nothing to see here
...probably not posting here too much anymore.
- Pronoun
- he/him
So apparently when I was first playing through Platinum in March/April of last year, I was doing one of those "keep track of stuff you do in the game and write about it" things. Except... I forgot about it at some point, and ended up never actually posting it anywhere.
Until now, anyway. Here it is:
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MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2009
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NAME: Bulimia
RIVAL: TIMMY!
Started out with a Turtwig, which I named "Turtle" (after Master Roshi's turtle in Dragonball Z, who everyone just calls "Turtle" as if it was a name.)
vs. Timmy #1
=====================
Evil monkey just stares at the turtle and never attacks. The youngsters and such on the next route with Starlies and Bidoofs are actually harder... yet they give less experience. That sucks.
Almost lost against the kid in the school that uses X Attacks because I forgot to heal after the trip over... then got a critical hit and won anyway.
That fisherman guy told me the "tips for fishing" even though I said no...
vs. Timmy #2
=====================
Evil monkey must be rubbing off on the Starly--it used nothing but Growl. Evil monkey himself, however, actually used Scratch this time. Eventually lost because the constant Leers lowered my defense enough that Scratch did decent damage... and because I hadn't caught any other Pokémon yet, heh.
Why is it that all the Psyducks and Zubats in this cave are female? I saw only two or three male Zubats along with about a dozen females... and EVERY Psyduck I've seen so far has been female.
After seeing about 10 female Psyducks, finally found a male one. Caught the little mofo and named him Yamcha.
vs. Timmy #2, again
=====================
The Starly learned how to attack (finally!) but still used Growl almost every time and got its ass whupped. Evil monkey went with the idiot strategy of "use Scratch a couple times, then endlessly Leer!" Won without much trouble, plus Yamcha and Turtle both leveled up (to 6 and 12, respectively.)
A lot of trainers seem to mention the Pokémon they have before fighting them now; first the kid who got a Magikarp from his dad, then the Kricketot/Zubat kid, and then the Shinx kid on the same route. Can't remember if they were in D/P or not.
There's no way that girl with the Lv.8 Psyduck beat ANY Gym Leaders. Did she give Roark a blowjob in exchange for the badge or something?
The girl who gives you the Pal Pad apparently has a name now. Either that or I just forgot about it the first time.
vs. Roark
=====================
Not a hard Gym Leader fight at all... though that's probably because I was a bit overleveled (Yamcha at Lv.11 at the start of the fight, and Turtle at Lv.13)--as far as first Gym Leaders go, Roark isn't bad at all. Definitely tougher than the R/B/Y/FR/LG versions' wimpy Brock and G/S/C's Falkner; maybe even Roxanne, though her Nosepass was a bit tougher than first gyms usually are.
Geodude and Onix got 1-hit-KO'ed from Water Gun as usual (though the Onix got a Stealth Rock in first), then Cranidos got in a Headbutt that did pretty good damage. Water Gun'ed down to half HP, Roark uses a Potion, Water Gun'ed back down below half again... and instead of using Headbutt and knocking out Yamcha, he uses Pursuit and leaves him with 1 HP and ready to knock the little Barney wannabe out with another Water Gun.
The new GTS music reminds me of Startropics for some odd reason...
Galactic Grunts still wimpy. Fortunately none of 'em have Wurmples yet.
Caught a Pachirisu, which I named Chi-Chi; probably not a permanent team member, but she'll at least stay around until I get a few more that I'm going to stick with.
Heh, Mars forgot Charon existed (at first, anyway) in her introduction speech. And she actually isn't too wimpy. The freakishly-low-leveled Purugly is actually kinda hard, and gets waaaay too many critical hits. But with Super Potions and Rock Smash, Turtle eventually beat the thing.
Kind of odd that Charon only recently joined Team Galactic, considering that he's OOOOOLD. I mean, Cyrus doesn't look too young himself (based on the big picture of him in the intro), but Charon has to be up there around Agatha and Pryce's age group.
STARTER: Turtwig (Turtle) Lv.16
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.16
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.11
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TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009
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The change in battle messages so that everything "misses" now still annoys me. One of the few really bad changes the D/P series made... I mean, how can something like Screech miss? Maybe the other Pokémon covered its ears, or the screech just didn't have its intended effect... but either way "_____'s attack failed!" makes more sense than "_____'s attack missed!"
Chi-Chi the Pachirisu is seeming far less wimpy now that she's finally learned Spark. Yeah, "finally" makes it sound as if it's been a long time, even though I caught her at level 9...
It's pretty strange to see a Chansey actually doing significant amounts of damage with physical attacks.
Is Eterna Forest bigger than it was in D/P? It kinda seems like it is, for some reason.
Silcoon and Cascoon sprites look much better now that all of the spikes are actually there, instead of having the points cut off.
Turtle evolved somewhere around the time I was getting to Eterna.
Hah, Gardenia's gym has fake clouds painted on the walls!
Before fighting Gardenia I decided to try out the new GTS, since I was at school where there's Wi-Fi access. I posted my Forest box with nothing but a Hoothoot in it, put the random Hoothoot up to trade for a Stunky, watched a battle video of Dialga/Palkia/Giratina vs. Kyogre/Raikou/Palkia (the D/P/P team won), watched another video of two Lv.72 Magikarps tackling and flailing each other to death (which I saved afterward!), and poked around at the other random new features. My message is now "I'm looking for someone to trade for my BABY!" or something along those lines. Apparently Bulimia is a major slut, already popping out kids at age 10... either that or she kidnapped someone else's baby and is trying to pawn it off for some rare Pokémon.
Also fiddled around in the Wi-Fi Plaza a little bit, though there's not a whole lot to do in there (other than mess with the Charmander bobble-heads) if you're by yourself.
vs. Gardenia
=====================
Beat the random gym trainers and got to Gardenia, but lost. The Roserade is just that much stronger than any of my Pokémon... though I didn't do too bad considering that I only have three Pokémon, they're all at a disadvantage against Grass-types, and they're all three levels short of her.
Chi-Chi paralyzed and Charm'ed the Turtwig, then Turtle knocked the little guy out without too much trouble. Then he managed to knock the Roserade down to about 1/4 HP with Cut and Rock Smash before she finally KO'ed him; after that, Chi-Chi and Yamcha were pretty much screwed.
Of course, since my DS battery ran out immediately afterward, I technically never lost and am still standing in front of Gardenia where I saved. Heh...
Caught a Chingling (because I've been wanting to train a Chimecho lately) and named him Chiaotzu. He should help against that damn Roserade, once he's caught up with the rest of the guys.
vs. Gardenia again
=====================
Second round went much better than the first--once again, Chi-Chi paralyzed the Turtwig and Charm'ed its attack down to nothing, then Turtle stomped the little thing. The Roserade took a few Super Potions, but Turtle managed to knock it out this time, and after that... the Cherrim was no problem at all. Chiaotzu didn't even get a chance to fight (though he did level up, thanks to the Exp. Share.)
The new out-of-battle Cut animation is neat-looking.
Jupiter has a very slow Zubat--Yamcha the Psyduck outspeeds the wimpy little thing. The Skuntank isn't anything special either, at least not after its attack is knocked down to nothing from Charm. Mars was probably tougher.
Apparently Gibles love to kill themselves with Take Down when their HP is already really low.
Amity Square has a lot more in it now... and the warp points in the ruins actually work now, so the ones up on mountains are reachable.
STARTER: Grotle (Turtle) Lv.23
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.23
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.22
CAUGHT: Chingling (Chiaotzu) Lv.23
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2009
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Weird text from a notebook in the Old Chateau:
"Som...hing so pecu...r shou... make off ...ith the mot..."
Ooh, creepy ghost girl is all semi-transparent now.
Want to thump the TV? Heh. And... Rotom still inexplicably has the legendary battle music. "Its electric-like body?" Bad grammarz ahoy! And now, Kami the Rotom has been added to the team, at least temporarily--I'll probably have to decide between him and Chi-Chi at some point in the future, as it'd be a bit silly to double up on Electric-types.
I notice that Kricketots aren't so much rarer than Kricketunes anymore. Which is good, because that made no sense at all...
Chiaotzu just kicked some ass in a Cuteness Contest. He was going really well already, but then the other three idiots kept all choosing the same judge, heh. So instead of just "Chiaotzu won," it was "Chiaotzu easily stomped the other three into the ground."
Honey trees still annoying. Possibly less annoying than in D/P though, since I left the honey on for almost a whole day and the Pokémon (a friggin' male Combee) was still in there when I finally got around to checking it.
Apparently you can't get to Veilstone or Pastoria before beating the Hearthome gym... which sucks, since I was planning to go beat up Maylene first (since I have a ghost AND a psychic now, it shouldn't be too hard to stomp that Lucario) before going after Fantina.
Checking the GTS again, I saw that nobody had traded me a Stunky... so I took the random Hoothoot off of the GTS and replaced him with a random Clefairy I caught, to be traded for a Burmy. Might have more luck with that, since the ugly little pink fluffballs seem to have more of a fanbase than they deserve...
vs. Fantina
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Kami whupped her Duskull despite a 2-level difference, but that's not much of a surprise. Unfortunately, even three Double Teams didn't keep her Mismagius's Shadow Ball from hitting and 1-hit-KO'ing him. And dammit, the thing has Magical Leaf too, so Yamcha barely lasted one turn. Thank God for Pachirisu having high Special Defense--a Shadow Ball didn't even knock Chi-Chi's HP out of the green! Switched to Turtle, and gave him some ghostie-toasties for lunch. And apparently Fantina isn't Stereotypical French, as she tells her Pokémon NOT to surrender!
I'm actually glad I replaced Turtle's Curse with Bite now--otherwise I probably would've lost. Once again, Chiaotzu didn't even get a chance to fight, and Turtle and Chi-Chi did most of the work (with Kami taking out the Duskull first.)
vs. Timmy #3
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Kami completely whupped this kid's ass, despite being only level 22 at the start of the fight (though the experience from stomping Timmy's whole team brought him all the way up to 24.) None of his Pokémon even managed to cause a single point of damage, and most of them were knocked out in one shot--Buizels and Staravias go down very quickly when hit with Shock Wave.
Caught a Ralts, which I named Trunks. He very quickly evolved into a Kirlia... I'm planning on evolving him into a Gallade (because, y'know, Trunks from DBZ... he has a sword) as soon as I find the right evolution stone.
I can't remember what the Lost Tower had in it before, but the new fog there isn't nearly as annoying as the fog in the mountains was in D/P. There's really not much reason to use Defog unless you don't have access to any "never misses" moves (or you just really want the Spell Tag and Cleanse Tag, but... they're not exactly the most useful items in the world.) I just brought the random Hoothoot with me to Defog the top room after I had cleared out all the trainers and items.
Hey, the department store in Veilstone has a basement now. Not a storage room with Machokes lugging boxes around, though. Berries are really cheap, too... while Poffins are ludicrously overpriced.
"This has nothing to do with anything, but take this TM!" Heh.
After beating up the Collector dude with the Eevee evolution trio, Chiaotzu finally evolved--Chingling only evolves at night. Since he didn't evolve yesterday, though, I'm guessing the massage lady in Veilstone, combined with a few vitamins and some wins in battle, finally pushed him over the "required happiness" limit.
Holy shit, Rhyhorns!? Here? Wow. Wasn't expecting that. Speaking of unexpected things, Rhyhorns learn Tail Whip... but they don't have tails. Oops.
There's also Houndours in the same route! And Roar is annoying.
STARTER: Grotle (Turtle) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Chimecho (Chiaotzu) Lv.27
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.27
CAUGHT: Kirlia (Trunks) Lv.26
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THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
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I might try trading with myself (my Diamond version, using my sister's DS) sometime later today, now that I have a Houndour in Platinum. Seems like the only way I'll ever get one in my Diamond version, since the only way to get one before Platinum was to breed a Houndoom (which can only be found in Pearl... and my sister's nowhere near the point in the game where they show up.)
vs. Maylene
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"Uh, I don't really know why I'm the Gym Leader..."
Me either, because you really, really SUCK. Seriously, I wasn't expecting to beat her on the first try, especially not so easily. The Meditite gave me many times more trouble than the Lucario and Machoke combined--it knocked out Trunks and weakened Chi-Chi before finally going down. Then the Lucario Force Palm'ed Chi-Chi to knock her out... and then repeatedly missed with Metal Claw, three times in a row, as the newly-evolved Chiaotzu psychokinetically whupped the little overrated mofo's ass. The last Metal Claw did hit, but by that time the Lucario was screwed and Chiaotzu leveled up. After that, I let Kami finish off the Machoke... which he did, without ever taking a point of damage.
But wow... Maylene was REALLY weak. Maybe even weaker than she was in D/P. I figure Crasher Wake was talking about *martial arts* training with her, because there's no way he'd be that impressed by her minimal Pokémon-training ability.
No luck getting a Burmy off the GTS yet... and before I could do any searching for other stuff, it had a connection problem and kicked me off.
Caught a Chatot, which I named "Velveeta" (after one of Pugh's pigeons) and taught her how to say "muddafugga." Came out surprisingly well--now the little birdie says "muddafugga!" every time I send her out, heh.
I'm thinking I'll probably replace Chi-Chi with Velveeta the cussing parrot.
vs. Timmy #4
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Wimpy and disturbingly overleveled, as usual. Instead of letting Kami knock out his whole team this time, though, I switched it up a little: Turtle whupped the Buizel (in one non-critical-hit Razor Leaf...), Chiaotzu chucked his still-unevolved Monferno (which still hasn't grown out of using nothing but Leer the whole time) into a wall, and Velveeta screamed curse-words at his Roselia until it became a pile of wilted lettuce.
Last Resort doesn't suck nearly as much as I thought it would--apparently, you only have to use each of your other moves ONCE before it works, instead of using up all of their PP first.
Heh, the sailor says "That's just how I roll!" Unlike the Team Galactic members saying "for the win" and similar scum-of-the-internet stuff, that's actually funny, not just stupid.
vs. Wake
=====================
Ouch. So that's why Maylene was so weak--to trick people into expecting the next Gym Leader to be weak, even though he's actually the toughest one in the game so far. I may actually have to level up some first before I try fighting this guy again--the Gyarados alone took half of my team to KO, and then the Floatzel was able to finish off the rest.
Swapped Chi-Chi back into the team, replacing Trunks temporarily; also leveled my whole team to level 30-31 (they were in the 28-30 range before), then went to try fighting Mr. Mexican Wrestler again.
vs. Wake again
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Did much better this time. Chi-Chi (who I swapped back in, replacing Trunks) was able to beat the Gyarados, and Turtle and Velveeta teamed up to beat the Quagsire (Turtle would have managed it by himself, but being put to sleep and confused over and over got in the way a little.) Finally, Chi-Chi managed to paralyze the Floatzel on the first hit with Discharge, letting Kami finish the thing off without much trouble after Chi-Chi got KO'ed with Aqua Jet.
Though I did manage to beat him, he was by far the strongest Gym Leader so far... all of my Pokémon except Kami ended up getting knocked out before the end of it.
Hah, the Galactic Bomb they detonated in the swamp was too crappy to do any significant damage... either that or the idiotic Grunt just put it in some stupid place where it wouldn't be able to do much damage even if it WAS really powerful.
Holy crap, I just hit a Skorupi twice in a row... in fog... after Acupressure boosted its Evade. I think this is the first time I've ever seen any actual effect from Psyduck's "Cloud Nine" ability.
Turtle is now fully evolved!
Heh, this old lady called one of the Team Galactic guys a "spaceman."
vs. Cyrus #1
=====================
Ouchies. Hadn't healed before going into the cave, so I got beaten up pretty badly (and it didn't help that one of my two un-fainted Pokémon--Turtle--is now double-weak to those Ice Punches...)
vs. Cyrus #1, again
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This time I went in with a fully-healed team. Yamcha still got whupped by his Sneasel, but Kami finished it off pretty quick after hitting it with Confuse Ray and a critical-hit Shock Wave. Velveeta knocked off a good chunk of the Murkrow's HP, but got hurt pretty bad by Drill Peck, so Kami finished the bird off. Trunks got a good hit on the Golbat, but Bite did a lot of damage, so Kami got switched in again and (as usual) finished it off without much trouble.
Seems like Kami the Rotom is definitely the powerhouse of the team so far... he's always kicking entire teams' asses singlehandedly, knocking out enemies in one hit, and coming in at the last second to save the other members of the team from almost being KO'ed.
Finally, Surf!!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Chimecho (Chiaotzu) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.33
CAUGHT: Kirlia (Trunks) Lv.31
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.33
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FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2009
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While on the way back from Celestic Town, Yamcha finally evolved into a Golduck! Now that just leaves Trunks...
vs. Timmy #5
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Damn, this kid wants to fight A LOT in Platinum! His Staraptor is still a fan of the Evil Monkey strategy, but this time it's Double Team over and over while Kami's Shock Waves ignore the boosted evasion, zapping the bird in two shots. For once, he doesn't completely suck--his Heracross actually won the fight for him.
vs. Timmy #5, again
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Went a bit differently this time. Set up Kami to go first and wipe out the bird, and then Turtle dealt with the Floatzel pretty easily as well. Tried Velveeta against the Heracross, but she was KO'ed in one Brick Break... and then Kami, being awesome as usual, squished the bug without taking a point of damage. If regular Rotom is this good, I can't imagine what the alternate forms are like...
Evil Monkey has improved a lot since last time--he makes random stars show up when he's sent out, and is now fully evolved. And he uses attacks that actually cause decent damage (like Brick Break.) Yamcha's Surf takes him into the low yellow in one shot, though, forcing Timmy to switch to his Roserade, which uses Toxic Spikes over and over as if a third of my team didn't have Levitate. Some Earthquakes from Turtle, and we have shredded lettuce again. Chiaotzu finishes the monkey off. A bit ironic considering that Infernape seems to be based on the same Monkey King that Goku is based on, and Goku could whup Chiaotzu easily...
For once, the kid actually has a reason to be surprised when I beat him--he doesn't suck anymore!
Platinum seems to have done a pretty good job making Team Galactic actually seem like more of a threat rather than the "okay, these guys kinda suck... and then suddenly, the storyline revolves around them!" They have more of a R/B/Y Team Rocket feel to them now--you can find 'em hanging around EVERYWHERE doing random missions and sometimes fighting you.
Finally figured out where the Dawn Stone is and evolved Trunks. Now, once he learns a physical attack, he should be able to kick some ass.
Someone traded me a Burmy for the Clefairy... though sadly its name is "BURMY" in all-caps. Silly imagination-less people. While searching I saw someone wanting a Flareon for their Manaphy... so I quickly traded my Eevee for a Flareon that someone else was offering, then traded that for the Manaphy. Now I don't have to worry about having to buy Ranger and/or go to a Nintendo event to get one!
Heh, one of the trainers in Canalave City's gym calls you a "noob."
Funny, the gym didn't look nearly this tall on the outside... maybe it's secretly a TARDIS.
How come none of the Black Belts in here has a Lucario? I mean, they're in a Steel-type gym and Lucario is also Fighting-type... seems like it'd fit really well with them. And apparently Steelixes like the Evil Monkey strategy too, but they use Screech instead of Leer.
vs. Byron
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He's supposed to have facial hair... I never noticed that until I saw the new before-battle picture. Whoops! And, as I predicted, the "red circles" part of the new Flash Cannon animation looks just plain wrong... though the rest of it still looks good. His Magneton managed to knock out Kami and Trunks, but Turtle finished it off and Leech Seed'ed the Steelix... but then got Ice Fang'ed and knocked out. Then Yamcha finally got his chance to kick a Gym Leader's ass: first he 1-hit-KO'ed the Steelix with Surf, then took the Bastiodon out with only a little bit more trouble (Metal Burst REALLY hurt after the first hit, but fortunately the Bastiodon only got one chance to use it.)
Not nearly as easy as Roark or Maylene, but not quite as tough as Gardenia and nothing compared to Wake... so I guess he's around the same level that Fantina was, difficulty-wise. Not too bad!
Heh, so THAT'S why they supposedly felt the bomb's explosion from all the way over there... what they felt/heard wasn't really the explosion itself, but the sound from the TV reporting about it.
Grunts are starting to suck a little less... either that or the game expects people to be horribly overleveled by this point in the game and levels up the grunts to compensate for that.
Stupid Bronzor, you're not supposed to use Gyro Ball when you're FASTER than the other Pokémon... especially not when the other Pokémon is weak to the other attack you were using before.
Apparently yelling "MUDDAFUGGA!" at frogs makes them angry enough to knock out a parrot in one hit.
Hmm... this Kricketune just used Focus Energy, and then *I* got a critical hit right after it. Kind of a funny coincidence.
Mars is much easier the second time... though that's probably because she has fully-evolved Pokémon (and you don't) the first time.
Lake Acuity's entrance is completely different now, and you need Rock Climb to get in.
vs. Candice
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Knocked out the Sneasel the usual way (Confuse Ray + series of Shock Waves from Kami) and then had Velveeta and Trunks work together to take out the Abomasnow after it knocked out Kami. Yamcha kicked the Piloswine's ass, after it manages to knock out Trunks... and then the Froslass beat up the rest of my surviving team members, mainly thanks to the whole "Blizzard hits 100% accuracy during hail" thing.
Wasn't expecting to lose, especially after seeing that her first Pokémon was only two levels above mine... at least it was pretty close, unlike the first match with Wake. Chiaotzu seems to be lagging behind the rest of the team a lot lately, though it may just be that his strongest move (besides Last Resort) is Confusion while the rest of the team is blasting out Earthquakes and Surfs and Psycho Cuts and stuff like that. Either way, I'm thinking I might swap him out for a while. Maybe for an Ice-type, so I don't get hit over and over by Hail--I did have a Swinub which I named Ganondorf, who has Snow Cloak, so after I get him fully evolved he might be my next team member.
Ganondorf evolved after only leveling up once, and now he's almost caught up to the other guys... currently hunting for Heart Scales so I can get him fully evolved before I fight Candice again.
Heart Scales are apparently much rarer now than they were in D/P... I've found two Armor Fossils (one of which I took to the fossil-reviving dude) and a Sky Plate already, but not a single Heart Scale. Speaking of that fossil, I might actually end up using the Shieldon/Bastiodon in my team once it's revived from the fossil... having a Pokémon with two types that are good against Ice, plus having ridiculous defenses and being resistant to pretty much every move Candice's Pokémon have, might help a bit.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.38
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Piloswine (Ganondorf) Lv.37
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SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2009
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Going to try trading with my Diamond version, using my sister's DS. I'm planning on sending over a Ditto with a Heart Scale attached to my Platinum version, in exchange for a Houndour (which are impossible to find in Diamond.)
So that means a couple more in the Pokédex for my Diamond version (I'm going to try and go for 493 on this one, though I doubt I'll make it due to annoying event-only Pokémon...) and the ability to breed anything (and evolve Ganondorf) on Platinum.
Damn, Phione eggs take FOREVER to hatch... especially without any Pokémon that have Flame Body or Magma Armor to speed it up.
vs. Candice again
=====================
Ganondorf took out the Sneasel and Abomasnow singlehandedly, thanks to Ancient Power's stat-boosting and Snow Cloak keeping the Abomasnow's first Water Pulse from hitting (odd, I didn't even know they could learn that.) The Froslass knocked him out with Blizzard, though, and then proceeded to do the same thing to Kami. Trunks survived the hit and got some damage in with Psycho Cut, and I used one of those Max Revives I had picked up to bring Ganondorf back (while Trunks gets KO'ed by another Blizzard... which means she's only got 1 Blizzard left!) Unfortunately, instead of wasting the last Blizzard she used Double Team and Shadow Ball against Yamcha; fortunately, the hail doesn't hit him thanks to his ability and one Shadow Ball doesn't even knock him out of the green. Yamcha goes surfing again, and the Froslass's ass is officially whupped. Candice's Piloswine knocked out Yamcha with Earthquake (after being almost KO'ed by another Surf), and then Ganondorf came back in to kick some more ass. The two piggies missed each other a lot due to Snow Cloak, but Ganondorf hit with a couple of Ice Shards and Mud Bombs, bringing the smaller piggie down to critical health once again. One more Ice Shard, and then there's only one piggie left standing.
Not quite as tough as Wake, but still decent. I'd say Candice is probably the second-hardest Gym Leader in the game so far, just barely edging out Gardenia. Turns out that I didn't need to train that Shieldon after all--Ganondorf was more than enough by himself!
Heh. "The gruntiest of the grunts!"
I wonder... why they didn't change Ice Beam's animation? It was one of the crappier-looking moves before... yet they change some of the much better-looking ones (like Flash Cannon) instead.
Apparently, Cyrus is 27 years old... which makes him the first character since Red/Blue to actually have an official age! But it doesn't really match up with the way he's drawn at all... he looks more like 40, or at least late-30's.
