Brain Full of Games

2026.03.06 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.9

2026-03-06

Yes, I had big gaming plans for the weekend, but I have severely deficient in Vitamin D and needed to spend as much time as I could outside. So I played some Pokemon Go. And the rest of the week got away from me as it always does, but at least I did some billable hours and got a lot done on my Star Wars cosplays…

After going back through the Ice Path to grab some ice types and training them (well, not really), I was able to smash Clair and enter the Dragon Den. The Dragon Den itself was simple enough and after answering a personality quiz I finally got my final badge and TM24 DragonBreath. Now I just needed a little dragon to teach it to… and what do you know, the old Dragon Master actually gives you a Dratini if you talk to him again! I only have memories of hooking Dratini on a line, so i think this might be the first time I ever did this. As I learned from a play through guide, apparently if you answer the questions ‘correctly’ (it is extremely straight forward- you will hopefully know without checking that saying you only love Strong Pokemon is wrong) the Dratini he gives you will know the move ExtremeSpeed. I think normally this move is only available through breeding, so that is pretty neat.

Once I held that little baby Dratini in my arms, I knew I had to make some changes to my Elite Four party. I’ve decided to remove Butterfree from my line up, which i’m sure seems like a normal choice, but Butterfree is almost always in my final line up. I think since FireRed. Speaking of- I didn’t want my next play through to be Pokemon again, but with everyone talking about FireRed I feel serious pressure to jump back into that rather than PureRed, which is what I had planned to casually pick up after this. Anyway, I have a lot of grinding ahead of me, especially with this lvl 15 addition to my party. I named him TinyFeet, which is from a long story, but I’m going to tell it:

When I was a kid, my little cousin Andrew caused me unbelievable emotional damage by pulling the trading link out of his Game Boy whenever we had to trade to evolve something or just fill up our Pokédexes (fool me once, shame on him… fool me four times? I think I might have thought it was funny, too). But one time, to make it up to me when he killed my beloved Alakazam, he offered to trade me his Dragonair, SrTinyFeet. Señor Tiny Feet was more trouble than he was worth; Andrew had been training that damn thing in the Elite Four time and no matter how much he leveled, he wasn’t evolving. Grinding used to really suck in Gen 1 and I don’t really blame a seven year old for giving up, and honestly I wanted a little Dragonair more than everything. So I became the loser child grinding experience in the Elite Four to get that stupid little dragon to level up. For some reason I distinctly remember getting to level 33. I think I was expecting it to evolve at 33, after only having and training it for 2 levels. It felt like it took forever, but I liked Dragonair and I thought it was funny that his feet were so so tiny, you couldn’t even see them! Señor became a fixture of my party and I took training him very seriously. Neither Andrew nor I had ever had a Dragonite and I felt like achieving this was very important for the family. And it took months, but he finally evolved and got those big ol’ feet he had only dreamed of. I traded the Dragonite up to my Gold version and he was with me until my save battery died in 2014.

Just want to be clear that my cousin did really name his Dratini Señor Tiny Feet because he thought ‘it only looks like he has no feet because they are very, very small.’

Hopefully my next update will include a big Pokedex update. Like Espeon and Umbreon, for instance (i am really starting to get frustrated…. it used to seem so easy? And I don’t remember having to buy to many Calciums and shit to get them to love me? Perhaps they know I’m an old hag and not a sweet little kid).
2026.02.27 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.8

2026-02-27

I caught Suicune!

It has been so long since I played Crystal (and, more importantly, Gold, which was my real Gen 2 500+ hour game), that I actually forgot how and when the legendaries come into play. I think that Suicune was like the other dogs in that it was let lose after the Burned Tower encounter in Gold and Silver, but was pleasantly surprised by how early and easily you meet your first special Pokemon. And not just special: the pretty girl on the box!

