#pokemon series retrospective

[soundofseclusion]

37. Pokemon X

Release: 2013, 3DS Beaten: August 19th, 3DS Playtime: 28h 12m

The story is really weak, and the game doesn't always perform very well, but it can be really striking as well as quite poignant at times. The core experience is pretty fun, though they probably should have given you more mega stones to play around with during the main game. Overall, I had a pretty good time returning to Kalos.

[newmoonking]

Does anyone find it funny how Lily orchard portrays gardevoirs?

Like we all know that she portrays them as broken pseudo legendaries (and yes she has referred to them as pseudo legendaries in the past) but she also portrays them in a way that's antithetical to what gardevoirs are portrayed in the series.

Gardevoirs, while certainly portrayed as incredibly powerful creatures, are at their core, protectors. They dedicate themselves soley to the protection and well-being of those they care about, primarily their trainers. They are a graceful, noble, empathetic, and heroic creatures that use there incredible powers only for those they care about. This is also prevelant in Gallade who is an honorable knight while gardevoir is an elegant mage. This dosent amount to anything but I felt it was worth bringing up.

But how does lily portray them? As terrifying, unhinged, monstrous banshees. Ones that should be feared and respected if you know whats good for you, in other words Sylvanus in the form of a pokemon.

Now, this mischaracterization is fascinating to me because it looks to me that it comes from a place of insecurity. (Lorch is bitter and insecure, shocker) She is upset that other people don't have gardevoir as their favorite pokemon or meme about it as furry bait, and she sees that as an attack on her (not helping that shes also clearly attracted to gardevoir). So to salvage her ego she hypes up gardevoir and characterizes it as something that it was never intended to be.

And it's not just a case of Gardevoirs being portrayed differently in her webcomic. As all her posts about the pokemon and her pokemon "retrospective" show, she cannot differentiate canon gardevoir from the head canon she created for it.

But I'm not saying anything new, I simply wanted to put out my own thoughts on the matter.

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

I'm always fascinated when someone at the club rants about "how they just invented T'au to cash on them anime weebs", completly oblivious to the time and culture of their creation. So T'au came out first in 2001, and were obviously conceptualized some years prior, which puts them into the late 90s in their original design. This is slowly hitting "the majority of the populance has no relevant internet access whatsoever" levels of "barbaric analog ages".

So imagine where GW sits in the late 90s - its a small studio somewhere in England barely coming to touch with the first elements of the internet, with the most dominant medium being television which... is not really about "exotic" shows from the other end of the world? Those get ported over when they have proven to be a hit in their own country mostly.

And without the internet as we know it today, the anime community just... did not exist. You have to understand that the whole concept of online anime culture centred around piracy, fansubs, fanart, and the creation of the term "weeabo" was a mid-to-late 00s thing, and it took almost another decade before "weeb" was somewhat reclaimed and no longer an online-slur.

There was a whole generation that grew up with (often horribly localized) japanese shows on TV (Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon) which came over with some delay to their release in Japan. By the time this generation came to congregate into online spaces and form any sort of fan-identity and culture, the T'au and their battlesuits had already been a design over a decade old.

"But wait isn't Gundam from the 70s"? Yes, that is totally correct. However, this is the one glaring mistake people make: you cannot compare modern day media content circulation around the globe to the analog ages. Those of us who remember these barbaric analog times know how it was: you just did not know stuff existed. If it was not in the newspaper or on the telly, it might as well not exist unless you knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy.

Sure, the Internet was slowly becoming a thing that found widespread use, but it would still take a while - not to mention the technical limitations. No streaming episodes. You start the download (if you can find someone who hosted the file of a series you had to know even existed first) somewhere around lunch, to hopefully get something to watch in the afternoon. Oh and also that blocked the household's phone-line and if the download cancelled for whatever reason then it was back to square one. Under such conditions, the online community we know today could simply not exist, as the alternative was importing stuff from the other end of the world for quite the money, or hoping a really shoddy localized VCR-tape ended up at your Blockbuster-equivalent.

Of course there was anime before that time, even those regarded absolute classics in the west, but those mostly achieved that rank over here in retrospective. When in the late 00s people wanted to watch stuff and had the ability to do so they shared what was considered "the classics" first (shared to the best of their ability with one episode cut into 5 parts on youtube with sometimes very questionable subtitles).

So even if we assume there was someone at GW in the 90s who was a total "proto-weeb" and Gudam-fan, there was literally no reason to "make knock-off Gundams" because the miniscule western wargaming audience SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW THE STUFF.

You can't make a marketing ploy to reference something your average consumers have never heard off. If anything, the creation of the T'au as a robotic-centred faction was inevitable: they needed a design that could hold their own in the setting, but Necrons hogged the full-robot niche, Imperials were weird cyborgs, Orks the "madman-scrap-tech", and Nids the "biotech". The only thing left here was "not full robot but also very clean and efficient" - and just like that, the Battlesuits and Drones were born.

It was only in later years when the Internet had come into full swing where they decided to go full-suit with releases such as the Riptide, but if we talk about the OG design of T'au and the first decade? Nothing to do with anime or "fishing for weebs". The fish would not be coming to that spot for almost a decade, and it would take a bit more before their numbers were plentyful enough to make it worth casting a line out.

[kob131]

Lily Orchard and Pokemon: Gen 4

Yay, we get to hear Lily bitch more from now on.

"Gen 4 runs like shit because the game is trying to process 3D graphics all the time, like with battle transitions, health bars and movement!"

Then how the fuck do you explain Platinum, which ended up fixing all these issues then?

"Also I'm modding the game to remove the FPS cap and give myself a Ralts as the starter-"

W-w-wait, what?!

Why the fuck are you modding the games...in a retrospective all about looking back at the games as they hold up? Your complaints and footage WON'T line up, thus weakening your arguments!

Also, I don't give a fuck about how much you like Gardevoir. Ralts doesn't get an attacking move until Level 6. Starters start at Level 5. And Ralts is INTENTIONALLY weak to compensate for how strong it is fully evolved. Modding in a Ralts WILL affect your gameplay because the games aren't built for that.

For fuck's sake- USE A DIFFERENT TEAM!

"I encourage Barry to try and jump over the grass because I wanna see him get mauled by a Bidoof-"

Wait a minute. Was-was that fucking Peanut Butter from Pokemon Rusty?

...Oh great, Lily Orchard is probably taking her takes from Dorkly. That explains a lot.

"Well Ralts doesn't get an attacking move so I 'threw the match-'"

Sounding pretty salty there, Lily. Maybe you should try diversifying your teams and actually ENGAGE with the Pokemon by using a damn starter.

"I'm getting stopped all this time like a small child in a brony conve-"

I will call Taka in here to maul you, Lily. You were kicked out, deal with it.

"Uh oh! My Ralts is worse than a Magikarp! Whoopsie!"

Keep this in mind. It will be important later.

"Oh no! It takes a whole minute and ten seconds for me to get through an encounter with Team Galactic! TOO LONG!"

Speaking as someone who has played every Gen of Pokemon...as well as playing a few games with Pokemon's older, edgy brother SMT- You are making mountains out of mole hills Lily.

Games, especially RPGs given how they don't tend to be very interactive games, tell stories to stimulate the player's brain. This requires time, Lily. I know that you like being lulled into a silent stupor as evidenced by your love of Team Aqua/Magma and later Lysandre (No I am not joking) but most ACTUAL people like having some kind of engagement with the game. Pokemon, even at it's most verbose, is fucking SMALL POTATOES compared to your usual JRPG.

I brought up SMT for a reason Lily- that series compensates for having a less engaging battle system than Pokemon's by having a more robust story. If you played any SMT, even one like Nocturne- your brain would likely shut down.

JRPGs like having stories. You signed up for this with Pokemon. Now judge it accordingly.

"People gas up Cyrus as one of the best villains-!"

No they don't. They gas TEAM GALACTIC as one of the best villains because they fuck with the fundamental forces of existence, giving them an air of a series threat. I don't agree, I like Cyrus for being the only one with a reason for doing what he's doing. But people usually like him for the stuff OUTSIDE his home game.

"Reading Pokemon stories is just like watching subbed anime: reading the most inane bullshit!"

... Lily, you hate anything anime, don't you?

"Sinnoh ugly because grey and mud and forest gross!"

... 1- Lily, you literally show a grey tiled route being dyed orange in evening light.

2- Yes Lily. Mountainious regions and marshlands have mud and rocks.

And 3- The forest looks dark and damp because that's a fucking FOREST. If you paid attention the BGM in the previous forests, you'd notice that is what the developers intend the forest areas to be like. You basically just said ''the previous three gens completely failed at their jobs!'

