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 Alright! Off in hot pursuit of Crawli, the gang ended up in this swamp.    According to his father, yeah! I mean, I guess I can sorta see the appeal... Except for that really gnarly stench... It smells like sulfur. (Think stink bomb smell. (  that's not pure sulfur but it's okay I know what she meant (Arceus won't touch semantic arguments because she isn't extremely tedious))) The quicker we find Crawli, the quicker we can get the heck outta here! Yeah, let's hurry. I feel like I'm going to pass out. Speaking of semantics, the game has a field effect specifically for swamps, but all of the battles here will take place on forested terrain.  The area is also constantly raining, which makes sense. Talking to any one of these Gastrodon (they're absolutely everywhere) will start a battle. (p.s. Gastrodon is a pretty good guy)  This is nice, still not available for purchase, as apparently catching Pokemon (specifically coded in and approved for balance) easier is a no-no. As the name suggests, you get a higher catch rate if you're using them at nighttime (6pm - 6am in real time).  We got an Ancient book way back in the Hidden Library quest (before badge 2), and if we chose to give it to the collector back then, this would allow you to read Garufan stuff without any penalty. The main drawback of giving away the other book could be cheating yourself out of an early Gothita. Since I already have one, I just leave it there. In the constant rain.  There are quite a few new Pokemon here, including this here Karrablast, Skorupi and fan favourite Stunfisk. Pretty much just all the Pokemon found in swamps.txt.  Not a lot we can do here until we get Rock Climb, nothing else to see in the bottom half.  There's something more to this... machine here, but you won't see it until a lot later in the LP.  I get lost here a lot because I'm terrible at navigating, especially without a map.  Also the encounter rate sucks.  Fortunately, it's mostly linear if you pay attention to where you're going.  I can tell I was on the right track because I found these two and they started talking. Yes, they look a lot like the poison tanks in Venam's gym. (And perhaps more pertinently, the machines that turn Pokemon into their Shadow versions.)  The gang theorises that when the shadow lab went and exploded, debris was kinda just flung everywhere. More notably, it seems Melia is familiar with Crescent despite not having any prior interactions with her (that Arceus knows of).  There's a pretty conspicuous building here. Weird no-one ever noticed this, or even the giant swamp just chilling behind Sheridan Village.  It could be the stark grey halls or the fact that we're trespassing. This could be a Team Xen structure... If that's the case we need to be extra careful. Do you hear that? It sounds like someone's talking! Great... this place is still occupied. We can't just let Team Xen continue whatever they're doing here. Let's team up and take 'em down! We move relatively slowly, but with purpose.  Arceus is discovering for the first time Ren is secretly a terrorist but this reveal was ruined by the fact that we had a third-person aside like 2 hours ago.  He's angry he didn't personally defeat injustice in his town but Arceus did in a matter of hours, becoming a terrorist was naturally the next possible course of action. May as well sow some discord so you can swoop in to save the day and be showered in praise a bit later, eh?  angry at all three of us... We need to get these data files to our Grand Dream City branch. Ren?! Yeah, yeah... That's my name. What do you want?  Naturally, on seeing Melia inexplicably not dead, he freaks a bit. Wait... How...? What's... What's going... I don't... What? Ren... I don't understand... You're working with Team Xen? How...? How are you alive?! Melia, you're alive! But if you're here, that means that... she... She lied to me! After everything they've done... You'd... You'd go and betray us like this?! I... Is that all you have to say for yourself?! Melia, you don't understand... Faced with this complex moral dilemma, will Ren do the right thing and help us out?  The answer is no; he makes a break for it and escapes. Guess we're going factory diving!  Oh this is nice, I guess. A pretty big hint that we're not exactly going through this area uncontested.  Oh no. It's one of these puzzles.  By standing on an arrow, you will not surprisingly be pushed in that direction. I hate these puzzles because they require something I don't often exhibit: paying attention. That monitor behind Arceus can be used to toggle the direction of the arrows (thankfully there aren't any super complex sequences of monitor activation required).  And right! Jan remembered Shadow pokes were a thing, so a few of the battles here have them. You know what was neat about Shadow Pokemon? Having moves which could deal Super Effective hits against basically any target. What's not neat is that they are always a good 10 levels below the opposition, so they're almost never worth it beyond being purified. This Masquerain's unique moves include Discharge and Ice Beam. Masquerain even got a stat buff with the latest gen of Pokemon, so it's not completely awful.  Shame about Medicham being a killing machine and OHKOing it. It wasn't going to fare much better against opponents if you were using it as a Shadow Pokemon.  The first room is pretty easy, but that only means the puzzles will ramp up in complexity from here.  In hindsight, none of this is really that difficult, I was just super lazy about doing the puzzle.  Navigate to this monitor and turn it on, influence tiles which are out of eyesight so you have no idea if you're doing the right thing, and move on.  And look you're making progress.  And then step on partially obscured tiles and have to fight grunts, then make your way back to where you were before.  Pretty much every grunt is packing Steel-type Pokemon (which I evidence by showing a Grass/Ghost, but it's ability effectively makes it Steel (exacerbated by the field increasing the Steelworker Effect and doubling Gyro Ball's Power)).  Oh, another one of these. Claydol isn't very good, but I wouldn't pass any of these up in case something were to say, make Claydol good. This Baltoy gets Flamethrower (Rock Blast too but is that even worth mentioning?).  A little more monitor operating and...  We make it out okay. There's another freebie heal, which is remarkably generous since there haven't exactly been a ton of fights.  We come at a crossroads.  Well not really, we're foiled by technology at the top exit.  Oh yeah this is what I wanna see.  I miss that TM on my first pass, but I don't leave it long.  Yet another critically underlevelled Shadow Pokemon for my arsenal.  This one has Fire Lash and Coil, the former is guaranteed to lower the opponent's Defense stat, while the latter of which is a setup move which boosts Attack and also it's Accuracy, meaning it could probably pull off Power Whip pretty consistently. (Power Whip is just a high-power low-accuracy move, nothing absurd). It's not anything amazing, but certainly competent.  Whenever you reach a new monitor, it's a very safe bet that you should turn it on.  I don't really have anything to say about these segments, they're pretty mindless busywork.  I guess if you have a teammate who needs bringing up to speed, this area would be decent for it since lots of grunts are scattered about.  what  Arceus makes it out mostly unscathed. These are mostly annoying since sometimes you can't see where you'll end up, so it ends up as trial and error from time to time.  We must be getting pretty close to the end if we're getting cast into asides again.  Could you please stop prancing around the room like that? It's annoying. I'm trying to gather all this data before we book it out of here.  We don't sympathise with Ren because his current motives are dumb as hell. I just... I just need to think for a second. Sigh... Ren, why are you livid? Is it because you ran into your old friends? Is that why? Is that why you're annoying me right now? No, I was lied to by... someone. Get over it. No, Melia was alive this whole time! We've known Melia was alive for quite some time, actually. Wait, you knew?! You knew this whole time and you didn't let me know?! Of course I knew. Why didn't you tell me?! Because it doesn't concern you. Not like it matters anyway. Once we've gotten all of the data from Madelis' program, we're out of here. And by Madelis' program, I of course mean her Shadow Pokemon project. I still don't understand the point of Shadow Pokemon. Big same. Their inclusion feels like it was just to make Team Xen seem a little more heartless, as if sinking a cruise ship somehow wasn't enough of a sledgehammer to drive it into the player. (though in truth the thought of Sad Pokemon is way more sad than people  ) That's correct. It seems you aren't completely dense. You're right, we couldn't care less if they get snagged or not. Conversely, we're running out of them, so we need to provide our grunts with more. Whatever you say, Nastasia. Tch... Looks like Arceus is about to get to us. I'm not done downloading all the data we need, so I'm going to need you to distract Arceus.  (There's a free heal in the previous room, they don't just dump you into this fight) Ren, take care of them! I don't have what I need quite yet! But... I- Ugh... This is an absolute disaster. Nice, that's like, the one thing we're good at.   The last time we beat him, it was for the right to defeat xenophobia. I'm not sure what we're fighting for this time, maybe Ren has deeper motives for being in Team Xen.  A Focus Sash is an item which guarantees a Pokemon will not be KOed from full health, they are never not annoying. Cacturne has good offenses, in exchange for some pretty lousy secondary stats, so it's not hard to take down.  Arcanine is a little harder to take down, since its ability Intimidate will effectively halve physical attacker's power on switching in. It has an Assault Vest as the item so it's tanky on the special side too.  Flare Blitz hits really hard, but the recoil puts the dog into KO range with Dig.  Even with Eviolite buffing it's already solid 70/80/80 defenses, Flamethrower still does heaps of damage to it. Scyther's ability, Technician, gives an extra 50% damage boost to any move with 60 (or in the factory field, 80) base power, which is a pretty nice buff. It's also pretty fast and has good attack, thankfully Salazzle landed the burn and survives on a sliver of HP.  Next up is Flygon, and since Chaz fell just short of the KO, we get to witness...  Z-moves! These have been in the game since the third badge, but this is the first time I've ever been on the receiving end of one.  This Z-move is there to gently caress over any fairies you brought along, Chaz doesn't make it.  It also has Dragon Dance to buff its alright Attack and Speed stats to actually threatening levels, a good strategy is to, uh, not let it do that. By the way I'm playing on switch (the other game mode, set, won't give you a prompt to switch out between the opponent's Pokemon) because I don't really want to have to trade blows in this game because of the high terrain buffs. I offset this by only using Healing and X items extremely sparingly.  Greninja's a really fast jerk who did that much damage in a single neutral blow to Medicham. I should also add that it's Protean ability will change its type to the attack it's using. This means it will always have a 1.5x damage buff for any attack (as well as Life Orb damage), and can make landing super-effective hits difficult if you're bad at predicting the enemy's decisions. It doesn't take a kick to the face very well.  His last Pokemon gives you a little more breathing room because it's slow as hell.   However, it's seed will boost its Special Attack and Flash Cannon is doubled on this field, so it's attacks are very strong, almost as strong as Julius at Sunday school carrying four chairs at once, but everyone could see he was having trouble with it and just wanted to impress the grade's heartthrob Sara.  Put it down roughly like Julius always did those chairs when he ran out of steam and he thought no one was looking.  