Or maybe Looker was saying that HE is 27 years old, not Cyrus... which would make a bit more sense.
vs. Cyrus #2
=====================
As proven by the fight with Candice, Ganondorf whups Sneasels easily... and so, Cyrus's Sneasel gets whupped pretty quickly. His Crobat's Bite knocks him out, though, so Kami switches in and does the old confuse-and-zap trick. Instead of using Bite again, the Crobat stupidly attempts to use Supersonic (shouldn't it have replaced that with Confuse Ray about 20 levels ago?) and gets fried on the next turn after that misses. Kami confuses his Honchkrow, but then gets knocked out by Faint Attack. Yamcha comes in and goes surfin', knocking the Honchkrow around for a while until Cyrus uses a Full Restore... which only gives the birdie one extra turn, since it only takes three Surfs to KO it, and Yamcha's faster.
vs. Mars & Jupiter
=====================
Why in the world has Rival Dude not evolved his Munchlax yet? Anyway... Bronzors weren't too much of a problem (more annoying than anything else.) The Skuntank and Purugly actually did some damage, knocking out a few of my Pokémon... and then the Golbats weren't anything special either: needless to say, Kami whupped their asses easily. Timmy's Pokémon weren't much of a help... the Staraptor knocked out one (already weakened) Golbat, and the Munchlax provided a nice Stockpiled defense boost that Yamcha could copy with Psych Up, but otherwise they mostly just acted as decoys.
Hey, Cyrus has two Red Chains now. And he sounds like he'd probably get along pretty well with Xemnas and Cell.
Ooh, shiny new cutscene thingie. And Giratina is badass (and has the ability to make Cyrus stutter like a retard, heh.)
Finally, an actual reason for this game to be 3D: disorienting rotaty effects when you walk up walls and stuff.
vs. Cyrus #3
=====================
His Houndoom did some damage to Trunks and then knocked out Yamcha before he could do anything... and Ganondorf, too. Kami confused the puppy, but unfortunately got knocked out in one shot right after that. Turtle came in and knocked the puppy out with an Earthquake. Sent in Trunks against the Weavile so I could have time to revive Ganondorf, and as expected he got knocked out on that same turn. Before Ganondorf could KO the Weavile, though, Cyrus switched in his Gyarados (which got an Ice Shard in the face, though unfortunately that didn't do much damage.) Ganondorf got KO'ed, so I brought Kami back in after reviving him. Shock Wave didn't quite knock the big fish out, though, and Kami was KO'ed by a Waterfall. And then Cyrus used a Full Restore just as I bring Turtle in; unfortunately, the big fish has Ice Fang and knocks out Turtle in one hit, then does the same to Velveeta. Oww...
There is NO WAY IN HELL I'm going through the whole Mt. Coronet/Distortion World thing all over again... so I turned the game off and restarted at this point.
Tried again and actually did WORSE than the first time. Friggin' Houndoom... I'm guessing the sheer annoying-ness of this battle is probably going to reduce the size of the devil-dog's (obnoxiously large) fanbase.
I guess I'll have to go through the whole damn mountain again later if I'm going to beat this moron.
Hey, that's weird... Dialga and Palkia just showed up in my Pokédex even though I've never seen them in a battle before. Freaky. I guess they had it set up to put them in there when Cyrus drags them out with the Red Chain, so you don't need to actually fight them to get the National Pokédex.
Heh, there's a swimmer who acknowledges the whole "way too many Water-types" thing. And a little kid who mentions that he likes jellyfish Pokémon, but then doesn't even have a single Tentacool...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.42
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SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2009
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vs. Cyrus #3 again
=====================
After a level-up or two (and with a few new moves) my Pokémon do A LOT better against this guy. Trunks, now with Drain Punch, beats up the Houndoom pretty bad and then quickly KOs the Crobat with Psycho Cut when Cyrus switches Pokémon. Kami zaps the Honchkrow, then Ganondorf comes in and finishes off the birdie with Ice Shard. The badly-hurt Houndoom swaps in again and KO's Ganondorf with a Flamethrower. Yamcha comes in and knocks off the doggie's tiny sliver of remaining HP with SCRATCH, of all things. His Gyarados manages to knock out Yamcha (while I revive Kami), and then Kami comes back in... causing him to switch to his Weavile, getting it confused with the Confuse Ray that was meant for Mr. Fish. I revive Ganondorf, and the Weavile knocks out Kami. Ganondorf whups some ass, as usual, while the Weavile just keeps hitting itself in the face like a moron. The Gyarados almost KO's Ganondorf with Waterfall, and then gets hit with Ancient Power and an Ice Shard, bringing the fish's HP into "zap in one hit with Shock Wave" range. Trunks takes a hit while I revive Kami, and then we have some tasty fried fish.
Cynthia is smart. She realizes that it's not possible for some random Pokémon to just destroy the entire world, regardless of what the nutty mythology says--in her own words, "It's not possible for a Pokémon to make the world disappear."
I really hope they changed Giratina's capture rate to match Dialga/Palkia... otherwise it might be a real pain in the ass to catch.
Apparently they didn't... but I still managed to catch Giratina on the second try, thanks to a lot of Revives and a few Timer Balls. For a second there I was afraid I'd end up having to use the Master Ball...
And Cyrus needs to go cut himself.
Hmm... Giratina's Altered Form (no, Nintendo, I'm not using your ridiculous Ye Olde Fake Olde Englishe spelling) shows up in the Pokédex even though I've never seen it. I'm guessing it switched forms as soon as it got sent to the PC, heh...
Holy crap, another official age! Professor Rowan is exactly 60 years old. And unlike Cyrus being 27, it actually makes sense!
Feebas gives a lot more experience than Magikarp... I wonder why.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.44
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MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009
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Apparently dressing as a Pikachu is "hardcore" now.
vs. Volkner
=====================
Looks like my idea to give Ganondorf a Babiri Berry (the one that weakens Steel type attacks) was a good decision--Volkner seems to be a fan of the "use Iron Tail on things electric attacks don't work on" strategy. Didn't help his Jolteon much against Turtle, as it barely did any damage and then got 1-hit-KO'ed by an Earthquake. The Luxray did a lot better--its Ice Fang knocked out Turtle, so I had to switch in Ganondorf. Unfortunately, it also had Fire Fang... but that wasn't quite enough to 1-hit-KO Ganondorf. Knocked him into the red with an Earthquake, then used another Earthquake on the next turn after Volkner healed the kitty with a Hyper Potion. After that, of course, Ganondorf gets an Ice Shard in and knocks out the kitty. Next was his Raichu, and... wow. Wasn't expecting Focus Blast at all. Swap in Trunks after he knocks out Ganondorf; his Charge Beam barely scratches Trunks, while Psycho Cut takes the Raichu down to half HP after one turn... and then all the way down to zero on the next, after another wimpy Charge Beam. His Electivire knocks out Trunks with a Thunder Punch, so I bring in Yamcha (who has a Wacan Berry--no "super effective" for you, muddafugga!) His Thunder Punch hits, but thanks to the Wacan Berry it only knocks off about half of Yamcha's HP. Surf takes off about a third of his HP, so I use the next turn to revive Ganondorf while Yamcha takes the hit. Unfortunately his Electivire has Fire Punch, so Ganondorf gets KO'ed pretty fast as well... damn. Kami comes in next and confuses him, then gets hit with a Fire Punch (which, fortunately, doesn't even knock off half of his HP.) After I hit him with Ominous Wind and then get hit by another Fire Punch, I heal Kami with a Hyper Potion (and the Electivire smacks himself in the face.) Another Ominous Wind and he's down to critical health, which of course means Volkner heals him. Kami confuses him again and then continues hitting him with Ominous Wind--and this time he gets the stat-boost from it! Another Fire Punch hits, so I heal Kami again (and, once again, the Electivire hits himself.) Two more Ominous Winds and he's finally knocked out.
Velveeta didn't even get a turn to fight!... which is probably for the best, since she'd just get knocked out in one shot from all those electric attacks flying around. Another funny thing: since I used almost all of my team equally in the fight, none of them got quite enough experience to level up even once from it (though Kami did come very close.)
Personally, I think Wake was probably tougher... but I figure he could win in a same-leveled fight against Wake due to the whole "Electric is good against Water" thing. Plus I had two Ground-types with me, which might have made him a bit easier to beat. So I guess Volkner does kinda deserve the whole "strongest Gym Leader in Sinnoh" thing.
Mantykes are freakishly hard to catch, for some reason... breaking out of Ultra Balls even though they're in the red. Weird.
Zen Headbutt's animation seems to be slightly changed--it looked pretty junky before, but now it's not quite as bad.
Heh, there's a Dive Ball (which are basically useless, thanks to Dive not being usable outside of battle anymore) just sitting in the water here.
Damn... Hyper Voice just uses the default cry instead of the recorded sound when a Chatot uses it. I really wanted to hear "mmMMUDDAFUGGA! MUDDAFUGGA!" when Velveeta blasted that Gyarados with it.
Ooh, the Victory Road entrance looks neat now. Not just a dinky little cave entrance like before--it's this HUGE cave with some sort of carving that I think is supposed to be a Poké Ball... but it looks a lot like a giant eyeball, which is even better.
Ha, this Skiier guy up in the mountains just used "slalom" in place of the Jewish(?) expression "shalom."
"You found an HP Up!" just sounds wrong. I'm guessing whoever wrote the text is one of those silly kids who pronounces "HP" as "aytch pee" instead of just saying the whole thing: "hit points." I really hate how it seems that the damn acronyms are actually replacing the original terms for things...
Lickilicky's new sprite actually succeeds in doing the impossible: making that abomination's design look WORSE.
This Black Belt says he learned karate on the Internet... he's probably doing some sort of ridiculous dance moves and thinking it's actually karate because people get scared away when he does it. Heh...
What kind of a name is "Ondrej" anyway? Other than the name of a wimpy trainer whose Pokémon get 1-hit-KO'ed by Ice Shard, that is.
DRAGON TAMER (BILL) CLINTON!
I wonder why going up waterfalls is so much faster when it's a REALLY, REALLY BIG waterfall.
Wow, the Pokémon League place looks really different now. On the inside, anyway.
vs. Timmy #6
=====================
As usual, Kami goes first and zaps the birdie. This time he doesn't get knocked out in one hit, but he doesn't really manage to do much of anything, either. Next is his Floatzel, which (annoyingly) uses Crunch and lowers Kami's defense. Kami survives and confuses him, then I swap him out for Turtle. The Floatzel smacks himself in the face twice and then gets Razor Leaf'ed to death. His only decent Pokémon (Heracross) comes out next; this time, Velveeta knocks him out in one hit with a double-super-effective "MUDDAFUGGA!" attack. Next is his Snorlax, which he finally evolved from a Munchlax. Trunks nails the fatass with a Psycho Cut, gets blubber-slammed but survives, and then nearly KO's him with Drain Punch, restoring most of his HP in the process. Another Body Slam, this time bringing Trunks into the red; one more hit though, and the Snorlax is finally knocked out. He sends out his Roserade (against a Psychic-type? not too bright, huh?)... which, of course, gets KO'ed in one shot from Psycho Cut. His Infernape knocks Trunks out with Shadow Claw, though, so Velveeta comes back in again. She gets hit by a Flamethrower and gets knocked out. So Yamcha comes in; the big monkey uses Focus Blast and knocks him into the red, and then Yamcha's Surf knocks him down to a tiny sliver of HP. Another Focus Blast and Yamcha is knocked out, too (surprised it hit twice in a row, with its crappy accuracy.) Finally, Ganondorf comes in and KO's the monkey with an Ice Shard before he can even get an attack in.
Wow. For once, he really actually wasn't too bad. His Infernape finally grew out of the "evil monkey strategy," and his Snorlax was pretty tough as well (and the Heracross probably would be as well, if it hadn't fallen so quickly to the awesome power of MUDDAFUGGA.)
Aaron's room is all planty now. Looks a bit like a giant terrarium (for bugs!)
vs. Aaron
=====================
First is Yanmega; fortunately, I have Kami out first, and the big bug happens to be part Flying. Kami confuses him, causing him to smack himself up against a wall a few times, and then zaps him with Shock Wave. Aaron uses one of those annoying Full Restores, so Kami just zaps the bug again. Mr. Bug uses Double Team, but it doesn't help him any more than it helped all the Staraptors that have used it against Kami--Shock Wave still hits, and Mr. Bug is fried. Next is Aaron's Scizor, who Kami also confuses. Just like before, this is followed by some Shock Waves, though unfortunately they're not super effective... and this bug snapped out of confusion quickly and has Night Slash. Kami confuses him once again, but gets knocked out on the next turn anyway. Yamcha switches in, and proves that bugs don't like to get wet by knocking him into the red with one Surf and then knocking him all the way out with the next. Next is a Heracross; I switch in Velveeta, but unfortunately this Heracross is faster than her and hits with Stone Edge, knocking her out. Trunks comes in next, but gets knocked out by a Megahorn despite not being weak to Bug-type moves anymore. Ganondorf comes in next, but gets knocked out by Close Combat. Yamcha comes in, dodges a Megahorn, and then smacks the big bug with a Zen Headbutt, knocking off more than half of his HP. The next Megahorn hits, but doesn't quite KO Yamcha, so he's able to finish off Aaron's Heracross with another Zen Headbutt. He switches in his Vespiquen, which knocks out Yamcha while I revive Kami. Kami confuses this bug just like the others, then puts up a Substitute (which probably saves him from getting KO'ed by Power Gem.) I heal him, and the bug uses Attack Order... which wasn't too smart considering that Ghost resists Bug. Confuse the bug again, then proceed to zapping, knocking her out in two hits. Finally Aaron sends out his Drapion, which is somehow faster than Kami... but doesn't manage to KO him in one hit anyway (he used Ice Fang) and gets confused. I heal Kami again (and he gets hit by more Ice Fangs, which do minimal damage) and then use Ominous Wind... I forgot for a second that they nonsensically made Drapion's type Dark/Poison instead of Bug/Poison. Another Ice Fang, and Kami gets friggin' FROZEN. A Full Restore fixes that, though. More wimpy Ice Fangs, and Kami manages to get the stupidly-non-Bug-typed bug confused again. Bug gets zapped with a Shock Wave which does surprising amounts of damage considering that it isn't even super effective; unfortunately, he had a Sitrus Berry. Zap him again, knocking him back into the yellow. Heal Kami once again, and watch as the idiot bug uses Aerial Ace and doesn't even manage to do 20 damage. Kami zaps him again, knocking him into the red... and making Aaron use another damn Full Restore. Zap again, confuse again, constant stream of wimpy Ice Fangs, more zapping. After yet more zapping, the big ugly bug mofo is knocked out.
Bertha's room looks like something that belongs over in Arizona or something... sand-worn rock formations and all. I guess her Hippowdon probably likes it like that, though.
Bertha has got to be Agatha's younger, less-creepy sister or something. They're just too much alike for them to not be related.
vs. Bertha
=====================
Trunks goes first, smacking the Whiscash with a double-super-effective Leaf Blade and knocking her out in one hit. Next up is Bertha's Gliscor, which Ganondorf hits with a (once again) double-super-effective Ice Shard. It doesn't quite knock her out, though, and she gets an Earthquake in... which doesn't even knock Ganon out of the green. One more Ice Shard and bye-bye, flying scorpion. She sends out her Golem next, and Turtle smacks the rocky critter with a double-super-effective Razor Leaf that almost knocks her out. She uses Sandstorm, which doesn't really accomplish a whole lot since Turtle can't be hurt by it anyway. Another Razor Leaf knocks her out. Rhyperior comes in next, and just like the Golem before her she gets smacked with a double-super-effective Razor Leaf... but it doesn't even knock her out of the green, and then Turtle gets KO'ed by an Avalanche. Trunks comes back in, taking her out with a Leaf Blade--and it was a critical hit AND double-super-effective. Ouch. Finally she switches in her Hippowdon, the only member of the team that doesn't have any double-weaknesses. Trunks hits her with a Leaf Blade, takes an Earthquake that almost knocks him out, then gets in another Leaf Blade before being KO'ed by Stone Edge. Ganondorf comes in and hits with an Ice Shard, knocking the hippo into the red; he gets hit with an Earthquake but it dosn't quite knock him out. Unfortunately, Bertha uses a Full Restore. Ganondorf gets another Ice Shard in, then I heal him with a Hyper Potion (that's the first healing item used so far against Bertha, thanks mostly to my ability to stomp everything with double-weaknesses.) Ganon tries Earthquake and finds that it only does about the same damage as Ice Shard, then I heal him again. Crunch lowers his defense, and he gets in another Ice Shard before being knocked out by a critical-hit Earthquake. After that, Yamcha comes in and finishes the hippo off with a Surf.
Really surprised that Bertha was actually easier than Aaron this time. I guess the abundance of strong Grass-type moves on my team might have something to do with that.
And now, Flint's room... is Lower Norfair from Super Metroid. Good thing Ridley isn't there--the Pokémon wouldn't have a chance...
vs. Flint
=====================
First is the oh-so-annoying Houndoom. Hopefully not as annoying as Cyrus's. Yamcha gets hit by a Dark Pulse that knocks about half of his HP off, then answers with a Waterfall that nearly KO's the puppy. Flint uses a Full Restore, then Yamcha hits with another Waterfall... which does LESS damage than the first one. Damn. Another Dark Pulse knocks out Yamcha, so Trunks comes in and knocks out the puppy with a Drain Punch. Next is a Rapidash, which (for some odd reason) starts charging up a Solar Beam on the first turn. Trunks gets in a Psycho Cut, and then after being hit by the charged-up beam, heals himself with a Drain Punch. The horsey bounces up, causing Trunks's Psycho Cut to miss. I switch in Kami to take the hit, which he does very well (though unfortunately it paralyzes him.) The horsey then uses Flare Blitz, knocking out Kami and almost knocking himself out in the process. Ganondorf switches in, but unfortunately he doesn't use a Full Restore... he uses Flare Blitz again, KOing both himself and Ganondorf thanks to recoil. I put Turtle in against his Flareon, but of course he gets KO'ed with Overheat before he can use Earthquake. Velveeta comes in next, screaming MUDDAFUGGA at the fluffy little thing and getting hit with another Overheat, which almost knocks her out (and wimpifies the Flareon's Special Attack even more.) I heal Velveeta, the Flareon uses Quick Attack, and then Velveeta flies up, causing the Flareon's Will-O'-Wisp to miss. Fly hits, nearly knocking out the Flareon; this time Will-O'-Wisp hits, but it's too late for the Flareon, who gets KO'ed with Hyper Voice. I use a Full Restore on Velveeta to get rid of the burn (and damage), while the monkey uses Mach Punch and doesn't do all that much damage. He then uses Flare Blitz, doing a good bit of damage to himself from the recoil. Trunks comes in, and I give him an X Defend (which allows him to survive Flare Blitz, amazingly--finally, an actual use for those junky stat-boost-in-battle items!) I heal Trunks, and the monkey uses Earthquake, which doesn't even knock Trunks out of the green. Another Flare Blitz (this one bringing Trunks into the red), then Trunks hits the monkey with a Psycho Cut and knocks him out. And... Flint's Magmortar has an awesome seal added on that makes him look like he's blasting fire from his arm cannon. Heal Trunks again, and he gets hit by Thunderbolt (kind of an odd move, coming from a Magmortar...) and a Flamethrower before he can do much... so I lost.
Not bad at all for my first attempt at the E4, especially since I don't even have one Pokémon at level 50 yet. And now I'm only missing seven Pokémon from the Sinnoh Pokédex--Alakazam, Spiritomb, Garchomp, Milotic, Espeon, Umbreon, and Togekiss--so I might be getting the National Pokédex even before I beat the Elite Four this time! I know Cynthia has four of those (Spiritomb, Garchomp, Milotic, and Togekiss), and I figure Lucian probably has an Alakazam, but I'm not sure where I'll find the Eevee evolutions...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.47
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.47
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.48
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.49
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.48
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.48
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TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2009
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After fiddling with the GTS and battle videos a little (including finding a funny video where a Magikarp, with some help from a Smeargle, takes down a Regigigas), I went after the Elite Four again.
I whupped Aaron and Bertha without too much trouble, but only ended up doing about as well as last time against Flint: last time, Flint's Magmortar wasn't even damaged, and this time his Infernape was the last one left, and WAS hurt... but only from recoil. Of course, his Magmortar was EIGHT LEVELS higher than any of my Pokémon, so...
After a couple more tries, I finally managed to beat Flint... but by the time I did, I was almost out of Revives and ended up going into Lucian's room with only half a team.
vs. Lucian
=====================
Trunks knocked out his Mr. Mime with a series of Leaf Blades (would've only taken two, but he used Reflect after the first one.) Switched to Turtle for the Espeon, only to find that the damn thing has Signal Beam--I didn't even know they could learn that... fortunately, Turtle survives. But his Crunch doesn't even knock off half of the Espeon's HP (probably thanks to Reflect.) I switch Kami in before Turtle can get KO'ed, but unfortunately his Espeon has Shadow Ball, too, and Kami gets KO'ed. The same thing happens to Trunks, and then Turtle gets knocked out by a Signal Beam.
Yeah... I'm going to have to stock up on Revives a little better before I try that again. I figure I could probably beat Lucian if I had my full team ready and hadn't run out of Revives before I even got to him... not so sure about Cynthia, but who knows. I beat her with Lv.51-54 Pokémon in Diamond, so I'm not too far off from the levels I should be aiming for.
Now that I finally found a trainer who has an Umbreon, I only need to see an Alakazam and four of the Pokémon in Cynthia's team before I can get the National Pokédex. I could catch one of those level 40-something Gabites in Victory Road and evolve it, evolve that Togepi I hatched, and trade an Alakazam, Spiritomb, and Feebas/Milotic over from my Diamond version... but that'd probably take even longer than just beating the Elite Four and Cynthia.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.50
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.50
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
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Tried the Elite Four once again, this time stomping Aaron without even losing a single Pokémon. Screwed up and used Night Slash instead of Drain Punch once against Bertha's Golem, so Trunks ended up getting knocked out by an Earthquake; other than that, though, Bertha wasn't any more of a problem than usual. Did MUCH better against Flint as well; his Magmortar was losing so badly to Trunks that he actually tried Hyper Beam, but it wasn't quite enough and one more Drain Punch finished off the big mofo. Yamcha then finished off his Infernape with one critical-hit Surf after easily surviving a Thunder Punch.
vs. Lucian again
=====================
This time I send out Trunks first, giving him an X Sp.Def while the Mr. Mime uses Light Screen and then hitting with a Night Slash after he uses Reflect. After that I give Trunks a Dire Hit and an X Speed while he gets hit with Psychics that don't really do a whole lot. Then I give him an X Defend while he gets hit with another Psychic... stalling away the Reflect/Light Screen. I heal Trunks, then knock out the Mr. Mime with a Night Slash. He sends in his Espeon next, and Trunks knocks off a bit more than half of his HP with a Night Slash, then almost gets KO'ed by a Shadow Ball. The Espeon uses Quick Attack and knocks out Trunks; I bring in Ganondorf and hit his Espeon wih an Ice Shard, almost knocking him out. Ganondorf gets hit with Psychic, Lucian uses a Full Restore, and then Ganondorf gets a critical hit with Earthquake and knocks the Espeon out. The Bronzong comes out next, and Kami comes in and confuses it. Kami hits it over and over with Ominous Wind, while it hits itself and then eventually uses Calm Mind and then Psychic, almost knocking out Kami. Kami uses Ominous Wind again but it doesn't quite knock the Bronzong out, so it KO's Kami with another boosted Psychic. Ganondorf comes in and knocks off the Bronzong's tiny amount of remaining HP with Ice Shard. His Gallade comes out, and Ganondorf hits him with another Ice Shard before being KO'ed with Stone Edge. Yamcha comes in and gets almost KO'ed with Leaf Blade while I revive Kami; he then gets knocked out the rest of the way while I revive Trunks. Kami confuses him, but then gets KO'ed by Stone Edge. I bring in Turtle, and he gets hit with a critical-hit Psycho Cut... and survives it! He then Leech Seeds the weird-looking mofo, and I heal him the rest of the way with a Hyper Potion. Another Psycho Cut hits, this time not a critical hit... and then Turtle gets KO'ed by another critical-hit one before he can do anything. Trunks switches in, and I give him an X Defend; he survives a Leaf Blade (barely) and then I heal him. Another Leaf Blade hits, then Trunks gets a hit in with Psycho Cut... and then gets knocked out by another Psycho Cut. I switch in Velveeta, Lucian uses a Full Restore, and Velveeta flies up. A Stone Edge misses due to the bird being in the air; Fly hits, knocking him into the red (with Leech Seed bringing him even further into the red.) Stone Edge hits and knocks Velveeta out, then Lucian's Gallade gets KO'ed by an Ice Shard from Ganondorf. His Alakazam knocks out Ganondorf with Energy Ball, and then Trunks is the only one left... and he gets KO'ed by Psychic.
