Pokemon SoulSilver Part 11: All of my memories keep you near

[kjorteo]

Last time: With a little gentle persuasion, the road forward is open.

Today, we'll be taking Atreyu, Nimbly, Falkor, Omnihunter, Empress, and Sweetie. Oh, hey, that's almost the full Neverending Story team. I would just need to swap either Omnihunter or Sweetie for Auryn, but the former is my "but what if Shiny and I need False Swipe" security blanket and the latter is my pile of field moves. Well, I was close, anyway. Empress leads this round, believe it or not. She's always there as the team mascot, but usually not the one who actually sees combat--

"Empress turned to face you and smiled!"

D'awww. I love you too, dear.

Anyway, Empress and Atreyu are behind the others level-wise and need to catch up, which is why I have it set up like that. And with that, we're off!

There's a Hyper Potion on the ground. That sounds like it would do something else entirely in most fanfiction I've seen, but here it just restores a lot of HP. There's also a conspicuously solitary tree, and Headbutting it... picks a fight with a level 4 Hoothoot. I hate Headbutt.

Sunny of Sunday is on this route. There are seven NPCs scattered throughout the region, one for each day of the week, each of whom give you a prize if you talk to them on that day. For some reason, the one that sticks out most vividly in my memories of original Silver is Tuscany of Tuesday, possibly just because that's such a unique and therefore memorable name. These NPCs are another feature that sounds basic now, but blew my mind back in the day. Maybe you just had to have been there.

I didn't even realize Sunny was here, but I just happen to be playing this on a Sunday, and so here we are. I get a Magnet for my luck. This boosts Electric-type moves, so Kracko will love to have it next time I'm near a PC.

... Which will be right now, because Mom just called after my first trainer battle. She bought something with my money, and I need to go to the nearest store to pick it up. She will repeat this call after every trainer battle until I get her present, so let's go back to town real quick just to turn that off. Just as well, because I also forgot to sell off all the Stardusts and such I got from the Pokewalker this week. Again.

See what I mean about all the accidental grinding I end up doing?

Back into the wilderness, I fight another trainer, and Mom calls with a delivery notification again. Sigh.

Back in town again, on a suspicious hunch, I keep talking to the delivery person after getting my package. Do you have more? Is that what this is about? Yes, it turns out there are three more, which explains Mom's behavior. I... what. How.

They're all just berries, but... what.

Back on the route a third time, I catch a Stantler I will never use, because it was there and it is majestic and cool in general. Consider it my consolation prize for not bagging the Sudowoodo last time. I name her... oh, her? It's a girl with the antlers and everything? Okay. ... I name her "Hypnodeer" and send her to Box 2 next to Skippy. At that very moment, Lass Krise calls to ask if I keep all the Pokemon I capture in PC Boxes. Ummm... nooo.... *innocent*

Next up is... oh, wow. It's Ecruteak City.

Well, this brings back memories. I said that Azalea Town's music was not my single favorite track from the original score, but it was certainly up there, and therefore it was in prime position for the HG/SS remix to bring me to tears with nostalgia. Well, Ecruteak City's music is my single favorite song in the original score. It is mellow and soothing, with just enough of a somber undertone to it to be thoughtful without crossing into being outright sad. It's... nostalgic, is what it is. Even in game, even back then, toward the end of my time with original Silver, I'd sometimes Fly back to Ecruteak and park in the middle of town, let the music overtake me, and just... take it in. Reflect back on my journey, even as I was still working on wrapping it up.

I was nervous about National Park after what happened to Goldenrod City's theme. National Park's theme is also beautiful, soothing, nostalgic, and very personally important to me, so I also would have been devastated if they'd somehow messed up that one. However, even the importance I placed in National Park's theme pales compared to Ecruteak. In some senses, and at least for some parts of my entire run through this game, that entire quest to reconnect with precious childhood memories was all leading up to this moment. This is one of the main major memories I was seeking.

