ianmrid - Tumblr blog

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

Pokémon!

Another pokémon generation, another great set of pokémon to choose from for my top ten. I really don't think that there are any pokémon that I think are awful - they all range from average to fantastic. Additionally, in Sinnoh, I loved the big expansion on the new evolutions to old pokémon concept - and I think this Top 10 reflects that. As is always the case, I have included both the original Gen4 sprite as well as the shiny sprite, with all sprites taken from Platinum for the sake of consistency. Gen4 also marked my first first shiny since Gen2, and although Bibarel didn't sneak into my list, I really just wanted to mention it again!

10. Roserade

The last slot on the list is always tricky as it edges out all your honourable mentions, but I couldn't have a list without Roserade. The first of several on this list that is a new evolved form of a previously establised pokémon, Roserade is a perfect example of how this can breathe new life into a pokémon family. I can't imagine ever bothering with Gen3's Roselia which was fine, but nothing too special. But with it evolving into the masquerade ball-inspired Roserade, it was always on my list. I trained one on my Pokémon Pearl team and I think it is now my favourite Grass/Poison type - sorry Venusaur! Also, the shiny is lovely; the blue and red rose-hands change to black and purple and it looks so good. If this was a top ten list of shinies, Roserade would be even higher up!

09. Honchkrow

Honchkrow gets into this list head of the regional bird of Sinnoh, Staraptor (which I also think is great), for a couple of reasons. I think Staraptor is great, but the type combination Normal/Flying just isn't as interesting as the cool Dark/Flying type of Honchkrow. Additionally, as with Roserade, I love how it takes the previously average Murkrow from trickster crows to a group of lackeys who surround the Mafia Boss that is Honckrow. It's a great evolution concept. I also enjoyed training my Honchkrow (again on my Pokémon Pearl team) to combine it's Super Luck ability, the Scope Lens held item, and the high critical hit chance move, Night Slash, to dish out a crit every three attacks or so. I don't hate the shiny either, although I wish it was a bit of a deeper purple as it does stray dangerously close to hot pink. Still at least it isn't yet another blue pokémon turning to this colour!

08. Lopunny

I feel like Lopunny isn't a pokémon that would be on many people list of favourites, and I totally see why. It is weirdly sexualised - not too surprising given it seems to be based on a Playboy bunny - with the way it hold it's arms in front of it's chest to give the impression of cleavage (which it thankfully doesn;t actually have) and the 'wolf whistle' cry that cannot just be a coincidence. I never planned to use one but I needed a male Lopunny to help hunt for a female Combee, and he ended up sticking around on my Pokémon Diamond team. A big part of this was the headcannon I had that given it is a pokémon with such a feminine design, my Lopunny was a bad-ass pokémon drag queen! I also really like the shiny with the (thankfully not hot) pink highlights. YAAASSS!

07. Floatzel

I'm not even sure exactly why I like Floatzel so much - but it really appeals to me all the same. I like the animal it is based on - the Weasel presumably, although it could easily be a stoat, ferret, or otter - and think the design with the dual tails acting as a propeller is really cool. I also like how the rubber tubing element of it's design doesn't make look clumsey or inept like a Water-type pokémon, with what is essentially a flotation device, could easiy end up. Floatzel is another pokémon that I trained on my Pokémon Diamond team and it is both quick and relatively hard hitting on both the Attack and Special Attack sides, which makes it nice and versatile, especially when playing through and requiring it to learn both Special and Physical HM moves. The shiny is nothing to write home about though, essentially a more washed out orange. Maybe they were going for a gold colour, but if so it just looks kinda off. I'll stick with the original, thanks!

06. Mismagius

After two original pokémon lines, I'm back to new evolutions to old pokémon, and also my second drag queen pokémon! Another feminine-styled pokémon, my Mismagius is male earning it the nickname Ru Pol (because Ru Poltergeist was just a little too long). Evolving from the very overlooked Misdreavus, I always planned to use Mismagius on a team and he becomes the third member of my Pokémon Pearl team to get into the Top Ten. Really great Speed, Special Attack, and Special Defence, combined with a really good movepool for great type coverage makes Mismagius an excellent pokémon that I was a big fan of before even playing through the Sinnoh games. I'm also a fan of te mustard-coloured shiny, but if I had to choose between the colour options, I think the original is slightly better suited to a spooky Ghost-type.

05. Hippowdon

This is the first pokémon in my top ten that I didn't actually train in Gen4. This is odd because if I had produced the list without playing the games and the chance to bond with various other pokémon, then I think Hippowdon would have been in the top three. Part of the issue here is how difficult/late in the game you can get one. To catch it's pre-evolved form, Hippopotas, you need to capture a certain number of Unown in order to get into the tunnel where it lives. Since I had all the Unown forms in Emerald, I was never going to do this again, so I never caught it. The fully evolved for is available in the post-game, but this is far too late. Even so, I still love it as a pokémon. I really like the design of a scary looking, Ground-type hippo with sand pouring out of it and I think the sexual diamorphism in colour between the male and female forms helps make up for the fact the male form's shiny is rather lackluster, being just a more washed out beige. One day I will definitely train a Hippowdon of my own!

04. Mamoswine

Sinnoh certainy introduced some cool (Ice-type pun not intended) Ground-types, as this is the second of three in this top ten, as well as the fourth out of five that evolve previously established pokémon. Interestingly, after Swinub appeared in my Gen2 top ten, this is the first time two members of the same evolution line have been in a list of my favourites! Mammoswine was a key member of my Pokémon HeartGold team and is such a great addition to the Swinub/Piloswine family. According to in-game cannon, it is essentially a pre-historic evolution that only happens in certain circumstances in the modern day which makes it feel like a fossil pokémon, but without the need to saddle it with the Rock-typing. Unfortunately, on the shiny side it draws the short straw of the family as it just looks a bit weird compared to Swinub's aquamarine or Piloswine's lovely golden coulouration.

