Tag: Playtrough

Pinkie Plays: Final Fantasy VI: Return of the Dark Sorcerer (Part 1) Professor Oak is a Bad Guy?!

Greetings my little lights! During Steampunk Month I wrote a love letter to Final Fantasy VI , the best Final Fantasy game ever. As a potential future VTuber (once I find someone that can rig my glorious mothness for me) and already one of the first VBloggers,I feel I need a “thing” in gaming. There aren’t that many moth games to play. But a moth kinda sounds like Mod?! So maybe modded games? I like Retro games more than Skyrim +  so then they are called Romhacks!… Uhm… yeah! Let’s try that out a Final Fantasy VI Romhack!

Kefka is back.. but his hair is GREEEEEEEN! *Kefka Laugh*

Return of the Dark Sorcerer is a Final Fantasy Romhack by Gi Nattak and a team of proficient ROM-hackers. Not a sequel or prequel.. but more so very different take on the orginal.. though it is mentioned that a dark sorcerer has been defeated a thousand years ago. Yet the story seems very similar to the events of the original game… but also very different. It is a chaotic bland of pop culture references ..mostly of JRPG’s!  I normally would tell you about how I am playing this game.. but this game had the options to display an extended intro. I chose to do so!  We immediately see the Romhacker, the spriter and another guy talk to us about making the game and making some Chrono Trigger jokes.. they travelled to the End of time and got themselves locked up.. without an Epoch to get out!  My lips curl into a smile as I see a lot of love going around already… then we start the story.

Biggs and Wedge are sitting in a bar drinking , when they get ordered to report to Kefka, this mad Sorcerer works for Emperor Gestahl. Kefka wants  to test his new asset! A young woman with high magic potential.. a sorceress as they call her. Kefka sealed her will away through the use of a  Slave crown. Biggs and Wedge  rush over to Kefka, playing with some of the experiments.. We see many Espers in tubes, and Wedge gives them some sympathy while Biggs plays around with some strange things. Causing a little event before Kefka shows up.. he complains that his lead Scientist, Professor Oak is late.  There is a resemblance to be seen with the Pokémon Professor but I kind of shrug it off as just a name drop of sorts for now!  Back to Kefka .. he tells he wants the woman to destroy the town of Fraust…. Fraust?! Aren’t you going to Narshe?!

The Camera cuts out and we see Tifa Lockheart is spying on them from the other room! She hides from Biggs and Wedge and then a bit later tries to confront the Purple hair sorcerers in the pink dress, telling her she will get her out of here. Tifa gets overwhelmed by the magic power of the girl though.. who then hops into a mecha created by professor oak. Tifa tries to get out herself.. but she has head trauma. Kefka catches up to her and beats her in a fight.. aas Tifa gets taken away to be executed we see the main character board the Mechitech armor.. we get the opening credits but instead of Terra’s theme (omen version)  we get “The Final Countdown” by Europe. We know this one will be weird.. yet it also all feels.. kind of solid.. It’s a joke.. but it’s not taken lightly!

Familiar Yet Different

When then pick up the gameplay where the normal game would also begin.. do note that we are about 15 minutes in already…maybe 10 but I had a bit of trouble starting the game.  We get the familiar Siege of Narshe… which is now the Siege of Fraust. Upon first glance everything seems familiar but I notice I can already Scan my opponent, I have poison attacks and shield abilities. The Fraust guards are basically the same enemies as in the normal game, their outfit colour is a bit swapped and the action gage moves a tad faster.. kind of as if everyone has Haste on them naturally. It is a change I like.. it makes the combat a bit snappier. Spells have different names though, there isn’t just Fire 1 , Ice 1 and Thunder 1.. no I have named attacks, like Ice Spear, Fireball and Spark as well as Scan and Cure. What I like less is that Biggs is already at yellow health..I picked the easiest difficulty and  I am playing the first enemies.. I should not be struggling yet.. but the fight is a lot closer than I would like.  As we climb the icey slopes towards the cave where the Esper of Fraust should be I suddenly get attacked by an army of Prinnies or an army of Prinny.. not sure what the multiple of that is. It’s the penguins from Disgaea!  They have immunities. Oh no.. it’s gonna be one of those rom-hacks!

I do not mind adding difficulty but with Final Fantasy that usually involves more grinding so I am immediately alert.. will this be insanely difficult? I am not sure yet.. I defeat the army of Prinny and make my way towards the first save point. These devices are a staple in every final fantasy game..for a good while and this one has a manager of kinds. Instead of the game giving me a tutorial it is Mr Meseeks from Rick and Morty. Inside the cave all the enemies have been replaced. Those wrench throwing dudes are now  swarms of eyeballs, and the rat monsters are now.. more normal rats. When we reach the first boss fight I am curious to see if we still get the electric slug.. but no .. we get a fire ant.. which does the exact same thing as the slug did…except a lot harsher!  He is fairly easily conquered though but I do need to cast heal a lot! The strange girl is dedicated to healing. Instead of going into combat with the Esper in it’s frozen form Wedge accidentally thaws it out and we have a big boss fight yet again, this time involving stacks of poison damage that the creature can reflect so barriers have to be put up… it is the same story….but it is also not!

Breaking my Limits

Eventually the Esper breaks free and dissolves Biggs and Wedge in an ocean of light, they tell each other how they feel as if they are burning up from the inside. The Esper frees Not-Terra of her slave crown and after she gets rescued by an old man we discover her name is Aurora.. or anything I want to call her but I think naming Final Fantasy characters is a sin. As I explore caverns with her the difficulty relents a bit, with her magic she can oneshot pretty much everything…provided I don’t hit into an immunity. I look for treasures and discover a buckler..but also realise she has no weapon. Spells are the ONLY thing I can use to defend myself with… I would later discover she can wield swords like Terra can.. BUT she doesn’t have one.. which makes a lot of sense given she had a giant mecha before and then just passed out.

I quickly discover that this is not the only change made. I encounter a few items called Tabs which boost specific stats. Stamina and Might for example.The stats also look a bit more complicated..yet make a lot of sense!  The game so far walks a fine line between offering more clarity and making the game more “intuitive”  but also more complex. What I HATE though is that all items have been renamed. A Phoenix Down is called a Recharger. I even have a Soft.. but it’s not called Soft.. I just read it can undo petrifying effects.  I really dislike this.. I can’t find the correct item.. also why do I have a cure for Toad this early in the game?! Am I seriously going to encounter that already?! I have a few healing items for most status already.  Then I fall through the ground and my character passes out. She has a flashback of sorts.. and Oak is introduced as Samuel Oak.. and he gives the actual Oak speech! Guess my hero is a villian now….Time to be introduced to the one that shall replace Locke… HOLY F it’s Cloud!

Cloud Strife shows up at the old man’s house telling he is a Mercenary and he gets hired to save Aurora.. He asks for a high Gil Reward which he is refused. The rest of his dialogue is just “….” !  They got it right!  Moments later we skip to the moment where Locke would Rescue Terra and fight alongside with the Moogles to fight the army of Narshe.    This time it’s Prinnies that show up.. and according to Cloud, moogles hate Prinnies. Fully expecting Cloud to play like Locke.. I was expecting him to steal for some weird Reason.. but no.. he Actually swipes his Buster Sword around and he plays like Cyan, but instead of Bushido he has his Limit Breaks.. Right now he has unlocked Braver and Climhazzard. He can also insta kill as if he is Odin or something! While “Fighting” plays I move my Moogle Squads into tactical positions to guard Aurora and that’s when I see it!  Cloud is a party…..with Kupac!

It’s Kupac Mofo!

Kupac is a moogle wearing a Purple Bandana and a Smug smile with what seems whiskers.. or some War paint, belonging to the thief Arche-type. There are a few other strange Moogles as well.. such as Stoney the stoner Moogle…. or Mogwai.. who looks like he is a Gremlins reference.  Each Moogle Party has a thief.. one of them being called Mugsy!  Mondo is the cool Moogle wearing sunglasses.. and every single portrait looks unique.. if not a bit trolley!  It gets better when Mog’s ,the main moogle’s, party is engaged . He has two dances!   Cavern Strut which drops a big rock on his foes.. and Air Guitar which summons terrible storms to hit his foes! That is right! Mog is very DPS focussed! Kupac and Cloud make their way to the boss , as Fight On begins playing. Kupac steals an ancient helmet out of the prinny keeper! Cloud turns dogs into several servings of Hotdogs with his Limit ability.. it is so much faster than Cyan’s  gauge.  I really love Kupac.. but as soon as he came.. he went.

Cloud has defeated the boss and Aurora is saved, the Moogles bail. As Cloud takes the girl he tells about a nearby castle.  On their way outside they encounter Neko the cat merchant who sells Aurora a wand.. that has a 3% chance to cast Silence on whomever it hits! Cloud I decide to let keep his Buster’s Sword. I know the castle is close by so I skimp out on potions!  As the unlikely pair of Not-Terra and Cloud flee Fraust we are engaged by some very familiar looking slimes! Cloud kills them.. even if one of them may have been “a good slime” Aurora casts spells like mad since the city is close anyw…..it’s going to be a lot further now isn’t it?

I travel across the , how much larger, desert and fight so many enemies that Aurora completely runs out of spells ..twice. Mostly fighting weird spiders and scorpions that inflict poison damage.  Her second stack of spells is almost entirely spent on keeping Cloud healthy…I do not grind yet, but I do level up a few times to gather spell points as I go along. I wonder how Edgar will play and what he will be. According to Cloud he is a great Alchemist.  Will he play like Celes, absorbing magic in a potion?! Will he actually work like Edgar.. but gadgets being replaced with offensive potions?! Maybe he is like Sabin where the direction combo corresponds with a special potion?!  I sure hope he isn’t like Gau!  In fact I really hope there is no real Gau in this game at all! As I am about to move into the castle I save my game… and we will meet the King in the next episode of this playthrough! I might not play this game all the way through but for now.. I am intrigued enough to keep this going for a bit!

All Episodes in this Series So Far

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Pinkie Plays: Moemon Emerald Extreme Randomiser Nuzlocke (Episode 2) The Ultimate Waifu

Hello again little lights, I wanted to have some anime girls death battle a little more so I decided to continue playing my Moemon Emerald Extreme Randomiser Nuzlocke!  You know that thing where I battle with Pokémon and if they faint they are considered dead!  Last episode we got an amazing starter and some pretty sleek Pokémon to kit out our team! We are looking good! But can it help us?

Exploring Rustboro

Before the Gym Battle officially starts I decided to walk around a bit. I am not too familiar with Emerald as I haven’t played it in ages so I mozy around and talk to everyone, I encounter one of those weird.. enter the impossible to grasp passcode persons in the form of a sick girl!  I search the web for an online generator to get this done and I speak “the funny word”   to her father. The word is hsnBMqpgsTnBVcq. Wanda smiles and is healed by the word and I get a new wallpaper for my computer… so not worth this but hey I guess my death box now looks Kawaii as Fudge! Another guy thinks I would trade a Gengar for a Jumpluff.. I guess the people in this town are weirdo’s that is not a good trade for me if I would do that! 

I end up finding a big pearl on route 105 and now have  two options. I can face the gym with a team of 5 or I do my cave encounter and route 116 before.. as far as I am aware in Nuzlocke.. it is always wise to have more Pokémon!  So I move into the grass of route 116 and my first encounter is a Gardevoir with Psycho Boost.. a super powerful move! I manage to catch it easily but I almost lose Murmur the Porygon 2 to her onslaught! I swap in Jigglypuff and the one named Miku can not be hit by anything that is not super effective so she is safe. I capture the Gardevoir and name her C.C. I might not like code Geass but it seems like a fitting name!

C.C. is proper Waifu Material so I decide to train her up a bit so she doesn’t die immediately in the gym battle.. A random trainer has a Suicune and gives her a lot of trouble! I want to swap her out but the opponent has Arena Trap and I fear for my life. Luckily Gardevoir breaks free and learns Mistball.. there was no need for her to learn that over Agility … but I found it funny that she has two legendary Signature moves so I did it anyway, sometimes you just have to have fun… plus Mistball looks cute as an attack on her! For some strange reason I do encounter Gengar in these fields so I decide to cheat a little.. I will catch it and trade it for the Jumpluff …just so I can have a Trophy waifu.. I won’t use her and I will burn resources on this ..but it is just for fun! I waste a lot of Pokéballs and Money but I end up with my first Trophy Wife Yellow The Jumpluff that I traded for a Gengar.. just because it is such a bad trade!

On my way to Rusturf tunnel I fight a few trainers with legendaries. Everyone except for Murmur the Porygon and Umaru the Slowpoke manage to reach level 11.. In the tunnel I failed to catch my encounter, which was an Elekid.. it isn’t that bad as I do prefer our own Usagi the (C)Raichu.  I think the Gym Leaders ace is level 13 or so.. which we should be able to handle! But I have come to realise we have a bit of a grass weakness! I have no good counters for that and two members are weak against it, and grass also resists Usagi! The only good way to deal with it is sending in Miku the Immune Jigglypuff! So let’s hope that the gym leader does not have a Venusaur or a Meganium!

The Rustboro Gym

The Gym challenge begins.. I forgot to talk to the dude for a free fresh water and rush into the first battle with a Youngster.. sending out Umaru first against his Glalie..we should have this.. unfortunately Glalie has Tail Glow.. which boosts it’s stats greatly and it immediately freezes Umaru as well.. putting her on Red health. No Bueno!  I already need to swap in Jigglypuff to survive this! Miku.. is immune to ice type moves and Glalie has no fighting type moves so it goes down fairly easily as we leave our first little girl corpse in the gym! Time for the second trainer, only one left after this ..before facing the leader! Let’s give Umara a chance to redeem herself. I slip up and trigger a double battle! after which the Hiker and a young boy send out a Chansey and a Nincada.. which isn’t good for the pair of Usagi and Umara.. both are special attackers..  and one is weak against Nincada.. we better take care of the bug first!.. Then I realise Nincada is a ground  type, now that moves are random but based on the same type bias Usagi is in grave danger.. I need to swap her out and risk them doubling into Umaru.

Luckily Chansey doesn’t do anything and Nincada can barely damage her!  Sakura the Rhyhorn comes out to replace Usagi.. as Chansey is weaker to physical attacks and Ground and Bug types can’t hurt Sakura a lot! The trainers send in a Smoochum and Poochyena next! The Smoochum is no problem but the Poochyena has Sacred Fire which burns Sakura and cuts her attack in half putting her out of the fight! I swap in Murmur.. but she also gets burned right away! Luckily Vicegrip still does decent damage and Umaru’s Water Gun finishes the pair off!  It is time.. to face the gym leader! At least everyone is level 11 now so I do feel fairly confident!

Roxanne normally is a Rock Type Gym leader, which we would easily wash with Murmur and Umaru.. but she isn’t the same Roxanne as before.. she calls herself Bug Catcher Robin now.. for one and she leads off with a level 12 Gardevoir… which means Miku has to come and save the day already!  If it has Psycho Booth as well it can pretty much kill everything else! Umaru levels up from this fight and so does Miku with Miku now learning Super Sonic. The next Pokémon Roxanne is about to use is a Mew.. which is a problem yet again…because Mew can learn ANYTHING and it has no real stat bias either. I am afraid it will have Focus Blast so I decide to swap in Rhyhorn which is one of my tankier Pokémon.. Sakura can also use Mud Slap to lower its accuracy if need be!

 Mew looks absolutely adorable. I must have it! I must.. but I can’t because it belongs to a Gym Leader so she has to die! Sakura nearly gets one shot by a psybeam.. and barely manages to chip away at her health too..it looks like I am going to have to risk Miku here! Afraid of the Focus Blast I use Gardevoir instead as it can resist the Psychic attacks! I whittle away at Mew with Mistball until it goes down, the Gym leaders Ace is a Dunsparce..  I decided to swap in Murmur as she could use the XP the most, thinking the Gym leader’s ace is level 13..turns out it’s 15! It starts using Thunder and immediately puts Murmur in red health.. I decide to swap in USagi to counter this.. but she has False Swipe which puts Usagi on Yellow health..Dunsparce reveals her other moves to be Recover and Charge.. which means it can’t touch Miku.. but can Miku kill it fast enough before she struggles to her own death?

Operation  Peeko

It turns out the answer is yes! Realising as a Gym Leader that Dunsparce can not touch me it keeps spamming Charge instead of Recover and Three Crush claws later I am the proud owner of a Stone Badge. She also grants me the teachable move Morning Sun… which is only a mildly decent healing move.. so I decide to sell it with the move Flail that I picked up earlier.. Flail deals more damage depending on how hurt you are. It is often used in novelty combat sets such as a Magikarp Sweep team (in which you set the game up so that Magikarp can kill a full team of Legendaries  with just the move Flail). It isn’t very good for Nuzlockes though.. and Morning Sun being better in weather also feels too flimsy! I rather have some potions that I can more reliably use early game!  After exiting the gym.. I see a robbery is going on! I ignore it for now and go heal my damaged team. Then it is time to rescue a Peeko!

I equip Sakura with a Quick Claw I managed to get my hands on and give Murmur a Hard Stone. The first item allows Pokémon to Strike first sometimes and Sakura is a slow girl!  The second powers up  Ground type moves.. so Murmur’s Earthquake now deals more damage. Time to hunt some criminal scum! Well it would be had I not been distracted with a few trainers hidden behind some cuttable bushes.. there are items on the ground.. and since they too are randomised Lucky Eggs (which double XP)  or Master Balls can be everywhere.  Murmur is forced to learn Cut.. since I don’t actually have an extra Pokémon to use as an HM slave.. and Immediately she gets into a fight with an Entei.. the Hard Stone pays off here as we easily Oneshot Entei with a powered up Earthquake! C.C. Nearly gets killed by a Dewgong but we end up safe and sound arriving at Rustuf tunnel once more where an eldery Sailor tells us that his 8 year old girl has been stolen by Team Aqua.. and if I could please get his Peeko back! I agree though I really hope Peeko’s overworld sprite remains a Wingull..in bird form.. as I enter the cave to fight a pirate!

Luckily Peeko indeed looks like a bird.. but we all know better in this world Pokémon are little girls.. but yay for Censorship and all!  The Pirate prefers to go by the name of Rich Boy Bob, who has a Sharpedo.. which is kind of the Signature Pokémon for this team.. so that’s strange! Usagi punishes in the name of the Moen or something and I get Peeko back and some sort of supplies for a big corporation. I bring back the stuff that was stolen from them and as a reward they give me more work… and some kind of weird navigation that is also a phone.. you know that is KINDA the wrong way around! That’s right, even Moths can be Millenials. I guess now I have to head towards the second gym .. which means I have to go on a boat with that old guy.. that keeps little girls locked up in his balls.. and I am a 10 year old girl….  Thanks Devon Corp for sending me on this mission! I am sure this will not backfire at all!

I’m on a Boat.

I really have forgotten a lot about these games! Apparently I have to fight Brendan at the exit of town!  Umaru nearly dies again.. she isn’t really pulling her weight here…so I might see if I can replace her with an Old Rod Encounter in a bit!  She does manage to finish an Eevee!!!! Although barely.. and when Brendan sends out a Pidgeotto I send in Usagi to quickly finish this fight! He outlevels me though so Pidgeotto lives a hit and makes Usagi cry by hitting her again. She revenge kills him soon after with the power of her ability Effect Spore.. which ends up poisoning them. In my head cannon Effect Spore.. isn’t actually spores.. but tears. Usagi cries and her tears can inflict a status condition. Yes that works really well! Perhaps the spores are in her tears! On the way back through Petalburg Woods I decide to go the route that is locked behind some cut trees. I picked up a few new items including a Miracle Seeds that powers up grass moves, of which I currently have none.. but I also find an Amulet Coin.. which is a great item! It generates more money! I decided to put it on Usagi. I use her more often than I use Miku due to how hard she hits! I might switch it to Miku soon though.. I am not sure on who the item is better for now.

I arrive at Mister Briney’s house  and he is Chasing the little girl that just happens to look like a bird on her sprite to make this all PG around the table! I talk to him and he stops playing around..calling Peeko his darling.. his filthy vagrant behaviour is something that should not be tolerated! At least as long as I keep him occupied, poor Peeko is safe! My chores that I got for helping a big company out is having to travel to two towns. Dewford to deliver a letter to mister Steven Stone, the Champion of the Pokémon League AND Travel to Slateport! Luckily in Dewford there is also the second gym! I am running out of space to type though so instead of pursuing this course of action I decided to pick up an old rod to fish for my Dewford Encounter.. I also got to go back  to Petalburg to fish there.. but I will hold off for now! Except for Umaru my team is looking fairly strong!  I decide to fish and what lives on the bottom of the sea?! Why a  little girl of course!  Nibbling on my rod is a brand new Spearow…maybe I will go grab that Petalburg encounter after all! I catch it though and name it Asuka!

I decide to hold off and challenge the two Fishermen on the beach instead to wrap this up! Fight one goes about as well as you expect! Sakura had to be swapped out against a Slowpoke as a droplet of Rain WILL kill her.. but Usagi once again comes to save the day!  The second fight.. is a disaster.. Sakura faces off against a  Zapdos.she can’t hit Zapdos and it is level 10! Sakura is level 12.. Meanwhile Zapdos has a headbutt and whittles away at Sakura.. I try to swap her out but Zapdos has Shadow Tag.. this looks like this might be it for Sakura.. but I refuse to let her go and I decide to keep my girl healthy with potions wasting them all! But it works! Sakura has low Power Points (number of uses)  on her moves and thus she gets to use “struggle” fairly early! Finally being able to hit Zapdos.. who now is locked in Spark.. a high Power Point Move that can not hurt ground types! With  about 25% Hp left, Sakura finishes off the Zapdos and Usagi deletes his two other Moe girls. Which includes a very skimpily dressed Octillery! Oh jeez Sakura I am so glad you are okay I thought I had lost you!  Let’s use this moment to take a break!  Next episode the battle against Brawly will happen and we get a few new encounters!  Untill then.. don’t lewd the Moes.. they are Tomodachi!

Death by Steel : Pinkie’s First Pokémon Randomiser Nuzlocke Journal Part I

Hello Dear Island Guests! It is time for a new Pokémon series! While this one will not be weekly I am going to share my adventures of the first ever Nuzlocke I will try to complete! Every so often I will update you on my adventures in a journal form!  Taking you through my first ever Nuzlocke in the game Pokémon Heart Gold… but with a twist! Every Pokémon is Randomised.

About the Nuzlocke

What is a Nuzlocke you might wonder? Well it is a special way of playing trough Pokémon.
In it you have to nickname all your Pokémon, you can only catch one pokémon per route and only your first encounter ..and if you miss it.. no luck! If you encounter a Pokémon you already have you can  search for another though.  If a pokémon is reduced to 0HP in battle and it faints it is considered dead and you have to box it or release it and can not use it during your challenge again. If you lose your entire team you lose the Nuzlocke and have to start all over again. Then there are  several ways to play, like in some forms your items are limited or you can not leave a gym once you enter it.  Since I don’t want to be too depressed I made a few light rule tweeks.  So here are my rules:

Randomiser Details

-Pokémon have been randomised, thus I play this game emulated, I do own a legal copy of the game but for entertainment purposes a randomiser seems more fun. Because I know this game by heart and it is a lot more fun to highlight random Pokémon. Every Pokemon deserves love!
-Pokémon will also have their abilities randomised! This makes things a lot more fun! However evolutions and movesets will not be randomised.. their teachable move capabilities HAVE been randomised as .. I love randomness but I am not a strong enough Pokémon player to be prepared for ANY move! I got to have some structure.
-Starters are randomised into anything, and legendaries have been randomised into other legendaries. All trainers have randomised trainer class names and personal names just for fun.
-Items that can be found on the ground are randomised as well as pokémon held items! 
-If I ever lose the game I have to make a new randomisation so I don’t know what is ahead.

In Game Rules

-If A Pokémon Faints it dies and has to be boxed. Since I made sure everyone can learn all HM’s I can not use dead hm slaves. HM moves can only be taught to one party member to make sure I don’t spam surf or fly.
-If I encounter a duplicate pokémon I can search for a new pokémon on that route OR I can catch it to add a life to that Pokémon I already have.
-If I get knocked out by early Dragon Rage, or get stuck on an early Wonder Guard user I am allowed to keep the knocked out Pokémon in return for discarding all my Pokéballs or healing items.
-If I encounter a shiny I am allowed to try and capture it! However it then MUST be used on the team.
-I am allowed to grind and leave gyms!  I am not allowed to hack in rare candies to skip a grind.
-Mom has to collect money for me.. she is so happy to help me out.. it would be rude to tell her no!

With that ruleset I was ready to play my randomised copy of Heart Gold which I named Pokémon Pink Gold! I also made a nice visual for that so I can skip this block of text next time and keep you all updated even if you aren’t reading!

Today I became a Pokémon Trainer

I woke up groggily in my like 32 bit bed! Mom called! Today I was supposed to help Professor Elm out  with a Chore! I hobbled down the stairs and saw mom sitting at the dining room table. She gave me my Pokégear for my adventure even if I had no Pokémon.. a person can’t do without their gear. Before I left she also gave me a cellphone and a bag! It isn’t even my birthday Mamma! How sweet of you! Then she said she had something else that seemed pretty useful and she gave me the possibility to save and an options Menu!  That is super nice! The mamma I have in the real world never gave me an options menu! Perhaps that is why I am such a NEET now! After I got so many new stuff I ventured outside. The Neighbour Kid Ethan was out there playing with his Marill. Man he sure liked to run that thing in my face!  I did not have a Pokémon!  He reminded me that Professor Elm was looking for me! .. Jeez thanks Ethan.. he is the reason I got up this early in the afternoon! 

So I waddled over to the Pokémon Lab. I am not a strong walker so it felt a bit sluggish but eventually got there. There was a suspicious kid standing in front of the window and he shoved me off when I asked him what he was doing! Super rude! I got inside and Professor Elm told me that he had a friend named Mister Pokémon who made an amazing discovery.  He was tied up at the lab and he needed someone he could trust to go there. Despite having like three aides.. it was me he chose to send.. Odd to send a 10 year old to gather important research but hey!  He told me I would get a Pokémon so I had no complaints.  I walked up to a machine holding three Pokéballs. One held a Hitmonlee, one held a Feebas and one Held a Vigoroth.  Feebas I think is actually useless in this game, I am not sure if you could even evolve it and I am not getting far in a Nuzlocke with a pokémon that only knows Splash.
So I had to choose between either Vigoroth or Hitmonlee! Since Vigoroth would evolve once more and would turn into a Slaking who doesn’t know the ability Truant but instead has a Random ability I chose him!  He had a nice beard so I decided to name it Raist.

Raist and me set out to travel to the tall grass! We saw a few amazing Pokémon along our way to Mister Pokémon’s house. We leveled him up until he was almost level 10.. since he already evolved once his leveling took a bit longer than a random pokémon like .. let’s say Cyndaquil would take. On route 29 I saw a Machamp which would compliment my new friend nicely.   There was also a Heatran and a Houndoom there so straight away we had some good options!  Yet we did not have pokéballs yet so for now it had to wait! On route 30 we fought a few Uxie so we even had some legendary options.  I was looking forward to it all. Yet first we had an errand to run! We encountered an old man who had magical shoes! When you wear these shoes. a person would develop the ability to RUN! He gave me a pair that he had on him! It is kind of creepy that an old man who shows a 10 year old girl around town hands you shoes in your size.. but let’s be honest! He already had these running shoes on himself.. if the creep guy could run and I could not I would be in much more trouble so I accepted them.. he later came running after me.. to give me a map.

After fleeing from that creep I walked into some random guys house who was so glad to see me that he gave me a little satchel to store Apricorns in. This is hard fruit in rainbow colours that a man named Kurt might be able to turn into pokéballs for me! I accepted the gift.. looted his tree and traveled on to Mister Pokémon’s place.. who had a visit from the famous Professor Oak. The man talked about a lot of stuff , mostly promoting his radio show and then he gave me an egg for Professor Birch and a pokédex.. okay so this was his discovery? How is Mister Pokemon evolved?! If you have traveled so far why would you not go the extra mile to see Birch yourself?! The discovery that pokémon might hatch from eggs seems like a big responsibility to leave to ten year old me! But hey it got me cool stuff! I was now an official pokémon trainer! Or so I thought!  A phone call from professor Elm would change a lot. I had to rush back home.. as something terrible had happened.

Pinkie makes new Friends

Using the perverts shoes, I sped as home as quickly as I could! I had full confidence in Raist’s abilities as an evolved pokémon and then we encountered that red haired Douchebag from before! We fought him and Raist  smoked his ass. He carried an exeggcute! It was no match for my wild white beast!.. it even got Raist to level 10. The trainer dropped his passport.. which all trainers carry on them and I saw that Red Douche’s name was Indigo! He told me that he would become my rival and he would get stronger. I shrugged and ran off! It turns out that Indigo stole a pokémon from Professor Elm! .. Well he certainly did not take it from the machine then.. but no time to dwell on that.  I handed over the egg to be done with my responsibilities.  The professor was shocked that eggs existed.. even though we are in a remake taking place in a generation that already invented these features! Later remakes would tackle that issue a lot better!  But hey I played along and as payment I could keep Raist. Well yeah.. I already named it guy! I was gonna keep it anyway!

I walked outside and Ethan was in the grass with his Marril..he showed me how to catch a pokémon and handed me five Pokéballs!  Now I could make new friends yay!  However Raist disagreed! He killed both my encounter on route 29 as well as the one on route 46.. which had a small patch of grass you could pick pokémon up from! He both killed a Yanma and a Mankey! I guess he did not like to share!  So we had a little talk and I told him that if he had some Tomodachi it might mean he would live longer..as I showed it Yanma’s broken corpse he nodded showing me he would be more careful on route 30! There we were lucky enough to encounter one of those Uxie Legendaries again…but I ran out of pokéballs and we failed to get Raist a friend. I sold everything I had to scrounge up a few pokéballs for route 31 and there we finally encountered a cute Gorbebyss which is a pink fish pokémon wearing a purple shell bikini like thing. It is a Pokémon that sucks up it’s opponents bodily fluids as a way of battling. Since it was rather pink and happy as well as a male I decided to name it Dylan.  In a nearby cave I discovered a quagsire I named Heather. She was so durable and sturdy!   I leveled Dylan and Heather up a bit by murdering some Uxie and Zubat as well as killing the Pokémon of former Bugcatcher now turned dancer!  As he sat there among his dead pokémon I merrily continued my way to that blasted city!

Raist had reached level 11, with Heather and Dylan being at 8! I knew there was some work to be done before I could face the gymleader.. believing his ace to be at level 12. So first I went to some ruins to the south of the city where I solved the ancient puzzle of the Unown in like… 30 seconds or so! How did no one ever solve this before?!  If it was a complete slide puzzle I could understand but this was about as hard as one of those children’s block puzzles with a square shaped hole a triangle hole and a round hole!  I caught myself a Misdreavous there which I named Mallow. In a patch of grass I also found a Snubull which I named Lyn. My team of friends was beginning to grow!

 |, ||,||, |_

We were nowhere near ready to face Falkner though so.. it was off to beat up some monks! Which usually are fairy big pushovers. With random Pokémon though it turned out to be a tad harder. As I had killed two monks entire teams without much effort it was up to Heather to level up next. During one fight a monk sent out Kabuto! I had switched out of Heather before as his former pokémon was a grass type and she is 4x weak to that and Mallow fought in her stead. Upon switching in to the Kabuto Heather missed a Mud Slap or Mud Shot.. I always confuse those  and the pokemon used a water gun on her. Quagsire is a Bulky pokémon so she took it fairly well. I could easily survive even a critical hit of that. Heather surely could obliterate this tiny Kabuto. Her second attack missed again.. and that’s when it happened.  Kabuto revealed to have the move Absorb! .. I did not expect it.. I didn’t even know it learned that move.. and just like that Heather was gone! Drained of all life! My Quagsire was dead!

Misdreavous exacted revenge for Heather and we destroyed all the monk’s left! It gave us a useless TM . Indigo had also just fought all the monks so the place was literally littered with piles of dead Pokémon! While he got an escape rope.. I got a chople berry! So I had to walk past all the corpses again. On the way down I found a Cleffa I named Meg. We gave Heather a small burial and went on to take down the Gym Leader Falkner. While everything was randomised for some reason every gym trainer got given a ghost pokémon so we had to use a lot of potions to keep Mallow alive. We went back out to stock up again and I realised I got a lot less money than I would have hoped for! I bought three potions and healed everyone up and it was time to face the gym leader .. Falkner!  Little did I know I would discover about THAT power I had.. or that this would already be the last battle I would ever have with my new friends.