*Lily proceeds to have a fake existential nightmare about Pokemon and Youtube*

Cool Lily. Too bad you mention these minor things and not...you know...the strewn path of broken lives you've left in your wake on this planet.

Could have had some kind of respect for you.

"Pokemon games hold your hand like a creepy uncle with a MLP collec-"

@takashi0 get in here! Lily's being an ass about bronies again!

"Oh my god! So many forced tutorials! Why won't they let me skip everything like the Underground tutorial! POKEMON BAD!"

Lily, the reason why the game won't let you skip the Bike is because you NEED it to progress the game and it gives you an improved movement option. It also won't let you skip the Egg tutorial because Pokemon breeding is necessary for getting certain Pokemon or helping you get certain Pokemon (like multiple starters). And this is why you can't skip the catching tutorial: you'd just be throwing Pokeballs at random and failing constantly.

These are necessary aspects of the game. A game for kids who may have never played a Pokemon game before. Deal with it.

"I don't know why I'm here, I just keep ignoring the dialogue."

So you talk about the story being ass...while acknowledging that you aren't paying attention to said story...

Like, I know that Lily is implying she's long since gone through the game and experienced the story, hates it and is now skipping over it but you are now making a retrospective of the games. Now would be a good time to pay attention and possible reconsider your stance.

"HMs are so cool! You can use your Pokemon to transverse the region! People are so dumb for bitching about them. You have 24 moveslots, just set aside some and forget coverage, dumbbnuts!"

So what you're saying is that we should have random required HMs in Pokemon Gyms to challenge them properly? You know, like Chuck's Gym? That you couldn't complete without backtracking?

Or that maybe we should have moves like Cut, Rock Smash, Flash, Whirlpool and Defog (which you basically call useless) be necessary! After all, who cares about player expression? It's just 20.8% of your moveslots!

... This is why you use your BRAIN Lily.

"You need to adapt to roadblocks, you useless clowns!"

Remember this, it will be important later.

"Archie and Maxie were charmingly stupid but Cyrus is completely crazy!"

A- That's intentional with Cyrus and UNINTENTIONAL with your favs.

And B- You outright emphasized that they were gonna blow up a volcano to try and expand water/land for Pokemon. How is THAT not crazy?

"Barry demands yet ANOTHER Battle-"

It's the fourth fucking battle Lily. Just because you cut yourself anytime a rival shows up doesn't make it excessive.

"*another 'cobs bad' joke*-"

Yeah yeah, you want cops gone because your abuse victims keep calling them on you and you have a bad experience with them.

Move on.

"Hey I'm not a cop, it's not unethical if I go on a rampage-"

You REALLY don't know when to keep your mouth shut, do you?

"Cyrus can no be cult leader, HE HAVE NO MOTIVE OR PESONALLITY!"

...

"Fellow members of Team Galactic! Hear me! My name, as I appear to you today, is Cyrus. This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim... It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change. Then, who will change it? Me, Cyrus. And Team Galactic. Yes, all of you. Together we pored over myths and exposed their secrets. Together we captured legendary Pokémon. And now, Team Galactic has obtained the energy to change the world! The power of dreams is within our grasp! Understand it, fellow members! My long-held dreamworld is on the verge of becoming reality. All those headed to Mt. Coronet, and those who remain here... Though our missions may differ, our hearts beat as one. Let there be glory for Team Galactic!"

-

"But, I must say... You are a remarkable specimen. Those Pokémon have nothing to do with you, do they? But still you come to rescue them out of pity? Such pitifully useless emotions... It's illogical and irrational. Pity and compassion are products of the weak and faulty human heart. You were compelled to come here by such vacuous sentimentality! I will make you regret paying heed to your heart!"

Perhaps pay attention to the fucking dialogue, Lily. Because these are pretty blunt and obvious examples. Cyrus appeals to people feeling that the world is harsh and unfair, promising them a bright tomorrow if they listen to him. Then he explains how he believes emotions have caused these problems so he wishes to erase them.

"Oh really Looker? You think I'm so dumb that-"

Lily, you just got done humiliating yourself by being outsmarted by a children's game and will continue that streak throughout this video.

Yes, you are that dumb.

"Cyrus has double the dialogue Maxie and Archie have in these games but it is so stilted and devoid of personality! Archie and Maxie are SOO much better by being stupid and trying to better the world-!"

Lily, those guys were not intended on being stupid. They were intended to be well intentioned extremists. They seem stupid because the games made their acts so dumb that the intentions are overshadowed by their stupidity.

Cyrus does more than try to be evil, you can tell from comparing his dialogue to Giovanni's-

"Blast it all! You ruined our plans for Silph! But Team Rocket will never fall! <Player>, never forget that all Pokémon exist for Team Rocket! I must go, but I shall return!"

And his so-called 'stilted' dialogue would probably fit a man who is OPENLY TRYING TO RID THE WORLD OF EMOTION. If your assessment is correct- that would be good writing.

Archie and Maxie are badly written. You are praising bad writing over good writing.

"Platnium has gotten away from the feeling of adventure that makes Pokemon good-"

You know what helps with a sense of adventure Lily?

A story. Something to give structure and stimulation to the player.

You praised one of the dullest games in the series in Emerald and are going to praise THE dullest game in the series. All while demonizing the games that actually stimulate.

You're full of shit.

[ifbench]

Pokemon Soulsilver Retrospective, from the perspective of someone who had it as their first Pokemon game but never finished it (until now)

To preface this, this is not my first time playing Pokemon Soulsilver. I played some of it back in 2012 or so, but didn't get very far. And my memories of that playthrough are almost nonexistant, so this is essentially still a first playthrough.

If you'd like to read my other mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, Firered here, and Black here.

Pokemon Soulsilver has a strange sort of anti-nostalgia to it to me.

It was technically my very first Pokemon game, yet I have more memories of the 25 minutes I played of Explorers of Time back in 2012, than I do of the several hours I played of Soulsilver in that year.

I don't even remember how far I truly got. It might have only been up to the first gym, it might have been up to Pryce, I don't know.

What I do know, though, is that like with Black, people keep bringing up Soulsilver and Heartgold to be the "golden age" of Pokemon. That it was when the series was good. (Though I personally disagree. I love Violet, and I also love what I've played of Shield so far.)

Nonetheless, the idea of trying Soulsilver again kept popping up in my head after I got into PMD. I briefly entertained the idea of playing it again in 2021, then again in 2022, but I never went through with it until I started this marathon.

But in September of 2023, I decided to do it. I deleted my old save file, and started anew. While I had chosen a Cyndaquil during my first playthrough, this time, I chose a Chikorita as my starter. I named him Acacia, after my PMD Rescue Team DX partner.

However, soon after entering Cherrygrove City, I very quickly got sidetracked with Emerald and put Soulsilver on hold. I didn't get back to it until July of 2024, after I had finished Emerald, X, Firered, and Black.

And after I figured out how to implement the infinite rare candy cheat, since I remember a lot of people talking about how grindy the Johto games are.

But after all that, my second playthrough of Soulsilver had truly begun.

I went to go meet Professor Oak, and as I was on my way to return to New Bark Town, I had my first encounter with this game's rival, Silver.

I very nearly lost that first battle, but through sheer luck, Acacia managed to win.

After meeting with Professor Elm again and hearing about the theft, I caught a Sentret, and named him Niko, after the Sentret on my friend's blog @fated-furret.

I continued on the way to Violet City, collecting a few apricorns along the way. It was cool seeing them again after Legends Arceus, even if they did originate here. I also briefly peeked into Dark Cave.

Violet City was neat to see! I enjoyed how the Pokemon Center and Pokemart had different colors than normal.

I decided to head to the Sprout Tower first, with Niko at the front of my party.

Side note, I love how your Pokemon follow you around in this game, and you can interact with them! Reminds me of the "Let's go together" feature from Violet.

The Sprout Tower was...not very fun. It was a bunch of extremely samey trainer battles, all the way up to the top floor. Though seeing the central pillar shake and wobble was pretty neat.

I also caught a Ratatta here, who would be my HM buddy. I named her Jifa, after my HM buddy from my Firered playthrough.

But with Niko leveled up quite a bit, I decided to take on Falkner. He was pretty tough, but Acacia felled his Pidgey, and Niko felled his Pidgeotto (after 5 Roosts).

Then I decided to take a short detour to explore the Ruins of Alph. It was cool to look around for what possible secrets the ruins held, and the sliding puzzle was fun, though I didn't spend much time there.

As I was traveling down Route 32, I caught a Mareep that I named Marla, and subsequently found someone trying to sell me a Slowpoke tail for an obscene amount of money. I knew from fandom osmosis that there was something related to Slowpoke tails coming up soon.