03. Vespiquen

Moving into the top three, Vespiquen is another pokémon that I liked before I ever played through Sinnoh and was very keen to use on a team. It's not hard to see why I like it; it is a fearsome-looking Queen Bee with a great honeycomb design, and the fact it can be a bit of effort to obtain since it only evolves from female Combees makes it feel like a prize when you finally get one. I had earmarked Vespiquen for my Pokémon Platinum team but it ended up missing out as, despite being part Flying-type, it can't learn the HM Fly. This caused me to drop it out for Drifblim in the end, but it is another pokémon I would love to train someday. Although I definitely prefer the original colouration, the more angry-looking orangey-red of the shiny is still a great look, but the idea of shiny hunting a female Combee doesn't sound like fun at all!

02. Yanmega

Yanmega was a late choice for my Pokémon SoulSilver team, but using it there rocketed it into the top ten, as I hadn't really ever considered it muc before using it on that team. It actualy combines everything I like about my previous two entries; it is a bad-ass looking Bug-type with an amazing design, and it is also a pre-historic evolution, based on the huge dragonflies that lived back then and evolving in the same way as Mamoswine. Since it is a new evolution to Johto's Yanma, it made sense to use it in the Gen2 remakes over and above Vespiquen, which share the same typing but only really has ties to Sinnoh. Finally, Yanmega has a realy excellent shiny with the blue version looking so good and it right up their with Roserade for best Sinnoh shiny!

01. Torterra

As we reach the number one slot, it shouldn't come as much surprise to see a member of a starter pokémon line here. The starter lines are always among the best designed pokémon of any region and my favourite from Sinnoh is easily Torterra. It has an excellent design concept; a Grass/Ground-type tortoise with an entire eco-system on it's back, my Torterra was an integral part of my Pokémon Diamond team. Given how much I like a lot of starters families, it is interesting that this marks the first time a fully-evolved starter has made the list, although the first-stage evolutions have been well represented with Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil, and Mudkip all previously representing their various regions. The only downside to Torterra is that I don't love it's shiny. It certainly isn't bad, but the variation of green used just can't hold a candle to the original.

Wow, I can't believe that I am finally at the end of Generation 4. As always I will be posting all the lovely art that I had commissioned of my Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver teams before I move onto Gen5. I know these upcoming games are often considered rather devicive within the pokémon fanbase, but I also think this view has softened over time so it might actually be more of a case of fans of the franchise not enjoying new things. Eiter way, I'm excited to see how I fare with Pokémon Black and White!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #generation 4 #top ten #sinnoh

2 notes · View notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

...’Cos All I've Got To Do Is Believe In Me!

Now for one of my favourite bits of documenting this journey: Graphs! As ever, we will first take a look at the two graphs that provide a breakout the pokémon type distrbutions in my final teams across the generations; a distribution by type (using a stacked bar graph to indicate each generations) and a 100% stacked bar graph showing the percentage use of each type in each generation.

No great changes at the top here. The Water-type is still way out in front as the most common, with Flying maintaining it's second-place spot although it actually closed the gap everso slighty. However, both of these types are definitely skewed in their usage, due to the fact that Water-types are typically the only ones who can learn HMs such as Surf, and Flying-types are the only ones wo can learn the HM Fly. Since these HMs are absolutey required to get around, a Water-type and a Flying-type are pretty much guaranteed to be on every team. Looking below the top two, Ground and Psychic retain third and fourth position respectively, but the real mover is Grass, surging ahead of Electric, Normal, Fighting, and Posion to take fifth place in the overall standings.

Since there are a variable number of games in each generations, the second graph helps to give a bit more insight. This shows that Flying was actually my most used type, with over 12% of the pokémon that I used in Gen4 having the Flying-typing. Water and Grass come next with just over 10% usage of each, while there are a few percentage point increaes for Normal, Dark, and Psychic as well. Rock continues to be my least popular type overall, tied with Bug and Dragon for the lowest usage in Gen4, however Dragon can be expained away as being a naturally rarer typing. Despite this, thanks to Garchomp (Dragon), Tyranitar (Rock), and Yanmega (Bug), I did still manage to use at least one pokémon of every type. I don't actually plan it this way, it just happened naturally, the same as it did in Hoenn. Now let's move on to the real world graphs, starting with Time:

I've smashed straight through the 1000 hours of elapsed game time milestone with Gen4, as I begin to approach 50 total days spent on this project! Still, I did spend less time on Gen4 than Gen3 in total with ~375 hous to Gen3's mammoth ~411 hours. This is mainly because, although the individual Gen4 games were longer overall (Platinum comes in a close second place to Emerald for the most time spent on a single game so far), there were fewer of them to play in total. Next up, Cost:

Another reduction from Gen3, but this is hardly surprising as I had to buy a lot of kit and way more games then. This time around there were no hardware costs since I already had two Nintendo DS systems, so my only real outlay was the games. In fact, if I hadn't had to spent £77 on a sealed copy of Pokémon Ranger (to ensure that the Manaphy Egg quest was going to be available), Gen4 would have been nearly as cheap as Gen2! I did however, add a new category to the graph for the various bits of kit that I had to buy for the Gen 1 & 2 rescue mission. This isn't really a Gen4 cost, so I didn't think it was fair to include it there just because this is when I started doing it. It comes to just over £150, but I don't think it will grow further than this - altough I guess we won't know for sure for a while!