We were mostly okay with this fight. Excellent, you bought me just enough time. Let's get the hell out of here, Ren. R-Right, I'm right behind you. So that's it then? You're just going to keep running away from me?   He runs.  Following him, the lab naturally segues into a cave. If you Surf over there, you can find a hidden Link Heart on one of the rocks. This is used to evolve Trade evolutions, so it's very valuable!  Looks like Crawli isn't a match for Nastasia, even after he collected his ace Pokemon! That was laughably easy. I've battled better people in my dreams. If that's all it takes to become a Gym Leader nowadays then the standards have dropped considerably.  ... I don't know why she's mad at Ren for losing to Arceus, not only did we effortlessly defeat multiple of the Deoxys clones that she had, but we've already defeated the leader of Team Xen at reasonably high power?? To let Arceus overpower you in the way that they did is inexcusable. Remind me to teach you a few things later. There's no way you can go on being this weak. Get on the train, Ren. Right... As for the rest of you, I must bid you adieu. No... I won't let you get away! Well, I know what Arceus is doing, and that's rigidly watching Nastasia leave without attempting to stop her, even though we've put down a small menagerie of powerful legendary Pokemon at this point. This is just an assumption, but Crawli seems to be the strongest one here. And I was able to scrap him like he was nothing. Even if all of you battled me at the same time it'd just be futile. Aw, but don't have such a sour look on your face. We'll surely meet again. Until then, be good little children and stay out of my way! Arceus and co. are good little children. I thought I could take her, but she defeated me in no time at all. It's fine, really! Don't beat yourself up! Yeah... Plus, if there's one thing Nastasia and I agree on... It's that we'll definitely meet again. But next time, we'll win.  I haven't been here in almost a year so I decided to take a trip here and... When I got here, a huge factory was in the spot of this cave. I didn't want to just walk in. The place didn't seem safe. I somehow managed to find a small entrance to the railnet east of here and walked down the tracks. That's when I saw those two trying to make a run for it. If only I were stronger. Well, what's done is done and we can't change that. We should leave. Staying here will only amplify our bitter feelings. Let's keep a clear head and keep on with our mission.   No, I need to briefly backtrack.  Mostly, I need to go back to the factory and grab that TM that was taunting me.  It was Thunder Wave, which is pretty good; outspeeding your opponent is arguably the most important aspect of battle. That was all I missed, so next time I take on the gym. If fangame tradition continues, the bug gym will be abysmal. I'm hoping it's not. Sorry for the short-ish update, but I didn't really think the bug gym fit here without the update being a little too long. Today's Shiny:  Madame X(-Scissor)
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May 13, 2020 10:56
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Sure do love the 'everything you do advances the villain's agenda, and even if it doesn't, you don't get a clear victory and they're smug as hell about it' school of storytelling
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May 13, 2020 13:21
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Leraika posted:Sure do love the 'everything you do advances the villain's agenda, and even if it doesn't, you don't get a clear victory and they're smug as hell about it' school of storytelling Makes sense why Arceus is so willing to just stand there and watch things happening. They're just used to having no real agency.
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May 13, 2020 13:33
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Pugnacious Doggie posted:This Baltoy gets Flamethrower (Rock Blast too but is that even worth mentioning?). Icicle Spear made Black Kyurem finally get into Ubers, I'm not going to say any move isn't worth it  (Ignore that Black Kyurem has more than twice the Attack of Claydol and gets STAB from Icicle Spear, while the same can't be said of Claydol  There's niches for it still, I'm sure, but I don't think it'll reach its full potential here)
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May 13, 2020 17:00
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God, I loving hate how fangames do those tile puzzles! Cramming a million movers in right next to each other doesn't make your puzzle harder, it just makes it tedious! And God loving forbid someone with a visual impairment try to play this game...
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May 13, 2020 23:44
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LiefKatano posted:Icicle Spear made Black Kyurem finally get into Ubers, I'm not going to say any move isn't worth it It also got dragon dance, which makes basically anything good
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May 14, 2020 00:53
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...I keep on forgetting about Dragon Dance. I'm not sure if it's because I thought it already had it or if I learned about Icicle Spear first and the idea of a multi-hit move being what makes a Pokemon (without Skill Link, even) way more viable was just so hilarious to me that that's the only bit that stuck in my mind.
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May 14, 2020 01:49
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Having a physical ice attack at all was a big deal though. I still don't get why the kyurem forms don't get icicle crash or even ice punch...
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May 15, 2020 07:22
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Base Kyurem doesn't exactly have punching arms, and it's probably what's used to determine what moves can be learned (outside of, y'know. the moves learned on transforming). As to why it doesn't get Icicle Crash... 
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May 16, 2020 15:35
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I should preface this update with a mistake I made. The Sheridan Wetlands Terrain are now Swamp instead of Forest as of Version 12, I cannot slander Jan for being outdated with my footage, I'll try to be better next time  With that shocking truth revealed and my conscience clear, welcome back. In pursuit of the bad guys to save our rock, Arceus need two more badges to be able to cross lava. We don't make the rules, but it's not too far from the truth that badges would take precedence over Nim, at least to Arceus. From our experience with battling Crawli (and his pun name, of course), this one's gonna be a bug gym, which was very fair and balanced in other fangames, so I've seen.   Huh...? Hey, isn't that Arceus? The one everyone's been talking about?  Would ya look at that! It looks like that seems to be the case! Watcha doin' in here, Arceus? Do you want to be a Pokemon Ranger? Don't be silly, they're probably just here to battle Crawli. Um, Crawli? I thought he was going on another mission? We're interrupted by what I can only assume to be a higher ranking Ranger.  Her whole schtick is being very abrasive.  And who is this lousy excuse for a trainer? T-This is Arceus, Holly. The famous trainer that people have been talking about recently. So you're the famous Arceus, are you? I've seen OLD LADIES with better posture than you! If you think you're just going to walk up into Crawli's room like this then you're sorely mistaken! Please, could you not, I've endured enough hardship. Why not just have Arceus go through the course us Rangers must go through? Why that's a brilliant idea! I love how quick I am to think of these things! B-but... There are no buts in this academy! You there, Arceus! You are to go through the course we have laid out for aspiring Pokemon Rangers as a prerequisite! God imagine the poo poo you'd have to go through if you were just a casual trainer. Between xenophobia, plenty of absentee gym leaders and now boot camp, it sounds like a pretty horrible time. Guess most people will just deal with perpetually disobedient Pokemon. Arceus, meet me in the back room! Rangers, I want you to get off your sorry asses and work for once! Back to your posts! Now!...Yes Holly. Well nothing can ever be convenient, but we don't really have much of a choice. At the end of each puzzle, you can step on a pad like this, saving your progress. Stepping on this here pad will return to the last puzzle you haven't completed.  Another puzzle hint, but not a particularly helpful one.  The walk here wasn't exactly harrowing. Perhaps you're not a sorry excuse like I initially thought! That aside, you're about to enter an obstacle designed for Rangers to overcome! Surely if you're positive on battling Crawli, you'll have no problem getting to the end of this cave. It's a pretty basic pushing puzzle. You'll also need the help of the Pokemon located in this cave. A Pokemon Ranger is just a Ranger without their Pokemon! You'll never make it to the end if you don't befriend them. So make sure to do that!ok, got it.  So the gist of the puzzle is that some logs are able to be pushed. I'm not 100% sure on what the visual cue for a pushable log is (they might be a bit darker in colour or it's just a form of autosuggestion since I know which logs to push).  Anyway, when you push the log, it will not stop until it collides with something. Arceus must be loving jacked, because you have to push some of these pretty far.  And yes, they can be pushed vertically too.  Holly did say that Rangers befriend Pokemon. A good way to do this apparently is to violently enrage them by hitting them with a heavy log.   See, we're friends already  Now, I know basically nothing about Pokemon Ranger but I caught that Pinsir and I am sure as hell not letting it go, not sure if that's the Pokemon rangers' MO.  So with both of these logs, you can see a small taper in the middle of the log, you're able to jump over those. This applies to any other logs you see later on.   On the other side of the room is another Pokemon we're a lot less openly hostile too. It still runs away, I guess it fleeing in possible terror could be considered a success?  This one is quite hard to mess up. Not that it's surprising, that room was so simple. Literally anyone could do it. Heck, I could do it with my eyes closed! The next room will weed out the weak-hearted individuals who have no right to be a Ranger. Welcome to the Infested Labyrinth. This is where souls are lost, dreams are crushed. If you cannot get through this part of the course then you deserve nothing more than the dirt on my boots. None of these logs are pushable, as it were.  No wonder you're having trouble all your team members are not good.  Okay, that log is definitely darker.  Before we move on we need to make this Ariados ambiguously uncomfortable. I don't know what emotions it's feeling.  Another chance to catch a Pinsir, I'd take the game up on it since you won't have any opportunities to catch it normally for a little while.  Oh yeah, you'll need Rock Smash for the gym.  Here's one of those warp pads to save progress, meaning you can certainly mess up here.  The correct answer is no, but past Arceus/LPer is not very smart.  Oh yeah, better chat up the Ariados.  Hm.  This is where the little gears in my head start slowly turning.  Apparently you can jump between the logs and the land.  So, the correct sequence goes: Push the log in the last screenshot downwards.  ...Good!  Push the other one sideways. Marvel at your unbridled strength.  With one huge heave, send it flying upwards. Hope you don't liquefy a passerby's insides with this dangerous projectile. Watch out next time!  gently caress up and start again.  From the top, push the previous log left, then up.  Island hop using the first log, then push this bad boy upwards once you've cleared any other obstacles and positioned the other log.  Look at you go!  