Pokémon Violet's Post-Credit Victories

After the credits rolled on Pokémon Violet last week, I was left with the task to revisit all the old gyms and give them a workout on official Pokémon league business. I went back through the eight gyms post-haste and didn't really have any troubles besting them once again in their more powerful forms. 

It was pretty straight forward without a lot of surprises, and also pretty fun getting a little more insight into the trainers and their thoughts.  Who knew that Katy from the Cortondo Gym was holding back because she realized she was the first gym along the path for new students? I just thought she was naturally a chump.

Y'all know she cooks bugs into her food, right? Savage.

After the post-credit gym battles, it was back to the school grounds to participate in the Academy Ace Tournament, where you battled four randomized NPCs in a row to make it to the top and get awarded with a hat and a ton of cash for doing so. From what I can tell, if I wanted to do the Academy Ace Tournament again, I could? I haven't tried going back again to give it a second try.

Long live the gamer handle!

After this, you're given a master ball and alerted that five-star rating Tera battles are popping up all over the Paldea Region, and that you'll want to check 'em out. NOW THIS is where the real challenge is in Pokemon Violet. 

The Five-Star Tera battles seem to be the greatest skill check of them all. I've really only had a successful fight with one of them using an over level 80 Pokémon to fight, but the rewards for beating the Tera battles are pretty great. Rare candies, xp treats, and random items come gushing out of those little sparkling caves . . . not to mention interesting Pokémon that you might be missing from your Pokédex App.

Let's flesh this out a bit . . .

And really the spirit of "gotta catch them all" has to be the true end game of Pokémon Violet. Catching all the 350+ Pokémon seems like the ultimate goal.  The question I have is . . . why? Am I going to get something cool for catching them all? My gut is telling me that I won't, but just having a checklist is almost challenge enough.

As I was playing Pokémon Violet, I kept running into these weird spikes in the ground randomly and not knowing what they were.  I also was running into these covered mystical manholes randomly, and I remember thinking . . . huh . . . guess those are something to do with some future DLC? No no no . . . the spikes and the manholes are related.  You find all the spikes, pull them out, and it allows you to open the magical manholes.

Knock knock! Who's there? Wo! Wo Who? Wo-Chien the Legendary, that's who!

The magical manholes are actually "ruinous shrines" where the legendary Pokémon live in Paldea. There are four of these ruinous Pokémon in the game, and catching them is definitely on my agenda before calling it quits with Pokémon Violet. They seem to be the crowning jewels in your Pokédex App.

So, there you go, this is what Pokémon Violet has been like for me post-credits. It's been a fun game, but mostly what it's done is made me want to play through Pokémon Legends: Arceus next, which I haven't done before.  My kids played it, we own it, but I haven't touched its gameplay myself. It might be a fun Christmas Break activity for me!

Happy Dueling!

Pokémon Violet Completed!

Uber wife surprised me with the gift of  Pokémon a week ago when she came home with a copy of Pokémon Violet to play. Woot!

Rated E for EVERY Pokémon

I was pretty forthcoming in saying that I kind of wanted to play this one, and she took that to heart knowing that I'd sit and waffle on that decision and probably end up not buying it. Why am I like that? Anyway, social media certainly has been trashing this game a lot because of "the glitches" but I have to say that for the most part I didn't encounter much of the weird stuff other people saw.

What I did notice was: 

• I was able to see through ground geometry at the end of battle when the camera would focus in on the butt end of my  Pokémon and I was on an incline.  
• There was a bit of graininess to the screen once in a while. 
• Characters out in farther draw distance would hitch their walk animations.
• Environment art in general was of a lower quality than character art. 

It might just be that I have a more forgiving eye or perhaps it was because I didn't do group online play, but for me the gameplay was as solid as any other Pokémon game. If you were to listen to the grumpy lady at my local Gamestop, this was the worst Pokémon game ever and the glitches were so bad it was unplayable. Um, no. 

This was not unplayable . . . in fact, I beat it yesterday!

YAS!

