At this point I realize that I totally whiffed on getting the Town Map way back at the beginning, and need to make a trek back there through the treacherous Diglett's Cave.
Previously on Pokemon...
*cut to the boat shaking violently*
She'll Poke-battle women too, she doesn't even care!
Now she's Poke-battling the captain! LEAF is a MAD-WOMAN!
I'll bet you are, you sick freak!
The following takes place in the cavernous Diglett Cave.
"A great adventure! Is waiting for you ahead!"
"Hurry onward Lemmiwinks, or you'll soon be dead!"
"Lemmiwinks Lemmiwinks, the time is growing late! Slow down now and seal your fate!"
"There's still so many enemies and battles yet to fight! For Lemmiwinks the gerbil king, to be told another night!"
After getting back to the first town, I get the item I somehow forgot to get before. This is a pretty crucial thing for not getting lost.
It's a simple overworld though, and by now I should have it memorized.
Behind a rock, LEAF finds a rope. This'll help her tie up her victims.
Drowzee is like if the Space Jockeys from Alien engineered a new version of themselves and it went completely wrong. He's basically just here for people who never got Kadabra.
Elsewhere, we encounter Professor Oak's Aides.
Mankey reaches his final form. Now not only is he a profane monkey who flaunts his nether-regions...
...he's an ENRAGED profane monkey who flaunts his nether-regions.
Was hoping Annihilape was a further evolution in this version, but it appears that nope, that's much later in the series.
Rock Tunnel is next, and probably the first real major dungeon in the game (this is only half of it)
This random sign gives me my next big objective: Find the Silph Scope, which lets one see the invisible. Which sounds horrifying.
Gary's a real a-hole.
Here in Pokemon Tower, he has beefed up his team quite a bit, and is up to five 'mons now.
He leads off with Pidgeotto, who I quickly fry with Pikachu.
He was 13.
Oh damn, he's got his own OP Kadabra! Mine is considerably more OP though.
...and learns this move after the fight, which in this gen annihilates everything. Might as well just let Kadabra solo everything now and sponge up EXP.
We get the matchup of the TV show, Pikachu vs Meowth.
Apparently Meowth wanders the streets at night and picks up change? ......what?
Bulbasaur may be my least-favorite starter, but it has the benefit of evolving quicker than the other two. At a mere level 32, Ivysaur becomes Venusaur.
Fun Fact: Venusaur was the first Pokémon I ever saw, in a Nintendo Power article that showed the box art of the upcoming, and Japan-only, Pokemon Green for Game Boy. Was immediately intrigued. Just another example of how the Gen 1 designs are so good that most of them stand out and sell moychandise.
Gym 4 is next, and has Richie looking in the windows.
"Oh yeahhh, nice."
He isn't as into this as the Cerulean City Gym, though. That one is basically a bathing shrine.
"We need to do something about that peeping tom in the windows!"
As promised, this gym is full of women and they're all rocking sexy outfits, as most Poke-women do.
True Story: A friend of mine once told me that she realized she was gay from playing Pokemon games, because the women in the games were so much more appealing than the men / had much more visually stimulating outfits. So there you go.
"Look at my butt!" says the lass.
True Story: As a kid, Lisa was the name of my cute babysitter who finished level 2 of Kirby's Dream Land for me so I could see the rest of the game.
Erika is half-asleep (probably due to all the weed in this gym) and so was I apparently because I didn't get any shots of the battle. This is one that traditionally I always bring a Fire-type to and just have it wipe everything out easily. This time around I don't have any Fire-types so it's almost a real fight. However Kadabra deals with it well enough.
This gym occupies a weird place for me mentally. The Nintendo Power coverage of the game really only covered the first three gyms and everything around them, which led to me thinking of Lt. Surge as the Magus of the game, if that makes sense. The big early boss. Then everything after that was just sort of a mystery, and when I played the game I wasn't megahyped for this fight the way I was for the first 3 gyms.
