Brain Full of Games

2026.05.11 – major-tommaxxing

2026-05-11

You are probably wondering why I still have not posted anything. I haven’t played a video game in weeks.

That’s a weird thing coming from a self-proclaimed gamer girlfriend BUT it is not entirely my fault. The work thing is still bad. Personal things and still crazed. More positively, I’ve become addicted to walking: basically, it stopped being gross and rainy all the time so I went outside and liked it. Don’t worry it is cold again so I will retreat inside. In fact, it is so cold, the cat doesn’t know what to do with herself and is actually sitting on my lap with her head jammed in my cardigan right now.

Over the last two weekends I attended a David Bowie exhibit and won a costume contest (I take both David Bowie and costume contests very seriously). This is the first time I ever won something like that, so I’m pretty happy! But this devotion to my craft while balancing a 50hr work week and lot’s of applications has made gaming impossible. Also getting home at 11pm fairly drunk and dressed as Jareth the Goblin King is not conducive to booting up the old Elden Ring and actually being able to take five steps in Caelid (without being obliterated).

However, I am never not thinking of video games, so as I work I listen to podcasts and Youtubers speak about stuff I like. Today I’m watching this (very boldly titled) video by Lonk Souls which points out a funny little question that has tickled the back of my brain: why do we call those types of games Souls Like? Shouldn’t they be Ocarina Like? Sound off.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I am alive and thinking about playing something. Anything.
2026.04.25 – New Horizons and the Blue Rose

2026-04-25

Sorry for my disappearance; we had a horrible medical emergency in my family and things are really up in the air. Have not have the time, energy, or desire to play many games. But there really is not anything I can do but take things one day at a time and try to be helpful for whoever needs me, and be out of the way when that is the best way to show support… that being said, I did play a bit of Crystal in the last few days as I have prepared myself to wrap up this play through and move on to FireRed in honor of the recent Switch releases of FireRed and LeafGreen earlier this year.

While I am just about ready to move on to the next Gen, I haven’t quite finished writing up my retrospective on Pokémon Crystal. I still have some thoughts to gather. And, you know, it feels a bit silly to jump immediately back into Pokémon with a FireRed play through… but unfortunately for all you people who are surely sick of Pokémon after the last 30 years of being incapable of escaping its influence and infiltration of the normal, casual, and even extreme gamer’s life, I will never be free of my thoughts of Pokémon OR the year 1999. So we are all going to suffer together.

But as you can see from the title of the post, I am not going to subject you to my ramblings about Kanto or my feelings of intense frustration with Nintendo and Game Freak regarding their favorite money-printer just yet. I want to tell you about my mental illness surrounding the Blue Rose.

The Blue Rose, of course, does not exist. It does not have to. The idea that it represents is very, very real, and one of the most powerful forces in the world. It is what keeps me tethered when basically everything else in my life is worthless to me. It is love! The Blue Rose is found in stories from Twin Peaks to A Song of Ice and Fire. I assume the origin of the story is lost to time, but for a basic understanding of the legend, I would suggest reading this short fairy story by Maurice Baring.

What does this have to do with Animal Crossing? Well. To start; if you are not aware, in Animal Crossing games you can buy certain flowers of certain colors and plant them to grow lovely little garden or to line your cutesy little paths, but these are not the only flowers and colors available in the game. In New Horizons, for example, you can buy eight different types of flowers in about three colors each. I think these are always (or almost always) White, Red, and Yellow. Planting flowers of certain colors next to each other can produce not only genetic hybrids, but new colors. Those hybrids can further produce hybrids and crossing certain hybrids together will create a chain of new possible colors even beyond the simple Red + Yellow = Orange! For example: I start with White and Red Wind-flowers and plant them near each other with some gaps around them so new flowers have somewhere to spawn. The Whites breed with Whites to make Blue Wind-flowers, and the Red and White Wind-flowers breed to make Pink. Then, hopefully, the Blue and Pink will make Purple Wind-flowers. But it isn’t as simple as just letting them breed 3x, because flower genes are more complicated than that and it is actually quite difficult to get a Purple Wind-flower.