I had a great time playing Pokémon Violet! At first gameplay felt very childish, and it took me a while to warm up to my character, but I finished strong by roleplaying him as the youngest member of Daft Punk.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

I gave every Pokémon I caught a unique name . . . kinda. I mean I had to name every one of them some variant of "boi" at the end of their name. My yellow Oricorio became known as "cheerboi." My starter Feucoco was named "dumboi." My Iron Treads was "wheelieboi."  It was a theme, save for special occasions like when I caught a Salandit and instead named it "Slayqueen" instead knowing it would evolve into Salazalle, aka the "hot looking lizard" Pokémon. (Props to my oldest for tipping me off to that.) The suffix "queen" then became a revered term amongst my Pokémon boxes.

GO SLAYQUEEN!

This game basically has three main story paths you take. The first is the traditional Gym Championship path. The second is to take down Team Star. The third is more complex, and what I'd call the real story of Pokémon Violet.  In Pokémon Violet you begin the game by coming to the aid of a legendary Pokémon named Miraidon who is badly injured. As the story progresses, you take down Titan Pokémon and obtain their Herba Mystica to heal not only Miraidon, but your friend's Pokémon, who is badly injured. Eventually list story leads you down to Area Zero where you uncover the plot of the game. (I'm trying not to give away too many spoilers here)

It is done . . .

As for gameplay, this was pretty much what I'd expect from a Pokémon Open World game. The Team Star "slay 30" quests seemed odd, I will admit. Why did they give me 10 minutes to complete a course that took 2 minutes to complete? Outside of that, great! I don't have a lot of gameplay complaints. Difficulty did in fact scale up toward the end, and I even failed a battle with Headmaster Clavell there at the end and had a couple nail biter battles.

My favorite character in the game tbh

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new Terastallizing feature in this game. Basically what this is, is a one-shot buff to your Pokémon per visit to the Pokémon Center (or you can use a ground spawn crystal to recharge as well). Every Pokémon in Pokémon Violet has this ability, and it can be a pretty cool way to swap your battle type . . . but mostly I used it to boost a move’s power. If you're interested, you can check out the deets here.

Terastallizing has got to be the weirdest name ever

After the credits rolled last night, I was presented with a new challenge which seemed to be a request to go face off against harder versions of the gym battles and continue to explore the open world environment of Pokémon Violet as I try to catch them all and get all the Pokémon registered in my Pokédex app.

Ultimately this has been a great game and really fun to play. If you've been playing, feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you thought of the game.

Happy Dueling!

Pokémon Red -- The End Comes 44 Hours Later

Whew . . . as I type, I feel a distinct pain coming from my right hand, but I have to sit down right now and type some of this out while it's still fresh in my mind.  I just barely hit the final credits of Pokémon Red.

So satisfying . . . even with a dirty screen . . .

The game shifted big time since the last time I posted. The maze puzzles found in the game doubled down, and the sheer amount of enemies you have to wade through (figuratively and literally once you get the Surf skill) was the stuff of nightmares, but at the end of the day, really two main Pokémon carried me through the game.

1- Rafael, my starter Squirtle buddy ended up evolving into a level 64 Blastoise that was an absolute beast. His final four abilities were Fissure, Bubblebeam, Ice beam, and Hydro Pump, which actually ended up being a very weird combination of powerful hits that made his stamina a bit short-lived. By the end of the horrific final four and rival battle sequence, he was absolutely . . . out of power.

Whew . . . 258313 experience . . . that's a lot of clicking on the A button

2- That Oddish that I named Beatdrop from the other post?  Yeah, it evolved into a level 56 Vileplume wielding the powers of Mega Drain, Acid, Cut, and Double-edge.  The Double-edge/Mega Drain combo was a thing of beauty to be honest.  Its stamina won the day at the very end. I was barely scraping out a win using its acid ability, which btw . . . after using the Acid Music software to create music for so many years, I had to laugh every time I saw, "Beatdrop uses Acid."

My Beatdrop hit a little Rat at tat tat with some Acid music jams

Can I just say how cool that final four and rival battle sequence was at the end. It's really no wonder this game did so well and spawned an entire Pokémon empire. That feeling of desperation when you finally beat Lance, thinking you're done, and then realizing it's not over . . . OH MY WORD . . . so good.  I was sweating so hard in that final battle with John, my rival.  Glad I beat that guy even though I felt genuinely bad for him afterwards when Professor Oak was laying into him.