Whatever you do, don't forget to position the tiny log on the far left. This next part is simple, but a dead end if you chose not to befriend the Pokemon in this area. Perhaps not all dreams come true, Arceus. But this won't be the case with your dream. Get out there and finish this course! I will give you situps for a century if you fail this! Get out there! If you did the right thing, the only Ariados you need to talk to is in this room.  You can see it appeared there, it was a little bit before this Zygarde Cell.  Stand on the platform, and the Ariados will respond to your pleas.  Oh they made a bridge for you out of webs. Delightful. I'm not ungrateful, just grossed out  We already beat Crawli he should have just gave me the badge back then   I always knew you could do it! ...Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you recognize me? Why, I'm Holly. We just spoke a few moments ago, didn't we? Teehee... Are you surprised by my sudden change in appearance? You must look tough to be tough. I had to whip those Rangers into shape. But I could also be a mother to those who would allow me to. Allow me to introduce myself formally.  Crawli's mother was my sister. She died while giving birth to Crawli, so I took on the task of raising him. He certainly wouldn't be raised by his no good father, Rory. Though you may know him by his stage name, Rorim B. does anyone in this game have a normal backstory  She's been held hostage thrice in this game now, so I could see how she might think that. Somewhat related but to get here she must also pump a lot of iron. I don't want to have to rely on you, or Melia, or anyone else! I want to be able to take care of myself, so I'm going to be taking part in the league too! I'll collect many badges and become strong like everyone else! And my, what a start you've made. Oh, sorry! I don't think we've met. Oh, but we have. It's me, Holly. E-Excuse me...? Tee hee hee... Well, anyway, you both came to battle my Crawli, right? Well we shouldn't keep him waiting. There's one final thing you two must do before you face him.  Well we better not keep her waiting too long. (I left to heal my guys and get someone from the PC)     We don't jump on that green cover because that would probably break our bones.  We've been in a bit more danger than this throughout our journey, I don't even think a fall like this fazes Arceus anymore.  In short, yeah we're okay to jump into the void. We trust them because of all the camaraderie we built up barely interacting with any of them at all.  We land on some more webs, would be horrible if we just got a game over screen. If that web wasn't placed where it was, that could've ended badly for us. But I suppose that's what the whole test was about, huh? Trust. We trusted them and here we are... safe and sound. Sorry for talking so much... My heart is pounding out of my chest. That was very scary! Anyway, Crawli should be around here, right?  By the way every time you leave the area you need to catapult yourself off this edge to get back in.  This tutor teaches Giga Drain for three Green Shards (which in Reborn canon are base components of amphetamines). Super good move for special attackers, it deals considerable Grass type damage and heals your Pokemon for half of the damage you deal.  Crawli must be behind this. What do you think? Yeah, I can't think of anything else that could possibly be behind this door. That being the case, how do we open it?  Guests must wait in the waiting area until all further business is settled. I see... Well, there's no question on who gets to go first. You got here first and the badge probably will help you more than it will help me. The most I can do with one badge is clear rocks, and it's not like I won't have a chance afterwards. So... go. I'll be rooting for you back here.  After finishing that scene which adds nothing except more transcription effort, we're good to enter the arena. As one would expect from a large indoor facility, it starts raining immediately. In a way, it one-ups 8 turns of Prankster backed rain by having unavoidable rain, forever. The rain is apparently here because it drains into this area from a water source above, but the real reason is because it halves damage from Fire moves, conveniently one of the types strong against Crawli.  Interacting with these (possibly German) Yanma will start an encounter with a guy 15 levels below the current cap.  We chased you all the way to a swamp, we waited for you I hope my Rangers didn't give you too hard of a time? I'll never forget how you helped me out back at Goldenwood Forest. Ever since then I knew I'd get the opportunity to battle you seriously. When I was younger, I fell into this cave. I was trapped down here for weeks... Not even my father could find me. The Bug Pokemon that live here helped me survive until I was eventually found! ok not sure what quality Arceus has that makes everyone overshare their lives to her. People think Bug Types are frail, weak beings... But I'm here to show you how terrifying they can be!  Crawli got a sprite update and I had to play with some switches to get him to reappear for this shot (some of you more astute viewers may have noticed he disappeared completely in the overworld). His team didn't change at all between versions, we're good on that front.  The seed for this arena is by far one of the worst to fight against. Not only does it raise Attack by one stage, it also grants a turn of complete invincibility.  Now I may have said the rain here one-upped Shelley, but that isn't really true since Crawli has no way of changing the weather back to rain if you do something about it. Using a turn to set up sun isn't good momentum, but Torkoal's ability will passively do that for me. I would not have put myself through the small hell of finding one if there was no immediate benefit to me.  Now I focused on the weather because if you combine Rain and Sun weather effects, a new terrain is generated, completely overwriting the forest field Crawli's team is built around. It didn't stop Ariados' seed from activating, but it certainly minimises some of the other garbage.  Electrode is here to drop this reference, then die. Sonic Boom will deal a fixed 120 damage in the Rainbow Field, which is enough to outright KO a lot of opponents.  So this Galvantula has its bug moves buffed 50%, and it has a Buginium Z for a particularly nasty one-time nuke. That's why I needed an extremely fast Sonic Boom spammer.  Scizor has another one of those bullshit seeds, only it's a lot scarier than Ariados, rocking a base 130 attack stat and getting a buff thanks to the seeds's attack boost. No thank you. The Rainbow field doesn't proc the Telluric Seeds which are used in the Forest Field, a big reason I wanted to change the field in the first place.  Ariados throws a hissy fit instead of showing off Crawli's signature move, which is a unique brand of horseshit. Barbed Web is a base 80 power spread move, which will lay out a Sticky Web, as well. This means anyone you send in will be starting off on the back foot, as Sticky Web lowers speed by  He has a Heracross and Pinsir, but they have pretty bog standard physical attacks and go down quickly to sun-boosted Fire attacks.  Crawli's final Pokemon is Araquanid, who has a pretty neat ability in Water Bubble. Its Water attacks get doubled, before being multiplied by 1.5 for STAB, than another 1.5 if you did nothing about the rain. Not a lot can stomach 4.5x water damage.  Fortunately it's very slow, and has no Sticky Web backup to slow my guys down and sweep.  The fight sounds dreadful without careful planning and completely negating the field, though.  Thanks, that sounds disgusting. Hm... I was supposed to give you a TM, but I forgot to bring it back with me from my hideout at the Wetlands. If you're ever in the area I suggest looking for my secret hideout. Perhaps you'll find something interesting.  Oh, that's probably not a usual occurrence.  be forgiven. Well we've heard a lot about her so it looks like the game is shaping up for us to meet her soon. You've been causing me so many problems, Angie. Er, sorry, Arceus. I was just talking to myself there. You're free to go. I have some things I have to tend to.  The back room behind Crawli once you've defeated him is accessible, we need Strength for one side but we're able to leave an exit on the left.  And we can pick up an okay TM. It's a base 70 special Bug move, which'll deal double damage on an opponent with any of the main status conditions (Sleep, Paralysis, Poison or Freezing).  Oh yeah you couldn't spectate for some reason. So, how did it go? You did it! I was so sure you could. Well, I guess it's my turn, right? You don't have to wait for me, Arceus. I'll catch up with you guys later, all right? Wish me luck!Well she said I didn't have to wait, so I won't. Next time Arceus will be too busy backtracking for all the Surf quests! Today's Shiny:  May as well stick to the Gym Leader's ace, not the most attractive shiny. Pugnacious Doggie fucked around with this message at 11:18 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 11:16
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What the heck happened, there was stuff in this update I actually liked. Take out the part where we have to go through all this to get a tiny step closer to saving someone's life, dial back the log pushing to a more reasonable puzzle and tweak the gym leader's usual bullshit a bit (though it doesn't seem so bad, you need specific tools to deal with it but not ludicrously difficult to obtain ones) and this would be a really good section, even with the really stupid backstories. I don't know how to feel about that. (also if this kid is your foster son and you love him so much why the gently caress did you name him Crawli)
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May 20, 2020 12:31
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because he's creepy
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May 20, 2020 12:53
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Because he's a bug-type specialist, obviously.
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May 20, 2020 12:59
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That didn't seem as terrible a Damp Rock/Prankster-backed Rain Dance (and a loving Confuse Ray for follow-up) that OFS had to deal with.
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May 20, 2020 17:47
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Well that sounds like a nightmare [i]but[i] at least you had ab unch of options to neutralize it so we'll call this a net positive encounter even if to truly get the leg up you need to know what all these ding dang terrains do
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May 20, 2020 18:01
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Seraphic Neoman posted:That didn't seem as terrible a Damp Rock/Prankster-backed Rain Dance (and a loving Confuse Ray for follow-up) that OFS had to deal with. Because you technically have counter play options here, even if you'd pretty much need to plan a solid amount ahead. The Bug gym in Reborn had no such thing. Torkoal may apparently be awkward to find, but it's still available. Reborn gave you next to no weather change options(if any at all) at that point in game, let alone passive weather changing. quote:does anyone in this game have a normal backstory We all already know the answer is no. And it's updates like these that make me feel so conflicted on Rejuvenation vs Reborn. Jan seems so close to getting it, but he's just inspired by someone who actively dislikes the platform and has very poor ideas of what makes a good game, and that shows.
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May 21, 2020 15:22
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Rejuvenation would probably be firmly in "pretty okay, if edgey" if it: - just took a hacksaw to its words -excised things like the Prison (guest starring: A Pokemon Battle!) entirely. -rebalanced the nonsense that is its economy & access to items
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May 21, 2020 15:55
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Someone must have liked Golden Sun.
