Bye Bye Butterfree!

The next step was to make my way across Route 2 to meet the professor at his lab.  Professor Kukui likes to study pokemon moves, specifically.  I do like how each professor has their own specialty.  As I recall, Professor Sycamore (Pokemon X, Y) studied Mega Evolution and Professor Rowan (Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum) studied Pokemon Evolution.

On my way there, I managed to snag Wingull, Slowpoke, and the Alola from of Rattata.  I named them Gulliver, Pokey, and Snackers, respectively and added the later two to my party.  I waved "Alola" to Felix, my Butterfree-in-training in order to do this.  I'm always sad to see Butterfree go, but I've used Butterfree so much in my pokemon career, I don't feel too too bad about opening up that team slot for something weird and new.

For example, this cool, Dark-type Alola Rattata.

As an aside, I checked the pokedex entries of these pokemon and they revealed some cool information about the region.  Apparently, Alola Rattata work as mafia droogs for their Raticate boss and Slowpoketail is a popular dish in the Alola region, especially when dried and served in a salty stew.  I can't quite believe that the pokedex entry for my most recent pokemon catch is telling me how I should be cooking it.  I'm glad my Slowpoke's ability is "Oblivious" because those hungry looks I've been giving it might otherwise make training and taming it difficult...


Current Squad:

Popplio/Pako Pako/lvl 7
Yungoos/Chompy/lvl 7
Pikipek/Pip Pip/lvl 8
Pichu/Rai Rai/lvl 8
Slowpoke/Pokey/lvl 7
Rattata/Snackers/lvl 7

Pokedex: 9 caught

The Road to Snowbelle City

The road to Couriway town brought me to an optional cave called the "Terminus Cave".  I took some time to explore the cave, coming out with a small fortune in random items, the TM for Shadow Ball (nice!), and a bunch of pokemon: Pupitar, Durant, Sandslash, Graveler, Gurdurr, and Torkoal.  When I reached the lowest part of the cave I met a character blocking a doorway who basically told me to come back when I have become the champion.  Nintendo must be hiding Mewtwo back there.

Just you wait...

When I reached the town, the Professor Sycamore found me and thanked me for killing his friend Lysandre.  Not in these words exactly but I could read between the lines well enough.  He then gave me the HM for Waterfall.  This is one item which I have been waiting nearly the entire game for because Nintendo is very good at teasing new areas to the adventurous.  "Hey, look!  A waterfall and several shiny items right out of reach, bet you can't wait to come back here, huh?"  Jerks.

He then battled me with his Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard.  I beat him handily, but it was still a fun battle anyways.  He ran off afterwards, congratulating me and mumbling something about a surprise.  Last surprise was a Bulbasaur, so I hope his next surprise starts with a C and breathes fire.

...

I meant Charmander.  I hope he gives me a Charmander.

The route ahead took me over a swampy gorge.  I didn't have to explore the swamp to cross, but I did anyways and caught a fucking Stunfisk.  No I don't mean a Stunfisk, I mean a fucking stunfisk because stunfisk is the most odious pokemon of all time.

As I crossed the bridge, three of the four Pokemon thieves appeared out of nowhere and challenged me to a battle.  I beat Serena's (the one who Nintendo was building-up to turn into my character's love interest in the game.  Looking back, glad that didn't happen) Delphox handily and Tierno (the one whose only trait is "likes to dance") only put up a slight fight (heh) with his Crawdaunt. 

The third battle was against Tierno (the quiet one) and it was actually quite difficult.  He had a Raichu, a Florges, and an Aerodactyl.  The first two of these were easy enough to beat, but his Aerodactyl outsped everyone in my team, including Pikachu, so I didn't even have the chance to attack before many of my pokemon were knocked-out.  In the end, I stalled it to death with Hippowdon using Yawn while Leech Seed took its health down.  Maybe Yawn/Roar/Earthquake/Toxic isn't the set to be running on this guy...at least not in-game.  I'll change it soon.