After that, I go off to get money so I can stock up on Revives and Hyper Potions once again... and randomly trained a Togepi and evolved it so that I could get Togekiss's Pokédex entry without getting all the way to Cynthia's. Now I only need to see a Milotic, a Spiritomb, and a Garchomp before I have all 210 in the Sinnoh Pokédex filled in... probably going to catch one of those Gabites in Victory Road and evolve it before I go for the Elite Four again.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.53
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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009
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After catching a Gabite and evolving it, I only need two more Pokémon before I get the National Pokédex--Milotic and Spiritomb... both of which would be pretty close to impossible for me to get without trading from my Diamond version. Of course, if I get to Cynthia the next time I go after the E4, I won't have to worry about it, but still.
Tried the Elite Four again. Beat Aaron without too much trouble (though one of my Pokémon--Ganondorf--did get knocked out, so I didn't do quite as well as last time.) Bertha didn't even get a single hit in, as I knocked each of her Pokémon out in a single hit--even the Hippowdon was 1-hit-KO'ed this time, and that one wasn't even double-weak to the attack I used. Flint was still tougher than either Aaron or Bertha, but this time I did pretty well against him, ending up with two Pokémon still conscious (he saved his wimpy Flareon for last this time, so instead of having to deal with Magmortar or Infernape I just needed to keep Yamcha in and use one Waterfall.) Lucian's Espeon was a pain in the ass, though the Mr. Mime and Bronzong weren't too much trouble. Ganondorf's King's Rock came in handy, making Lucian's Alakazam flinch twice in a row from Ice Shard (though, unfortunately, he healed the thing with a damn Full Restore right after that.) His Focus Blast missed, though, and one more Ice Shard knocked him out--wow. I just KO'ed an Alakazam without taking a single point of damage. His Gallade was a pain in the ass, also, but eventually Ganondorf knocked him out with an Earthquake after managing to survive a Leaf Blade.
Hmm, Cynthia's room is really different now. Giant transparent boxes, some of them with smaller gray boxes inside... weird.
vs. Cynthia
=====================
Turtle goes first, Leech Seed'ing that weird-looking thing before it can get a hit in. Turns out her Spiritomb has Silver Wind... but even with the super-effective-ness, it didn't manage to knock Turtle out of the green. With the combination of Shell Bell and Leech Seed healing, Turtle takes three Silver Wind hits in a row without being knocked into the red, then hits her Spiritomb hard with an Earthquake after she heals it. Finally, I knock the thing out with a Crunch. Kami comes in against her Togekiss and confuses it, then puts up a Substitute. Water Pulse breaks his substitutes twice in a row... so I confuse the Togekiss again, then switch back to Turtle. Unfortunately, he gets an Air Slash in that KO's Turtle. Kami comes back and hits with a Shock Wave, doing a surprising amount of damage considering how high Togekiss's Special Defense is; he then barely survives a Water Pulse, so I heal him with a Hyper Potion. Another Water Pulse hits and confuses Kami, so I confuse the Togekiss in response. After one more Water Pulse, it's Full Restore time--and for once, I'm actually glad that Full Restores cure confusion too now. After the Togekiss hits himself again, Kami knocks him out with a Shock Wave, and Cynthia brings out... a Lucario? Kind of an odd choice against a Ghost/Electric-type. Lucario gets confused and hits himself, then gets zapped by a Shock Wave and hits himself once again. Another Shock Wave and Lucario's in the red; he cuts himself like a little emo kid and dies. Milotic comes out next (filling up my Sinnoh Pokédex!) and is promptly confused and zapped. She uses Mirror Coat, but it isn't quite enough to knock Kami out. I heal Kami with another Hyper Potion, and then he gets hit by a Surf (bringing him into the low yellow.) Another Shock Wave hit and the Milotic is into the low yellow as well, before knocking Kami out with an Ice Beam. Trunks swaps in and knocks her out with a Leaf Blade. Finally, it's time for Garchomp. And I have Ice Shards that make you flinch, plus three more Pokémon as backup. Any guesses at how this is gonna turn out? As expected, Ganondorf nearly KO's the pseudoshark/pseudodragon in one hit with an Ice Shard, triggering her Sitrus Berry. He then SURVIVES A FLAMETHROWER and fires off another Ice Shard, bringing the Garchomp into the low red. A Dragon Rush knocks Ganondorf out. Velveeta swaps in, I revive Ganondorf, and Cynthia uses a Full Restore. I heal Ganondorf with a Hyper Potion while Velveeta is missed by the first Dragon Rush, then KO'ed by the next one. Ganondorf's turn again: first, an Ice Shard that knocks off roughly half of the Garchomp's HP. He survives the fire-breathing shark attack again, and then it's ass-whuppin' time: the next Ice Shard knocks out the sharkdragonthing. Last is Roserade, and I still have Trunks and Yamcha on top of Ganondorf. The first Ice Shard nearly does the job by itself, knocking her into the low yellow; she then knocks out Ganondorf with an Extrasensory attack. Trunks comes in and survives a Sludge Bomb before knocking Cynthia's last Pokémon out with a Psycho Cut.
Wow. Cynthia was surprisingly easy this time around--I'm guessing my team must have just matched up badly against Flint and Lucian's teams or something, because I remember Cynthia being MUCH harder than this before (and her team was actually weaker overall in D/P than it is now, so it can't be the Platinum changes that made her easier.) I guess Cynthia's team is a bit vulnerable to Rotom, since Kami nearly wiped out three in a row by himself; Ganondorf did some ass-whuppin' as well, but that's expected since Cynthia has a Garchomp and Ice Shards tend to screw those over pretty well.
Just like in Diamond, I ended up beating Cynthia with Pokémon in the low 50's; in this case, between 53 and 54. In Diamond I won with slightly lower levels--only one was level 54, and a few were still at levels 51 and 52.
Wheeee... why are there ghostyballoons flying over my head? And now seagulls... hope they don't need to take a dump! ...HOLY SHIT A FLYING ROBOT!
Before giving you the National Pokédex, Prof. Oak says Sinnoh is a long way from Kanto. Take that, stupid "Sinnoh is DIRECTLY north from Kanto! They might even be connected by land!" people.
Hey, they changed the boat that goes to the Battle Zone island. It has freaky drill things on it now...
The island itself looks REALLY different, too--it's all desert/tropical-ish, with red stone paths and sand and palm trees. And kickass Middle-Eastern-ish houses.
vs. Flint & Volkner
=====================
Wow, weird double battle here. Turtle tries using Earthquake but gets KO'ed by a Flamethrower from Flint's Houndoom; Timmy's Staraptor then (almost) knocks the puppy out with Close Combat before being hit hard with an Ice Fang from Volkner's Luxray. I switch in Ganondorf, who knocks out the Houndoom with an Ice Shard; Timmy's Staraptor stupidly uses Aerial Ace on the Luxray, then gets knocked out by a Crunch. Ganondorf uses Earthquake, easily knocking out both the Luxray and Flint's Flareon (as well as taking off a big chunk of Timmy's Snorlax's HP... whoops!) Volkner's Electivire hits Timmy's Sorlax with Brick Break, nearly knocking him out; Flint's Magmortar then hits Ganondorf with a Flamethrower that DOES knock him out, and Timmy's Snorlax heals himself with Rest. The Electivire hits him with another Brick Break, then Trunks hits the Magmortar with a Psycho Cut which, unfortunately, doesn't knock him out of the green. Flint's Magmortar hits Volkner's Electivire with a Thunderbolt, boosting his speed; he then knocks out Timmy's Snorlax with another Brick Break while Trunks KO's Flint's Magmortar with a critical hit from Psycho Cut. Electivire hits Timmy's Heracross with a Fire Punch that gets him into the low yellow, then gets almost knocked out by another of Trunks's kickass critical-hit Psycho Cuts. He heals with a Sitrus Berry, then Timmy's Heracross uses Night Slash and almost knocks him out. Timmy's Heracross is KO'ed by another Fire Punch, then Trunks finishes off the Electivire. Volkner sends out his Jolteon, and Timmy stupidly swaps in his Floatzel, which nearly gets 1-hit-KO'ed by Charge Beam. Heck, the thing even LOOKS stupid, hanging its mouth open like that... Fortunately, his Crunch and my Psycho Cut bring the Jolteon into the red, allowing Trunks to knock him out after he knocks off what's left of the dinky Floatzel's HP with a Quick Attack.
Heh, Timmy bumped into his dad.
Trying out some of the Battle Frontier places, starting with the Battle Arcade (I thought it was called Battle Roulette? Oh well.) Ganondorf the Mamoswine whupped some ass in there, beating seven trainers in a row without ever being knocked out once... Trunks and Kami didn't even need to help. Unfortunately, they don't let you keep those Sitrus Berries that you can get... damn.
Tried the Battle Castle next. I wonder why they changed the butler's name, considering that "Cochran" isn't even that weird or anything. Unlike "Cattleya," which is just about the most bizarre name I've ever seen... doesn't sound that weird when pronounced, but the way it's spelled just looks horrible.
The system where you buy items, heal, etc. really reminds me of the simulator game in DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 3; it had a similar setup, except you only had one character (instead of three Pokémon) and you could either explore the area (which let you find items or train under other characters), rest, or train.
I got 28 CP after the first battle. Not sure if that's high or low, though, since this is the first time I've ever done it.
28 must be high, because I only got 27 after the second battle (and I actually took damage in that one) and 25 a few battles later (when Ganondorf got into the red.)
Ganondorf kicked ass once again (with a bit of help from Kami, this time), and I ended up beating all seven trainers on my first try.
Some dip misspelled "Pokémaniacs" in this game... they put a space between "Poké" and "maniacs." What kind of moron did that?
Next I went to try the Battle Hall (which I thought was called Battle Stage... I guess they changed some names in the English version.) I picked Electric-types first, since I know Ganondorf can stomp those without much trouble. And wow... they start at level 33? That's reeeeaaaally low for this point in the game. I figure Ganondorf won't have trouble even with types he matches up poorly against if they stay that low for long.
Ganondorf whupped ten trainers in a row, as expected (odd, this seems to be the only Battle Frontier place that has 10-trainer rounds instead of seven.) Next up is the Battle Factory!
I started off with a Spinda, Farfetch'd, and Spoink. The Spoink was probably not such a good choice, as it got KO'ed in one shot before even being able to attack; the Farfetch'd, on the other hand, was much tougher, and ended up beating the first trainer's Croagunk, Budew, and Duskull singlehandedly. After that, I swapped the Spoink out for the first trainer's Duskull (mainly because it had Pain Split and survived a critical-hit, Swords Dance'd Knock Off from my rental Farfetch'd.)
Hmm, didn't know Cyndaquils could learn Double Kick.
For some reason the little girls in innertubes don't have the right out-of-battle sprite in the Battle Frontier... they look like the regular "little girl with a bow in her hair" sprite instead.
A hiker named RAIDEN!? Wow. That's weird.
Ouch... seventh trainer ended up having a Sharpedo, Monferno, and Sneasel. I thought I was screwed at first, but my rental Spinda did surprisingly well against the Sharpedo (confusing it, then knocking it out with two Drain Punches.) The Monferno taunted him, though, so he couldn't use Teeter Dance anymore, and eventually knocked him out with Flame Wheel after being knocked into the yellow with Drain Punches. He would've been knocked out by my Farfetch'd's Air Cutter, if not for that Coba Berry... ended up knocking out the Farfetch'd and then getting stomped by the Cranidos I traded my Duskull in for. Then the Sneasel came out... and used Leer and Taunt, rather than any damage-causing moves. Only took one Rock Tomb to knock that one out.
Hey, kickass! The Battle Factory gives you a whopping FIVE BP for each win... funny that my favorite one so far seems to have the biggest payout as well.
After that I decided to try the Open Level version instead of the level-50-only one. Looks like fully-evolved Pokémon at Lv.100 from the very beginning, this time; I guess by "open level" they mean "level 100." Started off with a Blastoise, a Lucario, and a Nidoking on this one... and lost to a Medicham that used Endure/Reversal and Zen Headbutt (which Mr. Bug-Catcher supposedly caught in a bug net) on the first round.
Next up is the double-battle version; once again "Open Level" and this time starting off with an Abomasnow, Weezing, and Flareon.
Bug Catcher AMADEUS. And unlike the last one, this Bug Catcher actually has something buggy (a Gliscor.) Swapped my Flareon for his Gliscor after winning that battle.
There's another weird move... an Exploud with Extrasensory. Definitely wasn't expecting that one. Must be one of the new move tutor attacks or something. Ended up losing to that trainer, when I was stuck with a nearly-dead Gliscor against a full-health Miltank (after the Gliscor had singlehandedly KO'ed both the Exploud and Metagross after my Abomasnow and Weezing were knocked out.)
"Open Level" seems MUCH tougher than Level 50. I wonder if the prize is boosted as well?
Heh, lottery tickets! Wow. I wonder why nobody on the Internet noticed this weird little mini-game? And you win THREE of whichever item if you win... holy crap. Much easier than going back to the lady in Pastoria to get the resist-type berries.
That Pikachu in the Battle Tower who really, really doesn't share his trainer's confidence is still here, heh. While the trainer's going on and on about being able to get a 100-win streak, the Pikachu is just sitting there silently and being depressed...
Rumors of the Battle Tower's Multi Battle Room changing seem to have been nothing more than rumors after all... it seems exactly the same to me, except that only Cheryl shows up. I guess that's because I haven't done the sidequests for Mira/Buck/Marley yet, and I never did take that Riolu egg from Riley.
Cameraman XENON? Wow. They seem to be running out of names for trainers...
The whole Battle Zone island looks MUCH better now. The place was pretty boring-looking before (it's supposed to be this place with all kinds of Pokémon that don't show up anywhere else in Sinnoh... but looked exactly like the rest of Sinnoh? didn't make any sense), but it's a lot more interesting to wander around in now.
Apparently, the Elekid I got on the GTS a while back was originally from a Spanish-speaking country before it was traded to someone in... I think it was Ohio or maybe Vermont?... who traded it to me.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.56
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.56
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.56
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FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2009
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Before doing any more Battle Zone-related stuff, I went back to Mt. Coronet and caught Dialga and Palkia. Which means that, after months of waiting, I finally have a Palkia named "Palooka." And I caught Palkia in a Net Ball, too, which probably looks pretty funny since it's intended for dinky little bugs and fish.
Just talked to Prof. Oak and got the legendary birds to start showing up, as well. Ran into Moltres almost as soon as I left the city and knocked the birdie into the mid-yellow HP with Yamcha's Waterfall; of course, it ran away afterward, but still. A few seconds of going in and out of Eterna later, and I get Moltres to show up in that area once again! Yamcha knocks the birdie into the low yellow with a Zen Headbutt, and once again it flies off.
Not long after that, I get Articuno to show up (and knock almost half of its HP off with an Ancient Power from Ganondorf.) Then I find Moltres again and knock it into the red with an Ice Shard. Then I run into Mesprit again (I never did catch that one the first time, heh.) Ganondorf knocks it into the yellow with Ancient Power, then it runs.
After stocking up on Max Repels, I get Articuno to show up again. Ganondorf hits it with Ancient Power again, and it's now in the red. After a little more walking around, my Max Repel wears off and I get Mesprit to show up. I toss a Quick Ball... but it escapes. I find it again a while later and try to hit it with a Zen Headbutt to weaken it a bit more, but unfortunately Yamcha's attack misses and it gets away again. A few seconds later, I find Mesprit again... and somehow Zen Headbutt misses AGAIN.
Heh, finally ran into Zapdos... after seeing the other three running Pokémon half a dozen times. It runs before Yamcha can even get a hit in, though. Then I run into Mesprit again once my Max Repel wears off--and this time Yamcha doesn't miss! Zen Headbutt doesn't do a whole lot of damage, though, and Mesprit's HP is still in the yellow when it runs.
After a bit more bird-hunting (which consisted of failed Quick Balls), I checked the GTS while I was at school and got a Feebas from someone who may have been from New Zealand... but for some reason the dot was WHITE instead of blue or yellow, and it wouldn't let me check their location any closer. Anyway, this person attached a Master Ball to the Feebas before trading it, and on top of that the Feebas doesn't appear to be hacked (it hatched from an egg, normal stats, normal moves, and everything... plus, I would think that if someone was going to hack a Feebas they'd make it one that likes Dry Poffins so it'd be easy to evolve.)
After that I went to the Battle Tower and tried out the Wi-Fi Battle Tower. The first time I lost to a Gengar; on the second try, I did MUCH better, making it to the seventh trainer before finally losing.
As far as I can tell, the place hasn't become infested with the "competitive battling" douche kids yet, since I only saw one (shiny!) Gengar, one Tyranitar, and no Garchomps at all this time. Plus, people are actually using movesets that didn't come from some dinky website's "THESE IS DA STANDARD MOVEZ! USE THEM ONLY! OR WE WILL TREAT YOU LIKE CRAP!" page. I'm guessing that all the new people who bought Platinum recently outnumber them, at least for the moment.
Heh, this bug-catcher in the Battle Hall said "It would be cool if there was a bug net Pokémon." And there's a bird keeper who FARTS ON YOU (while doing an impersonation of a Stunky) if she loses.
vs. Argenta
=====================
After winning 49 matches in the Battle Hall with Ganondorf, I finally get to my first Frontier Brain battle: Hall Matron Argenta (who was named "Kate" in the Japanese version... they changed her name for some odd reason, even though it was a pretty normal, easily-pronouncable-by-little-kids-who-don't-speak-Japanese name before.) She ended up having a Registeel, which Ganondorf took down into the mid yellow with one Earthquake. Unfortunately it healed with a Sitrus Berry, then knocked Ganondorf into the mid yellow with Iron Head. Ganondorf is faster than Mr. Roboto, however, and the big pig was able to knock her Registeel out with another Earthquake.
And holy crap, beating her gets you 20 BP instead of just 1 or 2! Makes sense, considering that the highest level any of the others before her had was 46 and her Registeel was on the same level as Ganondorf, level 56.
Messed around with the other Battle Frontier facilities for a while, and eventually got far enough in the Battle Arcade to fight the Frontier Brain there, too.
vs. Dahlia
=====================
Hey, her name didn't get randomly changed, unlike all the others. First, she sent out a Medicham, which used Fake Out on Trunks (giving him a speed boost in the process.) Then Trunks hits her with a Psycho Cut that knocks off about half of her HP... and then gets knocked out by a Zen Headbutt. Kami switches in, and the next Zen Headbutt misses, and the Medicham gets confused and then knocked out by confusion damage and an Ominous Wind. Next is a Dusknoir, which gets confused pretty quickly and starts hitting himself. Kami hits with Ominous Wind, knocking the Dusknoir into the yellow, then gets hit by a Shadow Punch that almost knocks him out. Another Ominous Wind and her Dusknoir is KO'ed. Last is a Ludicolo, which also gets confused and, like the last two Pokémon, hits herself. Kami gets a Shock Wave in, then gets knocked out by a Razor Leaf. Ganondorf comes in and hits with an Ice Shard, knocking the Ludicolo into the yellow; confusion damage knocks her even lower, and then another Ice Shard knocks her out.
20 BP again! That must be the prize for beating any of the Frontier Brains.
Hey, I got 29 CP after winning in the Battle Castle that time. That's the most I've ever seen.
vs. Darach
=====================
BUTLER! Heh. Anyway, first was a Staraptor, which kept using Aerial Ace on Kami despite it being not-very-effective and not doing a whole lot of damage. Kami almost KO's the bird in one hit from Shock Wave, and then the bird uses Endure to survive another Shock Wave... and then uses Aerial Ace again before finally being knocked out. Next up was an Empoleon, who lost about a third of his HP from a Shock Wave before knocking out Kami. Trunks switches in and knocks the second bird out in one Drain Punch, then takes a Fire Fang from the Houndoom that comes in next. It makes Trunks flinch, giving him the speed boost he needed to get a Drain Punch in before the puppy can attack again (and restore almost all of his HP in the process.) The Houndoom uses Endure and gets Drain Punched again, running me out of Drain Punch PP... but since the doggie only has 1 HP left it doesn't really matter. A Leaf Blade knocks him out.
She waits until the poor butler dude has actually LEFT THE ROOM before calling him back to give me the CP reward. Heh...
Went back to the Windworks and caught a Drifloon, since I missed the first one last Friday.
Headed back to Stark Mountain to finally finish that sidequest (I had talked to Buck already, but then ran off to do other stuff instead of actually going up the mountain. XD) The volcano, like the rest of the Battle Zone island, has had its graphics massively improved; there's lava and smoke vents and the rock looks different (on the inside and on the outside) and everything.
Mars and Jupiter have improved a bit since the last time; they finally evolved their Bronzongs. And for the first time in the game, Jupiter was actually harder to beat than Mars.
Hey, Looker DOESN'T suck after all--he can disguise himself as a rock, and he actually does have Pokémon. His Croagunk is a ninja.
He also apparently doesn't speak Japanese very well. At least, that's what I'm guessing his "not-quite-broken English" in the English version of the game was a translation of from the Japanese version. Some of the things he says, like "the Team Galactic!" or "that Charon!", remind me of how people who don't speak a language very well are prone to putting in extra words where they don't belong, getting tenses/etc. wrong, and so on.
Hmm, that's odd... Buck says he put the Magma Stone back, but I just checked and it isn't there.
And now the refight-the-gym-leaders place is open!
vs. Byron #2
=====================
He started out with a Skarmory, and I had Trunks first; Drain Punch didn't do much damage, and then Trunks nearly got KO'ed by a Drill Peck. So of course, I switch to Kami... and he uses Night Slash, gets a critical hit, and knocks him out. Ouchies. Switch to Yamcha, who uses Surf and knocks the birdie into the red. The bird uses Rock Tomb, then gets healed with a Full Restore and hit by another Surf, which knocks him into the yellow. He uses Stealth Rock, then gets knocked out by another Surf. Byron brings in a Magnezone, and I switch to Ganondorf and knock the thing out with one Earthquake. His Steelix comes out, and also gets knocked out by an Earthquake (this time a critical-hit one.) He switches to his Bastiodon, so I bring Yamcha back in. Surf knocks him into the yellow, and for some odd reason he uses Iron Defense... and of course, Yamcha knocks him out with another Surf immediately afterward. Finally, he sends out an Aggron, which Yamcha smacks with a Surf just like the Bastiodon. It does much more damage, though, and knocks the Aggron out in one hit.
Oh look, the old man in here has heard some of the newest lame-ass mythological BS origin stories for legendary Pokémon. Apparently the dips who made up these myths missed the obvious fact that THERE IS MORE THAN ONE HEATRAN (I mean really, why else would they have a 50% chance of being either gender, even though they won't breed in captivity and only one shows up in the game?)
vs. Wake #2
=====================
He was probably the toughest Gym Leader the first time around; I wonder if he'll be that hard this time? First, he sends out a Sharpedo; Trunks knocks him out with a critical-hit Leaf Blade after being knocked into the yellow by a Night Slash. Wake brings in his Gyarados, so I switch to Kami. Shock Wave doesn't knock the big fish out, amazingly, and he smacks Kami with an Avalanche, knocking him into the yellow. Wake uses a Full Restore, and Kami hits with another Shock Wave that does a bit less damage than the first one. Doesn't matter, though, since the next one knocks the Gyarados out. He sends out his Floatzel and knocks Kami out with Brine before he can attack, so I switch to Velveeta. She gets hit by an Ice Fang, but just barely survives it, then uses Hyper Voice and knocks his Floatzel's HP into the yellow. I switch to Yamcha, who takes an Aqua Jet without any trouble. The Floatzel uses Crunch, but it doesn't even knock Yamcha out of the green; Yamcha hits him with a Zen Headbutt and knocks him down into the red. Yamcha gets Crunched again, then knocks him out with Strength (and levels up.) Wake brings in a Ludicolo (oddly appropriate for Mr. Mexican Wrestler), and I switch back to Velveeta and use Fly. It's a critical hit, knocking out the giant dancing Mexican pineapple piñata duck. Finally, he brings in his Quagsire; I switch to Turtle, who gets hit by a Stone Edge which barely scratches him. Then Wake's Quagsire gets knocked out by Wood Hammer (and the recoil almost takes off half of Turtle's HP, holy crap.)
Wow, that was odd... he was actually easier than Byron this time. So I go ahead and try Volkner's rematch battle.
vs. Volkner #2
=====================
...well, technically it's #3 since he was in the double-battle with Flint, but oh well. His Jolteon starts off by hitting Trunks with a wimpy Charge Beam, then getting almost half of his HP knocked off by a Psycho Cut. His next Charge Beam is even worse, as it actually MISSES... and then a critical-hit Drain Punch knocks him out and fully heals Trunks. Next up is a Lanturn (finally, Volkner has a Water-type again! I missed his Octillery), which gets hit with a Leaf Blade and then hits Trunks with Surf. Trunks uses Drain Punch and restores most of his HP, then gets hit by another Surf that takes him down to about half. One more Drain Punch and the fish is almost knocked out. Volkner uses a Full Restore, so I have Trunks use Drain Punch again to get some HP back. Another Leaf Blade, and this time it's a critical hit, knocking out the fish. He sends out his Electivire, and I switch to Kami. Kami gets hit by a Fire Punch (not even taking him below the green) and then confuses the Electivire; he hits himself, then gets hit by Ominous Wind before using another Fire Punch that nearly knocks out Kami. Another Ominous Wind hits and takes him into the low yellow, but his Sitrus Berry gets triggered and brings him back up to just over half. I switch in Velveeta, and he hits himself again instead of attacking. He hits himself once again, giving Velveeta the opportunity to knock him out with a Hyper Voice. I leave her in as Volkner switches in a Raichu, then immediately switch to Ganondorf before he can do any damage... and apparently he wasn't going to anyway, as he used Light Screen. He hits Ganondorf with a Brick Break (barely knocking him below half, even with super-effective-ness) and then gets knocked out by an Earthquake, just like every other Raichu that's ever been hit by an Earthquake. Finally he brings in his Luxray, which is actually slower than Ganondorf and gets slammed with an Earthquake before he can do anything.
