Corona Jumper: Pokemon LeafGreen, Part 4

Friday, October 18, 2024

Pokemon LeafGreen, Part 4 - Goro Wins

Some random guy questions LEAF's riding skills, as Pokemon LeafGreen winds towards a close.

Next stop is the Seafoam Islands, which is basically Victory Road Jr (a bit like how DQII has a Rhone Cave Jr). In this remake they changed it to an ice cavern (as opposed to a standard cave) which was a good choice. It's like Articuno is so powerful that he's frozen the rest of the zone.

There are two objectives here: Get to the other side, and find Articuno. The latter is the side-objective / optional boss, but I ended up finding it first.

Speaking of Dragon Quest, this version of Articuno looks a lot like the old-school Dragon Quest wing emblem.

Went through around 25-35 Ultra Balls trying to apprehend this menace. This team doesn't have any real debilitating status effects to slow him down with, so it's basically just bring the HP down and throw 'balls until either he's caught or the team's kaput.

Well that's dark. Does he save them, or just peer at them until they keel over? A bird's gotta eat.

It's official, Professor Oak has spread his Aides all over Kanto.

At this point I call an audible and decide to replace Primeape with Machamp. I start at the bottom and get Machop, who only needs 12 levels to reach the evolved form.

This name will make sense in 12 levels.

Next stop is the Cycling Road that I skipped earlier. This requires getting a bicycle, which costs ONE MILLION YEN ($10,000). In what universe does a bicycle cost that much? How bad is inflation in Kanto?

Luckily, getting a bike voucher from the Pokemon Fan Club lets you get the $10,000 bike for free. I hope it at least vibrates in multiple settings.

Immediately after arriving at Cycling Road, bikers accost our hero. Probably because she's riding a ONE MILLION YEN BIKE. Does it have gold rims, at least?

These guys use toxic Pokemon that are easy enough to dispatch. Overleveled for this, to boot, since I skipped over it for a while.

Their leader is Cue Ball Koji, who looks like he'd go on to star in BIG RIGS.

After dispatching all those guys, you're rewarded by getting to sail down a hill at high speed.

But wait! Somewhere in that fracas, Machop became Machoke. Now all I have to do is whip out PKHex:

A quick trade back to myself and Machoke becomes Machamp. While Machoke is much more popular among the fetish enthusiast community, Machamp is where it's at.

GORO. WEENS.

Hopefully this guy pays off as much as Alakazam has.

Next is a second trip through the Seafoam Islands to get the other path and get to the next actual area. I'm getting my money's worth out of Repels at this point. Have I mentioned how much I don't like the dungeons?

Cinnabar Island is the next town, and it's full of oddball scientists doing weird experiments. "I am an important man!" says this one.

Got that fossil way earlier and now it finally has a use.

Wait a minute, is this a racist Chinese charicature in a Japanese game? Just shameful behavior from Nintendo here.

...He then takes a call from his son and quickly hangs up. "Are you doctor yet?? CALL ME WHEN YOU DOCTOR."

Back on the overworld, I head towards Cinnabar. Tons of water-element Pokemon on the way, so Venusaur and Zapdos can totally clean up. There are some weird trainers too, like this guy who sics SIX MAGIKARP on his foes (to little to no effect). He knows his team sucks, too.

......................

Anyway, Goro continues his leveling spree to try and catch up to everyone else. I found a really good leveling spot:

Just south of Pallet Town is this previously-unreachable field full of level 35-ish random encounters, which is pretty high. Most of them are weak to Fighting, too, so Goro cleans up.

"CALL ME WHEN YOU POKEMON CHAMP"

That aforementioned fossil I got much, much earlier in the game now becomes Omanyte thanks to this guy doing some Jurassic Park restoration. Damn, I wanted the other one. Thought I picked correctly. No big deal because my final team plan didn't take this one into account either way.

Next up is another short, kind of annoying dungeon with the Pokemon Mansion, where I get the key to the next gym. The dungeons in this game really are kind of...bad. They're the one thing I don't look forward to. Luckily they're a relatively small part of the game and only account for maybe like 20% of the areas at the most.

