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kjorteoLast time:
I was too busy to play this game and make an update last weekend, but that ended up working out anyway. The narrow victory over Jasmine told me I needed to do some more leveling. Alas, if I don't have time to play this game to advance the plot, then I certainly don't have time to play it just to grind. That's all right, though. A second week of Pokewalking fixes everything! I'm going to miss the Pokewalker so much when I play Ultra Moon.
I tried to bring everyone to 35 or so, and while I didn't quite get to that point on every single mon, I at least reached an average of roughly 32-35 for everyone. I also hit some notable levels along the way (bringing my team back into the main game as necessary to avoid missing them):
While I'm sorting through my party, Joey calls to talk about his super-cool Rattata who is in the top percentage of Rattata, because of course he does.
Anyway, let's deal with all those TMs I just got!
Aerial Ace and Roost can go into storage for now.
Safeguard is for Empress. I already got impatient and gave her TMs for two of her screens she would have learned by level later on anyway, so why not add the third? You can just buy the Safeguard TM in Veilstone, so it's not like I was squandering a precious resource. And thus, Empress has now completed her personal barrier trio. Depending on which specific screen(s) I use, she now has the power to set up a field effect that halves incoming Physical-based damage taken (Reflect,) halves incoming Special-based damage taken (Light Screen,) or prevents status ailments (Safeguard). The latter only lasts five turns no matter what (as opposed to the former two which get eight thanks to the Light Clay,) but still. Eat it, Magnemites.
Finally, Hidden Power is a gamble with the intent of being for Oracle if it works out. Hidden Power is a special move whose power ranges between 30 and 70 and its typing can be anything, all depending on the innate and immeasurable inner soul (read: calculated from their IVs) of the Pokemon using it. Giving Oracle Dig as a counter-the-counters move wasn't the worst idea, except that Dig is a physical move, and Glaceon's Attack stat compared to Special Attack is... not great. I played around with a damage calculator, and it actually turns out that despite the type advantage multiplier, a Super Effective Dig from Glaceon is less effective than a Not Very Effective Ice Beam in most cases. (Major exception: the Magnemite family, because Ground is a quad weakness for them.) Hidden Power is a Special Attack. Therefore, if it somehow turns out that Oracle's Hidden Power is a decently-powered Ground move (which is a long shot akin to the Master Ball lottery, I know,) that would be a huge upgrade.
Let's experiment. Be right back.
...
So it turns out that Oracle's Hidden Power type is Fighting. I was hoping for Ground, since it could exploit the Magnemite family's quad weakness and also beat Fire. On the other hand, Fighting does still beat Steel, which was at least one of the problems I was trying to solve. Against a generic hypothetical pure Steel type with no second type and equal Defense and Special Defense, Hidden Power Fighting only needs a power of 35 (again, on a possible scale of 30 to 70) to at least tie Ice Beam, and 44 to beat Dig. In this case, it has... well, I'll probably never know for sure how high Oracle's Hidden Power actually is. Still, there's good enough odds of it being probably-not-terrible I consider this is a good roll. I'll take it.
With my team's upgrades complete, it's time to move on. The crowd in Jasmine's gym suggested that our next stop is Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage, both of which are east from Ecruteak. I did mention that I had business I wanted to take care of in the Safari Zone, but apparently I misunderstood the timing on that. The thing I want to do there is post-National Dex. I was still good to get everything set up in advance, but... we'll see the fruits of that effort later. Much later.
So. East from Ecruteak for now. Forging a team out of the Pokemon who haven't quite hit 35 yet, we have Empress, Auryn, Nimbly, Atreyu, and Omnihunter. And Sweetie, who is still a level 8 non-combatant. Seems like a fairly solid team for now!
Route 42 connects to Mt. Mortar, which is an optional side area with extra trainers to battle and items to gather and such. However, it requires an HM we don't have yet to access the deepest area, and I don't want to do this dungeon twice. I'll just ignore it for now, Surfing across the water in Route 42 to progress instead.
As I first enter the area, a hiker charges out of the cave without watching where he's going, plowing directly into me. Quickly apologizing, he makes it up to me by giving me the HM for Strength! It's kind of like Rock Smash, only instead of breaking certain rocks, it activates "Okay, you're Strong now" mode, which lets certain other rocks be pushed around in obligatory pushable block puzzles. Not the greatest or most well designed field move in the series, but then again, the last one we got was Fly. Anything will be a letdown compared to that. It's a bit forced, but the series generally does a good job of at least making Strength a thing you need, so that goes to Sweetie.
It turns out that Surfing across the lakes instead of progressing through the mountain caves was the correct choice, as there's another Suicune sighting in the middle of the route! This time, because it's apparently Tackle Celine Day, Suicune charges and pushes me out of the way, then takes off running further east.