I didn't lose a single Pokémon against Volkner. Wow... he was easier than either Wake or Byron. I'm guessing the difficulty levels of the Gym Leaders are going to be completely mixed around in the rematches. Who knows, Roark and Maylene might actually be tough this time!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.58
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SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2009
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Removed Kami's Wise Glasses, mainly so he doesn't accidentally KO any of the running Pokémon if I bump into them.
Ran into Articuno again and found out that wild Pokémon DON'T have a chance of hitting themselves if they try to run when they're confused. Damn. After that, I find Mesprit again and use one of my two Master Balls to finally catch the goofy little thing. Thank you, Feebas-trading GTS guy named "OGRE" who may be from New Zealand!
Once again ran into Articuno, and used a Quick Ball... but the bird broke out without any trouble and ran again. Ran into Zapdos and had Kami smack it with an Ominous Wind to cut down the bird's HP a little; got a critical hit and ended up knocking about half of the bird's HP off even without the Wise Glasses. A little bit later, I bumped into Articuno again and accidently knocked it out. Whoops! Time to reset; fortunately, I saved after catching Mesprit.
After switching Ganondorf into my first party slot, I run into Zapdos again; an Ice Shard knocks off about half of the bird's HP, bringing it down to the point it was at before I killed Articuno and had to reset. I run into Moltres again for the first time in a while... and this time, I actually manage to catch it with a Quick Ball before it could run!
Triggered Cresselia's event, then did some more bird-hunting... which eventually resulted in both Zapdos and Cresselia being caught in Quick Balls. After blowing a few more Quick Balls on Articuno, I decided to just go ahead and use my second Master Ball (since Articuno was the last of the roaming-on-the-map Pokémon, it's not like I needed to save it for anything else.)
Ran through the Battle Tower a bit, too, and got to Palmer... he no longer steals Cynthia's battle music! I ended up losing, but just barely. If Ganondorf's Ice Shard had flinched his Dragonite (or if his Rhyperior had hit himself instead of KO'ing Kami with Crunch) I would've won.
Tried the Battle Factory again for a bit, which led to a strange discovery: apparently Combees can learn Ominous Wind.
After losing in the Factory, headed back over to the Arcade... and Kami ended up fighting another Rotom. He would've won, too, if not for Rotom #2 getting a critical hit... oh well, Ganondorf knocked off what little was left of its HP right after that.
Gah, the item event on the Battle Arcade's board can give you sucky items like a Black Sludge (well, it's sucky if you have no Poison-types) or an Iron Ball. Fortunately, Trunks is apparently faster than some Pokémon even WITH an Iron Ball slowing him down.
Ended up losing on the 29th match against a Togekiss that got ridiculously lucky with the stat-boosting effect of Ominous Wind.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.58
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SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2009
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Did a lot of fishing, and caught (among other things) a Lv.54 Gyarados that already knows all of its high-level moves... well, unless they learn something after Hyper Beam, but I don't think they do.
After that, went back to the Battle Castle; apparently they add a "Pass" option at this point, though I doubt I'll ever need it unless I end up running out of CP too early or something.
Whoops, skipping a trainer costs a whopping 50 CP. Completely useless option then, I guess... restoring all of your Pokémon's HP AND lowering one of the opponent's levels by 5 is actually cheaper.
Hmm... the Poké Radar's wiggling grass patches are easier to tell apart now.
Yet more weird Battle Tower trainer names--a reporter named Marble, for example.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.59
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.59
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MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2009
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Checked out the Battleground house in the Survival Area again, and this time there were FOUR people in there--Roark, Maylene, Fantina, and Cheryl (the random person with a Chansey, in case anyone forgot who she was... I know I did in my Diamond version, heh.) Unfortunately, Cheryl doesn't get a special intro or song like the Gym Leaders do; I guess that's just a Gym Leader/Elite Four thing, since I don't think Cyrus had anything either.
vs. Cheryl
=====================
Her first Pokémon is... a Wobbuffet with lipstick? Wow, that's an odd one. And she doesn't use either of the counterattack moves on the first turn; just Safeguard. I start off with Ganondorf using Ancient Power, since she'll most likely use Counter and all my other moves are physical. As expected, she uses Counter twice in a row and it does nothing since I didn't use a physical move. After the third hit from Ancient Power, she gets the message and uses Mirror Coat... but the reflected damage doesn't knock Ganondorf out of the green. I use an Earthquake, and it knocks the Wobbuffet into the red; she uses Mirror Coat again, not expecting the Earthquake. Cherly uses a Full Restore (which takes FOREVER to finish filling up a Wobbuffet's HP), and then Ganondorf uses another Earthquake, which somehow doesn't knock the thing out of the green. I switch back to Ancient Power again, and get a critical hit... but unfortunately she uses Mirror Coat next, and Ganondorf is KO'ed. I bring in Kami and knock off what's left of the Wobbuffet's HP with Ominous Wind. She sends in a Drifblm, which Kami confuses. The ghostyballon hits herself, then gets smacked with Kami's Ominous Wind and knocked into the red... well, into the red after she hits herself again, anyway. After that she keeps using Protect, but after the second try it fails and Kami KO's her ghostyballoon with a Shock Wave. Next up is a Wailord; Kami confuses the big whale, and for some reason she uses Avalanche (which doesn't do much damage at all.) After that Kami uses Shock Wave, which knocks the whale into the yellow. A little confusion damage and another Shock Wave, and the whale is beached. Cheryl switches in a Blissey next, so I bring in Velveeta. Velveeta flies up and avoids a Psychic, then hits with Fly and knocks off a little more than half of the Blissey's HP. Unfortunately, this triggers a Sitrus Berry that brings her back into the green. She tries Toxic, but misses; Velveeta flies up again while the Blissey heals with Softboiled. Fly hits again, doing a bit more damage than the last time; Velveeta gets hit with a Psychic, but it only knocks off half of her HP. She flies up again, and instead of healing, Cheryl's Blissey uses Psychic (and misses) before being knocked out by the Fly attack. Finally, she sends out a Hariyama (which is male, while all of her others were female), and Velveeta screams obscenities at the sumo, knocking his HP down into the upper yellow. She gets KO'ed by a Stone Edge, so I bring in Yamcha, who almost knocks the sumo out with a Zen Headbutt. Yamcha gets hit with a Close Combat, but survives it; unfortunately, Cheryl uses a Full Restore before he can get another hit in. Another Zen Headbutt brings him into the yellow again, but then Yamcha is KO'ed by a Stone Edge when his next Zen Headbutt misses. Trunks switches in, and quickly KO's the sumo with a Psycho Cut.
Surprisingly tough, especially considering that our levels weren't far apart at all (mine were 59-60, while hers were all in the low 60's.)
Next is Maylene, just to see if my earlier prediction (that she'd actually NOT suck this time, since some of the tougher Gym Leaders were easy the second time around) comes true.
vs. Maylene #2
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First up is a Hitmontop (which at least means that she's improved her choice of Pokémon since the last time.) I switch Ganondorf out, since he's likely to get smacked hard by Fighting-type moves; instead, her Hitmontop uses Fake Out, which fails to do anything at all to Kami. I hit him with Confuse Ray, then Ominous Wind; apparently, Maylene's Hitmontop doesn't have any good anti-Rotom moves, as he used Aerial Ace after snapping out of confusion. I confuse him again, and between confusion damage and another Ominous Wind, he ends up down to the red. Another Aerial Ace hits, doing much less damage than the first, before Kami knocks him out with Ominous Wind. Next up is a Breloom--definite proof that Maylene has improved her choice of Pokémon, since Brelooms kick ass. I bring in Velveeta and scream "MUDDAFUGGA!", knocking the 'shroom out in one shot. Next is a Medicham, who also gets cussed at; a critical hit MUDDAFUGGA attack knocks her into the red, but then Velveeta gets KO'ed by an Ice Punch. I bring in Ganondorf and knock the Medicham out with a quick Ice Shard. Next is a Machamp; I bring in Kami and (as always) hit him with a Confuse Ray. Kami almost gets knocked out by a Stone Edge, then smacks the Goro knockoff with a Shock Wave... which, unfortunately, doesn't do a whole lot of damage. Kami gets KO'ed by another Stone Edge, and I bring in Trunks. His Psycho Cut gets a critical hit, easily knocking out the Machamp. Finally it's time for that ridiculous Lucario. He hits Trunks with Extreme Speed, which doesn't knock him out of the green; Trunks then does about the same damage with a Psycho Cut. Her Lucario then uses Bone Rush, which it should not really be able to learn in the first place... and he misses, leaving him wide open to be knocked out by a Drain Punch.
And apparently, Maylene shares eating habits with Goku... the only thing she talks about after the fight is the fact that Buck's grandpa cooks for everyone and they can eat as much as they want. Heh.
So far it seems like my guess was about right: Gym Leader difficulty might be flipped around to be almost the exact opposite of how hard they were the first time. I lost only one Pokémon against Wake and Byron, and none against Volkner, yet Maylene managed to knock out TWO. And Cheryl was the hardest of them all so far--a pretty huge step up from that level 20 Chansey that uses Egg Bomb all the time.
Fantina's next. She was around the middle difficulty-wise before, so who knows how this will turn out.
vs. Fantina #2
=====================
First, she sends out a Banette. Ganondorf goes first and hits her with an Earthquake, which knocks her into the red. He gets hit by a Shadow Claw, but it doesn't do much damage; Fantina uses a Full Restore, then Ganondorf hits with an Ice Shard that brings her into the lower green. Another Earthquake knocks the Banette out. Mismagius is next; Ganondorf gets an Ice Shard in first, doing a little less damage than it did to the Banette. He gets hit pretty hard by a Magical Leaf, so I switch in Velveeta; Magical Leaf barely does any damage at all to her. Unfortunately, she's slower than the ghostie, and gets knocked out by a Thunderbolt before she can attack. Turtle switches in; he gets hit by a Shadow Ball, which almost knocks him out of the green, then Crunches the ghostie and knocks her out. Drifblim is next; the ghostyballoon hits Turtle with a Silver Wind, but he survives it and Crunches, knocking her into the mid-yellow. Turtle barely survives another Silver Wind, then pops the ghostyballoon with another Crunch... and gets knocked out by Aftermath damage. Ganondorf switches in again and uses Ice Shard on Fantina's Gengar... before being knocked out by a Focus Blast. Yamcha comes in and gets hit with Thunder (Fantina is very lucky with those 70% accuracy moves...), but survives with just 8 HP and knocks her Gengar out with a Zen Headbutt. Fantina brings in a Dusknoir, and I bring in Trunks, who hits her with Night Slash while the ghostie does nothing but Double Team. Next turn, Trunks hits with a Night Slash again, and gets hit by a Shadow Punch. Fantina uses a Full Restore, but Trunks gets a critical hit with Night Slash and knocks the Dusknoir back into the red. Finally, with one more Night Slash, Trunks knocks her out and levels up.
Wow. She was even tougher than Cheryl. I guess the "weak first time, strong in the rematch" thing doesn't apply to all of them... Fantina was decent the first time and even stronger this time. The only one of my Pokémon who didn't end up knocked out or seriously weakened was Kami, and I didn't even use him in the battle.
Last of this bunch is Roark. I wonder... will he end up being tougher, like Maylene and Fantina, or will he be one of the wimpy ones again?
vs. Roark #2
=====================
First up is an Aerodactyl, which Ganondorf smacks with an Ice Shard; this knocks him into the low yellow, while his Stone Edge doesn't even get Ganon out of the green. Another Ice Shard, and pterosaurs are extinct once again. Next up is a Golem, which gets slammed by an Earthquake that knocks him into the low yellow. He uses Brick Break, knocking Ganondorf into the red, but another Earthquake knocks him out (and Ganondorf finally gets to level 60.) Roark brings in a Tyranitar next, so I switch to Trunks. Trunks gets the first hit in--a Drain Punch, which knocks him into the red (before his Sitrus Berry brings him back into the mid-yellow.) He gets a good hit in with Crunch, but Trunks survives it and knocks him out with another Drain Punch. Roark sends in his Rampardos next; once again, Trunks goes first and hits with a Drain Punch, knocking him into the yellow and healing himself almost completely. He uses Avalanche after that, which knocks Trunks out. Yamcha comes in; instead of Surf, I use Waterfall to avoid the Special Defense boost that Rock-types get from Sandstorm. This knocks him out, and then Roark sends in his last Pokémon, a Probopass. Yamcha uses Waterfall again, knocking him into the upper yellow; he wastes his turn using Stealth Rock instead of even attempting to do any damage, and Yamcha quickly knocks him out on the next turn with another Waterfall.
Yep, Roark's still wimpy. Only Ganondorf and Trunks took any damage at all (and Trunks was up against a friggin' Tyranitar and Rampardos... so of course he was going to take some damage!) Even though he managed to knock one Pokémon out and Volkner didn't knock out any, I'd have to say Roark was the easiest so far... I didn't even end up taking advantage of any of the double-weaknesses his Pokémon had, other than the Tyranitar.
Did some random Pokédex-filling after that--went to Mt. Coronet and evolved a Nosepass (named Recoome) and Gligar (Thingie), then flew to the Battle Zone area to evolve my Sneasel (Kitty.) Also caught a random lv.47 Spearow that I bumped into, after he knocked my Sneasel out.
After snagging a Murkrow from someone over in Japan thanks to the GTS, I went to check out Turnback Cave... and found a level 18 Dusclops. Wow... didn't know they showed up at such low levels. A few minutes later I ran into one at an even lower level: 16.
Now that I've seen one pillar, they're showing up in the mid-20's. I guess the levels get higher the further you go.
Not long afterward, I got a Stardust (which I imagine is probably the "you took forever" item) and the Griseous Orb (which is a pretty weird name.)
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.60
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TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009
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Headed back over to the Battleground house (or whatever it's called) and found that Candice was there this time. She was the second- or third-hardest the first time around.
vs. Candice #2
=====================
Kami goes first against her Weavile; he confuses her and hits with a couple of Shock Waves, then gets KO'ed by a critical-hit Avalanche. Trunks comes in, and Candice uses a Full Restore, letting Trunks KO her Weavile with a double-super-effective Drain Punch. She brings in her Froslass, and I switch in Ganondorf; he takes a Blizzard hit (knocking him into the yellow) and then hits with Ancient Power. After that, he uses Ice Shard and knocks her into the yellow before being KO'ed by another Blizzard. Yamcha switches in, but he gets confused and hits himself. She uses Hail, which doesn't do anything thanks to Yamcha's ability, and then gets knocked into the low red by a Waterfall. Yamcha gets hit by an Ominous Wind (and still not out of the green), then hits himself again. Another Ominous Wind hits and Yamcha's in the low yellow, but he knocks Candice's Froslass out with a Surf (and levels up.) Next is Abomasnow, so I bring in Velveeta and scream MUDDAFUGGA at the overgrown Christmas tree. She gets KO'ed by an Avalanche, but not before knocking Frosty's HP into the low yellow. Trunks switches in and knocks out the Abomasnow with a Drain Punch. Candice sends in her Glaceon, and I bring Yamcha back in. He hits with a Waterfall, but it doesn't knock her out of the green, and then he's knocked out by a Shadow Ball. Trunks comes back in and gets a critical hit with Drain Punch, knocking her out. Finally, she brings in her Mamoswine; Trunks hits with a Leaf Blade and knocks her into the yellow, then gets knocked into the red by an Earthquake and some hail damage. Trunks hits with another Drain Punch, and Mrs. Pig-Mammoth is knocked out.
Wow. Not expecting that one--she might just be the toughest of the rematch Gym Leaders so far (well, Fantina was pretty tough as well, but Candice was definitely harder than any of the others.)
Just caught a Heatran--male, this time--and named him "Shaq-Fu." And oddly, Escape Ropes don't work in Heatran's room... but they work in the rest of the volcano.
I wonder if Mr. Bullshit Myth Guy will talk about something different now that I've actually caught the Heatran in Stark Mountain... let's go check!
Yep, he does... but he doesn't really say a whole lot. Heh.
Finally managed to beat the five maids in seven turns, also (not too hard; the only thing that's a problem is that they usually use freakin' Endure over and over.) And the "reward" for beating them is... fighting some wimp with a level 35 Blissey. Uhh. Not hard at all, especially when I'm at freakin' LEVEL 60. And... the thing just flung a Rare Candy at me, which only did 4 damage.
...you don't actually win anything for beating them. I guess the only point of them is an infinite supply of stealable Rare Candies or something...
After messing around in the Battle Factory some more, I ended up getting far enough to fight Thorton. Unfortunately, he ended up having a Houndoom and all of my Pokémon were weak to either Fire or Dark... so I lost.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.60
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009
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Managed to get to Thorton again (this time in "Open Level" rather than level 50) and came a bit closer to beating him this time--he had a Suicune, Kangaskhan, and Entei, and I ended up knocking out both the Suicune and Kangaskhan before the Entei knocked out my last Pokémon (a Luxray) with Stone Edge.
Also fought Gardenia's rematch battle today, but since I wasn't at the computer at the time I wasn't able to type up a detailed description of the fight like I did with the others. She managed to knock out two of my Pokémon and damaged two others; a bit tougher than Maylene's rematch, maybe.
My Poké Radar chaining record is now 24 Bidoofs in a row. Before that, I never had more than 17 or 18 in a row. Still no sign of shinies, though...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
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Won Cuteness Contests at the first three levels with Krillin the Togekiss... but then somehow, he wasn't able to come close on the Master Rank, despite having a nearly-maxed-out Cuteness stat AND a Pink Scarf.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009
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I wish the Battle Factory let you change the order of your Pokémon before fights, instead of just trading them. I probably could've beaten Thorton this time if I hadn't been forced to use the rental Wormadam first. Well, either that or if it was a Ground-type Wormadam instead of a Grass-type one, but I've never seen either the Ground or Steel-type versions in the Battle Factory so far.
And... wow. I really didn't expect Timmy to want to fight again outside of the Battleground house, for some reason.
vs. Timmy #7
=====================
First off is his Staraptor, as always; I have Velveeta out first. He uses Close Combat and knocks her into the yellow, then gets knocked into the low red by Hyper Voice. Timmy uses a Full Restore, and Velveeta screams "MUDDAFUGGA!" at the bird, knocking him back into the yellow again. Expecting another Close Combat, I switch in Kami... and he uses Aerial Ace instead. Still doesn't do any significant damage. One Shock Wave and the chicken is fried once again. After that he sends in his Floatzel, which is not even level 60 yet. Kami confuses him and then gets hit with a Crunch... which ends up being a critical hit and knocking him out. I switch in Trunks, and after taking some insignificant damage from a Crunch, he knocks out the Floatzel with a critical-hit Leaf Blade. Next is his Roserade, which is also lagging behind the Staraptor in levels. Trunks knocks the planty-thing out with one Psycho Cut. After that is the evil monkey, who is overleveled (what a surprise) and has a lot of random stars along with his sending-out animation now. He hits Trunks with Shadow Claw, knocking him into the red, then gets knocked into the low yellow by a Psycho Cut. Unfortunately, his Sitrus Berry just barely brings him back into the green afterward. I switch Velveeta in again, and he tries Shadow Claw again (which, of course, does nothing to the birdie.) Flamethrower does, however, and Velveeta gets knocked out. I bring in Yamcha, and he gets hit with a Focus Blast (which knocks him into the mid yellow) before knocking out the monkey with Surf. Heracross is next; I bring Trunks back in and he uses Psycho Cut, knocking him into the yellow. He uses Rock Slide and it hits, but isn't quite enough to knock Trunks out--it leaves him with 2 HP. And he was already in the red to begin with... durr. Moron should've just used Megahorn or something. After that wimpy attack, of course, Trunks squishes the bug with another Psycho Cut. Finally, Timmy brings in his Snorlax, which quickly gets Drain Punched in the gut (knocking off half of the fat bastard's HP and bringing Trunks almost back up to half in the process.) The fatty uses Crunch, knocking Trunks down to 15 HP... and then Trunks knocks him out with another Drain Punch.
Hmm... he seems a bit wimpier than last time. Of course, my Pokémon were a bit overleveled to be fighting him this time (his were mostly level 59 and 61, and mine were all in the 62-63 range... yeah, I was definitely overleveled.) I think I probably should've fought him last week... but unfortunately I didn't try talking to him at all then, so it never happened.
"Ace Trainer" should be "Ass Trainer," because that's what most of 'em act like. Especially a few of the ones that show up in the Battle Frontier.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2009
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This is odd. Knocking yourself out with Explosion in the process of KOing another Pokémon counts as a loss... yet doing the same with a recoil move counts as win.
Also, Marley showed up in the Battleground house today... in her "weird and quiet" mode rather than the bitchier form that shows up in the Battle Tower. What's up with her, anyway?
vs. Marley
=====================
First off was a Ninjask, which used Swords Dance before being knocked out in one hit from Kami's Shock Wave. After that, she switches to a Weavile, and I bring in Trunks. An Aerial Ace hit knocks Trunks into the yellow... and then a Drain Punch knocks her Weavile out, restoring most of Trunks's HP in the process. Marley sends out a Crobat, and I switch Kami back in; the bat uses Double Team, but of course it does nothing at all to Shock Wave's accuracy, and she's knocked into the yellow. An Air Slash barely scratches Kami, and another Shock Wave knocks her out. She sends out her Arcanine next, and I bring in Ganondorf (which probably isn't a great choice, being weak to fire and all... oh well.) Turns out the big puppy is faster... but his Flare Blitz, even with super effective-ness, doesn't knock Ganondorf out. Ganon's Earthquake doesn't quite knock him out either, unfortunately, and a Sitrus Berry brings him back into the yellow. ExtremeSpeed hits before Ganondorf's Ice Shard, and Ganondorf is knocked out. I bring Kami back in, and one more Shock Wave knocks the puppy out. Last is an Electrode... a bit disappointing: all the big ball manages to do is use Double Team before Turtle knocks the thing out with an Earthquake.
Pretty wimpy. Maybe even the wimpiest of the Battleground group so far, with the exception of her Arcanine... she only knocked out one of my Pokémon (with her Arcanine, of course), and barely even managed to do any damage to the others. Of course, she did fill up her team with all-Speed critters (and an Arcanine), so I guess it's not too much of a surprise.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2009
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Fought Thorton again (in Open Level this time) and... it went very, very differently than the last two times.
vs. Thorton
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First of all, my rental Snorlax took a Focus Blast from his Alakazam, then knocked him out in one shot with Outrage. After that, he survived a Thunderbolt from Thorton's Jolteon before knocking that one out with another Outrage hit... then finally got KOed by his Heatran's Flash Cannon. After that, the rental Drifblim I had smacked his Heatran with a Thunderbolt (which didn't take him out of the green, unfortunately) and then got knocked into the red by Magma Storm. Of course, the Drifblim also had Destiny Bond... so what happened next is pretty obvious. Heh. The kickass Aggron I found among the rentals didn't even get a chance to fight...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2009
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After some more trading-with-myself, I now have 462 Pokémon in my Diamond version's Pokédex... including some like Gligar and Electabuzz which are pretty much "Platinum exclusives" for me, since I don't have FireRed or Emerald.
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009
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Fought Palmer again; Trunks just barely managed to knock out his Rhyperior (he survived an Earthquake with only 8 HP), and then he switched to his Dragonite. I switched in Kami and confused the Dragonite, but his Lum Berry snapped him out of it and then he knocked out Kami. Ganondorf KO'ed the Dragonite with two Ice Shards (while he just used Dragon Dance, not accomplishing much of anything.) After that Ganon got KO'ed by his Milotic's Surf, so I brought Trunks (who only had 20 HP left) back out... and of course, he got knocked out also. If only Trunks's Leaf Blade had been a critical hit, I would've won this time.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2009
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That's odd--Palmer apparently switches his team around every time you fight him now. Every other time I've gotten to him, he's had his Rhyperior first, but when I fought him today, his Milotic was sent out first (just like in Diamond) and KO'ed quickly by a critical-hit Leaf Blade. Does he have more than one team now, or something? Or is the order just randomized now?
Whatever it is, I'm glad they did it, because I actually beat him this time. My Gyarados, Bubba (who I had been training recently) didn't even get a chance to fight. Now that I've beaten Palmer, I finally have all of the Silver Prints!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.63
Until now, anyway. Here it is:
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MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2009
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NAME: Bulimia
RIVAL: TIMMY!