I made it to Snowbelle, the town of perpetual winter and bad ice puns, and found that the gymleader, Wulfric (the most Northern-sounding name of all time) had gone into the nearby forest to train.  I guess the path ahead is through the greenery!

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.46
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.45
FLAREON/lvl.45
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.44
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.44
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.46

On Rotation: Lucario, Gardevoir, Skrelp, Pikachu, Haunter

The Legend of Blah Blah Blah Blah

I think I was a little vague in my last post with reference to the major plot of the game and I admit that this reveals how terrible I am at stressing the importance of things.  Surely the plot of a story is the thing that should be explained in the most detail and not, as I have done, in one terrible run-on sentence?

So here it is in greater detail, and hopefully with fewer grammatical errors:

As I made it to the lowest sub-basement of Lysandre's Cafe Teleporter Maze-O-Madness, I happened upon Lysandre himself and a mysterious man I had seen only once before.  Lysandre was obviously holding the eight-foot-tall man captive (the electrified fence gave that away) and the captive launched-into a monologue describing the 3000-Year Legend:
_____________________

Three thousand years ago into the future, back when everything was in black-and-white and there was a lot of film-grain and text on the screen explaining what the actors are doing (fine, I'll stop), there was a man who loved his Floette.  His Floette went off to fight in a war between two nations.  Floette never came back.

The man was apparently so angry that he used science and magic, but mostly science, to resurrect his Floette with a machine he built, but to power his machine he killed scores of other Pokemon in the process.  As it were, all those strange stones around Geosenge City are gravestones of these pokemon, which is just creepy enough to be totally awesome.

After this, he was still really really angry, so he modified his resurrection machine and made it a doomsday weapon, which he used to kill a whole bunch of people and pokemon, ending the war.  A little bit of an overkill, but most definitely effective.

Then his Floette left him anyways.  It's times like these where I wish I knew the definition of irony...

_______________________

I am about 100% certain (you read that right) that the old giant in the prison cell was that man from 3000 years ago and if he isn't then he definitely thinks he is--because he all but admitted to it during his monologue.  I am very curious, however, how the legendary pokemon Yvetal relates to this.

Professor Sycamore told me earlier that there was a destructive pokemon called Yvetal linked to the 3000 Year Legend, but this pokemon was not mentioned even once...  Maybe the answer can be found in Geosenge City.

Meeting the Mega Evolution Guru

After earning (or not earning, I don't think she actually gave it to me in the end) my third badge, I chased the Team Flare grunt North.  You would recall that this is the guy who kept babbling on about the 3000 year legend as I was murdering his Houndour.  The Northern path he took ended at a weird gazebo-like rock formation and a dead-end.  Guess I will just have to wait to find out what the 3000 year legend is.  I have no clue how I will ever contain myself.

SO CUTE

So I went East and no sooner had I left town than I got a phone-call from Professor Sycamore who told me that since I was near Shalour City and I was still looking for information about Mega Evolution, I should stop by to visit a man in that town who might know something.

And that apparently, this man is known as the "Mega-Evolution Guru".

Wait a second, there's a Mega-Evolution guru?  I thought the errand I was sent on in the first place was to ask around for information about what mega-evolution was?  And there just happens to be some guy who is a mega-evolution guru?  Then what the hell have I been screwing around doing for the past four towns asking every po-dunk scientist I came across for information?

I feel as if every problem in the pokemon world could be solved with one or two internet searches...because even the pokedex information could probably be filled-in by reading Red's facebook notes at this point.

After waking up from my my rage-blackout I made my way towards the Reflecting Cave, the next mini-dungeon along my way to see the Mega-Evolution-blah-blah-blah.  Along the way, I caught Nidorino, Female Nidoran, Stunky, Dedenne (a new, Fairy-typed Pikachu-of-the-moment), and Throh, whom I must congratulate for looking like ass EVEN IN 3-D!