But before that, I had to traverse Union Cave. It was a bit tricky due to all the firebreather trainers around, but I made it out the other side, into Azalea Town, where Team Rocket awaited me.

After talking to Kurt, I went into the Slowpoke well, and had my first encounter with one of the Team Rocket executives, Proton. Thanks to Marla, he wasn't very difficult to defeat.

Apparently, in the original Johto games, GSC, the Rocket executives are all nameless? I guess that makes sense with how different they were in the GSC arc of the Adventures manga, but I'm glad they were given names and personalities in the remakes.

But after defeating Proton, it was time to face my second Johto gym leader, Bugsy. He was quite tricky, especially with how powerful that Scyther of his was. But he had a Metapod with only Tackle, allowing me to have Niko spam Defense Curls to maximize his defense. After that, taking care of the Scyther was easy, and I won.

My next task was to look for Farfetch'd in the Ilex Forest. I enjoyed the little puzzle here on how to sneak up on them, it was pretty neat!

Then, with Cut taught to Jifa, I pressed onwards, and helped out one of the Kimono Girls along the way.

Soon, I made it to Goldenrod City, the hometown of my character Gen.

It was one thing to research Goldenrod City, but another thing entirely to experience it myself. It was massive and sprawling, and took me quite a while to explore it fully.

I feel like now's a good time to talk about nostalgia.

See, I remember nothing of Goldenrod City from my 2012 playthrough. I'm not sure I even ever got there. Yet you might be wondering, why choose it to be Gen's hometown? Why not Saffron City, or Castelia City, or another city from the mainline Pokemon games?

It has less to do with Goldenrod City itself, and more with Johto as a region. My memories of Soulsilver from 2012, foggy and faint as they may be, did influence me to have Gen be from a Johto town. From there, I just chose what looked like the biggest city, and made that his hometown.

Johto does hold some nostalgia for me, and so I cannot truly say that this retrospective is untainted by nostalgia. I do, however, believe that nostalgia to be faint enough to be negligible. I hope that is satisfactory.

Back to Goldenrod City, I completed the quiz to get a radio card, and went to the gym to challenge Whitney.

The rumors weren't lying, that Miltank was tough. I had to have Acacia use stall strats in order to pull off a win.

Next up, I headed towards Ecruteak City, and was starting to understand the jokes about Youngster Joey, after receiving my 11th call about his "top percentage Ratatta".

Speaking of the Pokegear, it's really neat! It has so many little functions, such as the radio and calling people you've met along your journey. Though I do wish the map was a key item instead of being inside the Pokegear. I always assigned the town map to the quickselect button.

But soon, I made it to Ecruteak City, after catching a Pidgey and naming him Bagoli. After fending off a Rocket grunt inside the Dance Theater, I went inside the Burned Tower, to find Morty, Eusine, and Silver.

Eusine is definitely an odd character. All I knew of him before this playthrough was from Pokespe, and that he was a prominent character in Crystal. I think he's neat, though.

After a battle with Silver, I went downstairs, causing Entei, Raikou, and Suicune to flee. Though I'm not sure why they only fled then, and not during the commotion upstairs.

For the gym battle against Morty, I actually only used my Furret, Niko. I had kept Foresight on him, and this allowed him to sweep through the ghosts with Headbutt, while being immune to all the ghost moves.

Afterwards, I headed east, and got the Strength HM. But not wanting to go through a cave at the moment, I headed west towards Olivine...and immediately encountered Entei.

I had no idea what to do here. Entei was far beyond the levels of any of my Pokemon, and I had no idea what triggered the encounter.

So, since Niko was still in the front of my party, I used his Run Away ability to flee the battle.

It wasn't until I told my friends about this that I learned about Roaming Pokemon.

Apparently, Entei and Raikou randomly teleport around the map, and if you end up on a route with one of them, you have a chance of encountering them. You only have a single turn to do anything against them, but damage stays between battles with them.

I don't understand the reason for all this in the slightest.

I was rather baffled by this, but I continued onwards, to Olivine City. I caught a Pidgey somewhere around

I like the Olivine lighthouse's music. It reminds me a bit of Pokemon Tower from Firered. Somber, but catchy.

Eventually, I made it to the top of the lighthouse, and was told to go to Cianwood to get medicine for Amphy.

Side note, I love how the lighthouse Ampharos has a nickname.

Surfing to Cianwood was simple, and so was getting the medicine. And there was also Suicune, in plain sight. I was expecting Suicune to be a Roaming Pokemon like Entei and Raikou, but here they were.

Of course, they fled shortly afterwards, but it was nice seeing Eusine again afterwards, and getting to battle him!

The gym battle with Chuck was actually easier than his gym trainers. After winning, and with the medicine and Fly HM in hand, I flew back to the Olivine lighthouse, to give the medicine to Amphy.

Jasmine was a rather difficult battle, as I had nothing super-effective against Steel. It took several tries, and me mixing up my strategy a bit, but I managed to win.

I flew back to Ecruteak City, surfed around Mount Mortar, encountered Suicune and Eusine again, and arrived in Mahogany Town.

The gym was blocked off, I couldn't go further west, and the strange souvenir shop didn't hold much interest for now. So my only path forward was north, towards the Lake of Rage.

And I got mugged by Team Rocket along the way.

But I managed to catch the red Gyarados, my first shiny I've encountered during my entire mainline Pokemon marathon. I named them Splind.

After arriving back on shore, I encountered Lance for the first time since my Firered playthrough. It was cool seeing him outside the Pokemon League.

And after making my way back to Mahogany Town, I got to see the oft-memed scene of Lance having his Dragonite Hyper Beam someone. Then, it was time for the Johto Rocket Hideout.

I'll be honest, it kinda felt like a disjointed mess.

They had something cool starting out, with the Persian security statues. But after the first one, you can immediately turn them off, and they don't appear on any other floors. I'd have liked to see some stuff about remaining out of their lines of sight. There was also the explosive floor, which I still have no idea what was up with.

Then there was the two passwords, for which I had to battle Rocket grunts willy-nilly until I found both of the ones with passwords. I feel like a hint as to which grunts had the passwords would make this better.

The battle with Petrel wasn't much to speak of, though it was funny seeing him speaking the password aloud backfiring on him, thanks to his Murkrow.

Then there was a battle with another Rocket executive, Ariana. I feel like she and Petrel deserved their own separate encounters, instead of being immediately one after another.

And even after defeating her, it still wasn't over. I still had to defeat the Electrodes powering the radio transmission.

The entire hideout was all over the place, and I felt like it's a bit indicative of one of my main problems with this game.

But before that, it was time to take on Pryce.

He wasn't too tricky, but he was no pushover either. It was also interesting to see how he differed from his Pokespe incarnation.

But I won, and immediately afterwards, Team Rocket sends their second radio transmission.

I feel like now is the best time for me to talk about the pacing with Team Rocket in this game.

In short, I really feel like it'd have benefited from another major encounter with them before Mahogany Town. Maybe around Olivine or Cianwood.

Because before Mahognay Town, there was only two noteworthy encounters with them. The Slowpoke Well, and the single grunt in the Ecruteak Dance Theater. That's it.

Petrel and Ariana should have had their own bases, instead of being shoved into one together. I also feel like it'd help make Team Rocket feel like more of a threat, rather than something that happens almost entirely just before and just after the gym battle with Pryce.

Sorry for the negativity there, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Anyways, I flew back to Goldenrod City, to take on Team Rocket one final time...at least until Ultra Moon and Let's Go Eevee.

It was neat seeing the Rocket disguise from the first visit to Goldenrod coming into play here...at least until Silver unmasked me immediately after I entered the Radio Tower.

Still, it was fun fighting all the Rocket executives again. Petrel, Proton, and Ariana. It was a Rocket marathon, and I was having far more fun here than in the Rocket Hideout. Helped that the door puzzle in the underground storage area was pretty fun!

But soon enough, I was at the observation deck of the Radio Tower, ready to face off against Archer.

Like with Petrel and Ariana, I wish we had gotten to see more of Archer. But his battle didn't disappoint. It was quite tricky! But I won, and defeated this iteration of Team Rocket for good.

Again, though, mainline Pokemon games don't end when the plot ends. I still had quite a ways to go before the credits.

Next up was the Ice Path. It felt like sorta an extension of the Mahogany Town gym, with more ice puzzles. This time with an added echo of the Seafoam Islands puzzle, of using Strength to push boulders down holes. It was a fun challenge!

Soon, though, I made it through, to Blackthorn City, ready to face the final Johto gym leader, Clair. She was a tough opponent, but I won the battle.

Not the badge, though, not yet. For the second time this game, a gym leader refused to hand me the badge after I won the battle. But unlike Whitney, Clair wasn't content to just give me it anyways after a few seconds.