Started out with a Turtwig, which I named "Turtle" (after Master Roshi's turtle in Dragonball Z, who everyone just calls "Turtle" as if it was a name.)
vs. Timmy #1
=====================
Evil monkey just stares at the turtle and never attacks. The youngsters and such on the next route with Starlies and Bidoofs are actually harder... yet they give less experience. That sucks.
Almost lost against the kid in the school that uses X Attacks because I forgot to heal after the trip over... then got a critical hit and won anyway.
That fisherman guy told me the "tips for fishing" even though I said no...
vs. Timmy #2
=====================
Evil monkey must be rubbing off on the Starly--it used nothing but Growl. Evil monkey himself, however, actually used Scratch this time. Eventually lost because the constant Leers lowered my defense enough that Scratch did decent damage... and because I hadn't caught any other Pokémon yet, heh.
Why is it that all the Psyducks and Zubats in this cave are female? I saw only two or three male Zubats along with about a dozen females... and EVERY Psyduck I've seen so far has been female.
After seeing about 10 female Psyducks, finally found a male one. Caught the little mofo and named him Yamcha.
vs. Timmy #2, again
=====================
The Starly learned how to attack (finally!) but still used Growl almost every time and got its ass whupped. Evil monkey went with the idiot strategy of "use Scratch a couple times, then endlessly Leer!" Won without much trouble, plus Yamcha and Turtle both leveled up (to 6 and 12, respectively.)
A lot of trainers seem to mention the Pokémon they have before fighting them now; first the kid who got a Magikarp from his dad, then the Kricketot/Zubat kid, and then the Shinx kid on the same route. Can't remember if they were in D/P or not.
There's no way that girl with the Lv.8 Psyduck beat ANY Gym Leaders. Did she give Roark a blowjob in exchange for the badge or something?
The girl who gives you the Pal Pad apparently has a name now. Either that or I just forgot about it the first time.
vs. Roark
=====================
Not a hard Gym Leader fight at all... though that's probably because I was a bit overleveled (Yamcha at Lv.11 at the start of the fight, and Turtle at Lv.13)--as far as first Gym Leaders go, Roark isn't bad at all. Definitely tougher than the R/B/Y/FR/LG versions' wimpy Brock and G/S/C's Falkner; maybe even Roxanne, though her Nosepass was a bit tougher than first gyms usually are.
Geodude and Onix got 1-hit-KO'ed from Water Gun as usual (though the Onix got a Stealth Rock in first), then Cranidos got in a Headbutt that did pretty good damage. Water Gun'ed down to half HP, Roark uses a Potion, Water Gun'ed back down below half again... and instead of using Headbutt and knocking out Yamcha, he uses Pursuit and leaves him with 1 HP and ready to knock the little Barney wannabe out with another Water Gun.
The new GTS music reminds me of Startropics for some odd reason...
Galactic Grunts still wimpy. Fortunately none of 'em have Wurmples yet.
Caught a Pachirisu, which I named Chi-Chi; probably not a permanent team member, but she'll at least stay around until I get a few more that I'm going to stick with.
Heh, Mars forgot Charon existed (at first, anyway) in her introduction speech. And she actually isn't too wimpy. The freakishly-low-leveled Purugly is actually kinda hard, and gets waaaay too many critical hits. But with Super Potions and Rock Smash, Turtle eventually beat the thing.
Kind of odd that Charon only recently joined Team Galactic, considering that he's OOOOOLD. I mean, Cyrus doesn't look too young himself (based on the big picture of him in the intro), but Charon has to be up there around Agatha and Pryce's age group.
STARTER: Turtwig (Turtle) Lv.16
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.16
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.11
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TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009
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The change in battle messages so that everything "misses" now still annoys me. One of the few really bad changes the D/P series made... I mean, how can something like Screech miss? Maybe the other Pokémon covered its ears, or the screech just didn't have its intended effect... but either way "_____'s attack failed!" makes more sense than "_____'s attack missed!"
Chi-Chi the Pachirisu is seeming far less wimpy now that she's finally learned Spark. Yeah, "finally" makes it sound as if it's been a long time, even though I caught her at level 9...
It's pretty strange to see a Chansey actually doing significant amounts of damage with physical attacks.
Is Eterna Forest bigger than it was in D/P? It kinda seems like it is, for some reason.
Silcoon and Cascoon sprites look much better now that all of the spikes are actually there, instead of having the points cut off.
Turtle evolved somewhere around the time I was getting to Eterna.
Hah, Gardenia's gym has fake clouds painted on the walls!
Before fighting Gardenia I decided to try out the new GTS, since I was at school where there's Wi-Fi access. I posted my Forest box with nothing but a Hoothoot in it, put the random Hoothoot up to trade for a Stunky, watched a battle video of Dialga/Palkia/Giratina vs. Kyogre/Raikou/Palkia (the D/P/P team won), watched another video of two Lv.72 Magikarps tackling and flailing each other to death (which I saved afterward!), and poked around at the other random new features. My message is now "I'm looking for someone to trade for my BABY!" or something along those lines. Apparently Bulimia is a major slut, already popping out kids at age 10... either that or she kidnapped someone else's baby and is trying to pawn it off for some rare Pokémon.
Also fiddled around in the Wi-Fi Plaza a little bit, though there's not a whole lot to do in there (other than mess with the Charmander bobble-heads) if you're by yourself.
vs. Gardenia
=====================
Beat the random gym trainers and got to Gardenia, but lost. The Roserade is just that much stronger than any of my Pokémon... though I didn't do too bad considering that I only have three Pokémon, they're all at a disadvantage against Grass-types, and they're all three levels short of her.
Chi-Chi paralyzed and Charm'ed the Turtwig, then Turtle knocked the little guy out without too much trouble. Then he managed to knock the Roserade down to about 1/4 HP with Cut and Rock Smash before she finally KO'ed him; after that, Chi-Chi and Yamcha were pretty much screwed.
Of course, since my DS battery ran out immediately afterward, I technically never lost and am still standing in front of Gardenia where I saved. Heh...
Caught a Chingling (because I've been wanting to train a Chimecho lately) and named him Chiaotzu. He should help against that damn Roserade, once he's caught up with the rest of the guys.
vs. Gardenia again
=====================
Second round went much better than the first--once again, Chi-Chi paralyzed the Turtwig and Charm'ed its attack down to nothing, then Turtle stomped the little thing. The Roserade took a few Super Potions, but Turtle managed to knock it out this time, and after that... the Cherrim was no problem at all. Chiaotzu didn't even get a chance to fight (though he did level up, thanks to the Exp. Share.)
The new out-of-battle Cut animation is neat-looking.
Jupiter has a very slow Zubat--Yamcha the Psyduck outspeeds the wimpy little thing. The Skuntank isn't anything special either, at least not after its attack is knocked down to nothing from Charm. Mars was probably tougher.
Apparently Gibles love to kill themselves with Take Down when their HP is already really low.
Amity Square has a lot more in it now... and the warp points in the ruins actually work now, so the ones up on mountains are reachable.
STARTER: Grotle (Turtle) Lv.23
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.23
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.22
CAUGHT: Chingling (Chiaotzu) Lv.23
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2009
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Weird text from a notebook in the Old Chateau:
"Som...hing so pecu...r shou... make off ...ith the mot..."
Ooh, creepy ghost girl is all semi-transparent now.
Want to thump the TV? Heh. And... Rotom still inexplicably has the legendary battle music. "Its electric-like body?" Bad grammarz ahoy! And now, Kami the Rotom has been added to the team, at least temporarily--I'll probably have to decide between him and Chi-Chi at some point in the future, as it'd be a bit silly to double up on Electric-types.
I notice that Kricketots aren't so much rarer than Kricketunes anymore. Which is good, because that made no sense at all...
Chiaotzu just kicked some ass in a Cuteness Contest. He was going really well already, but then the other three idiots kept all choosing the same judge, heh. So instead of just "Chiaotzu won," it was "Chiaotzu easily stomped the other three into the ground."
Honey trees still annoying. Possibly less annoying than in D/P though, since I left the honey on for almost a whole day and the Pokémon (a friggin' male Combee) was still in there when I finally got around to checking it.
Apparently you can't get to Veilstone or Pastoria before beating the Hearthome gym... which sucks, since I was planning to go beat up Maylene first (since I have a ghost AND a psychic now, it shouldn't be too hard to stomp that Lucario) before going after Fantina.
Checking the GTS again, I saw that nobody had traded me a Stunky... so I took the random Hoothoot off of the GTS and replaced him with a random Clefairy I caught, to be traded for a Burmy. Might have more luck with that, since the ugly little pink fluffballs seem to have more of a fanbase than they deserve...
vs. Fantina
=====================
Kami whupped her Duskull despite a 2-level difference, but that's not much of a surprise. Unfortunately, even three Double Teams didn't keep her Mismagius's Shadow Ball from hitting and 1-hit-KO'ing him. And dammit, the thing has Magical Leaf too, so Yamcha barely lasted one turn. Thank God for Pachirisu having high Special Defense--a Shadow Ball didn't even knock Chi-Chi's HP out of the green! Switched to Turtle, and gave him some ghostie-toasties for lunch. And apparently Fantina isn't Stereotypical French, as she tells her Pokémon NOT to surrender!
I'm actually glad I replaced Turtle's Curse with Bite now--otherwise I probably would've lost. Once again, Chiaotzu didn't even get a chance to fight, and Turtle and Chi-Chi did most of the work (with Kami taking out the Duskull first.)
vs. Timmy #3
=====================
Kami completely whupped this kid's ass, despite being only level 22 at the start of the fight (though the experience from stomping Timmy's whole team brought him all the way up to 24.) None of his Pokémon even managed to cause a single point of damage, and most of them were knocked out in one shot--Buizels and Staravias go down very quickly when hit with Shock Wave.
Caught a Ralts, which I named Trunks. He very quickly evolved into a Kirlia... I'm planning on evolving him into a Gallade (because, y'know, Trunks from DBZ... he has a sword) as soon as I find the right evolution stone.
I can't remember what the Lost Tower had in it before, but the new fog there isn't nearly as annoying as the fog in the mountains was in D/P. There's really not much reason to use Defog unless you don't have access to any "never misses" moves (or you just really want the Spell Tag and Cleanse Tag, but... they're not exactly the most useful items in the world.) I just brought the random Hoothoot with me to Defog the top room after I had cleared out all the trainers and items.
Hey, the department store in Veilstone has a basement now. Not a storage room with Machokes lugging boxes around, though. Berries are really cheap, too... while Poffins are ludicrously overpriced.
"This has nothing to do with anything, but take this TM!" Heh.
After beating up the Collector dude with the Eevee evolution trio, Chiaotzu finally evolved--Chingling only evolves at night. Since he didn't evolve yesterday, though, I'm guessing the massage lady in Veilstone, combined with a few vitamins and some wins in battle, finally pushed him over the "required happiness" limit.
Holy shit, Rhyhorns!? Here? Wow. Wasn't expecting that. Speaking of unexpected things, Rhyhorns learn Tail Whip... but they don't have tails. Oops.
There's also Houndours in the same route! And Roar is annoying.
STARTER: Grotle (Turtle) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Pachirisu (Chi-Chi) Lv.26
CAUGHT: Chimecho (Chiaotzu) Lv.27
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.27
CAUGHT: Kirlia (Trunks) Lv.26
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THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
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I might try trading with myself (my Diamond version, using my sister's DS) sometime later today, now that I have a Houndour in Platinum. Seems like the only way I'll ever get one in my Diamond version, since the only way to get one before Platinum was to breed a Houndoom (which can only be found in Pearl... and my sister's nowhere near the point in the game where they show up.)
vs. Maylene
=====================
"Uh, I don't really know why I'm the Gym Leader..."
Me either, because you really, really SUCK. Seriously, I wasn't expecting to beat her on the first try, especially not so easily. The Meditite gave me many times more trouble than the Lucario and Machoke combined--it knocked out Trunks and weakened Chi-Chi before finally going down. Then the Lucario Force Palm'ed Chi-Chi to knock her out... and then repeatedly missed with Metal Claw, three times in a row, as the newly-evolved Chiaotzu psychokinetically whupped the little overrated mofo's ass. The last Metal Claw did hit, but by that time the Lucario was screwed and Chiaotzu leveled up. After that, I let Kami finish off the Machoke... which he did, without ever taking a point of damage.
But wow... Maylene was REALLY weak. Maybe even weaker than she was in D/P. I figure Crasher Wake was talking about *martial arts* training with her, because there's no way he'd be that impressed by her minimal Pokémon-training ability.
No luck getting a Burmy off the GTS yet... and before I could do any searching for other stuff, it had a connection problem and kicked me off.
Caught a Chatot, which I named "Velveeta" (after one of Pugh's pigeons) and taught her how to say "muddafugga." Came out surprisingly well--now the little birdie says "muddafugga!" every time I send her out, heh.
I'm thinking I'll probably replace Chi-Chi with Velveeta the cussing parrot.
vs. Timmy #4
=====================
Wimpy and disturbingly overleveled, as usual. Instead of letting Kami knock out his whole team this time, though, I switched it up a little: Turtle whupped the Buizel (in one non-critical-hit Razor Leaf...), Chiaotzu chucked his still-unevolved Monferno (which still hasn't grown out of using nothing but Leer the whole time) into a wall, and Velveeta screamed curse-words at his Roselia until it became a pile of wilted lettuce.
Last Resort doesn't suck nearly as much as I thought it would--apparently, you only have to use each of your other moves ONCE before it works, instead of using up all of their PP first.
Heh, the sailor says "That's just how I roll!" Unlike the Team Galactic members saying "for the win" and similar scum-of-the-internet stuff, that's actually funny, not just stupid.
vs. Wake
=====================
Ouch. So that's why Maylene was so weak--to trick people into expecting the next Gym Leader to be weak, even though he's actually the toughest one in the game so far. I may actually have to level up some first before I try fighting this guy again--the Gyarados alone took half of my team to KO, and then the Floatzel was able to finish off the rest.
Swapped Chi-Chi back into the team, replacing Trunks temporarily; also leveled my whole team to level 30-31 (they were in the 28-30 range before), then went to try fighting Mr. Mexican Wrestler again.
vs. Wake again
=====================
Did much better this time. Chi-Chi (who I swapped back in, replacing Trunks) was able to beat the Gyarados, and Turtle and Velveeta teamed up to beat the Quagsire (Turtle would have managed it by himself, but being put to sleep and confused over and over got in the way a little.) Finally, Chi-Chi managed to paralyze the Floatzel on the first hit with Discharge, letting Kami finish the thing off without much trouble after Chi-Chi got KO'ed with Aqua Jet.
Though I did manage to beat him, he was by far the strongest Gym Leader so far... all of my Pokémon except Kami ended up getting knocked out before the end of it.
Hah, the Galactic Bomb they detonated in the swamp was too crappy to do any significant damage... either that or the idiotic Grunt just put it in some stupid place where it wouldn't be able to do much damage even if it WAS really powerful.
Holy crap, I just hit a Skorupi twice in a row... in fog... after Acupressure boosted its Evade. I think this is the first time I've ever seen any actual effect from Psyduck's "Cloud Nine" ability.
Turtle is now fully evolved!
Heh, this old lady called one of the Team Galactic guys a "spaceman."
vs. Cyrus #1
=====================
Ouchies. Hadn't healed before going into the cave, so I got beaten up pretty badly (and it didn't help that one of my two un-fainted Pokémon--Turtle--is now double-weak to those Ice Punches...)
vs. Cyrus #1, again
=====================
This time I went in with a fully-healed team. Yamcha still got whupped by his Sneasel, but Kami finished it off pretty quick after hitting it with Confuse Ray and a critical-hit Shock Wave. Velveeta knocked off a good chunk of the Murkrow's HP, but got hurt pretty bad by Drill Peck, so Kami finished the bird off. Trunks got a good hit on the Golbat, but Bite did a lot of damage, so Kami got switched in again and (as usual) finished it off without much trouble.
Seems like Kami the Rotom is definitely the powerhouse of the team so far... he's always kicking entire teams' asses singlehandedly, knocking out enemies in one hit, and coming in at the last second to save the other members of the team from almost being KO'ed.
Finally, Surf!!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Psyduck (Yamcha) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Chimecho (Chiaotzu) Lv.32
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.33
CAUGHT: Kirlia (Trunks) Lv.31
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.33
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FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2009
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While on the way back from Celestic Town, Yamcha finally evolved into a Golduck! Now that just leaves Trunks...
vs. Timmy #5
=====================
Damn, this kid wants to fight A LOT in Platinum! His Staraptor is still a fan of the Evil Monkey strategy, but this time it's Double Team over and over while Kami's Shock Waves ignore the boosted evasion, zapping the bird in two shots. For once, he doesn't completely suck--his Heracross actually won the fight for him.
vs. Timmy #5, again
=====================
Went a bit differently this time. Set up Kami to go first and wipe out the bird, and then Turtle dealt with the Floatzel pretty easily as well. Tried Velveeta against the Heracross, but she was KO'ed in one Brick Break... and then Kami, being awesome as usual, squished the bug without taking a point of damage. If regular Rotom is this good, I can't imagine what the alternate forms are like...
Evil Monkey has improved a lot since last time--he makes random stars show up when he's sent out, and is now fully evolved. And he uses attacks that actually cause decent damage (like Brick Break.) Yamcha's Surf takes him into the low yellow in one shot, though, forcing Timmy to switch to his Roserade, which uses Toxic Spikes over and over as if a third of my team didn't have Levitate. Some Earthquakes from Turtle, and we have shredded lettuce again. Chiaotzu finishes the monkey off. A bit ironic considering that Infernape seems to be based on the same Monkey King that Goku is based on, and Goku could whup Chiaotzu easily...
For once, the kid actually has a reason to be surprised when I beat him--he doesn't suck anymore!
Platinum seems to have done a pretty good job making Team Galactic actually seem like more of a threat rather than the "okay, these guys kinda suck... and then suddenly, the storyline revolves around them!" They have more of a R/B/Y Team Rocket feel to them now--you can find 'em hanging around EVERYWHERE doing random missions and sometimes fighting you.
Finally figured out where the Dawn Stone is and evolved Trunks. Now, once he learns a physical attack, he should be able to kick some ass.
Someone traded me a Burmy for the Clefairy... though sadly its name is "BURMY" in all-caps. Silly imagination-less people. While searching I saw someone wanting a Flareon for their Manaphy... so I quickly traded my Eevee for a Flareon that someone else was offering, then traded that for the Manaphy. Now I don't have to worry about having to buy Ranger and/or go to a Nintendo event to get one!
Heh, one of the trainers in Canalave City's gym calls you a "noob."
Funny, the gym didn't look nearly this tall on the outside... maybe it's secretly a TARDIS.
How come none of the Black Belts in here has a Lucario? I mean, they're in a Steel-type gym and Lucario is also Fighting-type... seems like it'd fit really well with them. And apparently Steelixes like the Evil Monkey strategy too, but they use Screech instead of Leer.
vs. Byron
=====================
He's supposed to have facial hair... I never noticed that until I saw the new before-battle picture. Whoops! And, as I predicted, the "red circles" part of the new Flash Cannon animation looks just plain wrong... though the rest of it still looks good. His Magneton managed to knock out Kami and Trunks, but Turtle finished it off and Leech Seed'ed the Steelix... but then got Ice Fang'ed and knocked out. Then Yamcha finally got his chance to kick a Gym Leader's ass: first he 1-hit-KO'ed the Steelix with Surf, then took the Bastiodon out with only a little bit more trouble (Metal Burst REALLY hurt after the first hit, but fortunately the Bastiodon only got one chance to use it.)
Not nearly as easy as Roark or Maylene, but not quite as tough as Gardenia and nothing compared to Wake... so I guess he's around the same level that Fantina was, difficulty-wise. Not too bad!
Heh, so THAT'S why they supposedly felt the bomb's explosion from all the way over there... what they felt/heard wasn't really the explosion itself, but the sound from the TV reporting about it.
Grunts are starting to suck a little less... either that or the game expects people to be horribly overleveled by this point in the game and levels up the grunts to compensate for that.
Stupid Bronzor, you're not supposed to use Gyro Ball when you're FASTER than the other Pokémon... especially not when the other Pokémon is weak to the other attack you were using before.
Apparently yelling "MUDDAFUGGA!" at frogs makes them angry enough to knock out a parrot in one hit.
Hmm... this Kricketune just used Focus Energy, and then *I* got a critical hit right after it. Kind of a funny coincidence.
Mars is much easier the second time... though that's probably because she has fully-evolved Pokémon (and you don't) the first time.
Lake Acuity's entrance is completely different now, and you need Rock Climb to get in.
vs. Candice
=====================
Knocked out the Sneasel the usual way (Confuse Ray + series of Shock Waves from Kami) and then had Velveeta and Trunks work together to take out the Abomasnow after it knocked out Kami. Yamcha kicked the Piloswine's ass, after it manages to knock out Trunks... and then the Froslass beat up the rest of my surviving team members, mainly thanks to the whole "Blizzard hits 100% accuracy during hail" thing.
Wasn't expecting to lose, especially after seeing that her first Pokémon was only two levels above mine... at least it was pretty close, unlike the first match with Wake. Chiaotzu seems to be lagging behind the rest of the team a lot lately, though it may just be that his strongest move (besides Last Resort) is Confusion while the rest of the team is blasting out Earthquakes and Surfs and Psycho Cuts and stuff like that. Either way, I'm thinking I might swap him out for a while. Maybe for an Ice-type, so I don't get hit over and over by Hail--I did have a Swinub which I named Ganondorf, who has Snow Cloak, so after I get him fully evolved he might be my next team member.
Ganondorf evolved after only leveling up once, and now he's almost caught up to the other guys... currently hunting for Heart Scales so I can get him fully evolved before I fight Candice again.
Heart Scales are apparently much rarer now than they were in D/P... I've found two Armor Fossils (one of which I took to the fossil-reviving dude) and a Sky Plate already, but not a single Heart Scale. Speaking of that fossil, I might actually end up using the Shieldon/Bastiodon in my team once it's revived from the fossil... having a Pokémon with two types that are good against Ice, plus having ridiculous defenses and being resistant to pretty much every move Candice's Pokémon have, might help a bit.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.38
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.39
CAUGHT: Piloswine (Ganondorf) Lv.37
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SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2009
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Going to try trading with my Diamond version, using my sister's DS. I'm planning on sending over a Ditto with a Heart Scale attached to my Platinum version, in exchange for a Houndour (which are impossible to find in Diamond.)
So that means a couple more in the Pokédex for my Diamond version (I'm going to try and go for 493 on this one, though I doubt I'll make it due to annoying event-only Pokémon...) and the ability to breed anything (and evolve Ganondorf) on Platinum.
Damn, Phione eggs take FOREVER to hatch... especially without any Pokémon that have Flame Body or Magma Armor to speed it up.
vs. Candice again
=====================
Ganondorf took out the Sneasel and Abomasnow singlehandedly, thanks to Ancient Power's stat-boosting and Snow Cloak keeping the Abomasnow's first Water Pulse from hitting (odd, I didn't even know they could learn that.) The Froslass knocked him out with Blizzard, though, and then proceeded to do the same thing to Kami. Trunks survived the hit and got some damage in with Psycho Cut, and I used one of those Max Revives I had picked up to bring Ganondorf back (while Trunks gets KO'ed by another Blizzard... which means she's only got 1 Blizzard left!) Unfortunately, instead of wasting the last Blizzard she used Double Team and Shadow Ball against Yamcha; fortunately, the hail doesn't hit him thanks to his ability and one Shadow Ball doesn't even knock him out of the green. Yamcha goes surfing again, and the Froslass's ass is officially whupped. Candice's Piloswine knocked out Yamcha with Earthquake (after being almost KO'ed by another Surf), and then Ganondorf came back in to kick some more ass. The two piggies missed each other a lot due to Snow Cloak, but Ganondorf hit with a couple of Ice Shards and Mud Bombs, bringing the smaller piggie down to critical health once again. One more Ice Shard, and then there's only one piggie left standing.
Not quite as tough as Wake, but still decent. I'd say Candice is probably the second-hardest Gym Leader in the game so far, just barely edging out Gardenia. Turns out that I didn't need to train that Shieldon after all--Ganondorf was more than enough by himself!
Heh. "The gruntiest of the grunts!"
I wonder... why they didn't change Ice Beam's animation? It was one of the crappier-looking moves before... yet they change some of the much better-looking ones (like Flash Cannon) instead.
Apparently, Cyrus is 27 years old... which makes him the first character since Red/Blue to actually have an official age! But it doesn't really match up with the way he's drawn at all... he looks more like 40, or at least late-30's.