Of course, any Suicune sighting summons Eusine. "How brave it is!" he muses as he rushes up to me. "How refreshing it is! How beautiful it is!" Eusine. Honey. I mean, he's not the first raging Pokephile we've encountered in this game, I guess, and at least he's setting his sights high.
"Celine! You seem to be around where SUICUNE would appear." I could say the same, you know. It's just that my encounters are less intentional.
"Well, that's okay. My desire to search for SUICUNE is far beyond yours..." Uh, yeah, clearly. Definitely not arguing that one.
"My grandpa was...quite into myths." Why the euphemistic pause there, Eusine? Is there something awkward about just how into these myths your grandpa was? Is Suicune-fucking a proud tradition in your family?
"SUICUNE... I won't stop following you until I've found out what you're after..." And off he goes again. Well, uh, good luck with that.
Fisherman Tully gives us his number upon defeat. "I want to become the Trainer Champ using the Pokemon I caught." Tully, your entire party is one level 19 Qwilfish. Let me know how that works out for you.
Mahogany Town is "Home of the Ninja" according to a sign out front. It straight up reuses the Cherrygrove City theme, but that's fine. It's a good theme. The first building from the entrance has the following sign out front:
"Just a Souvenier Shop
Nothing Suspicious about It
No Need to Be Alarmed"
... Uh huh. There's also a radio antenna conspicuously sticking out from the tree next to the building. And if all of this wasn't obvious enough, in the original games you can also buy SlowpokeTails in this shop, though they've been removed from this version.
There's a guy standing in front of the gym and blocking access for now (of course,) and he mentions some other guy in a cape wandering around investigating strange radio signals from this area. Sure enough, accessing the Pokegear radio card in this town plays nothing but this. There's nothing else to do in town (Mahogany is a very small town,) so we may as well investigate as well. To the Lake of Rage!
En route, we beat and collect the number from Picnicker Tiffany and Poke Maniac Brent.
Great moments in NPC dialogue: "It's OK for people to like different types of Pokemon. Pokemon isn't just about having the most powerful one." This was coming from a Trainer who had just complained about a certain red-haired kid making fun of his Nidoking beforehand, so I applaud his defiant rejection of Silver's way of thinking.
The Lake of Rage has different tide levels Wednesday vs. every other day of the week, with different trainers and items to find in each, so I'll have to play on Wednesday to get the stuff I missed. That's a neat feature that definitely was not in the game before.
One thing that is the same, though, is that there's a red Gyarados as a single unique encounter in the middle of the lake. Back in generation 2, this was the game's way of introducing you to the concept of a Shiny Pokemon; the red Gyarados is just a Shiny Gyarados with a guaranteed plot encounter.
Shinies, for those unfamiliar, are just rare palette swaps. They are sought after because... well, they're incredibly rare. Any battle you get into has a 1 in 8,192 chance of being Shiny. Later games introduce ways to increase these odds, which turns Shiny hunting into more of a grind, and I feel like a lot of the magic is gone now as a result. I prefer to leave it up to chance; if I happen to see a Shiny then that is a really awesome stroke of luck that's totally worth freaking out about, and if not, then whatever. They're supposed to be an unexpected treat, not a chore.
That being said, it's worth noting that this is the first Shiny I've encountered in this game, and it was given to us by the plot. I have hit that lucky roll of just minding my own business, getting into a normal random encounter, and then "oh holy crap it's a Shiny" exactly once in the entire series, and that was when I caught a Shiny Kricketot in Diamond. The Kricketot line is... kind of garbage, actually, but I still treasure mine. I treasure it more than I do a few other Diamond Shinies of actual useful Pokemon but that I chained for, actually. The chained ones were more of a "fucking finally" reaction when I encountered them. My Kricketot is special.
Joey calls while I'm still out in the lake, to brag about having taken out a Weedle the other day. I look over at the shiny Gyarados I just caught like... well done, Joey. Congratulations. You must be very proud.
Back on shore, there's a new person standing there, with a Dragonite following him. He confirms that the red Gyarados wasn't acting right because someone must have forced it to evolve, that strange radio signal being the most likely cause. He then introduces himself as Lance and buddy, you're one to talk, since you have a fully evolved Dragonite fifteen levels early.
This was a moment that made me squee back in the original game. Lance was the fourth of the Elite Four in the Red/Blue game. There was a very strong feeling of "Aaa, this character I recognize is back for the sequel!" I like Lance, and it's great to see him again. And he's getting involved in the plot this time, too! Eeee!
Back in the perfectly ordinary souvenier shop, I arrive just in time to see Lance and his Dragonite facing down an unarmed (un-Pokemoned?) associate of the store.
"DRAGONITE, Hyper Beam."