No, I had to go into the Dragon's Den, and pass one more test in order to prove myself worthy of the Rising Badge.

I really like this part of Soulsilver! It's so interesting to see some of the gym badges have a bit more to them than usual.

I passed the test, and received my final Johto badge, only to receive a call from Professor Elm, telling me to meet him at his lab.

I decided to go the long way, instead of simply flying there. So I set foot onto Route 45, and immediately encountered the last of the Legendary Beasts, Raikou.

Sure enough, after a single Petal Dance from Acacia, it fled. But I had now seen Entei, Raikou, and Suicune all at least once, and so I was satisfied.

After receiving the master ball from Professor Elm, it was now time for me to face the toughest trainers yet, the Kimono Girls.

Silver wasn't kidding, they were very tricky opponents. They may only have had one Pokemon each, but as I couldn't heal between, it was essentially like fighting one trainer with five Eeveelutions.

But I pulled through, and won, receiving the Tidal Bell. And then, it was time for me to go to the Whirl Islands.

Which were completely dark.

Oh no.

I was not looking forward to stumbling blindly in the dark again like I did with Rock Tunnel in Firered, and Emerald's Victory Road. And due to my single rule for this marathon, I could not look at a guide for help.

Not helping was that the only members of my team who could learn Flash already had four moves that I wanted to keep on them.

Luckily, I was still able to ask friends for advice, and one of them gave me a very useful tip. To go in the top-right island entrance, and not take any stairs.

And so, I navigated through the Whirl Islands with that advice in mind, eventually coming to Lugia's hiding place beneath the waves.

The scenee to summon Lugia was really cool! I love how the bells stated getting added to the track as each one began to ring.

And then, it was time to face off against the box legendary, Lugia.

I wanted to catch Lugia. Not only that, I wanted to catch Lugia in anything but the master ball. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of being Lugia's trainer.

They weren't kidding, the catch rate for Johto's legendaries is very small. Even after having Marla paralyze Lugia and then knock it down to a tiny sliver of health, I went through all my ultra balls and great balls without a catch.

I tried again, having Marla knock Lugia down to an even tinier sliver of health, plus paralysis. Still, it took nearly my entire ultra ball stock again to catch Lugia.

But I did catch Lugia. It was time to say goodbye for Jifa, at least for now, as I had Lugia take the sixth spot on my team. I needed every advantage I could get for what was to come.

My first steps as part of that, would be my first steps in this game into Kanto.

You see, I had thought that the entirety of Kanto was post-game only. That you wouldn't even step foot there until after the credits roll. So imagine my surprise when the first person I meet after surfing east from New Bark Town tells me that I'm in Kanto now!

It was so cool seeing the map be updated to show this section of Kanto, and it made me determined to keep going.

The trainer battles on Route 27 and Route 26 were some of the toughest yet, but I kept going, unstoppable on my way to the Pokemon League.

But before I got there, I had one final challenge, Victory Road.

It wasn't nearly as tricky as the other Victory Roads I had faced so far. The puzzles were pretty simple, and here weren't any trainers there.

Well, except for one, who had driven off all the other trainers on Victory Road.

The final fight here with Silver reminded me of the battle with Wally from Emerald. A final battle with one of your rivals, inside Victory Road. Only this time, it was at the end of Victory Road, rather than the start.

It was fun to see Silver realizing what he had to do to become a truly strong trainer: be better friends with his Pokemon.

Silver is probably my favorite of the "jerk rivals" (though what I've heard of Bede makes him a very close contender). He's a very interesting character, and this final battle with him was great!

After saying goodbye to Silver for the final time, it was time to enter the Pokemon League.

Healing up my team, and purchasing some final supplies, I headed beyond the doorway at the top, to start my Elite Four challenge.

Will was quite tough! But Psychic's weakness to Bug would be my key here, with Marla's Signal Beam decimating many of his Pokemon. While I won this battle handily, it would only get more difficult from here.

Koga was no joke. I had no counter to Poison, and his hyper-evasive Pokemon badly poisoned several members of my team. But Niko's Foresight would once again prove useful, and be key in taking down Koga's Pokemon.

Next was another familiar face, Bruno. Bagoli and Lugia were key here, but a tricky switch-out from Bruno during a Fly from Bagoli had him get taken out by a Rock Slide from Bruno's Onix. Thankfully, Acacia was able to take care of the Onix, and Lugia took care of the rest.

Finally, there was Karen. True to her advice, I was going to try to win with my favorites. I tried to have Niko pull the Foresight trick against her Gengar, but it surprised me with a Focus Blast, taking Niko out. But with the help of Marla, Acacia, and Splind, Karen's team was defeated.

All that remained now was Champion Lance.

I healed up my team, but forgot to use an Ether on Marla, whose Discharge was running low on PP. This would soon come back to bite me.

Lance was my toughest opponent in this game by far. Sure, Marla easily took out his Gyarados with a Discharge, and Splind took out his most powerful Dragonite with an Ice Fang, but then the tides turned in Lance's favor. Splind got knocked out by a Thunder, and Marla ran out of PP for Discharge. I had to scramble to figure out a strategy, and it took all of my remaining Hyper Potions.

But eventually, I won. I became champion of Johto, and finally finished Soulsilver. I had done what my 2012 self couldn't, and beaten this game for the very first time.

I had completed Pokemon Soulsilver, and that fact means so much to me.

I will be doing the postgame for Soulsilver eventually. But that'll probably be its own retrospective.

I had a lot of fun with Soulsilver! Sure, its pacing could have been a lot better, but it was a really nice experience overall! Though I feel like it'd have been a lot trickier and more frustrating without the infinite rare candy cheat.

I am so happy to have finally completed this game, 12 years later.

[pokenoire]

The themes of "Pokemon" are the relationship between humans and the fictional creatures known as Pokémon, and the growth of a boy called Satoshi (which means the childhood of all humans) into adulthood, for better or for worse. At least that was the theme I decided on intuitively when I took on the job of composing the Pokémon series.

　I've already mentioned in this column that an important theme of ``Pokémon'' is the so-called ``Stand by Me''.

　Growing old and becoming an adult, even if we don't like it, is a very universal human theme, and I've mentioned it many times in episodes of "Magical Princess Minky Momo".

　In "Pokémon", the relationship with the fictional Pokémon creatures is added to this as the most important theme.

　As a child, Satoshi had a reliable partner called Pikachu.

　Even if Kasumi developed romantic feelings for Satoshi, she wouldn't be able to intervene in the relationship between Satoshi and Pikachu.

　Even if Kasumi develops childish romantic feelings for Satoshi, if this were portrayed, Pokémon would have a different theme embedded, and the basic theme would not only become complicated, but diluted.

　Even if Kasumi had romantic feelings in ``Pokémon'', it would only have the meaning of a condiment for cooking, and to be frank, condiments that complicate the taste of ``Pokémon'' are an obstacle to the theme of ``Pokémon.'' ``Pokémon.'')"

Shudo said this as an opinion. Well even if Shudo didn't have that intention he left the writing of Pokémon in Jotho

Any other romantic implications that came after him (Side story - AG even Sun and Moon and Mezase Pokémon Master) is from other writers and people Shudo is just ONE single and chief writer

If other writers have written scenes that are romantic now, Shudo is not the only one. We can tell from the scene in the movie 2000 that some of the writers did not share this opinion and wanted emotional scenes between them.

Atsuhiko and Yuyama are Ash Misty fans as a good couple in retrospect

Just like Yajima and Kanda were more in sync in what they were writing but if Yajima didn't like Kanda's suggestion anymore he could have the same fate/conflict

An example of how things can be complicated in a production and not everything is "yes yes and no no"

Also he is saying in general that romance ruins the Pokemon anime and that no one should be between Satoshi and Pikachu. which makes me think that if he were alive he would have his criticisms of Amourshipping to give. He said it as if a character's love for Satoshi was a bad spice to add and that it ruins Pokemon because it's not the topic. So we don't even have any evidence that he would be happy with the choices of Amour or Serena. Even though I'm an Amourshipper I'm being realistic about how he thinks about the romance topic in Pokemon it's not just about Misty it's about her because she's the only character at the moment he didn't think of May or anyone else as being of interest to Ash.

This can all be said about Serena and Amourshipping or any other romantic implication the parts I have highlighted are the ones I consider should be analyzed with caution and can simply be taken to be perceived as Shudo's opinion on romance between Ash and someone.

My thoughts on the part that Shudo was bitter about Pokeshipping before the show ended but I also don't think from his talk he's approved Amourshipping since it simply also goes under "add one more romance"

I think Shudo's opinion on Pokeshipping shouldn't dictate what others can ship or not either. I know his words have been used by Amourshippers for years to get Ash x Misty out of the way.