Or maybe Looker was saying that HE is 27 years old, not Cyrus... which would make a bit more sense.
vs. Cyrus #2
=====================
As proven by the fight with Candice, Ganondorf whups Sneasels easily... and so, Cyrus's Sneasel gets whupped pretty quickly. His Crobat's Bite knocks him out, though, so Kami switches in and does the old confuse-and-zap trick. Instead of using Bite again, the Crobat stupidly attempts to use Supersonic (shouldn't it have replaced that with Confuse Ray about 20 levels ago?) and gets fried on the next turn after that misses. Kami confuses his Honchkrow, but then gets knocked out by Faint Attack. Yamcha comes in and goes surfin', knocking the Honchkrow around for a while until Cyrus uses a Full Restore... which only gives the birdie one extra turn, since it only takes three Surfs to KO it, and Yamcha's faster.
vs. Mars & Jupiter
=====================
Why in the world has Rival Dude not evolved his Munchlax yet? Anyway... Bronzors weren't too much of a problem (more annoying than anything else.) The Skuntank and Purugly actually did some damage, knocking out a few of my Pokémon... and then the Golbats weren't anything special either: needless to say, Kami whupped their asses easily. Timmy's Pokémon weren't much of a help... the Staraptor knocked out one (already weakened) Golbat, and the Munchlax provided a nice Stockpiled defense boost that Yamcha could copy with Psych Up, but otherwise they mostly just acted as decoys.
Hey, Cyrus has two Red Chains now. And he sounds like he'd probably get along pretty well with Xemnas and Cell.
Ooh, shiny new cutscene thingie. And Giratina is badass (and has the ability to make Cyrus stutter like a retard, heh.)
Finally, an actual reason for this game to be 3D: disorienting rotaty effects when you walk up walls and stuff.
vs. Cyrus #3
=====================
His Houndoom did some damage to Trunks and then knocked out Yamcha before he could do anything... and Ganondorf, too. Kami confused the puppy, but unfortunately got knocked out in one shot right after that. Turtle came in and knocked the puppy out with an Earthquake. Sent in Trunks against the Weavile so I could have time to revive Ganondorf, and as expected he got knocked out on that same turn. Before Ganondorf could KO the Weavile, though, Cyrus switched in his Gyarados (which got an Ice Shard in the face, though unfortunately that didn't do much damage.) Ganondorf got KO'ed, so I brought Kami back in after reviving him. Shock Wave didn't quite knock the big fish out, though, and Kami was KO'ed by a Waterfall. And then Cyrus used a Full Restore just as I bring Turtle in; unfortunately, the big fish has Ice Fang and knocks out Turtle in one hit, then does the same to Velveeta. Oww...
There is NO WAY IN HELL I'm going through the whole Mt. Coronet/Distortion World thing all over again... so I turned the game off and restarted at this point.
Tried again and actually did WORSE than the first time. Friggin' Houndoom... I'm guessing the sheer annoying-ness of this battle is probably going to reduce the size of the devil-dog's (obnoxiously large) fanbase.
I guess I'll have to go through the whole damn mountain again later if I'm going to beat this moron.
Hey, that's weird... Dialga and Palkia just showed up in my Pokédex even though I've never seen them in a battle before. Freaky. I guess they had it set up to put them in there when Cyrus drags them out with the Red Chain, so you don't need to actually fight them to get the National Pokédex.
Heh, there's a swimmer who acknowledges the whole "way too many Water-types" thing. And a little kid who mentions that he likes jellyfish Pokémon, but then doesn't even have a single Tentacool...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.42
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.42
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SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2009
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vs. Cyrus #3 again
=====================
After a level-up or two (and with a few new moves) my Pokémon do A LOT better against this guy. Trunks, now with Drain Punch, beats up the Houndoom pretty bad and then quickly KOs the Crobat with Psycho Cut when Cyrus switches Pokémon. Kami zaps the Honchkrow, then Ganondorf comes in and finishes off the birdie with Ice Shard. The badly-hurt Houndoom swaps in again and KO's Ganondorf with a Flamethrower. Yamcha comes in and knocks off the doggie's tiny sliver of remaining HP with SCRATCH, of all things. His Gyarados manages to knock out Yamcha (while I revive Kami), and then Kami comes back in... causing him to switch to his Weavile, getting it confused with the Confuse Ray that was meant for Mr. Fish. I revive Ganondorf, and the Weavile knocks out Kami. Ganondorf whups some ass, as usual, while the Weavile just keeps hitting itself in the face like a moron. The Gyarados almost KO's Ganondorf with Waterfall, and then gets hit with Ancient Power and an Ice Shard, bringing the fish's HP into "zap in one hit with Shock Wave" range. Trunks takes a hit while I revive Kami, and then we have some tasty fried fish.
Cynthia is smart. She realizes that it's not possible for some random Pokémon to just destroy the entire world, regardless of what the nutty mythology says--in her own words, "It's not possible for a Pokémon to make the world disappear."
I really hope they changed Giratina's capture rate to match Dialga/Palkia... otherwise it might be a real pain in the ass to catch.
Apparently they didn't... but I still managed to catch Giratina on the second try, thanks to a lot of Revives and a few Timer Balls. For a second there I was afraid I'd end up having to use the Master Ball...
And Cyrus needs to go cut himself.
Hmm... Giratina's Altered Form (no, Nintendo, I'm not using your ridiculous Ye Olde Fake Olde Englishe spelling) shows up in the Pokédex even though I've never seen it. I'm guessing it switched forms as soon as it got sent to the PC, heh...
Holy crap, another official age! Professor Rowan is exactly 60 years old. And unlike Cyrus being 27, it actually makes sense!
Feebas gives a lot more experience than Magikarp... I wonder why.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.44
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.44
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MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009
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Apparently dressing as a Pikachu is "hardcore" now.
vs. Volkner
=====================
Looks like my idea to give Ganondorf a Babiri Berry (the one that weakens Steel type attacks) was a good decision--Volkner seems to be a fan of the "use Iron Tail on things electric attacks don't work on" strategy. Didn't help his Jolteon much against Turtle, as it barely did any damage and then got 1-hit-KO'ed by an Earthquake. The Luxray did a lot better--its Ice Fang knocked out Turtle, so I had to switch in Ganondorf. Unfortunately, it also had Fire Fang... but that wasn't quite enough to 1-hit-KO Ganondorf. Knocked him into the red with an Earthquake, then used another Earthquake on the next turn after Volkner healed the kitty with a Hyper Potion. After that, of course, Ganondorf gets an Ice Shard in and knocks out the kitty. Next was his Raichu, and... wow. Wasn't expecting Focus Blast at all. Swap in Trunks after he knocks out Ganondorf; his Charge Beam barely scratches Trunks, while Psycho Cut takes the Raichu down to half HP after one turn... and then all the way down to zero on the next, after another wimpy Charge Beam. His Electivire knocks out Trunks with a Thunder Punch, so I bring in Yamcha (who has a Wacan Berry--no "super effective" for you, muddafugga!) His Thunder Punch hits, but thanks to the Wacan Berry it only knocks off about half of Yamcha's HP. Surf takes off about a third of his HP, so I use the next turn to revive Ganondorf while Yamcha takes the hit. Unfortunately his Electivire has Fire Punch, so Ganondorf gets KO'ed pretty fast as well... damn. Kami comes in next and confuses him, then gets hit with a Fire Punch (which, fortunately, doesn't even knock off half of his HP.) After I hit him with Ominous Wind and then get hit by another Fire Punch, I heal Kami with a Hyper Potion (and the Electivire smacks himself in the face.) Another Ominous Wind and he's down to critical health, which of course means Volkner heals him. Kami confuses him again and then continues hitting him with Ominous Wind--and this time he gets the stat-boost from it! Another Fire Punch hits, so I heal Kami again (and, once again, the Electivire hits himself.) Two more Ominous Winds and he's finally knocked out.
Velveeta didn't even get a turn to fight!... which is probably for the best, since she'd just get knocked out in one shot from all those electric attacks flying around. Another funny thing: since I used almost all of my team equally in the fight, none of them got quite enough experience to level up even once from it (though Kami did come very close.)
Personally, I think Wake was probably tougher... but I figure he could win in a same-leveled fight against Wake due to the whole "Electric is good against Water" thing. Plus I had two Ground-types with me, which might have made him a bit easier to beat. So I guess Volkner does kinda deserve the whole "strongest Gym Leader in Sinnoh" thing.
Mantykes are freakishly hard to catch, for some reason... breaking out of Ultra Balls even though they're in the red. Weird.
Zen Headbutt's animation seems to be slightly changed--it looked pretty junky before, but now it's not quite as bad.
Heh, there's a Dive Ball (which are basically useless, thanks to Dive not being usable outside of battle anymore) just sitting in the water here.
Damn... Hyper Voice just uses the default cry instead of the recorded sound when a Chatot uses it. I really wanted to hear "mmMMUDDAFUGGA! MUDDAFUGGA!" when Velveeta blasted that Gyarados with it.
Ooh, the Victory Road entrance looks neat now. Not just a dinky little cave entrance like before--it's this HUGE cave with some sort of carving that I think is supposed to be a Poké Ball... but it looks a lot like a giant eyeball, which is even better.
Ha, this Skiier guy up in the mountains just used "slalom" in place of the Jewish(?) expression "shalom."
"You found an HP Up!" just sounds wrong. I'm guessing whoever wrote the text is one of those silly kids who pronounces "HP" as "aytch pee" instead of just saying the whole thing: "hit points." I really hate how it seems that the damn acronyms are actually replacing the original terms for things...
Lickilicky's new sprite actually succeeds in doing the impossible: making that abomination's design look WORSE.
This Black Belt says he learned karate on the Internet... he's probably doing some sort of ridiculous dance moves and thinking it's actually karate because people get scared away when he does it. Heh...
What kind of a name is "Ondrej" anyway? Other than the name of a wimpy trainer whose Pokémon get 1-hit-KO'ed by Ice Shard, that is.
DRAGON TAMER (BILL) CLINTON!
I wonder why going up waterfalls is so much faster when it's a REALLY, REALLY BIG waterfall.
Wow, the Pokémon League place looks really different now. On the inside, anyway.
vs. Timmy #6
=====================
As usual, Kami goes first and zaps the birdie. This time he doesn't get knocked out in one hit, but he doesn't really manage to do much of anything, either. Next is his Floatzel, which (annoyingly) uses Crunch and lowers Kami's defense. Kami survives and confuses him, then I swap him out for Turtle. The Floatzel smacks himself in the face twice and then gets Razor Leaf'ed to death. His only decent Pokémon (Heracross) comes out next; this time, Velveeta knocks him out in one hit with a double-super-effective "MUDDAFUGGA!" attack. Next is his Snorlax, which he finally evolved from a Munchlax. Trunks nails the fatass with a Psycho Cut, gets blubber-slammed but survives, and then nearly KO's him with Drain Punch, restoring most of his HP in the process. Another Body Slam, this time bringing Trunks into the red; one more hit though, and the Snorlax is finally knocked out. He sends out his Roserade (against a Psychic-type? not too bright, huh?)... which, of course, gets KO'ed in one shot from Psycho Cut. His Infernape knocks Trunks out with Shadow Claw, though, so Velveeta comes back in again. She gets hit by a Flamethrower and gets knocked out. So Yamcha comes in; the big monkey uses Focus Blast and knocks him into the red, and then Yamcha's Surf knocks him down to a tiny sliver of HP. Another Focus Blast and Yamcha is knocked out, too (surprised it hit twice in a row, with its crappy accuracy.) Finally, Ganondorf comes in and KO's the monkey with an Ice Shard before he can even get an attack in.
Wow. For once, he really actually wasn't too bad. His Infernape finally grew out of the "evil monkey strategy," and his Snorlax was pretty tough as well (and the Heracross probably would be as well, if it hadn't fallen so quickly to the awesome power of MUDDAFUGGA.)
Aaron's room is all planty now. Looks a bit like a giant terrarium (for bugs!)
vs. Aaron
=====================
First is Yanmega; fortunately, I have Kami out first, and the big bug happens to be part Flying. Kami confuses him, causing him to smack himself up against a wall a few times, and then zaps him with Shock Wave. Aaron uses one of those annoying Full Restores, so Kami just zaps the bug again. Mr. Bug uses Double Team, but it doesn't help him any more than it helped all the Staraptors that have used it against Kami--Shock Wave still hits, and Mr. Bug is fried. Next is Aaron's Scizor, who Kami also confuses. Just like before, this is followed by some Shock Waves, though unfortunately they're not super effective... and this bug snapped out of confusion quickly and has Night Slash. Kami confuses him once again, but gets knocked out on the next turn anyway. Yamcha switches in, and proves that bugs don't like to get wet by knocking him into the red with one Surf and then knocking him all the way out with the next. Next is a Heracross; I switch in Velveeta, but unfortunately this Heracross is faster than her and hits with Stone Edge, knocking her out. Trunks comes in next, but gets knocked out by a Megahorn despite not being weak to Bug-type moves anymore. Ganondorf comes in next, but gets knocked out by Close Combat. Yamcha comes in, dodges a Megahorn, and then smacks the big bug with a Zen Headbutt, knocking off more than half of his HP. The next Megahorn hits, but doesn't quite KO Yamcha, so he's able to finish off Aaron's Heracross with another Zen Headbutt. He switches in his Vespiquen, which knocks out Yamcha while I revive Kami. Kami confuses this bug just like the others, then puts up a Substitute (which probably saves him from getting KO'ed by Power Gem.) I heal him, and the bug uses Attack Order... which wasn't too smart considering that Ghost resists Bug. Confuse the bug again, then proceed to zapping, knocking her out in two hits. Finally Aaron sends out his Drapion, which is somehow faster than Kami... but doesn't manage to KO him in one hit anyway (he used Ice Fang) and gets confused. I heal Kami again (and he gets hit by more Ice Fangs, which do minimal damage) and then use Ominous Wind... I forgot for a second that they nonsensically made Drapion's type Dark/Poison instead of Bug/Poison. Another Ice Fang, and Kami gets friggin' FROZEN. A Full Restore fixes that, though. More wimpy Ice Fangs, and Kami manages to get the stupidly-non-Bug-typed bug confused again. Bug gets zapped with a Shock Wave which does surprising amounts of damage considering that it isn't even super effective; unfortunately, he had a Sitrus Berry. Zap him again, knocking him back into the yellow. Heal Kami once again, and watch as the idiot bug uses Aerial Ace and doesn't even manage to do 20 damage. Kami zaps him again, knocking him into the red... and making Aaron use another damn Full Restore. Zap again, confuse again, constant stream of wimpy Ice Fangs, more zapping. After yet more zapping, the big ugly bug mofo is knocked out.
Bertha's room looks like something that belongs over in Arizona or something... sand-worn rock formations and all. I guess her Hippowdon probably likes it like that, though.
Bertha has got to be Agatha's younger, less-creepy sister or something. They're just too much alike for them to not be related.
vs. Bertha
=====================
Trunks goes first, smacking the Whiscash with a double-super-effective Leaf Blade and knocking her out in one hit. Next up is Bertha's Gliscor, which Ganondorf hits with a (once again) double-super-effective Ice Shard. It doesn't quite knock her out, though, and she gets an Earthquake in... which doesn't even knock Ganon out of the green. One more Ice Shard and bye-bye, flying scorpion. She sends out her Golem next, and Turtle smacks the rocky critter with a double-super-effective Razor Leaf that almost knocks her out. She uses Sandstorm, which doesn't really accomplish a whole lot since Turtle can't be hurt by it anyway. Another Razor Leaf knocks her out. Rhyperior comes in next, and just like the Golem before her she gets smacked with a double-super-effective Razor Leaf... but it doesn't even knock her out of the green, and then Turtle gets KO'ed by an Avalanche. Trunks comes back in, taking her out with a Leaf Blade--and it was a critical hit AND double-super-effective. Ouch. Finally she switches in her Hippowdon, the only member of the team that doesn't have any double-weaknesses. Trunks hits her with a Leaf Blade, takes an Earthquake that almost knocks him out, then gets in another Leaf Blade before being KO'ed by Stone Edge. Ganondorf comes in and hits with an Ice Shard, knocking the hippo into the red; he gets hit with an Earthquake but it dosn't quite knock him out. Unfortunately, Bertha uses a Full Restore. Ganondorf gets another Ice Shard in, then I heal him with a Hyper Potion (that's the first healing item used so far against Bertha, thanks mostly to my ability to stomp everything with double-weaknesses.) Ganon tries Earthquake and finds that it only does about the same damage as Ice Shard, then I heal him again. Crunch lowers his defense, and he gets in another Ice Shard before being knocked out by a critical-hit Earthquake. After that, Yamcha comes in and finishes the hippo off with a Surf.
Really surprised that Bertha was actually easier than Aaron this time. I guess the abundance of strong Grass-type moves on my team might have something to do with that.
And now, Flint's room... is Lower Norfair from Super Metroid. Good thing Ridley isn't there--the Pokémon wouldn't have a chance...
vs. Flint
=====================
First is the oh-so-annoying Houndoom. Hopefully not as annoying as Cyrus's. Yamcha gets hit by a Dark Pulse that knocks about half of his HP off, then answers with a Waterfall that nearly KO's the puppy. Flint uses a Full Restore, then Yamcha hits with another Waterfall... which does LESS damage than the first one. Damn. Another Dark Pulse knocks out Yamcha, so Trunks comes in and knocks out the puppy with a Drain Punch. Next is a Rapidash, which (for some odd reason) starts charging up a Solar Beam on the first turn. Trunks gets in a Psycho Cut, and then after being hit by the charged-up beam, heals himself with a Drain Punch. The horsey bounces up, causing Trunks's Psycho Cut to miss. I switch in Kami to take the hit, which he does very well (though unfortunately it paralyzes him.) The horsey then uses Flare Blitz, knocking out Kami and almost knocking himself out in the process. Ganondorf switches in, but unfortunately he doesn't use a Full Restore... he uses Flare Blitz again, KOing both himself and Ganondorf thanks to recoil. I put Turtle in against his Flareon, but of course he gets KO'ed with Overheat before he can use Earthquake. Velveeta comes in next, screaming MUDDAFUGGA at the fluffy little thing and getting hit with another Overheat, which almost knocks her out (and wimpifies the Flareon's Special Attack even more.) I heal Velveeta, the Flareon uses Quick Attack, and then Velveeta flies up, causing the Flareon's Will-O'-Wisp to miss. Fly hits, nearly knocking out the Flareon; this time Will-O'-Wisp hits, but it's too late for the Flareon, who gets KO'ed with Hyper Voice. I use a Full Restore on Velveeta to get rid of the burn (and damage), while the monkey uses Mach Punch and doesn't do all that much damage. He then uses Flare Blitz, doing a good bit of damage to himself from the recoil. Trunks comes in, and I give him an X Defend (which allows him to survive Flare Blitz, amazingly--finally, an actual use for those junky stat-boost-in-battle items!) I heal Trunks, and the monkey uses Earthquake, which doesn't even knock Trunks out of the green. Another Flare Blitz (this one bringing Trunks into the red), then Trunks hits the monkey with a Psycho Cut and knocks him out. And... Flint's Magmortar has an awesome seal added on that makes him look like he's blasting fire from his arm cannon. Heal Trunks again, and he gets hit by Thunderbolt (kind of an odd move, coming from a Magmortar...) and a Flamethrower before he can do much... so I lost.
Not bad at all for my first attempt at the E4, especially since I don't even have one Pokémon at level 50 yet. And now I'm only missing seven Pokémon from the Sinnoh Pokédex--Alakazam, Spiritomb, Garchomp, Milotic, Espeon, Umbreon, and Togekiss--so I might be getting the National Pokédex even before I beat the Elite Four this time! I know Cynthia has four of those (Spiritomb, Garchomp, Milotic, and Togekiss), and I figure Lucian probably has an Alakazam, but I'm not sure where I'll find the Eevee evolutions...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.47
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.47
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.48
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.49
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.48
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.48
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TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After fiddling with the GTS and battle videos a little (including finding a funny video where a Magikarp, with some help from a Smeargle, takes down a Regigigas), I went after the Elite Four again.
I whupped Aaron and Bertha without too much trouble, but only ended up doing about as well as last time against Flint: last time, Flint's Magmortar wasn't even damaged, and this time his Infernape was the last one left, and WAS hurt... but only from recoil. Of course, his Magmortar was EIGHT LEVELS higher than any of my Pokémon, so...
After a couple more tries, I finally managed to beat Flint... but by the time I did, I was almost out of Revives and ended up going into Lucian's room with only half a team.
vs. Lucian
=====================
Trunks knocked out his Mr. Mime with a series of Leaf Blades (would've only taken two, but he used Reflect after the first one.) Switched to Turtle for the Espeon, only to find that the damn thing has Signal Beam--I didn't even know they could learn that... fortunately, Turtle survives. But his Crunch doesn't even knock off half of the Espeon's HP (probably thanks to Reflect.) I switch Kami in before Turtle can get KO'ed, but unfortunately his Espeon has Shadow Ball, too, and Kami gets KO'ed. The same thing happens to Trunks, and then Turtle gets knocked out by a Signal Beam.
Yeah... I'm going to have to stock up on Revives a little better before I try that again. I figure I could probably beat Lucian if I had my full team ready and hadn't run out of Revives before I even got to him... not so sure about Cynthia, but who knows. I beat her with Lv.51-54 Pokémon in Diamond, so I'm not too far off from the levels I should be aiming for.
Now that I finally found a trainer who has an Umbreon, I only need to see an Alakazam and four of the Pokémon in Cynthia's team before I can get the National Pokédex. I could catch one of those level 40-something Gabites in Victory Road and evolve it, evolve that Togepi I hatched, and trade an Alakazam, Spiritomb, and Feebas/Milotic over from my Diamond version... but that'd probably take even longer than just beating the Elite Four and Cynthia.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.51
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.50
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.50
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tried the Elite Four once again, this time stomping Aaron without even losing a single Pokémon. Screwed up and used Night Slash instead of Drain Punch once against Bertha's Golem, so Trunks ended up getting knocked out by an Earthquake; other than that, though, Bertha wasn't any more of a problem than usual. Did MUCH better against Flint as well; his Magmortar was losing so badly to Trunks that he actually tried Hyper Beam, but it wasn't quite enough and one more Drain Punch finished off the big mofo. Yamcha then finished off his Infernape with one critical-hit Surf after easily surviving a Thunder Punch.
vs. Lucian again
=====================
This time I send out Trunks first, giving him an X Sp.Def while the Mr. Mime uses Light Screen and then hitting with a Night Slash after he uses Reflect. After that I give Trunks a Dire Hit and an X Speed while he gets hit with Psychics that don't really do a whole lot. Then I give him an X Defend while he gets hit with another Psychic... stalling away the Reflect/Light Screen. I heal Trunks, then knock out the Mr. Mime with a Night Slash. He sends in his Espeon next, and Trunks knocks off a bit more than half of his HP with a Night Slash, then almost gets KO'ed by a Shadow Ball. The Espeon uses Quick Attack and knocks out Trunks; I bring in Ganondorf and hit his Espeon wih an Ice Shard, almost knocking him out. Ganondorf gets hit with Psychic, Lucian uses a Full Restore, and then Ganondorf gets a critical hit with Earthquake and knocks the Espeon out. The Bronzong comes out next, and Kami comes in and confuses it. Kami hits it over and over with Ominous Wind, while it hits itself and then eventually uses Calm Mind and then Psychic, almost knocking out Kami. Kami uses Ominous Wind again but it doesn't quite knock the Bronzong out, so it KO's Kami with another boosted Psychic. Ganondorf comes in and knocks off the Bronzong's tiny amount of remaining HP with Ice Shard. His Gallade comes out, and Ganondorf hits him with another Ice Shard before being KO'ed with Stone Edge. Yamcha comes in and gets almost KO'ed with Leaf Blade while I revive Kami; he then gets knocked out the rest of the way while I revive Trunks. Kami confuses him, but then gets KO'ed by Stone Edge. I bring in Turtle, and he gets hit with a critical-hit Psycho Cut... and survives it! He then Leech Seeds the weird-looking mofo, and I heal him the rest of the way with a Hyper Potion. Another Psycho Cut hits, this time not a critical hit... and then Turtle gets KO'ed by another critical-hit one before he can do anything. Trunks switches in, and I give him an X Defend; he survives a Leaf Blade (barely) and then I heal him. Another Leaf Blade hits, then Trunks gets a hit in with Psycho Cut... and then gets knocked out by another Psycho Cut. I switch in Velveeta, Lucian uses a Full Restore, and Velveeta flies up. A Stone Edge misses due to the bird being in the air; Fly hits, knocking him into the red (with Leech Seed bringing him even further into the red.) Stone Edge hits and knocks Velveeta out, then Lucian's Gallade gets KO'ed by an Ice Shard from Ganondorf. His Alakazam knocks out Ganondorf with Energy Ball, and then Trunks is the only one left... and he gets KO'ed by Psychic.
After that, I go off to get money so I can stock up on Revives and Hyper Potions once again... and randomly trained a Togepi and evolved it so that I could get Togekiss's Pokédex entry without getting all the way to Cynthia's. Now I only need to see a Milotic, a Spiritomb, and a Garchomp before I have all 210 in the Sinnoh Pokédex filled in... probably going to catch one of those Gabites in Victory Road and evolve it before I go for the Elite Four again.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.52
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.53
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.53
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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009
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After catching a Gabite and evolving it, I only need two more Pokémon before I get the National Pokédex--Milotic and Spiritomb... both of which would be pretty close to impossible for me to get without trading from my Diamond version. Of course, if I get to Cynthia the next time I go after the E4, I won't have to worry about it, but still.
