Let's Play! Gotta Play (A Handful) Of Em' All (Current Project: Pokemon Platinum)

[Ernesto]

Hey DrumstickGaming ! I'd been meaning to post for a while now but I was offline for two weeks and had a LOT of catching up to do so I just now finished reading.

First off, cool idea! I also got a bout of nostalgia and played Red earlier this year, using a bunch of mons I had never done a full run with (Fearow, Arbok, Mr. Mime, and Cloyster). It was very fun and really drove home the idea that almost everything had some niche in-game—outside of Ditto and some mons that are either very rare or found way too late. And it showed me Mr. Mime is super borked since after a Barrier it not only tanks hits but also outspeeds most mons and deals devastating damage.

Team post E4

I gotta say, I knew they used whips in Gen I but seeing so many of them together is a bit shocking. Was this a Pokémon game or a dominatrix's playroom? And yes, in my headcanon that's what it's called.

One thing I find funny is how in both the Pewter and Fuchsia Gyms there a trainers who are harder than the actual leader: the light years guy can be a real pain with Sandshrew if your strongest move is Bubble, whereas in Koga's gym there's a guy with a level 38 Hypno (which I'm pretty sure knows Psychic) so you can't really fight him underleveled. There are prolly other cases but those are the most egregious.

What I definitely count as a negative tho (and it's something that'll happen in most Pokémon games afterwards but here it could've been done easily) is that there's a bunch of mons you can't even see, let alone catch. Like I get that the point was to encourage trading with others but why could there be no trainer either in Viridian Gym or Victory Road with Scyther and Pinsir, Magmar and Electabuzz, Golem, etc? Like I get keeping Porygon or Eevee as secrets but hell, if you started with Charmander Venusaur was nowhere to be seen! /endrant

Anyways, great idea again! I will keep following your progress and reading your insights.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 5: Psuedo Would Have

Last time we left off on Route 35.

Skiploom does a decent job fighting off the Trainers, but...

Wait, did I say a good job? I meant LOL Skiploom can't kill a level 6 Voltorb with 2 hit Bullet Seed.

On the way back to heal, I actually realized Gen II was the first game where you can Register items. Legitimate praise point. Also, I like this route in terms of scenery, it's got some grass and a cute little pond, which sets it apart from generic route #67, shout outs to Unova.

Speaking of presentation, I'd be remiss to not mention National Park. It has great music but that does little because this is HGSS and every single time there is a legitimate praise point, there's a negative around the same time. We'll get to that in a second, but for now we give Flaaffy the Quick Claw and fight the Trainers.

It's a small thing, but this Trainer has a cute little character moment if you say no to registering her phone number and talk to her again. Self-esteem issues are something I think pretty much everyone can relate to on some level, and while it's just flavor text, I think this is adorable this Trainer wants to be cool, it's like the anti-Kuzco. Naturally I say yes (been saying no on all till this point).

And since Pokefan William has a Raichu apropos of nothing, we might as well get to my point. We head on over to the Pokeathlon Dome.

This is a really weird moment akin to Silver's infamous incident later in Goldenrod. Who is Whitney to decide my jersey size?

Pokeatyawn

No, my actual issue with the Pokeathlon is that on certain days of the week, this is how you buy items like evolution stones. Usually takes like 5-6 tournaments to get one. Otherwise, you can't buy them until Kanto unless some specific route Trainer calls you and you get lucky.

Excuse me, what?!!

The first game in the series let you buy these from an ordinary store with ordinary money. Sure, it wasn't stuff like Metal Coat, but you get my point. Why do I have to partake in minigames to get stones reliably until Kanto? It's like if ORAS made me do contests to get a Mega Stone - oh wait they did and they didn't fully learn from this.

Now if only there was some big store nearby I could find this stuff in, surely that's far away-

Literally the prior city. It's like....WTF?

So this means a large chunk of Pokemon (Arcanine, Ninetales, Flareon, Exeggcute, Gloom, Weepinbell, Vaporeon, Poliwrath, Cloyster, Starmie, Jolteon) are effectively postgame content unless you do activities completely unrelated to the main gameplay or win the Pokegear lottery and thus, your usability options are cut even further, though you can at least get Sun Stones and Moon Stones through other means (Bug Catching Contest and Mom respectively, as well as a couple other areas for the latter).

I can't believe this, but I'm going to compliment Pokemon Musicals here.

No, not that one.

In all seriousness, Pokemon Musicals, despite being one of the most boring features of the franchise, was completely optional. It didn't lock some feature that helped in the main gameplay behind it (aside from Medals, but those are also optional). And in the first game, it technically had a plot function, as you see Bianca's father once you leave. So while the feature itself may be pointless, it indirectly led to character growth.

Even the Safari Zone, frustrating as it is, was still relatively consistent with the core gameplay of catching Pokemon, despite the fact all but ORAS don't let you use your own Pokemon. It had its own Pokemon you could only get there. You could brag to your friends if you were lucky enough to snag a Chansey or a Tauros. It had a purpose.

What does smashing blocks or jumping over hurdles have to do with raising my Pokemon to be stronger in actual battles? That's right, nothing. But you gotta do them because the game is so poorly designed. If they just let you buy stones with normal money, this would be a perfectly fine alternative method, similar to the Game Corner's issue of being unable to buy coins in the international releases.

You know what game does this concept right? USUM.

USUM gives you nice rewards like Wise Glasses or extra money for engaging with its optional content that also helps you in the main game while remaining consistent to Pokemon's core design. It's some of the best side content in any Pokemon game.

In BW2, the movies in Pokestar Studios, aside from springing a tutorial on you, are also plenty worth it. You get more healing items than you know what to do with if you farm good endings. It has a purpose, and designed several unique sprites for that purpose that could only be seen in that mode. Oh, I can buy Moomoo Milk if I do the Pokeathlon? You literally buy those normally in a little bit by giving Miltank Berries on Route 39's Moomoo Farm.

It's the style over substance problem that bothers me about HGSS the most. It loves having new features by fumbling what worked already. We'll force you to play minigames to get stones! We'll retool the Johto Safari Zone in an utterly misguided way! But we'll get to that.

We head onto the nearby route and Skiploom gets Leech Seed upon levelup, replacing Stun Spore.

I forgot you have to get SquirtBottle post-Whitney, so I backtrack real quick to do so (I was thinking of the original GSC, where you do have to talk to an NPC near Sudowoodo first). We spray the tree and...

Sudowoodo is probably one of my favorite Johto Pokemon, if not my favorite, and I wish I could use it if some other options weren't more interesting and the Rock type wasn't awful defensively. I love the punny name, it gets genuinely good moves via level up (so many Pokemon would kill for Rock Slide naturally), and the only real downside outside of the above is that this is your only shot to catch it, for better or worse. But I also see no reason to use it when Golem and Steelix do its job mostly better. So we faint it.

We head back to Kurt and pick up our Friend Ball for a purpose we'll see very soon.

I hate this fight. These Beauties take too long to kill. Thankfully, Quilava's Fire Blast speeds things up. Anyway, we run around in the grass for a bit because I want to look for something...

Stantler is the Pokemon I want to catch here! I'll explain in a moment.

We successfully catch it in a Friend Ball which will give us a powerful Return soon and also give it the Soothe Bell. Why did I want Stantler specifically?

Stantler might secretly be one of the better support party members in the game! It gets dual screens via TMs, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Imprison, and Captivate. Thanks to also having Intimidate as a potential Ability with good Speed, it can weaken a physically inclined threat while setting up a screen and whittling it down. I wanted to pair this with Jumpluff because Leech Seed and later U-Turn sounds like fun synergy. Yes, Stantler is outclassed by Girafarig, Tauros, Miltank, etc., but I genuinely wanted to try something different and I hope this turns out to be a fun option. I'll be massaging it some in the Goldenrod Tunnel offscreen as I think that area is inconsequential enough to skip over in this LP.

Anyway, we've made it to Ecruteak City, so I think now is as good a time to stop as any. Thanks for reading. And again, if you like HGSS, I'm happy for you and you're not wrong for liking it.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 6: Ech, Brew Tea

So our team has changed some since last we left off. Notably, I did some grinding in more ways than one.

Notably, our team is level 25 all around now. I don't think we will be overleveled for Gyms going forward, but this next one could give grief so I wanted to be prepared and get the grinding out of the way. I got the Magnet from Sunny on the previous route, gave Stantler Return, and even got the Wide Lens from the Game Corner to boost the accuracy Skiploom's status moves.

Anyway, we beat up the lone Grunt in the Dance Theater who is literally Proton 1 sans Zubat because he has a level 12 Koffing. And the highest level at the nearby Gym is level 25. Anyway, we get the Surf HM for our troubles and head to the Burned Tower, where we meet the insanely forgettable Eusine and find...

Him. Skiploom seemed like a good idea for Croconaw until Ice Fang, but we at least got Leech Seed off. Flaaffy and Quilava mop up the rest of his party.

We mop up the Firebreathers and HOW DID YOU GET THAT

We head downstairs and the legends scatter because of course they do. Off to the Gym.

This Gym is neat and a definite upgrade from the fairly droll puzzle in GSC by actually letting you see the path.

WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME

Anyway Mediums are kooky with those sprites, but Stantler's Astonish takes care of them pretty well, having EXACTLY enough of 15 PP for the mooks.

Morty is a cool character. Too bad he inexplicably lacks Misdreavus. Stantler and Quilava make quick work of his first two mons.

Gengar is scary on paper, but the only thing it hits Normals with is Sucker Punch, so after a bunch of sleep and Hypnosis misses we land one of our own and confuse him: he goes down easily after. We roll a lucky flinch on his last Haunter and he goes down like a baby. Pretty easy.

yes???? that was random.