As ever, these stat breakdowns are fun to produce and I really enjoy seeing the variation in pokémon types that I end up using each generation. The cost and time elements are also good to keep track of - especially when I see a reduction in both for Gen4. It gives me hope that I might make it to the end of the project one day!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #generation 4 #graphs

0 notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

I'm Gonna Be The Very Best...

All I have left to do is consolidate all of my pokémon into Pokémon Platinum for a fully complete Pokédex. Easy, right? Well kinda, but this still took far longer than I was hoping for.

Transferring my teams from Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold, and SoulSilver is simple enough, but there are a lot of pokémon that I need still to transfer up from Emerald via Pal Park and I have discovered a limit; Pal Park only lets you transfer a batch of six pokémon once per day. Not once in a calendar day, once per 24 hour period, which makes it extra annoying if you don’t remember to do it consistently at the same time each day. There is no way around this - messing with the date and time settings don’t seem to help - so I really just have to suck it up do it piecemeal. There are also other tasks to complete to finalise the ‘Dex, such as breeding earlier forms of a pokémon in Platinum since I only have the final form to send from the other games.

This breeding, hatching, and levelling process actually keeps me pretty busy as there really are a lot of gaps to fill, not least petty much every starter needs to be bred and levelled up to it’s second stage since these are so rare outside of the ones the various professors gift to you. I assembled a good team for this; Blimpy the Drifloon and Ziggy the Empoleon from my Platinum team, and Humph the Camerupt from my Emerald US team take up three of the team slots and Me Too, my Ditto from Emerald, is placed in the day care. I then prioritise transferring pokémon that need prior stages to be obtained out via Pal Park. One is placed in the day-care with Me Too until we get an egg. The Day-Care Checker app on the Pokétch came in very useful at this point as I could nip back every time an egg appeared and switch another pokémon into the Day-Care. The egg would would then hatch quicker with Humph in the party due to the Flame Body ability that reduces the number of steps required to for hatching to occur. With the use of an Exp. Share item given to the lower level, Blimpy, Ziggy, Humph would then battle strong enemies resulting in the fast levelling the newly hatched ‘mons until all the evolution stages had been registered in the Pokédex. Finally, Blimpy was able to use Fly to move quickly between the day-care, Pal Park, and a route containing stronger enemies, and Ziggy was able to use Surf to make sure that I could access all the biome types in Pal Park. Whew, this was a lot of effort.

As I slowly made progress in this, I also started storing each individual stage of every pokémon in the PC boxes to create what is known as a Living Pokédex. This will be very useful for future games as I won’t have to redo all of this breeding and hatching and levelling. Instead I should just be able to transfer everything across and focus solely on the new pokémon of that region.

Finally I got there, and my last actions in Gen4 were to do a quick run through of the Elite Four and Champion with each of my Gen3 teams since it was nice to see them all again! But most importantly of all, my Sinnoh Regional Pokédex reads 210 seen/210 caught and my National Pokédex reads 493 seen/493 caught. This extra consolidation work took my Platinum game time up to a whopping 90 hours and 58 minutes, but it is more than worth it to be able to say Generation Four: Completed!

Oh, and I stopped by to visit the Game Freak lead developer, who this time is staying in the Hotel Grand Lake at the Valor Lake Front, in order to get my certificate of completion of the ‘Dex. It’s still shit.

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon Platinum

0 notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

I Want The Whole World To See! (I Believe!)

Pokémon SoulSilver: Completed!

Finishing up Gen4 with my second trip through the Johto remakes was, as always, speedier than my initial, more explorative trip. However, since these games are still rather large, with two regions, I still clocked in 50 hours, 38 minutes of gameplay. There were very few pokémon that I needed to capture here - mostly just ones I had held back in order to use them on a team - and unusually, I had completely pre-planned my team ahead of time. This was in part to make sure I had the right team to cover all the HMs I needed, and also because I wanted to transfer in my whole team as early as possible so that my levelling up was nice and even and I would be much better prepared for Red. I didn’t want to get my arse kicked again! This absolutely worked, as when I reached the climax of the game, I needed a lot less level grinding to get me up high enough to defeat him and complete the game.

This means that there was much less Pokédex focus this time out, just 227 seen / 29 caught pre-National ‘Dex, increasing ever so slightly to to 321 seen / 38 caught once the National ‘Dex was obtained. I think this is a record low of pokémon caught (discounting the semi-completed Emerald US run)!

Let’s meet the team.

Washington the Feraligatr: Finally wrapping up my usage of all the Johto starters, Washington is very useful as it has the ability to learn all three Water-type HMs; Surf, Waterfall, and Whirlpool, meaning I don’t need a second Water-type on the team. However, this leaves him very short of coverage, so I actually just taught him the latter two, and added in Dragon Claw and Avalanche for some super-effective coverage against the powerful Dragon-type that show up later in the game. Feraligatr has good all-round stats, and a strong Attack, so Washington was pretty good in this role, especially as he held a Wacan Berry to reduce super-effective Electric-type damage. This was great as Dragonite in particular would often use Thunder which, with the berry, couldn’t OHKO Washington and he would then destroy them with Avalanche (which doubles it’s base power if you take damage before you use it on that turn).

