Bulbasaur – Pinkie's Paradise

What if Ash was a girl (Part 2)

Hey little monsters, today we return to one of my personal favorites stories to tell. What if Ash was a girl. Regular Ash was a stereotypical boy so for this story we use a persona Ash has used several times throughout the anime ‘Ashley Ketchum’ but rather than being Ash in a dress, like any 90’s anime did at the time, she is a typical girly girl. In the last part we saw that being a girl made her much closer to her mother than Ash was and listened to Delia’s advice going to bed early. As a result Ashley unlike Ash did not oversleep and get her first pick! A Bulbasaur she nicknamed Flora. Quite infatuated by the young Gary Oak, Ashley determined to be a strong trainer who could beat Gary in a battle so he would fall in love with her. Yet Gary upon seeing Ashley’s pick decided to go Charmander.. putting her at a disadvantage. After failing to catch a Pidgey because her throwing skills suck the young girl gave it some thought and decided to catch a water pokémon first. This let to her staring at a young tomboyish girl that was fishing. If you want to catch up on part 1 you can do so here.

Chapter 5: The Tomboy and the Girly Girl.

Misty stared at her line in bliss, not noticing the girl standing behind her. As she felt the wind on her skin and rustling through the grass she was grateful for this serene moment. That moment would be fleeting though as suddenly her line went tense as she had a bite. With a brisk pull she fished out a Goldeen out of the water. This pokémon looked somewhat similar to a horned goldfish. Most of its body was in a silverish white though.. but goldfish like patterns coloured it up top and it’s fanning tail. She grabbed a pokéball and before the fish pokémon could flop more she hit it dead on with the pokeball causing the pokémon to be turned into energy and being sucked up in the catching device. As the Pokéball fell into the grass Ashley back in the bushes could not contain her excitement anymore. ‘That was amazing can you teach me how to do that?’ As our heroine tried to make her way through the bushes her dress snagged on a branch causing her to trip into a bike that was standing on top of the hill causing it to fall down. ‘Hey that’s my bike!’ Misty shouted when her pokéball opened at the second wobble. Being to distracted by the incident Misty was unable to prevent the little goldeen from bouncing in the water. ‘Well thanks for nothing.. you made me lose my second goldeen of the day’ Misty shouted towards angrily towards Ashley. Ashley not used of negativity sobbed a bit at how her plan failed and how awkward she must have looked. ‘I … I am … so.. sorry… I … did not know… it went into the pokéball right? So why did it not stay in there?. Misty scoffed ‘Well if you don’t even know that you best better go home and study instead of destroying my bike’ Misty walked up to inspect her expensive means of transportation. Fortunately nothing to bad had happened to it.. the headlamp was a bit off position. Ashley had trouble fending of the mean comments and some tears brimmed in her eyes she had to spend all her focus on to ward off, Misty noticed. ‘Hey.. I didn’t mean to make you cry.. did you hurt yourself? Why were you there in the bushes?’ The ginger fisherman’s newfound compasion soothed the new trainer a bit as she began to explain her story. “I am Ashley Ketchum, from Pallet Town.. I started my trainer journey today… and I picked Flora my bulbasaur, but than the boy I like picked a fire type..and I really want him to notice me so I was looking for a water pokémon when I saw you..but I really suck at throwing pokéballs..so I thought maybe I should keep watching to see if I learn anything. Misty chuckled the girl that was so awkward and lost looking, she could not help to feel some compassion for the kid. ‘Sit with me kid.. .. Ashley right? I’ll try to teach you a thing of two then you can try for yourself.’ Ashley nodded and followed Misty down the slope. Misty looked at her and began. ‘Lesson one! All boys are dumb. They always think we like them anyway.. but dont show it that much.. when you see the boy again tell him he is stupid.. and it’s not like you like him or anything’

Chapter 6: Ashley catches a Pokémon.

The girls spend a long while talking about boys and water pokémon. Misty told Ashley that she and her sister ran the cerulean city gym but that she preferred to be a bit more free. She came here in the hope of catching a Magikarp as she really wanted a Gyarados to show her sisters that she in fact was the best trainer in the family. Ashley nodded and told Misty that if she would catch a Magikarp she would let Misty capture it. In the distance a bit of a thunderstorm rumbled. ‘Seems like there is bad weather around Viridian City’ Misty said, I know we are close but perhaps it is better if we camp here tonight?’ Ashley blushed a bit, she never really had friends before, her mom told her stories from before the war but in Pallet Town there only were boys of her age and they all thought she had cooties. ‘W-W-We?’ Ashley asked stammering. Misty frowned. ‘You do have a tent right? It will be like a sleep over.’ She looked and saw as the pink dressed girl’s face twisted looking completely puzzled. ‘What’s a sleep over’ Ashley asked. The Cerulean city Gym leader let out a tiny gasp and asked ‘Ashley don’t you have any friends?’. The girl from pallet town panicked, this would make her look bad , her brain wasnt working when she blurted out ‘Well mom is my best friend’ clearly this was the wrong answer as Misty began to laugh hysterically. Ashley puffed up her cheeks and stomped the floor at the girls rudeness when suddenly the water surface cracked and a tadpole with feet and a spiral pattern hopped out of the water. Looking startled at the loud sounds all of the sudden. ‘Ashley wait look it’s a pokémon’ Misty shouted loudly once more scaring the little poliwag into hiding behind Ashley. “What do I do, What do I do?’ the pink dressed trainer asked panicking. ‘You capture it’ shouted her new friend. Grabbing for her pokéballs frantically our heroine felt how a ball slipped from her hand and plummeted straight down.. bonking the poliwag on the head. With a red light the poliwag was morphed into energy that would soon be contained into the ball. The ball wobbled three times while a red LED light changed green with a melodical ping. ‘What happened?’ Ashley asked. ‘Where did it go?’ Misty walked closer while ruffling the frantic girl’s hair a bit she picked up the pokéball and handed it to her. You just caught your first pokémon Ash.