Now imagine this time 500x complexity and you have the path to creating a Blue Rose.

I chose this picture because the player character sort of reminds me of Gordon Cole from Twin Peaks (David Lynch’s character) but it doesn’t actually seem to be in the ScreenRant article anymore.

And I cannot think about anything else but getting the Blue Rose. my game is completely consumed by flower patches. I have put re-decorating, collecting furniture, playing the stalk market, and terraforming on hold while I time skip days and weeks at a time trying to get the right hybrids for the Blue Rose. I am STUCK. I cannot do it! I’ve ‘played’ 4 months in the past week because of all the time skipping. There are other flowers I have also not been able to spawn yet (like the Purple Wind-flower I mentioned above), but really I do NOT CARE. I don’t even know why I want the Blue Rose so badly, since it really won’t fit with my Japanese village theme… I guess I am just a slave of love. I am a romantic, I love love, I love being in love, and I really love my cat. I had to fit her into this rant somehow. I live a life full of love I guess and I want my favorite symbol of it in my stupid control freak furry god simulator.

I don’t know what else to say about it. I found that picture above online because I still do not have my own. I probably won’t talk about New horizons again until I do have some, and I’m worried it might be months before that happens.

Anyway, apologies for my long absence. My posting schedule is going to be a little random for now as I get my thoughts down whenever I can. Generally, things are more stable. But now the difficult part: recovery. And we wait and see.
2026.04.08 – Emergency Post: Nintendo Leaks

2026-04-08

I had a long travel weekend and extreme jet lag have made playing Crystal (or anything, really) and yeah this is a little late. But we need to quickly discuss the Nintendo leak from last week, since I sort of missed all this while I was on vacation.

I’m sure you already know about it, but Nate the Hate’s podcast broke the news that Ocarina of Time is getting a remake this calendar year. Well, it is not really news as much as it is a leak… This is not a report from a Nintendo Direct. Maybe it isn’t real- I don’t know anything about the source, I have no idea if that podcast is trustworthy but I did listen to it. But other people seemed to think, when Nate the Hate teased the new podcast episode, that there would be a Nintendo Direct and that is what he was going to discuss. There was not, and frankly, there is not one scheduled (though, again, people are convinced there is one coming. I might even be one of those people. I think that Zelda needs a specific themed Direct because it was its damn 40 YEAR ANNIVERSARY AND NINTENDO DID NOTHING. Ahem. Might still be angry about that.

We have received some information about the Switch 2’s year 2 line up of game releases. There is a Yoshi coming out in May. I think some release dates for 3rd party games like Resident Evil and FFVII Rebirth have been announced, but, again, these aren’t big Nintendo titles. Holding their cards close to the chest seems like an odd strategy when- at least anecdotally I can say this about my friends- people are wondering why to buy a Switch 2. We really only have Pokemon Wind and Waves confirmed, but they were revealed to have a 2027 release. The Switch 2’s library is filling out, certainly, and I know there are other 3rd party games getting Switch 2 releases but no Zelda and no Mario games confirmed and scheduled is…. odd? Right?

Anyway, I’m just saying all this because I think Nintendo’s been weird. Total vindication to the leakers. Surprises are fine but when sales are low and people clearly need a reason to upgrade to the Switch 2, you gotta put in on their calendars.

Personally, I think that Nintendo should not be giving out this information piecemeal, drip-fed, on social media. Obviously I understand the importance of social media as a news reporting function, but as a source it is a little… disappointing. Socials are limited. People want something big and official, we are waiting desperately for that big announcement so we can give ourselves permission to spend a stupid amount of money on a new console.

The less frustrating thing is knowing there are some big Nintendo titles coming. The unknowns are Fire Emblem, Splatoon Raiders: trailers and announcements, weird appearances, but no exact release dates. Having these teased multiple times but without a date is annoying, but not as annoying as radio silence. But in a way it kind of reminds me of that Game Cube demo that Nintendo did that included that gritty, dark footage of Link and Ganondorf fighting (to showcase what the Game Cube was capable of) and then people were expecting that to be gameplay. And then Wind Waker was released.