Stupid John!

Also, just a side comment about my lack of patience, I really did not have the patience for some of the maze puzzles found in the mid-game and had to look up the strategy guide to save myself a bit of time. Team Rocket's Hideout? Finding the Warden's Teeth in the Safari Zone? The Silph Company's Maze of Teleporters? Some of those were super confusing . . . especially when there was a part where you had to jump off a balcony to the next floor down, but the balcony looked like a wall! WHAT? I had absolutely no idea I could jump off of that!

Now the only question that remains is . . . do I keep going? You know it's not over after the end credits, right? heh. I honestly don't know if I have it  me to do the post-game activities, but it is pretty tempting to use that Master Ball I picked up from the Silph Building Boss to capture the level 70 Mew-two Pokémon hiding down in the Cerulean Cave. It also would be pretty great to get that Pikachu I was working up as a third to evolve into a Raichu . . . hmmm.

When I told my son that the end credits were rolling, the first thing he said was, "So are you going to do a nuzlocke for it now?"  The thought made me shudder . . . nah . . . if anything what I'd love to do next with Pokémon is shift my sights to the modern day and have a playthrough of Pokémon Sword or Shield.

Thanks again to @Jetsers for the wonderful game suggestion. It was $10 well spent and gave me new eyes for looking at an old gaming franchise. I wish I could come up with a game idea as genius as Pokemon. Maybe someday!

Happy Dueling!

Pokémon Red -- A great time in greyscale!

I'm continuing to play through Pokémon Red per @jetsers suggestion and having a great time in greyscale!  (I should trademark that tagline.) 

The only setbacks so far have been issues caused by me not physically saving my game (I forget auto-save used to not be commonplace) and my sore thumb from mashing the button over and over to try and save time when I get into fights.  I'm not used to holding a 3DS . . . I've done everything from accidentally turn off the 3DS to accidentally amping the volume while my wife was sleeping next to me. Whoops.

The game itself is exactly as I remember the experience, but I can't help myself thinking about how much has come from this relatively simple game while playing it.  It's genius.  You wander a very simple map, you run into people, get some dialog, and fight with your collection of Pokémon.  That's it.  . . . and yet you can't help but wonder what the real story is behind the gentleman with two Growliths in the economy section of the cruise ship . . . what's his real deal? . . . and that's where the cartoon filling in the gaps in dialog is also genius!  

There's another "g" word to describe this game besides "Genius" and that's "Grindy."  Wandering the grindy grass to level up your Pokémon is so, so, 1998.  As long as you're having fun though, right? Right!

As for my progress so far, I'm 6+ hours in and my Squirtle has evolved into a Wartortle, I have two gym badges, and a little herd of baby Pokémon that mostly stay sidelined while Wartortle eats all the experience.

What a strapping young Wartortle he is!

As I was playing I remembered that the real trick was to have your first Pokémon be one that you wanted to level, and then as soon as you started the fight, switch to your main Pokémon.  I've been doing that a touch here the past hour with my new Oddish Pokémon. I love his little tuft of leaves that poke up when he does battle, and he's actually really good against water types, which I'm fighting a lot of these days.

Get him Beatdrop!

Currently I'm exploring the good ol' S.S. Anne.  All the sailors aboard want a piece of me.

He's strong to the finich 'cause he eats his spinach!

I figure I'm just a few cabins away from finding the Cut HM, and also my third Gym Battle in Vermillion while I'm at it.

Happy Dueling!

Searching for that old Pokémon Feeling

Earlier today my old coworker @Jetsers threw out the suggestion to write a blog post about Pokémon Red and Blue, the original Game Boy Editions.  I loved that suggestion, so I promptly ran upstairs and asked the kids if we had that game since they'd be the ones to know for sure.  The answer was no, but hey dad, look at all these other great old Game Boy games I own!

How about some Frogger with a side of Donkey Kong and Dr. Mario?