Nahuatl the Xatu: I never actually planned to use Xatu - mine is named after an ancient Aztec language - until I realised that there is almost no other Johto pokémon, that I hadn’t already used on a team before, that learns Fly. Fly is pretty much an essential move and since I didn’t want to use Lugia or Ho-Oh (mainly because I wanted my team available early and they are usually caught at level 40+), it came down to a toss up between Xatu and Delibird. Although I don’t hate Delibird, it’s far from my favourite pokémon (even if the Ice-type would have been useful), and I do like Natu/Xatu - so the choice was easy. It threw my team balance off a bit, since both the Flying and Psychic-types were covered elsewhere, so Nahuatl became a bit of a mishmash of strategies. Aside from Fly, she had Shadow Ball to take on other Psychics, Light Screen (with a Light Clay held item) to help boost the team’s Special Defence, and Pluck. Pluck, I really enjoyed, as it will deal damage as well as stealing and consuming the opponents berry. Given nearly every high level opponent has a health restoring berry on their ace pokémon, this was immensely satisfying!

Buzzkill the Yanmega: Named after the two things I can imagine it being good at doing, Buzzkill is the only new evolution to a previously established pokémon on this team, that is otherwise full of classic Johto ‘mons. Evolving from the cheery-looking Yanma, Yanmega is a big, vicious-looking, prehistoric dragonfly, and I love it. It is quick, with a great Special Attack, so I loaded up Buzzkill with dual STAB options; the Bug-type moves Bug Buzz and U-turn, and the Flying-type Air Slash. U-turn in particular is a basic but fun strategy, making Yanmega a great lead pokémon. You just U-turn on whatever you are facing, dealing huge damage if you are (super-)effective, or allowing you to bring in a better type match-up if it is resisted. The last slot was Flash as this was still a required HM in Johto, and his held item was a Charti Berry to try and mitigate his 4x Rock-type weakness. To be honest, with not amazing defences, this didn’t always work, but it did help out a few times when I was expecting Buzzkill to go down, allowing for a U-turn and a last minute escape!

セレビィ the Celebi: Something I don’t tend to use much on my teams are the Legendary or Mythical pokémon, but they do occasionally sneak in. In Celebi’s case, I’ve always liked it and I decided that I wanted to use this one in particular. This Celebi is the one that I caught in the Japanese version of Pokémon Colosseum when I was working completing the Gen3 pokédex. This took a lot of effort, and since Celebi is obtained at the low level of 5, it seemed a great opportunity to add it to my team so I used Pal Park to transfer it over. It’s name here is just the Japanese version of the name (Serebyi) as I didn’t want to try and nickname it in Japanese when I caught it (if it even gave me the option, I don’t actually recall!). Being a Mythical, Celebi has great all-rounder stats and ended up as a jack-of-all-trades. A supportive mixed attacker with dual Psychic and Grass STAB moves in Psychic (hence why I didn’t bother with any Psychic-type moves for Nahuatl) and Energy Ball (powered up with a Miracle Seed). Aside from the HM Cut, the other move was Heal Bell which clears all status effects from you team - very handy in a support context.

Kaiju the Tyranitar: A much better choice than my HeartGold Electivire for a Godzilla-inspired nickname, Tyranitar was originally a pokémon I never planned to use. It is very popular, which put me off (I can be a stupid pokémon hipster, apparently), but I grew to really like it in Pokémon Go, where I have several very powerful ones that I use regularly, as well as a Larvitar named Shinjuku that I actually caught in Japan. So I relented and included Tyranitar on my team and it is really hard not to enjoy using it as it is so powerful! I gave Kaiju a Choice Scarf to help boost it’s not-so-great Speed, and the by-now-obligatory dual STAB moves. This time it was a Dark-type Crunch and a Rock-type Stone Edge (which, although it has shaky accuracy, devastates anything it does hit), as well as the HM Rock Climb to share the HM load. The final slot was used for Surf - which Tyranitar can rather inexplicably learn. I’m not complaining though - it freed up a slot on Feraligatr and gives Kaiju useful coverage against Ground-types!

Goodyear the Donphan: Last, but not least, a Johto pokémon I actually always wanted to use, but never managed to find a slot for until now. Donphan is not available until very late in the game so always missed out in Gen2, but with me transferring in team members from the off, this seemed like the perfect chance to add Phanpy to my team and have him evolve into Donphan. I’ve always liked the design of Donphan - the elephant/tire combination is really unique, and I think it was also really cool in the anime, so it was great to finally try one out. Aside from the ever useful Electric-type immunity, Goodyear (named after the tire brand) carried the last two HMs I needed - Strength and Rock Smash - and then my favourite; STAB Earthquake. Later in the game I also managed to get him to re-learn Thunder Fang as coverage against Water-types and a super-effective way to hit the Flying-types that are immune to Earthquake. To help counteract it’s poor speed, I gave him the Quick Claw. It is always very pleasing when this kicks in and you suddenly get to move before, and take out, an opponent before it deals you any damage!

And here they are - not as colourful as my HeartGold boys, but a nice Blue/Green/Grey aesthetic going on here:

And that is it for Gen4! All of my multiple trips through Sinnoh, Johto, and Kanto are completed. Now I just need to consolidate all the Pokédex into Pokémon Platinum and then it’s time for my favourite bits: Tops Tens and Graphs!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

0 notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

I'm On A Master Quest! (Master Quest!)

Before I wrap up my SoulSilver adventure, there is one thing I need to go back to: the rescue of my Gen1 and 2 pokémon from my Game Boy cartridges. You may recall that last time, with the help of @cakeinmilk, I had managed to back up all of the save files containing my teams from the cartridges, ensuring they wouldn’t vanish when the batteries inevitably fail. The next step is get them from those .sav files and into a legitimate game.