Anyway that's the end of the episode, next time we depart from Ecruteak. Pretty short this time, but that makes for easy reading.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 7: The Trek for the Team

You know what let's do another episode. We head west onto Route 38, and I skip all the Trainers for reasons you'll see shortly.

We find Baoba and he talks about the Safari Zone, which I will rip a new one later.

We make it to Olivine, and Silver tells us the Gym Leader is at the Lighthouse so we head over there. Sleep Powder is still missing ALL THE TIME, once it happened twice in a row, and another time it happened FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.

I quite like the Lighthouse. It feels like one of the few Johto dungeons that had actual focus to it outside maybe Sprout Tower.

Jasmine asks us to go get some medicine from Cianwood City. Never one to turn down heroics, I accept. Jasmine's a cool Gym Leader. Her shy personality is cute, I like the literal "silk hiding steel" archetype, and the only real sour point is that her actual battle is kinda lame. We head out onto the nearby ocean, where Skiploom dies to a Shellder because of course Icicle Spear crits twice while I do diddly squat. I hold off on evolving for a reason you'll see shortly.

That's why.

Maybe you won't be dead weight now, ugh.

Indeed, Jumpluff's bulk is much better, eating through the nearby Trainer with Mega Drain pretty easily.

We get the SecretPotion from Cianwood's Pharmacy and head back to Olivine; I'm saving both Gyms for a little later.

We heal up Amphy. Now for why I'm jumping around so much. We leave and get a call from Baoba, saying the Safari Zone is done.

We head back to Cianwood and head into the route to the Safari Zone.

OH SNAP.

These guys SUCK. They have good STABS and can obliterate you. Thankfully, Fire Blast into Quick Attack beats Buzz and Stantler defeats Magmar pretty easily.

Anyway we make it to the Safari Zone. Baoba asks us to catch a Geodude, and we oblige. Boaba then tells us to wait a bit for the second test, so we go back to Cliff Cave to pass the time.

Cliff Cave is actually a decent grinding spot. Quite a few evolved Pokemon here, the Kingler for example give roughly 650 EXP.

Also on the way back to heal we get into a double battle...

...no comment.

Thanks to some Repel trickery from a wild Golbat I decide to level up, we find our prize.

That is certainly one of the Natures of all time. Don't want something that decreases Attack.

Yeah, okay. Would have preferred Rock Head, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. We TM on Dig.

Just look at that field sprite. Majestic.

We also find Misdreavus! I'm catching two team members in one episode!

Hasty Nature is awesome for this thing.

We hold back Flaaffy from evolving one level so we can get early Discharge, then get Ampharos! Our team is coming together now.

I'll grind the new guys off screen with those trainers we skipped. Next time, we take on Chuck and Jasmine!

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 8: Brass Knuckle

Forgot to mention it last time but Olivine City is a pretty cool port town. I like it a decent bit. Team is looking pretty good now, I gave Misdreavus Shadow Ball and Stantler dual screens. But you'll never guess what happened offscreen.

Steelix got Pokerus, and now it's spread to Misdreavus and Ampharos, and, later on in the episode, the rest of the party as well. Amazing to get that in Johto of all regions.

We head north in Cianwood and Pointless Man Eusine shows up and challenges us.

He has a cool sprite at least, but is pretty easy.

I wanna say that I really like Cianwood City. The music is peaceful yet vaguely wistful at the same time. Perfect for a nice island community. We head to the Gym.

This Gym is pretty cool. You have to turn off the waterfall to get Chuck to notice you, and the Gym Guide is so scared he's off at the Pokemon Center.

We actually get a call from Professor Elm on the way back to heal. I never knew he called you about Pokerus, so yeah, pretty hilarious. Oddly he says it doesn't seem to do anything which is false because it boosts EXP. Shows what Elm knows.

Chuck's battle strats may be annoying, but you'll never convince me his spritework is bad. One of the best boss animations. I hate his Double Team Primeape nonsense, but Poliwrath is a pretty good ace and I'm happy to see it get the limelight.

I Leech Seed Primeape with Jumpluff after forgetting about Vital Spirit like a moron. We then switch in Misdreavus and land few Psybeams in spite of Double Team, so that went better than expected. We then switch Jumpluff back in for Poliwrath.

This was a super effective Mega Drain. Just lmao. TFW when Leech Seed is as good as your STAB. Jumpluff wins at least but I think I'm gonna drop it because this performance is officially meme tier.

I want to say Johto Gym Leaders using Kanto Pokemon doesn't bother me too much. Half of them have Johto aces, and 50% of the other half have some overlooked Kanto mons in Scyther and Poliwrath. Could the teams have been better, like giving Bugsy a Pineco or Spinarak? Absolutely, but I think they are mostly fine. Gen III and onward basically fixed this problem completely too.

Anyway, we get the Fly HM from Chuck's wife, teach it to Golbat, then head back to Olivine to face Jasmine.

Again, Jasmine's an awesome character. I think Johto did a good job at making their Gym Leaders feel slightly more distinct than Kanto. Steelix does quite well for itself here, taking on a Magnemite and denting Jasmine's Steelix pretty well for Quilava to clean up, with Fire Blast OHKOing Steelix after Jasmine heals it. We TM Iron Tail onto Steelix for convenice's sake over Slam. As for Jasmine's battle herself, her Magnemite have Thunderbolt so they can be slightly scary, but you should have a Geodude because he's broken, and Steelix is just an unthreatening ace in general.

We then Fly back to Ecruteak and head east, resulting in this silly image of me and Steelix back to back. I give it to Steelix for generic coverage over
Rock Throw. We make it to Mahagony Town and head north, only to get a call from Baoba saying the Safari Zone's new test is ready, so we Fly back there.

The Area Customizer sounds neat on paper, but in reality, this makes some Pokemon arbitrarily unavailable for three in-game hours if you don't roll their areas on the first try. This Safari Zone tries to be different, but it just ends up obnoxious. Baoba tells us to catch a Sandshrew in the Desert, but there's also something else I want to catch in the Swamp. The Block system is even sillier. Have you ever wanted to wait 100 days to catch a Gible? That's something you can do if you hate yourself in the postgame. Whatever happened to just having a nonchanging layout with Pokemon in a few areas? Simplicity is king.

We change the time so I can find my prize a little easier. We catch a male Murkrow, then show Baoba the Sandshrew and he makes us the owner, though we still have to pay admission, which is kind of a ripoff. Oh well.

We give the Impish Murkrow the Sharp Beak I got from the day of the week sibling near Olivine to boost Fly. This will replace Jumpluff.

We then head to the Name Rater to give our mons some new names (Murkrow screenshot above was taken after this btw). We Fly back to Mahogany and head north.

Haze turns out oddly handy for Murkrow's first battle, as it negates Sand-Attack. It even beats a Sandslash, which is pretty cool. Also, we dodge Cute Charm twice in a row to hit Fly on a Clefairy Trainer. Maybe this thing will be alright after all. It also does nicely against the wild Venonat, Girafarig and Noctowl. We replace Haze with Night Shade and then Roost after I give it some thought though.

We get to the Lake of Rage and Surf off to the side to get Choice Specs, which we immediately give to Misdreavus. I like the Lake of Rage. I like how it has a path to it. It feels slightly more natural than Sinnoh's lakes to me, even.

Then we Surf to the middle of the lake where we promptly faint the shiny Gyarados with Ampharos, giving Murkrow some EXP as well. We get the Red Scale for our troubles.

We talk to this strange man named Lance who is definitely not the most unfair boss in this franchise. We agree to help him investigate around Mahogany Town.

We Fly back to Ecruteak so I can get the Silk Scarf from my Mom for Stantler, which replaces the Soothe Bell it had.

Next time we investigate Budget Azalea Town (seriously, Mahogany Town has to be one of the dullest locations in Pokemon).

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 9: Old Assets

For some odd reason I'm really motivated to play a lot as of late, so let's continue.

Lance woke up and chose violence.

These statues summon duos of Grunts. I'm going to fight them all instead of skipping them via the booby trapped wild encounter floor.

These Grunts also demonstrate how screwed up Johto's level curve is. It's mostly fine until Morty, but unless you roll Pokerus, you WILL be underleveled by the end of the game if you run a full party. There's simply not enough mooks in Johto to keep the average party on par with the Pokemon League. The wild Pokemon are also consistently low leveled all over Johto which doesn't help: most Pokemon outside Gyms are like, half the level of the Gym's ace, if not worse. Kanto doesn't make this better either. It's pretty bad design.

What doesn't help is that you can only call and ask Trainers for rematches post-Radio Tower takeover well after seven badges. This is mentioned NOWHERE in the game itself, and good luck figuring out what day and time you have to call Trainers to rematch them without a guide (thankfully, you can call and battle them multiple times in the same timeframe). My favorite is Gentleman Alfred on Tuesday afternoons at Glitter Lighthouse, who has a level 36 Noctowl, with Amulet Coin you get 14,400 for winning every time I believe.

There's also this Trainer guarding the PC which lets you switch off the statues if you like, but I'm not going to use it. We head down another floor and Lance tells us we need some passwords, so we fight everyone to get them.

We head downstairs and Lance helpfully heals us up.

Couple more stairs and we find Silver who has inexplicably become Red. He tells us he lost to Lance, which is understable because everyone loses to him.

Yeah, Giovanni somehow has a worse team than you in his last battle, so you don't sound like him. Steelix tanks Petrel easy and his Murkrow runs off to unlock the room to the generator.

Look, if you wanna talk about unfair, let's talk about the Johto region's terrible game balancing, but I digress.

It's basically impossible to lose this battle with Lance's Level 40 Dragonite (I don't even comprehend how he got that) but whatever.

Ah, the old bastion from last time. Good to see Smirk. Incidentally, Simper's name was a continuation of the "weird smile" theming.