This week my long spell of not catching any new Pokémon was broken by the Ice Path, which I remember being longer when I was a kid… possibly because the boulder/ice skating puzzle tripped me up slightly as a child. I can say with some arrogance now that I am much smarter than my 8 year old self and completed this puzzle in just a few minutes. Can you believe it? I hardly can. Anyway, I had to jump into my emulator during work (sorry to my boss, who I assume is reading this) to catch a few daytime-only Pokémon like Swinub, Jynx, and Lickitung, which I had skipped on the route leading from Mahogany to the Ice Path entrance. In other news, I have still not been able to evolve Meepy into Espeon or Silas into Umbreon (oh ‘it’s quite cute’? Are they? Huh? I KNOW THEY ARE CUTE I WANT THEM TO BE GROWN UP AND CUTE BUT ALSO POWERFUL whatever okay).

I ended up grinding by accident as I looked for some of these lower encounter chance Pokémon, which was good because god damn it the dragons in Blackthorn are not easy to deal with. I grabbed my Gyarados and a Shellder I found in one of my PC boxes that happens to know Aurora Beam, but things are not going well in the gym right now. This weekend I am going to rest and play The Long Dark, and hopefully get around to testing Outward 2, so my eighth badge is going to have to wait.
2026.02.24 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.7

2026-02-24

Well, I’m back!

It has been a long and weird month, but after a little trip to Italy for Carnevale and family stuff, I am home with the cat and a giant bag of kimchi and trying to get all the pizza/pasta out of my system. I’m feeling very carb-y. Also I’m a year older now (I age all at once like that). I do need to mention that unfortunately, while visiting my cousin, I was reintroduced to Pokémon Go and my husband is totally addicted to it so now I’m getting dragged around to do raids and stuff with him. And I had just got my daily screen time down to less than an hour on my phone, and I was really feeling very good about that. Ah well. I don’t want to let him and my cousin down so I guess I’m a Pokémon Go person again with sick iPad baby levels of daily screen time.

But this is a post about Crystal version. When I last updated, I was just about done clearing Team Rocket out of the Radio Tower. I finished that up but found that I am really, truly, struggling to evolve my Eevee into Espeon. I’ve had him with me for a while, but for whatever reason I just can’t make him happy (yes, I know about all the little things that could make him sad, but I’m really not doing any of those things to him, he never faints, so I don’t know what his damn problem is). I wasted a lot of time with something extremely stupid: as I mentioned in my last update, I wanted to teach my Butterfree the TM move Nightmare. Now, I thought I knew where to get this, but actually I was talking to the WRONG GUARD the WHOLE TIME. I feel like a complete moron. One thing that has really changed in the way that I play games now is that sometimes in an effort to ‘save time’, I will look up where something is to bypass the process of talking to everyone to find things. And every damn time this bites me in the ass. The most important thing I’ve learned so far from this play through is to just enjoy the process of playing the game, even if it all takes time. It really is the journey, isn’t it?

Now if you all will excuse me, I need to do some IRL Pokémon stuff with my husband (yes, it’s Pokémon Go raids. I’m sorry). See you all on Friday when I hope I will 1) be the proud owner of a sewing machine and 2) have 8 badges?? Maybe? I would also like to get a few more Pokémon… I’ve kinda stalled just shy of 100.
2026.01.30 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.6

2026-01-30

Apologies for my absence; work has been difficult and I’m currently partaking in the Global Game Jam (my first!). It was not easy breaking myself out of my little Animal Crossing update binge, but I finally got back to my Crystal version play through. Where we left off, I was kicking Rocket Grunts out of a basement in Mahogany. This, of course, leads us back to Goldenrod City and the source of the Rocket broadcast: the Radio Tower.

Mirroring the Silph Co. quest of the first gen games, the Radio Tower is a pit of Rattata battles. I don’t remember the Gen 1 version of this having so many stages (the hideout, then the tower, then the warehouse basement, then back to the Radio Tower…), but maybe that means I need to return to Gen 1 after this. Also, the 7th gym was stuck in the middle there (very easy compared to the last two… and now I’m wondering if I did them in the ‘wrong’ order? I guess this is like Gen 1 in that there not really a definitive order? But this game seemed like it was almost ‘forcing’ an order because the gym was blocked until I cleared the hideout).