First up is getting a .sav file of a Gen3 game to transfer the pokémon into, as I want to pass the Gen1 and 2 ‘mons through as many legitimate games as possible once I rescue them. This is easy enough as ROM files aren’t hard to track down online, and I picked Pokémon Ruby since neither Ruby nor Sapphire have any restrictions on when you can trade - you can do it as soon as you have the Pokédex at the start of the game. Once I have this ROM, I open it up in the Game Boy emulator, Virtual Boy, start a new game and save at the earliest opportunity after getting the Pokédex. Now I have a Ruby.sav.

Now I need some specialist software - available for free thankfully! This is the PKX Delta conversion utility that allows you to open, edit, and save the .sav files for Pokémon games. Once installed, I open up my Pokémon Yellow.sav and select a pokémon to rescue. I decide to start with just one test case and pick the first member of one of my teams that I see; Dimebar the Sandslash from my Pokémon Blue final team (wo was traded to Yellow when I consolidated my final Pokédex there).

Next, within the same utility, open up another file, this time my recently created Ruby.sav. With both windows open, it is now very easy to either cut and paste, or drag and drop, Dimebar from Gen1 to Gen3 - and it works flawlessly!

Now that they are here, it is time to make a few edits to the pokémon that will be needed to present it as legitimate to the future games that I want to pass it through. I mentioned here, that between Gen2 and Gen3, the EV and IV system was overhauled which means that when Dimebar has way, way too many EVs. These are limited to 510 from Gen3 onwards (with a maximum of 255 in any given Stat) plus the IV are all between 0-15, when they can now be between 0-31 from Gen3 onwards. There is a simple ‘Auto’ button in the editor, allowing it update to something valid, but I wanted the pokémon to be as accurate as possible to the one from the Game Boy team, so I used a combination of IV and EV edits to make sure that while the values for IVs/EVs are all legitimate, they also end up with all of Dimebar’s stats matching up with those it had in the original Gen1 game. Unnecessary!

There are a few more edits to be made. I set the ‘Game Met’ and ‘Location Encountered’ to ‘Other’ and ‘In-game Trade’ respectively, to ensure that it looks like the pokémon was traded into Gen3. I selected a Nature, an Ability, and a Gender for Dimebar (as none of these existed in Gen1). Dimebar now uses she/her pronouns. Finally, I checked the legitimacy of her moveset and deleted the move Cut since the games often don’t like HM moves on traded pokémon.

Bam! Dimebar is ready to go! Now to get her to a legitimate cartridge.

This was the part that I expected to struggle with, but at least it won’t cost me any more money to try! This is because I fortunately still have my Flash Cart/SD card for the Game Boy Advance from when I was using the distribution ROMs for Mew and Deoxys, back in Gen3. This time, I use the Pokémon Ruby ROM with my edited .sav file instead and copy it onto the Flash cart and boot it up. So far, so good. I also boot up my legitimate copy of Pokémon Emerald on a second GBA, connect them up with a link cable, and head to the Pokémon Center in both games in order to trade.

And...it actually works! I was genuinely shocked at how easy that proved to be - but also very pleasantly surprised. My Gen1 pokémon is now in my legitimate Gen3 game. I quickly tested out Pal Park and was able to move Dimebar to Pokémon Platinum like I would with any other pokémon. Huge success!

With Dimebar having passed into legitimate Hoenn and Sinnoh games, I decided to leave it here for now. I’ll be taking Dimebar with me all the way through future generations as a test case as I really don’t want to do all those conversion edits on all of my Gen1 and 2 teams just to have found that I have missed something and have the transfer fail in Gen5, Gen6, or even beyond! At the rate I am playing these games, part 3 of the great Gen1 and 2 rescue, where I come back for the others, will probably be posted in several years!

Finally, I wanted to thank Atop The Fourth Wall, the author of this Youtube video as it was the very comprehensive guide that I followed to get this far - I wouldn’t have a clue where to start otherwise!

What a satisfying way to wrap up Gen4!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

1 note · View note

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

I Can Be A Champion If I Just Believe!

I already talked about the way the Gen4 Sinnoh games work to expand the myths and legends side of the lore of the pokémon world, but the Johto remakes are also getting on that action. This is hardly surprising, since Gen2 was when the series mythology really started to expand out with the legends of Lugia and Ho-Oh. This time around, the event is triggered in area of Johto most surrounded by mystery: The Ruins Of Alph, the ruins where you first encounter the Unown in Gen2. When you do this, via solving a number of ancient puzzles to flood the seemingly empty caves with all of their different forms, you can then wander around and capture them all. As you do, eerie music plays and the radio function of the Pokégear makes even creepier, distorted sounds and it is hard not to think the Unown were meant for more than just being useless ‘Dex-filler. Spoiler Alert: Gen4 even doesn’t make the Unown useful but it certainly expands on their lore, which is still a win in my book.

Walking with any pokémon will elicit unusual responses in the ruins, with Unown spinning and making almost speech-like sounds, and all others acting restless and scratching at the sand as if searching for something. That is unless you walking with the Pokémon God, Arceus, which unlocks the event. This can either be an Arceus captured in the Hall of Origin using the previously unobtainable Azure Flute, or a gift Arceus direct from Mystery Gift, with both available from the ever-useful Nintendo WFC exploit. As you walk through the ruins with Arceus, you run into one of the scientist/historian, who seems to be the only character you meet who is surprised to see a 10-year old wandering about with the being of all creation tagging along behind. He recognises Arceus has a connection to the ruins and to the Unown and leads you both into the underground chambers of the where you usually catch the Unown. As he tries to talk about the mystery, suddenly you and Arceus teleport away to a brand new area known as the Sinjoh Ruins.

