Let's Play Pokemon

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Scaly Haylie

Hey everyone! I'm hyped for the new pokemon game coming out this fall, and I recently realized I haven't beaten anything beyond the second generation. So I'm gonna be trying to play 'em all over again, with a bit of a twist. Two twists, actually.

First off: this is going to be based on a "Nuzlocke" run. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this means that you may only catch one pokemon per area and may not use a pokemon if it gets knocked out, treating it as if it is dead forever.

The problem is, this usually results in nothing so much as running out of pokemon and/or quitting out of frustration. And I really want to beat the games, so to that end I've come up with my own additional rules in order to make things easier.

Pokemon will be named after BYOB posters.
If a pokemon 'dies', I am allowed to go back to the place I caught it and catch a new, different species of pokemon to replace it. If it's a pokemon I acquired through fishing, I can replace it by fishing in any given body of water.
When a pokemon evolves, it gets an 'extra life'.
Revives are allowed, but I may only buy one per store.
For each gym badge I possess, I can catch one more pokemon per area. This includes areas I've already been to.

The OTHER big twist is that I'll be using Pokemon Randomizer, which, well...randomizes the game! There's no telling what pokemon will show up where, what moves they have, or even what type they'll be!

Anyway, that's quite enough exposition. Representing the first generation of pokemon games will be FireRed, a remake of the original Pokemon Red with the improvements from Generation 3 included.

For those of you who don't speak video game, that means it's the first pokemon game but prettier and better.

hi professor oak i don't care

Wow, I forgot how good this game looked. We start in our hometown of Pallet.

Kindly old Oak is gonna let us have one of his pokes.

slightly native american bear

acorn boy

travel-sized pangolin

they're all pretty tempting. which one should i get?

# ? Aug 3, 2016 05:10

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 8, 2024 15:43

bare bottom pancakes: Production: Complete

it is time for the taming of the sandshrew

# ? Aug 3, 2016 05:24

Piso Mojado

if you dont accept any of them and then run around, a pikachu will appear

# ? Aug 3, 2016 05:36

symbolic

i like how they're all grass-type

casting my vote for Sandshrew

# ? Aug 3, 2016 05:37

Scaly Haylie

yeah sandshrew it is

# ? Aug 3, 2016 05:45

December Octopodes: Christmas is coming
the squid is getting fat!

i will watch this spinning jpgs and all

# ? Aug 3, 2016 09:22

saucyseadweller: So Damn Saucy

Grassshrew master race

saucyseadweller fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Aug 3, 2016

# ? Aug 3, 2016 12:24

AAB

randomizer is cool but if you're trying to enjoy a replay of the experience, especially with the randomizer, I recommend removing the catch and revive restrictions.

e: lol grass sandshrew. its like the game knows about the new versions

# ? Aug 3, 2016 13:26

mags: I am a congenital optimist.

Saaaaandshrew plz

paul_soccer12 posted:

everyone in the idf must die

(USER WAS PERMABANNED FOR THIS POST)

# ? Aug 3, 2016 13:34

super mario batali: Dice-a the Mushroom

1 vote for sandshrew

# ? Aug 3, 2016 14:13

Scaly Haylie

AAB posted:

randomizer is cool but if you're trying to enjoy a replay of the experience, especially with the randomizer, I recommend removing the catch and revive restrictions.

the problem with unrestricted catching is that there are like FOUR HUNDRED pokes as of Gen3, and i don't really want the burden of having to catch a shitload of them and level them to see if they're worthwhile. and without revive restrictions, there's just no suspense.

also i'm doing everything i can to blunt those restrictions, so :shrug:

# ? Aug 3, 2016 15:09

saucyseadweller: So Damn Saucy

Between the nuzlocke and the randomizer this run should be interesting. I look forward to it.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 18:26

Sordas Volantyr: Now, everybody, walk like a Jekhar.

(God, these running animations are terrible.)

man, i wanted the bear

# ? Aug 3, 2016 19:16

guns for tits

Yeah, the bear looks pretty cool.

# ? Aug 3, 2016 20:05

HighwireAct: Pozzo's Hat

do the shrew, bb

# ? Aug 3, 2016 20:06

treasure bear

you blew it

# ? Aug 3, 2016 20:17

Scaly Haylie

i bought this and i didn't even realize sandshrew was our starter

# ? Aug 4, 2016 01:37

mags: I am a congenital optimist.

Lizard Wizard posted:

i bought this and i didn't even realize sandshrew was our starter

Sandshrew is a legit mon and I always try to use Sandslash as a spinblocker

paul_soccer12 posted:

everyone in the idf must die

(USER WAS PERMABANNED FOR THIS POST)

# ? Aug 4, 2016 02:20

Scaly Haylie

Pokedex posted:

It burrows and lives underground. If threatened, it curls itself up into a ball for protection.

that's a mighty fine poke! now, there's a lot to unpack here, so sit tight. most of this screen is irrelevant, but there are three crucial things.

first, TYPE. sandshrew is a grass/poison type pokemon. pokes can have up to two types, which determine their resistance to various types of moves.

you can see here that grass-type takes half damage from, or is "strong" against electric, grass, ground and water type moves, but takes DOUBLE damage, or is "weak" against bug, fire, flying, ice and poison type moves.

knowing this, you should be able to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of poison-type on your own.

with two types, though, something neat happens.

yes, through the power of multiplication, several of our weaknesses and resistances cancel out. in addition, our resistance to grass-type stacks, meaning we only take 1/4 damage from any grass-type move. wowie.

also, d. impulse has a held item. in this case, it was doled out by the randomizer.

pokes can hold any item, and some they can use on their own. this is not that sort of item, though, so we'll be taking it off her hands. we might be able to sell it later.

last but not least, nature, which we're not even going to get into.

here's her stat block. you probably noticed that there are two kinds of attack and defense.