Analyzing his words in essence. He would not be in favor of this

[aldritch-ao3]

old person, do you play games ?? what games do you play

[ insert pitiful hamster ]

andd!! fave colour(s), reading genre, do you prefer manga manhwa or manhuas ??

this feels like an interrogation ... im sorry 🙁🙁🙁

questions for me … what a treat ! don’t be sorry it’s like a nice little delight :o) especially after a longass car ride. blegh.

for the record, my online alias is AM ! cogito ergo sum, i think therefore i write self indulgent fanfic. calling me aldritch is fine too. whatever feels right

i DO play games ! i’m an avid shiny hunter in pokémon games, but my go-to favourites are don’t starve together and skyrim. for the good of my reputation i won’t say how many collective hours i have in skyrim. my favourite games are either cozy farming-type games (stardew, fields of mistria, cattails, etc) and games that are a little scary to play or experience (shipwrecked 64, bloodborne, home safety hotline, etc).

bonus mention to pokemon mystery dungeon 2 explorers of time/darkness/sky, and super danganronpa 2 goodbye despair. not games i replay often but long-time favourites of mine. and anyone who knew me before playback will know i’m a big fan of the sonic franchise. even if i’m ,.. really bad at the games and prefer the comics

as for colours, i like yellow a lot! mustard yellow … though i wear a lot of maroon and green. and my whole pc setup (and part of my hair) are pink. you just have to trust me on liking yellow. i promise i do

reading genres … even more all over the place, i’m not gonna lie, esp bc i dont have as much time to read. i really enjoy a bit of dogshit xenofiction via warriors, but when it comes to actually enjoyable books that i own, id say highlights are the indifferent stars above by daniel james brown, and plastiboo’s vermis series! (i feel like my main username and alias should tell you what my favourite short story is lmao) i also can’t reasonably call a webcomic a novel no matter how long it is, but if i could justify it i’d add homestuck to the favourite novel list.

i’ve definitely read the most manga versus manhwa and manhua, but i don’t read many of any of them in general to be honest! aside from jjk, i'd say kaiju no. 8 and my hero academia are easy favourites (and bnha's horikoshi is one of my favourite artists of all time), and anyone who’s added me on discord will be used to seeing giyuu from demon slayer as my icon every now and again … but i tend to have a love-hate relationship with most manga i read. while i love when a book series sucks, very few manga suck in ways that captivate me the same. tokyo ghoul? maybe?

i don’t read a lot of comics in general i’m kind of like a video essay guy. shounen is my guilty pleasure but i also have very little patience for tasteless fanservice or most romance tropes or the overuse of shock value in horror series or the way the modern isekai genre Is. so it’s. yknow. in theory i like manga. in practice im a massive hater.

if you want to access the wavelength of my brain, just get really into hazel's normal creepypasta retrospective , the ember knight , and the ninth hour all back to back

[heinousactszx]

the oracle games are kind of incredible in retrospect. 2 fully fledged zelda games releasing on the exact same day, and despite many people's belief (myself included) that it was a pokemon type deal with minor differences, the truth is that they're two similar but entirely distinct adventures. they honestly feel ahead of their time in some ways, especially with the concept of a linked game. it's an idea that exists in more modern systems, but for the game boy to pull off that level of inter-connectivity is pretty incredible, even if it's also a bit overwhelming. if i was a kid i'm sure i would have dug into every last secret the game has to offer, and it has many for sure.

the stories are fairly good, for what they are, you're rescuing the damsel as always, which is definitely tired, but the towns and other locations you visit have a lot of charm to them, and the trade side quests encourage you to visit everywhere you can. the story of a linked game is also cool because of twinrova's shenanigans, and i love that the resurrection is botched for ganon, but also that twinrova was clearly doing it for love of their son and not for power, because they would not have sacrificed themselves otherwise. it's cool that they borrowed so much from ocarina to recreate in 8-bit

the differences between the two games are pretty significant when you actually play them, even though they share the same graphics, many items, movement, enemies, etc. the puzzles in ages really force you to think out of the box. my ages playtime is almost 5 hours longer than seasons because of the puzzles. meanwhile seasons is more straightforward in that it lets you have moe free reign over the world while giving you some more involved fights instead. that said, seasons has plenty of great puzzles, and ages has fun battles and a good amount to discover. both games are equally good, although if i have to pick, i think i'd go with seasons (sorry solarsyrup!). it's just because of the seasons gimmick and because i love the magnetic gloves so much. those things need to be in every single zelda game. fours swords doesn't count

that said, the games aren't without faults. the combat can really frustrated you, both because link has almost no invincibility and because movement can be too sensitive at times. a few of the bosses (onox especially) can feel straight up unfair, as do some of the puzzles where one screwup can cost you a significant amount of time in backtracking. playing without savestates seems like it'd be much more of a chore. the games do feel held back by being on the game boy, both because of the screen size and because there's just not enough buttons for some of the complexity the game wants you to do. if grezzo were to remake these games in the link's awakening remake engine like it's been rumored, i think it would be very welcome

still, it's all minor complaints at the end of the day. it's hard to call any zelda game "slept on", but the oracle games do feel somewhat overlooked in the grand scheme of the series. both of them are absolutely worth your time

up next, none other than my favorite, the one and only, the best zelda game ever made. a link between worlds

(after a break, because i've played so much 2d zelda in the past two weeks)

[findingyourrootscomic]

Gameplay Retrospective #3 (Chapters 8-10)

Hello all, and welcome back to Finding Your Roots: Gameplay Retrospectives! FYR is based on a type-restrictive nuzlocke run of Pokemon Omega Ruby. This series is where I describe the events of this nuzlocke run, so you all can get an understanding of how I transform the gameplay into a story! Today, we’ll be covering Chapters 8-10 which ranges from leaving Slateport City to the Team Magma encounter at Meteor Falls. Sorry it’s been so long since the last one, thank you for your patience!

The Current Team

Cedar- Marshtomp

Gender: Female

Met: Route 101, lv 5

Ability: Torrent

Personality: Brave, Good endurance

Shelly- Nincada

Gender: Female

Met: Route 116, lv 6

Ability: Compound Eyes

Personality: Rash, Proud of her power

Brawler- Geodude

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 10

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Careful, Quick to flee

Nauki- Trapinch

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 1

Ability: Arena Trap

Personality: Jolly, Strong willed

Ember- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Route 112, lv 14

Ability: Oblivious

Personality: Brave, Somewhat vain

Copper- Slugma

Gender: Male

Met: Fiery Pass, lv 15

Ability: Magma Armor

Personality: Rash, Impetuous and silly

Lockheed- Skarmory

Gender: Male

Met: Route 113, lv 16

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Modest, Likes to run

Eclipse- Solrock

Gender: Neutral

Met: Meteor Falls, lv 17

Ability: Levitate

Personality: Jolly, Takes plenty of siestas

Tuffy- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Jagged Pass, lv 21

Ability: Simple

Personality: Hasty, Quick to flee

Gyms Completed

Mauville Gym: Leader Wattson

New Catches

Fiery Pass: Copper (Slugma)

Route 112: Ember (Numel)

Route 113: Lockheed (Skarmory)

Meteor Falls: Eclipse (Solrock)

Jagged Pass: Tuffy (Numel)

Evolutions

None

Deaths

None

Chapter Eight’s gameplay was especially fun to translate into story, since it contained a rival battle AND a gym battle! The chapter picks up at the Pokemon Center visit that I made after winning the prior rival battle against Brendan, who fainted one of my pokemon and reduced the rest to low health. I used repels to make sure we didn’t get jumped by wild pokemon and rushed my poor earth-type babies to the Slateport Pokemon Center to heal them up. Since I had three revives to use on any fainted pokemon I wanted throughout the run, I used the first on Cedar and rezzed her at the Pokemon Center. I stocked up on potions and other heal items, now paranoid that this run may not be as easy as I was hoping. After that, we set off for Mauville.

In the comic, Team Hearth never visits the comic’s stand-in city Mawhill, the lightning elemental capital. This is different from the gameplay, where you are of course unable to skip visiting Mauville since it has the third gym. I made this change since it wouldn’t really make sense for Team Hearth to visit an elemental capital so soon after what happened with Briar. I also just didn’t want to introduce and design a new city, and I figured I could connect the needed gym battle to Mauville by having the gym leaders be Mawhill citizens. It made sense anyway since lightning elementals live there, and the gym is an electric gym! So that fell together pretty nicely.