The Sinjoh Ruins - as you may well be able to tell from the name - is an area that lies between Sinnoh and Johto, and indeed when you check the map, you are no longer in Johto, with just an arrow indicating you have travelled north of the region. This places Sinnoh north of the Johto/Kanto regions which is cool as it helps to show the interconnectivity of the world, and also makes sense of the chillier climate. You quickly run into a couple of NPCs and more importantly, Cynthia - the Champion of the Sinnoh region! She tells you about how the temple in the ruins here was built by people from Sinnoh travelling here and shows a blended culture of Johto and Sinnoh. She senses the power of the Arceus accompanying you and takes you to the temple and has you step onto the ritualistic stage in the center known as the Mystri Stage with Arceus, and Arceus alone, in your party. She explains that the pattern in the center of the stage represents, and the surrounding three circles represent Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina. And when you choose on of the three circles to step into, things get weird!

Arceus steps to the center of the stage and the Unown swirl around it. A cut scene triggers showing images of Arceus, stars and galaxies, strange symbols, and then actual pictures of the real world! Finally, an egg appears and hatches a Lvl 1 Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina, each holding the Orb associated with them - most useful is the Griseous Orb that lets Giratina transform between it’s Altered and Origin forms. Before you can exchange any further pleasantries with Cynthia, you are teleported back to the Ruins of Alph and the that wraps up the event.

I love this whole sequence. It is great to see how Johto and Sinnoh are related, I love seeing Cynthia travelling outside Sinnoh to explore this new area. It’s very cool being able to get a Legendary Pokémon at Lvl 1 (I believe this is the only time you can do this in the entire franchise). I like the way it’s implied that Arceus is the creator or our galaxy and more specifically, Earth, via the sequence of images. I really like that the Unown are shown to be the tools by which Arceus created other pokémon. And coolest of all, I get to do this twice! Bringing the other Arceus to the Ruins of Alph will trigger the event again. Cynthia has left by the time of you second trip, but you still get to go onstage and choose another of the three Legendaries, so between HG and SS I got the full set of the Sinnoh box-art Legendary Pokémon at Lvl1.

A very satisfying way to end my time here in the Johto remakes.

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

0 notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

...I’m On My Way To Victory! (Pokémon!)

Although the Hoenn Gym Leaders didn’t show up in these games, it’s not like there was no Gen3 representation at all. Hoenn’s Champion, the Steel-type expert and noted rock enthusiast, Steven Stone, is here in the Kanto portion of the game. This makes sense as he is very interested in rock and fossils (half of is team is usually made up of fossil pokémon) and since Johto lacks any fossils, it stands to reason he would be in Kanto.

His primary reason for being here however, is because he has heard that a member of Hoenn’s Eon Duo - Latias or Latios depending on whether you are playing HG or SS - is roaming the region. Aside from this he seems to mainly be interested checking out the exhibits in the Pewter City Museum of Science and hanging out at the Silph Co. headquarters in Saffron City. In the latter, he will offer to trade you a Beldum - the first form of his signature pokémon, Metagross - or, once your have defeated Red, let you pick between a green, blue, or red stone. Depending on which one you choose, you will be gifted a Hoenn starter; Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip. You herd i liek Mudipz, so you know what i picked..

The only other way to interact with Steven is by using the good ol’ Nintendo WFC Mystery Gift exploit and getting hold of an item known as the Enigma Stone. If you take this to Steven in the Pewter City museum it will pique his interest. Obviously, it is a stone after all, and the man is borderline obsessed. After a bit of consultation with an expert at the museum, he realises that the Enigma Stone is actually an item first introduced in Gen3 called the Soul Dew. This is an item associated with Latios and Latias that, when held by one of them, grants stat boosts in much the same vein as the Light Ball does for Pikachu.

This Soul Dew is obviously what has drawn one of the Eon Duo to the area and, lo and behold, after this conversation, when you head outside the museum, either Latias or Latios will be waiting for you. You can battle and capture them, but if you accidentally defeat them, not to worry; they will keep returning over and over again until you eventually capture them. All in all, this continues my love of the way the Johto remakes have fleshed out the originals and the helped expand the lore and interconnectivity of the Pokémon World. Although it is also very noticeable how much of this content is only available due to the WFC exploit - good job whoever figured that out!!

I’m coming to the end of my Soul Silver journey, and to the end of Generation 4 as a whole, but I have saved my favourite addition to the games til last...

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

2 notes · View notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

I've Got A Chance To Win...

One of my favourite things that HG/SS do, is help to flesh out the important NPC characters, especially the Gym Leaders from both Kanto and Johto. It was really cool how, in the original Gen2 games, you got to see how the Kanto Gym Leaders had progressed since Gen1. You could see how much stronger they were now when facing you as the champion, and also get to see how their team had evolved. You still get to do this in HG/SS of course, since it follows the same plot, but once again the feature has been expanded upon. Back in Gen2, the facility to add NPC phone numbers to your Pokégear was introduced. This allows you to call and rematch various trainers that you meet along your journey but in HG/SS, this has been expanded to cover the Gym Leaders of both Kanto and Johto!