Attack determines the damage of any move governed by a physical type, like flying, bug, rock, or poison. Defense reduces damage taken from those sorts of moves.
Special Attack and Special Defense work much the same, but for moves of an elemental or energy type, like water, psychic, dark, or electric.

the only other thing that bears explaining is that speed dictates turn order. rather simple, all told.

just for fun i decided to compare her stats to one of the pokes we could've gotten in the unmodified game. while she may seem dinky at first blush, i like how this poke favors HP, special attack and defense over the other stats. she's a little armored death ray.

luckily she starts with a move that will let us capitalize on her special attack, and it's a good one too! moves with a power greater than 100 are rare, so this is in the top percentile of moves already. note that

this being a pokemon game, we're forced into a battle with our rival immediately. it should be stressed that the most important thing about our rival is the song that accompanies him wherever he goes.

:sax:

Game Music: Rival Encounter

i didn't mention it earlier, but every pokemon has an ability. d. impulse's ability causes rain, which powers up water-type moves. let's hope she learns some!

ooh, dick move. perish song makes it so that both nuzleaf and d. impulse will faint in three turns, effectively putting a time limit on this fight.

he's also immune to electric damage, the fucker. thankfully his only other move is grass-type, so he can't put much of a dent in us either.

however, there is a silver lining! remember how i said speed dictates turn order?

your turn...TO DIE. :mrgw:

silver wind is a bug-type move. it's not as strong as thunderbolt, but it's good to have options in case we can't electrocute something to death.

what

i'm gonna get you. :catstare:

OH I WILL

for now we've got just about no choice but to explore to the north.

pokes come out of the tall grass. this one is easily dunked on by the d. impulse cannon.

no other pokes interrupt our short midday stroll to the neighboring town of Viridian, where we discover two very important things.

first is the pokemon center, which heals our pokemon for free. perhaps more importantly, they restore our PP, or power points. remember how thunderbolt had 15 out of 15 PP? that means d. impulse can only use it fifteen times before needing a recharge at a pokemon center. stronger moves have less PP than weaker ones, which acts to prevent spamming our strongest poo poo all the time.

also present is a poke mart, where we can buy and sell items.

that's what i'd like to say, but the game makes us deliver a package to professor oak first.

here

the pokedex supplies flavor text about pokemon you catch. kind of fun, i guess.

now that's more like it. let's go catch some pokes.

the trick to catching pokemon is to reduce their HP without knocking them out. the weaker they are, the easier they are to catch!

whoops

oops

well hi there!

this poke's arms are basically maces.

Pokedex posted:

It usually murmurs, but starts crying loudly if it senses danger. It stops when its ear covers are shut.

pisomojado is a rock-type, which...eh. it's all right, i guess, but the moves it's weak to are fairly commonplace. we'll see if that holds true in a randomizer run, though.

stats seem fine, though she doesn't really have the special attack to leverage those plant arms.

i train a bit on route 1, focusing on leveling piso...

...until she gets whapped with basically the best grass-type attack there is. gently caress you game, i'm not counting that. not at level 4.

we make a quick stop at the poke mart to pick up some potions, for any emergency healing we may need to do, as well as some antidotes in case of poison.

i then decide to try my luck on route 2, where we catch this doofus.

Pokedex posted:

Its body is so light, it must grip the ground firmly with its feet to keep from being blown away.

as a steel-type, symbolic doesn't have a whole hell of a lot to fear. unfortunately she's also a normal-type, which means she's weak to fighting-type moves twice over.

can't complain about a well-rounded stat block.

oh hell yes

blizzard is good for two reasons. first of all, it does massive damage.

second, it's got a chance to lay down this nasty business. a frozen poke is essentially helpless, having a 20% chance per turn to thaw out.

i also discover that needle arm has a chance of making a poke flinch, forcing it to skip its turn. you can effectively stunlock pokes this way.

piso killed many pokes today.

symbolic got a new move! shock wave only has middling damage, but it's guaranteed to hit.

additionally, we learn that normal-type pokemon are immune to ghost-type moves. the inverse is also true, however.

and before too long, our team of three dumb pokes are all up to level 8. a good start.

STATE OF THE TEAM

Scaly Haylie fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 4, 2016

# ? Aug 4, 2016 06:48

Scaly Haylie

mister magpie posted:

Sandshrew is a legit mon and I always try to use Sandslash as a spinblocker

it is not yet time to talk about the pokemeta.

# ? Aug 4, 2016 06:50

Piso Mojado

aww. stay safe poke piso.

# ? Aug 4, 2016 06:52

guns for tits

I remember when my friend and I played through a randomized fire red. From what I remember, groudon replaced Zapdos in the power plant, even though it also was one of the most common Pokemon in the wild.

# ? Aug 4, 2016 12:38

AAB

dang. with the randomizing moves this is one of my most anticipated threads

# ? Aug 4, 2016 16:00

saucyseadweller: So Damn Saucy

Looking pretty good so far

# ? Aug 4, 2016 16:44

Scaly Haylie

saucyseadweller posted:

Looking pretty good so far

Thanks! I was afraid it might be a bit too wordy, but I want everyone to be able to follow along, no matter what their experience level with pokes might be.

On that note, are there any complete and utter newcomers reading the thread?

Scaly Haylie fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 4, 2016

# ? Aug 4, 2016 16:58

Macnult

Wish I knew about the randomizer back when I was playing pokemon ROMs in class all the time.

# ? Aug 4, 2016 17:10

Chill la Chill: Don't lose your gay

i'm envious of the primary/secondary schoolers who get to take pics of pokemon with their friends while we had to make do with taking pics of friends holding pokemon cards like chumps :mad: