as thanks, he would disband Team Plasma…
And then you – oh whatever, you let him go because you people have no concept of jail or criminal sentences, which is probably why your criminal organizations pop right back up after two years.
Then he said, “Farewell! Walk a just path with Pokemon!” and he flew the ship away.
“He added something about how he was going to do a proper study by taking pairs of identical pokemon and raising one with love while abusing the other to quantify the difference it makes in power, then dissect them to see if he can see physiological changes. I wasn’t really paying attention because all that matters is that Team Plasma isn’t around any longer!”
So everything has been resolved.
See?
I mean, I’m being flippant, but wow, they could not make it any clearer they don’t actually care about the wellbeing of pokemon. Most of current Team Plasma abuses their pokemon, disbanding Team Plasma so they don’t try to invade human cities helps those pokemon how? And the fact that scientist guy was convinced by science that niceness works doesn’t mean he’s going to spent the rest of his life hugging pokemon! His goal was learning about them, not becoming the greatest trainer. For all we know he’s going to start cutting open their brains to find out why.
We were even able to confirm that Lord N is safe.
Oh fuck you I confirmed that and by confirmed I mean we saved each other’s lives while you fuckers were busy with letting the evil scientist crime lord go!
Nameless grunts, do you have anything to say for this appalling conduct? Speak quickly and keep in mind I just kicked the ass of a world-destroying legendary and Ghetsis, and I’ll soon own that legendary myself.
I wonder if that guy who ran off had figured something out…
WELL IF YOU STOPPED HIM AT THE TIME YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO WONDER NOW, WOULD YOU?
OH YOU’D BETTER STAY HERE UNTIL I GET MY WORLD-DESTROYING DRAGON, I’D HATE TO HAVE TO KILL EVERYONE IN THIS UNIFORM TO MAKE SURE I GOT YOU.
I’m in no position to say anything. In the past, I stole Pokemon, too.
Okay but our current standard of evil is “proudly brag about your pokemon abuse” and “attempt to destroy the world with an ice cannon”. Did you do that in the past as well?
Really, the entire idea of a plot hinging on pokemon theft doesn’t work, or I suppose it does in the sense it highlights the hypocrisy. We say people are kidnapped. Because the crime isn’t the act of taking something that isn’t yours, it’s the double act of taking someone and preventing them from leaving again. A “stolen” pokemon should be in the same position as a stolen human – having to be kept where they are by force. Instead, simply walking off with a pokemon seems to make it as much yours as walking off with an ipod.
Oh well. Exploring the area, there’s some cool stuff, including a sun stone. It’s pretty annoying to do so with the dead trees because it’s hard to tell what’s a passage you can fit through and what’s a large gap that you inexplicably can’t walk through.
So. Where next? The way to the final bosses is somewhere around here. Oh. There were those Plasma grunts blocking the final cave exit, so, maybe there?
Yup, Route 23. There’s a house right by the exit, and it’s someone who’ll heal my pokemon. Convenient.
The area is another one with high cliffs, water and waterfalls. I still don’t have waterfall, though.
The trainers here seem to have a single L57 pokemon. That’s about midway in my team’s range.
I think the problem is that hard mode just ups the levels rather than putting the increase on a proper curve. Higher level enemies just mean more experience and more leveling for me, and that’s going to be even more pronounced in a fifth-gen game where how much experience pokemon get is also based on if they’re higher or lower level. So despite the intent, my pokemon’s own levels have kept hard mode from being at all hard.
And someone just handed me the flamethrower TM! Finally. Now my volcarona can have a decent fire move.
Further exploring nets me the roar TM. Right, that’ll be so useful now.
At the very end, there’s an area where you need to cut down a tree to get an item, or else go slightly further down and get it anyway. Then further up, there’s a similar setup only for this one the tree isn’t optional. I have no fucking clue what they’re trying to do here.
Whatever. Enough exploring, it’s League time. There seems to be a black and white motif here for some reason and OMG N HI N!
N: You came…
I’d have been here faster if you meant you would be waiting!
The Pokemon League is just past Victory Road. Pokemon battles do nothing more than hurt Pokemon…
Uh…
That’s how I understood it, and that’s why I hated battles.
N, you have really got to work on your grasp of tense.
But it’s not that simple.
He shakes his head, then comes closer.
Pokemon battles decide winners and losers, it’s true. Yet they do so much more. Your Pokemon! You! Your opponents! And their Pokemon! Everyone can see what wonderful things the others have to contribute! That’s right! Accepting different ideas–different beings–changes the world like a chemical reaction.
N is not going to take it well when he figures out the people telling him to accept their ideas have no desire to accept his.
Pokemon battles are like a catalyst: a small component that leads to big changes! My friend Zekrom taught me that… And it’s the formula I’ve derived from traveling the world.
Is this leading up to a fight?
I want you to think for yourself about what it means.
It means pokemon battle?
Suddenly he gets the surprise exclamation mark.
What’s this? Why, you’re the… You’re the Zoroark that helped me that time.
Interesting. Failry insists on calling the liepard Purrloin because that’s what he knew it as then, while here N refers to this pokemon by its present form, despite meeting it back before it evolved.
Hey, thanks!
N is a sweetie and this game should have had more of him.
Here! Take this with you! The new Victory Road has areas that are only accessible with Waterfall.
It’s about time!
Admittedly this is going to just be another level of annoyance, but that’s not N’s fault, and it’s nice to finally be able to access higher areas.
Yes! If it’s your Pokemon and you… You will get past the Pokemon League and recognize your own ideals! That’s what I see in store for you!
Yes! Soon I’ll kill them all!
The badge check is very futuristic, and yet also very quick. You walk forward and an automated system says you’ve got each badge while glowing and stuff. No people, not even a long walk. I’m not even sure this was necessary – are you even able to skip badges in this? The last one was certainly mandatory. I mean, I guess it’s an important part, but it’d have been more meaningful if the plot hadn’t led me around by the nose to get them. Then at the end there’s this big barrier that slowly lowers into the ground.
It’s all very shiny, but I miss having people personally acknowledge me.
Beyond that is a bunch of rubble that I guess is the remains of Team Plasma’s castle. And there’s a pokemon center too, so I can fly to the start any time I want.
It’s a simplified place, with only a single story. But it sells pokeballs, allowing me to restock on ultraballs, and there’s still two random trainers running around, though.
First of all, go through this long and difficult Victory Road. Then, defeat even one of the Elite Four. Increase what you can do little by little, and get close to the Champion.
Tch, yeah maybe in the first or second gen. I’m not expecting to have that sort of trouble this time.