We also get a little bit of lore. Pokemon lore doesn't pop up often, but when it does, it's usually kind of creepy.

Got Toxic, the most OP move in the entire series. It's a DoT that gets worse as it goes on and spells doom for basically any opponent.

Also, anyone can use it. In one of the later games I remember having to put Toxic on all six party members in order to get past one particular freakishly high level opponent. Probably the final boss of Gen 4, AKA the hardest fight in the whole series.

Gym 7 time. What happened to Gym 6 (5)? Yeah, I'll get back to that. Gym 7 is very basic, just nonstop Fire-types. The same thing happens here as in Gym 4, you absolutely roll the place if you have a 'mon strong against the type here. There's no variety in their lineups.

Settle down, Blaine.

Blaine is a MAD SCIENTIST. These gym leaders who rely heavily on one type are just boxing themselves into a corner, especially this guy.

Gyarados has been steamrolling this gym with water moves, and this fight is no different. A few Hydro Pumps and that's Badge #6. Nothing like one-shotting an entire gym because it's got no type variation. At least the upcoming Elite Four fights will have some actual strategic party lineups to deal with...

Next, Leaf gets a lecture from an older woman about not being a drunkard.

What's this beer doing here? Drink tea instead!

Yeah I'm a fan of the Tea myself.

Leave LEAF's tea alone, ya pervert!

...tea leaf?

And that's how I finally get into Saffron City. The town continues to be annoying even after gaining access to it, as Team Rocket grunts are blocking pretty much everything.

Even the gym is blocked off. There's a lame Mini Gym next door though. The main gym is Psychic-type while the Mini Gym is Fighting-type (which is weak to Psychic). I imagine these two gyms had it out at one time to determine who would be the official Saffron City gym, and the Psychic one crushed the Fighting one.

I take on the Fighting gym. Strike fast, strike hard, no mercy.

At the end you fight John Kreese, annihilate him with Alakazam, and collect a new fighting-type 'mon. Not much to this place. At least Fighting types (sort of) got a gym, though.

Next up is THE most annoying dungeon in the entire game: Silph Co Tower.

It has no fewer than 11 floors, they're all dull as hell, and it incorporates the annoying teleport maze mechanic.

Also it's full of locked doors, so you can't actually get through it or explore some of it before getting the Card Key. Know in advance where it is (and where to use it) and the dungeon takes like 5 minutes. Try to do it normally without help, as I did, and it can potentially go on and on for the better part of an hour.

Gary has achieved the rank of miniboss status, and shows up here. "I will be royal crown chinpoko-master!" he says.

Yeah, sure dude, that'll be the day.

Noted Italian Stereotype Giovanni is the next boss. Nothing big here, he's got his Ground types and I've got several 'mons strong against them.

The President is sorta like Mayor Domino in Midgar. He doesn't have much power because Team Rocket's running the show, and has a largely ceremonial position. Or at least, did until now.

With Team Rocket out of the way, there's one more big thing to do here in the city: Gym #7. ...or Gym #5 idk

She's the most powerful of the 8 gym leaders on a pound-for-pound basis. Blaine and Giovanni might be higher level but you aren't gonna get the same resistance from either one of them when appropriately leveled.

Turns out Slowbro is one of the thorns in my side in this playthrough. Was NOT expecting that.

Also this gym is a real PITA, with a teleport maze (as if Silph Co's teleport maze wasn't enough)

Not only is Sabrina pound-for-pound the toughest of the eight, she also has a rockin' bod.

The final boss here is Alakazam, and it spams Recovery between attacks. This leads to me spamming potions between attacks.

After volleying Psychic back and forth, her Alakazam eventually wins despite being lower-level. I need a potion upgrade.

Even Cattatafish can't deal with Alakazam!

Finally, it's Venusaur that takes this absolute beast down via a lucky uninterrupted Solarbeam. One thing is for sure...Goro didn't win anything here, and would have gotten knocked off in seconds if I wheeled him out.