That’s it for Cinnabar!

I’m never quite sure what to make of these things. It is interesting to have things going on that have nothing to do with you, but if it’s a triathlon, where is everyone else? Also, why are you just floating in place?

I really like this sprite. It looks so grouchy.

Why would there be…

Oh.

The protagonist is actually pretty mouthy, isn’t he?

And right next to him is this hippie.

Look at that amazing speed. Sadly, speed is one of those things where the total number doesn’t much matter, just if it’s higher or not. In this generation it’s also tied to critical hit chances, but after this, speed-focused pokemon completely suck. Poor persian.

I’ve never been able to figure out what they were thinking here. It’s not like they were going for a cheetah – and cats can be fast, sure, but they’re also pretty damaging.

One of the fishermen out on the floating platforms is a six magikarp guy, so how’d he get out here? Also, why go on these platforms at all? It isn’t like you catch anything different from them (although it would be interesting to implement that somehow…)

Here I go again.

Back home!

Hi Mom!

Mom I traveled all over Kanto and I got seven badges and I’m going to get eight and then fight at the pokemon league and I got an articuno and-





…

This always really bothered me. I don’t think the designers really understood how much I wanted people to react to my exploits. The only place it happens is Silph.

My, that’s convenient! I was just thinking that’s the last gym I need to face!

Who are you, anyway? Are you here to fight at the gym, or just someone hanging out here by chance who noticed the change? Are you watching the fights from the window because you’re a battling fan?

You again.

And it never occurred to you to just walk over and find out? I always had the impression that if you didn’t have any pokemon, trainers would let you go past. Maybe not, though. It would fit with the whole secluded thing if gym leaders actually used their undertrainers to keep out curious non-trainers as well as winnow down actual challengers to only the most powerful.

What makes you think that? You don’t even know who the guy is!

So not only was it too hard to go to see who the gym leader is, but even going over to one of the trainers and asking what they train was too much? Who’d you hear the bit about ground types from, anyway? Why were you out gossiping instead of doing your job?

But okay, it has been a mystery all game. I guess we’ll just have to challenge the gym leader to find out who they are.

Or we could just read the sign.

I still don’t get why the designers did this, it’s so weird.

Also, once again Gary has beaten us to the punch.

This is one of the more expansive gyms, down to actually having an item lying around.

As you can see, the gym uses a similar puzzle as the hideout in Celadon, but it’s less confusing.


Also, what’s with the whole whip business? So many sprites have whips.

The other pokemon struggle to get a hit in, as my tauros always steals the first move.

Even against another tauros quite a few levels above it. This is the point the game’s level system is really breaking down. I assume most of this is from the badge bonuses. Also, do trainers get the stat boosts from battle experience? I don’t think so.

Pretty sure this is also the only tauros outside the Safari Zone. So, skip this guy and your pokedex will be easier to fill.

Three pokemon into this gym and not one ground type. They are the same general bunch as you’d expect rockets to use, though.

The connection between training in fighting and training fighting pokemon continues to be ambiguous. If he’s so focused on his own mastery, why train pokemon at all? Perhaps it’s because there’s so few opponents, while he can have fights by proxy with a huge number of trainers. Also, if he’s so great, why not fight me himself? I don’t think we’ve had any evidence humans can go toe to toe with pokemon, so he’s probably just trying to sound impressive.

Also, ugh grammar. And it’s hardly the only such error in this gym.

And what’s up with that guy? He spends his days staring down an empty corridor that no one had reason to try to get through, since he’s blocking the way. If he were two spaces up, this would be a potential shortcut, but as it is…

See? Nothing you can do to get past him. But then, this gym’s whole layout is weird. The entire area I’ve just been wandering in is completely optional – though when I first went here, I was confused enough that this didn’t occur to me. I remember Viridian Gym as a massive, sprawling labyrinth of powerful trainers, but it’s really pretty simple.

And you’ve decided to therefore spend your time staring down empty corridors.

But really, what was going on in the time he wasn’t here? Were the trainers still hanging out and practicing together, but keeping the front door locked the whole time? Or were they going about with their regular lives until they heard the gym was reopening and flocked back? How are there so many trainers here when it’s such a small town?

Finally, a ground type.

Whoever was supposed to be proofreading was drunk by this point.

Also, this raises a problem. As we’ll soon see, there are plenty of trainers who passed the badge gauntlet. If this is required to do so, and Giovanni’s been missing a long time, how’d they get there?