Once you have all sixteen gym badges, you may find the Gym Leaders scattered across the regions, spending time outside of their gyms. This only happens at certain times, or on certain days of the week, or both, and can also require certain other tasks in the game to have been completed first (for example you need to have captured Zapdos outside the Kanto Power Planet before Lt. Surge will start appearing there). When you talk to these Gym Leaders while they are out and about, they will give you their phone numbers and tell you about a specific time when they are usually free for a rematch. If you remember, and call them in the suggested window, they will agree and head to the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City to wait for you. Fortunately, there is no time limit on how long they wait, so you are able to schedule all sixteen Gym Leaders, go to the Dojo, and fight them all one after another. No only is it really cool so see all the powerful trainers gathered in one place, but it is also a great way to grind some experience in a region that makes that difficult!

This is another great addition to fleshing out the characters further. Brock is looking for fossils in Diglett Cave when you get his number. Misty is on a date (which you interrupt) at Cerulean Cape. Bugsy has travelled to Kanto to search for more Bug-type pokémon in Viridian Forest. Erika is chatting about fashion with Jasmine in Celadon City. Chuck is too busy meditating to give you is number so you get it from his wife instead. Blue is too arrogant to give it out, so his sister Daisy provides it. All these little details really add to the story for me and is one of my favourite things about HG/SS. And that is before you consider the battles. The rematch at the Fighting Dojo is against the absolute strongest version of this Gym Leaders team so far - a chance to see them at full power for once. This is especially great for some of the early Johto Gym Leaders like Bugsy and Falconer, as you can really see how strong they can be. This rematch feature can be used over and over again, but given it takes a full week to find the windows to call each of them, I only did it once before heading off to beat the Elite Four one last time and then finally moving on to fight Red (who I was better prepared for in SoulSilver!).

I also like the fact that a couple of the Sinnoh Gym Leaders also pop up in these games. Crasher Wake, Sinnoh’s Water-type expert (and also a masked wrestler for some reason?), will show up in the Celadon Department Store to provide you with some accessories, and he also crops up again on one of the routes to the Safari Zone. Maylene- the leader of the Fighting-type gym - shows up in a Kanto diner as a part of an eating contest (which she is amazing at despite being tiny). It’s really cool to see them travelling the Pokémon world, even if you can’t actually battle them this time. It does make me wish that a few more Sinnoh folk cropped up here and sadly none of the Hoenn Gym Leaders make an appearance either - but maybe I’m just being greedy now!

More of this world building please, Game Freak.

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

1 note · View note

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

...All I've Got To Do Is Believe! (I Believe!)

The Gen2 remakes are rather expensive to get old of second hand, and one of the reasons for that is the extra bit of kit they came bundled with. In much the same way as the GBA wireless adaptors were packed with the Kanto remakes in Gen3, the Johto remakes included a device called the Pokéwalker. This is essentially a pedometer and seems to link in nicely with the in-game return/expansion/overhaul of the Walking Pokémon/Pokémon following you feature. As well as being a functioning pedometer - one of the best and most accurate available at the time according to this study - the Pokéwalker also has a couple of cool features in the way it interacts with the games themselves.

One such feature is that it lets you take a selected pokémon out for a walk with you! A pokémon - seemingly any pokémon, as I can’t find a list of restrictions anywhere - can be transferred from your HG/SS game into the Pokéwalker and it will gain both Friendship and Experience depending on how many steps you take. As you walk around with you pokémon, if you happen to walk near anyone else with a Pokéwalker, you will get an item. Now admittedly this isn’t very likely in 2020, but it’s still a pretty cool feature nonetheless! As you walk, you also gain the currency of Watts - earning 1 Watt for every 20 steps that you take. These can then be used for the two other main features of the Pokéwalker; the Poké Radar and the Dowsing Machine.

The Poké Radar is used when going on a Stroll through one of the available Routes such as the Refreshing Field, Blue Lake, Volcano Path, Amity Meadow, or many others. These Routes are either available right from the off or can be unlocked with a certain number of steps, by performing certain trades on the GTS, or through various Nintendo WFC events. As you Stroll, you can spend 10 Watts to activate the Poké Radar. This will enable you to encounter a wild pokémon which - if you battle and capture it - can be transferred back into HeartGold or SoulSilver. There is a surprisingly large amount of pokémon that can be caught this way and which ones are available depend on the Route, the number of steps, and which pokémon you have walking with you. OK, the battle screen is a little basic, but what do you expect from a pedometer? All in all, I think this is a very cool way to catch certain pokémon! The Dowsing Machine is basically the equivalent, but for the chance of finding items. Much less exciting, but it does only cost 3 Watts for 2 attempts.

Sadly, I didn’t get a Pokéwalker when I purchased my second-hand copies of HeartGold and SoulSilver as they are kinda expensive and none of the pokémon that you can catch on it are exclusively found there. However I would like to think that one day I will come back to these games once I have gotten hold of one and try it all out for myself. One in-game walking-related quest I can enjoy however, is completed by talking to Cameron the Photographer.

Cameron is an NPC who pops up all over both the Johto and Kanto regions and when you talk to him, he offers to take your picture. You then assemble your team and get a snapshot of you all in front of some landmark or other. These pictures are then stored in a photo album on the storage PC for you to look back over and see how you team may have changed or evolved. There are also special pictures that you can seek out with other important NPCs such as Gym Leaders or Professor Oak himself. There are even two pictures you can take without Cameron; a selfie outside Cameron’s house in Cianwood City, and a picture in your Team Rocket uniform for when you are infiltrating Goldenrod Radio Tower. None of this actually achieves anything meaningful in the game, but it is a fun little fetch quest on what will be my last jaunt through either Johto or Kanto for a quite a while! Let’s kick off my Pokémon SoulSilver adventure!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon SoulSilver

0 notes

ianmrid · 3 years

Text

To Be A Master Is My Dream...