Tried the Elite Four again. Beat Aaron without too much trouble (though one of my Pokémon--Ganondorf--did get knocked out, so I didn't do quite as well as last time.) Bertha didn't even get a single hit in, as I knocked each of her Pokémon out in a single hit--even the Hippowdon was 1-hit-KO'ed this time, and that one wasn't even double-weak to the attack I used. Flint was still tougher than either Aaron or Bertha, but this time I did pretty well against him, ending up with two Pokémon still conscious (he saved his wimpy Flareon for last this time, so instead of having to deal with Magmortar or Infernape I just needed to keep Yamcha in and use one Waterfall.) Lucian's Espeon was a pain in the ass, though the Mr. Mime and Bronzong weren't too much trouble. Ganondorf's King's Rock came in handy, making Lucian's Alakazam flinch twice in a row from Ice Shard (though, unfortunately, he healed the thing with a damn Full Restore right after that.) His Focus Blast missed, though, and one more Ice Shard knocked him out--wow. I just KO'ed an Alakazam without taking a single point of damage. His Gallade was a pain in the ass, also, but eventually Ganondorf knocked him out with an Earthquake after managing to survive a Leaf Blade.
Hmm, Cynthia's room is really different now. Giant transparent boxes, some of them with smaller gray boxes inside... weird.
vs. Cynthia
=====================
Turtle goes first, Leech Seed'ing that weird-looking thing before it can get a hit in. Turns out her Spiritomb has Silver Wind... but even with the super-effective-ness, it didn't manage to knock Turtle out of the green. With the combination of Shell Bell and Leech Seed healing, Turtle takes three Silver Wind hits in a row without being knocked into the red, then hits her Spiritomb hard with an Earthquake after she heals it. Finally, I knock the thing out with a Crunch. Kami comes in against her Togekiss and confuses it, then puts up a Substitute. Water Pulse breaks his substitutes twice in a row... so I confuse the Togekiss again, then switch back to Turtle. Unfortunately, he gets an Air Slash in that KO's Turtle. Kami comes back and hits with a Shock Wave, doing a surprising amount of damage considering how high Togekiss's Special Defense is; he then barely survives a Water Pulse, so I heal him with a Hyper Potion. Another Water Pulse hits and confuses Kami, so I confuse the Togekiss in response. After one more Water Pulse, it's Full Restore time--and for once, I'm actually glad that Full Restores cure confusion too now. After the Togekiss hits himself again, Kami knocks him out with a Shock Wave, and Cynthia brings out... a Lucario? Kind of an odd choice against a Ghost/Electric-type. Lucario gets confused and hits himself, then gets zapped by a Shock Wave and hits himself once again. Another Shock Wave and Lucario's in the red; he cuts himself like a little emo kid and dies. Milotic comes out next (filling up my Sinnoh Pokédex!) and is promptly confused and zapped. She uses Mirror Coat, but it isn't quite enough to knock Kami out. I heal Kami with another Hyper Potion, and then he gets hit by a Surf (bringing him into the low yellow.) Another Shock Wave hit and the Milotic is into the low yellow as well, before knocking Kami out with an Ice Beam. Trunks swaps in and knocks her out with a Leaf Blade. Finally, it's time for Garchomp. And I have Ice Shards that make you flinch, plus three more Pokémon as backup. Any guesses at how this is gonna turn out? As expected, Ganondorf nearly KO's the pseudoshark/pseudodragon in one hit with an Ice Shard, triggering her Sitrus Berry. He then SURVIVES A FLAMETHROWER and fires off another Ice Shard, bringing the Garchomp into the low red. A Dragon Rush knocks Ganondorf out. Velveeta swaps in, I revive Ganondorf, and Cynthia uses a Full Restore. I heal Ganondorf with a Hyper Potion while Velveeta is missed by the first Dragon Rush, then KO'ed by the next one. Ganondorf's turn again: first, an Ice Shard that knocks off roughly half of the Garchomp's HP. He survives the fire-breathing shark attack again, and then it's ass-whuppin' time: the next Ice Shard knocks out the sharkdragonthing. Last is Roserade, and I still have Trunks and Yamcha on top of Ganondorf. The first Ice Shard nearly does the job by itself, knocking her into the low yellow; she then knocks out Ganondorf with an Extrasensory attack. Trunks comes in and survives a Sludge Bomb before knocking Cynthia's last Pokémon out with a Psycho Cut.
Wow. Cynthia was surprisingly easy this time around--I'm guessing my team must have just matched up badly against Flint and Lucian's teams or something, because I remember Cynthia being MUCH harder than this before (and her team was actually weaker overall in D/P than it is now, so it can't be the Platinum changes that made her easier.) I guess Cynthia's team is a bit vulnerable to Rotom, since Kami nearly wiped out three in a row by himself; Ganondorf did some ass-whuppin' as well, but that's expected since Cynthia has a Garchomp and Ice Shards tend to screw those over pretty well.
Just like in Diamond, I ended up beating Cynthia with Pokémon in the low 50's; in this case, between 53 and 54. In Diamond I won with slightly lower levels--only one was level 54, and a few were still at levels 51 and 52.
Wheeee... why are there ghostyballoons flying over my head? And now seagulls... hope they don't need to take a dump! ...HOLY SHIT A FLYING ROBOT!
Before giving you the National Pokédex, Prof. Oak says Sinnoh is a long way from Kanto. Take that, stupid "Sinnoh is DIRECTLY north from Kanto! They might even be connected by land!" people.
Hey, they changed the boat that goes to the Battle Zone island. It has freaky drill things on it now...
The island itself looks REALLY different, too--it's all desert/tropical-ish, with red stone paths and sand and palm trees. And kickass Middle-Eastern-ish houses.
vs. Flint & Volkner
=====================
Wow, weird double battle here. Turtle tries using Earthquake but gets KO'ed by a Flamethrower from Flint's Houndoom; Timmy's Staraptor then (almost) knocks the puppy out with Close Combat before being hit hard with an Ice Fang from Volkner's Luxray. I switch in Ganondorf, who knocks out the Houndoom with an Ice Shard; Timmy's Staraptor stupidly uses Aerial Ace on the Luxray, then gets knocked out by a Crunch. Ganondorf uses Earthquake, easily knocking out both the Luxray and Flint's Flareon (as well as taking off a big chunk of Timmy's Snorlax's HP... whoops!) Volkner's Electivire hits Timmy's Sorlax with Brick Break, nearly knocking him out; Flint's Magmortar then hits Ganondorf with a Flamethrower that DOES knock him out, and Timmy's Snorlax heals himself with Rest. The Electivire hits him with another Brick Break, then Trunks hits the Magmortar with a Psycho Cut which, unfortunately, doesn't knock him out of the green. Flint's Magmortar hits Volkner's Electivire with a Thunderbolt, boosting his speed; he then knocks out Timmy's Snorlax with another Brick Break while Trunks KO's Flint's Magmortar with a critical hit from Psycho Cut. Electivire hits Timmy's Heracross with a Fire Punch that gets him into the low yellow, then gets almost knocked out by another of Trunks's kickass critical-hit Psycho Cuts. He heals with a Sitrus Berry, then Timmy's Heracross uses Night Slash and almost knocks him out. Timmy's Heracross is KO'ed by another Fire Punch, then Trunks finishes off the Electivire. Volkner sends out his Jolteon, and Timmy stupidly swaps in his Floatzel, which nearly gets 1-hit-KO'ed by Charge Beam. Heck, the thing even LOOKS stupid, hanging its mouth open like that... Fortunately, his Crunch and my Psycho Cut bring the Jolteon into the red, allowing Trunks to knock him out after he knocks off what's left of the dinky Floatzel's HP with a Quick Attack.
Heh, Timmy bumped into his dad.
Trying out some of the Battle Frontier places, starting with the Battle Arcade (I thought it was called Battle Roulette? Oh well.) Ganondorf the Mamoswine whupped some ass in there, beating seven trainers in a row without ever being knocked out once... Trunks and Kami didn't even need to help. Unfortunately, they don't let you keep those Sitrus Berries that you can get... damn.
Tried the Battle Castle next. I wonder why they changed the butler's name, considering that "Cochran" isn't even that weird or anything. Unlike "Cattleya," which is just about the most bizarre name I've ever seen... doesn't sound that weird when pronounced, but the way it's spelled just looks horrible.
The system where you buy items, heal, etc. really reminds me of the simulator game in DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 3; it had a similar setup, except you only had one character (instead of three Pokémon) and you could either explore the area (which let you find items or train under other characters), rest, or train.
I got 28 CP after the first battle. Not sure if that's high or low, though, since this is the first time I've ever done it.
28 must be high, because I only got 27 after the second battle (and I actually took damage in that one) and 25 a few battles later (when Ganondorf got into the red.)
Ganondorf kicked ass once again (with a bit of help from Kami, this time), and I ended up beating all seven trainers on my first try.
Some dip misspelled "Pokémaniacs" in this game... they put a space between "Poké" and "maniacs." What kind of moron did that?
Next I went to try the Battle Hall (which I thought was called Battle Stage... I guess they changed some names in the English version.) I picked Electric-types first, since I know Ganondorf can stomp those without much trouble. And wow... they start at level 33? That's reeeeaaaally low for this point in the game. I figure Ganondorf won't have trouble even with types he matches up poorly against if they stay that low for long.
Ganondorf whupped ten trainers in a row, as expected (odd, this seems to be the only Battle Frontier place that has 10-trainer rounds instead of seven.) Next up is the Battle Factory!
I started off with a Spinda, Farfetch'd, and Spoink. The Spoink was probably not such a good choice, as it got KO'ed in one shot before even being able to attack; the Farfetch'd, on the other hand, was much tougher, and ended up beating the first trainer's Croagunk, Budew, and Duskull singlehandedly. After that, I swapped the Spoink out for the first trainer's Duskull (mainly because it had Pain Split and survived a critical-hit, Swords Dance'd Knock Off from my rental Farfetch'd.)
Hmm, didn't know Cyndaquils could learn Double Kick.
For some reason the little girls in innertubes don't have the right out-of-battle sprite in the Battle Frontier... they look like the regular "little girl with a bow in her hair" sprite instead.
A hiker named RAIDEN!? Wow. That's weird.
Ouch... seventh trainer ended up having a Sharpedo, Monferno, and Sneasel. I thought I was screwed at first, but my rental Spinda did surprisingly well against the Sharpedo (confusing it, then knocking it out with two Drain Punches.) The Monferno taunted him, though, so he couldn't use Teeter Dance anymore, and eventually knocked him out with Flame Wheel after being knocked into the yellow with Drain Punches. He would've been knocked out by my Farfetch'd's Air Cutter, if not for that Coba Berry... ended up knocking out the Farfetch'd and then getting stomped by the Cranidos I traded my Duskull in for. Then the Sneasel came out... and used Leer and Taunt, rather than any damage-causing moves. Only took one Rock Tomb to knock that one out.
Hey, kickass! The Battle Factory gives you a whopping FIVE BP for each win... funny that my favorite one so far seems to have the biggest payout as well.
After that I decided to try the Open Level version instead of the level-50-only one. Looks like fully-evolved Pokémon at Lv.100 from the very beginning, this time; I guess by "open level" they mean "level 100." Started off with a Blastoise, a Lucario, and a Nidoking on this one... and lost to a Medicham that used Endure/Reversal and Zen Headbutt (which Mr. Bug-Catcher supposedly caught in a bug net) on the first round.
Next up is the double-battle version; once again "Open Level" and this time starting off with an Abomasnow, Weezing, and Flareon.
Bug Catcher AMADEUS. And unlike the last one, this Bug Catcher actually has something buggy (a Gliscor.) Swapped my Flareon for his Gliscor after winning that battle.
There's another weird move... an Exploud with Extrasensory. Definitely wasn't expecting that one. Must be one of the new move tutor attacks or something. Ended up losing to that trainer, when I was stuck with a nearly-dead Gliscor against a full-health Miltank (after the Gliscor had singlehandedly KO'ed both the Exploud and Metagross after my Abomasnow and Weezing were knocked out.)
"Open Level" seems MUCH tougher than Level 50. I wonder if the prize is boosted as well?
Heh, lottery tickets! Wow. I wonder why nobody on the Internet noticed this weird little mini-game? And you win THREE of whichever item if you win... holy crap. Much easier than going back to the lady in Pastoria to get the resist-type berries.
That Pikachu in the Battle Tower who really, really doesn't share his trainer's confidence is still here, heh. While the trainer's going on and on about being able to get a 100-win streak, the Pikachu is just sitting there silently and being depressed...
Rumors of the Battle Tower's Multi Battle Room changing seem to have been nothing more than rumors after all... it seems exactly the same to me, except that only Cheryl shows up. I guess that's because I haven't done the sidequests for Mira/Buck/Marley yet, and I never did take that Riolu egg from Riley.
Cameraman XENON? Wow. They seem to be running out of names for trainers...
The whole Battle Zone island looks MUCH better now. The place was pretty boring-looking before (it's supposed to be this place with all kinds of Pokémon that don't show up anywhere else in Sinnoh... but looked exactly like the rest of Sinnoh? didn't make any sense), but it's a lot more interesting to wander around in now.
Apparently, the Elekid I got on the GTS a while back was originally from a Spanish-speaking country before it was traded to someone in... I think it was Ohio or maybe Vermont?... who traded it to me.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.56
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.56
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.55
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.56
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FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2009
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Before doing any more Battle Zone-related stuff, I went back to Mt. Coronet and caught Dialga and Palkia. Which means that, after months of waiting, I finally have a Palkia named "Palooka." And I caught Palkia in a Net Ball, too, which probably looks pretty funny since it's intended for dinky little bugs and fish.
Just talked to Prof. Oak and got the legendary birds to start showing up, as well. Ran into Moltres almost as soon as I left the city and knocked the birdie into the mid-yellow HP with Yamcha's Waterfall; of course, it ran away afterward, but still. A few seconds of going in and out of Eterna later, and I get Moltres to show up in that area once again! Yamcha knocks the birdie into the low yellow with a Zen Headbutt, and once again it flies off.
Not long after that, I get Articuno to show up (and knock almost half of its HP off with an Ancient Power from Ganondorf.) Then I find Moltres again and knock it into the red with an Ice Shard. Then I run into Mesprit again (I never did catch that one the first time, heh.) Ganondorf knocks it into the yellow with Ancient Power, then it runs.
After stocking up on Max Repels, I get Articuno to show up again. Ganondorf hits it with Ancient Power again, and it's now in the red. After a little more walking around, my Max Repel wears off and I get Mesprit to show up. I toss a Quick Ball... but it escapes. I find it again a while later and try to hit it with a Zen Headbutt to weaken it a bit more, but unfortunately Yamcha's attack misses and it gets away again. A few seconds later, I find Mesprit again... and somehow Zen Headbutt misses AGAIN.
Heh, finally ran into Zapdos... after seeing the other three running Pokémon half a dozen times. It runs before Yamcha can even get a hit in, though. Then I run into Mesprit again once my Max Repel wears off--and this time Yamcha doesn't miss! Zen Headbutt doesn't do a whole lot of damage, though, and Mesprit's HP is still in the yellow when it runs.
After a bit more bird-hunting (which consisted of failed Quick Balls), I checked the GTS while I was at school and got a Feebas from someone who may have been from New Zealand... but for some reason the dot was WHITE instead of blue or yellow, and it wouldn't let me check their location any closer. Anyway, this person attached a Master Ball to the Feebas before trading it, and on top of that the Feebas doesn't appear to be hacked (it hatched from an egg, normal stats, normal moves, and everything... plus, I would think that if someone was going to hack a Feebas they'd make it one that likes Dry Poffins so it'd be easy to evolve.)
After that I went to the Battle Tower and tried out the Wi-Fi Battle Tower. The first time I lost to a Gengar; on the second try, I did MUCH better, making it to the seventh trainer before finally losing.
As far as I can tell, the place hasn't become infested with the "competitive battling" douche kids yet, since I only saw one (shiny!) Gengar, one Tyranitar, and no Garchomps at all this time. Plus, people are actually using movesets that didn't come from some dinky website's "THESE IS DA STANDARD MOVEZ! USE THEM ONLY! OR WE WILL TREAT YOU LIKE CRAP!" page. I'm guessing that all the new people who bought Platinum recently outnumber them, at least for the moment.
Heh, this bug-catcher in the Battle Hall said "It would be cool if there was a bug net Pokémon." And there's a bird keeper who FARTS ON YOU (while doing an impersonation of a Stunky) if she loses.
vs. Argenta
=====================
After winning 49 matches in the Battle Hall with Ganondorf, I finally get to my first Frontier Brain battle: Hall Matron Argenta (who was named "Kate" in the Japanese version... they changed her name for some odd reason, even though it was a pretty normal, easily-pronouncable-by-little-kids-who-don't-speak-Japanese name before.) She ended up having a Registeel, which Ganondorf took down into the mid yellow with one Earthquake. Unfortunately it healed with a Sitrus Berry, then knocked Ganondorf into the mid yellow with Iron Head. Ganondorf is faster than Mr. Roboto, however, and the big pig was able to knock her Registeel out with another Earthquake.
And holy crap, beating her gets you 20 BP instead of just 1 or 2! Makes sense, considering that the highest level any of the others before her had was 46 and her Registeel was on the same level as Ganondorf, level 56.
Messed around with the other Battle Frontier facilities for a while, and eventually got far enough in the Battle Arcade to fight the Frontier Brain there, too.
vs. Dahlia
=====================
Hey, her name didn't get randomly changed, unlike all the others. First, she sent out a Medicham, which used Fake Out on Trunks (giving him a speed boost in the process.) Then Trunks hits her with a Psycho Cut that knocks off about half of her HP... and then gets knocked out by a Zen Headbutt. Kami switches in, and the next Zen Headbutt misses, and the Medicham gets confused and then knocked out by confusion damage and an Ominous Wind. Next is a Dusknoir, which gets confused pretty quickly and starts hitting himself. Kami hits with Ominous Wind, knocking the Dusknoir into the yellow, then gets hit by a Shadow Punch that almost knocks him out. Another Ominous Wind and her Dusknoir is KO'ed. Last is a Ludicolo, which also gets confused and, like the last two Pokémon, hits herself. Kami gets a Shock Wave in, then gets knocked out by a Razor Leaf. Ganondorf comes in and hits with an Ice Shard, knocking the Ludicolo into the yellow; confusion damage knocks her even lower, and then another Ice Shard knocks her out.
20 BP again! That must be the prize for beating any of the Frontier Brains.
Hey, I got 29 CP after winning in the Battle Castle that time. That's the most I've ever seen.
vs. Darach
=====================
BUTLER! Heh. Anyway, first was a Staraptor, which kept using Aerial Ace on Kami despite it being not-very-effective and not doing a whole lot of damage. Kami almost KO's the bird in one hit from Shock Wave, and then the bird uses Endure to survive another Shock Wave... and then uses Aerial Ace again before finally being knocked out. Next up was an Empoleon, who lost about a third of his HP from a Shock Wave before knocking out Kami. Trunks switches in and knocks the second bird out in one Drain Punch, then takes a Fire Fang from the Houndoom that comes in next. It makes Trunks flinch, giving him the speed boost he needed to get a Drain Punch in before the puppy can attack again (and restore almost all of his HP in the process.) The Houndoom uses Endure and gets Drain Punched again, running me out of Drain Punch PP... but since the doggie only has 1 HP left it doesn't really matter. A Leaf Blade knocks him out.
She waits until the poor butler dude has actually LEFT THE ROOM before calling him back to give me the CP reward. Heh...
Went back to the Windworks and caught a Drifloon, since I missed the first one last Friday.
Headed back to Stark Mountain to finally finish that sidequest (I had talked to Buck already, but then ran off to do other stuff instead of actually going up the mountain. XD) The volcano, like the rest of the Battle Zone island, has had its graphics massively improved; there's lava and smoke vents and the rock looks different (on the inside and on the outside) and everything.
Mars and Jupiter have improved a bit since the last time; they finally evolved their Bronzongs. And for the first time in the game, Jupiter was actually harder to beat than Mars.
Hey, Looker DOESN'T suck after all--he can disguise himself as a rock, and he actually does have Pokémon. His Croagunk is a ninja.
He also apparently doesn't speak Japanese very well. At least, that's what I'm guessing his "not-quite-broken English" in the English version of the game was a translation of from the Japanese version. Some of the things he says, like "the Team Galactic!" or "that Charon!", remind me of how people who don't speak a language very well are prone to putting in extra words where they don't belong, getting tenses/etc. wrong, and so on.
Hmm, that's odd... Buck says he put the Magma Stone back, but I just checked and it isn't there.
And now the refight-the-gym-leaders place is open!
vs. Byron #2
=====================
He started out with a Skarmory, and I had Trunks first; Drain Punch didn't do much damage, and then Trunks nearly got KO'ed by a Drill Peck. So of course, I switch to Kami... and he uses Night Slash, gets a critical hit, and knocks him out. Ouchies. Switch to Yamcha, who uses Surf and knocks the birdie into the red. The bird uses Rock Tomb, then gets healed with a Full Restore and hit by another Surf, which knocks him into the yellow. He uses Stealth Rock, then gets knocked out by another Surf. Byron brings in a Magnezone, and I switch to Ganondorf and knock the thing out with one Earthquake. His Steelix comes out, and also gets knocked out by an Earthquake (this time a critical-hit one.) He switches to his Bastiodon, so I bring Yamcha back in. Surf knocks him into the yellow, and for some odd reason he uses Iron Defense... and of course, Yamcha knocks him out with another Surf immediately afterward. Finally, he sends out an Aggron, which Yamcha smacks with a Surf just like the Bastiodon. It does much more damage, though, and knocks the Aggron out in one hit.
Oh look, the old man in here has heard some of the newest lame-ass mythological BS origin stories for legendary Pokémon. Apparently the dips who made up these myths missed the obvious fact that THERE IS MORE THAN ONE HEATRAN (I mean really, why else would they have a 50% chance of being either gender, even though they won't breed in captivity and only one shows up in the game?)
vs. Wake #2
=====================
He was probably the toughest Gym Leader the first time around; I wonder if he'll be that hard this time? First, he sends out a Sharpedo; Trunks knocks him out with a critical-hit Leaf Blade after being knocked into the yellow by a Night Slash. Wake brings in his Gyarados, so I switch to Kami. Shock Wave doesn't knock the big fish out, amazingly, and he smacks Kami with an Avalanche, knocking him into the yellow. Wake uses a Full Restore, and Kami hits with another Shock Wave that does a bit less damage than the first one. Doesn't matter, though, since the next one knocks the Gyarados out. He sends out his Floatzel and knocks Kami out with Brine before he can attack, so I switch to Velveeta. She gets hit by an Ice Fang, but just barely survives it, then uses Hyper Voice and knocks his Floatzel's HP into the yellow. I switch to Yamcha, who takes an Aqua Jet without any trouble. The Floatzel uses Crunch, but it doesn't even knock Yamcha out of the green; Yamcha hits him with a Zen Headbutt and knocks him down into the red. Yamcha gets Crunched again, then knocks him out with Strength (and levels up.) Wake brings in a Ludicolo (oddly appropriate for Mr. Mexican Wrestler), and I switch back to Velveeta and use Fly. It's a critical hit, knocking out the giant dancing Mexican pineapple piñata duck. Finally, he brings in his Quagsire; I switch to Turtle, who gets hit by a Stone Edge which barely scratches him. Then Wake's Quagsire gets knocked out by Wood Hammer (and the recoil almost takes off half of Turtle's HP, holy crap.)
Wow, that was odd... he was actually easier than Byron this time. So I go ahead and try Volkner's rematch battle.
vs. Volkner #2
=====================
...well, technically it's #3 since he was in the double-battle with Flint, but oh well. His Jolteon starts off by hitting Trunks with a wimpy Charge Beam, then getting almost half of his HP knocked off by a Psycho Cut. His next Charge Beam is even worse, as it actually MISSES... and then a critical-hit Drain Punch knocks him out and fully heals Trunks. Next up is a Lanturn (finally, Volkner has a Water-type again! I missed his Octillery), which gets hit with a Leaf Blade and then hits Trunks with Surf. Trunks uses Drain Punch and restores most of his HP, then gets hit by another Surf that takes him down to about half. One more Drain Punch and the fish is almost knocked out. Volkner uses a Full Restore, so I have Trunks use Drain Punch again to get some HP back. Another Leaf Blade, and this time it's a critical hit, knocking out the fish. He sends out his Electivire, and I switch to Kami. Kami gets hit by a Fire Punch (not even taking him below the green) and then confuses the Electivire; he hits himself, then gets hit by Ominous Wind before using another Fire Punch that nearly knocks out Kami. Another Ominous Wind hits and takes him into the low yellow, but his Sitrus Berry gets triggered and brings him back up to just over half. I switch in Velveeta, and he hits himself again instead of attacking. He hits himself once again, giving Velveeta the opportunity to knock him out with a Hyper Voice. I leave her in as Volkner switches in a Raichu, then immediately switch to Ganondorf before he can do any damage... and apparently he wasn't going to anyway, as he used Light Screen. He hits Ganondorf with a Brick Break (barely knocking him below half, even with super-effective-ness) and then gets knocked out by an Earthquake, just like every other Raichu that's ever been hit by an Earthquake. Finally he brings in his Luxray, which is actually slower than Ganondorf and gets slammed with an Earthquake before he can do anything.