Maybe until the gym reopened they let you in with seven badges. It’s just that in order to get that many, you have to defeat Giovanni, causing him to reopen his gym and therefore changing the requirement back to eight.

There’s that item ball mocking me…

Here’s an interesting little area.

The arrows this time are just to bounce you back and forth…

And it’s impossible to go further. There’s only one actual path through the gym…

And it’s here.

This is an area accessed by just going up. It’s quite easy for this to be your first battle.

Another rare ground type!

I wonder what martial arts looks like in this universe? Do they try to emulate pokemon moves, including stuff like rage?

It always amused me to make them line up.

Not actually a music related sprite, though –

Just another tamer. How tamers are different from trainers remains unclear.

And another ground type!

Do you? I mean, why is this a mystery anyway! Isn’t the secret that Giovanni is the boss of Team Rocket? If he’s well known to be a criminal, how would he keep it a secret from all of you? Also, wouldn’t whoever’s in charge of the badges know who he is? This actually makes astoundingly little sense.

This bugged me. Why is it here?

I guess this is to help in case the battle’s too hard?

Giovanni has a weird collection of undertrainers.

Hm, maybe that’s actually the idea. He’s reopening his gym after a long time and absolutely doesn’t want any trainers bugging him when he’s there, so he needs a lot of people between him and the public yet probably doesn’t have much of a talent pool to draw on, so he has to take anyone he can get.

Here’s blocky guy! Now that he’s moved, he blocks this entrance instead but frees up the other area. Or, of course, you can just leave to heal your pokemon or whatever and reset his position.

I thought that other guy handing out the pokemon was? I guess with karate marginalized compared to pokemon, there aren’t the same rigorous standards working out who’s the best.

I just curbstomped you, dumbass.

No need to go back and heal.

Doesn’t seem like the best plan. Maybe he means to recruit from those undertrainers? It just seems like a gym would be under a lot of increased scrutiny.

I’m a trainer collecting badges, dumbass. I had no idea you were here. You could have just handed a badge to an underling and had them fight me and I’d have left none the wiser.

There’s no reason for him to have been, but it’s true his pokemon in past battles were weaker. Perhaps he doesn’t always bring his strongest with him when he’s going out, but considering the kind of stuff he’s getting up to, you’d think he’d want to be armed with his best then. So, probably just trashtalk.

There’s still four people who are supposed to be tougher than you, you know. And judging by their pokemon’s levels, they really are.

Anyway, I’m going to mock you by beating up your pokemon with my articuno. Bet you wish you had one.

The in-battle dialogue is a bit weird, isn’t it? Most of it’s just “ack!” and “oh no!” fluff that seems a waste of code, but sometimes you have these extended monologues in it too.

I think this is the most concrete evidence that the badges are supposed to be gotten in a particular order. It does beg the question of what the point of the rest of them is. If there was a system requiring you to have the previous badge before challenging the next gym, it’d make sense, but as it is, it seems like you ought to be able to snag the earthbadge and then demand entrance to the elite four. Which was particularly annoying in my first game, as I was missing the thunderbadge.

Like I said, you actually can’t without the rest of the badges. I tried repeatedly to get past the damn guard, all to no avail.

The badge? Because that’s not a gift, that’s what I just earned…

 Or did you mean this? Because if so, you can’t use “it” like that. Pronouns like that refer to a noun mentioned previously.

What he doesn’t say is that’s only if it hits, which it does rarely.

It’s not always clear if people are talking about making a TM or a move itself. It doesn’t make much sense for Giovanni to have invented a move, but if you stop to think, it doesn’t make much more sense for him to be handcrafting TMs either.

You already lost to me several times! Also, Gary just beat you before I showed up.

Whoa, there’s no need to jump to crazy conclusions here. Team Rocket is the best team! Don’t feel you need to stop on my account.

…aren’t you guys like evil pokemon users? How is this helping?

And then they never did.

Hey, you aren’t –

And he’s gone.

I found the resolution to the plot pretty poor. You’re chasing this huge criminal organization. They do bad stuff, like the whole Lavender business. And yet, in the end your only victory is you make the boss have a midlife crisis. He’s never brought to justice or punished for his crimes. As you learn in the next gen, this didn’t do anything to really deal with all his criminal underlings that were running around, either.

IT SAYS SO RIGHT ON THE POST NEXT TO YOU!