We beat all three Electrode and Lance gives us the Whirlpool HM for our troubles. While it has a couple of new gimmicks, Team Rocket HQ is just...okay. The battles are easy and the villains have the personality of sandpaper - card carrying villains who are pointlessly pursuing a man who disbanded the organization ages ago. Anyway, we leave, heal up and head for the Gym.

It's an ice puzzle. These sure won't be overused in the franchise's future!

The Skier sprites are cool though, same with the Boarders.

Onto Pryce.

Pryce has another really cool animation. Ampharos beats Seel. Somehow I hit an Iron Tail with Steelix while Piloswine had Snow Cloak going. Stantler finishes Piloswine and Dewgong off, notably 2HKOing the latter.

As for my opinion on the battle, Pryce is actually deceptively difficult. None of his Pokemon are all that scary offensively, but they are bulky, particularly Dewgong with Rest. If you lack super-effective moves, Pryce might just outbulk you. Solid, if a bit annoying Gym Battle.

Anyway, we leave the Gym and get a call from Elm telling us to check the radio.

Naturally, Team Rocket are up to no good at the Radio Tower.

Screw that, we got Trainers to fight!

Heading north into the gate, this guy gives us the Sludge Bomb TM, saying the Grunts chased him off earlier (they would have fined you if you came in here pre-HQ completion). Handy.

Speaking of post-HQ, there's actually Trainers at the Lake of Rage too. It's only a few, but every bit of EXP counts. We Fly to Goldenrod City. Next time, we deal with Team Rocket once and for all!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I want to say Johto Gym Leaders using Kanto Pokemon doesn't bother me too much. Half of them have Johto aces, and 50% of the other half have some overlooked Kanto mons in Scyther and Poliwrath. Could the teams have been better, like giving Bugsy a Pineco or Spinarak? Absolutely, but I think they are mostly fine.

This (Morty aside)

Again, Jasmine's an awesome character. I think Johto did a good job at making their Gym Leaders feel slightly more distinct than Kanto.

Well, integrating them into the plot certainly helped (Giovanni aside)

The Area Customizer sounds neat on paper, but in reality, this makes some Pokemon arbitrarily unavailable for three in-game hours if you don't roll their areas on the first try. This Safari Zone tries to be different, but it just ends up obnoxious. Baoba tells us to catch a Sandshrew in the Desert, but there's also something else I want to catch in the Swamp. The Block system is even sillier. Have you ever wanted to wait 100 days to catch a Gible? That's something you can do if you hate yourself in the postgame. Whatever happened to just having a nonchanging layout with Pokemon in a few areas? Simplicity is king.

Yeah idk what they were thinking with this Safari Zone. The lack of a step limit is neat, but it doesn't matter when the only thing you can find are Geodude and Wooper. They had the chance to make all the missing Johto species findable and they fumbled it. I've never used this Safari Zone much, and remember even less about it.

...he makes us the owner, though we still have to pay admission, which is kind of a ripoff.

Don't you know a tax dodge when you see one?

These Grunts also demonstrate how screwed up Johto's level curve is. It's mostly fine until Morty, but unless you roll Pokerus, you WILL be underleveled by the end of the game if you run a full party. There's simply not enough mooks in Johto to keep the average party on par with the Pokemon League. The wild Pokemon are also consistently low leveled all over Johto which doesn't help: most Pokemon outside Gyms are like, half the level of the Gym's ace, if not worse. Kanto doesn't make this better either. It's pretty bad design.

I'd say there's enough mooks, they're just not at a decent level. I mean, the Drowzee in that picture is level 17 - imagine if it were level 27, or 30. You need 4 gym badges to get in here, after all.

It's exactly the same in the Radio Tower. You need seven badges, so you'll have beaten Jasmine's level 37 Steelix... and then you go right into fighting a bunch of trainers who're still around level 17. I remember noting in my Unown-only run of Gold that in the Radio Tower you fight a Rocket Executive with a level 36 Golbat... immediately after fighting a Grunt with a team of four Pokemon in their early 20s. Similarly, you need seven badges to access Route 45... but everyone on there has teams of Pokemon in their mid-20s, not late 30s as you'd expect.

I've often advocated for forcing the player to go Olivine-Cianwood-Mahogany, but you wouldn't even need to do this to make the level curve better. Just make everyone appropriately strong for the time they're fought!

It's basically impossible to lose this battle with Lance's Level 40 Dragonite (I don't even comprehend how he got that) but whatever.

I've seen theories that it evolved early because of the radio signal, but I'm more inclined to go with my headcanon about levels dropping when Pokemon get out of shape and don't battle for a while (refer to Eagun's Pikachu in Colo/XD for a straightforward example).

Onto Pryce.
View attachment 527931
Pryce has another really cool animation.

He really does! Which is nice because so few trainers in HGSS actually do now I come to think of it.

Heading north into the gate, this guy gives us the Sludge Bomb TM, saying the Grunts chased him off earlier (they would have fined you if you came in here pre-HQ completion). Handy.

It's been a while since I played HGSS in English, does he still say it "makes him uncomfortable" like he does in GSC? Never understood that.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Yeah, this Game Corner sucks. In the Japanese version, you can inexplicably buy coins as usual, but in the US, you can't. And with prices like these...

Regarding both this and the Pokéathlon, yet another of the many big issues with HG/SS is how expensive everything is. You need coins for the GC prizes, but you can't buy the coins (like you could in all games from R/B to Platinum). And for the Pokéathlon items, you need to participate in the Pokéathlon to get them. I don't remember if you actually need to win in order to get the points - if so, then that's another negative. When making teams for competitive battling or for the Battle Frontier, you will also need vitamins, and unlike in D/P/P, HG/SS has no good place to farm money quickly and efficiently (as far as I know). You mentioned the Gentleman at the Lighthouse, but that's extremely inefficient compared to the two rich trainers on the north part of Route 212 in D/P/P. Using the Vs. Seeker is a lot more efficient, faster, and it doesn't require you to play on a specific time or timeshift.

You also need BP from the Frontier itself to buy both items (notably hold items and the Power items), TMs and Move Tutors. The latter are post-game only , while Platinum did at least allow you to get 2/3 of them before beating the game. And I personally always found it a lot more efficient to pay with Shards (which were easy to farm in Platinum, if a bit luck-based) compared to BP, which takes a while to farm, and you already need a lot of it for items and TMs. Basically, HG/SS require a lot of grinding for everything if you want to make good teams, both during the main-game and the post-game. D/P/P were not perfect in this aspect, but I think they were way better at least.

When I have gone back to Gen 4 in recent days, I really wish it had infinite TMs like Gen 5-7 had. That alone would make it so much easier to build teams. Thankfully, I'm probably never going to make another new team in Gen 4.

Stantler is the Pokemon I want to catch here! I'll explain in a moment.

Is the nickname a reference to what I think? If so, that's cool.

This Gym is neat and a definite upgrade from the fairly droll puzzle in GSC by actually letting you see the path.

I prefer the G/S/C version of it tbh. It was so obvious yet really difficult to understand what you were supposed to do, it took me a while to figure it out during my first playthrough of Silver as a kid. I also remember helping another kid with it at the schoolgrounds, which felt great. I think the HG/SS version is a lot less interesting, but I'm not sure if they could have done anything fun with it unless they had overhauled it completely.

Jasmine asks us to go get some medicine from Cianwood City. Never one to turn down heroics, I accept. Jasmine's a cool Gym Leader. Her shy personality is cute, I like the literal "silk hiding steel" archetype, and the only real sour point is that her actual battle is kinda lame.

I agree, she's a great character. Though my favorite Johto leaders are Falkner and Pryce.

We also find Misdreavus! I'm catching two team members in one episode!

This and Steelix are very cool and unique team members, can't recall ever seeing anyone using them in an in-game team in HG/SS (nor have I tried them myself).

We actually get a call from Professor Elm on the way back to heal. I never knew he called you about Pokerus, so yeah, pretty hilarious. Oddly he says it doesn't seem to do anything which is false because it boosts EXP. Shows what Elm knows.

Incorrect, the effect is that it doubles your EV gain. Which he also talks about later on if you call him and get the "P" call: "It seems that Pokémon that have been infected with Pokérus level up better. We're not quite sure why..." Though, the way he talks there, it sounds like if he is referring to Exp, so if you got it wrong because of that, then that's understandable.

And I remember Elm calling about it since that is one of the prerequisites for RNG abuse in HG/SS... which is also one of the very few things I really like about the games. That's how I got my first near-flawless Suicune, and my first shiny Latias... which was back in 2012. Ah, the memories...

When checking this now, it also seems like Bulbapedia is missing the "E" Elm call for some reason (where he talks about Eggs).

I want to say Johto Gym Leaders using Kanto Pokemon doesn't bother me too much. Half of them have Johto aces, and 50% of the other half have some overlooked Kanto mons in Scyther and Poliwrath. Could the teams have been better, like giving Bugsy a Pineco or Spinarak? Absolutely, but I think they are mostly fine.

I think this is one thing HG/SS should definitely have fixed. It was annoying in G/S/C (especially when I look back at them now), but even worse here since HG/SS had a really great opportunity to fix it, and they did not. I think every Johto Gym Leader should at least have used a Johto Pokémon, but not necessarily as their ace (even if that's something I would have preferred).

I like the Lake of Rage. I like how it has a path to it. It feels slightly more natural than Sinnoh's lakes to me, even.

I like it too... in G/S/C. It was one of my favorite areas there and I loved the music. However, I didn't like it in HG/SS. Making it rain there every day except on Wednesdays basically ruined it for me, the atmosphere I remembered from G/S/C was gone.

Great progress, keep it up!