Chapter 7: You’ve got a friend in me.

‘I can’t believe I captured my first pokémon by accident’ Ashley moped a bit as she stared at her pokéball embarrassed. ‘Yeah you are pretty green kid’ Misty laughed. Say how about we travel together for a bit? You can use the help and I can use the company’ She gave the sad looking girl a pad on the shoulder. ‘You’ll become a great trainer I am sure, after all you are my student and I am a gym leader .. and we are friends now.’ Ashley felt a bit better after those words and nodded. ‘Poliwag I choose you’ Ashley sad as she threw her pokeball randomly. The adorable tadpole Pokémon appeared again ushering it’s name’ poliwag poli’ Ashley picked it up and examined it closely. ‘Polly huh.. is that your name girl?’ ‘Poli’ said the water type in reply. ‘Okay I will nickname you Polly then… Polly meet Misty my first human friend and also meet Flora.. your sister and teammate’ She called her Bulbasaur out as well and the two pokémon seemed to happily converse. ‘See how happy they both look’ said Misty’ that must mean you are a great trainer greeny! You just don’t know it yet yourself’ She looked at the girl who stared at her new pokémon gleefully and asked’ You don’t know how to set up a tent I presume? So how about I set up the camp and you cook some food?’ ‘Oh that’s a great idea Misty’ Ashley said ‘Mamma thought me how to cook from when I was like six.. she told me she made Pappa fall in love with her through her cooking.’ She smiled as she got a small cooking kit from her backpack as well as some supplies. The orange headed girl unstrapped Ashley’s tent from her bag first and began to set it up with ease. ‘Tomorrow I shall teach you how to set this up okay, are you close with your father by the way?’ The awkward silence that followed cued Misty in on what the answer was gonna be in advance. ‘Dad left to fight in the war one day, he never returned it’s been me and Mamma since almost as long as I can remember. I remember he showed me a rapidash.. but that is my only memory of him’ Ashley said. She wanted to tell more but suddenly two strong arms grabbed her and hugged her tightly as Misty had her locked in a strong embrace. ‘My parents also left me and my sisters, after the war though, not even that long ago.. but I could never go out because we had the gym to take care off.. we hoped they would come back but…..’ Her words were cut off by grief and sadness. As dusk began to set in the two shared a meal and some deep conversation about their parents their duties and such. Ashley told how she tried to befriend the boys in town by baking them cupcakes, but when she gave them they threw them at her saying they did not want cooties. Misty shared stories on how her sisters felt superior to her just because they were older and how she had not been happy for a long time. After Ashley told a few more stories of her lonely childhood Misty began to realise something. She had friends once, but when she became gym leader those had all faded because of her duties. She might have been Ashley’s only friend but the reverse was quite true as well, this rookie trainer now was her only friend as well. She would need a friend for the horrible part of her journey that was to come anyway but she decided not to tell her new best friend about this yet, she was the cool one of the two for now. After a long night of sharing the two retreated to their own tent falling asleep with a content smile.

Chapter 8: Viridian City

The next day the pair would travel towards Viridian City. Misty told Ashley they would need to go shopping because Ashley’s pink dress was not ideal adventuring gear. They would need something they could climb in and something that would not snag at every tree while they are crossing a forest For some reason Misty did seem quite adamant on the option to avoid the forest. Even if traveling would take quite a few extra days. The trainer from Pallet Town however disagreed with that, she had hoped to rush towards Pewter city as fast as she could to beat Gary in a battle using Polly so he could fall in love with her. Polly and Flora were taken out of their Pokéball and walking alongside the pair as they passed a police station that was surrounded by people. ‘What’s happening here?’ Misty asked one of the random bystanders. He was a chubby man, wearing a purple t-shirt and some jean shorts that were to short for him, big curly hair and a heavy morning shadow made the water trainer think this man did not go out a lot. ‘You see! Last night officer Jenny apprehended two criminals who were attacking the pokémon center but they had like a talking Meowth or so is said.. so people want to see and they want some answer on the recent thefts as well. ‘Oh a police officer stopped criminals last night? That sounds exciting’ Ashley said slightly holding her sleeves in front of her nose to drown out the man’s potent body odor’ Yes you see, she arrived at the scene a bit late .. the team had already snatched quite a few pokéballs along but this made them slow, giving officer Jenny enough time to take down their Balloon with her Growlithe. They attacked with ignitable gas so there was risk of explosions throughout the battle that could have compromised the structural integrity of the pokémon center but Jenny was to smart. Eventually her Growlithe went down and Team Rocket tried to steal her motorcycle but she had the keys so they could not flee. Stuck in the sidecar the man and the meowth where apprehended. The woman tried to fight again but she could not get passed the amazing Chansey of Nurse Joy! So I came here today to ask both on a date. The main straightened his thick glasses. ‘But they are way out of your league’ Ashley blurted out. ‘Girls want boys who take a bit better care of themselves you know’ The man ogled her with disdain. Do you not know who I am? My name is X! That’s right X Posure! The greatest pokémon complot theorist blogger there is. If I can date either of these two girls I will get insight in the government and can find out if they have just planted Team Rocket to seem capable themselves. These two criminals seem grossly incompetent in my analysis after all, so why would team rocket send these two?. ‘That’s not the right reason to date a girl’ Ashley picked up. ‘You date a girl because you want to be with her and because she makes you feel special and in love.’ The man scoffed ‘Such naive.. could you possibly be a government spy trying to take me down?’ As Ashley wanted to begin to explain again Misty grabbed her by the ear and dragged her away. ‘Alright that’s enough of this insanity.. no need to keep up this stupid debate he is just there for Exposure…. the blog.