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May 21, 2020 21:58
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 With the advent of the Surf HM, it's probably time Arceus got around to some optional exploration. You could have done most of these before Crawli, since travel back to the first island was made possible after the Xen lab sequence.  Oh I mean after this scene whoops. How did it go, Arceus? I assume you won?  Congratulations! You only need one more badge and then you're good to go. Crawli told me that there's a Gym in a place called Teila Resort. It's on the way to Kristiline Town, so we're going to make a stop there first. But to get to Teila Town, we're going to have to go through Route 6 and Aquamarine Cave. Well, we have a long road ahead of us. Let's get going, team! Understood! I'll be several hours behind you bye!  Well it looks pretty clear who the next chapter antagonist is gonna be. I'm just realising now at about 30ish updates (the exact number is unknown since I'm realising just now I haven't changed my OP in quite a few months) in I have 6 badges, so I'm a third of the way there.   Somewhat inconveniently, if you want to go back to the wetland, you need to go to Gearen City, then to the wetland.   In the Pier, we encounter a Dragonite who is not very good at delivering mail. And of course we help it look at its dumb goofy face and tell me you could disappoint it.   Well we can recover these letters in plain eyesight, who knows what condition they will be in, given the incessant rain here.  And that's three. For 10,000 Pokedollars, that guy in the top right corner will sell you a Link Heart, so you can get in on those trade evolutions. Considering most of the Link Hearts are hidden items, this is likely the first one you'd encounter if you weren't searching carefully. Sadly this is a one-off sale, it'll be a lot later until you can buy an unlimited supply.   I hope that belonged to you and not a mail recipient, but I'm not complaining.  Wow I still don't have 35 of these yet (it's probably possible I'm just bad at searching).  First area we can use Surf is here, there is absolutely nothing of note here.  In the actual Goldenwood Park area, there is still this huge lake to cross.  It's hiding a Zygarde Cell if you kite along the edges. Something I'm not sure if I ever made clear is that some of these are time gated, which is never fun.  A bit further up, there's another path.  It leads to this small grove with a statue of Mesprit (I think that's it, I mean the pink one), and TM28 corresponds to Dig. Dig is one of those moves that take two turns to attack, but you are at least invulnerable for one of the turns (in most cases anyway). At 80 base power this isn't spectacular, there's nothing stopping people from just switching into something that can resist Ground, and in general is worse than Earthquake in every possible way. It's not very good, but you're playing against AI who don't really handle smart switching anyway. Dig also has the functionality of the Escape Rope item, there is some utility in that as well. Oh and there's another one of those Zygarde cells.  There's water in the Goldenwood caves, you know what this means:  Previously inaccessible areas with (hopefully good) treasure within!  We reach a small sub area, with not much but this trainer  who inexplicably has a Focus Sash on all 5 of her Pokemon. Unless you have multihit attacks, this is gonna take you at least ten turns, and she has some pretty heavy-hitting Pokemon.  A little bit before we were kidnapped in Akuwa Town, we were tasked with seeking out some kids to send to the Lost Camp, this kid is one of 9. A few of the kids will not be as easy to spot as this. Another Zygarde Cell lies just before the ledge as well.  I also know I didn't point this out before, but if you go to the place where you fought Melia, that's actually a path to Arceus' right, there's a Zygarde Cell there. I didn't go there in this footage simply because I didn't know it existed.  We're gonna be all over the place, since I'm looping around the region to find things I miss. Reformed xenophobe Sariah is here reflecting in the Wispy Tower.  Oh, it's just the outsider... I-I mean, Arceus. Sorry. Don't mind me. I was just paying my respects to the people that died here. ...Narcissa said that we should keep this lab opened as a reminder. But is that really okay? I mean, anyone could just wander in there and do as they please. But I guess that doesn't really concern Narcissa, huh? ...Listen, Arceus, I gotta apologize to you for what we did. I used to come here when I was little. I was told about what happened with the tower. Naturally, that story would scare any child, but I took it a step forward and imagined myself in that situation. I thought that if I inserted myself into that situation, I would understand and realize the despair these people felt. I grew angry towards outsiders and people of that sort that I acted like I actually was here the day the tower burned down. No, I'm positive your ancestors wanted you to lynch strangers. I acted like it was my problem even though I had nothing to do with it. I think that's what Narcissa was trying to show us with her play. So, even though I don't exactly forgive outsiders for what they've done... I refuse to live in the past any longer. I want to move forward. So, please, take this as my apology. An Ether will restore the PP of a single move by 10 points, great to have if you're dungeon crawling and your guys are starting to run out of attacks. Sariah gifts you three.  To the right of the Wispy Tower, a path previously blocked by a hiker appears to have opened up.  It leads to another entrance in the Wispy Ruins, which is blocked by another wall. We'll get the tools to scale it at some point later.  Hmm, it looks like Arceus' compatriot Dragonite kinda sucks at securing cargo.  Shouldn't be too big of a burden.  There are four letters this time, the first of which is in this garden here.  The next lays within the graveyard near the gym.  Now these letters are a bit more spread out than before, so they aren't localised in a single map. The third is on the Wispy Path.  While I'm here, I may as well send another kid to the Lost Camp.  And the final one is in front of the newly opened entrance to the Wispy ruins, to the east of Wispy Tower. That one took a while because I didn't realise how widespread the letters ended up.   Huh. Brutal Swing is a pretty weak Dark attack which'll damage every Pokemon on the field (even allies, use with caution). It's a move which is almost never used for offensive purposes (60 base power is nothing impressive), but more to pull of wacky strategies in Double battles.  To the East of Goldenleaf Town, if you follow the river on route 3 all the way south, we'll reach a new area.  There's a few routes you can take, but ultimately it's pretty simple to navigate.  Oh! Neat! Ability Capsules are used to change a Pokemon's ability if at all possible. Unlike the canon games, Ability Capsules in this game can cycle to a Pokemon's Hidden ability (as the Hidden Abilities are easily accessible in the wild anyway). What's problematic is that this is never random, which means you may have to burn through two (although with an element of randomness you may get unlucky and waste the item anyway if you aren't diligent about saving) of these capsules to get the optimal ability. Probably better just to catch/breed the guy you want before you start training.  Looks like there's something I can come back to later. Interacting with it now yields naught.  I can't stress enough how useful it is to frequently use your Itemfinder.  There also seems to be a shack here I can visit, but it looks like the owner is absent.  Well not for very long, I suppose. By the way, this guy will only show up if you've defeated Crawli, so on an initial pass, you may just find a locked door and move on.   That doesn't mean I can't feel uncomfortable by it, you know? C'mon every Pokemon protag does that, and they make it extra eerie by remaining completely silent as they take things and interact with you. Hey... What's that badge you have there? Is that the Poison Heart Badge?   I know several surnames now, worldbuilding at its finest. Are you good friends with my daughter? Veronica? Well that's good to hear! I'm glad that she's still doing well. Say... are you busy right now?Well one of my friends is being held hostage at the summit of a volcano, behind a lot of plot, so absolutely not. Quest me.  Seriously dude we can take all the time we need. I want you to meet me in my lab. You might've seen the building. It's exactly west of this point. But you can only get there by this little train I bought. I have it that way so that random trainers, like you, don't just waltz right in.  And don't think I missed you running around back here.  Oh thank you for this wonderful gift, only 40 (35 if you do this as early as possible) levels below the level cap. Do you think people honestly like grinding?? Anyway Elektrike is a cool little Pokemon, fast and with good Special Attack, but not a whole lot of moves to really take advantage of. Its evolution even gets one of those sparkly Mega Evolutions, which will not be relevant to me in the slightest for a long time (so long, that it doesn't exist in this version of the game!).  Oh well, Pokedex fodder is always nice.  As you've seen quite a lot before, shiny Pokemon are still common as hell, I may as well show them off as they present themselves to me.  Surfing down completely will take you back to Route 2, but you still can't get around this scientist guy.  We have a lot of faith in this stranger and get into the train, which warps us to this lab. It has just come to my attention that I haven't asked for your name yet. Ah, so Arceus is your name then, yes? Arceus, have you heard about the attack Goldenleaf Town suffered through? To specify, I'm not talking about the Radio Tower perse... I'm talking about the attack Team Xen constructed. Well, whether or not you've heard about it or not, it happened. During this attack, Team Xen opened up a secret laboratory hidden beneath the Radio Tower. A laboratory that seems to not have been touched in many, many, many years. I actually went down there earlier to see things for myself. The place was mostly torn down and empty, but there was one room that piqued my interest. On the lowest level there was a hallway that was inaccesible. Apparently there's more to the tower, I probably never would've went back otherwise. Call it a hunch, but I think there may be something past that room. Now, where do you come in then? Why do I need your help? Well, there also seemed to be some parts of the lab that I myself could not reach. It required a Pokemon with Surf, and I know what you're thinking... How would it be possible for me to be in this area without a Pokemon with Surf? Making small boats with the wood in this area is quite effective! ...Anyway, I would like you to go down there and investigate the areas I could not reach. I don't know if this will help you or not, but I found it while looking around.  We'll be putting this to use in a bit.  We'll book it to the lab to uncover its secrets then.  Yeah I didn't even remember there was water in here.   Passing through the gate unlocks some kind of puzzle.  Seems like a hint...  You need someone with Flash, you can grab the TM from the Game Corner in Gearen City.  It does a thing.  The light bounced all the way into this room, activating a new puzzle.  A tile puzzle. Thank god you don't have to rotate any of the pieces.  Ok so not an X for Team xen...  Nope, still wrong.  Well, third time's the charm. You know you've beat it because the cursor disappears.  This crest also fires off a beam of light.  And gets rid of that inaccessible gate.  There's nothing else of note here except for this. Hm... It doesn't seem like it wants to open. Actually, taking a second look at this... It seems like this Pokeball is actually quite damaged. I wonder... if this happens to be a corrupted Pokeball? If that's the case, then there may be a Pokemon inside of this thing! Quickly, Arceus. Let's head back to my lab. We can closely observe the contents of this Pokemon while we're there.  We fortunately don't have top make the trek back to the lab. It seems like this Pokeball has received numerous amounts of beatings over the years. The rust around the edges suggest that this Pokeball has been submerged in water at one point. Not only that, but it seems like the Pokeball itself has aged quite a bit. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much we can do with this considering my current equipment. However, if we were to somehow make my equipment better, we could do something. I know I've already asked you to help me before, but I believe it is our duty to save this Pokemon. If you would help me out just one more time, I would greatly appreciate it. If we're going to retrieve the data inside of this Pokeball, we're going to need to gather some items. Let's start off with the easy things to take care of.  We do have one of those.  We've also managed to snag two of those, not like we'll be needing a second anyway.   Oh.  Oh! That's doable! We got one of those from the artist on Route 2, in return for showing off a Zebstrika. You could also steal one from a wild Nosepass in Carotos mountain, but that sounds a lot more tedious. Try as I might, I cannot unlearn any of this.   A Pokemon cry is played. I won't tell you which because that'd ruin the 30 seconds of suspense between now and me finding it. It doesn't seem like everything went to plan...  Whatever it is, it left in a huff.   It's a longish walk so you'd better not be pulling my leg.  Somewhat difficult to find, it's actually lurking here. I would not blame you if you just left without investigating  Oh there it is! Type: Null is actually a pretty plot-relevant Pokemon to Sun and Moon, and considered a special Pokemon. I don't know if I ever discussed this in detail before, but when catching Pokemon, each Pokemon has its own designated catch rate, from 0 to 255. The higher the catch rate, the easier a Pokemon is to catch. Common Pokemon like your sub-1% Rattata fall into a 255 catch rate. The hardest Pokemon I've had to catch is Basculin, with a pretty piddly 25 catch rate. Type: Null has a catch rate of 3.  Catching Pokemon like this is a gigantic exercise in tedium, that can be really easy or extremely time consuming depending on your like. My luck chose time consuming Fucker broke out of 29 balls. What a deflating experience.  Oh yeah spoilers incoming for Sun and Moon if you haven't played them yet. Don't say you weren't warned...  Yeah the super obvious villain wasn't doing entirely moral stuff in Aether Paradise. I have no idea why Matthew here knows about it. That's not the only thing Lusamine was involved in, but we'll save that for later. Supposedly there were only 3 Type: Null ever created, but... All three Type: Null have been taken into custody by one trainer or another. For there to be more Type: Null out there concerns me greatly. It's possible that Team Xen created a few Type: Null for their own personal gain. That being said, I think you're capable of taking care of this Type: Null, no? I mean after all, you do have my daughter's badge, and that's one tough cookie to beat. I think I'm going to head back to the Forsaken Laboratory. Maybe I'll be able to find more about Type: Null there.  Ok so! Type: Null is a pretty unique Pokemon. It has an evolution through friendship, Silvally. Silvally has 95 in every stat, so it's nothing phenomenal, but you can give it items called memories (which are just a worse version of type plates that don't even grant a damage boost) which can change Silvally's type (as well as its signature move) to anything you want. Pretty neat! Type: Null also seems like a pretty good Eviolite abuser but uh that's a pretty lategame item for some reason. It's a cool Pokemon line, but not amazing sadly. At least Gamefreak buffed Multi Attack in gen 8?  With that out of the way for a bit, Arceus makes her way back to Route 2.  Our efforts are rewarded with a really good TM! Thief isn't really useful for combat purposes, but it's useful for stealing items from wild Pokemon. Some items of note are Heart Scales from Luvdisc or sellable items from Solrock and Lunatone.  At some point, the Aipom in front of this tree were replaced with wild Ambipom.  How She can also be sent to the Lost camp, and will happily swim across that river to get there.  In Sheridan Village, this little body of water can be crossed.  You can catch yourself another uncomfortably low-level Pokemon. Heracross has really good attack and everything else is pretty meh. It at least has a pretty solid level-up movepool.  I'm finding a lot of these, which is nice since there are indeed a lot of trade evolutions.  We've circled back to Route 3, but it's time to explore the north area.  Another kid for the Lost Camp, I hope he can swim.  An a TM for Sky Drop. This is a slightly weaker version of Fly, but with a twist! When you use the move, you pick up the opponent, and they can't do anything for that turn (or the next turn if they go first). It also means an opponent can't switch out of the move or use Protect, unlike Fly. You could probably use this to good effect with mess with your opponent's tempo in double battles, but I've never really tried.  Oh yeah. See that kid behind the third tree on the right? I didn't.  There's also a body of water in the route 3 cave.   There are 6 Poliwag located all over this Island and Terajuma. I won't commit this update since one or two are gated behind some exploration tools we don't have.  Exploring a little deeper into the cave will spit you out here.  Ohhh, Minior is one of my favourites, and I would use it in a heartbeat if it wasn't completely robbed of having a good moveset from lopsided TM distribution in this game. Maybe I'll bring it back when I have the TM for Acrobatics (the only worthwhile Flying move it learns).  If, and only if you visit the Moon Field on a Saturday night, some Clefairy will greet you.  And you get a Moon stone out of it. Neat.  They can also be fought for caught, but if you were really committed to using Clefable, you could have got one a long time ago. Clefable makes for a pretty good tank thanks to having two fantastic abilities in Magic Guard and Unaware. That's not at all my playstyle, so hard pass.  You can steal items from the Solrock and Lunatone who appear here, and they have a pretty small chance of holding a Comet Shard (though you can boost your chance at finding one by leading with a Pokemon with the Compoundeyes ability), which can be sold for a pretty impressive 60,000 Pokedollars. Just a note on money, there's to be a hidden multiplier tied to the number of badges you have which increases the prize money you earn, so trainers start paying out a boatload of cash around this point and it's like money was never an issue. I have no idea if this is a thing in the real games, I'm very glad it's there though!  Nice, I've managed to send some kids back.  And once I donate enough money, the place can be renovated. The kids are probably ok around construction.  See the girl behind that blue tree? I didn't! Again. I didn't even walk past here to show her off, I just walked past her and only notice when I was collecting screenshots.  There's one last area I haven't explored yet, which is the sea north of Akuwa Town.  The weather is always hailing, which will damage most non-Ice Pokemon every turn, which can be a little bit of a drag if you get into too many Pokemon battles.   He wants 10, and you can buy them from a merchant on Route 3. I don't until a while later, I'm forgetful.  By the way, this area is pretty substantial, which means you will want a ton of Repels. Every water tile has a chance at spawning a wild Pokemon. We've seen a couple of these dark patches of water before; they indicate Arceus will be able to Dive whenever she gets the badges required.  There isn't a lot to this Route without Dive. The Octillery you find spread out here can be fought and captured. Octillery has the ability Moody, which'll randomly raise one stat by 2 and lower another by 1. This stat increase also includes Evasion, so it as the potential to be a total bastard to fight.  At the top of the route, this guy will offer to take you back to Akuwa town for 2500 Pokedollars, something you should consider if you aren't packing a ton of Repels.  It can be a bit of a pain to befriend a Lopunny (it's a friendship evo, but Buneary starts off with lower friendship than average), but Breloom is a fantastic Pokemon thanks to Spore (a perfect accuracy move that induces Sleep) and its 130 Attack stat. It also learns False Swipe so it's amazing for catching wild Pokemon. Definitely a trade you should take up.   I didn't even look at it, so I guess I fit into the latter. Who needs education when my mom can just pay for my degrees?  Oh I think I will.  Well we have precisely half of those.  She asked us to come into her house so we should probably listen.   We should probably check that out then.  We'll need this to enter the Spring apparently.  There isn't much we can do without Rock Climb and Surf, but it looks like there's nothing stopping us from just getting into the Spring.  It's nice to be seeing some Ice Pokemon who aren't at the end of the game.  You can also see a lot of Pokemon just wandering around. For how far I am in the game, Stantler is very underwhelming.  Get out of my way, I will use force.  Cmon dude.  At night time, you'll be able to find some wandering Snorunt. Glalie isn't very good but gets a Mega eventually, Froslass isn't great offensively but makes for a pretty good support Pokemon, and has one of the fastest Destiny Bonds in the game (useful to me because of all the goddamn high level bosses Jan throws at me).  Oh, we got this ages ago from the mansion in the sewers. This gate'll open with the Mysterious Emblem the old lady gave us just before, so you aren't locked out of whatever lies beyond.  The Spring houses some Piplup, objectively one of the cutest Pokemon.  But being this far behind is not ideal. Empoleon is a Pokemon I desperately want to be good, but it is cheated of having a good movepool. It doesn't get a Special Steel attack in this version of the game, so the best you can do with is Steel Wing off of it's not great Attack stat, and even then you'll have to bear with Metal Claw until you get the TM. It's a real shame, because Water/Steel is fantastic type-wise.  Finished with the forest for now, Arceus heads to one of those caves on Route 11. The message here is a hint to progress.  So I quickly head back to the forest, catch a Snover and level it up to 41. There's a PC in the old woman's house, so you don't have to backtrack to Akuwa town.  Next you need to use Blizzard in the cave.  Snover was the most convenient Blizzard user I could find. Blizzard will change the terrain, and this effect lingers in the overworld.  But we aren't done yet, the unstable ice means we need to break it somehow.  Luckily, Bulldoze or Earthquake will do that quite nicely.  Which clears the ice, and flings us back to the start of the room.  Oh that's pretty sweet.  Even better, it's actually something you can just put into your team without extraneous grinding.  Water/Ice is pretty terrible as a type, but I don't care since I like Lapras.  While we're out here, we may as well get it's attention.  Some of these guys are pretty isolated.  And we may as well grab the last few items to the south of the route. And I think that's going to do it for this update. I feel like a broken record, but there is a solid game outside of basically anything to do with the main plot. Today's Shiny  It's a Corroboree Frog 
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Jun 8, 2020 00:43
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Wow, lots of side-content this time. Seems you have quite a bit of optional stuff to do, which is always nice in games, so I guess Rejuvenation does do some stuff well!
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Jun 8, 2020 02:40
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That's kind of cool. I can appreciate the walking pokemon.
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Jun 8, 2020 03:14
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With the sudden influx of cash reserves it feels like the dev(s? Just Jan?) finally went okay fine strangling the cash supply was a bad idea, here have some money so you can actually buy things, i guess Also agreed on those drat legendary catch rates. I know some fangames will have special balls to help out but I think at some point fangames (and the mainline games....) should just overhaul the system completely. Maybe take a page from Let's Go's book and turn them into a "boss battle" and after you beat them you can catch them; Let's Go still had the catch rate apply to the catching portion but I think we could exclude that. Fan games can even do their favorite thing, over tune bosses!
