A Battle with the Champion

I had met the champion before in Lysandre's cafe, but I had forgotten who this Diantha was.  In the best game of all time, Pokemon Red version, I remember being absolutely taken aback by my rival Gary being my final opponent.  Whenever someone had referred to the final gauntlet of trainers in that game, it was always the "Elite Four" or the "Final Four".  It was never the "Elite Four and also the Champion".

Battling Gary specifically, even, was a surprise--and it was even more shocking because the last time I had encountered him in that game was in Saffron City in the Silph building--at least three gym-badges before.  This is exactly enough time to totally forget about that character.

Similarly, the re-introduction of Diantha here was a surprise: "oh yeah, you're still a person aren't you?!" It's not nearly as cool as battling your rival, but it's still something.  It was like battling Steven in Ruby version or Cynthia in Diamond.

Diantha thanked me for taking care of Team Flare and graciously accepted my challenge.  Time for battle!

I find it a little funny that I spent an entire day earlier in this year gushing about how cool Hawlucha is given the fact that it was never formally on my team.  When I made my way through Victory Road, I was reminded of this since it seemed like every single trainer carried one--and all of them had some obnoxious Fairy-killing move like Steel Wing or Poison Jab.

Her first pokemon was Hawlucha.  Is the word I am looking for "opportune" or "destined"?

I had led the match with Hippowdon for tanking and scouting purposes--most of the pokemon I am coming across are physical attackers (like Hawlucha) and Hippowdon can at least put things to sleep and stall them with Sandstorm.  This is exactly what happened, I put Hawlucha to sleep, letting sandstorm whittle it down,then sent in Froakles, hoping to score an easy kill with a super-effective ice beam.  However, Diantha used a Full Restore on the switch.  The result of this is that I switched my Greninja into a fully healthy Hawlucha who not only outspeeds my low-level ninjafrog, but also hits it super-effectively (since Fighting is strong against Dark). 

After sacrificing Greninja to get a free switch-in, I chose Venusaur for some sleep powder/leech seed stalling while I used Revive and hyper potion.  I was positive that I would need that froggie later in the match.

I had calculated it so that Venusaur would survive four hits after Hawlucha woke up, so I set-up my now-trademark "Leech Seed KO/Solarbeam switch KO" move (charging Solarbeam on a turn such that it will hit a switch-in pokemon after a KO).  The issue is that Hawlucha scored a critical hit at the most important part of the exchange and Venusaur was taken out.  Hippowdon had just enough durability to take out Hawlucha.

I remembered her next pokemon, Aurorus, from a trainer battle following my eighth gym match.  Aurorus is the evolution of the fossil pokemon I got at the start of the game--and is Rock/Ice typed.

Now, what do both Ice and Rock HATE?

I sent in Lucario and immediately "went Mega".  The question was whether I wanted to risk MegaLuk's health with a turn 1 Swords Dance or if I wanted to go for the sweep immediately.  I play dangerously.  Mega Lucario used Swords Dance against Aurorus, who used Reflect (thank you).

The rest of the match was an easy sweep: Lucario One-Hit KO'ed Aurorus with Aura Sphere, then the bulky Dragon Goodra with Close Combat and the evolution of the fossil Tyrunt, Tyrantrum, with another Close Combat.

Her next pokemon was the Grass/Ghost pokemon Gourgeist, but I had taught Lucario Shadow Claw when I took on the Psychic gym for type coverage, so the Swords Dance-boosted super-effective ghost move One Hit KO'ed Gourgeist as well.  Lucario just cannot be stopped.

Her final pokemon was Gardevoir, who actually surprised me by Mega-Evolving, but Lucario outsped it and defeated it in one hit as well.

The Vile Lysandre

Lysandre certainly takes the cake for being the most evil person in the pokemon world.  Let me elaborate.

As the battle came to a close, Lysandre made note that before we removed the Yveltal batteries, the machine still had enough power to be fired exactly once to destroy the facility.  Lysandre was trying to take us all out with him.  Cue Metroid-Style Escape!

Lysandre killed himself while trying to kill the kids that defeated him.  This is a bit crazy, but the thing is, he kept his pokemon on his person when this happened, so he also killed all of his pokemon.  I can't be the only one that finds this a little macabre: he killed himself and killed his pokemon too.  I don't know what could be more evil than this.  I guess the real-world analogue would be if you set your house on fire and died with all your pets and family.