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Regarding both this and the Pokéathlon, yet another of the many big issues with HG/SS is how expensive everything is. You need coins for the GC prizes, but you can't buy the coins (like you could in all games from R/B to Platinum). And for the Pokéathlon items, you need to participate in the Pokéathlon to get them. I don't remember if you actually need to win in order to get the points - if so, then that's another negative. When making teams for competitive battling or for the Battle Frontier, you will also need vitamins, and unlike in D/P/P, HG/SS has no good place to farm money quickly and efficiently (as far as I know). You mentioned the Gentleman at the Lighthouse, but that's extremely inefficient compared to the two rich trainers on the north part of Route 212 in D/P/P. Using the Vs. Seeker is a lot more efficient, faster, and it doesn't require you to play on a specific time or timeshift.

You also need BP from the Frontier itself to buy both items (notably hold items and the Power items), TMs and Move Tutors. The latter are post-game only , while Platinum did at least allow you to get 2/3 of them before beating the game. And I personally always found it a lot more efficient to pay with Shards (which were easy to farm in Platinum, if a bit luck-based) compared to BP, which takes a while to farm, and you already need a lot of it for items and TMs. Basically, HG/SS require a lot of grinding for everything if you want to make good teams, both during the main-game and the post-game. D/P/P were not perfect in this aspect, but I think they were way better at least.

When I have gone back to Gen 4 in recent days, I really wish it had infinite TMs like Gen 5-7 had. That alone would make it so much easier to build teams. Thankfully, I'm probably never going to make another new team in Gen 4.

Is the nickname a reference to what I think? If so, that's cool.

I prefer the G/S/C version of it tbh. It was so obvious yet really difficult to understand what you were supposed to do, it took me a while to figure it out during my first playthrough of Silver as a kid. I also remember helping another kid with it at the schoolgrounds, which felt great. I think the HG/SS version is a lot less interesting, but I'm not sure if they could have done anything fun with it unless they had overhauled it completely.

I agree, she's a great character. Though my favorite Johto leaders are Falkner and Pryce.

This and Steelix are very cool and unique team members, can't recall ever seeing anyone using them in an in-game team in HG/SS (nor have I tried them myself).

Incorrect, the effect is that it doubles your EV gain. Which he also talks about later on if you call him and get the "P" call: "It seems that Pokémon that have been infected with Pokérus level up better. We're not quite sure why..." Though, the way he talks there, it sounds like if he is referring to Exp, so if you got it wrong because of that, then that's understandable.

And I remember Elm calling about it since that is one of the prerequisites for RNG abuse in HG/SS... which is also one of the very few things I really like about the games. That's how I got my first near-flawless Suicune, and my first shiny Latias... which was back in 2012. Ah, the memories...

When checking this now, it also seems like Bulbapedia is missing the "E" Elm call for some reason (where he talks about Eggs).

I think this is one thing HG/SS should definitely have fixed. It was annoying in G/S/C (especially when I look back at them now), but even worse here since HG/SS had a really great opportunity to fix it, and they did not. I think every Johto Gym Leader should at least have used a Johto Pokémon, but not necessarily as their ace (even if that's something I would have preferred).

I like it too... in G/S/C. It was one of my favorite areas there and I loved the music. However, I didn't like it in HG/SS. Making it rain there every day except on Wednesdays basically ruined it for me, the atmosphere I remembered from G/S/C was gone.

Great progress, keep it up!

Oh, it’s an EV thing for Pokerus? I knew I should have Bulbapedia’d that. Thanks for correcting me at any rate.

 

[ceal]

This and Steelix are very cool and unique team members, can't recall ever seeing anyone using them in an in-game team in HG/SS (nor have I tried them myself).

Next time you play grab the trade Onix in Violet City and evolve it with a Metal Coat from the Pokeathalon. One of the best Pokemon in the game easily.

 

[Mex]

I don't remember if you actually need to win in order to get the points - if so, then that's another negative.

Thankfully not required to win, it just gives bonus points, as i learned during a recent playthrough of HGSS

I will say that i find this game overrated, however the minigames (both pokeathlon and voltorb flip) are things I quite enjoy. Dislike how Voltorb Flip is forced to earn coins at all though

Regarding both this and the Pokéathlon, yet another of the many big issues with HG/SS is how expensive everything is. You need coins for the GC prizes, but you can't buy the coins (like you could in all games from R/B to Platinum).

Will say that it is not the first game to prevent buying coins entirely though, for some ungodly reason, EU copies of Platinum (and apparently also Korean, thanks bulbapedia) will also completely disallow the purchase of coins, instead giving daily incredibly small bundles of coins for talking to NPCs in there

As someone who lives in an EU region, this was majorly annoying to me, especially since the TM you were supposed to get for playing the slot machines was made into a complete roll of the dice to get

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Thank you all for your lovely responses. Let's continue.

HGSS Episode 10: Nothing Exciting Happens

We get a Team Rocket outfit. You actually get unique dialogue if you try to Fly with the outfit on.

Shut up Oak. Anyway, we begin terrorizing the locals.

Okay, not really, but it does result in some amusing remote dialogue. Let's head to the Radio Tower. Musical montage time.

Naturally, Silver, uh...takes off our uniform, because there's no way that can be seen in a gross way, no siree.

I like how the game keeps trying to make me think Lance isn't the Champion when he clearly is. That being said, take notes Diantha: at least Lance is involved in the plot. We head to the top, and I'll save you my commentary because this section is mega dull.

The level curve is still beyond garbage though. Also, did that Rocket get that Muk from the Safari Zone? It's exceptionally illegal.

Actually, I do have something to talk about. I've said before that Johto Gym leaders using Kanto Pokemon doesn't bother me; that being said: actual Johto Pokemon being sidelined on routes IS a problem. It devalues the region's identity AND makes it worse gameplay wise for some poorly-thought out gameplay and story integration just because of how close the regions are in proximity.

A sequel being so obsessed with referencing the past that it fails to have its own identity? Where have I seen that before?

Above: actually horrible television that had next to no impact

Potshots aside, we find Petrel up top and take out his boring Koffing-themed team with Misdreavus easily. Super lazy. He gives us the Basement Key because he's an idiot. Wouldn't villains be way more successful if they didn't succumb to videogame cliches?

This sounds like a

Oh look, it's everyone's favorite rival with sanded off dialogue. Murkrow does pretty well for itself here, except-

...yeah.

Burgulars consistently have amazing sprites, man.

Pain. Thankfully, we get Lava Plume shortly after.

Do you remember this plot point they do literally nothing with? Me neither, such wasted potential. What if you had, like, one of the mind-controlled legendaries fight you? That'd be a cool deviation. But no. We get the Card Key anyway, so back to the Radio Tower.

I do sorta like this basement area of boxes. Too bad it isn't longer.

Also why do we get the Amulet Coin so late???? Again, this game just loves being inconvenient for no reason.

So lame. But at least we have Typhlosioon now.

Ariana shows up alone, but it also means nothing aside from a slightly annoying Glare + Intimidate Arbok. Great sprite though.

As much hate as this fight gets, I kinda like it. A battle at the top of a tower is just a classically awesome scenario. Like Ryota before me, Murkrow lost to Koffing lmao.

I by pure coincidence got this frame perfect screenshot where Houndooom's sprite disappeared while taking damage. His Houndoom can hurt if you are unprepared as Fire / Dark is scary offensively but its also nothing a decent team can't handle (shouts to the wonky level curve). Steelix got a lucky Quick Claw activation and was actually bulky enough to take two Fire Fangs. Don't sleep on the Steel snake!

I do love this gag here after we get the Silver Wing though.

Next time, we make tracks for Blackthorn City, home of where 8-year olds broke their Game Boys in frustration.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

View attachment 529189
We get a Team Rocket outfit. You actually get unique dialogue if you try to Fly with the outfit on.
View attachment 529190
Shut up Oak. Anyway, we begin terrorizing the locals.
View attachment 529191
View attachment 529192
Okay, not really, but it does result in some amusing remote dialogue.

Oh I loved this bit! It's always fun when something prompts all the NPCs in an area to change their dialogue, like in RSE/ORAS when the weather goes nuts - I enjoy taking the time to walk around and talk to everyone. Colosseum/XD are both very attentive to this as well, NPCs often change their dialogue when there's a story event going on nearby.

Genuinely such a fun addition that they didn't have to do. While I get that they had to draw the line somewhere, it's a shame that it's restricted to this one moment. Though, being enamoured with sequence breaking and obscure glitches like the freak I am, I'm grudgingly impressed at how foolproof Game Freak made this sequence. You can't leave Goldenrod by the gatehouse or get the train out of there, you can't fight anyone while you're dressed up, and Gen IV's poison mechanics mean that you can't white out. As far as I'm aware no-one has yet managed to discover a way to slip out of Goldenrod City and play the rest of the game dressed as a Rocket Grunt. Very sad.

View attachment 529194
I like how the game keeps trying to make me think Lance isn't the Champion when he clearly is. That being said, take notes Diantha: at least Lance is involved in the plot.

...when he feels like it, at least.

A sequel being so obsessed with referencing the past that it fails to have its own identity? Where have I seen that before?

My first thought was "literally everywhere"

View attachment 529209
Do you remember this plot point they do literally nothing with? Me neither, such wasted potential. What if you had, like, one of the mind-controlled legendaries fight you? That'd be a cool deviation. But no.

Ah yeah, I remember back in the early days of HGSS when everyone was theorising about an altered plot where Team Rocket go after Ho-oh/Lugia... god, the speculation was wild. There was a thread on Bulbagarden forums that reached several hundred pages of often-feverish speculation.

Next time, we make tracks for Blackthorn City, home of where 8-year olds broke their Game Boys in frustration.

I feel seen

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Next time you play grab the trade Onix in Violet City and evolve it with a Metal Coat from the Pokeathalon. One of the best Pokemon in the game easily.