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Jun 8, 2020 04:47
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rannum posted:Also agreed on those drat legendary catch rates. I know some fangames will have special balls to help out but I think at some point fangames (and the mainline games....) should just overhaul the system completely. Maybe take a page from Let's Go's book and turn them into a "boss battle" and after you beat them you can catch them; Let's Go still had the catch rate apply to the catching portion but I think we could exclude that. Fan games can even do their favorite thing, over tune bosses! My personal idea for that point was to have balls be able to catch Pokemon with 100% certainty once conditions were met. Basically, keep what we have now mostly: if you throw a Ball, you go against RNG depending on health, status, and the Ball used, but once you hit a certain condition have it be a certain catch, with those conditions getting easier with better Balls and harder with harder to catch Pokemon. It feels like a good compromise.
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Jun 8, 2020 05:11
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Honestly I'd be all for having a setpiece boss fight like Eternatus in SwSh, so you'd be guaranteed the catch after beating it in a boss fight. It's not like the game has any aversion to absurd boss battles.
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Jun 8, 2020 05:19
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I uh, have some bad news for that lovestruck grunt. 
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Jun 8, 2020 19:41
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 Welcome back. Having discovered the majority of things Arceus can do with Surf, it's probably best to head back to the main plot. I'll cover the events I missed whenever past me returns to this island in my recording, but I'll be sure to mention if these events were actually accessible prior.  Now that we've advanced far enough, there are no longer rangers preventing entry into the route. Commuting anywhere in this region would be a real bitch if it weren't for warp pads and Truck Guy.  I didn't come here to be attacked  I also forgot I still have Volbeat from using it for Flash, and he's a bit behind.  This route is very straightforward, there's a narrow band of water which separates you from Aquamarine Cave and that's it.  You can Surf down here from Route 6 but there's nothing here. The Rock Climb walls serve as redundant shortcuts.  Like I said, it's just a straight shot to the cave.    I've read about this place before, but I haven't seen it until now. The temperature drop is super appreciated after being on this hot island for so long. Yeah... The heat was really starting to get to me. I've been absent for several hours, I'm clearly not in any rush. Yeah, we should stay here for a bit! Besides, we've covered a lot of the island already, right? We should take a look around and see if Saki ended up somewhere in here. It's true that the possibility of Saki being here is quite high... Okay, it's decided then! We'll go through the cave in search of Saki! Awesome. Should we start? Before you start, you should absolutely have a bunch of repels at your disposal, unless you enjoy encounters something like every ten steps.   Roar is a non damaging move which forces your opponent to switch out, and there's not a whole lot they can do about it. It always goes last, so it's not heaps useful in single player to be honest.  Oh yeah, even if you say you want to just blitz through the cave, a small rock slide will halt your progress anyway.  Type Gems are also a thing in this game, they're kinda like Z-Moves but with a little less oomph. They're also one-use only, so use them sparingly.  Come again  So, judging by this, it looks like the Illusion ability is a little wonky in this game, because while it's meant to display the name of the last Pokemon in the opponent's team, it's showing mine. lllusion is a great ability to mess with people in battles, since you can never be sure if you're facing a Zoroark or the actual Pokemon it disguises itself as.   There could be relationship points in this, which we must accumulate all of. And before you ask, no, I don't know what they do either.  Say, Arceus? How do you feel about the ocean, or just water in general? We pick the top option for that sweet +1, but tread carefully since the middle option will lose 3 points with Valarie, which are nebulously important. Isn't it just the best? Everything about water is amazing. The actual ocean, the Pokemon that live in them... It brings me great solace to just hear the waves crashing against the shore. Being in places like this always make me feel at home.   This is the region Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald are set in. The games with the funny IGN review. Akuwa Town is home too, of course, but I've only been there for a few years now. Being born and raised in Hoenn, I guess it's not too surprising to see me gush about water. When living in Hoenn, you're practically surrounded by the drat thing.  If you hate water, you can always risk respiratory damage by living near a volcano. Even then, you're not completely safe~... Oh, of course... I will always love Lilycove City. I used to live there with my Mom, Dad, my three brothers, and my Grandpa. I'm assuming she's talking about the Pokemon fan club, which gives us a point of reference as to when the events of this game transpire alongside canon. He was so obsessed by that place that he used to bring me along with him. We used to watch battles that would go on at Evergrande City, and frankly, it was amazing. I think watching those battles inspired me to become a Water-Type Pokemon Trainer. Anyway, the fact is that I eventually moved from Lilycove City to Aevium. I was becoming a really well known Water-Type one trick and eventually I was recognized by an elite school. You may know this place as Axis High University. That's where I met Saki, Adam, and Braixen. We were good friends in school for a while, but I was a few years ahead of them, so... I graduated and moved to Akuwa Town to become the Water-Type Gym Leader.  University, right? I thought so... Well, a-alright, I was just asking is all. I'm gonna go continue to look for Saki... over there! Wait, Melia! Why are you acting so skittish? Does Axis High University mean something to you? Did you go there or something? I could totally see you being a student there. Hehe... Well, you see... I uh... I took the entrance exam! And, yeah, um, about that entrance exam...  Well props to you Melia for somehow turning this heart-to-heart with Valerie into a scene about you. It's not like you already have quite a lot more screen time than any of the other characters already.  I feel like we absolutely got closer as friends. Maybe one day you and I could take a trip to Lilycove? I'm sure it's a place you would love for sure! Behind this Rock Smashable rock is a mining rock. These don't entirely disappear once you've mined them once (they leave a pile of rubble which is still impossible to move through), so there must be a method of mining the rubble to access this pathway.  There's also this person here, and since she has colourful hair, you know she's an important NPC. Not much to do with her as of right now, though.  It's pretty hard to get lost, so you should end up at this indoor (underground?) beach.   good  Kyahhhh!!!! That scream was definitely Saki! It came from behind this door! That could mean that... Oh no, Saki, hold on!  Please hold on a moment longer I'm exploring (let's be real I'm the one who's gonna foot the battle). I'll need to make another mental bookmark to come back here.  Canon Pokemon has had equally ridiculous roadblocks, I'm not mad.  Anyway there was nothing important there, so we can move on. The fact that there's ruins in here means this place probably holds some kind of significance.   Considering that the screen went black and I lost all autonomy, this is probably a trap.  Oh we can probably handle -     This was a really rude fight  As one should expect from a gang of wild Pokemon, they're all holding manmade competitive items. Fortunately there are only two Focus Sashes, but that's still pretty annoying.  Sharpedo also has a pretty nasty ability in Speed Boost, which allows it to get continually faster every turn, passively. On the water field, it's attacks are extremely hard hitting, and there are 6 of these guys. Fortunately Maractus here is immune to Water Attacks through her ability, and can stomach hits from Sharpedo, and undo basically all their work by healing with Giga Drain.  And so as to not take unnecessary damage, Maractus can also hit the sashed sharks with a Sucker Punch. Otherwise, you're going to be weathering a hell of a lot of damage from 6 of these guys, which'd be difficult without a pretty healthy stock of healing items.  Oh yeah somehow these guys also got their fins on valuable TM coverage and Arceus is a little bitter about it.  However none of them hold a candle to my wonderful shaking cactus.  Yes I'm thrilled to see you too.  Oh, those guys? Nah, I had no idea they were there. Which is why I screamed. But I decided to have a little fun and taunt 'em. And I wasn't gonna deal with no sharks, nu uh! I have seen Sharpnado and I am not getting into that mess! Saki, how did you even end up here? Oh yeah, after I got thrown off the boat I was found by this red-haired girl named, um... Actually, she never told me her name. We were able to find the door to this place, but then she disappeared... But then shortly after she appeared again, but she was in a totally different outfit! Then we were attacked by this huge blue whale and she was BAM and the whale was like "stop pls"... After she beat up the blue whale, she walked up to me in a kinda bitchy way. I will definitely remember this in three episodes when this becomes relevant. Well, I forgot. It doesn't matter much though because now you guys found me! I think I lost at least five brain cells from listening to you tell a story... Well, at least you're safe. That's all that matters right now. Hehe, yeah it is! So where are we droppin', fam? We made plans to go to Teila Resort. There's a Gym there- Teila Resort? Oh yeah, I've been there a couple times! I'll meet you guys there! We could have continued the game not resolving this, because if Saki wasn't in the game, it wouldn't make any appreciable difference. But could you imagine how much better it would be if she (and her reeallly loosely contemporary personality) wasn't in the cast?  Anyway I did notice that Squirtle wandering around and will act on it immediately.  Ok it doesn't like treats.  Almost as much as Jan dislikes giving these event Pokemon out at usable levels. I know the Audino trainers exist, but I shouldn't really need to use them often, especially because they're a pain to fight (I'll show you why whenever I fight them next)... Anyway, Squirtle is one of the og starters from Red and Blue, but with the power-creep of the latest entries in the series, it's unfortunately pretty obsolete (I don't even think he was good in Red and Blue, but I would never tell young me that).  Oh yeah, at this point I actually discovered a map option in the menu exists, and I can probably still live without it.  Stairs are also fixed, meaning we can move on, our quality of life slightly diminished because of a cast member who won't be named, but very strongly hinted at instead.  No I haven't really fixed my party yet no  No I'm not ready yet please  Oh well, we'll deal with it. The two rangers run what can loosely be called a rain team, mostly in the form of hurling perfect accuracy Thunders and boosted Water attacks at us.   And boy do they hurt. Somehow I manage to bumble through the rest of the fight.  Good for you Alex.  We all need a bit of positivity in our lives right now.  Crawli was right when he said your strength was impeccable.  All it means is that we need to get stronger for the sake of Terajuma Island! If someone is stronger than Crawli, then they can do whatever they want here. Just like that Angie person in Kristiline. Speaking of which, Crawli trained Sam and I to be elite operative Rangers! Uh huh. He trained us so well that we ended up becoming stronger than him! It's okay though, he seemed pretty happy about it.  No, you're supporting cast, there's no way you'll make it...  