I get the crucial Fly ability and can finally warp around. This is like the Town Map, another critical thing I should have gotten sooner. The only problem is, it has the HM curse and I have to put a mule in to cast it. In this case Fearow is off the bench just to be my warp mule.
Pokemon Tower has this healing spring that COULD be a great place to level-grind, except that random fights in here aren't a thing until later when the Silph Scope is acquired. And by then I'm not sure how useful these fights would be.
Still a lot of trainers to fight in here, though the dungeon can't be finished yet without the scope.
This gets me thinking about how I want my final group composition to look. A water-type would cover my current weakness to fire-types, so I need to find a Gyarados. The Poke-center outside Mt. Moon, here, has a Magikarp for sale.
That's $500 too much
Now begins the painstaking process of training this completely-useless fish until it reaches level 20 and evolves into the mighty Gyarados.
I'll have to keep Fearow around to Fly-mule until I get one of the legendary birds. Other than that, Venusaur and Kadabra are guaranteed spots, while Pikachu and Primeape are going to have a tougher time keeping their spots with the final party. Especially Pikachu, when Zapdos is functionally better in every regard. Primeape probably has a better shot at sticking around till the end. Never been a fan of Moltres, and a fighting-type is a must. Main question there is whether I find a Machop any time soon.
Eevee is another potentially good choice for the team. Flareon could cover my lack of fire-type.
Unfortunately, no room for Eevee, not with my Fly mule and...
...this USELESS FISH.
But...she's on the list. All of the lists.
If there's one thing I don't like about any version of Gen 1 Pokemon, it's the various Team Rocket dungeons with their confusing layouts, boring looks, and tedious lengths. I don't like any of these dungeons and you have to go through like 3 of them.
Rare Candy is probably my #1 most sought-after item. Gives one level to a 'mon, no matter what level they are. At the end of the game I can drop all of these on an underleveled 'mon to catch it up, OR drop them all on my highest 'mon to get it a little more OP. The former is a balanced approach, while the latter is probably a more efficient way to use them.
The leader of Gym 8 shows up early for a quick skirmish. This is basically also a gym leader fight, though obviously not officially.
He's the toughest opponent to this point, though, and the fire-type 'mons that obliterate Erika's gym are kinda nullified here. It's a good opportunity for Venusaur to step up.
With this, you can see things no one else can see! Do things no one else can do!
After finishing the Pokemon Tower for real this time (and being able to farm some ghosts), I get the Poke Flute and unlock the next area of the map.
Nothing relieves the stress of the day like playing the flute.
Unless it's to an angry snorlax.
This is sort of like waking someone up from an overdose and having them try to strangle the nurses. EMTs are all carrying Narcan now, but pretty soon we're also going to need to start outfitting them with metal collars, like The Guardian.
Snorlax is like Janemba from DBZ and just sorta bounces everything off.
All my playthroughs of Gen 1 and I don't think I've ever managed to bag Snorlax.
There's an entire path that I'm missing out on because I don't have a bicycle. Not sure if this is important or necessary, but I should probably check it out before the end. After Gym 3 (and the end of Nintendo Power's coverage) the game really opens up a lot and there are a bunch of potential routes to take. Two players can do all of the mid-game events in completely different orders. Like I usually fight Sabrina 7th, while someone else might fight her 5th, and so forth. Then you've got optional things like the Power Plant.
Now the journey south begins. Only got one gym in this episode (the goal was 3). This game is a little more robust than I remember.
Next time on Pokemon: The endgame group composition takes shape.
You going to get back to Highlander?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm hoping for as well. Highlander is what brought me here!
DeleteI'm planning to get back to Highlander soon. I tend to take extended breaks from Highlander between seasons, but I'm closing in on the end of the series, and would definitely like to finish things off. Things I've got on the itinerary after Pokemon:
Delete-Castlevania (Halloween)
-Highlander 2: The Quickening
-Dragon Quest VI SFC
-AVGN Adventures
-Breath of Fire 1+2
-Highlander S5+HL3
-The rest of the "games I've finished" list
-Phantasy Star
So there you go, a look behind the curtain at the plans for Q4 '24 and 2025.