Let’s spend our time in a more worthwhile way! Shopping! The pair visited the mall and looked at some cute boys and even cuter outfits. Ashley got two new outfits. A sky blue tank top with matching socks and a red turbine skirt. She combined this with some white clog-like walking shoes with cute red straps matching her skirt. To accessorise she bought a white felt boater hat and a cute little yellow purse to carry everything at the ready.. so she did not have to rummage her backpack all the time. Her other outfit was a black tank top and some jean hotpants of Misty’s favorite brand. The tanktop would have a sky blue collar leading into a fist size blue dot on her sternum. Sneakers in matching colours would be great for walking through the city. She would accessories by wearing some cute white flannel wristbands with a ring on the top. Each city she would visit she would buy a charm and add it to one of these rings. She found a cute one that was shaped like a silver feather that was split at the top. It was called the silver wing. After they were done shopping Ashley immediately redressed in her city outfit. ‘How do I look she asked’ Misty nodded at her approvingly and gave her a thumbs up. ‘You look super cute in that outfit Ash… still a bit Green though.

Ashley’s story might began quite a bit slower paced than the original or my other stories but soon the pair will have to travel Viridian Forest and from there on out Ashley’s journey will truly begin. With no Ash to to blow team Rocket up and away.. Jenny was able to make the arrest as due to her function she would be much more focussed on apprehending the thieves than Ash ever would. Ashley unlike Ash.. never encountered Ho-Oh, but due her conversations with Misty being more open has gathered a lot of experience and information Ash would not acquire till much later. With very different motives and a very different persona Ashley will continue to go down a completely different journey with quite different encounters you never know what happens next. To find out you’ll just have to wait and read our next episode! Until then leave a comment and remember!

I am not weird. Just Very Pink!
Until we Read again!

XO
Pinkie

What if : Ash was a girl (Part 1)

Howdy little monsters! Today is another wednesday so it’s time to explore another what if. This week we’ll be starting yet another story, as well as next week. Then their follow ups will all appear once a month. This gives me more time to think all the angles trough properly and get a feel of what of these stories you like best. Today we will do a strange one! What if Ash was a girl, or what if Ash was Ashley.
Now I know in essence, not a whole lot may change from just a genderswitch.
However keep in mind that Ash was basically given the personality of a standard 10 year old boy. So it would make sense that Ashley would be a typical girl.. more like Ushio from Sailor Moon than like original Ash.

Gender Swapping the protagonist thusly would not lead to this:

This type of Ash would not influence the story THAT much.

But to this:

This Ashe is a screengrab from the anime which since has been adated to look more like Delia.

Chapter 1: Mother Daughter time
Ashley was a typical young girl, the daughter of Delia Ketchum could have almost been a straight copy of her mother were it not for one thing. Inside Ashley the adventuring spirit of her father burned deeply. This call of the wild had let her to sign up to become a trainer. Tommorow Ashley would get her first Pokémon. She had long since dreamed about it and already knew which pokémon she was gonna pick. Yet tonight she would spent her last night with her mother together. There was a large plate of cookies on the table, along with two glasses of milk. The milk had a bit of honey in it so Ashley could get in some early rest before the next day. They talked about what they were gonna miss about each others.
‘I will miss how well behaved daughter very much, and my best friend in this world’ Delia would say getting a bit misty eyed. ‘I’ve heard rumors that professor Oak’s grandchild, is quite the troublesome one to handle’ Delia would add, she always added gossip when she felt uncomfortable. Ashley seemed to tune out and stare in front of her for a bit ‘I’m sorry Gary did what?’ she would ask her mother. ‘Nevermind sweety, you.. you will call every day right?’ Delia began to worry as the hour began to further. Ashley took a cookie and looked at her mother seriously ‘Mamma I can’t promise you that , some days I might need to camp somewhere like you told me dad used to do, but I pinky promise whenever there is a phone near I will call you each evening before I go to bed.’ Ashley at her cookie after she sat that and took her mother’s hand. ‘You are the best mamma in the whole world, I don’t want you to be alone in here, so maybe you should date again’ Our heroine wanted her mother to be happy, she had noticed how Delia looked at couples and just knew she was lonely. She also knew Delia would never look with her around, so perhaps it helped her if Ashley went away on this journey, she wants her mother to be happy. Delia blushed ‘Oh dear, I am not sure if I am ready’. ‘Mom!’ Ashley puffed up her cheeks and stomped the floor once before continuing. ‘It’s been years, it’s okay to move on at least get like a pet Pokémon to keep you company’ The single mother saw the determination in the eyes of her daughters, one of the few traits she got from her father, she smiled at her daughter and hugged her. “Okay dear, I shall try for you, but it’s getting late off to bed with you’. Delia’s heart broke a bit when she knew this was the last time in a while she could send her dear daughter to bed. ‘Okay mom, I love you’ Ashley said as she went upstairs, tomorrow her journey would begin.