Dude. Lance does not mess around and also wow this got dark. It's not even an idle threat or a "NO! WAIT! I'LL TALK!" style de-escalation or anything; Dragonite actually does it, and the guy is sent flying hard into the opposite wall. He's okay, somehow, but good God.
After the attempted murder, Lance moves a shelf aside to reveal a secret staircase leading to... Team Rocket HQ. Of course.
This is a winding building dungeon with Lance doing a lot of off-screen work while we come in behind him and fight through all the Team Rocket Grunts that he apparently missed. Silver also shows up at one point, just to mention that he fought Lance and lost badly, but oh well, he'll just get stronger Pokemon next time. Lance apparently left him with the advice that he doesn't love his Pokemon enough, which only makes him even grouchier because STRONG POKEMON STRONG POKEMON STRENGTH IS ALL THAT MATTERS etc. ... I really should have named the rival in this game "Smogon" huh.
In a basement office is none other than Giovanni himself!... actually, it's a guy who tries his best to impersonate Giovanni, but his disguise quickly falls apart. It's really Executive Petrel, who is fresh off letting Link use his steamship.
I feel obligated to do a move-for-move recap of the fight because it's a boss battle, but I'm not going to, because he's really little more than the cannon fodder Grunts I've been facing up until now. I lead with Auryn and sweep his entire team. There. I mean, a Raticate hit Auryn, like, once, because it had a priority move.
After his defeat, Petrel explains that Giovanni went missing after the events of Red/Blue, which would be three years before the events of this game. Team Rocket has been aimless since then, leftover soldiers from a broken army with nothing left to do but keep fighting for a cause that already lost. Tactics Ogre calls this faction "Remnants," and they are one of the three primary sources for generated random encounter fodder alongside Highwaymen and Unknown (monsters and stuff.)
But Petrel believes Giovanni will come back when the time is right, like a sort of evil criminal version of King Arthur. Undeterred, Petrel runs off to keep working on their plan. The final chamber in this lair is opened by Petrel's voice, which he's obviously not willing to provide. However, the Murkrow next to him can mimic it convincingly enough, and is mischievous enough to fly around the base shouting the password at random. All we have to do is herd him in the general direction of the door, and he'll blurt out the password and let us in. Great security, guys.
Behind the door, Executive Arianna declares that it's time to finish me once and for all, with her brilliant and unstoppable plan of having backup. Because no matter how strong I am, I couldn't possibly defeat two trainers, right?
But not so fast! Lance and his inappropriately-leveled Dragonite are here to make the save! Arianna's ambush is now a team battle with her and a random Rocket Grunt versus Lance and me. This is going to be a slaughter.
They lead with a Drowzee and Arbok. We lead with my Auryn and Lance's Dragonite. My finger slips and I accidentally have Auryn Psychic the Pokemon who's strong against it rather than the one who's weak against it, but it's a one-hit KO on Drowzee anyway. Dragonite flies up into the air, and Arbok paralyzes Auryn. Jerk.
Grimer replaces Drowzee, but before it can do anything, Dragonite comes back down with Fly and one-hit KOs it. Arbok paralyzes Dragonite. Auryn gets a Psychic off through the Paralysis and down goes Arbok.
Arianna sends out a Gloom. The Grunt is apparently out of Pokemon, so this is now a two on one. Auryn gets a Psychic off and it's now a zero on one. Dragonite loses its turn to Paralysis, but there wouldn't have been anything for it to attack anyway.
Arianna's final Pokemon is a Murkrow. I can't Psychic this one, so I Swift instead. It's not quite a one-hit KO, but Auryn and the Dragonite both get to move despite Paralysis, and Dragonite's Twister finishes it off.
Arianna brushes off the loss, as the broadcast experiment was a total success and therefore it doesn't matter what happens to this base now. They have bigger plans.
With Lance's help, we shut the radio signal down, and this base is officially cleared. Lance rewards us with the HM for Whirlpool, which is literally Cut and Rock Smash only it gets rid of/lets you pass water obstacles (whirlpools) instead of land ones (trees or rocks.) I really am not going to miss HMs when I play Ultra Moon.
The guy blocking the gym is no longer there, so it's time to get another badge. Mahogany's gym leader is Pryce, "The Teacher of Winter's Harshness." So, Ice-type. Determined not to make the same mistake I did against Jasmine, I tried to put a little more research into this one. I didn't outright look up what Pokemon he has, but I looked up what his options would be, like what Ice type Pokemon there even are in the first few generations, and the best way to beat most of them.
A lot of dual-types make it harder than it sounds to take down the supposedly defensively bad Ice type, because the second type covers the counter. For example, if I went in assuming Ice meant I could just burn down the whole gym with Fire and it turned out he had a Lapras, that would be... bad. Likewise for trying to punch my way through with Ice's Fighting-type weakness, only to run into a Jynx.