Thanks for the recommendation, though it will never happen as there's no way I'll ever replay HG/SS again. My latest playthrough was in 2012 and even back then it was a pain to go through. HG/SS are done and dusted for me. At least the main game.

Will say that it is not the first game to prevent buying coins entirely though, for some ungodly reason, EU copies of Platinum (and apparently also Korean, thanks bulbapedia) will also completely disallow the purchase of coins, instead giving daily incredibly small bundles of coins for talking to NPCs in there

As someone who lives in an EU region, this was majorly annoying to me, especially since the TM you were supposed to get for playing the slot machines was made into a complete roll of the dice to get

I'm from Europe as well, and after reading your post, I became unsure about this because it didn't match up with my memories. I checked my copy of Platinum today just to be sure I didn't misremember, and I can confirm that you can buy coins in the European versions of Platinum, unless it is somehow different between our copies of the game? Sounds unlikely though. You just can't play at the slot machines since their functionality was removed. It seems this was done because of PEGI ratings.

I agree about the randomness of the Explosion TM though, that was annoying. I remember getting it in the end, but I don't remember how or when it happened.

Musical montage time.

Yay! This track is good, just like the rest of the OST for the game. Scorching Dunes is my favorite though. I really want to replay this game since it is a ton of fun, but it will have to wait for a while...

Naturally, Silver, uh...takes off our uniform, because there's no way that can be seen in a gross way, no siree.

This situation really annoys me too, but for a different reason. I thought it was pretty cool how you got to wear a TR uniform, and then you are forced to remove it almost immidiately afterwards. Way to actually add something cool to the game, only to ruin it directly afterwards.

Actually, I do have something to talk about. I've said before that Johto Gym leaders using Kanto Pokemon doesn't bother me; that being said: actual Johto Pokemon being sidelined on routes IS a problem. It devalues the region's identity AND makes it worse gameplay wise for some poorly-thought out gameplay and story integration just because of how close the regions are in proximity.

This. Someone should make a list of "things that HG/SS could have fixed/improved upon from G/S/C, but didn't", this would be in the top three for sure.

Do you remember this plot point they do literally nothing with? Me neither, such wasted potential. What if you had, like, one of the mind-controlled legendaries fight you?

Funny how you mention it, because they almost do this with Lugia/Ho-Oh in the G/S/C chapter of Pokémon Adventures (a.k.a. a good Johto story), but the legends are just regularly captured and being used in battle by Team Rocket / The Mask of Ice instead of being mind controlled.

 

[Mex]

Platinum today just to be sure I didn't misremember, and I can confirm that you can buy coins in the European versions of Platinum, unless it is somehow different between our copies of the game?

I may have been wrong, but I had memories of being unable to buy coins and when searching for any source to confirm/deny I just couldn't find anything. Would've checked in game but my only platinum save file is still in Jubilife City and I really just didn't care enough to go all that way, my bad

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 11: Rising Annoyance

We head east from Mahogany Town onto the next route. There's nothing much to say about it, though again, I like the mix of a natural path next to some water.

I will say that Remoraid was almost a team member. It was canned for 1) it's rare like 80% of Johto mons and 2) it's insanely late.

Also, Misdreavus can't OHKO Mareep lol (this was without Choice Specs but still). Also, Murkrow got Faint Attack.

Another reason the level curve sucks is that a lot of lategame Trainers don't pack evolved Pokemon until you're almost done with the region. This means even less EXP than the paltry amount you already get.

Ice Cave is pretty neat, I like it as a dungeon. Great music and it's long enough to be engaging but not annoying enough to be outright frustrating. Also, we get the Waterfall HM. Honestly, there's not much to say about Strength puzzles.

This puzzle is probably one of the best ice sliding ones in the franchise, too.

Fun fact: this Kimono Girl has slightly different dialogue if you talk to her from the right.

And now we're at Blackthorn City.

Honestly, I quite like Blackthorn City. The huts are fittingly old-fashioned, and has a good "final major city / hidden away village" vibe.

Let's stock up on some items.

THIS is why I said it's important to have Mom save money. Incredibly useful item. It's crazy how HGSS just hands you both Choice Specs and Choice Scarf for basically free.

It's a good time to mention out on Route 32 there's a hidden Heart Scale in this rock.

This is significant because back in Blackthorn we're going to reteach Ice Fang to Steelix. We head to the Gym.

He's not kidding.

This gym received a good graphical update, though I like how it looks in the original GSC as well.

Also, this is where the WTF part of the level curve comes in. Finally the game makes us start fighting mid-30s. The Gym Trainers more or less KO half my team. This doesn't bode well.

Gonna be fighting Clair on Set, because I'm masochistic, not to mention underleveled. Also gonna avoid using items to make things more spicy. Music time.

Amazing sprite, though I caught it in a bit of a derp pose. Clair is a brutal fight and I think her difficulty is definitely high, unlike Whitney. There's no real easy win against Clair and she has plenty of ways to stop your sweepers, as you'll see. A fitting final Gym to end on.

Ampharos takes out Gyarados and Clair goes into Dragonair.

We go into Misdreavus and get full paralysis, because of course we do. Dead ghost. It wasn't entirely useless though, as it revealed Aqua Tail. We send out Steelix (Clair's other Dragonair has Fire Blast which is much worse).

We get a nice Quick Claw activation and do half while Aqua Tail does next to nothing. Good job Steelix. Steelix then gets another Quick Claw activation to avoid damage. But then...

Steelix then rolls its third QC proc in a row WTF? Quick Claw is a 20% chance. Kingdra then takes us out.

Oh no. Murkrow also dies as Kingdra just OHKOs it.

It's my only hope. I confuse it as Kingdra spams Smokescreen. We switch out to Typhlosion reset our accuracy.

It just seems interested in spamming Smokescreen though. Wish I hadn't forgotten Swift literally seconds earlier for Strength.

We score a nice crit and Kingdra heals some via Sitrus Berry. I'm down to my last Pokemon now. This is gonna be insanely close, and she still has another Dragonair waiting in the wings.

Ugh. She heals up and we confuse her. I derp and click it again then set up Light Screen.

We die. I looked away but I think she crit.

That makes loss number 2 (first was to Faulkner). More music:

We go Misdreavus and confuse Gyarados this time. We roll the confusion despite being slower and-

Heck yeah. Misdreavus dies afterward, but it did its job.

We send out Typhlosion and waste her item, because Gyarados has no Water moves. Typhlosion actually comes out on top thanks to lucky confusion damage.

Typhlosion goes down to Kingdra, but not before I roll a lucky Lava Plume burn.

We roll a lucky Hydro Pump miss, but because HGSS hates me Kingdra rolls Sniper crit next turn and OHKOs me. Lovely.

We got her back next turn by her missing and we rolled a crit with Return as well. But THEN we roll full paralysis and die in two hits. MAN.

We have two mons left. Almost there!

Murkrow actually does pretty respectable damage with Fly, revenge killing the first Dragonair and 2HKOing the second with Fly + Wing Attack.

Eat it, you jerk.

Yeah, but you're ready to have my foot go up your-

We're gonna train up offscreen and resume next part, back on Shift battle. If that last battle was any indication, yeah we definitely need to grind. Fun fight though.

Also, I realized something: our Johto Gym journey both started and ended with losses. Didn't expect a book end like that!

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 12: Loose Ends

Hey all, sorry for this episode taking a couple days, but I've been thoroughly unmotivated to play HGSS recently. I spent just over 2 hours grinding my team up to level 40, and it was not fun (shout out to ceal for being on call with me for most of those two hours). HGSS just feels like homework at times with its level grinding, and this isn't even the only time - I also had to grind before Morty. I know this is partly my fault for dropping Jumpluff, but pretty much any playthrough of Johto has to grind unless you stick to four members anyway. Naturally, this goes hand in hand with general burnout - the stuff pre-7 badges are tolerable enough, but painfully mediocre. In any case, the guy who knows nothing about Pokerus is back.

Anyway, time to head to the Dragon's Den, so we put Sentret in our party temporarily.

I quite like the Dragon's Den, cool atmosphere but alas, too painfully short to capitalize on it.

Also this Dragonair randomly has Thunder.

Murkrow's Wing Attack can't OHKO Horsea seven levels under lmao

At least he acknowledges how silly Clair is. We take our test for the Dratini we will never use. It has ExtremeSpeed if you answer correctly but who cares.

Answer D: Elite Four Karen.

This has the same font as Barry's "THUD!" in DPPT and I find that bizarre. We get our badge at least.

On our way out, Clair gives us the Dragon Pulse TM on the way out, which is basically useless unless you have a Kingdra (who learns it at level 57) or maybe a Nido. Seriously, this TM is arguably worse than Dragon Tail in the Unova games!

I honestly really like Clair's speech here (though I omitted the "Come on!"). It feels genuine without being generic or fully ignoring Clair's slightly haughty nature. She tells us to give it our all.

Elm calls us so we head over to his lab, where Lyra sorta cheers us on and Elm gives us the Master Ball, also saying the Kimono Girls are looking for us at the Ecruteak Dance Theater.

We heal up, swap around our team and-

Also this has "THUD!" so the DPPT comparison earlier is pretty accurate.

This is nice in theory, but in reality it makes literally no sense. Why is Silver battling the Kimono Girls anyway? He has no motivation - ah who cares?

These battles can be quite difficult, given how they are five back-to-back fights. I quite like the unique Japanese door transitions though. Choice Specs Ampharos deals with Umbreon pretty easily.

Man it feels surreal using an actual Dark type on Espeon lmao. Usually this is the hardest of the five.

Even then though, it almost takes us out with Swift. Yeah, Murkrow is just hot trash in general it seems.