But before the battle begins, Cedar and Nauki run into Wesen the ralts, the comic stand-in for Wally! I was pretty excited to get to bring Wesen back for this chapter, since he left Cedar so abruptly ages ago in Chapter Two. It was fun to get to pick at the unresolved drama between these two, because Wesen is avoidant to a fault but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad about the things he does. Cedar is a fun character to throw at Wesen because her very nature is antithetical to what Wesen expects from the world. These two shake each other up and I love their chemistry.

Cedar and Nauki bring Wesen back to meet their new team, and some aggression from a recently retraumatized Shelly helps to lead both into the upcoming rival battle AND the gym battle. The conflict causes Nauki to run off on his own, which separates him from his older protectors and frees him up to get kidnapped by the lightning elemental gym leaders. This event thus gets Shelly even MORE pissed, and once she identifies Wesen as at fault for Nauki’s kidnapping, all bets are off. Shelly attacks Wesen, violence ensues, and the rival battle commences. Check that one off the list!

In-game, I used Shelly against Wally in Mauville. She was still weak af but was getting a little stronger now that she was getting to higher levels, and bug is good against psychic. Wally only has one ralts here, so it was a pretty easy fight even for Shelly. It went by quickly, and does as well in the comic, though in-comic Shelly is so overcome with raging emotion over the kidnapping that when Cedar intervenes, the explosion targets her instead. Wesen is spared, rival battle is cut off, and Shelly runs away. After the Talk happens, we cut to Nauki with his lightning elemental captors, and the third gym battle is imminent.

Gameplay notes for the Wally battle (Yeah it was literally two turns lol):

Shelly vs ralts- Cut, half yellow.

Teleport, no effect.

Cut KO.

Originally, I was actually going to show the third gym battle in-comic. It would have been Nauki beating the everloving shit out of these lightning elementals to protect his sisters from potential harm, and it was gonna be cathartic and awesome and glorious. I ended up cutting it for time. Chapter Eight was long as fuck even without this battle, so it unfortunately just couldn’t happen. The camera cuts away as Nauki charges in, and by the next time we see him, the cave is reduced to rubble and Watts, Gadget, and Mango are beaten to a pulp. In-game, you’ll never guess what happened…

I swept the gym with Nauki. Wow, how’d you guess? :V

Yeah, it was super easy. Even the battle against Roxanne was harder and I was fighting with a frigging water-type. Once the gym battle was done, we moved onwards towards Hoenn’s arid region! Finally, I had gotten to the good part of the game… THIS NEXT PART OF HOENN IS EARTH-TYPE CENTRAL! I was gonna be getting catches on almost every route, instead of every few levels like the early game! I was so excited to finally fill out the rest of the team, and I caught lots of new pokemon!

My first new catch was on Route 112, where I encountered and caught a female numel that I named Ember. I was so fucking excited because numel is one of my favorite earth-types to raise, and what better place to do so than Hoenn! She was the fifth pokemon to join the team, and then we went to Fiery Pass where I caught a male slugma named Copper. I’d never raised slugma before, so I was pretty interested to see how he would do. Full team!!!

The next step in the game was to head to Fallarbor, and I knew from my research that Route 113 would have a possible skarmory encounter. I really, really wanted skarmory on the team (steel-type, flying-type, cute design, nostalgia for my skarmory from my first Emerald playthrough, GOOD). So once we got there and I encountered and caught the male skarmory Lockheed, I suddenly had choices to make. 7 pokemon, but only 6 slots on the team. It was time to send someone to the PC!

This was the point in the run where I made pretty liberal use of the PC boxes to switch the team around. It was a kinda chaotic time for the team, pokemon would regularly get boxed and come back and get boxed again as more new catches were made. I was trying to balance the team type-wise as well, so that we weren’t leaning too heavily on ground-types versus rock and steel. Cedar and Nauki were the only real permanent fixtures on the team at this point. Lots of switching up!

In Fallarbor, you get a quest to save a kidnapped professor from Team Magma, who dragged him off to Meteor Falls for whatever reason. You also encounter Brendan here, who doesn’t battle you but rather accompanies you to Meteor Falls. I decided to skip this rival encounter because honestly I forgot it even happened. Brendan just leaves very little impression on me as a character lol. I skipped the professor thing, too, because it was just kinda boring and would’ve taken an annoying amount of time to set up, just needlessly extending the comic further. Once Team Hearth made it to the desert, I wanted to send them to Meteor Falls without spending a ton of pages on it. I definitely wanted to include the Team Magma encounter there, since I was taking this opportunity to introduce the comic stand-in for Maxie. I used Team Molten’s strong desire to fight Team Magma as the bridge to get us from one story point to the next as quickly as possible.

I don’t exactly remember how I got the idea to connect Team Molten and Team Magma. The numel catches were definitely part of the inspiration, since Maxie also uses a camerupt as his ace. Bridging different elements of the story also helps to streamline things; Team Molten wanting to fight Team Magma can serve to drag Team Hearth into the conflict as well, even though our main characters don’t yet have a personal stake in the conflict. They will have a personal stake eventually. But for now, their major motivation is to help their new friends out. Thankfully, with Cedar and Nauki’s personalities, it was easy to justify this.

In Meteor Falls, I caught a solrock named Eclipse. I was kinda miffed about this catch I’ll be honest lol, because solrock is a psychic-type but also a physical attacker??? And I don’t even think they learn zen headbutt. So at the time I was just kinda like… Eclipse you’re just a less good Brawler… But I kept them on the team for far longer than I anticipated at the time of capture. So its kinda funny how that all turned out!

Once Eclipse was caught (and introduced in-comic as a character with OCD, as I had promised a friend I would write one), we move on to the Team Magma encounter and introduce Mantle and Tabs (stand-in for Admin Tabitha). In-game, there are three Magma Admins that you regularly fight (or two?? Was it two or three??? I remember Tabitha and Courtney uhh), but in the comic, only one of these admins is still currently with the team. This is to just streamline things more so I don’t have a billion cast members to keep track of. The other Magma admins can be seen in Ember and Tuffy’s flashback, so they are at least referenced. In-comic, Team Magma is here for the same reason as in-game: To steal the meteorite. Team Molten find them first, chaos ensues as the numels three reunite, and then Team Hearth arrives. Molten has outed themselves as being connected to Team Magma. Team Magma successfully steals the meteorite (same as in-game p sure) and leave. I literally don’t remember what they do with it after the fact lol, but I at least remember that much.

Sometime after Meteor Falls, I went to Jagged Pass and caught the second female numel, Tuffy. This was fucking awesome because I love numels and now I had two of them fuck yeah. And thus, we had nine team members in total: Cedar, Nauki, Shelly, Brawler, Ember, Copper, Lockheed, Eclipse, and Tuffy! Earthen party, earthen party! Things were going strong at this point, with lots of fighters to choose from and all sorts of new type coverage. As you can see, in-game Tuffy was the last of these five pokemon to be caught, but she’s introduced as one of the first new catches in-comic. I streamlined all the new catches by introducing three of them (slugma and the two numels) as a unit. I wrote in reasons for why all these new pokemon would start hanging with Team Hearth, though all have yet to officially join the team. I try not to rush new catches onto the team, since it can come off really unnatural. I want to give time for the characters to meet and get used to each other and have them join up when the moment feels right. But for now, all these new pokemon are traveling with Team Hearth!

Aaaand that’s about it! Thanks for reading this gameplay retrospective. Next one will come at the end of Chapter 13. Laters!

[kafus]

i am particularly enamored with mystery gifts distributed in real life locations over local wireless or physical link cables and stuff. i don't even know how to explain why? i mean they're cool on the basis of being exclusive collectibles and also cool on the basis of people working hard to document and preserve their data... but like. i think in general pokemon in real life really takes my interest since pokemon when i was younger was very much a lonely isolated thing that i did entirely on my own, i never had the social real life pokemon experience that was a core part of the series until adulthood, and so i think i'm just really wistful and feel very surreal about the idea of gathering in a room and having a real life person plug a cable into your gba sp to give you a mew and stuff like that. it makes the pokemon experience tangible i guess.

and while real life events were really inaccessible, and it sucked if you lived somewhere that either didn't get events at all or you were unable to travel, especially as a child, now in retrospect it's easier than ever to learn about these events online and get them yourself so many years after the fact. it's like a cool relic of the culture of the time before the internet Dominated Society. local pokemon events are rarer and smaller in scope now and i think that's too bad.

like sure shiny online mythicals are cool but my favorite event pokemon i own from the switch games is my pichu that my friend from korea had to go to a real life movie theater to get me, because how fucking cool is that? someone went somewhere in real life to get that code for me. a friend from across oceans. as much as mystery gifts represent exclusivity and FOMO they can also represent memories and people and i think that's really fucking cool. i think seeing them as a soulless way to keep people hooked on pokemon is overly cynical

[soundofseclusion]

20. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

Release: 2005, GCN Beaten: May 27th, GCN Playtime: 28h 53m

Vastly superior over its predecessor in basically every way, XD has hardly any of the frustrations that made Colosseum so insufferable at times. It still has its own quirks and annoyances, but it's safe to say that all my biggest gripes with Colosseum were totally ironed out. I enjoyed XD quite a bit and found myself eager to play it, which is usually how I feel about good Pokemon games.