Between all the possibilities and their respective offenses and defenses, I have concluded that the safest bet is a physically-focused Steel type. In other words, if my calculations are correct, Omnihunter should have this. I'll augment the coverage as best I can with the rest of my team, though, just in case. I end up riding off into battle with Omnihunter, Empress, Kracko, Auryn, Atreyu, and Falkor.
I lead with Empress. Pryce leads with Seel, which, okay, that's not even an Ice type. It probably has Ice Beam or something, though. See, this is why I was trying to be more careful going into this gym.
Empress throws a Light Screen and eats an Icy Wind. Then she throws a Safeguard and eats another Icy Wind. At this point, Kracko could probably deal with a pure Water-type Seel more effectively than Omnihunter could, but I don't know what Pryce has after this. Eh... oh, why not, I can always switch again.
Kracko switches in, while the Seel sets up a hailstorm. The hail damages both of us because hey, Seel, you're not an Ice type, either. Kracko then blasts Seel with Discharge for a one-hit KO at the start of next round, and Pryce sends in Piloswine.
That one's not just a real Ice type, but Ice/Ground. Well, I did say this could happen and I'd just switch again if it did. Kracko out, Omnihunter in. Omnihunter eats a Blizzard on switching in!? Oh, right, hail. Fortunately, between Steel being strong against Ice and Light Screen being up, it does barely any damage.
Metal Claw doesn't quite one-hit KO Piloswine but it does come very close. In return, Ice Fang does almost nothing. Safeguard wears off. Next round, another Metal Claw goes first and finishes Piloswine off. Pryce sends in Dewgong. The hailstorm wears off.
I only have one or two rounds of Light Screen left and I'd rather not spend them switching Kracko back in, especially since Dewgong is a real Ice type (and therefore weak to Steel.) Omnihunter can end this.
Dewgong uses Icy Wind to almost no effect. Omnihunter uses Metal Claw to literally no effect, since it misses. Light Screen wears off. Eh, whatever, let's keep going. Dewgong uses Aurora Beam which hurts a little more without Light Screen, but it's still not catastrophic. Metal Claw is, though; it connects for about 75% of Dewgong's health.
Dewgong uses Rest at the start of next round, which puts it to sleep but fully restores its health. The Metal Claw that would have finished it now instead brings it back down to where it was before it did that. Cute trick, but that only works once. Can't rest again when you're already asleep.
Or can you? This Dewgong knows Sleep Talk, which is a move used when one is asleep that activates one of its other three moves at random. Sleep Talk could have activated Rest again, I suppose. It doesn't, though. Instead, it fires off another Aurora Beam, which still doesn't hurt too bad. In return, one more Metal Claw ends it.
Pryce hands over the Glacier Badge, which lets us use Whirlpool outside of battle. Yaaaay. He also hands over the TM for Hail, which would have been really useful for Oracle if I hadn't already used the one I got in Diamond.
As soon as we step outside the gym, the phone rings. Professor Elm calls to let us know something weird is going on with the radio broadcasts. Sure enough, every radio station is now broadcasting a test message from Team Rocket, announcing that they've returned, and asking if Giovanni can hear this.
That was their plan all along. That was what their experiment with broadcasting at the Lake of Rage was for. Like lost children still searching for their missing dad, Team Rocket had just enough dedication to build a secret base, figure out radio broadcasting, and come up with this much of a plan, but their endgame was "Call for Giovanni, and if he's out there somewhere and hears our broadcast, maybe he'll come back and he'll know what to do." I almost feel sorry for them, except for the fact that they're still a ruthless criminal enterprise that just took over the radio tower.
Will their plan work? If Giovanni is still out there somewhere, will he hear the broadcast before I can liberate the tower? Would he really return if he did?
His disappearance left a lot of mysteries for everyone, even (especially) his own former subordinates. With any luck, though, perhaps we'll find out the answers to at least some of those questions next time.
I was too busy to play this game and make an update last weekend, but that ended up working out anyway. The narrow victory over Jasmine told me I needed to do some more leveling. Alas, if I don't have time to play this game to advance the plot, then I certainly don't have time to play it just to grind. That's all right, though. A second week of Pokewalking fixes everything! I'm going to miss the Pokewalker so much when I play Ultra Moon.
I tried to bring everyone to 35 or so, and while I didn't quite get to that point on every single mon, I at least reached an average of roughly 32-35 for everyone. I also hit some notable levels along the way (bringing my team back into the main game as necessary to avoid missing them):
- Omnihunter learned Slash, which isn't exactly his best final endgame master move or anything, but it replaced Leer I mean come on.