I didn't lose a single Pokémon against Volkner. Wow... he was easier than either Wake or Byron. I'm guessing the difficulty levels of the Gym Leaders are going to be completely mixed around in the rematches. Who knows, Roark and Maylene might actually be tough this time!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.58
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SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2009
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Removed Kami's Wise Glasses, mainly so he doesn't accidentally KO any of the running Pokémon if I bump into them.
Ran into Articuno again and found out that wild Pokémon DON'T have a chance of hitting themselves if they try to run when they're confused. Damn. After that, I find Mesprit again and use one of my two Master Balls to finally catch the goofy little thing. Thank you, Feebas-trading GTS guy named "OGRE" who may be from New Zealand!
Once again ran into Articuno, and used a Quick Ball... but the bird broke out without any trouble and ran again. Ran into Zapdos and had Kami smack it with an Ominous Wind to cut down the bird's HP a little; got a critical hit and ended up knocking about half of the bird's HP off even without the Wise Glasses. A little bit later, I bumped into Articuno again and accidently knocked it out. Whoops! Time to reset; fortunately, I saved after catching Mesprit.
After switching Ganondorf into my first party slot, I run into Zapdos again; an Ice Shard knocks off about half of the bird's HP, bringing it down to the point it was at before I killed Articuno and had to reset. I run into Moltres again for the first time in a while... and this time, I actually manage to catch it with a Quick Ball before it could run!
Triggered Cresselia's event, then did some more bird-hunting... which eventually resulted in both Zapdos and Cresselia being caught in Quick Balls. After blowing a few more Quick Balls on Articuno, I decided to just go ahead and use my second Master Ball (since Articuno was the last of the roaming-on-the-map Pokémon, it's not like I needed to save it for anything else.)
Ran through the Battle Tower a bit, too, and got to Palmer... he no longer steals Cynthia's battle music! I ended up losing, but just barely. If Ganondorf's Ice Shard had flinched his Dragonite (or if his Rhyperior had hit himself instead of KO'ing Kami with Crunch) I would've won.
Tried the Battle Factory again for a bit, which led to a strange discovery: apparently Combees can learn Ominous Wind.
After losing in the Factory, headed back over to the Arcade... and Kami ended up fighting another Rotom. He would've won, too, if not for Rotom #2 getting a critical hit... oh well, Ganondorf knocked off what little was left of its HP right after that.
Gah, the item event on the Battle Arcade's board can give you sucky items like a Black Sludge (well, it's sucky if you have no Poison-types) or an Iron Ball. Fortunately, Trunks is apparently faster than some Pokémon even WITH an Iron Ball slowing him down.
Ended up losing on the 29th match against a Togekiss that got ridiculously lucky with the stat-boosting effect of Ominous Wind.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.57
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.58
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.58
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SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2009
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Did a lot of fishing, and caught (among other things) a Lv.54 Gyarados that already knows all of its high-level moves... well, unless they learn something after Hyper Beam, but I don't think they do.
After that, went back to the Battle Castle; apparently they add a "Pass" option at this point, though I doubt I'll ever need it unless I end up running out of CP too early or something.
Whoops, skipping a trainer costs a whopping 50 CP. Completely useless option then, I guess... restoring all of your Pokémon's HP AND lowering one of the opponent's levels by 5 is actually cheaper.
Hmm... the Poké Radar's wiggling grass patches are easier to tell apart now.
Yet more weird Battle Tower trainer names--a reporter named Marble, for example.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.59
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.59
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MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2009
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Checked out the Battleground house in the Survival Area again, and this time there were FOUR people in there--Roark, Maylene, Fantina, and Cheryl (the random person with a Chansey, in case anyone forgot who she was... I know I did in my Diamond version, heh.) Unfortunately, Cheryl doesn't get a special intro or song like the Gym Leaders do; I guess that's just a Gym Leader/Elite Four thing, since I don't think Cyrus had anything either.
vs. Cheryl
=====================
Her first Pokémon is... a Wobbuffet with lipstick? Wow, that's an odd one. And she doesn't use either of the counterattack moves on the first turn; just Safeguard. I start off with Ganondorf using Ancient Power, since she'll most likely use Counter and all my other moves are physical. As expected, she uses Counter twice in a row and it does nothing since I didn't use a physical move. After the third hit from Ancient Power, she gets the message and uses Mirror Coat... but the reflected damage doesn't knock Ganondorf out of the green. I use an Earthquake, and it knocks the Wobbuffet into the red; she uses Mirror Coat again, not expecting the Earthquake. Cherly uses a Full Restore (which takes FOREVER to finish filling up a Wobbuffet's HP), and then Ganondorf uses another Earthquake, which somehow doesn't knock the thing out of the green. I switch back to Ancient Power again, and get a critical hit... but unfortunately she uses Mirror Coat next, and Ganondorf is KO'ed. I bring in Kami and knock off what's left of the Wobbuffet's HP with Ominous Wind. She sends in a Drifblm, which Kami confuses. The ghostyballon hits herself, then gets smacked with Kami's Ominous Wind and knocked into the red... well, into the red after she hits herself again, anyway. After that she keeps using Protect, but after the second try it fails and Kami KO's her ghostyballoon with a Shock Wave. Next up is a Wailord; Kami confuses the big whale, and for some reason she uses Avalanche (which doesn't do much damage at all.) After that Kami uses Shock Wave, which knocks the whale into the yellow. A little confusion damage and another Shock Wave, and the whale is beached. Cheryl switches in a Blissey next, so I bring in Velveeta. Velveeta flies up and avoids a Psychic, then hits with Fly and knocks off a little more than half of the Blissey's HP. Unfortunately, this triggers a Sitrus Berry that brings her back into the green. She tries Toxic, but misses; Velveeta flies up again while the Blissey heals with Softboiled. Fly hits again, doing a bit more damage than the last time; Velveeta gets hit with a Psychic, but it only knocks off half of her HP. She flies up again, and instead of healing, Cheryl's Blissey uses Psychic (and misses) before being knocked out by the Fly attack. Finally, she sends out a Hariyama (which is male, while all of her others were female), and Velveeta screams obscenities at the sumo, knocking his HP down into the upper yellow. She gets KO'ed by a Stone Edge, so I bring in Yamcha, who almost knocks the sumo out with a Zen Headbutt. Yamcha gets hit with a Close Combat, but survives it; unfortunately, Cheryl uses a Full Restore before he can get another hit in. Another Zen Headbutt brings him into the yellow again, but then Yamcha is KO'ed by a Stone Edge when his next Zen Headbutt misses. Trunks switches in, and quickly KO's the sumo with a Psycho Cut.
Surprisingly tough, especially considering that our levels weren't far apart at all (mine were 59-60, while hers were all in the low 60's.)
Next is Maylene, just to see if my earlier prediction (that she'd actually NOT suck this time, since some of the tougher Gym Leaders were easy the second time around) comes true.
vs. Maylene #2
=====================
First up is a Hitmontop (which at least means that she's improved her choice of Pokémon since the last time.) I switch Ganondorf out, since he's likely to get smacked hard by Fighting-type moves; instead, her Hitmontop uses Fake Out, which fails to do anything at all to Kami. I hit him with Confuse Ray, then Ominous Wind; apparently, Maylene's Hitmontop doesn't have any good anti-Rotom moves, as he used Aerial Ace after snapping out of confusion. I confuse him again, and between confusion damage and another Ominous Wind, he ends up down to the red. Another Aerial Ace hits, doing much less damage than the first, before Kami knocks him out with Ominous Wind. Next up is a Breloom--definite proof that Maylene has improved her choice of Pokémon, since Brelooms kick ass. I bring in Velveeta and scream "MUDDAFUGGA!", knocking the 'shroom out in one shot. Next is a Medicham, who also gets cussed at; a critical hit MUDDAFUGGA attack knocks her into the red, but then Velveeta gets KO'ed by an Ice Punch. I bring in Ganondorf and knock the Medicham out with a quick Ice Shard. Next is a Machamp; I bring in Kami and (as always) hit him with a Confuse Ray. Kami almost gets knocked out by a Stone Edge, then smacks the Goro knockoff with a Shock Wave... which, unfortunately, doesn't do a whole lot of damage. Kami gets KO'ed by another Stone Edge, and I bring in Trunks. His Psycho Cut gets a critical hit, easily knocking out the Machamp. Finally it's time for that ridiculous Lucario. He hits Trunks with Extreme Speed, which doesn't knock him out of the green; Trunks then does about the same damage with a Psycho Cut. Her Lucario then uses Bone Rush, which it should not really be able to learn in the first place... and he misses, leaving him wide open to be knocked out by a Drain Punch.
And apparently, Maylene shares eating habits with Goku... the only thing she talks about after the fight is the fact that Buck's grandpa cooks for everyone and they can eat as much as they want. Heh.
So far it seems like my guess was about right: Gym Leader difficulty might be flipped around to be almost the exact opposite of how hard they were the first time. I lost only one Pokémon against Wake and Byron, and none against Volkner, yet Maylene managed to knock out TWO. And Cheryl was the hardest of them all so far--a pretty huge step up from that level 20 Chansey that uses Egg Bomb all the time.
Fantina's next. She was around the middle difficulty-wise before, so who knows how this will turn out.
vs. Fantina #2
=====================
First, she sends out a Banette. Ganondorf goes first and hits her with an Earthquake, which knocks her into the red. He gets hit by a Shadow Claw, but it doesn't do much damage; Fantina uses a Full Restore, then Ganondorf hits with an Ice Shard that brings her into the lower green. Another Earthquake knocks the Banette out. Mismagius is next; Ganondorf gets an Ice Shard in first, doing a little less damage than it did to the Banette. He gets hit pretty hard by a Magical Leaf, so I switch in Velveeta; Magical Leaf barely does any damage at all to her. Unfortunately, she's slower than the ghostie, and gets knocked out by a Thunderbolt before she can attack. Turtle switches in; he gets hit by a Shadow Ball, which almost knocks him out of the green, then Crunches the ghostie and knocks her out. Drifblim is next; the ghostyballoon hits Turtle with a Silver Wind, but he survives it and Crunches, knocking her into the mid-yellow. Turtle barely survives another Silver Wind, then pops the ghostyballoon with another Crunch... and gets knocked out by Aftermath damage. Ganondorf switches in again and uses Ice Shard on Fantina's Gengar... before being knocked out by a Focus Blast. Yamcha comes in and gets hit with Thunder (Fantina is very lucky with those 70% accuracy moves...), but survives with just 8 HP and knocks her Gengar out with a Zen Headbutt. Fantina brings in a Dusknoir, and I bring in Trunks, who hits her with Night Slash while the ghostie does nothing but Double Team. Next turn, Trunks hits with a Night Slash again, and gets hit by a Shadow Punch. Fantina uses a Full Restore, but Trunks gets a critical hit with Night Slash and knocks the Dusknoir back into the red. Finally, with one more Night Slash, Trunks knocks her out and levels up.
Wow. She was even tougher than Cheryl. I guess the "weak first time, strong in the rematch" thing doesn't apply to all of them... Fantina was decent the first time and even stronger this time. The only one of my Pokémon who didn't end up knocked out or seriously weakened was Kami, and I didn't even use him in the battle.
Last of this bunch is Roark. I wonder... will he end up being tougher, like Maylene and Fantina, or will he be one of the wimpy ones again?
vs. Roark #2
=====================
First up is an Aerodactyl, which Ganondorf smacks with an Ice Shard; this knocks him into the low yellow, while his Stone Edge doesn't even get Ganon out of the green. Another Ice Shard, and pterosaurs are extinct once again. Next up is a Golem, which gets slammed by an Earthquake that knocks him into the low yellow. He uses Brick Break, knocking Ganondorf into the red, but another Earthquake knocks him out (and Ganondorf finally gets to level 60.) Roark brings in a Tyranitar next, so I switch to Trunks. Trunks gets the first hit in--a Drain Punch, which knocks him into the red (before his Sitrus Berry brings him back into the mid-yellow.) He gets a good hit in with Crunch, but Trunks survives it and knocks him out with another Drain Punch. Roark sends in his Rampardos next; once again, Trunks goes first and hits with a Drain Punch, knocking him into the yellow and healing himself almost completely. He uses Avalanche after that, which knocks Trunks out. Yamcha comes in; instead of Surf, I use Waterfall to avoid the Special Defense boost that Rock-types get from Sandstorm. This knocks him out, and then Roark sends in his last Pokémon, a Probopass. Yamcha uses Waterfall again, knocking him into the upper yellow; he wastes his turn using Stealth Rock instead of even attempting to do any damage, and Yamcha quickly knocks him out on the next turn with another Waterfall.
Yep, Roark's still wimpy. Only Ganondorf and Trunks took any damage at all (and Trunks was up against a friggin' Tyranitar and Rampardos... so of course he was going to take some damage!) Even though he managed to knock one Pokémon out and Volkner didn't knock out any, I'd have to say Roark was the easiest so far... I didn't even end up taking advantage of any of the double-weaknesses his Pokémon had, other than the Tyranitar.
Did some random Pokédex-filling after that--went to Mt. Coronet and evolved a Nosepass (named Recoome) and Gligar (Thingie), then flew to the Battle Zone area to evolve my Sneasel (Kitty.) Also caught a random lv.47 Spearow that I bumped into, after he knocked my Sneasel out.
After snagging a Murkrow from someone over in Japan thanks to the GTS, I went to check out Turnback Cave... and found a level 18 Dusclops. Wow... didn't know they showed up at such low levels. A few minutes later I ran into one at an even lower level: 16.
Now that I've seen one pillar, they're showing up in the mid-20's. I guess the levels get higher the further you go.
Not long afterward, I got a Stardust (which I imagine is probably the "you took forever" item) and the Griseous Orb (which is a pretty weird name.)
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.60
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TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009
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Headed back over to the Battleground house (or whatever it's called) and found that Candice was there this time. She was the second- or third-hardest the first time around.
vs. Candice #2
=====================
Kami goes first against her Weavile; he confuses her and hits with a couple of Shock Waves, then gets KO'ed by a critical-hit Avalanche. Trunks comes in, and Candice uses a Full Restore, letting Trunks KO her Weavile with a double-super-effective Drain Punch. She brings in her Froslass, and I switch in Ganondorf; he takes a Blizzard hit (knocking him into the yellow) and then hits with Ancient Power. After that, he uses Ice Shard and knocks her into the yellow before being KO'ed by another Blizzard. Yamcha switches in, but he gets confused and hits himself. She uses Hail, which doesn't do anything thanks to Yamcha's ability, and then gets knocked into the low red by a Waterfall. Yamcha gets hit by an Ominous Wind (and still not out of the green), then hits himself again. Another Ominous Wind hits and Yamcha's in the low yellow, but he knocks Candice's Froslass out with a Surf (and levels up.) Next is Abomasnow, so I bring in Velveeta and scream MUDDAFUGGA at the overgrown Christmas tree. She gets KO'ed by an Avalanche, but not before knocking Frosty's HP into the low yellow. Trunks switches in and knocks out the Abomasnow with a Drain Punch. Candice sends in her Glaceon, and I bring Yamcha back in. He hits with a Waterfall, but it doesn't knock her out of the green, and then he's knocked out by a Shadow Ball. Trunks comes back in and gets a critical hit with Drain Punch, knocking her out. Finally, she brings in her Mamoswine; Trunks hits with a Leaf Blade and knocks her into the yellow, then gets knocked into the red by an Earthquake and some hail damage. Trunks hits with another Drain Punch, and Mrs. Pig-Mammoth is knocked out.
Wow. Not expecting that one--she might just be the toughest of the rematch Gym Leaders so far (well, Fantina was pretty tough as well, but Candice was definitely harder than any of the others.)
Just caught a Heatran--male, this time--and named him "Shaq-Fu." And oddly, Escape Ropes don't work in Heatran's room... but they work in the rest of the volcano.
I wonder if Mr. Bullshit Myth Guy will talk about something different now that I've actually caught the Heatran in Stark Mountain... let's go check!
Yep, he does... but he doesn't really say a whole lot. Heh.
Finally managed to beat the five maids in seven turns, also (not too hard; the only thing that's a problem is that they usually use freakin' Endure over and over.) And the "reward" for beating them is... fighting some wimp with a level 35 Blissey. Uhh. Not hard at all, especially when I'm at freakin' LEVEL 60. And... the thing just flung a Rare Candy at me, which only did 4 damage.
...you don't actually win anything for beating them. I guess the only point of them is an infinite supply of stealable Rare Candies or something...
After messing around in the Battle Factory some more, I ended up getting far enough to fight Thorton. Unfortunately, he ended up having a Houndoom and all of my Pokémon were weak to either Fire or Dark... so I lost.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.61
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.60
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.60
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009
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Managed to get to Thorton again (this time in "Open Level" rather than level 50) and came a bit closer to beating him this time--he had a Suicune, Kangaskhan, and Entei, and I ended up knocking out both the Suicune and Kangaskhan before the Entei knocked out my last Pokémon (a Luxray) with Stone Edge.
Also fought Gardenia's rematch battle today, but since I wasn't at the computer at the time I wasn't able to type up a detailed description of the fight like I did with the others. She managed to knock out two of my Pokémon and damaged two others; a bit tougher than Maylene's rematch, maybe.
My Poké Radar chaining record is now 24 Bidoofs in a row. Before that, I never had more than 17 or 18 in a row. Still no sign of shinies, though...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
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Won Cuteness Contests at the first three levels with Krillin the Togekiss... but then somehow, he wasn't able to come close on the Master Rank, despite having a nearly-maxed-out Cuteness stat AND a Pink Scarf.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009
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I wish the Battle Factory let you change the order of your Pokémon before fights, instead of just trading them. I probably could've beaten Thorton this time if I hadn't been forced to use the rental Wormadam first. Well, either that or if it was a Ground-type Wormadam instead of a Grass-type one, but I've never seen either the Ground or Steel-type versions in the Battle Factory so far.
And... wow. I really didn't expect Timmy to want to fight again outside of the Battleground house, for some reason.
vs. Timmy #7
=====================
First off is his Staraptor, as always; I have Velveeta out first. He uses Close Combat and knocks her into the yellow, then gets knocked into the low red by Hyper Voice. Timmy uses a Full Restore, and Velveeta screams "MUDDAFUGGA!" at the bird, knocking him back into the yellow again. Expecting another Close Combat, I switch in Kami... and he uses Aerial Ace instead. Still doesn't do any significant damage. One Shock Wave and the chicken is fried once again. After that he sends in his Floatzel, which is not even level 60 yet. Kami confuses him and then gets hit with a Crunch... which ends up being a critical hit and knocking him out. I switch in Trunks, and after taking some insignificant damage from a Crunch, he knocks out the Floatzel with a critical-hit Leaf Blade. Next is his Roserade, which is also lagging behind the Staraptor in levels. Trunks knocks the planty-thing out with one Psycho Cut. After that is the evil monkey, who is overleveled (what a surprise) and has a lot of random stars along with his sending-out animation now. He hits Trunks with Shadow Claw, knocking him into the red, then gets knocked into the low yellow by a Psycho Cut. Unfortunately, his Sitrus Berry just barely brings him back into the green afterward. I switch Velveeta in again, and he tries Shadow Claw again (which, of course, does nothing to the birdie.) Flamethrower does, however, and Velveeta gets knocked out. I bring in Yamcha, and he gets hit with a Focus Blast (which knocks him into the mid yellow) before knocking out the monkey with Surf. Heracross is next; I bring Trunks back in and he uses Psycho Cut, knocking him into the yellow. He uses Rock Slide and it hits, but isn't quite enough to knock Trunks out--it leaves him with 2 HP. And he was already in the red to begin with... durr. Moron should've just used Megahorn or something. After that wimpy attack, of course, Trunks squishes the bug with another Psycho Cut. Finally, Timmy brings in his Snorlax, which quickly gets Drain Punched in the gut (knocking off half of the fat bastard's HP and bringing Trunks almost back up to half in the process.) The fatty uses Crunch, knocking Trunks down to 15 HP... and then Trunks knocks him out with another Drain Punch.
Hmm... he seems a bit wimpier than last time. Of course, my Pokémon were a bit overleveled to be fighting him this time (his were mostly level 59 and 61, and mine were all in the 62-63 range... yeah, I was definitely overleveled.) I think I probably should've fought him last week... but unfortunately I didn't try talking to him at all then, so it never happened.
"Ace Trainer" should be "Ass Trainer," because that's what most of 'em act like. Especially a few of the ones that show up in the Battle Frontier.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.62
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2009
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This is odd. Knocking yourself out with Explosion in the process of KOing another Pokémon counts as a loss... yet doing the same with a recoil move counts as win.
Also, Marley showed up in the Battleground house today... in her "weird and quiet" mode rather than the bitchier form that shows up in the Battle Tower. What's up with her, anyway?
vs. Marley
=====================
First off was a Ninjask, which used Swords Dance before being knocked out in one hit from Kami's Shock Wave. After that, she switches to a Weavile, and I bring in Trunks. An Aerial Ace hit knocks Trunks into the yellow... and then a Drain Punch knocks her Weavile out, restoring most of Trunks's HP in the process. Marley sends out a Crobat, and I switch Kami back in; the bat uses Double Team, but of course it does nothing at all to Shock Wave's accuracy, and she's knocked into the yellow. An Air Slash barely scratches Kami, and another Shock Wave knocks her out. She sends out her Arcanine next, and I bring in Ganondorf (which probably isn't a great choice, being weak to fire and all... oh well.) Turns out the big puppy is faster... but his Flare Blitz, even with super effective-ness, doesn't knock Ganondorf out. Ganon's Earthquake doesn't quite knock him out either, unfortunately, and a Sitrus Berry brings him back into the yellow. ExtremeSpeed hits before Ganondorf's Ice Shard, and Ganondorf is knocked out. I bring Kami back in, and one more Shock Wave knocks the puppy out. Last is an Electrode... a bit disappointing: all the big ball manages to do is use Double Team before Turtle knocks the thing out with an Earthquake.
Pretty wimpy. Maybe even the wimpiest of the Battleground group so far, with the exception of her Arcanine... she only knocked out one of my Pokémon (with her Arcanine, of course), and barely even managed to do any damage to the others. Of course, she did fill up her team with all-Speed critters (and an Arcanine), so I guess it's not too much of a surprise.
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2009
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Fought Thorton again (in Open Level this time) and... it went very, very differently than the last two times.
vs. Thorton
=====================
First of all, my rental Snorlax took a Focus Blast from his Alakazam, then knocked him out in one shot with Outrage. After that, he survived a Thunderbolt from Thorton's Jolteon before knocking that one out with another Outrage hit... then finally got KOed by his Heatran's Flash Cannon. After that, the rental Drifblim I had smacked his Heatran with a Thunderbolt (which didn't take him out of the green, unfortunately) and then got knocked into the red by Magma Storm. Of course, the Drifblim also had Destiny Bond... so what happened next is pretty obvious. Heh. The kickass Aggron I found among the rentals didn't even get a chance to fight...
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.62
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TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2009
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After some more trading-with-myself, I now have 462 Pokémon in my Diamond version's Pokédex... including some like Gligar and Electabuzz which are pretty much "Platinum exclusives" for me, since I don't have FireRed or Emerald.
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009
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Fought Palmer again; Trunks just barely managed to knock out his Rhyperior (he survived an Earthquake with only 8 HP), and then he switched to his Dragonite. I switched in Kami and confused the Dragonite, but his Lum Berry snapped him out of it and then he knocked out Kami. Ganondorf KO'ed the Dragonite with two Ice Shards (while he just used Dragon Dance, not accomplishing much of anything.) After that Ganon got KO'ed by his Milotic's Surf, so I brought Trunks (who only had 20 HP left) back out... and of course, he got knocked out also. If only Trunks's Leaf Blade had been a critical hit, I would've won this time.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2009
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That's odd--Palmer apparently switches his team around every time you fight him now. Every other time I've gotten to him, he's had his Rhyperior first, but when I fought him today, his Milotic was sent out first (just like in Diamond) and KO'ed quickly by a critical-hit Leaf Blade. Does he have more than one team now, or something? Or is the order just randomized now?
Whatever it is, I'm glad they did it, because I actually beat him this time. My Gyarados, Bubba (who I had been training recently) didn't even get a chance to fight. Now that I've beaten Palmer, I finally have all of the Silver Prints!
STARTER: Torterra (Turtle) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Golduck (Yamcha) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Rotom (Kami) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Gallade (Trunks) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Chatot (Velveeta) Lv.63
CAUGHT: Mamoswine (Ganondorf) Lv.63