Yes, my dear son, for I was the one that bought those particular games for myself and you stole them all. ;)

Alas, the oldest Pokémon Game we own is Pokémon Channel for the Game Cube, which I played with all of my kids when they were super little. For them that was probably their first exposure to Pokémon.

Outside of this we own . . . 

5 Nintendo DS Pokemon Games:

• Pokémon Conquest
• Pokémon Soulsilver
• Pokémon White (we also had Black, but it was given away as a gift)
• Pokémon Black 2 (we might also have White 2? I can't find it)
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness

6 Nintendo 3DS Games:

• Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon
• Pokémon Y (we also had X, dunno where it is)
• Pokémon Moon
• Pokémon Sun
• Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity

3 Wii Games:

• Pokémon Battle Revolution
• Pokepark Pikachu's Adventure
• Pokepark 2 Wonders Beyond

3 Nintendo Switch Games:

• Pokémon Sword
• Pokémon Shield
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX

Of those, I can confidently say I have only played Pokémon Channel, Pokémon Diamond, and Pokepark Pikachu's Adventure. (I'm not even counting Pokémon Go because, really, who DIDN'T play Pokémon Go?)

But wait! Diamond wasn't even on your list! Yup. We've lost a couple games along the way as well . . . there was a particular season in our lives where Pokémon Diamond was lost, and we tore the house upside down looking for it since the kids were heartbroken when it went missing.  We never did find that game.  Oh well. It happens with those small little black cartridges.

So, anyway, I did a little searching and reading about the old Pokémon games and found the original cartridges for sale USED on Amazon for premium prices . . . like 30 to 50 bucks. Now, as much as it would be great to slap those in my Gameboy color, it just doesn't seem feasible. On the flipside, however, it is totally possible to buy Pokemon Red or Blue on the 3DS in the Nintendo eShop for $10. Now THAT I can handle.

So then the next question was, which one of these bad boys do I want to play! Do I want to play Red with the stylings of  Ekans, Arbok, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Scyther, and Electabuzz? OR do I want to play with the stylings of Blue with Sandshrew, Sandslash, Vulpix, Ninetales, Meowth, Persian, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebell, Magmar, and Pinsir?

I leaned Red for the Electabuzz . . . it's the closest to a "stingite" pokemon out of the bunch . . . $10 later I was playing that super old school Pokémon game like it was 1998.

Red Version on a Red 3DS . . . BAM!

I chose Squirtle as my starter Pokémon and my mortal enemy John chose Bulbasaur. He whined so hard when I beat him . . . outta here, John!

I really liked how the game made you talk to everyone in the starting area because you just couldn't seem to find Professor Oak until you tried to actually leave the town -- that was a nice touch. What I didn't like was how I couldn't make my name Stingite because it was one letter too long . . . "Stingit" it is. At least I could give my Squirtle a proper turtle name.

Yow know what I'm talking about, TMNT fans, right?

So it looks like I'll be wandering the tall grass for a bit. Wish me luck!

Thanks again to Joel for the great game suggestion, and if you have a game suggestion you'd like to give me, drop a hello on this Twitter thread here. I was quite surprised at how many of my followers were interested in classic gaming titles!  Good stuff.

Happy Dueling!

X and Y invade the Friendly Household!

Saturday afternoon we went to Gamestop to pick up our reserved copies of Pokemon X and Y for the kids.

Woo woo! There was some intense bargaining from the kids at first about who was going to play which version . . . Amber wanted X and was very staunch on that stance, and this made Kyle want X as well. It took a bit of talking, but everything worked out based around fairy-type Pokemon and Yveltal, the dark/flying type pokemon (if I remember right . . .uh yes, thank you Forbes), and Kyle became convinced that Y would be his game. whew. Crisis averted. ;)

Since we pre-ordered, the folks at Gamestop were nice enough to give us this cool timeline poster showing all the Pokemon games throughout history.

:) Timelines are awesome. I can now coordinate the birth of my children to a specific Pokemon game. LOL!

After a couple of days here, they're both around the 3rd or 4th gym battle and chugging along. My daughter proclaimed her Pokemon X to be the best Pokemon game evar! I trust that endorsement.

Happy Dueling!