The going is slow. But there is only one gym left before the Elite Four, so I guess I am getting close. Oh! And I saw Raikou in the wild! As soon as I get another 10 levels and teach everyone scary face, I’ll start hunting that bad boy.

The first time I played Gen 2, I did not know that I would really be able to see Kanto after defeating the Pokémon League; this was a whisper, a playground rumor, and something it did not occur to me to look up on the internet (I did not really understand the uses of the internet until I was 9 or 10, and then made great use of IGN, GameFAQs, and various fan sites for tips and tricks). But arriving in Kanto and realizing that I still had a long way to go after defeating the Elite Four was one of the most exciting moments of my young life.

Well, now I know. Which is why I’m having trouble committing to a party- there is just so much of the game left for me to play through with only 7 badges. But I know I have to make a decision, so here is my first planned party, which I will take through at least to the Elite Four:

Cyndaquil – my starter – Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Iron Tail, Swift? or Hyper Beam?
Cubone – Whack – my talisman Pokemon; I feel a real kinship with this little guy. Bonemerang, Dynamic Punch, Thrash, and Headbutt
Butterfree – another favorite I love to bring to the end because it’s just kinda funny. Big bug. Confusion, Psybeam, Sleep powder, Nightmare.
Umbreon – probably my favorite Eeveelution. Nick-named after my husband (: Bite, Feint attack, Toxic, Shadowball
Gengar – Haunter is my favorite but for completion I always evolve him. Hypnosis, Dream eater, Nightshade, Destiny bond.
Vileplume – love onions. I was an onion in a past life. Sleep powder, solarbeam, Acid, moonlight.

Big on status afflictions like poison, but as is probably clear I love putting bitches to SLEEP. I hate when my Pokémon get hit!

Between a funeral, a visit to see some family, a cosplay I need to finish this week, my birthday!!, and the drop of the Outward 2 play test into my Steam library, I think I am going to be taking a long hiatus at least from Pokémon Crystal and maybe also from blog posts, at least until mid-February. See you on the other side!
2026.01.20 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Old

2026-01-20

I don’t really want to be taking a lot of breaks from Crystal version, but it is taking me a little longer to beat it than I hoped it would. And the distractions keep coming with so many other things are going on at work and home, but especially with Nintendo. Pokémon is turning 30 and my beloved Zelda series is hitting the big 4 0 this February, so ASSUMING we get a JUICY Direct next month, I won’t be able to keep my mouth shut and continue with my regularly scheduled programming. I suppose there is always the chance that they don’t do anything big for the anniversaries, but considering the performance of the Switch 2 during the holidays, I think they will probably want to psych up fans to get them saving for the inevitable console upgrade they (and I am talking about myself, too) will need to make in order to enjoy the upcoming releases. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, as always, because that is my preferred way of coping with life. I haven’t bought a (new) Pokémon game for almost a decade and I am not the biggest fan of LoZ’s move away from traditional dungeons. But I still enjoyed BotW and TotK, and I am excited to see what is next. But this post is about another Nintendo classic.

I don’t remember exactly when I received Animal Crossing, but I remember being puzzled by it. I had heard of it in passing, probably had seen it at EB Games in my home town or at the mall, maybe heard a classmate mention it. The games I received as Christmas or birthday gifts vs the ones I had to rent at Blockbuster were always a mystery to me. Whatever their reasoning, I’m very happy my parents got me Animal Crossing back in 2002 or 2003 and introduced me to a life-long love.