[sillygoblinantics]

I’m real sick of Lily’s hollow nothingburger ranting nitpick of a “retrospective” of Pokémon…

So let me sperg about these games in a constructive way that highlights the parts of the game that Lily neglected to mention

This is:

Gobbo’s Semi-Complete Pokémon Retrospective!

I’ve been a fan of Pokémon since I could remember; roughly four years old give or take, my introduction began through the merchandise like cards, toys and book. I wouldn’t start my journey until I was 7 with soul silver with my female chikorita as a starter. I would then go on to play (ordered by region introduction): fire red, ORAS, soul silver & heart gold, platinum/BDSP, white, X&Y, sun & moon (and the ultra games), sword & shield, PLA, and scarlet & violet (including the dlcs and epilogue).

Going forward note that the games that are italicized are the main games I played myself in. Just thought I’d make that clear. So I can’t fully explain some of the games than others but I may mention points others I’ve seen talk about the games say that have provided good insight towards.

Gen 1 & 2

(Grouping these together as I have more to say and knowledge of the gen two game mostly from HGSS)

Gen 1: many peoples first taste and introduction to the world of Pokémon. With a variety of creatures, a straightforward goal and towns and cities to explore Kanto opened the floodgates to what would be a long running series. It started with a premise of catching cool beasts and creatures and traveling the world and fighting an evil organization with the help of your newly acquired friends through strategy and planning you’d prove yourself against the best of the best of trainers and a rivalry that would form into a friendship as they got older. At first, the games only had one option for gender being a boy, you could chose your own name or presets of other options one of which being Red who is a protagonist in the manga, but he’s not ash (as ash would be playable with pokemon Yellow and somewhat in the let’s go games). You also get to name your rival either through the realms of your imagination and witty humor or the presets: this is Blue your rival. (In the anime he would be changed personality wise slightly for American audiences watching the anime, Gary)

I didn’t get far in my first playthrough of FireRed as a kid, I’ll admit. I got stuck in cerulean city and was trying to grind my Pokémon’s levels which took too long. You could probably tell that I had charmander as my starter, well I will flex by saying I had a female charmander first time playing it! So meh! I named her Flare. When it game to this generation there was many things that were cut or added, beta designs, unused mechanics or sprites and even the concept of buying pokemon in the marts which would probably be added via the coin shop of the game place. Of course this is my assumption so feel free to correct me in replies!!

Now I might be biased with what I’m about to talk about with Gen two, but this is my retrospective and I get to do what I want! XD

Gen II: ah Johto my fictional home away from home! I LOVE THESE GAMES! My brother and I would play pokemon as kids and he’d always be ahead of me in the story so I’d have many times where I’d ask him to help me figure something out! Like that god damn stupid farfetch’d quest… grumble grumble… he helped me twice! Soul silver was the first game I played and my starter was a female chikorita whose name sadly escapes me. The last place I left off in that game was cerulean city before my game was unplayable due in part to “kids being dumb” antics (I put a magnet near my ds and we had to ship it to Nintendo to fix it). So I got heart gold and replayed it! This time with another female starter, totodile! Who I named Fergie which is short for fergalicous. The gen two remakes was jam packed with everything from new pokemon, new region, new types, and a sort of epilogue if you will to the previous games through the story of team rocket! Being that after you defeat the boss he vanishes and his grunts are trying everything to contact him. This time you get to be a boy or a girl!

These games added more to the worldbuilding there was in Pokémon with the origin of the legendary beasts who had been resurrected by a much stronger legendary more so than the bird trio of Kanto. This pokemon would make their appearance in the very first episode of the anime, the rainbow bird: Ho-oh.

If I may also sprinkle in my other fixation that is mythology the legendaries of Johto are most definitely based or pull inspiration from the divine beasts of Japanese mythology. It’s no secret that the people at gamefreak value and put in the love and care they hold for culture and upbringing.

This is something that I will make note of for a brief tangent: the fact that in many of the games there’s a special building or place where players can enter to find GameFreak themselves in their office. They have unique dialogue and even reward players with exclusive items or certificates for completing the Pokédex! In the gen two remakes they give you a special item that lets you go back and forth from having the updated soundtrack or the gameboy soundtrack, I personally love the gameboy sound as it wasn’t overstimulating which is just a personal thing not to diminish the ost.

There was many things added to the games such as a day/night cycle and as mentioned earlier, new pokemon types! Steel and dark. Initially they planned to make one eeveelution (fandom term) a poison type later changing it to dark type but forgetting to fix the dex entry, this of course is umbreon! In a leak for the beta sprites there were many designs or complete pokemon who were cut or replaced, an early concept for leafeon was one of these designs that would be brought to gen four!

One misconception of Gen two from what I’ve seen is that Kanto is the postgame, this is false. The real postgame is facing Red who after the first game vanished just like Giovanni. When you travel through Kanto after getting the first eight gym badges you are given bits and pieces of information of this mysterious character who as you progress learn was the previous champion before vanishing. At the top of mount silver he waits for an opponent who can beat him. I’m still grinding to beat him!!! Of course with Maxwell by my side!

Before we wrap up I want to add in a few things the remakes added:

Pokeatholon

Bug catching tournament

Safari zone (where you can design your safari zone which will affect the Pokémon that appear)

Suicune quest

Steven stone

Celebi

Sinjoh

Ruins of alph

Radio

And Voltorb Flip

————————————————

Gen III

The remakes are better I’m sorry ok if you take mega evolution out of the games it’s still cool in how you can ride latias high above Hoenn to move around the region with ease and the approriate more characteristically fitting designs of Maxie and Archie. To sum up in a way to point out how pro-corporate and rainbow capitalist Lily orchard is the whole plot and motive of team magma is literally to make more land for real-estate. Archie just wants Pokémon to have more rule of the world and make a sort of waterworld type landscape. Kyrogre and groudon are based on leviathan and behemoth being two sworn enemies who will bring catastrophic effects should they awaken and fight the other, only when the sky is summoned does the land and sea cease their feud.

The games are cool with having bike mechanics which involve the usage of two types of bikes to traverse different terrain: BMX bby!!!

But contests were introduced too!

The inclusion of a puzzle that requires some knowledge of braille to access the regis was also a fascinating element of these games.

Oh and the fact our trainer has a dad who’s a gym leader was neat too.

Oh and my starter was a male treecko I named Trevor for alpha sapphire.

———————————

Gen IV

I never had diamond or pearl so for a while my own understanding and knowledge came from playing the third game that added onto the story and gameplay of the previous games. I had a female piplup I named Pearl.

Gen four was meant to be the last game installment of the Pokémon series. Given the story and stakes at play with team galactic and their cultish mindset to restart the world by taking control of the embodiments of time space and for platinums sake, antimatter it made sense. But it wouldn’t stay like this given the reception the games had. Like the first two games there were many unique features and even side quests you could take part in!

The under ground

Contests (and poffin making/ball capsules)

Ranmas (I know I spelled it wrong stop!) park (the park with a bias to pokemon based on appearance lol)

Personality ribbons

The old mansion

Gts (with the lil parade thing)

Two new eeveelutions!

And badge cleaning (nothing is more satisfying than cleaning the badges)

So why is platinum better? Let me list it for yall now:

The opening is different where you run into Cyrus first instead of Rowan

Looker

Fatima’s gym challenge was a maze with lights and puzzle solving rather than math equations

More Pokémon

The distortion world

Looker

Battle frontier

AND THE FACT THAT YOU GOT TO HAVE A LUXURY HOME AT THE AGE YOUR TRAINER IS THAT YOU GOT TO DECORATE!!!

Also this was a playground rumor when I was growing up now: if you beat the elite four and league a certain number of times in a row, you would get to meet your trainer character’s dad.

Now did I believe this rumor? Yes.

The answer will shock you!

I also use to and still believe that Looker is the trainers dad and nothing with change that for me!!!

Ok I will have to separate this into two parts! Stay tuned for gen 5–9

Gen 5&6 (next)

Gen 7&8

Gen 9 (coming soon)

[quietwingsinthesky]

So, what are your top ten video essays? Is Space Jam 2 #1?

Uhm. Top ten? hold on a minute let me uhhhhh. see if i can remember them (<- mind goes blank whenever asked about favorite shit)

Okay. I have them. Went through my liked list on youtube and such and my subscriptions. Found a few. There's not any real order here, but rest assured, these are all fantastic. to me, anyway.