And after all the buildup, the remix is... honestly, not bad. I sense that they wanted to play up how Japanese this town is (it is where the Kimono Girl troupe lives, after all, and we'll get to them in a moment.) There are a few timing changes that sound like someone wanted to freestyle or improvise off of the original, and I kind of wish they'd just stuck to the script. This isn't Goldenrod's City's too-far-out-there remix, though. Even with all the differences, safe is somehow the word I would describe for Ecruteak's approach.

They already had a great song, and pretty much all they had to do is not fuck with it beyond recognition. And they didn't! It's a fairly straightforward conversion, gratuitous shamisen aside. I guess this sort of feels more like a lay-up shot with some added weirdness than an above-and-beyond transcending effort. However, this song is sacred to me, so the (mostly) cautious approach is fine.

Besides, it still has the same sense of quiet pensive nostalgia to it, so in that sense it's perfect. I'm not crying now like I was in Azalea, but I am sitting here just kind of... thinking about things.

Yeah. This is good. I like this.

... You know, thinking about it, I'm really grateful to the entire Pokemon franchise. It was such a huge part of my childhood, it got me through so many hard times. I love how it's still there even now with things like Ultra Sun/Moon coming out soon. They made something I could grow up with. These games have always there for me, and--

Whoa whoa whoa where the hell is this level of sentimental introspection coming from? Wow, Ecruteak City's music is a powerful force; do not trifle with it lightly. Noted.

Let's move on.

Bill is in Ecruteak's Pokemon Center. Upon seeing us, gives a quick "Oh hi did you know I invented the PC storage system anyway gotta run" speech and returns home to Goldenrod. This accomplishes two things: One, "SOMEONE'S PC" is now renamed to "BILL's PC" when using the menu to adjust my party. Two, Bill is now in Goldenrod, and will give us something nice if we backtrack and talk to him there. More on that later.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is causing trouble in the Kimono Dance Theater, where a Rocket Grunt is harassing a very familiar kimono-clad woman. This is... not the scene I remember from the original game. I don't recall Team Rocket there at all. I just remember walking into the theater, there being five of them, and they each battled you with a different Eeveelution. Here, there's only the one, I rescued her by fighting off the Rocket Grunt (he only had one Lv. 12 Koffing; Omnihunter destroyed it in one hit) and now the kimono-clad woman is muttering to herself about how I'm kind and strong and that person certainly does know what to look for in people, which is mysterious foreshadowing on which she refuses to elaborate for now.

But hey, I get the Surf HM for my troubles. For all my complaining about Rock Smash and Cut being needlessly redundant and poor field moves that are just there to deal with obstacles they specifically made up to have something you need the HMs to remove, and for all my complaining about most of the field moves being poor in battle, Surf is the major exception. It's such a good Water-type attack that I will teach it to Auryn the next time Auryn is in my party, and I don't even have the gym badge to use it outside of battle yet. Outside of battle, it lets you ride around in water tiles and is basically the boat from any early Final Fantasy game. That is a good thing to have. Surf is a good move.

Oddly, though, we still don't have the HM for Strength, even though we've had the badge that lets us use it outside of battle ever since we beat Whitney.

The next location that isn't blocked off by a chain of "you can't pass this barrier until you have the gym badge but the gym leader is off doing a thing" sidequests is Burned Tower. Inside, a man named Eusine tells me he's looking for a legendary Pokemon named Suicune. (Real subtle, there.) He has a pretty cool theme, and now I finally know who that magician-looking fellow from the intro is. This definitely wasn't in Gold/Silver. Crystal, maybe?

"I heard rumors that SUICUNE is here, so I came to look," he says, on the first floor with a giant hole in the ground from which you can very clearly see all three Legendary Beasts hanging out in the basement. He explains that if he goes downstairs, they would run away.

Oops, Silver is here, looking to catch the Legendary Beasts because they're strong. I wasn't quite prepared for this battle, but let's see if the team I have on hand can get the job done.

I lead with Empress, and Silver leads with Gastly. I try to set up the screens-and-switch strategy, but Gastly uses a combination of Mean Look, Confuse Ray, Lick, and Curse to keep her flailing uselessly, paralyzed, confused, and unable to switch out while her HP quickly depletes. Asshole.

Since Empress can't escape, it's up to her to try to outdamage and beat Gastly in a fight despite parafusion and being a Bayleef, and... oh, honey. At least she tried.

Empress can't drop Gastly to 0 HP, but she can at least bring it perilously close, at which point Silver switches it out and sends in his Quilava. That breaks Mean Look, so I'm free to switch out as well. Empress's screens are both just about to wear off after having stayed in too long, but there is no way I'm keeping her in to renew them against a Fire-type when she's already at low health, disabled, and Cursed.

No, it's time to bring in... oh fuck, Auryn isn't here and Omnihunter is even weaker to Fire than Empress is. Uh... Falkor it is!

Falkor resists Fire attacks, and Dragon Rage's constant "does 40 damage, period" mechanic lets her beat Quilava in two hits. Next is Silver's Zubat. Kracko isn't here either, so Falkor two-Dragon Rage-KOs this one too.

Silver sends Gastly back, who is still at around 5% health from the self-inflicted Curse damage and whatever Empress could do. One Twister should be enough to-- oh, Gastly goes first and kills itself with another Curse, but now Falkor is Cursed too. You fucker.

Magnemite is Silver's last Pokemon. Steel resists almost everything except Fire. Geez, I just don't have any type advantages with me today, do I? Falkor's Dragon Rage is about the only thing that can do steady damage against it, but I can't really afford to use it; the combination of Curse damage and Magnemite's attacks do more than 50% damage, so if I don't heal every single round then Falkor will faint on the second. This is... not sustainable, obviously, so I need to switch her out. If Magnemite is going to resist everything anyway, I send in Omnihunter because at least he resists everything too. I very slowly wear Magnemite down for the win, a feat that was closer than it should have been because Magnemite can invoke parafusion too. Fuck Silver's entire team.

... Walking out of the tower to heal, it hits me. Oh my God, I completely forgot Atreyu was an option. He had a 40-damage move and Fighting is actually Super Effective against Steel.

... Well. I had like a million healing items from the Pokewalker, that's like remembering the answer to his Pokemon was right there, I guess. I mean, that works too.

Yeah I am pretty much the worst. Sigh.

Back in the tower, all that's left to do is go downstairs. Eusine mentioned that he couldn't go where the Legendary Beasts were, even though they were right there, because they would all run away the second he did. I go down instead, and the Legendary Beasts all run away the second I do.

THERE I FIXED IT YOU GUYS. I DID A GOOD. I'M HELPING.

The best part is that there was otherwise no reason to be in the basement; there are some items to collect, but they require Strength, which we don't have yet. The game just wanted me to trip that flag so that the gym would open up, I guess. Time to go get a badge for my outstanding deeds.

Ecruteak's gym is led by Morty, "The Mystic Seer of the Future." His title sounds like this should be a Psychic-themed gym, but it's actually Ghost. (Bugsy says: When in doubt, always check their name. Predestination is as strong in this series as it is in Ace Attorney.)

I don't remember how I beat this gym in original Silver, where you really don't have access to any Dark-type Pokemon at all until post-National Dex. This time, a fully-evolved Nimbly should just be able to swoop in and eat their lunch. Granted, that's what I said about Bugsy and Silver, so maybe I'm wrong.

I lead with Empress. Morty leads with a Gastly. Empress's job is to throw screens and leave; Silver messed that up with Mean Look last time. This time, Gastly uses Spite for its first move, which does nothing, and Empress gets a free Light Screen in return. Rather than push my luck, I take that one screen and quickly switch in Nimbly, who one-hit KOs Gastly with a Pursuit.

Morty's next Pokemon is a level 25 Gengar. That has to be his ace, so if I can take that thing down, the rest of the team shouldn't be as bad, right? Nimbly is in and ready to go, and I have seven turns of Light Screen on my side. Unless Gengar weighs Nimbly down with Curse Parafusion nonsense, things are looking good.

Gengar uses Mean Look instead, which is fine by me, because the last thing I want to do right now is switch out. In return, Pursuit brings Gengar close to death, but not quite close enough to do it in one hit. Next round, Gengar throws a Shadow Ball, but between Light Screen and Nimbly's type resistance, it barely scratches her. In return, a second Pursuit takes Gengar out of the picture. Yes! Looking good! Morty has two Pokemon left, but his biggest threat is gone.

His penultimate Pokemon is a Haunter, who sticks around just long enough to lay a Curse before Pursuit one-hit KOs it. Asshole.

That's fine, though; his final Pokemon is another Haunter, who tries Nightmare (which fails and does nothing) and it gets a one-hit KO Pursuit for its troubles as well.

Yeah, that gym wasn't so bad. I wonder, though. How did I do this without a Dark type last time? Huh.

Morty hands over the Fog Badge, which lets us use Surf outside of battle. He also hands over the TM for Shadow Ball. Finally, he gives us our next destination: West then south, across the sea using Surf, to Olivine City. However, we have a lot of loose ends to tie up before advancing the plot. Surf opens up all sorts of side routes just about everywhere. Having the Fog Badge lets us into Bell Tower, the other of Ecruteak's two towers. Those all sound like great ideas for next time, but there's one more thing to do right now, before I wrap this entry up.

Back in Goldenrod, Bill has indeed returned home, and he gives us an Eevee! It can evolve into one of several different forms, so we have plenty of options for what role (if any) this little fellow will serve on our team. There are problems with each selection, though. I'm really not sure which one would be the best choice, so everyone reading this with deep Pokemon team-building advice, please feel free to share.

• Espeon: Auryn pretty much already has the Psychic angle covered.
  
• Umbreon: I already have Nimbly covering Dark for now, and I plan to get a Houndoom post-National Dex.
  
• Vaporeon: After the super heavy-handed (as in "hold still and let me beat you over the head with my obvious metaphor") yet still good and gut-wrenching story about A Flareon Named Vaporeon, I would feel like a monster evolving this thing in that direction. Also, Auryn already has the Water type covered anyway.
  
• Jolteon: Kracko has Electric covered. I could swap them, I guess? Jolteon is equally good (Jolteon is significantly faster, but Kracko is bulkier.) I don't know, though. I like Kracko.
  
• Flareon: Houndoom should have Fire covered post-National Dex, but before then... hmm. If there's a window here where any Eeveelution could fit into the team, even a temporary one, this would be it. The current Fire type is Bam Bam who is... ehhhh. Flareon is cool and cute, and I would feel much better with evolving Eevee into Flareon after that story. The only problem is that Flareon is... not great. Yes, this is a game where you can pick the Pokemon you like instead of sticking to the Smogon-approved OU tier, but... well.... The problem, mostly, is a horrible mismatch between stats and movepool. Flareon has phenomenal Physical Attack, and dinstinctly not phenomenal Special Attack, but in Generation IV, every single Fire attack the poor thing learns is Special. (Well, except maybe Fire Fang.) This is fixed in later generations, but in later generations Sylveon exists and I'd just go that route instead. In the meantime, I really want to like Flareon, and my team badly needs a better Fire type, but this may be the one option I could find in the entire game that's actually worse.
  
• Leafeon and Glaceon: I've never had either of these before, so I don't know if they're any good. God knows "good Ice-type Pokeon" is almost an oxymoron in the earlier generations, so there would definitely be room. The problem is that these two don't exist in HG/SS; I'd have to trade my Eevee over to Diamond, evolve it there, and trade it back, which sounds like way too much work to be worth it.

Basically, what I need is someone to talk me into why using Flareon actually wouldn't be a terrible idea, or why Jolteon is worth taking over Ampharos, or why Glaceon/Leafeon are so essential that they're worth using an entire second game just to evolve. Otherwise, I'll probably just end up boxing thing and waiting until I can Sylveonize it later.

I shall leave you all with this to ponder. For now, I do believe we're just about done here.

Next time: Bell Tower! Surfing! Maybe plot progression? We'll see.

Comments

[dreadlordmrson]

Mom is really terrible at taking care of your money.
I mean, you can get cool things from her sometimes, but still.
Mom, I gave that to you so I could save it.
What sort of example are you for financial responsibility?

Yeah in the Pokémon comic I started (and abandoned) years ago I wrote her as a bit of a ditz.

It's interesting to read about other people's feelings on Pokémon music.
I never developed such a relationship with it, I almost always had my sound off completely.

Suikun (you can't make me change to the localized spelling!) is my favorite beast from G/S. :3
I don't really have anything else to say on the subject, I just love Suikun.

If I remember right, I beat the Ghost gym in GS with my Bite-y Psybane the Espeon. :3
Ah, no, it must not have been, if you get the Eevee after beating the gym.
Hm, now I wonder what I did use?

My favorite Eeveelution is Umbreon, and I'm also fond of Espeon and Vaporeon.

I don't know much about Glaceon or *shudders* "Leafeon".
God, I'm still so mad they didn't name it "Foleon".
Foliage, Foleon. Come on, Gamefreak!
Honestly, I'd argue against "Leafeon" just for the terrible, terrible name.

[kjorteo]

What is Mom's game, anyway? She acts like every time she does this is some sort of impulse "I was minding my own business and saving your money but then I saw this cool thing I just had to have," but then she turns around and gives the purchase to you.

I'll elaborate on this more in the next entry proper, but I noticed that the now-roaming Entei and Raikou already appear on my map, rather than having to completely luck into them once and then track them through their "Seen" entry in the Pokedex afterward. I also noticed that it's just those two; Suikun/cune is nowhere to be seen. I assume they're borrowing from Crystal and there's some plot nonsense that I wouldn't know because I never played Crystal.

You get Eevee after speaking with Bill in Ecruteak (who's just there in the Pokemon Center) and then again in Goldenrod; there's no reason you have to wait until after beating the gym for that. It would involve some rather odd backtracking (Ecruteak back to Goldenrod while you still clearly had unfinished business in Ecruteak, just to get your Eevee, then back to Ecruteak again afterward?) but it's certainly possible.

[dreadlordmrson]

I honestly can't remember whether I backtracked for Eevee or not, it was so long ago.
But it's entirely in-character for me, so...

Man, having the less plot-involved beasts show up without finding them first is such a great quality of life upgrade from GS. It was a pain to find them in GS.
I couldn't tell you much about Crystal's plot, I don't think I played it.
And if I had, I probably wouldn't explain because potential spoilers.
But plot nonsense sounds highly likely.

It's hard to guess what's going on with mom's purchasing habits.
Maybe she realizes that if it's your money maybe the thing she gets should go to you, but it's still weird.

The name I gave mom for the comic's verse was "Susan". :p

[penguinmayhem]

All nine eeveelutions are great. I don't care what anyone says.

Yes, I said all nine. Eevee gets overlooked so easy, but it's a pokemon with really solid all-rounder stats for a B-ish-tier mon and it learns Baton Pass and a BUNCH of moves. You can have Eevee give other pokemon some amazing stat boosts.

Or you can have it learn that, evolve, and then do even wackier things.

That said, yeah the lack of physical moves really smothers Flareon's ability to actually excel in this generation. It does have pretty good Special Defense to support itself, but being Fire type really doesn't help things there.

On the other hand, you've got Vaporeon who's just a fat slab of HP and you already have an amazing water-type, Umbreon is kinda slow and tanky and more about tricks and traps, Espeon is just a slightly worse Starmie who can't use STAB Surf, Jolteon is a glass cannon to end all glass cannons, and Leafeon and Glaceon are both... tricky to use.

Flareon is a perfectly decent choice in the short-term. It's definitely not going to stick around, but it'll do a decent job in the mean time. Unfortunately, it'll also take a while to learn anything really useful, so I guess you'd just have to slap Flamethrower on it and call it done because by the time it catches up you'll be at Indigo Plateau already.

Glaceon gets Icy Wind really early. And if you were a masochist, you could always go get an Ice Beam TM from Voltorb Flip (fuck that noise). If you really want a heavy Special Attacker that has decent defenses and the most kawaii uguu face of the whole family.

Umbreon is also a marginally decent choice. It's slow and has wimpy attacking stats, but it's a monstrous tank that can abuse Assurance, Toxic, Confuse Ray, another never-miss attack (Faint Attack) is always nice, and Swagger can be really fun on Umbreon.

That's my two cents anyway. Two semi-decent if slightly tricky to use alternatives, if either of those tickle your fancy, or just stick with Flareon and it'll be okay. Just don't take it to the dance theater.

[xaq_the_aereon]

One quick question: How are you on Steel-type attacks? I mainly ask because Flareon can learn Iron Tail (Physical, 100 power, can drop the target's Defense on a hit), which you'll get the TM for in Olivine City's Gym.

Also, if you have need of Ground-type moves, Flareon can also learn Dig (Physical, 80, also useful GTFOing a cave) from TM28, which you should've gotten back in National Park (or can buy at Celadon City for 2000P).

[kjorteo]

Steel: Omnihunter is a Scizor. He can't learn Iron Tail (God, can you imagine? I'm sad about this now) but Bullet Punch gets up to a total of 90 (I think?) after Technician and STAB, plus has Quick Attack priority, as opposed to 100 on a Flareon with none of these. Both have amazing Attack and that would give Flareon a useable move, though, albeit one with accuracy issues. Hmm.

Ground: Let's just say I have plans once I reach the Safari Zone.

[xaq_the_aereon]

Ah. Well then, never mind.

From the looks of things, it seems (and this is hard for me to say for obvious reasons) that Eevee simply isn't gonna have a place on your team...therefore, I suggest keeping it unevolved and let it be its normal, Normal, adorable self.

[xyzzysqrl]

About all I can add is that I've always really liked the DESIGN of Leafeon and I love it conceptually but when you're straight-up falling left and right over grass pokemon it's hard to justify going out of your way to get another, specialer grass pokemon.

Why not just go full Eevee and leave it an Eevee? NORMAL TYPE POWER ACTIVATE.

[kjorteo]

BEHOLD ULTIMATE NORMAL EEVEE POWER

[penguinmayhem]

Trying so hard not to gush about Extreme Evoboost.

[kjorteo]

My biggest complaint about Extreme Evoboost is that it (probably) does not actually play the Power Rangers theme when you use it, when it very clearly needs to.

But no, please, by all means. Go check the word count of any entry I've made in this LP so far, multiply it out by eleven entries (for just the first four badges,) and ask yourself if you really think I have any room to judge people gushing about Pokemon.

[chalcedony_starlings]

“gushing about”. Yes. Exactly. Ahem.

[kjorteo]

I am all for people gushing [about/over/all over/onto/into] Pokemon.

[kjorteo]

Actually, you know what? Going back to this one now because 1) like I said before, God knows I have zero room to judge when it comes to Pokemon-related gushing, but 2) I've actually been pondering this and have been curious this entire time, so now I have to know.

My guess is that it's probably something to do with giving an across the board +2 stages stat raise to all stats on a species that naturally by-level learns Baton Pass = hax? But please, by all means.

[penguinmayhem]

Eevee isn't a really good pokemon.

I don't mean to be mean to the poor ear-fetish-bait but it's true, it is kinda mediocre when it comes to competitive play, and even using it casually can be a bit tricky. It's a very middle-of-the-road pure Normal type, has a very even slab of stat numbers, and its biggest strength is in Special Defense. Of all things.

Looking at them, really, the entire eeveelution lineup is good-to-average-tier stuff. They're far from the greatest mons out there, but they're all pretty solidly good, except Poor Flareon. And also Sylveon because Sylveon is a monster. But a few particular qualities really tie the family line together besides the naming convention. They all have the same base stat total, and they all share the same base stat numbers in different configurations. But the most important one is the two moves they all learn.

Every Eeveelution learns Helping Hand at level 1, and every Eeveelution can learn Baton Pass as Eevee.

Eevee, thematically, is all about growth. You can't keep an Eevee without being a jerk to it. Either you manually cancel their evolution, or you don't take it fun places, or you keep it away from freaky glowing rocks or whatever. The point is, Eevee's natural state is to eventually become something different. It has so much potential, so many possibilities, but there's some kind of poetry in the fact that Eevee's potential lasts only so long as it remains unfulfilled. It can stay a child forever, forever unbound by the limits of its own dreams, but if it never grows up it can never achieve of those dreams. And, in doing so, it must sacrifice the freedom to dream.

Extreme Evoboost is shonen as all hell. It's literally Eevee's big brothers and sisters all believing in it to make it more powerful. But what can an Eevee do with that? Really, not that much.

Except give it to someone else.

Eevee is literally just sharing a tiny fraction of its own boundless optimism with you, because it has plenty to spare for itself.

And I'm going to stop there before I just start quoting Diebuster again.

[kjorteo]

... Okay, note to self, pressing for more info was absolutely the correct play here. A+ do this more.

*Ahem*

Extreme Evoboost certainly looks shonen as hell, such that the Power Rangers theme fits so perfectly over it like that, and this just made me love it about a zillion times more. I hadn't even thought about it like that, but... wow. You're right.

Man, and even if you keep your Eevee away from anything potentially evolution-inducing, even just being nice to it gets you three different potential evolutions, so you really do have to have a heart of stone to raise one, don't you. Well, or an Everstone, specifically, but.

I'm such a literal packrat that I have all these meticulously filed Too Awesome To Use Pokemon and TMs and such in my Diamond file (I just noticed last night that I somehow have two unused Master Balls) and this... this is an ephemeral Pokemon whose entire point is boundless potential designed to be consumed.

I... wow. I'm going to have to think about this.

[penguinmayhem]

Really belatedly but since I'm re-reading this so much, just wanted to comment.

Ecruteak's theme is wonderful. All the town themes in HGSS are real good. But my fave pokemon tune will always be Arceus. It's just so...so....

Indescribable.

[kjorteo]

Similarly belated reply, but the fact that you're reading my long-winded ramblings more than once is possibly the most blush-inducingly flattering I've heard in a while.

Arceus is majestic. I don't think I've heard his tune, though. Nintendo came up with this whole big special sidequest event where they would Mystery Gift you the item that kickstarted the long and involved road to you encountering it, and then instead they just Mystery Gifted Arceus itself and I was like "Oh uh okay well that works too I guess, thanks?"

[penguinmayhem]

I don't remember exactly what caused that little logistical snafu, but the data is still in the game and if you have an emulated ROM of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, you can still give yourself the Azure Flute and encounter it.

However, they did use Arceus' encounter theme in HGSS for another event. A very... INTERESTING event.

[kjorteo]

Ooh! Considering I have the giveaway Arceus on my Diamond file, I think I can actually trigger that event. I was going to save all the Ruins of Alph stuff for later, though, because I only want to make one trip and the "what all do I need to do everything while I'm there" question keeps expanding the more I look into it. At first it was because I didn't have Rock Smash or the radio card for that cool creepy Unown station, I actually still am not sure whether I need Strength but it probably couldn't hurt anyway, but then I did learn that one of the puzzle solutions is "Have Ho-Oh at the front of your party" and I'm looking like my SoulSilver game like "... oh."

So, yeah, that's probably going to be a post-National Dex thing. I will save listening until then, because I'm kind of weird about musical spoilers.

[penguinmayhem]

Fortunately, you only have to wait until you've done the Radio Tower event to unlock the Ho-oh encounter this time. Which is surprisingly early for a "okay, here's your chance to get the other legendary" event.

But yeah the Ruins are a goldmine and I will probably flood your comments section when we get to that business. I'm sorry in advance.

[kjorteo]

You shouldn't be. If anything, that delights me to the point that it inspires me to press on because now I really want to see where this is going.