The Reflecting Cave is a cave with mirror-walls that reminds me of that one level from Pokemon Snap in the cave.  The one that had the Articuno and the Pikachu that flew around on Balloons.  Similar to "The Cave Level", Reflecting Cave is FULL of odd Psychic types of varying strength--and every single one of them decimated my under-leveled team.  I decided I needed the experience, so I fought everything I saw.

One cool thing about the reflection cave is that since some of the walls are mirrored, you can see things along cave walls that would normally be hidden--leading to a few interesting perspective puzzles--and also that trainers who are admiring themselves in the mirror will still battle you if you walk by.  They will see your reflection as you walk behind them. 

After several "Teleports" (thanks, Kirlia) back to the pokemon center and a bag full of potions and pokeballs, I made it out (in large part due to "Hotfoot" the Flareon and "Froakles" the Frogadier) with Mr. Mime, Chingling, Ferroseed, Roggenrola, Wobbuffet, Sableye, Solosis, and a new Rock/Fairy type called Carbink.

 It is actually impossible to get lost in Shalour City, especially since every single person in the town has something to say about Mega-Evolution and how the Tower of Mastery is where it is studied ("and did we mention it is just North of here...").

I entered the tower...and was greeted by a HUGE statue of Lucario.  Did I come in through the wrong door?

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.26
IVYSAUR/Ivy/lvl.25
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.25
HIPPOPOTAS/Sandman/lvl.25
SCRAGGY/Scrappy/lvl.23
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.25

On Rotation: Kirlia, Flabebe, Pikachu

The Good Kind of Tough Choices

I ended-up spending a lot more time than I expected screwing-around in the Route 4 hedge maze getting a feel for this new fairy type and I still haven't decided on whether I prefer Ralts (who was on my main team back when I played Sapphire Version and has always been a sleeper favorite of mine) or this Dandelion thing I just caught.  Ralts is a known commodity, but Flabebe, as I have found after fighting the scores of Combee that inhabit Route 4,  is something of a Special Defense Tank.  I have always been more of a fan of stall-teams, probably because I'm such a huge pussy, so having a Special Tank like Flabebe is fairly fulfilling for me.  For now I'm just going to keep a seven-pokemon rotating roster until I decide I'm tired of something.  These kind of tough choices are the good kind, I feel.

Professor Sycamore as he appears in Pokemon Red

As soon as I made it to Glitch City (Lumiose City), I met up with Professor Sycamore, who immediately challenged me to a battle.  I was expecting a battle against three magnemite or maybe a
Porygon, a Grimer, and a Cubone (These are typical pokemon carried by a "Super-Nerd") or something weird like that, but he surprised me with Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

Updates: Fire type added

And it is at exactly this moment that I found out that Fairy Type Attacks are not very effective against Fire Type Pokemon (sigh).  I updated my chart to reflect this new data, but Flabebe still has not forgiven me for this oversight.


-----------------------------------------
I'm not quite sure if I was good all this year, but apparently Christmas came for me anyways: Professor Sycamore gave me my choice of his three pokemon.  I was thinking of picking up Charmander because I really wanted to see that Charizard in 3D, but I decided to stick to my roots and pick Bulbasaur--who was my very first pokemon ever.  I named him "Bulby".

Which brings up that question of what to do with my pokemon team--which is now made up of eight pokemon.  Bulbasaur, Froakie and Raich--I mean, Pikachu are non-negotiable and I'm still pretty high on Flabebe and Ralts...

Guess I have an eight-pokemon cycle for now!

My gang of pokemon-thieving friends arrived just after the battle so that Professor Sycamore could give us all a nice pep talk about following our dreams and finding others who have different views or some "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" nonsense like that. I really wasn't paying attention, I was too high on Bulbasaur at this point--which is a problem because I think he said something important about Mega-Evolving Bulbasaur in his monologue and I definitely missed it.  Hopefully this isn't going to be a problem (SPOILER: it probably is).