Pokémon HeartGold: Completed!

The Johto games are always rather long due to revisiting Kanto in the post-game, and since these remakes are so lovely and well made, with so many secrets and new areas packed in, I wanted to make sure I explored everything as much as could! It should therefore be no surprise that I clocked in a healthy 73 hours and 15 minutes on this trip.

My Pokédex stats are less impressive, but thanks to Pokémon Emerald/Pal Park, I actually only had a handful of missing pokémon to obtain in the Gen2 remakes, and a few of those are ones I held back specifically so I could use on my teams in these games. I racked up 235 seen / 104 caught in the main game, increasing to 331 seen / 122 caught after acquiring the National ‘Dex.

I found my HeartGold team to be very aesthetically pleasing with a nice bright range of colours across a mix of classic Johto ‘mons alongside a bunch of new evolutions. Additionally, and by pure coincidence, I think this is my first-ever all male team. Let’s meet the boys!

Florin the Meganium: For some reason, I didn’t stick with many starters in Gen2, with only Typhlosion making it to a final team. Chikorita is often seen as the least popular of the Johto starters, and although I will admit that is probably true for me too, it’s only because the competition is so strong. Certainly once you level up into Bayleef and finally Meganium, these are really great pokémon! Florin fulfilled a bit of a mixed role within the team with his decent Defences, not bad Attack, and middling Speed, I gave him Petal Dance and Iron Tail to attack with, Toxic to help whittle down tougher foes, and Cut, since the HM burden needs to be shared! Not the most exciting set but, in all truth, Petal Dance came in useful so many times with it’s inability to miss!

Oberon the Togekiss: I view Togepi as one of the quintessential Johto pokémon, since Misty’s Togepi made it’s debut in the anime way before Gen2 was even properly announced. With it gaining a new, third evolution in Togekiss in Gen4, it seemed to make sense that I use it on my team in one of the Johto remakes. Named after the King of the Fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is a bit of a Special tank! He has sky-high Special Attack which I utilised with STAB Air Slash and Shadow Ball. With a part Normal-type, Oberon is immune to Ghost-type attacks, so being able to hit them with something super effective was very useful. I also included Yawn, a very useful and accurate (if delayed) sleep-inducing move, made even more handy since Togekiss is fast and tends to be able to land it first. The final slot was the ubiquitous HM slot, this time around; Fly.

Hurly the Mamoswine: Another new evolution for a classic Johto pokémon, this time evolving Piloswine into a full-on Woolly Mammoth/Pig combination. I think this makes this the first time I have used two different stages of the same evolution line on final teams (branched evolutions like the Eevee-lutions don’t count) since I used Obelix, my Piloswine on my Pokémon Crystal team. It would have been cool to simply evolve up Obelix for a second adventure but he is stuck on my one of my Game Boy cartridges (maybe not for long!). In his stead, Hurly was not complicated to use. Slow, but with stupidly high Attack it was just all offense here. STAB Earthquake, STAB Ice Fang, STAB and priority Ice Shard (the latter two powered up further with a NeverMeltIce held item), and the powerful Stone Edge for a bit of coverage.

Cannonz the Magmortar: The run of new Gen4 evolutions continues - this time the final evolution to Kanto’s Magmar who also gained a pre-evolution, Magby, in the original Johto games. Magmortar is a weird looking pokémon being some sort of fire/duck thing, with big cannons (hence the nickname) on it’s arms. I certainly like it better than Magmar which I probably would never have used if it hadn’t gained this new version. Another big plus is Magmar’s move-pool. It has a very good Special Attack Stat, so I used STAB Flamethrower (further boosted with the Charcoal item), and then gave it Thunderbolt for an effective way to hit Water-types and Focus Blast as my team was missing Fighting-type coverage. In the last slot - you guess it - an HM, Rock Climb in this case.

Gojira the Electivire: The final new Gen4 evolution, I’m not sure why I named my Electivire after Godzilla, but I think the name suits him, even if he is more like an electric King Kong if anything. Way less good options for moves here, but with a high Attack stat, STAB Thunder Punch powered up by the Magnet held item (this is apparently how I like to use items on this team!) was all I really needed. The other slots went to Thunder Wave, in order to paralyse difficult foes, and then Electivire’s selling point - it’s ability to learn the remaining non-Water-type HMs that I needed; Rock Smash and Strength. The latter is a decent move in it’s own right and gave Gojira a neutral way to hit most things that resisted it’s Electric-type attacks.

PAUL the Slowking: Finally, one of the OG new evolutions from Gen2! PAUL (because all Slowpokes, Slowbros, and Slowkings should be called PAUL) obviously had to pick up Surf and Whirlpool HMs, but these were complimented with STAB Psychic and then Signal Beam for some coverage, although this rarely got used! PAUL has really good Special Defence, so it’s main weakness was the surprise Dark-type attacks that a lot of pokémon seem to carry as coverage. Just in case I got caught out this way by something I didn’t predict, PAUL carried a Colbur Berry to reduce Dark-type damage for one hit. This was very useful against the Johto Elite Four, as it guaranteed Paul could survive a Dark Pulse from Karen’s Houndoom before delivering a one-hit-KO with Surf.

Here are my lovely colourful boys!

Now for a quick repeat with HeartGold’s sister game; SoulSilver. I don’t expect it will take me as long this time, but I’m looking forward to filling out the last couple of slots in my Pokédex with a final jaunt around Johto!

#pokemon #pokemon playthrough #e plays pokemon #nintendo #game freak #Pokemon HeartGold

0 notes