- Atreyu learned Submission, which is the closest thing he has so far to a pure high-power move that isn't some situational thing that's only high-power if you do X. For a type I just said (and still say) is too straightforward to be a threat in a gym, the Machop line's learnset sure is some gimmicky bullshit until at least the early 40s. Submission still has a catch, though: recoil damage. However, even that is refreshingly normal compared to "use this one if the target is heavy," "use this one if the target strikes first and deals damage," etc.
- Kracko learned Discharge, which is a pure upgrade to Thundershock. He also evolved into Ampharos, achieving his final form!
- Empress evolved into Meganium, achieving her final form as well! Sadly, there is no Mega Evolution yet in generation IV, so we won't get to see the Mega Mega Meganium.
- Semi-unrelated, but I also felt like taking care of an extra errand or two in Diamond (it turns out that I beat that game but I never did any of the post-game Legendary stuff, so I started on a tiny bit of that.) While I was there anyway, I also traded over a small care package to my SoulSilver file. Nothing too exciting, just some TMs (Hidden Power, Aerial Ace, Roost, the aforementioned Safeguard,) an Old Amber, and some Wise Glasses, the latter of which I put on Auryn. Don't ask how Starmies wear glasses. All of that came with some more random low-level trade bait I got off the GTS back in the day, because you can never have too big a collection of other people's OT numbers when you play the Master Ball lottery. There's one Pokemon in this batch I may use in the post-game, but... eh. Probably not, and not worth getting into unless I change my mind.
While I'm sorting through my party, Joey calls to talk about his super-cool Rattata who is in the top percentage of Rattata, because of course he does.
Anyway, let's deal with all those TMs I just got!
Aerial Ace and Roost can go into storage for now.
Safeguard is for Empress. I already got impatient and gave her TMs for two of her screens she would have learned by level later on anyway, so why not add the third? You can just buy the Safeguard TM in Veilstone, so it's not like I was squandering a precious resource. And thus, Empress has now completed her personal barrier trio. Depending on which specific screen(s) I use, she now has the power to set up a field effect that halves incoming Physical-based damage taken (Reflect,) halves incoming Special-based damage taken (Light Screen,) or prevents status ailments (Safeguard). The latter only lasts five turns no matter what (as opposed to the former two which get eight thanks to the Light Clay,) but still. Eat it, Magnemites.
Finally, Hidden Power is a gamble with the intent of being for Oracle if it works out. Hidden Power is a special move whose power ranges between 30 and 70 and its typing can be anything, all depending on the innate and immeasurable inner soul (read: calculated from their IVs) of the Pokemon using it. Giving Oracle Dig as a counter-the-counters move wasn't the worst idea, except that Dig is a physical move, and Glaceon's Attack stat compared to Special Attack is... not great. I played around with a damage calculator, and it actually turns out that despite the type advantage multiplier, a Super Effective Dig from Glaceon is less effective than a Not Very Effective Ice Beam in most cases. (Major exception: the Magnemite family, because Ground is a quad weakness for them.) Hidden Power is a Special Attack. Therefore, if it somehow turns out that Oracle's Hidden Power is a decently-powered Ground move (which is a long shot akin to the Master Ball lottery, I know,) that would be a huge upgrade.
Let's experiment. Be right back.
...
So it turns out that Oracle's Hidden Power type is Fighting. I was hoping for Ground, since it could exploit the Magnemite family's quad weakness and also beat Fire. On the other hand, Fighting does still beat Steel, which was at least one of the problems I was trying to solve. Against a generic hypothetical pure Steel type with no second type and equal Defense and Special Defense, Hidden Power Fighting only needs a power of 35 (again, on a possible scale of 30 to 70) to at least tie Ice Beam, and 44 to beat Dig. In this case, it has... well, I'll probably never know for sure how high Oracle's Hidden Power actually is. Still, there's good enough odds of it being probably-not-terrible I consider this is a good roll. I'll take it.
With my team's upgrades complete, it's time to move on. The crowd in Jasmine's gym suggested that our next stop is Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage, both of which are east from Ecruteak. I did mention that I had business I wanted to take care of in the Safari Zone, but apparently I misunderstood the timing on that. The thing I want to do there is post-National Dex. I was still good to get everything set up in advance, but... we'll see the fruits of that effort later. Much later.
So. East from Ecruteak for now. Forging a team out of the Pokemon who haven't quite hit 35 yet, we have Empress, Auryn, Nimbly, Atreyu, and Omnihunter. And Sweetie, who is still a level 8 non-combatant. Seems like a fairly solid team for now!
Route 42 connects to Mt. Mortar, which is an optional side area with extra trainers to battle and items to gather and such. However, it requires an HM we don't have yet to access the deepest area, and I don't want to do this dungeon twice. I'll just ignore it for now, Surfing across the water in Route 42 to progress instead.