On the way out the door I met the obvious villain-du-jour Lysandre.  Why did I immediately identify him as the villain?  Because he said he wanted to save the world.  Only bad
guys say things like that, this is the first thing you learn at protagonist school.  I should have been intimidated, but who can be scared of a guy named Lysandre?  That's like being afraid of a guy named Lloyd!

Current Squad:

FROAKIE/Froakles/lvl.13
BULBASAUR/Bulby/lvl.10
PIKACHU/PikaPi/lvl.11
BUTTERFREE/Felix/lvl.11
FLABEBE/Pixie/lvl.11
FARFETCH'D/Quacklin'/lvl.11

On Rotation: Ralts, Zigzagoon

Hey, You Got Your Kanto in My Kalos!

After being told to meet Tree-of-the-Moment Professor Sycamore in the next town, I made my customary game first purchase of a thousand pokeballs and exactly six potions at the nearest store.  Little did I know that I would then be given ten more pokeballs and potions free from the gang of pokemon thieves (who are supposed to be my friends) I described in the last post.  While being tricked into getting fifty potions and pokeballs is not nearly as bad as the time I was tricked into catching five Lilipups, I still take this afront personally.

----------------------------------------
Remember how in the last game, there were ONLY new pokemon?  Well in this game, the pokemon mix is actually fairly decent.  The first pokemon I encountered (and failed to catch, damn) was a Pidgey (who evolves directly into my favorite bird pokemon (that link was a joke)) and the next two were Zigzagoon and a new pokemon called Fletchling.  I caught both of these as well as a cool rabbit pokemon called Bunnelby and found out that in this game, you actually gain experience from catching pokemon as well as defeating them--which is a fairly banal change, but it was all the change necessary to convince me to try and catch every single pokemon I encountered.  I was kind of glad to have those 70 pokeballs as I made my way to the first area of the game (can you call them "dungeons"?), Santalune Forest.

Now, as soon as I stepped-into the forest I was struck with an odd sense of deja-vu: "Have I been here before?  Couldn't be...I bet there isn't a dead end to the left...wait, there is...or an item forward and to the left...there is...and the path to the right winds up and around..."

Item to the left, twisting path, Encounters with Caterpie, Weedle, and rare cases of Pikachu?  THIS IS VIRIDIAN FOREST!!!  As I would soon find out, Santalune Forest has an identical map to the Original Viridian Forest from Red Version.  What the Hell, Nintendo!  You can't take my very first pokemon adventure and lovingly recreate it in 3D with fantastic graphics and an amazing selection of new pokemon...

...

What the heck was I complaining about again?

I went on a spree here, catching Weedle, Caterpie (who evolved into Metapod), Pansage (we meet again, my old nemesis), Pansear, Panpour, a new bug type called Scatterbug, and NARROWLY MISSED CATCHING PIKACHU.

I am still a little sore about that Pikachu, because then I would be one step closer to having my three favorite pokemon on my team (Butterfree, Raichu, Milotic if you're asking).

I am immediately reminded of Red Version.  I remember back then how long I would look in Viridian Forest (which, as established, is Santalune Forest) just to find one Pikachu for my party--and how when I did finally encounter him, Bulbasaur was already level 12 and I was scared of knocking it out too quickly (Oh yeah, I chose Bulbasaur, by the way).  My solution was to use "Leech Seed" and "Growl" until his health was low enough to start tossing Pokeballs.  On more than one playthrough, I got to this point to realize I was out of Pokeballs, so it is a good thing I have 80 of them this time.

After 40 minutes of looking I decided to quit for the moment.

Current Squad:
Pokemon/Nickname/Level
FROAKIE/Froakles/lvl.9
METAPOD/Felix/lvl.8
ZIGZAGOON/Ziggy/lvl.8
SCATTERBUG/Bubbsy/lvl.7
BUNNELBY/Buns/lvl.4
----/----/----