Chapter 2: Ashley is early
The next morning Ashley woke up by a knock on the door. ‘Dear are you awake, it’s time to get up’. Ashley jumped up, feeling energetic, she looked at her alarm clock, which was fine because she did not spend her last night watching tv, she had dreams about meeting a guy on her journey and her mom and her new boyfriend visiting the wedding. Mom you’re fifteen minutes early, Ashley moaned a bit. ‘I’m sorry dear I was just so worried you might be late, now get dressed I made you some breakfast.’
After an early morning shower Ashley slipped into her comfy pink dress, and put a pink ribbon in her hair. She wanted to look cute for all the trainers she would encounter, especially Gary Oak. She ate her breakfast with her mom and then walked to the lab together after they went over her bag one more time to ensure she had everything she could need’ Having arrived at the lab the gates were still closed. ‘Go ahead dear i’ll be waiting right here with everyone waiting to see you off’’ Delia caressed her daughters cheek, who kissed her mother on the moth before proceeding to push the button of the intercom. “Ah who is there’ Professor Oak’s voice would sound excited. ‘You are early and you know what they say, the early bird gets the worm’ Ashley shivered when hearing that, she really hated bugs. ‘This is Ashley Ketchum’ she replied to the intercom before being buzzed in. As Ashley walked up to the lab, she waved to her mother.
Inside she was greeted by an excited professor. ‘My my I like your enthusiasm, that means you have first pick, which of the starters did you had in mind.’ The girl however was mesmerised by the lab, there was this weird scent that smelled like cleanliness she really liked and these machine thingies looked very complicated. Samuel tapped her on the shoulders and repeated his question. Ashley blushed embarrassed by her zoning out again. “Oh sorry professor, I have thought about it a lot and I’ve decided to go with Bulbasaur’ Professor Oak smiled at her and said ‘a perfect choice for a rookie trainer, Bulbasaur is easy to raise and it has great defences. With a partner like that you’ll learn the arts of becoming a trainer in no time.’The young girl smiled at the compliment, even though she knew these things about bulbasaur already. The pokemon professor tabbed some buttons on a machine they were walking trough and point at the appropriate pokeball. ‘That is your pokemon Ashley, I caught it when I was exploring viridian forest, it was being attacked by some Beedrill.’ ‘I hate bugs’ the teen would immediately bounce back. However seeing that pokeball of her pokémon compelled her enough to get over her fear. She opened the ball and her bulbasaur appeared. ‘Will you give it a nickname’ Oak asked to the girl. ‘Flora, I will name it flora’ Ashley replied. Oak smiled seeing such a prepared little trainer, his grandson could learn from her. ‘Very well then, Flora meet your new trainer Ashley’ The bulbasaur sniffed it’s new trainers hand and spoke it’s name enthusiastically. “It’s nice to meet you to Flora’ Ashley said as she petted it’s head. ‘Will you come on a journey with me?’ Flora nodded ferociously, excited for it’s adventures.
Oak handed the rookie five new Pokéballs and a Pokédex.’Only five pokéballs? ‘Ashley asked confused, she thought she had to collect them all. ‘Ah yes a young trainer can only carry up to six pokémon so I have given you enough to fill your team. If you ever need more give me a call and I will send you new pokéballs but be aware, the seventh one will be transferred to my storage system. I can always swap them out for you.’ Ashley nodded in understanding and after running to a few more questions, she and Flora went outside.

Ashley hugging Flora, the pair gets along well from the start.