I guess it makes sense for Pokemon to be able to die--otherwise what is the purpose of Lavender Tower?  I have just never actually witnessed the death of a pokemon.  I was the last one to see that Gyarados alive...then I beat it up...and then it was gone forever.  My character was the last person to see that Gyarados, and the last thing I did to it was Aura Sphere it in its big, stupid face.
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The pokemon gang was apparently doing a lot off screen to help the cause and this only came up at the very end.  After escaping from the facility and watching the whole place get vaporized and sucked back into the earth, we all regrouped amongst the ashes. Tierno (the dancing one) was apparently helping to release all the captured pokemon in a nearby route and Trevor was helping evacuate the town (or something). 

The fact that you were a part of a big Anti-Flare effort actually goes a long way towards bringing you in as a believable main character--and makes the world a lot more alive.  This is much easier to swallow than the idea that you could single-handedly take out all the Rockets.  The whole game is a lot more believable from this standpoint.

I never quite got the idea of purposefully disturbing Groudon or Kyogre--who are literally in the process of tearing the world apart at the time that you hunt them down to battle them.  In this game, you do end up fighting a scary legend, but it kind of happens by accident.  When you end-up catching Yveltal, its really only because the thing was so angry from being asleep for so long that it wanted to hurt you.  You weren't just looking for trouble and a new catch, you were attacked and you sent out your pokemon to defend you.  You only catch Yveltal because if you don't, it would hurt you.

A lot about this game is incredibly well thought-out, especially when compared with previous installments of the game.  This may be the best game since Red version.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.42
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.41
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.42
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.41
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.43
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.40

On Rotation: Lucario, Gardevoir, Pikachu, Skrelp

The End of Pokemon White

Not really much to say about the anticlimax of the century: I beat "N" with only "Tusks" the Haxorus (there HAS to be an "overpowered Dragon-type" joke in there somewhere...) and then I fought Ghestis (the true villain) afterwards and similarly beat him in 8 moves using only Haxorus. 

Afterwards, I got a pep talk from "N" about pursuing my dreams or some nonsense like that.

And then the credits rolled...
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I'm not sure how I feel about Pokemon White being over--on the one hand the writing was heavy-handed and the plot was fantastically bad, but the pokemon designs were interesting and the world layout was...satisfactory.  Okay, I guess coming up with things I liked is a little difficult.

Now, I'm just being critical because I love the Pokemon series so don't take this the wrong way, but Pokemon White was not a good game.  I'm not saying it was bad, it was just average.

Why do you play pokemon?  The story?  I sure hope not, the story for this game was good, but not great: it definitely suffered from "Decent Premise, Terrible Writing Syndrome".  The idea of whether or not Pokemon training is ethical was great to bring up--and injected an excellent bit of self-awareness for a series which has always been "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later".

The problem with this is that the whole "pokemon battles as arguments of ideals" allegory that this game was pushing the whole time (Zekrom and Reshiram themselves, representing dissenting opinions) fell absolutely flat on its face along with the entirety of the game's dialogue, which ranged from "bad" to "unforgivably bad".  I wonder if the entire game was written on "Take your kid to work day"...

No, you play a pokemon game for the battling and the pokemon design and selection.  Here, the game wasn't terrible, but it still didn't shine.  For every cool-looking Leavanny or Scraggy, there was a dumb-looking Stunfisk or an uninspired Klink, Vanilluxe, or Cryogonal.  As a matter of fact, the total number of stupid-looking pokemon definitely outnumbers the cool ones that I remember--and the negatives from this game are most definitely the things I recall the most.

I can't remember one bad thing about Red and Blue version...wait, I just remembered Rock Tunnel...
nevermind.  But Silver Version--there we are, that's the example I will use.  Silver version was perfect I think.  I can't recall a bad section of the game: awesome pokemon design, access to good pokemon early (but not overpowered ones) in order to get you hooked--constantly changing environments and a story that was compelling and not in-your-face the whole time banging-on about friendship or dreams or arguments or some nonsense like that.

Ruby was good I guess--less homogenous in terms of pokemon access (as in, you tended to get about 40 cool new pokemon at a time followed by hours of gameplay where no new monsters appear) and a bit too plot-heavy (I never DID get behind that "legendary pokemon as a main plot point" thing), but overall solid.

Diamond and Pearl I can't for the life of me remember--must not have liked them very much--and I never DID like those three starter options.  Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup: Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.  While I know many people will disagree with that last statement, it is my opinion and I would just like to say: nanna-nanna-boo-boo, stick your head in doo doo.

So Pokemon White?  Put it above Diamond and Pearl but below Red and Silver versions.  Maybe just below Ruby and Sapphire.

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But today isn't about goodbyes, it is about new beginnings.  I thought I was done with Pokemon--but Nintendo just keeps me hanging on.  A new game is out--and that means a new Pokemon Playthrough.  Therefore, I am proud to announce the start of:

I have reset my trainer card to reflect the change:

Of course you can continue to expect witty commentary, snide remarks, and what I consider humor.