We started out fine.. Falkner opened up with Spinarak!  Mallow eats tiny spiders for breakfast and with a few ghostly moves it was gone..then the message on the screen read. Dancer Laura is about to Sent In Registeel.. Do you wish to swap Pokémon?! Excuse me?!  Registeel?! I also forgot I boosted levels a bit..thinking it would let me grind faster as well.. and so came a level 15 Registeel! I kept Mallow in, knowing sometimes the Regi’s get Explosion at an early level hoping that it could explode and we would be fine! Yet it used Metal Claw.. a high power metal type physical move that can boost attack.. sometimes. Of course he got the attack boosts!  I swapped in Megan and Lyn as sacrificial lambs.. while I came up with a strategy.. and both were clawed in half.  Then.. I swapped in Raist.. hoping it might trigger him using explosion, switching back into Mallow.. hoping for a miracle. The metal cleaved the little ghosty as it could no longer maintain it’s form! It fades away from the after life into complete death.  Raist came out next and he could take two hits.. such a champion he went down fighting!  Next was Dylan.. perhaps he could use confusion to keep the steel giant in place… but no!  My little pink fish soon got turned into sushi!.

Surrounded by my dead friends Falkner laughed at me diabolically and in panic I passed out!  However Falkner’s gym is several  meters in the air.. lets say about five or six stories high. And you walk through him on a balancing beam.. so passing out did not end well for me! I fell six stories down and left a pinkish red crater in the floor.. I was dead!  Then suddenly … I woke up again.. I was in my own bed!  Mom called me downstairs.. and said Professor Elm had a chore for me.. she handed me .. a bag.. a cell phone and even an options menu! What was going on here?  Outside Ethan stuffed his Marill in my face again… but something was different. Out in the grass to the West I heard other pokémon.. instead of Magikarp swimming in the river to the east there was a Kricketune.. what was going on? There was only one possibility! I returned by death! And the world becomes more randomised!  I stepped in the lab of Professor Elm as he told me for the second time, my very first pokémon adventure was about to begin!Mallow, Heather, Raist and Dylan you will be remembered. Lyn and Megan.. you were just death fodder! You will return.. in the next life!…maybe!

Days Past: 1
Number of Deaths: 6
Game Overs: 1
Gym Badges: 0

And so my Nuzlocke was not of to a good start! Luckily I wasn’t that far into the game yet so I felt motivated enough to try again! Will I have more succes in my second run?! Find out in the next episode! Will a Pokémon be named after you?! Maybe! Be sure to follow the blog and be active in the comments and you will have a good chance to be part of my team! And if you like being a small creature why not be a coconut?! By supporting my Kofi you can have your own little unique Coconut minion on Paradise! Or just leave a nice comment! Did you ever play a Nuzlocke? What is your favourite game to Nuzlocke in?! Let me know in the comments and I will see you on the next adventure!

Pinkie becomes a Temtem Tamer (Part 1): First Steps

Oh goodie, joy joy, Oh happy day! I am a happy Pinkie. This week the early access ( version 0.5.5) of Temtem became available on Steam. In this game you capture mysterious but powerful creatures using Temcards to fill your Tempedia. You use up to six of these creatures to battle your opponents, like random tamers but also an evil team and 8 dojo masters to become the very best. However this time it is an MMO, sometimes you will need to make friends to traverse a dungeon, there are plenty of quests to do  (admittedly with very weak rewards usually) and tons of fun to be had. So I decided to spend a lot of time into becoming a Temtem tamer. I will update you regularly on my journey and maybe talk about these creatures a bit as well.

Creating my Tamer

Temtem is a game made by Crema. A self proclaimed group of five monkey’s developing games. What a sweet one these five monkey’s made now.  This collectable creature game of course has obvious similarities towards my beloved Pokémon games and in many ways can feel as much as a clone as Mighty Number 9 was to Mega Man and how A Hat in Time is basically Super Mario Sunshine with hats instead of a douche. Unorginal? Maybe.. but I am tremendously happy with it. It really looks likes this game is one that can push  the collectable creature game to be more of a defined genre. Very few of these games have been successful and just like how the Soulsborn genre has very similar feelings throughout all games I think the Pokétem subgenre of collectable creature games could really boost the quality of all games.

*Pink Squeeels*

While I was extremely happy with Sword and Shield and am very welcoming of a rival that can push them and itself to greater heights. It did not take me longer than a few steps to realise that these five monkeys clearly know Pokémon and the community very well which is shown throughout the game , playfully dealing with many issues most fans have with the pokémon series. At some elements for more social interaction and I might hold a gem right here.

My journey starts with a que , after waiting for about four minutes I get trough and can finally make my tamer. I start out by making her an outfit of white shorts and a pink long sleeve. She also wears pink shoes. Her backpack is a adorable small one.. not one of those bulky ones with all sorts of things sticking out.

I pick out a face (so many ugly ones here)  and dye my hair in a pink two tone. With a lighter base colour and a more saturated pink in the points. It’s not very noticable but my hair feels quite lively and I do like it. The graphical style of Temtem is something that really agrees with me anyway. There is a simplicity to it that I find really charming. It’s kind of like the current generation of saturday morning cartoons.

It isn’t exactly mindblowing at first glance but it allows you to do so much more with it. By choosing a style like this we may not be blown out of our seats by spectacular designs but we also get a lot less of the same. Random Tamers are designed with the same tool so everyone you battle feels much more unique opposed to this game’s bigger more famous cousin. Because assets are kept simple there is more they can use. Colours seem more exaggerated with a focussed on a combination on very saturated colours with plenty of pastels as well. This makes every building feel more unique and less “tileset like” than in pokémon. Custom Tamers are very diverse from the start and I haven’t encountered a look alike yet.  Enough about the looksies though! I named my character Pinkie Paradise (as Pinkie was already taken of course.. MMO issues) and I could begin my journey. Oh I also could choose my preferred pronoun but as per this version of the game, dialogue isn’t fixed for it yet. Yet I have not a single doubt that it will.

Picking my Starter

I was immediately happy when the game did not begin with a professor giving a monologue. Instead i was awoken from my bed, just like how any game rpg should start in my opinion by a woman named Aina. I think she adopted me cause she keeps using my last name as well! Of course I do know it’s because I just picked  surnamed character, so I just imagine I play a bit of a Lolita (the dress wearing kind) youtuber that is addressed by her handle. My character doesn’t call Aina mother but just calls her Aina .. so adopted it is! Even if characters later tell me I am Aina’s kid.

I am told it’s the evening where I become a tamer and get my starter. After which I go study Temtem in Briçal  de mar. Thanks for choosing that c with a squiggly below it by the way Crema, it’s such a hassle to make that appear! I have to find your wiki, copy page, delete background colour etc. Anyway the whole town is there to wish me luck, I can press F to chat with them, I have to admit I spend a lot of time trying to interact with my tv and bookcases trying to see if there was a movie with four boys on a railroad on tv. I can’t interact yet with objects maybe I never will. There was a trash can later on though! When I obtained a surfboard upon beating the first Dojo there was also a truck on a hidden piece of land I could interact with…but I am getting ahead of myself.