We get a lucky Special Defense drop on Flareon with Misdreavus's Shadow Ball, but the thing still lives two hits and 2HKOs us with Fire Blast even though I am WELL above average level wise: seriously, screw this game's level curve. Typhlosion picks it off. Thankfully, Misdreavus dying lets Steelix take the lead spot and take care of Jolteon.

Vaporeon almost cleans our clock too.

It lives a Choice Specs boosted Discharge. It then Quick Attacks, but...

!!!

We get the Tidal Bell and are told to head to Whirl Islands, but I wanna show something off in New Bark Town.

If you try to head off to the Pokemon League before dealing with the box legend, Lyra stops you in what has to be the most intrusive NPC Roadblock in the series, saying she wonders what a Kimono Girl wants for us even though she literally has no stake in the matter. At least the guys dancing for no reason is funny.

One small sound design tidbit I like in HGSS is how the music quiets down when you are near whirlpools so you can hear the rushing water. We head into the top-right most Whirl Island. Honestly this place is mildly annoying thanks to making you want Flash, which is not an HM in this game so I hope you didn't remove it! Bell Tower is tedious and a little confusing but it beats Whirl Islands ultimately, not to mention it has a better Ho-Oh cutscene.

We dance with what I swear are reused PMD Explorers wave graphics and Lugia is summoned. I do like the silhouette behind the waterfall though.

EZ

This is our failsafe for the Champion who is complete garbage in this game gameplay wise and we'll get to him later.

Maybe you could say this is a mostly terrible remake?

ALFRED I'VE ALREADY EXTORTED YOU FOR EXP AND MONEY, GO BOTHER BATMAN

IT WAS A RATTATA THO

Lugia for reference.

Next time, we make tracks for the Pokemon League!

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 13: The Poorly Designed Path to Victory

Time to head to the Pokemon League sans Murkrow as I need Lugia for Waterfall.

Huh, you mean I wasn't in Kanto with all those Kanto mons in Gym teams?

Tohjo Falls is a cool concept but I don't understand why they bothered with a fancy artwork for this. It's literally just two waterfalls.

The Ace Trainers around here are cool until you realize Pryce and Jasmine are higher leveled. Johto reeks of stuff being shuffled around in development, and considering Iwata compressed it to allow Kanto, that's a very real possibility. Misdreavus gets Perish Song along the way which I teach over Pain Split.

Seriously? One Pokemon and it's not even an Ampharos after eight badges? Who playtested this? Like, Black and White 2 throw an Ampharos at you in Chargestone Cave, a little over halfway through the game. What's this game's excuse?

I like this twin bridge setpiece, it's neat. Also, Stantler outsped and OHKOed an Espeon which was pretty cool.

There's a nice little healing house along the way, thankfully.

There's this one silly Ace Trainer with Spore + Swords Dance Parasect, which caught me mildly off guard but I would never actually be scared because of Parasect's meme Speed. Ampharos picks up Signal Beam to replace Headbutt.

f o r e s h a d o w i n g

Honestly, I miss the old individual Badge Check Gates. Gave the thing proper buildup, y'know? BW1 brought the individuals back...and then subsequent games save for maybe BW2 scanner system went generic multicheck again. Boring.

Victory Road is painfully generic in this game, somehow being duller than Seafoam Islands in flavor. There's no Trainers because nice game design is only a suggestion, a move that promptly bites this game hard shortly.

This is another thing that bothers me about lategame like that Mareep: who the HECK would need a Potion this late in the game? Is this a developer in-joke or something?

This hole literally serves no purpose. You don't even get an item for falling down, and the ladder is like, 10 steps away. Why does the hole exist?

We get an HP Up and give it to Ampharos.

Earthquake is replacing Dig on Steelix immediately.

Silver shows up and tells us he defeated all the Trainers on Victory Road which is lame gameplay and story integration to prop up him as a supposed threat, when he's really not much scarer than the Goldenrod Tunnel fight. Stantler takes out Sneasel and weakens Feraligtr while setting up Reflect. Misdreavus finishes it and beats Haunter and Golbat which is pretty cool. Steelix takes on Magneton, then Kadabra misses Disable and dies like a chump.

blah blah lip service

After a trip to the PC we get a Rock Smasher to get the Dark Pulse TM, which will be filler for Murkrow over Faint Attack until we get Night Slash, despite the Special Attack lowering Nature.

Next time we take on the Pokemon League! Apologies for the slightly shorter part but I want to keep this somewhat concise for easier reading.

Also Murkrow lost to a wild level 32 Golbat thanks to confusion while grinding lmao

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 14: The (Not) Finale

How's it going everybody? Sorry updates have been a little slow. Like I said in Episode 12, I've just been a little burned out on HGSS until I wanted to finish Johto today. Of course, that's not the only reason, as I've released a fiction book in the interim, check it out if you want to.

But enough about shameless shilling, back to the actual game. Murkrow has Sucker Punch and is level 45 now, and the rest are level 42, with Typhlosion having Flamethrower and Focus Blast now. We head past the Badge check guy.

I've always liked this room. It's very visually pleasing and would pave the way for the rooms in BW1. We're leading with Choice Specs Misdreavus.

Decent sprite animation too.

Will can be very annoying if you can't OHKO due to his multitude of things like Confuse Ray and sleep moves. Luckily for us, Choice Specs Misdreavus outspeeds and obliterates his entire team to the point only Slowbro survives. Sadly Shadow Ball's PP is halfway depleted but just...wow.

Koga's room has a cool color palette but is otherwise kinda lame.

Koga is like Will but even worse due to evasion shenanigans. We go Quick Claw Steelix for this one. Ariados is sadly not 2HKOed by our STABS so we switch out to Typhlosion on heal (which I'm cool with, better he's using the item now than on Muk or Crobat). Ariados and Forretress get roasted alive. Then Muk comes out and-

Ugh, not even STAB EQ kills it. We Curse once but sadly Ice Fang leaves it alive, a few misses later we win. Crobat comes out, starts Double Teaming and-

COME ON

As you can see, this is where the level curve turns from barely tolerable to actively obnoxious. You'll miss kills because the game simply did not give you enough Trainers, but it's not merely that which annoys me.

Most of the Elite Four's Pokemon barring their ace have awful movesets, so even if the game did give you enough EXP, these fights still aren't fulfilling on their own. At least all of Will's Pokemon had Psychic, some of Koga's lack STAB moves. These bosses generally commit the sin of being both tedious and pretty boring. We get a lucky Static proc and kill Crobat and Typhlosion finishes off Venomoth.

Look Ma, reused Blackthorn Gym assets!

You know what, this Bruno battle isn't so bad, much better than Koga. Aside from Hitmontop being lol and Chan lacking a STAB move, this battle is alright. Sharp Beak Murkrow deals with Top and Chan, and I send Steelix out against Onix for the lulz.

Onix's EQ does literally nothing as we 2HKO and switch into Murkrow. Now for Machamp, and it's time to try something silly. We switch into Stantler, set up Reflect, and-

Intimidate and screens put in work, with Zen Headbutt dealing a third before we die.

Our strategy proved most handy, as -1 Rock Slide does nothing to Murkrow as we KO Machamp and win, getting a level in the process.

Karen's room is quite pretty.

Karen's team is pretty underwhelming outside her ace Houndoom. Most of her Pokemon sans Umbreon have quite a few weaknesses most teams should cover by now. Unfortunately I lack a good Houndoom counter. We lead with Choice Specs Ampharos. We get pretty good luck on Umbreon, wasting a healing item and getting it to red again before dying with Signal Beam. Amusingly, Umbreon's killing blow proced Static, which paralyzed me as I died: can you imagine a darker way to go out? Paralyzed as you take your dying breath?

Stantler KOs Umbreon without taking damage and Gengar comes in. We Dark Pulse as it hits Focus Blast and we live, then Sucker Punch KOs it next turn. Houndoom comes in and we switch to Steelix which Houndoom prompty roasts.

Well, time to play the lottery.

We actually outspeed, hit, and crit it to death. Whoa! Stantler deals with Murkrow pretty easily, with two uses of Pluck not even taking us to half thanks to Intimidate. Typhlosion roasts Vileplume and gains a level and the win in the process.

lmao you're a Johto Trainer, good luck with that

We give Ampharos the Magnet and step through the door to face the Champion.

This room is cool but this fight is actually awful.

A) bad options for Ice types sans Lapras (Swinub is painfully underleveled)
B) level curve doesn't prepare you for this
C) STAB Outrage will hurt

Great music though. We lead with Ampharos. He rolls the Waterfall flinch but we punish him with Static and kill him next turn with Discharge so it evens out.

Dragonite comes out next as we swap into Steelix, and it's unfortunately the level 50 one. We swap into Stanter, and thankfully for us, he misses Fire Blast! We set up Reflect as he goes for Safeguard, and defying most logic he randomly chooses Fire Blast over Outrage to roast my Steelix switch in. That's bad. I switch in Misdreavus and derp trying to confuse it - I was so flustered by the insane ai I forgot Safeguard was up. We revive Steelix.

This is gonna be a thing.

But no, he outrolls confusion and hits Fire Blast in the same turn. WTH. He outrolls next turn on Stantler and misses Fire Blast so he should be out of PP by now. We set up Reflect as he resets Safeguard and I just go for damage with Return at this point.

!!!

Darn it. I heal up Steelix as he heals up Dragonite. We switch in on Outrage as Reflect wears off, and-

Okay that was good for a laugh. I think we Curse up to max and destroy it with Ice Fang.

It's Gen 1!

Unfortunately he has Air Slash which can flinch us. After a bunch of healing we kill it with two Ice Fangs and grow a level. The Blizzard Dragonite comes out and we heal up.

Oh. This isn't gonna work...or at least, that's what I thought as I'm running out of healing items. We roll a lucky miss and kill him. The next Dragonite rolls a flinch, but we roll Quick Claw and kill the following turn, growing another level.