#10: or, I start this list by cheating. Because I'm recommending you a series of video essays, but I swear, they're good. OR: Kyle the Scott's entire Assassin's Creed Series Critique.

If you've been here a bit, you may know that I've kinda been sucked down the AC rabbit hole. And I actually found Kyle the Scott through a different video of his, that being one covering the unfortunate circumstance of him being "transvestigated". He's a fantastic video essayist, and seriously, go watch this series, go subscribe to him. I think he's the smallest channel I'm recommending here, and he absolutely should not be. He's the reason I didn't just drop AC2 after I started getting frustrated, because he really opened my eyes up to just how much there is to this series, both good and bad. Go watch the videos!

#9: An American Tail: Fieval Goes to Video Game Hell

You have probably definitely seen Folding Idea's work. You know this guy, he's behind the big video on NFTs that you, statistically, have watched at least twice. But I want to direct your attention to my personal favorite video by him: an exploration of a really bad video game adaptation of American Tail. Because here's the thing. I love bad video games. I love people talking about bad video games. But I especially love people talking about bad video games who still think these video games are worth talking about, worth preserving. (Bonus Recs: I Don't Know James Rolfe, World of Warcraft Classic and What We Left Behind, and Tuca And Bertie Can't Make It Alone) (also go watch Tuca and Bertie lmao)

#8: I solved the All Dogs Go To Heaven Lore

This is not the longest video on the list. I'm sorry. But I'm not. You may look at the 2 hours of this and think, "What? How is there so much All Dogs Go To Heaven lore? Isn't there just like... 2 movies?" And oh, buddy. You have no idea. Plus, Shunks is funny <3 (Bonus Recs: Classic Creepypastas: a deep dive, I played every* MY LITTLE PONY game, and Remember My Little Pony Creepypastas?)

#7: Trespasser: Jurassic Park's Biggest Failure? - A History

I warned you. Technically part 3 of an on-going retrospective of all Jurassic Park games, this one solely covers the sort of... fiasco? of Jurassic Park: Trespasser. It's an critique and exploration of the game, surrounded by the history of the developers who suffered from the failure of it. It's just! It's a well-told retrospective! I love people who talk about "bad" games and acknowledge that there were still people who made those games, people who worked on them and poured so much life into them and still failed! I'm passionate about failures <3 (Bonus Recs: the first two videos in this retrospective lmao)

#6: Space Jam 2 is a Lie

This video. is fucking hilarious. and there is nothing I can say that won't spoil why it's like that. But please, please, please, I'm fucking begging you. You need to see this. I promise it's not about Space Jam 2, the movie that came out in 2021. It's about. Well. It's about Space Jam 2. It's about. You just have to watch it. (Bonus Recs: The Bizarre World of Fake Video Games, Social Anxiety Horror, and What The Internet Did To Garfield)

#5: The Alternate Universe Pokemon Iceberg Explained

hey remember that iceberg trend from a while back? This is gonna be the only one I recommend because it's a favorite sort of video of mine, which I think is like. Meta Unfiction? Not so much unfiction as it is a reflection on that unfiction. This isn't a video about the alternate universe pokemon games that ended after gold/silver. This is a video about dragging out the horrifying secrets underneath those games. I don't know what it is about this specific video—maybe it's just because I grew up with Jvk and Killswitch as some of my favorite creepypasta-esque stuff—but it gives me the shivers. (Bonus Recs: Classic Video Game Creepypastas I-III & The Analyzing Creepypastas series.)

#4: DefunctTV: Jim Henson

I'M CHEATING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! recommending this whole series defunctland did on jim henson's work. what an incredible series on an incredible man. The writing on Defunctland is always just perfect. It's informative, it's dryly witty, and it draws you into the story. (Bonus Recs: The Craziest Party Walt Disney Ever Threw, The History of Journey Into Imagination, and Walt Disney's City of the Future, EPCOT)

#3: Bambi II: The Purgatory of Grief

This is a video about a mid movie, so, you know, of course I love it. I'm joking, this is genuinely a beautiful exploration of a kind of silly direct-to-dvd sequel, highlighting all the bits it did right. Because what it did right matters. You know? Sometimes your silly disney sequel movie is a little bit haunted. (Bonus Recs: The Lion King 1½: Judaism, White Pride, and Paranoia, & Our Flag Means Disappointment: Why I Hated Season 2, & Charlie the Unicorn: Capitalism As Apocalypse)

#2: a normal creepypasta retrospective

this is a very normal retrospective of your favorite creepypastas. you want to remember them, don't you. yes, you do. it's so normal. it's exactly like you remember. don't worry about it.

#1: No One Can Find This "Creepy Dinosaur" Game...

I like Sagan Hawkes's work. This is my favorite video of his. It's a lost media deep dive into a dinosaur video game that he played as a kid and found maybe one of the last copies of in existence. And if you're reading this summary here and have seen the video, you're thinking hey that's not what it's- shhhhh. They'll understand soon. You don't have to speed them along. It's inevitable. (Bonus Recs: OFF: A Retrospective, Minecraft wants you to be afraid..., & How Yume Nikki Changed Everything...)

And uhhhh we've come this far so you're not gonna stop me if I drop some of other channels on you to go check out. and a video to get you started on them. F.D. Signifier (The Complex History of Mike Tyson), NezumiVA (Why Danganronpa Is A Classic), Patricia Taxxon (On the Ethics of Boinking Animal People), Noah Caldwell-Gervais (The Lincoln Highway: Across America on the First Transcontinental Motor Road), Jacob Geller (Dark Souls 3 is Thinking of Ending Things), David J Bradley (The Dark Truth of Peanuts), and Wendy Rocket (Fanon, Nuance, and Manfred von Karma [Ace Attorney Analysis]) (<- literally so close to making the top ten i CANNOT recommend enough that you go watch this video. "but i dont play ace attorney-" I DONT CARE. watch it.)

[euclydya]

Alright results for this poll are looking interesting and we wanna share the answers lmfao so. Under the cut

The lie is that our first starmate we can remember forming was Misty. In actuality, it was a Horsea! Though Misty formed very shortly after. We do have a vivid memory of what is in retrospect Misty fronting, we were about... 3-5? Idk specifics. But we did get into Pokemon very very young so that age range tracks.

We do in fact have a hole in our brain, but calling it a hole is... Rather incorrect. We call it that though because that's what our parents told us it was when we were growing up. It's called an arachnoid cyst, and it is. Fucking huge. Wish we still had the pics of our last MRI to check on it but alas, lost to time. It takes up pretty much the entire left half of our brain iirc, which we think is pretty neat. It's very shallow though lmao.

Doctors said it would keep us from talking and walking, which... We proved them wrong there lmao. In fact it hasn't effected us much at all save for alexithymia and psychosis (... We think, anyway. We're blaming the psychosis on it but we aren't exactly sure if that's what initially caused it lol)

And, according to our memories, the first video game we ever played was indeed Spyro the Dragon! Not much to say about that one lmao, can't remember the exact one we first played but it was probably the first game in the series.

So yeah! #Lore, there u go 👍

[ifbench]

So!

Mario and Luigi Brothership is out, and so far? It's the best new game I've played since PMD: Gates to Infinity.

I don't talk about it nearly as much as I should, but Mario and Luigi is my absolute favorite game series of all time, even more than Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Dream Team in particular is my favorite game ever.

I also really like the Paper Mario series! (With the exception of Sticker Star and 64, though that's only because I haven't played 64 yet. I'm sure I'll like it when I do! But I have played Sticker Star, and it sure is Sticker Star.)

I've also been meaning to play Super Mario RPG for the first time, after receiving the remake as a Christmas present last year.

So, while I'm recovering from burnout on my mainline Pokemon marathon:

(Note: These, with the exception of Paper Mario 64, Super Mario RPG, and Mario and Luigi Brothership, will not be first-time playthroughs, unlike my mainline Pokemon retrospectives.)

Feel free to reblog this for reach, but please don't feel pressured to!

[trappedinthewalls]

Seriously considering making my own Pokemon retrospective to give people something to watch other than Lily Orchard's. Like in the vein of @saiscribbles response streams and videos. Since Lily's is, you know, really not great. Opinion, obviously, which is fine. Except it's needlessly mean and creepily Gardevoir obsessed (and we all know what that is). Only mine wouldn't be a friggen 6-hour slog of a ted talk spent mostly bashing other people's opinions on the games and instead be just a straightforward look back on what I liked and didn't like about the games. Also Lily's idea that Blue's bullying is just how little kids treat their best friends is kinda strange.

It'd probably just be a series of shorts that I'd cobble together into one video when I'm done. Just a thought.