Based on my age and the fact that I started the series with the original US release, you probably know that I have mixed feelings about the newest installment of the series, the Switch’s New Horizons, due to its pretty major departure from what the game was about for two decades. Thanks to the pandemic and sudden influx of people with disposable income staying home all day, ACNH’s player base, content creators, and online resources dominated online spaces and honestly are probably responsible for the whole ‘cozy game with meeeee’ craze. Suddenly, there were so many people playing Animal Crossing, very loudly online, and really taking decorating and customizing to a new level. It was all a little pastel and saccharine for me (I’m literally holding a pastel yellow Pikachu pen in my mouth because I take notes in a pink Sanrio notebook- what am I even saying), but I get the appeal… something about ACNH is sweet, polished, kind, and oh so very cutesy. And a big part of that is because the player has total control over their island; the aesthetic, the layout, the objects, and even the villagers. The ‘I have created a Deer Ethnostate’ jokes are actually always funny to me, sorry. Couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I invited Shino to the campsite last night and made her a shell bed. This is how it begins.

Just kidding. Anyway, we all know this was never what Animal Crossing was meant to be, and that is where the friction lies with players familiar with the older titles. As a kid sitting down to play Animal Crossing for the first time, I was lost and overwhelmed in a new home. The neighbors could be kind of rude! They never seemed happy with the errands I ran for them. I just wanted Monique to like me, was that so much to ask? But no matter: I could spend the day relaxing, making a few bells from fishing, weeding and planting flowers. Decorating my home was always a nightmare, just like real life. Most importantly, I had no fucking control over these animals. My beloved Bob moved out because I dared spend time with an old friend who happened to be in town one weekend, and I had failed to notice Bob’s furniture packed up and stop him in time. Bob! What a horror. I restarted my game after that.

The lack of control over your villagers had some upsides, of course; the main one being that their friendship was truly earned. When you came back after a long hiatus, it seemed like they missed you, but life really had gone on without you. You weren’t the mayor, you weren’t a linchpin of society in any capacity. They probably returned their own borrowed items when you weren’t there offering to run over to Genji’s place. But you were a beloved member of the community, and that was a big deal. I still get a sense that my villagers missed me when I put down ACNH for a bit, but nothing really changes with them. They don’t really get mad. And they stand still, waiting for me to return. I feel like Coraline returning to Other Mother’s world through the wall. I feel like no one else has any agency or life, that the island is my little Kingdom that exists for my amusement. We are all little dictators of Deer Island. It’s just a game, of course. That is what it is. But it’s a different kind of game than Population: Growing!

To wrap this up, I want to say that I’ve played the new 3.0 update a lot this week. Seriously, a lot. More ACNH than I have played since I was unemployed for like 6 months during the pandemic. I have only played Population: Growing, Wild World, New Leaf, and New Horizons, so I’m not familiar with Pocket Camp or the DLC Happy Home Paradise. From what I understand, in the DLC you decorate homes for animals in a similar way as in the new Hotel rooms. And I love it! It’s great! I will decorate my final hotel room tonight, and I’m excited to see what happens next. Can I change up the rooms? Can I make a hotel theme? How many more items can I unlock in the catalog? Will I be able to poach any of these cuties visiting my island because I have some butt ugly villagers that I need to kill ): This is all very new to me and I cannot help but enjoy the new game-play and new furniture. I actually like making DIY items now that so many quality of life changes have been made to crafting, and Kapp’n is going to be very busy because of it. This update has provided me with hours of entertainment and I have new items to decorate with (did someone say Silent Princess themed island? I’m pulling up all my flowers to make room for her <3). Unfortunately for my gaming schedule this year, I’m going to need to free up time for playing more ACNH this winter/spring as I decorate my home and compete the Deer Island Ethno- SORRY just kidding. I actually need more cats, if anything. And Bea. I miss Bea.