As I first enter the area, a hiker charges out of the cave without watching where he's going, plowing directly into me. Quickly apologizing, he makes it up to me by giving me the HM for Strength! It's kind of like Rock Smash, only instead of breaking certain rocks, it activates "Okay, you're Strong now" mode, which lets certain other rocks be pushed around in obligatory pushable block puzzles. Not the greatest or most well designed field move in the series, but then again, the last one we got was Fly. Anything will be a letdown compared to that. It's a bit forced, but the series generally does a good job of at least making Strength a thing you need, so that goes to Sweetie.
It turns out that Surfing across the lakes instead of progressing through the mountain caves was the correct choice, as there's another Suicune sighting in the middle of the route! This time, because it's apparently Tackle Celine Day, Suicune charges and pushes me out of the way, then takes off running further east.
Of course, any Suicune sighting summons Eusine. "How brave it is!" he muses as he rushes up to me. "How refreshing it is! How beautiful it is!" Eusine. Honey. I mean, he's not the first raging Pokephile we've encountered in this game, I guess, and at least he's setting his sights high.
"Celine! You seem to be around where SUICUNE would appear." I could say the same, you know. It's just that my encounters are less intentional.
"Well, that's okay. My desire to search for SUICUNE is far beyond yours..." Uh, yeah, clearly. Definitely not arguing that one.
"My grandpa was...quite into myths." Why the euphemistic pause there, Eusine? Is there something awkward about just how into these myths your grandpa was? Is Suicune-fucking a proud tradition in your family?
"SUICUNE... I won't stop following you until I've found out what you're after..." And off he goes again. Well, uh, good luck with that.
Fisherman Tully gives us his number upon defeat. "I want to become the Trainer Champ using the Pokemon I caught." Tully, your entire party is one level 19 Qwilfish. Let me know how that works out for you.
Mahogany Town is "Home of the Ninja" according to a sign out front. It straight up reuses the Cherrygrove City theme, but that's fine. It's a good theme. The first building from the entrance has the following sign out front:
"Just a Souvenier Shop
Nothing Suspicious about It
No Need to Be Alarmed"
... Uh huh. There's also a radio antenna conspicuously sticking out from the tree next to the building. And if all of this wasn't obvious enough, in the original games you can also buy SlowpokeTails in this shop, though they've been removed from this version.
There's a guy standing in front of the gym and blocking access for now (of course,) and he mentions some other guy in a cape wandering around investigating strange radio signals from this area. Sure enough, accessing the Pokegear radio card in this town plays nothing but this. There's nothing else to do in town (Mahogany is a very small town,) so we may as well investigate as well. To the Lake of Rage!
En route, we beat and collect the number from Picnicker Tiffany and Poke Maniac Brent.
Great moments in NPC dialogue: "It's OK for people to like different types of Pokemon. Pokemon isn't just about having the most powerful one." This was coming from a Trainer who had just complained about a certain red-haired kid making fun of his Nidoking beforehand, so I applaud his defiant rejection of Silver's way of thinking.
The Lake of Rage has different tide levels Wednesday vs. every other day of the week, with different trainers and items to find in each, so I'll have to play on Wednesday to get the stuff I missed. That's a neat feature that definitely was not in the game before.
One thing that is the same, though, is that there's a red Gyarados as a single unique encounter in the middle of the lake. Back in generation 2, this was the game's way of introducing you to the concept of a Shiny Pokemon; the red Gyarados is just a Shiny Gyarados with a guaranteed plot encounter.
Shinies, for those unfamiliar, are just rare palette swaps. They are sought after because... well, they're incredibly rare. Any battle you get into has a 1 in 8,192 chance of being Shiny. Later games introduce ways to increase these odds, which turns Shiny hunting into more of a grind, and I feel like a lot of the magic is gone now as a result. I prefer to leave it up to chance; if I happen to see a Shiny then that is a really awesome stroke of luck that's totally worth freaking out about, and if not, then whatever. They're supposed to be an unexpected treat, not a chore.
That being said, it's worth noting that this is the first Shiny I've encountered in this game, and it was given to us by the plot. I have hit that lucky roll of just minding my own business, getting into a normal random encounter, and then "oh holy crap it's a Shiny" exactly once in the entire series, and that was when I caught a Shiny Kricketot in Diamond. The Kricketot line is... kind of garbage, actually, but I still treasure mine. I treasure it more than I do a few other Diamond Shinies of actual useful Pokemon but that I chained for, actually. The chained ones were more of a "fucking finally" reaction when I encountered them. My Kricketot is special.
Joey calls while I'm still out in the lake, to brag about having taken out a Weedle the other day. I look over at the shiny Gyarados I just caught like... well done, Joey. Congratulations. You must be very proud.