We're back on route 6, but again, there's nothing here of note.  Our objective is to get 8 badges to cross the lava elsewhere, which I only scarcely remember at this point. Huh, this place looks like it'd drain my entire bank account. It sort of makes me want to puke, actually? Can you guys smell the pretentiousness, or is that just me? Oh, yeah. I can smell it! Arceus preferred method of moving region was to go by cruise ship, so we kinda just laugh along and hide that inner sadness they brought up.  Arceus' real inner sadness is looking at this resort and being concerned about how dangerous it seems for people who can't swim, or are just really drunk.  You're able to explore some of the villas, but they are for the most part empty.  This guy'll trade you a Passimian, who is a pretty good dude if you manage to get one with Defiant.  Berry Juice heals 20HP so at this point, it's uh, not very good. It's mostly used for gimmicks with really low level Pokemon at this point.  The right clerk will sell you these items, which can be used to evolve Pikachu into the Alolan variant of Raichu. In general, A-Raichu is a really good guy, but quite frail. I should also mention this item used to be avilable a lot earlier, which meant you could get a Raichu before Valarie and lay waste to her team. But not anymore, I guess.  The cave entry in the top right of the map will lead you into these hot springs, this behaves just as a normal Pokemon Center would.  We'd better get a move on though.  We haven't seen her in a while, but Tesla had no really grating quirks, so we're on good terms.   It is! It's really you, Arceus! Please let momma Tesla give you a big ol' hug! How have you been? Hopefully things are alright? You're eating properly, yes? Brushing your teeth every night- Sheesh, let me stop myself before I list off things for hours! I have to be real honest with you, Arceus. I didn't expect to see you here. But I guess it's fate that you would eventually waddle your way to my resort.  Hm? Oh, I'm sorry... Are you speaking with someone? I didn't mean to interrupt, I thought you- Aren't you Tesla Von Brandt?! Elite 8, Wielder of the Golden Flame, Tesla?! Ahah... I see you're familiar with my work then, yeah? I told my agent that a title like that would be super... arrogant, but I guess he didn't really care. As for you, though... Aren't you Melia? Y-You know my name?! But how- Of course I know your name! Weren't you supposed to become the Normal-Type Leader? But that was before you and your father went missing... Which brings me to my next point. And as for why we disappeared... It's a long story, but it wasn't by choice. Jenner isn't your father? I see... But you don't have to worry. Whatever you're doing is your business. You're a big girl who can make her own decisions. I won't tell a soul that you're here. Th-Thank you, Tesla. That means a lot to me. Now that that's out of the way. Do you mind telling me what you kids are doing at my resort? Did you happen to come for a getaway? If that's the case, then- Considering that the amount of content hasn't been too much since the last gym battle, and using my meta-knowledge that the episode is almost always ended by a gym challenge, I don't think it's gonna be that simple. I believe the leader is some musician named Amber? That's right! That musician also just happens to be my daughter! Oh, really? That makes things convenient then! Where is she? You don't suppose Arceus could challenge her soon? A little bit of bad news, sorry... I'm willing to bet she was the person in the bed. In the damp, which I can't imagine being very comfortable. But if you can find Amber and bring her back here, I'm sure she'll accept your challenge! We just came out of Aquamarine Cave, so that shouldn't be too difficult. We'll make our way there now, c'mon Arceus! Actually, Melia? Could you stick around for a quick moment? There's just something I want to show you is all. Could you wait for me in the back? It'll just take a second. Okay, I can do that! I'll be right back, Arceus. Hey where's my sympathy  That's another personal scene with a side character she's managed to wriggle herself into this update. I don't know what you all have been through, but I can tell it's starting to wear down on her. I know this is a bit of trouble, but could you go and fetch Amber yourself? I want to keep an eye on Melia and make sure she takes time to relax. If I told her to stay here while you went out to look for Amber, she'd never accept. If you're already gone, she'll have no choice but to sit down and take it slow. Thank you, Arceus. I promise I'll make it up to you too! This'd be the gym. I guess we'll know when our presence is required here.  Yeah I'm happy for you too.  A quick jog back to the cave, and here's Amber.  Oh I can tell we're going to get along just fine.  THIS place is supposed to be my space of serenity and peace. The sounds of the water crashing against the rocks is supposed to make me feel good. And guess what you're doing right now, idiot?! You're disrupting that state of peace and serenity and making my life a poo poo hole! Having never outgrown her edgy teenage phase (she might actually be a teenager, I have no idea if her age is ever specified), she's not very pleasant. Ohhhh great. I'm so drat surprised by that fact. Of course even trying to have some drat peace and quiet is impossible around here. What do you even want from me, huh? Wait, lemme guess... I bet you want to battle me? You're just full of surprises, you know that? Well what if I don't wanna battle you, huh? What if I just want to STAY HERE AND VEGETATE? IS A MOMENT OF PEACE SO HARD TO ASK FOR? GODDAMNIT. Alright, fine... I'll strike a deal with you, uhh... What's your name again? I will battle you IF you are somehow able to return a CD a certain Gym Leader stole from me.  I'm sorry you've had such a difficult life of uh, being a Gym Leader on your own volition. On top of having a CD stolen, no less! If you can somehow get that CD back, then fine. Good luck with that one, though! The leader who stole that CD was from Gearen! Guess you'll have to go all the way back to Gearen City to find her. Boo hoo... There's only one person whose been playing the song from that CD, and thanks to warp tech, we get to her somewhat fast.  I finally got paid by Crawli for "fixing" all of the warp pads in the jungle and stuff. And yes, before you ask, I did split the money between all the workers. In fact, I gave them most of the money. So please tell Melia that so she won't be mad at me, okay? Did... Did you just say someone told you to find this CD so you could return it... There's... There's only one person that can be... I see... So Amber has been living on this island this whole time? Heh... This explains so much. Heheheheheh... Alrighty, Arceus, where is Amber? You know where she is, right? Aquamarine Cave, huh...? That's west of the HQ, right? You better come too, Arceus. I want  Ah, yes, I finally put my finger on what the Pokemon franchise has been needing so desperately, internecine girl drama!   Amber is understandably a little upset that we not only identified the CD thief, but brought her back. In hindsight, that does seem a little stalker-y. ...Well drat, you actually went ahead and did it. You've found the girl that completely ruined my life. UGH, I gave you that task because I thought you wouldn't be able to pull it off! Ruined your life? Dude seriously? That's an exaggeration. Veronica, I don't want to loving deal with you right now, so... If you would be so kind to- I just want to pit my weird monster against yours in combat, I didn't ask for any of this... please... "Venam"? You mean like "Venom"? Really? My mom could've come up with something cooler and she's the polar opposite of cool. Wait, hold on... Do you hear that? Wh-What? I don't hear anything! Oh wait, there it is! M-My CD... What about you, Arceus? Isn't this song just the best? D-O-G. I can't believe these two will be the straw that broke the camel's back when Arceus inevitably snaps. F-Fine, if you wanna fight so bad then we'll fight! PUT 'EM UP!! Amber goes to square up and the floor collapses, looks like mother nature has had enough as well. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Are you kidding me?! She just fell right through the ground! Hey, Amber! Maybe you should lay off the chocolate, yeah?! Amber isn't responding, so there's a glimmer of hope her role in this game was minimal and we'll have to find the new Fire type gym leader. Uh... Amber are you okay down there? I hope... I hope she's okay... I think... I think I may jump down and see if she's okay. Better to rip the band-aid off right now, I suppose.  ): And here I was worrying about something that didn't happen. Y-You and Arceus are some of the most annoying people I've ever met... Even after almost falling to my death, you guys still fuckin' persist... Listen, we came down here to see if you were okay. That was dumb of you. There could've been pointy rocks, or an endless pit... If I died, you two would've died with me. Yeah, well, there wasn't any of that so get over it. Where are we? We're still in Aquamarine Cave, obviously.  The white square that suddenly materialised atop that statue (that one's Uxie, we saw Mesprit in the last update). Grrr... These stupid posters keep appearing everywhere! Every time I try to practice my songs, this flyer would appear over my instruments and they'd stop working! It's all because of that stupid bitch from Kristiline. Angie! Angie? Kristiline Town? YES. ANGIE. She appeared out of nowhere and took over that sorry town called Kristiline. She's been causing a lot of trouble lately without opposition. Everyone's too scared of her to do anything.That's not good... Yeah, no kidding. But who cares about that right now? I'm tired, I'm cold and I wanna go home. There's a ladder to the left of this scene which'll take you here. Standing on that edge tile will slide you down to the bottom, but it's one way.  Thing is, it looks like to escape, you need Surf. You know what HM you don't need to access this cutscene and land in this area? Surf. Thankfully, that rock right next to Arceus has a hidden Escape Rope, so you can't trap yourself unless you actively try to. Even then, you can just make your Pokemon battle until they all faint, so it's not like you're stuck in there forever if you think about it.  Having hopefully not softlocked yourself in Aquamarine Cave, you should head back to the main resort building. And it looks like you brought back an old friend as well! Veronica it's been a very long time! How have you been? My name isn't Veronica. It's Venam, ma'am. Gotcha. Venam it is! Wonderful to see you again, Venam. I don't get what's so "wonderful" about seeing this ogre again? If it weren't for her, we'd still be in Gearen City!Not sure why'd you prefer to live in the city over a resort?? You're still whining about that? I don't know how else to tell you that it wasn't me. Maybe you need to stop bein' so drat delusional! I'm NOT delusional! Amber, please don't yell so loud. You're making the guests uncomfortable... Fine, I guess you don't want me here either? I'm just gonna go home and chill out for a bit. Um, about that? I promised Arceus you would battle them if they found you.  Well it looks like the thing that's stopping us from saving the rock is gonna be a horrible teenager pouting. P-Please excuse my daughter... I spoiled her rotten and now this is the result. Eh, I feel like she would be just as bad even if she wasn't. Mmm... Well, I do feel awful about wasting your time, Arceus. Why don't you come by my Villa? It's quite comfortable and I'm sure you'd like it. Who knows? Maybe we can convince Amber to battle you once she's calm.  Well that's my cue to not do that immediately. This lady here will offer three spa treatments, each one will increase the friendship of your Pokemon by a certain amount, of course higher prices equate to more friendship gained. Given the only alternative is battling with them and walking around, this is a much faster way of getting Pokemon to like you. However, you still only get one a day, in real time.  