So are we getting a June direct? Expectations are personal and hard to comment on, but why do certain games get an announcement like Pokemon games for Pokemon Day? Why was Zelda’s anniversary ignored, even as we are all expecting something in the lead up to the Zelda movie next year? According to Nate the Hate, a general direct is coming in June. but too many games to communicate Switch 2 dates. It is kinda late. And anyway, if these leaks are true. I have all the information I need.

I’m not going to use this post to comment on Ocarina of Time or what I would want to see in a remake, but I think I will get to all that soon.

And while I have everyone’s attention: while I was away, one of my favorite games, The Long Dark, had a long awaited update: the final chapter of the story mode, Wintermute, was finally released. This game has been in development for more than a decade and people were promised a story mode from the beginning. Personally I have never played it and don’t care at all, but a lot of The Long Dark fans are (hopefully) very happy with this and I am glad they will stop complaining on the subreddit. I jest! Well.

Anyway, there is a big sale on Steam if anyone is interested. I have hundreds of hours in this game and really recommend it if you like perma-death survival games, beautiful art style, and Canada.
2026.04.03 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.15

2026-04-03

Getting through the Elite Four still isn’t easy, but I was able to train up some of my new (and original party) Pokémon by beating the big 5 again. I still cannot survive a hit from the Alakazam’s killer Psychic and anything basically from the final lvl 50 Dragonite that Lance throws out there. But even with just a bit of switching in and out of battle, I was able to level up some of the Pokémon I traded from Gen 1. With Visenya the Bulbasaur now leveled up to nearly lvl 50, I have another two in my Pokédex from her evolutions. I should have Charmander and Squirtle’s evolved forms by later today…

But I am still a little far off being able to beat Gary, so training continues alongside the random leveling up of poor little dudes who have just been sitting in Bill’s PC. I really appreciate how in the anime Ash’s Pokémon are always depicted as just sort of chilling out with Professor Oak at his lab. It’s far less depressing than just sleeping in the digital world.

After spending the last few weeks since I arrived in Kanto just in that region, I finally went back to Johto to see to some errands and further training/evolving for Pokédex completion. Since I’ve given myself just another week to get this done before moving on to FireRed (I mentioned- I was heavily influenced by the release earlier this year and by all the Youtubers and Twitch streamers playing what was, for me, a great game and return to my beautiful Gen 1), I have to be quick. I had… well, I can’t say I forgot my Pokémon in the Day Care Center. I remembered they were there. I just didn’t bother to go back for them. I was busy! There were a handful of new Pokémon to catch in Kanto, plenty of great gym leaders to fight, and even some little quests to complete. It’s not my fault I left… oh.. oops.

Well, I quickly evolved these two bozos (Geodude and Swinub) for another cute 2 to the Pokédex, which brought us to 136. It’s slow going here at the top. As I mentioned in my last post, I started worrying a little about getting evolution stones (from renewable in-game resources!) and items that are required for evolution via holding. I think this was one of the more interesting new additions to Gen 2. I completely forgot about some of them, like the Up-Grade, until I came across a little in-game dialogue revealing why that dude handed me a completely ‘useless’ hold item called Up-Grade. I forgot! And I am light years (yes, it measures distance) from getting a Porygon from the Game Corner anyway.

I realized, at some point during training, that I forgot to get the Rail Pass for the shinkansen in Goldenrod, but just swimming to Tohjo Falls gives you Fly access to Kanto anyway. But there are a few things I still need to do. I’m not sure how I’m going to be ready for the battle with Red by next week and complete most of the Pokédex.

Closing out this week with 15 badges and 142 Pokémon. HOW are there still more than 100 to go???
2026.03.31 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.14

2026-03-31

I am just 2 badges shy of the full set now. I hurried a little more than was necessary to get myself to Mt Moon for the Monday night Clefairy display (which, unfortunately for me, only works in the Monday part of Monday night: if you look on Bulbapedia and other walkthroughs which all copy from each other, some explicitly say that Monday night stretching into Tuesday morning works for this event, before the time becomes ‘Morning’ and 4am. This was not my experience and I will have to come back next week. But if the Clefairy were there for you at 3:30am on Tuesday… well, let me know).