OW MY FACE

Aerodactyl dies to Ice Fang and we win.

Yeah, that fight clearly showed how awful this battle can go. The Ai suddenly switched on 200 IQ mode too.

Cool of Oak to show up, but here's a freaking question: Why is Professor Elm not here instead?

And there we go!

Honestly, HGSS has my favorite Hall of Fame animations, love the shilouettes.

Murkrow got Mike Wazowski'd though.

The credits are pretty cute with all the sprites, but honestly my mind is numb

THE GAME KNOWS WHAT I DID. RUN

If I haven't made it clear by this point, HGSS is terribly designed, but that's okay, because I genuinely enjoy the Kanto postgame a lot and we'll get into why next time. I'll probably unlock all the leaders in the next episode before doing a boss rush of sorts! See you then!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

How's it going everybody? Sorry updates have been a little slow. Like I said in Episode 12, I've just been a little burned out on HGSS until I wanted to finish Johto today. Of course, that's not the only reason, as I've released a fiction book in the interim, check it out if you want to.

But enough about shameless shilling, back to the actual game.

Nah you're allowed a bit more shilling. You should lead with it for all remaining posts!

View attachment 535282
Most of the Elite Four's Pokemon barring their ace have awful movesets

If you hadn't noticed, I'm fairly willing to give the Johto games a pass on a lot of stuff but fuck me Koga's E4 team's movesets really are diabolically bad aren't they

...and they were just this bad in GSC too? God damn.

Also I know Toxic Spikes fits his theme but considering literally EVERYTHING else on his team can poison you it's kind of a waste. May as well stick with vanilla Spikes to hit as many things as possible.

View attachment 535305
lmao you're a Johto Trainer, good luck with that

this cut me deeply

View attachment 535319
This room is cool but this fight is actually awful. [...] Great music though.

It was ever thus

Cool of Oak to show up, but here's a freaking question: Why is Professor Elm not here instead?

Because Oak overshadows everyone. Once he shows up in Sinnoh there's literally no reason to talk to Rowan again after that. And once you've hit Kanto there's never any reason to speak to Elm again. It's funny how in DP there's a guy who says that Elm never really stood out much because ya-huh.

View attachment 535357
The credits are pretty cute with all the sprites, but honestly my mind is numb


View attachment 535360
THE GAME KNOWS WHAT I DID. RUN
View attachment 535361

Okay but HGSS has the best credits of the series up to that point, fight me. Unfortunately BW came a couple of years later and stole that honour, BW's credits are the undisputed best and shall always remain so

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Congrats on beating the Johto part of the game! It was fun to follow.

Honestly, I quite like Blackthorn City. The huts are fittingly old-fashioned, and has a good "final major city / hidden away village" vibe.

Gotta agree with this, Blackthorn has a sort of charm to it.

THIS is why I said it's important to have Mom save money. Incredibly useful item. It's crazy how HGSS just hands you both Choice Specs and Choice Scarf for basically free.

I had completely forgotten about this. When I played through HG/SS, I think I completely missed the Specs/Scarf. Not only using them, but probably even obtaining them too! Which is too bad since that would have made things easier.

I quite like the Dragon's Den, cool atmosphere but alas, too painfully short to capitalize on it.

Yeah, it feels very small. Though I guess that's sort of suitable for the Johto games since they only had four Dragon-types in total in the Johto dex, it would have been hard to make a large area dedicated to dragons since there are so few of them.

Regarding the Kimono Girls and being forced to catch Lugia/Ho-Oh, that's something that really annoys me. One thing I think the original G/S did very well was to make the cover legends completely optional, HG/SS forcing you to catch them was a change for the worse IMO. Especially in SS since going to the Whirl Islands to get Lugia feels very out of place, Ho-Oh at the Tin Tower feels more "natural", so to say (guess this is one of the small reasons as for why I like HG better than SS). My guess is that they wanted to follow up on how you had to catch Suicune in Crystal, but I don't think it worked particularly well.

Most of the Elite Four's Pokemon barring their ace have awful movesets, so even if the game did give you enough EXP, these fights still aren't fulfilling on their own. At least all of Will's Pokemon had Psychic, some of Koga's lack STAB moves. These bosses generally commit the sin of being both tedious and pretty boring.

Never thought of this before, but yeah, they are kinda bad. I guess that for Koga and Karen, they wanted to try to create stall-like battles or something? Many of their Pokémon have moves/movesets that seem designed to annoy you or to wear you down down slowly.

(Swinub is painfully underleveled)

I used Mamoswine on my team in HG and I think it was pretty good, but it required a lot of grinding to be useful.

I genuinely enjoy the Kanto postgame a lot and we'll get into why next time.

Funny, because I disagree here as I don't enjoy the post-game of HG/SS, I find it vastly overhyped and overrated (just like the games themselves). There are too many issues with levels, Pokémon distrubution/availability, story/characters, exploration and pretty much everything else. The only thing I really liked in the post-game was to catch the legendaries, everything else was meh.

Either way, looking forward to the next part!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Congrats on beating the Johto part of the game! It was fun to follow.

Gotta agree with this, Blackthorn has a sort of charm to it. [...] Yeah, it feels very small. Though I guess that's sort of suitable for the Johto games since they only had four Dragon-types in total in the Johto dex, it would have been hard to make a large area dedicated to dragons since there are so few of them.

I remember a bunch of theories prior to release that Dragon's Den would be where you'd catch the Lati duo in HGSS. Kind of feel like that might have been more interesting than just shoving them into Kanto like they did, though I do like the Enigma Stone event and the link to Steven/Hoenn.

On the other hand though I actually think it's kind of cool that the dragon tamers in Blackthorn are one of the few groups in the games who aren't obsessed with legendary Pokemon, so I wouldn't change that. But it would have been cool to see an expanded Dragon's Den, like how in the anime it leads to a massive valley full of dragon Pokemon.

Regarding the Kimono Girls and being forced to catch Lugia/Ho-Oh, that's something that really annoys me. One thing I think the original G/S did very well was to make the cover legends completely optional, HG/SS forcing you to catch them was a change for the worse IMO. Especially in SS since going to the Whirl Islands to get Lugia feels very out of place, Ho-Oh at the Tin Tower feels more "natural", so to say (guess this is one of the small reasons as for why I like HG better than SS). My guess is that they wanted to follow up on how you had to catch Suicune in Crystal, but I don't think it worked particularly well.

It's funny, BW are the first games that outright force you to catch the mascot, but people generally forget that that annoying trend started here (myself included). I don't mind it so much here because you can still KO it or run, but the railroading has gotten more and more intense as time's gone on and it's a change I really dislike. I don't mind legendaries being part of the plot and required encounters, but the moment I start to feel like I'm being steered into playing the game a certain way, my enthusiasm rapidly starts to wither.

Funny, because I disagree here as I don't enjoy the post-game of HG/SS, I find it vastly overhyped and overrated (just like the games themselves). There are too many issues with levels, Pokémon distrubution/availability, story/characters, exploration and pretty much everything else. The only thing I really liked in the post-game was to catch the legendaries, everything else was meh.

Agree with this in the main. I've found the Frontier more enjoyable as time's gone on, particularly after the challenge I did a while back. But the Safari Zone is too time-consuming to put much time into and it's not worth it anyway since anything I'd want to catch can be obtained more easily from other games. The bug-catching contest is always fun (though I think the scoring system in the original games makes that version more fun) and the Pokeathlon is great, but I beat it fully on my main save file a while back and doubt I'd bother doing all that again, unlike the Frontier. Can't think of much else I want to put time into as far as HGSS's postgame goes.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 15: Update Quicker

Today we're unlocking all the Kanto stuff, so it's going to be a long one. Also take a look at my book!

We start back in our room.

But first...thank you Ryota Mitarai for allowing me to do this

He helped hack some of these in. Also, according to him Ampharos has 2 IVs in Special Attack so lmao. Let's get our team fully evolved at long last.

Apparently, Misdreavus hit the lottery in IVs, too. Also, Jumpluff had a 0 Speed IV. Incredible.

Time to kick it up a notch.

It was at this point I realized I lacked Heart Scales, so one minor hack later and we head to Blackthorn City, but not before getting interrupted by Elm who gives us an S.S. Ticket for the Fast Ship in Olivine City. We reteach Magical Leaf to Mismagius and Night Slash to Honchkrow.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT KANTOOOOOO

It's called "hold this L, developers"

I actually love the S.S. Aqua. One of my favorite songs in the series and it's a wonderful change in scenery.

At least someone is in a hurry, unlike me posting new episodes of this.

Gotta find his grandaughter. Naturally we get into some battles...where some Pokemon are STILL NOT FULLY EVOLVED or have decent levels?

Okay now you're just asking me to make fun of you game (we crit it lmao).

WE HAVE BEATEN THE LEAGUE WTF (also Ice Fang didn't OHKO Phanpy lmao)

Sin-no thank you. At least this shows how reliable Typhlosion is with Flamethrower now.

If you're ever in doubt how physically bulky Steelix is, I think it just lived a STAB critical hit Earthquake from Golem.

We switch out Honchkrow to dunk on it in style. What a great backsprite.

Am I everyone's babysitter?

Mr. Mime is a Pokemon I actually quite like. I love the movepool and the design is pretty unique and fun. Helps it's a game breaker in the Kanto games and a decent pick in Platinum if you want something different. Not the best Psychic type, but you could do a lot worse (hi Hypno!)

Stantler is slowly becoming a really good glue mon for the team. It didn't do a whole lot in Johto until the League, but it's a nice catch all answer when I don't know what to switch to.

Comfy!

He must have watched Toy Story 4 recently

(What is it with me and pop culture potshots on ships?)

We can pass that guy blocking our path now after we beat him, thankfully.

