Last time, victory!
Two to go.
Sabrina’s honestly not that hard of a boss. The average psychic is a glass cannon, and with the AI screwing up at non-attacking moves, these ones were unloaded ones. The next two gyms are more straightforward.
I did raise a kadabra once, and they’re definitely pretty good pokemon, if somewhat lagging behind by the time you reach the endgame due to not being able to hit their final evolution without trading. But since you’re about to get your mewtwo by then and kick something off the team for it, that works out fine.
Which none of my pokemon can learn! Well, it saves me a duplication run, I guess. Just the masterballs, then.
Ah, that’s a familiar image.
And now back to Fuchsia, to get to Cinnabar the way you’re supposed to.
The swimmers all have innocuous conversation, which makes the sudden battle music at the end jarring. I found the net effect sinister, like they’re just luring you in.
The water areas took me forever because I was trying not to miss anything, so I would swim all the way from one wall to the other before progressing on another couple tiles and repeating.
I really, really doubt that.
Tentacool come at much wider levels than most pokemon do. The full level range goes up to L40.
This actually makes the area seem less artificial than most, since you see such variety. But why is it? You can assume that the younger ones are babies that mature into the higher level ones, but since that doesn’t happen in other areas, there must be more to it.
Perhaps normally, pokemon of whatever the level standard is drive out weaker pokemon and they have to seek out less desirable territory. The area by Pallet must just be really crappy. (This would imply that pokemon actually thrive in more populated areas. Maybe they’re all mutated from human toxins and grimer are just the most extreme version. Or maybe they’re partially created by human belief and do better the more people there are.)
For some reason, the tentacool don’t do this. Perhaps they’re all clonespawn of a single immortal tentacool, and, it being pokemon, they have some sort of hive mind compelling them to work together.
A question that consumed many a player.
You’ll have to wait for third gen for that!
And for second gen to introduce water that does more than just wobble back and forth. Don’t hold your breath, it’s actually just pretty annoying.
Wait, no, actually we do have treacherous currents coming up! But nothing in the main areas, and the currents will be a one-time thing.
…that’s actually really dangerous. I always felt weird that you can’t actually do anything, for this and other swimmers who complain about tiredness. The player character is kind of a jerk.
Hey, it’s a bunch of people!
And that’s why they’re together, they’re presumably all friends.
Recover is now popping up semi-regularly. This particular support move is only occasionally flubbed by the computer – it’ll use it on pokemon with full health, but by this point in the game you’ll usually move first anyway, so it’s not an issue. It’s usually not too annoying because by this point you’re also overleveled enough that you can easily take them out regardless.
They don’t bother with a female swimmer sprite, instead reusing BEAUTY. Her short dress does kind of overlap with swimwear, but she’s also got what looks like high heels. On the other hand, she actually pays out decent money, while regular swimmers give practically nothing.
That’s a random thing to bring up – I’m not on one and they’re extremely rare.
I wonder if the game was originally conceived as something more linear, with lapras the only pokemon that could transport you? That would explain why you get a pokemon whose whole point is transporting people right after Silph, even though the game expects you to go to Fuchsia for its badge first, and it would prevent people from forgetting about the Saffron plot and just continuing along.
Odd to think of, particularly with how important the move surf became to the game.
Probably not too seriously meant, but I always found this sort of thing intriguing and frustrating. Why couldn’t I demand a pokemon if I won a battle?
Meant to do this at L40, but close enough. Pidgeot’s stats.
Uh…because it makes traveling easy?
…Presumably not, as it happens. I wonder why. I mean, he’s grown up on a coastal town.
And here’s Seafoam Islands!