After messing about for a bit , I  make my way to the Temtem lab of Professor Konstantinos. Luckily his name has no weird squigglies. He’s pretty old but he is rather jovial. He doesn’t wear a labcoat either, which is kind of stupid to begin with. Why would a field researcher or someone who interacts with living creatures a lot ..in a friendly non cage-like way wear a white lab coat anyway?! The guy is nice and notices that my rival called Max already has a Temtem. So he doesn’t need a starter and I get to pick one of three. 

My choices are Crystle, a green crystal type turtle/pig like quadruped. Then we have Smazee, it’s a melee type shaggy monkey with a huge smile and the potential power of friendship. Finally there is Houchic the mental temtem. This one is a special attack focussed temtem that kind of looks like a levitating baby with tentacles on its head and white hair. It’s body is purple and it is a big tail. Given that my OC in one of my roleplay campaigns is a flying eldritch baby with tentacles on her head and the power to control minds I choose Houchic and name it Luma, after my character. Luma Temtem however also exist in this world. They are alternatively coloured temtem who have some short of shine to them. Unfortunately for me Luma is not luma.

Catching Temtem

After I put Luma in a card , which are the capturing devices in this world, Max begins to whine and moan about not getting one. However his Oree is the rare and elusive Digital type, which the professor says ..is already powerful enough. So In pokémon terms I guess the rival begins with a dragon type. Nice that means I am going to beat the shit out of the bratty kid during our first battle.  The rival battle does indeed happen. Here we are introduced to a few mechanics in Temtem that I really like. There is no limited uses on moves, Instead they all draw from your stamina pool. A finite number that very slowly increases again over time. You can regain it faster by ordering a temtem to rest. It is possible to overspend (once) when your stamina is to low, but the remainder of the cost comes from your health points and after the temtem has to take  breather.

Moves have all sorts of priority brackets, depending on how they are used. All moves have arrows >> like these that show what priority it has. Most moves fall in the >> category. However a simple kick, scratch or peck for example all belong in the >>>+ category. Attacks that require a large charge up usually fall in the > category. This means battling in Temtem already has a lot more depth. You have to manage your resources well, there is no need to finish a opponent of with a move that costs 23 stamina if you could finish it off with a weaker move that only costs 8. You can’t just slap ultra destructive moves on your creatures either. You have to take speed , stamina and typings into consideration.

Yet there is more! All moves either have one or two elemental coloured blocks at their name. If there is two, your temtem can only use such a move every other turn and never in the first either. They are oftenly light on stamina and high on damage..but they risk your temtem taking some extra damage. So Luma can only kick on her first turn and misses.. just my luck! “Oh well next turn I will hit him with my mental…..NANI! I got oneshotted?!” CRAB CAKES! FROWNEY STORMY CLOUD! Max is a grade A Meanie-Bo-Beanie. Blue/Gary Oak would look at the guy and think… eh that the guy scores a little high on the Handsome Jack scale. In fact Handsome Jack would probably look at this kid and think… I should use protection more, before shooting Max in the face of course.

Luckily I get a price for losing. Professor Konstantinos gives me  a Tuwai, a wind Temtem that looks like Toucan Sam’s kid. I named it Nuggets. In the campaign that features Luma, Nuggets is a Chicken Bard..who sings ,steals and has a blow dart to toss feathers at his opponents. I also get five temtem cards. Which I can use to catch Temtem. Now I have to make my way to that town with the squiggly c in its name to study at the accademia. Meanwhile I should catch me some temtem. Now that we have two Temtem the real gameplay of the game is beginning to show. You Temtem up (basically It’s time to D-D-D-Duel  of this world) by tossing not one but two temtem into battle. This for the biggest part also applies to wild encounters, though on occasion you might encounter a single temtem. It adds a lot more depth in battle, but more on that the next time. It is basically like the Pokémon Coliseum games, but instead of just stealing shadow creatures from your opponent this time you can capture anything in any wild encounter.  So it’s sort of those gamecube games finally done right.

You never get a capture tutorial, it works exactly like it does in Pokémon..the lower the health the bigger the capture chance. Status will most likely help as well , but on my first steps I never had a status inflicter which could try this for me. Nor did I encounter situations up until this point where captures are very difficult. What is new with statuses though is that they only last a limited amount of turns and there are quite a few more of them…but again this is something for the next post.  Any temtem can hold up to two statuses , so catching will get a new depth as well. If you weakened the other temtem enough you throw your card..which then will spin around them rapidly scanning and digitising them in. This scanning has three stages. If it makes it past all three the temtem is captured and now in your card.

From here you can nickname it (do so right away because there right now is no way to change it ..even though this will be added soon). Unlike with Pokémon, temtem trainers aren’t complete bumbling fools when there is more than one target on the field.  If two different temtem appear you haven’t caught yet..you can catch them both in a single encounter. Such an improvement from pokémon. In old games when you encountered a double battle you had to knock out one pokémon first because otherwise “i’d be impossible to aim….herpaderp”. I felt the system worked nicely, the digitising sequence feels more rewarding than a pokeball rolling about, as you literally see your soon to be partner slowly be pixelated into your card. It really feels great.

While at least in the current build we do not have THAT much temtem to catch yet and some patches of tall grass (yes you encounter them in tall grass, bodies of water or cave floors)  kind of feel barren in terms of diversity, it all feels great for grinding and luma hunting. You can adapt your team to grind against the wild encounters of your choosing (to an extend) and you do not have to click through loads of encounters to catch special ones. Everything seems quite well thought out. While I made my way to Briçal de mar I captured everything I would find and added them to the Tempedia. I only added a Sawli and a Tateru to my team though. Respectivly a cocoon that looks like it skinnend an Umbreon but stares at your really cutely so you forgive it of the nature element (Swali)  and a tall panda bunny pig thing that likes to dance. (Tateru) After a fairy long travel I reached the second town..ready to increase my knowledge… but that is a story for next time!

More posts on Temtem

From Trainer to Tamer: Road to Temtem (Outdated)

My first day in Galar

Hello Island-guests. Today it is time for a new blog, and of course we will be talking about Pokémon. A diary of my characters journeys across Galar. This will mean some spoilers for the Sword and Shield games, although most of what is revealed in this first installment will be part of the common knowledge.It should come to no one’s surprise that I am really enjoying this game. The issues people have with these game either come from rushing or holding expectations based on different IP’s from different developers and I think both are unfair. Sure these games are not technical master pieces, but no pokemon game ever was. Sure the story mode CAN be resolved kind of quick, but that’s not even the point of playing a pokemon game. Yes not everything is in the game , some pokemon and some moves did not make it. People say that gotta catch em all is no longer applicable.. but it NEVER was , those others you just transfer from other games, this changes nothing of Galar’s collections aspect, we can start over again at an equal playing field. It only changes what pokemon we can use in competitive, and most of those who complain aren’t even in that scene. So quit nagging people and enjoy a really solid game the way it’s meant to be played. Slowly.