I know I haven’t talked about it at length on this blog yet, but my feelings toward the new AC are exactly what I feel about the ‘Wilds’ era of Zelda. I get something else out of playing ACNH vs playing Wild World (new game: still no Bob), but that doesn’t mean I think NH is a bad game. I can feel a slight betrayal of the original spirit of the franchise without disliking New Horizons, and that’s basically where I’m at. I’m going to keep playing until I finally get my favorite KK Slider song (maybe I should check it hasn’t been removed HAH) and then after that… I’m still gonna keep playing.
2026.01.16 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.5

2026-01-16

Returning to the Pokémon play through: out of the grind, but not quite in the clear. It is hard to get all the Pokémon you can, level up the ones you need to evolve rather than catch, and also keep to level with the gyms. I really feel like I’m not getting nearly enough Exp. for my efforts, but what can you do. People complained about Gen 2 for this reason: but as a child with basically unlimited time on summer vacation (and the rest of the year), I just did not feel what a slog it was.

After many much grinding, I was able to eek out a win against Jasmine (did I get very lucky with some Thunderbolt misses? Yes. But what did mom always say: Pokémon is 90% luck? Or ‘why do you call nonna twice a week but not me?’ Maybe that was it.) and finally remembered to check out the Battle Tower! I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier rant about Crystal version, but what a great addition to the games.

But here is the thing: the grind post Ecruteak gym is bad. Part of it is my own fault because I spent too much time playing with random catches I should have left to rot in Bill’s PC. My starter was under-leveled by 10-12, and I desperately needed him to learn Flame Wheel to melt those sons of bitches Magnemites. Meanwhile, it seemed like everything outside of the gyms and events (like Red Gyarados) is also under-leveled, so you struggle to get good experience for your grind in the grass or against Team Rocket. I’m getting ahead of myself in the story to rant about this. But the Team Rocket Grunts’ Pokémon in Mahogany were suddenly like eight levels lower than mine, which were so blown away by Jasmine’s Pokémon just the day before. Odd! Did anyone play test this part of the game?

What could have prevented this shock? Slightly lower levels at the gyms right after Ecruteak would have been helpful, even by just one or two. A bit more of an increase in level for wild Pokémon and trainer battles on the way to Olivine, on the sea route, and in Mt. Mortar. Oh, that reminds me: I need to grab my HM slave, cut that tree, and pay a visit to old Suicune. And I need to give Mr Pokémon the Red Scale in exchange to the Exp. Share. Maybe that will solve my problems.
2026.01.09 – A Stardew Valley interlude

2026-01-09

I’m taking a break this week from writing about my Pokémon Crystal Version progress firstly to give myself a little room to breathe and get further along in the game but also, very importantly, so that I could spend some time with my husband playing games. A Family that Games Together. Uh. Whatever.

I am pretty ashamed to admit that I have wracked up a total of something close to 1000 hours of play time across nearly 8 years of playing Stardew Valley, if you take into account our co-op farm, my 2 or 3 farms modded to absolute pastel, cottage-core oblivion, and my original 5 or 6 farms, all now in years 2-4, on the Switch. I first got Stardew for the Switch in 2018 while I was an unemployed graduate student studying for exam resits after an illness. Luckily I didn’t really get addicted to the game until after my exams, because I could have ended up resitting those exams again for another reason entirely. There were days when I would fire off 5-10 job applications before 10am, settle on the couch, and not get up again until 6pm when I realized I had not eaten anything since the night before. It was not the best time in my life and I can’t even chalk it up to youth because I was 26.

There is a pretty big jump for me from the Harvest Moon games to Stardew Valley. I really think it improved on game play that I enjoyed and made it something much more. I love the villagers, the variety in their personalities, I love the developer’s take on the magical aspects of the world (HM games had forest fairies and things like that, too), and the combat/mines are great for endless exploring at upgrades. Harvest Moon will always be important to be and the franchise represents the life and farming simulator. But that’s just because of its history: Stardew surpasses the HM series in pacing, characters, and depth. Of course, the depth probably comes from the developer, ConcernedApe (Eric Barrone), working on this, providing free and really substantial updates fairly regularly! After clearing the local mines, for example, you can travel to another location and explore new caverns of untold riches. After maxing out your skill stats, you can get mastery points and related upgrades.