What has struck me most interesting about Kanto is that you really are encouraged to breeze through it, even though you really don’t have to. The enemy Pokémon in this region are leveled to the perfect amount to get you a little bit of that experience you desperately need while also being easy to 1HKO with your Elite Four line up. the gym leaders in Kanto are challenging without being frustrating (I admit, I needed to rematch Misty because she knocked out the group I was training the first time I went through. I needed to take that fight more seriously and bring out the big guns for her). And Pokédex-wise, there is not much to be collected except a few things that were harder to get in Johto (like Quilfish without the Super Rod, for example) and a handful of new faces like Murkrow.

Quickly completing the Kanto gym challenge makes sense in story because you are a seasoned trainer with very strong Pokémon. All the gym leaders are impressed that you have travelled so far and really seem to consider your accomplishments to be impressive. They don’t downplay the trainers of this other region; if anything, they are awed, respectful. It is an interesting direction for the game to respect you instead of neg you into training harder, which seems like something it could do just as easily. Well, Gary ‘Blue’ does, but that is completely within character for him. And even he is excited to challenge a trainer from Johto, hurrying back to his gym when you confront him on Cinnabar.

**I would like to quickly note here that I found Blaine’s banishment to the Seafoam Islands to be quite disappointing. Many of the other Kanto leaders still have their basic challenges in place, like Sabrina, and Blaine I think had an even more iconic gym challenge. It was just sad that it was removed and the entire experience was just confronting him in a cave.

Another important aspect of Kanto is because there are so many higher leveled Pokémon even in the wild, you have a great opportunity to train up other Pokémon in your party and get some of those evolutions into your Pokédex. Bill’s grandfather, who is staying up at Cerulean Cape, will give you additional evolution stones in exchange for showing him certain Pokémon. A great little way to add evolutions to the game without the need for trading yet with slightly more friction than just throwing them in the Celadon Department Store.

With most of the gyms finished, I have decided that I need to level up a bit more before fighting Gary. I think, finally, I might be ready to use the Elite Four for grinding. Although my Pokedéx is not quite complete (134 owned), I think I will probably only have two more posts for this play through. We really are coming to the end of what I think it the most rewarding and complete Pokémon journey (at least until I return to Gen 3).
2026.03.27 – Pokémon Yellow Version

2026-03-27

What happened to the Crystal play through? Nothing: I’m getting Pokemon to trade up into Crystal in order to complete the Pokédex.

I did not actually want to waste a lot of time with a Gen 1 play through because I might like to revisit a game one day for a proper play through to post, so first I just checked through any of my existing games that I could trade from. I grabbed a Squirtle and Pikachu from a Red Version game I already had, and then a Mankey from Yellow. I didn’t need to send the Pikachu, but I know it takes quite some time before you come across wild ones in Kanto, and once I started trading I thought I might as well send over all I could.

I have been using mGBA to emulate these games and it was very simple trading between two existing files: I opened a multiplayer window, did some simultaneous speaking to the two nurses in the trading area of the Pokémon Center, and after a few rough starts finally was able to trade. I thought it would be more difficult than it ended up being, and I didn’t realize until I tried that the multiplayer and trade functions were built into the emulator.

Anyway, after trading what I already had, I remembered that in Yellow version you get the starters quite early on. So I went through Mt. Moon and rescued Charmander just north of Nugget Bridge. Unfortunately, my friendship level with Pikachu wasn’t high enough to get Bulbasaur from the nice girl who was taking care of him in Cerulean City, so I had to play a bit more of the game, level up Chewy (my Pikachu), feed him Potions, etc. Since I still had a bit more to do… I found myself thinking about the Youngster with the Slowpoke on the way to Cerulean Cape. IYKYK. Well, even if you don’t, I’ll tell you: he’s the trainer battle commonly skipped when doing the Mew glitch in Gen 1 (there are a few others, but I always did the Fly/Youngster/Gambler combo). So I decided, while I’m here and removing important Pokémon from this game, why not grab a Mew?