Back on shore, there's a new person standing there, with a Dragonite following him. He confirms that the red Gyarados wasn't acting right because someone must have forced it to evolve, that strange radio signal being the most likely cause. He then introduces himself as Lance and buddy, you're one to talk, since you have a fully evolved Dragonite fifteen levels early.
This was a moment that made me squee back in the original game. Lance was the fourth of the Elite Four in the Red/Blue game. There was a very strong feeling of "Aaa, this character I recognize is back for the sequel!" I like Lance, and it's great to see him again. And he's getting involved in the plot this time, too! Eeee!
Back in the perfectly ordinary souvenier shop, I arrive just in time to see Lance and his Dragonite facing down an unarmed (un-Pokemoned?) associate of the store.
"DRAGONITE, Hyper Beam."
Dude. Lance does not mess around and also wow this got dark. It's not even an idle threat or a "NO! WAIT! I'LL TALK!" style de-escalation or anything; Dragonite actually does it, and the guy is sent flying hard into the opposite wall. He's okay, somehow, but good God.
After the attempted murder, Lance moves a shelf aside to reveal a secret staircase leading to... Team Rocket HQ. Of course.
This is a winding building dungeon with Lance doing a lot of off-screen work while we come in behind him and fight through all the Team Rocket Grunts that he apparently missed. Silver also shows up at one point, just to mention that he fought Lance and lost badly, but oh well, he'll just get stronger Pokemon next time. Lance apparently left him with the advice that he doesn't love his Pokemon enough, which only makes him even grouchier because STRONG POKEMON STRONG POKEMON STRENGTH IS ALL THAT MATTERS etc. ... I really should have named the rival in this game "Smogon" huh.
In a basement office is none other than Giovanni himself!... actually, it's a guy who tries his best to impersonate Giovanni, but his disguise quickly falls apart. It's really Executive Petrel, who is fresh off letting Link use his steamship.
I feel obligated to do a move-for-move recap of the fight because it's a boss battle, but I'm not going to, because he's really little more than the cannon fodder Grunts I've been facing up until now. I lead with Auryn and sweep his entire team. There. I mean, a Raticate hit Auryn, like, once, because it had a priority move.
After his defeat, Petrel explains that Giovanni went missing after the events of Red/Blue, which would be three years before the events of this game. Team Rocket has been aimless since then, leftover soldiers from a broken army with nothing left to do but keep fighting for a cause that already lost. Tactics Ogre calls this faction "Remnants," and they are one of the three primary sources for generated random encounter fodder alongside Highwaymen and Unknown (monsters and stuff.)
But Petrel believes Giovanni will come back when the time is right, like a sort of evil criminal version of King Arthur. Undeterred, Petrel runs off to keep working on their plan. The final chamber in this lair is opened by Petrel's voice, which he's obviously not willing to provide. However, the Murkrow next to him can mimic it convincingly enough, and is mischievous enough to fly around the base shouting the password at random. All we have to do is herd him in the general direction of the door, and he'll blurt out the password and let us in. Great security, guys.
Behind the door, Executive Arianna declares that it's time to finish me once and for all, with her brilliant and unstoppable plan of having backup. Because no matter how strong I am, I couldn't possibly defeat two trainers, right?
But not so fast! Lance and his inappropriately-leveled Dragonite are here to make the save! Arianna's ambush is now a team battle with her and a random Rocket Grunt versus Lance and me. This is going to be a slaughter.
They lead with a Drowzee and Arbok. We lead with my Auryn and Lance's Dragonite. My finger slips and I accidentally have Auryn Psychic the Pokemon who's strong against it rather than the one who's weak against it, but it's a one-hit KO on Drowzee anyway. Dragonite flies up into the air, and Arbok paralyzes Auryn. Jerk.
Grimer replaces Drowzee, but before it can do anything, Dragonite comes back down with Fly and one-hit KOs it. Arbok paralyzes Dragonite. Auryn gets a Psychic off through the Paralysis and down goes Arbok.
Arianna sends out a Gloom. The Grunt is apparently out of Pokemon, so this is now a two on one. Auryn gets a Psychic off and it's now a zero on one. Dragonite loses its turn to Paralysis, but there wouldn't have been anything for it to attack anyway.
Arianna's final Pokemon is a Murkrow. I can't Psychic this one, so I Swift instead. It's not quite a one-hit KO, but Auryn and the Dragonite both get to move despite Paralysis, and Dragonite's Twister finishes it off.
Arianna brushes off the loss, as the broadcast experiment was a total success and therefore it doesn't matter what happens to this base now. They have bigger plans.
With Lance's help, we shut the radio signal down, and this base is officially cleared. Lance rewards us with the HM for Whirlpool, which is literally Cut and Rock Smash only it gets rid of/lets you pass water obstacles (whirlpools) instead of land ones (trees or rocks.) I really am not going to miss HMs when I play Ultra Moon.