Chapter 3: The handsome Gary Oak
Outside three other trainers were waiting, one of them she recognised as Gary, her heart skipped a beat, as she approached him. ‘H-Hi G-Gary, look I just got my first Pokémon’ Gary looked down at Flora and scoffed “Jeez Ash, thank you for letting me know what starter to pick, I was gonna go for squirtle but now that I know YOU picked a Bulbasaur, I’ll just pick Charmander. I can’t lose to a girl..or a Ketchum’ Ashley just grinned sheepishly, staring into his blue eyes. Ever since they were kids, she had fantasies about marrying Gary. ‘I.. doubt… I could ever defeat someone as good as you G-Gary’ she ushered. ‘You’ve got that right Ash..but I can’t waste more time on you.. I’ll get my starter now.. smell you later’ Gary pushed the other two trainers aside and went in to visit his grandpa. One trainer cleary annoyed turned to the girl and said ‘Thanks a lot stupid, I wanted Charmander! Now I have to pick squirtle! At least I can beat Gary Oak now…but if Squirtle is weak it can go rot in a ditch somewhere’. “That’s mean, you are a bad trainer if you think like that’ Ashley said, getting angry. ‘Heh… says you. a bad trainer is one who sticks with weak Pokémon’ was the reply she got. The sound of a slap broke the morning silence as Ashley hit the guy in the face. ‘There are no weak pokémon , only weak trainers and scum like you’. Her victim turning red with anger, trying to punch her only to be grappled and floored by Bulbasaur.
‘Just wait until I get my pokémon Ash! You’ll die!’ Ashley stared into his eyes and said ‘I will never lose to a trainer like you’. The guy crawled up just to be knocked down again by a blue sleeved arm. ‘Whoops sorry Damian, didn’t see you there pal, guess I must be loser blind’ Gary stood there spinning a Pokéball on his fingers, as Ashley swooned about how cool he looked. The handsome boy turned to the girl and told her ‘Hey that’s pretty cool what you did! I can’t stand losers like him, you are alright Ketchum, now excuse me I got some fans to please’ Gary would walk off towards the gates and his cheerleaders. Ash puffed up her cheeks and stomped the floor at the sight of them. Gary was HER handsome encounter!

Chapter 4: Ash throws like a girl
Having arrived at the gate Flora was introduced to Delia and Ashley’s neighbours who came to support her. ‘Shouldn’t Pokémon be in their pokeball Delia asked” prompting Ash to indeed withdraw her Bulbasaur. It happily went back into its pokéball. Ashley had prepared a little speech. ‘On this day I promise to have a great adventure, catch a lot of cute pokémon and together we shall have a great adventure! I will make lots of friends and become the most lovable pokemon trainer and I will get like super rich! So me and mamma can live easily!’ The group chuckled, this girl was so endearing, sweet and and the same time somewhat superficial, she would amuse people everywhere she goes spouting her convictions and dreams. After Ash and Delia said their tearful goodbyes they hugged together intensely one more time. ‘I love you Mamma’ Ashley said before she finally wandered in off towards the dirt road out of town, her journey was about to truly begin. She put on a brave face but in truth she was terrified, what if she would rip her dress or encounter perverts.
A good while into her journey Ashley was looking around and she saw a pidgey. She opened her pokédex and looked at it’s entry, finding out it could create gusts of wind and be classified as a flying type, she knew it would be a bad idea to send Flora out.
Taking her partner out of the pokéball anyway, she told Flora to watch her stuff, which croaked as it obeyed. Sneaking up to the Pidgey she managed to land a pokéball on it after which it broke free. Flora used a vine to tab her pokédex which stated she would need to damage a pokémon before trying to capture it. Flora offered to do it for her, stepping up bravely, however Ashley being afraid of the type disadvantage told Flora to keep guarding their stuff, it was to dangerous. Flora begrudgingly obeyed. Flora picked up some rocks to throw at the pidgeys after all they were weak to rock type moves. Her first pebble missed scaring three birds away. Yet a silhouette, in the distance revealed she had another chance.
She carefully aimed and threw the rock, which landed quite a bit short of the bird. The spearow looked at the rock that landed a few steps from it , pecked at it once and flew off. ‘Shoot! I really need to learn how to throw better’ Ashley said. Maybe it’s for the best though! I only have five pokéballs, I don’t want them to like be locked up in a box all day long.’ Flora made a few sounds in agreement. ‘You know what Flora? I want Gary to like me, he seemed impressed when I was strong, so if I can defeat him in battle, he might fall in love with me! Water beats fire, and you beat water, so for our first Pokémon let’s search for a water type! Flora jumped around excitedly seeing Ashley’s spirit flare up. Together they began following a small river, walking past a cute little waterfall. Trying to find a way to spot the water pokémon out there. Initially their ventures proved unfruitful, the fish being deep below the surface. As they passed a hill with a bright red bicycle their luck began to change however, when they saw an orange headed girl fishing.

This is where the story ends for today. I really liked writing this one, the stronger bond between mother and daughter having a major impact on the story and the protagonist following some more stereotypical girly motivations on her road to success.
We see a much more careful and calculative Ash, who took after her mother more than her father. Using some girly tropes for Ashley, like the orginal used boyish tones for Ash, we have embarked on a journey with a completely different tone already. I hope you are as curious as me to find out what this story will bring in the future. Do you think Misty well help Ashley? What kind of “What If” would you like to see? Let me know in the comments, leave a like, and STAY PiNK!

X

Review: Pokémon Quest (Android)

Hello once more my little monsters. I had a bit of a crappy day today, so I decided to forget all about it and write you all a nice little bonus blog. That will cheer me right up! Recently I got a phone that actually works, and isn’t powered by fossil fuels anymore. Finally I could play what some people consider worse than Fortnite, Mobile Games! What else what I play but Pokémon though? So today we have a review for Pokémon Quest!