Well we'd better continue to let Amber be obnoxious and seep even more of our happiness. It's not enough that you exiled me from my own hometown? Can you shut the hell up with that garbage?? Seriously, I had nothing to do with what happened. Will you stop walking away and just talk to us? There's nothing to talk about, idiot! I'm just trying to have a relaxing time at home. But you and your weirdo friend is making it really difficult for me! So just battle Arceus and be done with it. We'll leave right after. Trust me when I say that I don't wanna be here any longer than I am. You're still fixated on the concept of me giving my own time to that loser? Look, even if I wanted to battle Arceus, I couldn't. I'm positive we can go literally anywhere else and make better progress towards getting a badge. I really do not want to be here. It's a really prestigous event we have here in Teila Resort. I don't expect you two to ever understand. Nope. You know what? I totally forgot I promised my mom I'd post flyers around! So sorry, but I got things to do. Hope you understand. Is she 5 years old? I can't really tell. Well, I guess there's no use just standing around here. Let's get out of here. Get off your high horse. You coerced law-abiding-citizen (except in sidequests) Arceus to raid a stranger's home, because you didn't like it being there. Why are half this cast (including Arceus probably) sociopaths?  Oh good. Venam had it out for Saki too. More girl drama. yaaay   I can't wait for this bitter rivalry to be explored at length, about 20 hours from now.  Years of stupidity and drama, dear. Constructed from pure silver, and many useless parts from my lawn mower... I have created the most powerful weapon known to humanity! The Saki Mower 3000! Saki, where did that come from?! I said from my lawn mower, idiot! All it shall take is one lunge to end it all! Could you imagine how much easier (and substantially more enjoyable) Arceus' life would be if she wasn't mandated to travel with this delightfully colourful cast? Like we probably could have got the badge by now, even better we would be giving zero shits about whatever's happening with rock-Nim. You sure did, you freak! What are you doing in my house, Saki Blakeory! I said if we ever met again, we'd kill each other! Of course I remember! That's why I just tried to kill you, dummy! I don't remember validating a deal like this... Man who cares?! I'm tired of this! I want everyone out of the house right now! What about the battle you tw- STOP asking me to battle! I said I don't loving want to! How hard is it to understand that I don't want to loving do anything right now!? Actually, you know what? Maybe I will give you a battle. But only on onnneee condition. Really? A condition? What is it then? What did you have in mind?  Hell yeah the one thing I like more than gossip is licking boots.  Urgh we'd better get on with it, we're in a rush allegedly.  Tesla, where did you get a Field Simulator 2.0?! I heard that these are super rare devices that can simulate any field! Yes, that's correct. This simulator was given to me by league officials. In order to stay Elite 8 material, they give the members this device to practice on. Stop talking and battle already, jeez! Is there a specific field you request, Amber?  We have things to say about this field, in due time... That's a manmade field that was used to beta test the field simulator. So it'll be fun to see you all scramble around. I see... Field Simulator 2.0, please select the Glitch Field. Glitch field, huh? That does sound pretty fun. Hey Melia, when was the last time we battled? I actually can't remember... It's been so long. It was long before all this craziness happened. Heh, it doesn't matter. We're gonna win no matter what! Just don't hold me back, okay Saki? Um? Me hold you back? It's the other way around! You're only the first Gym Leader. Which means you're the weakest out of all of us! Fight already, christ. Alright, let's go Arceus! Let's show em our power!   Ok so! The Glitch field is a weird amalgamation of broken Gen 1 mechanics, but exacerbated by the fact that Pokemon now have abilities and can hold items.  Psychic Type moves are buffed because Psychic types were too good in Gen 1? That's not too good here anyway since the Glitch field is calculating Psychic damage as a special type, which means Medicham is doing nowhere near the damage it should be. All the types work like this, so that means that all the special types in Gen 1 (Fire, Electric, Psychic, uh and the rest) will have their damage calculated based off a Pokemon's best Special stat (so the stats are kinda merged into one) (except Dragon it does Neutral damage to everything(Dark, Steel and Fairy Types are retyped to Normal, I definitely was not following this)) and the physical types will deal damage based off of your Attack Stat. It's a mess, and a reeeally broken one with the later generations' power creep.  How are you punching, you don't have arms  Oh poo poo, already?  Mega Evolution was a gimmick introduced in X and Y, and it's a temporary evolution which'll change a Pokemon's appearance and ability and drastically augment their stats. Steelix here will get some more defenses, as well as a bit more attack. Having Mega evolution occurring this early on enemy rosters when I know I won't get it for an eternity kinda sucks... Salazzle takes Steelix out in a single Flamethrower. Steelix isn't one of the good megas because Speed is the only stat that matters  It's a 12v12 with Melia, but if you can, focus on Venam first because Saki leads with a Forretress who isn't very threatening.  Because you made the mistake of running Mega Steelix.   ...  She didn't have a teammate... She's right. I understand you two have your issues... But in battle, you have to be totally in sync. Otherwise, defeat is assured. Sigh... Alright, well, I guess I'll keep a mental note of that. I still think we lost purely because of Saki, but whatever. That was way more entertaining than I thought it would be! Arceus and Melia were just too good! So sad, too bad. Amber, now you have to fulfill your side of the deal. Whatever, fine. I'll battle you. But it's going to have to wait till later. Amber! Shut up, Mom! I'll battle Arceus when the Cook Off is over! That wasn't part of the deal! We need Arceus to battle you as soon as possible! The whole point of the battle we just had was so that you'd finally agree to do this. And now you're just going to fall back on that promise? Amber, seriously! Just do what you promised! Yawn, you guys are boring me like crazy. Clearly I'm not wanted here, so I'm going back to my room to get ready for the event! Look, I get we're not meant to like Amber, but seriously, I like most of the cast as much as I like Amber. Which is to say not very much.  Well it looks like we'll have to stay the night and wait for Amber to not be moody. I can't think of any other way I'd like to be spending my time. Well I think this is a good unsatisfactory spot to end this update, it kinda reflects my general attitude towards this entire section. Today's Shiny:  To celebrate the new Pokemon DLC, have a Slowbrof Pugnacious Doggie fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jun 18, 2020 |
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Jun 18, 2020 11:19
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Oh my God, I think I might hate Amber more than I do Reborn's Suicide Lesbians...
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Jun 18, 2020 11:56
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Tesla's reaction to someone trying to murder her daughter is 'oh no I didn't okay this', which sure is a stance to take.
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Jun 18, 2020 12:48
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Okay, yes, all of this was unbelievably obnoxious and dumb and a prime example of incredibly lovely writing. But it didn't involve Terra or Suicide Lesbians, so I don't really care. Jan can try as hard as they want, they're never going to out-Reborn Reborn. also why would you try that, please stop trying that
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Jun 18, 2020 13:03
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I guess we praised this game before so we had to go back to what makes this really loving terrible. Yay? All of that was just painful to read. I'm not sure why Jan thinks writing characters like this is acceptable, but it's not, and that's not even just Amber here who at least is likely meant to make you dislike her. Though that doesn't make Amber any less painful to read, you can make someone unlikable and enjoyable, and she's not that. Also you have a \PN there.
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Jun 18, 2020 14:27
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Pugnacious Doggie posted:
New thread title spotted. I must've almost gone cross-eyed from how much of a complete waste of time all of that was. At least the visual design of the areas continues to be staggeringly good. Also, I have the same question about Tesla that I have about every other "recurring" character: Who the hell is this person and where have we met her? Carpator Diei fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jun 18, 2020 |
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Jun 18, 2020 14:30
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I'm pretty sure I said this in the Reborn thread but it's kind of incredible that the glitch field uses a ton of Gen I mechanics except for having no held items and removing abilities, which are mechanics actually supported by the games! (Wonder Room, Gastro Acid) I mean, without those there's no way to let the AI abuse the quirks of the system and leave you high and dry, but. Also yes this teen drama is... exhausting. You're a gym leader, for god's sake, you don't get to say "but I don't wanna fight you > " this is LITERALLY YOUR JOB
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Jun 18, 2020 16:40
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Oh my god this is so dumb make it all stop, please tell me this section is over soon
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Jun 18, 2020 17:00
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Why is it that when people make subpar fangames, they always make everyone so verbose? More words does not make a better game! It just makes us want to stop playing! To say nothing about the quality of writing. People don't talk like that, you're not clever you just sound like someone who's never interacted without a screen before.
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Jun 18, 2020 17:19
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Actually Tesla is just... she doesn't even feel like a character; even the basic thread of being mommy dearest is dropped so she can say a lot of words meaning nothing and then start snarking like EVERY OTHER CHARACTER. Were this by a better author, I might say 'oh it says something that she drops the mom act when her actual daughter is involved' but Jan hasn't earned that.
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Jun 18, 2020 17:29
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Balache404 posted:Why is it that when people make subpar fangames, they always make everyone so verbose? More words does not make a better game! It just makes us want to stop playing! To say nothing about the quality of writing. People don't talk like that, you're not clever you just sound like someone who's never interacted without a screen before. Because half of them are failed fanfic writers who have no other way to force people to read their poo poo because FFN and AO3 laughed them out of the room but they're still too proud for Wattpad?
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Jun 18, 2020 18:33
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Ah we found this game's Terra.
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Jun 18, 2020 19:43
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Jun 18, 2020 21:50
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Yeah that was a pain to read. The mapmaking is stellar at least, that cave and resort are amazing.
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Jun 19, 2020 04:03
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| # ? May 9, 2024 03:10 |
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Seraphic Neoman posted:Ah we found this game's Terra. I'd say Amber is more... uh. Kiki? The gym leader who refused to battle due to arbitrary reasons during the Quest To Move A Single Rock, whatever her name was.
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Jun 19, 2020 05:12
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