Getting through Diglett Cave, getting Flash, and arriving at Route 8 where the Gambler is doesn’t actually take that long. You go through the Underground Path near the Gambler and that takes you to Celadon City. Crossing Celadon past the Department Store brings you to a double guard house, the top one only accessible my cutting a tree. On the other side, there is a house with a girl who gives you Fly to encourage you not to blow up her spot. That is the final piece you need to get Mew. With Fly taught to my Spearow, I returned to the Underground Path to start the process for getting Mew (for the curious and unfamiliar, see this article).

To be perfectly honest, I tried to get around getting Fly by testing out this method using Teleport and my Kadabra. It did not work because I couldn’t stop from triggering a battle while going through Rock Tunnel, which resets which Pokémon appears upon returning to Route 8. So the first time I did this, I got Arcanine, which was cool but not what I needed.

After catching Mew, I had a look through my Pokédex in Crystal version to check if there was anything else I could be trading over to save myself some time. I ended up trading Charmander, Bulbasaur, Mew, and Mr Mime (there is a trade with an NPC in the same place you get HM05, so while I was getting Flash I also got the Mr Mime, even though I think you can catch it later in Crystal Version). Now, I am planning on going through more of this Yellow Version game to get more Pokémon to trade over, but for now I’m back to Crystal Version. I want to train up the Gen 1 starters that I know have.

Next time, I’m going to trade the Legendary Birds, Mewtwo, Aerodactyl, and Omanyte. Oh, and Vulpix (I grabbed it from the Game Corner to replace Charmander for the Erika battle). Oh, and just a quick update: my Crystal Pokédex is at 128!
2026.03.24 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.13

2026-03-24

Greetings from Colorado, where I am suffering from extreme spring conditions on this mountain. If anything, this might be ‘summer skiing’. Even though all my favorite trails are closed, I’m still happy to be in the sun and what is left of the snow.

I am, however, supremely jet-lagged and cannot think about anything but playing Oregon Trail. I have had the song from Oregon Trail 5, which is the one we had at my elementary school, stuck in my head since we landed in Denver. My next post will likely be about that.

I have had some time to play Pokémon, too. After defeating Sabrina, I went to Lavender Town on my way to the Power Plant. By the time you arrive in Lavender, everyone is yapping about the Power Plant’s shut down. The denizens of Lavender are most concerned because without the power supply, the new Kanto Radio Tower cannot broadcast. I forgot to speak with Mr Fuji before continuing to Rock Tunnel, so I don’t know if I am alone in this feeling but I don’t like that the creepy old Pokémon Tower has been replaced with a broadcasting station. It feels disrespectful to Marowak and all the other departed Pokémon.

Rock Tunnel was raw-dogged, as I did back in the day, without the use of Flash. Why? It’s funny to bump around in the dark, and it feels good to count the spaces exactly and pick up hidden items. I spent a long, long, time walking back and forth in the basement to find Kangaskhan. It took a good 30 min and I finally got tired of looking so I sped things up by increasing the emulator speed again… But when I got to the Power Plant, the second wild Pokémon I found was Electabuzz. Both have a 5% encounter chance. Amazing.

A lot of work for only 2 more Pokémon in the dex. I haven’t had a chance to progress my side games (for trading Pokémon into Crystal) so I think things are really going to slow down for a while. Perhaps I will have to pause my Crystal recap and play some Yellow version…
2026.03.20 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.12

2026-03-20

Last time we left off at the very start of the end game fun. Seems a little premature to call something as expansive as Kanto just the ‘end game’; surely we should call it ‘late game’? Even that feels wrong with so much more to come. But anyway, I ended up deciding to start with a little Pokédex work before moving on to Kanto. And that means legendary hunting.