The concept:
Describing what Quest is about is already a bit difficult, in essence I would describe it as an on rails Pokémon Mystery dungeon like game, which played a lot of minecraft at the daycare center. From the egg between those two, came Pokémon Quest. In non poké-players terms, it’s a semi automated dungeon-runner with cubelike pokémon. You play a nameless and faceless adventurer along with their robot pal MoBee. Mobee and you travel on a cute little ship , when you stumble upon Tumblecube Island, which is is a very diverse island, with lush jungles and scorching deserts, alongside vast pink plains and some cavelike stuff, among other things. Each area holds a variation of the original first generation pokémon, as well as some tribal statues you and Mobee are trying to collect. Don’t ask why, it’s just a thing you do. It doesn’t take MoBee long to locate you a starter pokémon, you get choose from Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Eevee and Pikachu. Of course I chose my pal Bulbasaur.
From there on out you get to explore the island.

The Atmosphere
The game’s main selling point is how freaking adorable it looks. Cube Bulbasaur is kawaii as frizzlesticks. Kawaii being weeaboo for cute. Man is this game adorable. After your first expedition you get a base camp where all your pokémon gather and hang out. You can see your cube pidgey hang out with your cube bulbasaur playing together by jumping in rhythm. Sometimes they even stack themselves on top of each other, which also looks adorable. Sometimes you just see them talking to each other, well you actually see a bunch of shaking cubes.. but you know what’s it about. The amount of life they managed to get into these cubes is truly amazing Attacks are mostly recognisable , for example my bulbasaur knew petal dance which is animated a series of pink cubes spinning around, but pidgey actually got a little tornado for gust. The cubiness never is used to excessive and there is still a distinct pokémon feeling about how everything looks. The sounds are okay, of course it does feature the original cries of pokemon, which is super neat and whenever you attract a new pokemon, you get them blacked out with just their cry, reminiscent of the “who is that pokémon” game we all know and love. It’s charming throughout. The music is nice and peppy, though they oftenly feature weird sound bites inside them and can be really busy. I don’t mind , cause it’s totally me, but I can see this getting annoying to some in time.
The game is quite grindy so music is created a lot. I am not particularly fond of the boss theme for that reason. All in all they create a solid atmosphere that makes the game fun to look at and listen too. A nitpick of mine is how they could have made the layout feel a bit more inline with what we usually see from Pokémon games. The chosen Icon and HUDS just don’t feel very Pokémon like to me, making me believe this might have started out as a different game.

Technical Thingies:
Programming wise the game is pretty solid. I have to commend the Autoplay AI (which you in time will use) for actually being somewhat tactical in when to use powers and when it doesn’t. Yet for boss battles you might want to consider taking back control, because the difficulty scale is a tad on the harsh side. The game oftenly provides a power level you need to have to pass a mission, but this doesn’t always fly true. Nor do the reckoning type badges apply to each level making the game feel a bit wonky at times. Loading times also seem a bit longer then what is needed for the actual screen to appear, causing me to press buttons without them responding, however in fairness this may also be due to the hot weather slightly affecting my screen. The biggest technical snafu however is the pathfinding.
As mentioned earlier pokemon move sort of on rails. However that rails is randomised each time. They just run to a new random spawn zone on the map without you controlling it. In doing so however both your team as the enemies can’t tell if there is a river , a mountain or nothing in between you. They do learn but if Pidgey and Bulbasaur clip behind a rock and Vulpix is free, the latter will not wait for it’s team members and go on a suicide mission, which can be detrimental to runs. They did make a button to fix those issues though, that cause a pokemon to backdash.
On the plus side, controls are simple clean and as soon AS they are responsive they react accurately and properly. Swapping item, placing decorations and all the extra stuff works very smoothly so I’d say the game preforms average to okay on this area.

Green Hiils, only Sonic can cope with those! Pokémon just up against them!

The gameplay
Unfortunately I can’t be quite as positive about the gameplay, though I would not call the game pay to win too much, the pase can be dreadfully slow if you don’t pay.
In essence the game works like this, in your base camp there is a cooking pot. You toss some fruits, mushrooms and fossils (for some reason) in the pot to cook meals.
These meals attract pokémon that you can add to your team. You can take up to three cuties on an expedition with you, giving you new power up items and ingredients to cook with. Each time you start cooking it will show you a 0 out of X number. The X is how many expeditions you have to do before your new soup is ready, iow you need to play that many rounds to get a new pokémon. You level up your Pokémon by having them go on expeditions or by doing training. New moves can only be learned through training and that is exactly where the game falls apart for me. Training..sacrifices pokémon you caught, the more pokemon of the same type you use.. the more experience you get. Move learning however is an entirely different form of training als requiring you to sack of some Pokémon. A soup will, at least in the earliest stages take you about two two five expeditions. Each expedition costing Mobee some battery energy. He has five! energy. Each bar recharges in 30 minutes. This means you’ll get one or maybe two pokémon per two and a half hours. These pokémon are heavily RNG influenced. A pokémon can learn one or two moves, which can both be status or attacking moves. Everyone has a basic attack as well. These basic attacks are super weak though, so basically if after two and a half hours you get your new mon and it only learns lightscreen… you either need to sacrifice four pokemon (10 hours of work) to learn it a new one, or rely on RNG and hope that you attract a better one by creating a similar soup. Luckily this is somewhat compensated by recipes. Certain types of soup attract certain type of Pokémon, so if you need a water type, it’s a safe bet to cook with a lot of blue ingredients. My luck in attracting Pokémon is horrendous , though I did manage to get my hands on a shiny machop! If you pick up certain package deals you will get up to three extra cooking pots, which I must say are somewhat fairly priced for something that effectively doubles up to quadruples your game speed. The expeditions themselves are fun and short enough just to fire your phone up for briefly. The descent autopilot makes it into a decent idle game as well. Just turn it on while chopping your salad or flipping your burger and you can still have a fun time, if you don’t mind trying your luck. The in game currency you can get fast enough to expand your pokemon slots and item slots without it limiting your game, just don’t go crazy and shop for to many decorations in the beginning. Those offer you a bonus themselves but until you get a versatile team, having power up items and plenty pokemon is more beneficial. No great gameplay, but it’s free to start so it doesn’t underachieve for me either.