Too easy.

WHY WASN'T THIS GIVEN TO ME IN JOHTO?

Cool.

Nice little remix here.

Again. We head north to Saffron City.

The wild battle remix is fantastic. Why aren't the Kanto wild Pokemon higher leveled? Such a baffling design choice when the Trainers are level 40+.

Again, where was this in Johto? We give Psychic to Mismagius, and we have unlimited TMs so I could give it to Honchkrow and Stantler too, but I don't.

We head north to Cerulean City, then head out toward the Power Plant. The Kanto Trainer battle theme remix is also stellar, one of my favorite tracks across the entire franchise.

Some mons are evolved, and some aren't, but at least we're seeing more Trainer battle variety now. Mismagius has stayed quite useful, being strong with Choice Specs and being a good Ground type answer.

I will never understand Johto's Kanto obsession with putting Cut trees in the POSTGAME. It's so unnecessary.

We get Sentret out of the PC though, because this will be very useful for Stantler!

We Surf down to the Power Plant.

Beats me, but I'll track him down because I have Main Character Syndrome (TM).

Let's roll out.

BUMP! Is he related to Barry?

...!

This dialogue is great.

Yup.

Nah.

Let's find that Part.

The inconsistency in capitalizing "Machine" bothers me so much arbitrairly.

Huzzah.

Charge Beam will shoot beams, sometimes miss, and will always gaslight you into thinking 70% is good odds of raising Special Attack when it's really not when combined with 90% accuracy.

We fly back to Cerulean and head north past Nugget Bridge after putting Sentret back in the PC.

Honestly Nugget Bridge is probably one of my favorite Kanto setpieces. It's so simple yet charming.

We activated Paul Mode I mean Blaze.

I like how even paralyzed Perception still outspeed Paras lmao (also I like how I got the short frame of it vanishing upon being hit by an attack).

Language!

At 10:32 at night, yes, but I'm doing this for the fans. Also the new Super Nerd sprite is excellent.

I like how this Ace Trainer doesn't even have a line of sight: you have to talk to him to battle. Typhlosion puts up a good fight, but not even Blaze and Charcoal boosted Fire Blast can OHKO Wartortle (it lived in red and killed with Hydro Pump).

How'd it get burned? HOW'D IT GET BURNED? Charmeleon, that's how.

Oh come on, Taylor Swift has more ex's than you, Misty. She heads back to the Gym at any rate. But it's time for us to head to Lavender Town. We fly back to Saffron, heal up, and head east.

Never mentioned this before but I quite like the Young Couple sprite, very cute. Also, e.

This route is noticeably more urban than before which is an interesting change. Also, this Gentleman randomly has a Full Restore.

I don't mind Lavender Town's new song actually. I like the peaceful tune, even if it puts a damper on arguably Kanto's most iconic location.

Nah, what's really silly is the Kanto Radio Station replacing Lavender Tower. That's just insensitive, man.

At least we get the EXPN Card, so we can finally move that Snorlax.

We Fly back to Saffron and head west to Celadon. Honestly, I love this redesign; like most of Johto-Kanto it looks fantastically modern. We head down Cycling Road to Fuschia City.

Love the purple battle background, also I got this funny screenshot of this Biker stepping on his Poke Ball almost. Also, this random Gulpin on this mook has Black Sludge for no reason.

I forgot how great Seviper's HGSS sprite is, that's actually amazing.

And we're at Fuschia City. Again, love the color palette here; the brown floor with the purple houses is a wonderful aesthetic. We Fly back to Vermillion City.

I have no idea how you'd figure out that the Poke Flute is at the top of the radio frequencies other than the fact Lavender Town is northeast of Vermillion; you have to talk to it with the music playing to wake it up.

This Snorlax can be a pain to catch thanks to Leftovers, but I manage to catch it in a Poke Ball. Those Leftovers will be great for Steelix. We stock up on some more Ultra Balls just in case we need them.

If you say so, buddy.

We head into Diglett's Cave and make our way to Pewter City.

Another great location too. Love the bridge and climbable ledge.

why tho

I like how this session has been so long Baoba has called me twice in one episode.

We head north to Pewter City (which also has a nice urban look) and snag a randomly important item, then stock up on Super Repel then head south to Viridian Forest.

Yeah I prefer the original tune a lot more here, but this isn't a bad track on its own.

Viridian City's makeover is also great, dark green and gray are a surprisingly neat combo. Love the music it shares with Saffron City as well, so laid-back. We head south to Pallet Town with the dinky yet charming Route 1 theme accompanying us.

Imagine if 10 year olds with like level 5s still started their journey here lmao

Another great remix for Pallet Town as well.

I LOVE the old-school stylings of the houses too. We Surf south to Cinnabar Island. Not much to say about the ocean.

This remix...wow, it's so solemn.

We meet a familiar face.

Powerful quote.

Unfortunately Blue is too egotistical to battle us, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We'll get to why I love him in this game later.

But wait a minute! There's one last thing to do before we end the episode, and that's get the Magnet Train Pass. We Fly to Saffron.

We're the errand boy again. Back to Vermilion.

Of course.

Dude, you're pathetic.

Look who it is! It's the not-overexposed Steven, who, unlike Cynthia, the franchise can actually go two games without him appearing in some form.

Amazing lampshade hanging on player NPCs looking similar.

Yeah, the Eon Twin Megas are creatively bankrupt.

Oh, I'm sorry, it's apparently just the Pass, not the Magnet Train Pass. Not going to use it but I'd thought I'd show the sidequest off.

We Fly back to Pewter City.

Next time, we start taking down the Kanto Gym Leaders! I might grind a little offscreen. Thanks for being patient with this episode!

 

[Mex]

Honestly, as a kid i never really used the Magnet Train, but in my recent playthrough i ended up using it way more. Hate how the game doesn't just let you fly between Kanto and Johto instead of having to stop off at Indigo Plateau between it though, feels like inconvenience for inconvenience sake

 

[DrumstickGaming]

HGSS Episode 16: WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED

book em boys

We start back in Pewter. Gym time.

Honestly, as a kid i never really used the Magnet Train, but in my recent playthrough i ended up using it way more. Hate how the game doesn't just let you fly between Kanto and Johto instead of having to stop off at Indigo Plateau between it though, feels like inconvenience for inconvenience sake

Yeah this is a stupid limitation with Fly. 100% agree.

And no, I didn't grind, probably gonna do that after all this. I wanna make the Gym battles more interesting by being low leveled.

I like the detail that he calls you "Legend" instead of champ. Amazing touch.

Man, this random mook has a Rhydon and FRLG Giovanni didn't. Progressive.

Brock is weird because you can easily face him late in the cycle given his unlock requirements.

We set up a Light Clay boosted Reflect with Stantler, and when combined with Intimidate...

Yeah, that's pretty awesome, though he never hits me for the rest of the fight so lol. We get a free switch off of Defense Curl to Mismagius, then obliterate him with Choice Specs Magical Leaf. I do like how he has the fossils (great sprite of Kabutops here), but having an Onix is a little silly this late in the game, even if Steelix would break his typing.

THIS quote. I have never understood this quote. Did Brock suddenly get a rash mid-battle? If so, why is he telling it to us? Is it saying something about the human condition? Is he crying out for help, knowing he is locked in battle for eternity instead of treating his aching boulders or wounds? What even is this line?

Also, this is the second remake where someone has a Rhyhorn instead of a Rhydon. We are in the postgame. At least with Onix I can semi-understand why it stays, it's the iconic first gym ace and the typing would change as Steelix like I said. But this Rhyhorn? This makes literally no sense. And no, this isn't fixed in rematches: Brock replaces it...with a Relicanth.

wut

Mismagius is quickly becoming the star of the show. Having great type coverage and IVs and Speed will do that.

derrrrrrp

We give Mismagius the Thunderbolt TM to round out its moveset (I prefer Discharge on Ampharos due to the paralysis chance).

Music time.

Misty has an excellent redesign. It's probably the complementary blue coat with the orange hair.

We lead with Stantler once more, setting up Light Screen as Golduck disables it lol.

Literally no damage

We hit em with a Choice Specs THUNDABOLT, but this becomes hilarious when Golduck Disables that too, forcing me to switch.

We Charge as Ampharos to avoid Disable (was afraid of 2 Special Attack IV), then fry Golduck.

Quagsire comes in, and to make this fight a little more interesting, I send in Stantler because I don't want to lock into Magical Leaf. We set up Reflect. Light Screen wears off so we recast it as Quagsire sets up rain. Return deals decent damage considering Quagsire's bulk.

actually no damage

Lapras comes in and Sing gets the masochism chance. This fight is going in so many different directions lmao.

We switch back to Stantler and barely miss the kill, but we tank it pretty well and Sing misses.

Sadly she heals it and sleeps me again, and now both screens have worn off.

We switch to Ampharos and-

YOU MONKEY-FIGHTING SNAKE ON THIS MONDAY-TO-FRIDAY PLANE

I'm running out of options because I don't want to heal to keep things interesting....um, Typhlosion? Can you do something?

For the memes.

We actually pulled it off. My heart cannot take this fight right now.

I Night Slash but hit myself in confusion.

We die next turn sadly after a Sucker Punch.

!!!

She heals and we crit EQ. What in the absolute fresh heck is GOING ON

This is the craziest Gym battle I've ever had, holy moly.

NO

Okay, we have to Full Heal Mismagius. I think I earned that after suffering two crits.

Humorously, we live Ice Beam.

It's down to this.

We hit ourselves in confusion AGAIN.

YOU PIECE OF-

FINE. I'll Full Restore.

GO TO HELL!

"It contains a literally useless move"

We're stopping here! I was originally gonna do like three or four gym battles but we simply aren't topping that. Next time, we continue and take on Lt. Surge.

What just happened??????