The guy blocking the gym is no longer there, so it's time to get another badge. Mahogany's gym leader is Pryce, "The Teacher of Winter's Harshness." So, Ice-type. Determined not to make the same mistake I did against Jasmine, I tried to put a little more research into this one. I didn't outright look up what Pokemon he has, but I looked up what his options would be, like what Ice type Pokemon there even are in the first few generations, and the best way to beat most of them.
A lot of dual-types make it harder than it sounds to take down the supposedly defensively bad Ice type, because the second type covers the counter. For example, if I went in assuming Ice meant I could just burn down the whole gym with Fire and it turned out he had a Lapras, that would be... bad. Likewise for trying to punch my way through with Ice's Fighting-type weakness, only to run into a Jynx.
Between all the possibilities and their respective offenses and defenses, I have concluded that the safest bet is a physically-focused Steel type. In other words, if my calculations are correct, Omnihunter should have this. I'll augment the coverage as best I can with the rest of my team, though, just in case. I end up riding off into battle with Omnihunter, Empress, Kracko, Auryn, Atreyu, and Falkor.
I lead with Empress. Pryce leads with Seel, which, okay, that's not even an Ice type. It probably has Ice Beam or something, though. See, this is why I was trying to be more careful going into this gym.
Empress throws a Light Screen and eats an Icy Wind. Then she throws a Safeguard and eats another Icy Wind. At this point, Kracko could probably deal with a pure Water-type Seel more effectively than Omnihunter could, but I don't know what Pryce has after this. Eh... oh, why not, I can always switch again.
Kracko switches in, while the Seel sets up a hailstorm. The hail damages both of us because hey, Seel, you're not an Ice type, either. Kracko then blasts Seel with Discharge for a one-hit KO at the start of next round, and Pryce sends in Piloswine.
That one's not just a real Ice type, but Ice/Ground. Well, I did say this could happen and I'd just switch again if it did. Kracko out, Omnihunter in. Omnihunter eats a Blizzard on switching in!? Oh, right, hail. Fortunately, between Steel being strong against Ice and Light Screen being up, it does barely any damage.
Metal Claw doesn't quite one-hit KO Piloswine but it does come very close. In return, Ice Fang does almost nothing. Safeguard wears off. Next round, another Metal Claw goes first and finishes Piloswine off. Pryce sends in Dewgong. The hailstorm wears off.
I only have one or two rounds of Light Screen left and I'd rather not spend them switching Kracko back in, especially since Dewgong is a real Ice type (and therefore weak to Steel.) Omnihunter can end this.
Dewgong uses Icy Wind to almost no effect. Omnihunter uses Metal Claw to literally no effect, since it misses. Light Screen wears off. Eh, whatever, let's keep going. Dewgong uses Aurora Beam which hurts a little more without Light Screen, but it's still not catastrophic. Metal Claw is, though; it connects for about 75% of Dewgong's health.
Dewgong uses Rest at the start of next round, which puts it to sleep but fully restores its health. The Metal Claw that would have finished it now instead brings it back down to where it was before it did that. Cute trick, but that only works once. Can't rest again when you're already asleep.
Or can you? This Dewgong knows Sleep Talk, which is a move used when one is asleep that activates one of its other three moves at random. Sleep Talk could have activated Rest again, I suppose. It doesn't, though. Instead, it fires off another Aurora Beam, which still doesn't hurt too bad. In return, one more Metal Claw ends it.
Pryce hands over the Glacier Badge, which lets us use Whirlpool outside of battle. Yaaaay. He also hands over the TM for Hail, which would have been really useful for Oracle if I hadn't already used the one I got in Diamond.
As soon as we step outside the gym, the phone rings. Professor Elm calls to let us know something weird is going on with the radio broadcasts. Sure enough, every radio station is now broadcasting a test message from Team Rocket, announcing that they've returned, and asking if Giovanni can hear this.
That was their plan all along. That was what their experiment with broadcasting at the Lake of Rage was for. Like lost children still searching for their missing dad, Team Rocket had just enough dedication to build a secret base, figure out radio broadcasting, and come up with this much of a plan, but their endgame was "Call for Giovanni, and if he's out there somewhere and hears our broadcast, maybe he'll come back and he'll know what to do." I almost feel sorry for them, except for the fact that they're still a ruthless criminal enterprise that just took over the radio tower.
Will their plan work? If Giovanni is still out there somewhere, will he hear the broadcast before I can liberate the tower? Would he really return if he did?
His disappearance left a lot of mysteries for everyone, even (especially) his own former subordinates. With any luck, though, perhaps we'll find out the answers to at least some of those questions next time.
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Date: 2017-11-20 03:30 am (UTC)