Your pokémon will have a lot more fun at basecamp than you , if you play for free.

Score
Definitely the cutest pokemon game, (at least if we don’t consider the ones who use the IP illegally) you can get on your phone, but with plenty of frustrations to be had if you allow it to. Something you can easily pass upon and you would not really miss out on anything, yet again if you really love pokémon or even just love to see some cute cubed monsters running around there is no really any harm in playing it either. You will not even feel totally ripped off, if you buy the adventure packs. As for available purchases this game does actually give you some worth for your buck. Guaranteed pokémon, and permanent game speed upgrades?! I can totally live with those. Don’t expect a Pokémon Go like mobile game which you can constantly play though. Compare this game to an episode of a Joy of Painting (Bob Ross).
There’s a lot of happy little things and some bosses you can beat the devil out off, but in between those waits it’s borings as flan.

An I don’t mind it, seems like a perfect score, it’s exactly how I feel about the Joy of Painting as well. Have you played this game? What is your favorite mobile Pokémon game?
What is your best happily little accident? Leave a like and thanks for reading once more.
Stay a thinned Alizarine Crimson! (That’s Pink)

My first pokemon game

So nice of you to read this again my little monsters. Thank you!
For my “Something Something” Saturdays, even if this one is not written on a Saturday but earlier, to ‘complete’ my site, I can write just about anything.
Since I am brand spanking new, I figured some kind of introduction would be nice.
Now talking about how I am feels a bit redundant because I do not have many fans yet, and those who do read are most likely my real life friends, so for a first story let me tell you a story neither new fans, or old friends have ever heard. The story how I got my first Pokémon Game.

Delibird but different
To explain my story, I first need to tell you some Dutchie lore, you see we have the distinct honour of ‘inventing’ the original Santa Claus. That is right we did it first. But rather then a old fat man that looks like a Delibird, this one is a holy bischop, that looks like a red clad version of the pope. His name is Saint Nicolas, or Sint Niklaas and he is quite a bit creepier than Santa. The latter is basically the same person who got made fatter and jollier by the Coca Cola company and relocated to the North Pole because Spain or Turkey was not a good home for him. His dark skinned henchman that come down the chimney with their bright red lips and curly hair were replaced by cheerful elves and his steamboat has been replaced by a sled with reindeers. Sinterklaas as we dutchies call the OG gift bringing bloke was a less forgiving person as well. If you have been a bad kid, you did not get a block of coal, you either would get beaten with twigs by his henchmen or even abducted. Yes that is right, that sack Santa always carries around, here in the Netherlands it doesn’t always holds gifts.. it also holds bad children who will be forced into slave labour for the man. We celebrate this man on the 5th of december and to young childeren that day is quite a lot more stresfull to young childeren then Christmas would ever be….after all that day might be the last day you see your family. Me being a gullible girl was absolutely terrified of the man, and when I was very little I even broke his staff onc.and our plant pot…and some other stuff. It was November 5th 1992, I was a six year old nervous wreck. He asked me to hold it and I dropped it, it was a very heavy but fragile prop, which landed on mothers favorite candle knickknack , then on the planter and then it’s head broke of on the floor. I blacked out in fear, I do remember though that I still got presents, I knew one day they would come and collect me or that I would at least pay the price.