(I am writing this in the days leading up to the Animal Crossing New Horizons 3.0 update that many, many Youtubers and AC fans are freaking out about. I have seen at least two people with sizable followings speculate that Nintendo perhaps felt some pressure to update ACNH because of Stardew, which seems silly at first and yet…. Well, the AC discussion is for another post. After this update, of course. Anyway-)

One thing I have noticed, however, is how much better (and easier) the game is when you play with friends, to the point where it is almost difficult to return to the single-player version. No auto-petter for your 32 cows? No problem; I’ll take care of that today, and my co-farmers can take care of the harvest, fishing, and resource gathering. We will have to switch it up every once in a while to make sure we all max out our skill trees, but otherwise things go smoothly and we have time to do a lot more. This also means that certain difficult (and expensive) upgrades are reachable earlier in the game, which then makes the long end game arrive sooner, gives you more opportunity to design an implement your dream farm, and give you more time to do the things you care about the most.

The solo adventure has its own benefits, of course: when you play on your own, your husband does not get jealous of Harvey or Haley, for example… also, you are forced to take things much slower. I think this is really the best aspect of Stardew Valley: the slow, steady improvements that come pretty much every few days, so you are constantly hit with that sense of accomplishment. It’s best done when you do a bit from each category – socializing, mining, farming – because sometimes upgrades in the same category are spaced out. The other nice thing is that a game like this, in many ways, is meant to be a single player adventure. It’s your personal fantasy, and you don’t have to compromise with a teammate on what needs to be done next or how quickly, and there is no way to lose.

I think I will always return to Stardew Valley. I haven’t played a main Harvest Moon adventure for over a decade and although I’d be interested in revisiting the series, I won’t be able to do so without writing up a comparison to this game that has captured old, young, casual, diehard, and ‘cosy’ gamers. Even as I write this I can’t help but start to think about a new farm, with a different type than usual, a completely new layout, perhaps a focus on farming rather than raising animals… maybe I’ll marry the writer this time?
2026.01.02 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.4

2026-01-02

Happy New Year! In between work, I’ve been able to play a bit of Crystal. On Tuesday we left off with me really entering what I would refer to as the ‘mid-game’: my party is into lvl. 20, I have half of the badges (well, half of the Johto badges), and nearly 80 Pokémon. Growth and Pokédex expansion has slowed down slightly, but the story has picked up.

I think the story pacing works well; Team Rocket is teased from the Slowpoke Well to Goldenrod, with no real clues but enough of a tip off that you know they will show up later in the story. I’m excited for that but more importantly I’m excited about the Legendary Dogs (at this point I’ve already been tipped off about the Birds, too, but I have not seen them so it’s not as big of a deal… yet)! I cannot wait until I have my first random wild encounter with Raikou or Entei. I remember the first time I saw Raikou in the wild, before I understood the mechanic as an 8 year old and let me tell you, I was shocked. It was such an interesting new way of hunting Pokémon and really added a nice bit of variety to dex completion in this Gen.

I won’t sugar coat it: I’ve been in grinding hell. It is slow going and I do not have the option to pick up the Exp. Share until after the Lake of Rage (and currently I’m on the other side of the map). Basically I’ve had to surf up and down the coast of Cianwood and battling every Swimmer I could find. And where I left off today (I’m super swamped with work – deadline tomorrow – so this is all I’ve done) was training up some Fire types so I’ll be able to take on Jasmin this weekend.

So, clocking out on Friday evening and here are my stats: 86 Pokémon and 5 badges. We are getting there!
2025.12.30 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.3

2025-12-30

More Pokémon Crystal, and we got pretty far this week despite playing a lot of The Long Dark (’tis the season. Actually it’s hard to say that here because it doesn’t snow or even really get cold in London. But you know).