Pinkie’s journey begins

Dear Diary, today my pokemon journey began, it all started out like a normal day and I was watching Chairman Rose introduce us to the wonderful world of pokemon, he showed the cutest elephant pokemon and I want it!  Can you believe that in other regions the professors do this speech. The old hag Magnolia barely gave me any time of day! Her assistant is kinda cute though. I was watching someone challenge our champion Leon, who kinda has a weird sense of fashion. I wouldn’t call it bad.. but it kinda is. Like a cape and a weird hat and I could swear he is wearing pants under his shorts. I mean we girls wear leggings and it kinda looks like those, but why would a manly man like Leon wear them and why add a pattern to those leggings … I mean ewwwww.  He just doesn’t really look nice face down… he can pose though but hey I can pose too!

Anyway Hop came in.. I think he has ADD and went hyperactive that we had to go to his house to meet his brother. He ran ahead.. I swear he is like a combination of that Barry guy from the Sinnoh region that was like a rival to the hero of space and time and Hau .. the freeloading Malasada guzzling lovable goof who was like best friends with the first Champion of Alola. He kinda looks like a combination of those two too.
Gaaargh…..Leon wasn’t at his house and we had to go all the way to the next town to pick him up from the station and then run back. I do NOT like using my running shoes. In the end it was great though Leon gave us some starters so we could participate in the Gym challenges. Since Hop already had a Wooloo I could choose first I chose Sobble , because it cried when a berry fell in it’s pond. I decided to name it Neno. Hop picked a Scorbunny  and when we had to battle he already used two pokemon! Kinda unfair if you ask me…but his Wooloo went down so easily that my Sobble leveled up and allowed me to hit Scorbunny super effectively. Yay!

A mysterious encounter

After that a wooloo entered the forbidden forest and we had to go in and save it. Of course Hop  just ran ahead so I had to deal with a bunch of Skwovet, Squirrels with a weird name and tendency to eat my berries. I also encountered a bird named Rookidee, it looked angry so I had Neno knock them all out for me. Then I encountered a wolf in the mist. I thought it ate Wooloo and that it would kill me as I could not hit it at all.  It was very strong and super mysterious. So everything went white . Leon came and saved us as Hop did nothing but comment. Leon never saw what we saw and he told us to get our pokedex from Professor Magnolia.. and Hop ran off. I had to go the long way around and captured a few pokemon. Cool huh! I feel like I am the only person ever in existance in this world who can capture pokemon before getting this weird expositional talk while clearly everyone in this world knows how pokeballs work. I managed to catch a woolooi I named BeepBeep, one of those squirrels I named Nutella and even some others.  I only planned on using BeepBeep though, and I would take this little fox pokemon along. I decided to name it Barrelroll. I mostly like BeepBeep though.

So I tried to train up BeepBeep and I noticed how in the Galar region pokemon grow very differently from that in other regions, it turns out they have an item called EXP share, our pokemon do that naturally. But where the the item distrubutes a small portion of EXP our party gets like half the xp they would have gotten had they actively been in that battle. If they are in that battle they get full experience. This means we can easily bring full teams along from the earliest parts of the game and check out all sorts of cute evolutions.  The final Pokemon I caught in route one was called a Blipbug I named Freddt. I went home to kiss Mum, yes we call her Mum here in Galar and we also watch the Telly and not TV, and went to the old bags lab with Freddt in tow. Turns out she wasn’t even there! I had to move ANOTHER route. Like these shoes were not made for walking! So of course I had to shop first.

Shopping and Hopping

So I decided to go and shop and I picked some super cute pink clothes rather than the grey and green Mum picked for me.. I mean my name is pinkie after all , you gotta live up to the reputation. Shopping in Galar is quite expensive though so perhaps I should fight some trainers with Neno , Beepbeep and Freddt . So that’s what I did. While fighting other trainers I also managed to catch a snapping turtle which I send to my box early, and a cute dog named Yamper. Which I added to my squad under his new name of Buttermutt. It’s funny because it has a heart shaped bright yellow butt. It’s moves are super nice to capture new pokemon as well so as some plumber from some country just south of the Kalos Region just said “let’s go” .. ……. back to the shop to get my pink shoes and pink hat as well. All pinked up I was ready to move to Professors place. Doing some more battles along the way. I noticed how I enjoyed the music and the rich saturated colours in the landscape. Sure I have seen like cards from like the Hyrule region that looks a bit more beautiful, but I think we should be glad with the beautiful landscapes we have gotten. Compared to like Unova or Sinnoh this place is absolutely stunning and our pokemon also feel somewhat less stiff than those of Alolan ones.

Professor Magnolia gave me an app… for my phone… jeez… thanks I guess..  no way I could download a pokedex in the appstore myself in a world where everyone has pokemon?!  Yet something good came from the visit anyway. I got to battle Hop again, if we proved our worth as trainers to Leon he might endorse us to take part in the pokémon league competition. Like that’s kinda cool right?  How the strong look for young talent to find someone who will eventually surpass them and push their skill with pokemon to the next level. Like a metaphor how the pocket monsters we know and love can grow into Kaiju, so  can our trainers from young ones grow up to be a poorly dressed champion. Or like how the pokemon franchise started out as simply professor Oak’s research with him believing there were only 150 pokemon to knowing there is almost 1000 now. From being just his research to being like puns on teacups and with tv shows and movies. But I am getting off topic again. I could battle Hop again, I could see how much he train…..he ran over here again and barely bothered to train didn’t he….  yep… BeepBeep trashed his sheep, Neno washed his bunny and Freddt evolved into a Dottler. It’s like a bug night light with LEDS. Two meteors struck like a meter from our battle field revealing stones about the size of a wristwatch. I think the impact should have killed us all, but hey we didn’t so good for me.  So we spend the night at the old woman’s place and Sonia showed up and told us more about HER research or her work for the professor at least. She told us about dynamaxing and how the phenomena is only possible in the Galar region and more stuff. The professor just made Leon gave us our endorsements so now we had to go to Motostoke. Luckily we could go by train.  It will save me a big walk! Yay!

So far along I really enjoy this new pokémon adventure, the galarian pokemon are cute and overall well designed by Arceus, I visited some cute towns got some cute clothes and heard some cute music… though I am not sure if  that plays in my head or is actually there. No other trainer ever mentions it .. but it always changes when I battle. I really like the tracks so far. I like the new experience system because it makes pokemon battling available to so many of us and the story I embark on seem to have just a bit more invested in making me seem special and relevant, making it more credible that I am heading into some great adventures.  Of course the pretending to be me already made it a lot further into the game and but she decided that this was enough content for one day. So apparently soon the next part will follow where I explore the wild area and face the first three gyms. In that part we will discuss the quality of puzzles , and the wild area feature among other things so stay tuned for that… Wait why did i write this weird stuff in my diary?