Cruel Karma
Seven years later, minus a day, we celebrated it on the 4th because my dad had to play a concert that sunday. I had known the truth about good old Satan Nicolaas for quite a while now, unfortunately my health had taken a turn for the worse, my motor functions and muscle usability had dropped quite a bit. I was bad at physical things, I could thread a needle easily, but playing catch, running around, kicking a ball or even walking up the stairs was quite a challenge for me. My muscles did not always function like they should, this included some really important ones. Of course when you are sick like this in grade school, it forms a special bond between you and your classmates, the bonds of a victim and her bullies. As a result, I did play with dolls a bit but I never had much people to play with and playing outside was hard, so I got into video games, it let me do amazing things that would get me injured or I would not even been able to do at all. On october 10th 1999 a game came out that I desired soooo much. But back then it wasn’t widely available at stores yet, gaming was much more a niche and weird Japanese RPG’s .. forget about it, but when it picked up popularity they would make it widely available for december purchases. Never had I desired something so much as long as I can remember, it even overshadowed consoles. On this night, my parents decided they wanted vengeance for having them buy that prop from the fake Satan Niklaas all those years ago. We were about half way with the presents when we got a square little box, both me and my sister, we both knew what it was, she would get Red , I would get Blue. She got to open her first, after she read a poem first. It was nice and witty and wished her a lot of fun in playing but it would also mention that something went wrong so that they hoped everything would be alright. It was Red like we expected, super excited my sister ran around the house to get her gameboy colour, she was even kind enough to bring mine. Then it was my turn, mine was “not written by my parents” but by Sinterklaas. In which he told me that when he was buying the gifts he hesitated for a moment when picking up mine, because I broke his staff all those years ago. Then someone just snatched the last copy just from right under him, so I would have to wait till early next year and he would deliver it to me then. The sound of my little heart breaking was drowned out by my sisters copy firing up on her gameboy colour. The first time I ever heard the Pokémon theme of Red and Blue was when I found out I would not be playing it. I actually felt sick. That might have been spoiled of me, but I was so sad.. I desired this so much more than my sister had done, perhaps they were tricking me? I unwrapped the bo and it was an old box of my games with a post it with sorry sweety on it.

Bulbasaur I choose yo…..NANI!?!
I did not really enjoy the rest of the evening, even though my parents gave me more gifts to make up, it was all chocolat and socks, and whoop some Pokémon stickers, that wasn’t the game. My sister got less, but my parents told her she would get the candies another day, it was just to make me feel better… while I was there, meanwhile my sister tried to show me how she picked Charmander. It took all my strength to not burst into crying and seem ungrateful, but my parents liked messing with me, so they told my sister I might share my candy if she shared her game.. to which of course she said no too, they knew she would it was part of their fun. When we finally got through all the gifts and there really was no copy of Pokémon Blue, I stacked up my stuff and went to bed, I felt horrible. My parents went to clean up, and let my sister play first before calling me back down again a good 20 minutes after I went to my room. Now I cried, and they told me “if you had cried we would have given this to you sooner’ before handing me another gift, in the right dimensions, giving my sister a bag of candy. I opened it and found my Pokémon Blue, I just hugged my parents not caring how cruel the joke was they played. I began playing it and made a character, I named it Ash because well.. it was a boy. I named my Rival Gary, because that’s how it’s supposed to be. The music was great and when I wanted to choose Squirtle my sister told me I could not..cause that would beat hers, since I just wanted to play I just did not care and chose the adorable looking bulbasaur. But then Gary suddenly challenged me to a battle. Alright..here I would prove I am better in Pokemon than my sister, I would ace this game … Bulbasaur I choose yo…..and then my batteries ran out. My sister had just taken the last pair of batteries, my parents realised they should have gotten some. While I could not contain myself and did cry quite loudly this time, my mother comforted me and said ‘Don’t worry we will get you some batteries in the morning’ and then she realised, the next day was a Sunday, back then all the stores were closed on Sundays. My first bulbasaur…had just died.

A super solution
I did not sleep well that night, I saw Bulbasaur slowly fading from existence before me, knowing everyone will be much father in Pokémon when I went to school on monday. Stressful things as a child. The next day, I avoided my sister like the plague, she was continuously playing the game and I lucked out, now some might wonder why my parents did not ask my sister to not play until I coul play. Well, this kind of bad luck always had been happening to me, like when someone handed out apples in schools, mine would be one with a worm, if we went to a school trip I would be the one get gets stung by wasps right in the beginning..in the middle of my ear , making me half deaf for the rest of the trip and if we ever played hide and seek on a birthday in the forest, they would forget about me and leave me behind..because I was the courtesy invite. To this day people know me for how unlikely unlucky I am. So yeah, the bad luck with the batteries, that’s just Pinkie let’s not punish her sister for it. My mother tried to borrow some batteries from our neighbour but no such luck, so eventually I decided to play Super Mario , so at least I could drown out my sisters cries of joy when she found a new Pokémon. When browsing through my SNES library I suddenly gasped. I had forgotten all about this thing, I had a super gameboy! Would it work? Pokémon might be to new for it, let’s try it out. OMG it works and it gives everything a cool blue colour that is amazing. I chose to not name myself Ash, I used my own name, even if it might look silly on a boy. I picked Bulbasaur again and apologised for killing it’s brother. I decided to name my rival Niklaas right before battling him I went downstairs to get some drinks, I told my mom I fixed it and she was so happy for me that I could play, she told me she would bring me some snacks and drinks in a bit. She let me play the game the entire day without disturbing me. That day me and Bulbasaur’s brother started an amazing journey, and though that Bulbasaur has now been long gone, I am still on that same journey to catch them all and I do not plan on retiring from this amazing journey anytime soon.

I think it’s quite clear that the first game and thus the franchise stole my heart. I just figured it was worth to tell how it almost did not happen, I was quite close to recent the franchise for not being available to me.. when my sister spoiled it all, or was I? Maybe I love the franchise as much because I could not take the game for granted, we will never know but what I do know for sure is that that little blue cartridge had a massive impact on the person I am now.
Is there a game that defined you as a person? Leave a comment or a like! Cherish some nostalgia, pay tribute to that what shapped, but most of all stay Pink!
Until we read again!