Writing this up on Saturday (I’ll write more on Tuesday when I do a full recap): I’ve arrived in Ecruteak City with 58 in my dex, recently unblocked the path back to Violet City so I’m going to have a look around and see if there is anything I could do before progressing the story in Ecruteak. I’ve hit the point where I’ve spent too much money on Pokéballs and now I cannot afford to pull my Pidgey out of the Day Care. It’s pretty funny. Finger crossed someone challenges me to a rematch soon so I can get poor old Wizzle back. I don’t know why I named him Wizzle. I guess I won’t learn Fly for a while so maybe I don’t need him.

Going back, I gathered up some Berries and Apricorns, caught the rest of the Unknown that are unlocked (I think only up through J), and trained up the Poliwag I forgot about. I think I need another Oddish for a trade later on, and for a Bellossom, so Oddish is in the Day Care laying eggs.

The gym battle with Morty was really difficult, so I think I need to grind a little more before I get to Olivine, which is why I was wandering around, going back to pick up things I missed, and get balls from Kurt. Unfortunately I forgot to catch a Quagsire when I was back in Violet City (you can get it by surfing), but I’m still sitting on 66 Pokémon now as I head towards Olivine. Hoping to catch a Miltank and Tauros on my way there. I think with a few more trades and evolutions, I will probably have 80 Pokemon going into my 5th Gym. I might really catch them all this time.

Up until now, I haven’t been worried about my Pokémons’ levels or experience, but Morty’s gym battle was where I hit a snag: it took a few rounds to get his Gengar. I haven’t been really trying to get a Party in order and have really been more focused on training up random Pokémon from my box to evolve them (with help from the Day Care people), but now I think I need to start making some tough decisions about who I want in my permanent group. I would consider this to be mid-game; things are getting serious.
2025.12.23 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.2

2025-12-23

Picking up where we left off last week, now that I have had a little more time to play (but not much- my work hours have been insane), we have finally reached the beautiful Goldenrod City.

Goldenrod City is one of my favorite locations in the Pokemon world. It has a pretty nice layout, the safari-zone-lite to the north, a game corner, adds to the Radio card/PokeGear with a physical location, a really fucking annoying gym battle (I HATE rollout! I HATE rollout!!!!), new useful items and systems (the bicycle, Daycare center, Pokemon breeding, lots of trainers who give you stuff when you exchange numbers): it’s great! Plus, it sets up later conflict by sprinkling Team Rocket around the town. Where you’ve got casinos, you’ve got organized crime. I’ve learned so much from Pokemon.

To go back a bit to where we left off: after getting the Violet Gym badge, I went to the Ruins of Alph and actually explored around. Adding the extra dex for Unknown, the mini games, and the text/intrigue was a great addition. I can’t remember exactly how that ties into the legendary dogs and birds, but I’m excited and intrigued by the Ruins.

I was able to play one morning and returned to earlier routes to grab morning-and day-only Pokemon, like Phanpy, and even got a phone call from Hiker Anthony telling me about a Dunsparce swarm! I’ve got 41 Pokemon, and basically have everything possible for this part of the game (I do have some bugs from the Bug catching contests I still need to grab) and have evolved quite a few early-game catches, and now I’ll be able to do even more with the Day Care Center there for me to skip some low levels for Pokemon like Spearow.

I think at a certain point I’m not going to be able to keep up with catching everything, because I really want to get ahead as the game’s story picks up after Ecruteak. Up until this point, it has been fairly easy for me to focus on catching Pokemon because there really isn’t much going on story-wise, and accomplishments are spread out and pretty simple and straightforward. The Slowpoke Well has only 4 battles and they are all in the same room, which honestly is pretty boring. There are a lot of areas blocked by Rock Smash, Surf, and Strength, that sort of annoy me because I don’t really want to have to back track to these places. On the other hand, by putting these sorts of locked areas everywhere, from Dark Cave to Union Cave, makes it worth it to come back and do lots of things all together in the same area. I guess I’ll just wait to see if that all pays off, but right now I’m really annoyed that I can’t access those areas..

Hoping to get far during the Christmas break because I really don’t want to do work, even though I have lots to do and could really use the over time after going a little crazy in Japan. Excited to have some things to share about the legendaries next time!

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