I think even when I was a kid, the classic method was to get a load of Repel and bounce back and forth between Route 36 and 37 (where Sudowoodo was blocking the path). I skipped out on the repels and just smashed a few Noctowls into bits with my comically over-leveled Cyndaquil. I have to admit, it was pretty easy finding the big guy. It took about 15 min to finally get Raikou to the same area that I was in (I wasn’t even checking the Area in the Pokédex entry, since I was also looking for Entei) and then into an Ultra Ball. It only took two. I wasted more Ultra Balls on the stupid Skarmory on Monday…

I couldn’t think of a clever nickname for him. I probably won’t be able to for Entei either, who I will hunt for later tonight, so if anyone has any bright ideas I’m open to hearing them. I am not holding myself to Johto until I find Entei. It’s not really a priority for me right now, and I think generally Pokédex completion is going to take a backseat while I get through the Kanto gyms since there are quite a few Pokémon which I am going to have to trade over from another version (the starters from gens 1 and 2, basically, and certain specials like the legendary birds and Mew) anyway so I’m going to be at it for a while.

I’m currently at 118 caught, which is not bad for half of the but I almost feel like it’s not really impressive. I have been pretty careful about looking up all Pokémon available in a new route when I get there and making sure I catch them all before moving on, but I did miss a few towards the end of the Johto gyms and on the way to the Elite Four. On the other hand, I have been doing an awful lot of training up and evolving Pokemon that I am not even using (and then shoving them quite unceremoniously into PC Boxes 5-7). I feel like when I was a kid, none of my friends were bothered with collecting Pokémon at all and could arrive at the Elite Four with hardly 25 Pokémon in the dex. My assumption was that they and I were on extreme ends of the collecting curve and the normal gamer would be somewhere in between. it feels almost impossible to conduct any sort of research on this.

I gave up on looking for Entei and made my way to Olivine City to get on the SS Aqua (that’s what it’s called, right? It’s not the SS Anne? Who care). After helping out the Captain, who is suffering for entirely different reasons than in Gen 1, and getting a nice reward from the old man, I disembarked in Vermillion and got straight to battling Lt. Surge. The only Pokemon in sight was Snorlax but without a way to catch him, I decided I might as well carry on with gathering gym badges. Cyndaquil made quick work of all the Metal types in the gym and I let Marowak take care of the rest. Because Cyndaquil learned his last move in his learn set on level 46, I finally let him evolve into Quilava.

Just wanted to take a paragraph to mention that the remixes of the classic Pokemon songs from Gen 1 sound great. The Road to Cerulean is always a banger. It all sounds a bit more dramatic, which fits with the higher stakes of being in the late game. Also I want to take this opportunity to complain about the trainers in Johto who keep calling me in the middle of the night to let me know that they’ve synced periods with their Hoppip or whatever LEAVE ME ALONE I have cool Kanto shit to do.

Anyway, I left off exploring every building in Saffron, wondering which real-world Japanese city it is supposed to correspond to. The problems with electricity and running the Magnet Train to Johto have been seeded, along with the idea that the solution might be at the Power Plant. Although, I’m wondering if anyone explicitly said that to me yet, or if I just know what to do because I have already played this game, though it has been 20 years, or if it’s because I know that there is a Power Plant in Kanto. Ah well. I will pay better attention next time.

I’m off to ski with my family, but I will of course be making the most of my two weeks off work and will get in some quality time with Crystal version. But should I take my Switch along, or just my DS? The eternal question.
2026.03.17 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.11

2026-03-17

Was hoping to have this out on Friday but sadly was working late. Originally I was thinking lucky us: two Friday the 13ths in a row! But maybe that is where my bad luck came from. We will never know. I don’t want to blame my creepy number 13, though. I’ll blame the clients.

Unfortunately, I sort of messed up getting my cosplays done in time for this photo-shoot this weekend (well, my husband’s cosplay- mine was mostly done), so I rewarded myself with extra video games. This has made my cat very happy, because she gets to sit on my lap and keep warm during gaming time (: My cat is one of my biggest supporters when it comes to gaming, for this reason.

I continued with my awful grind from last week, and of course it paid off. Cubone, Oddish, and Gastly did evolve, and with evolution came a good increase in raw power. Once everyone was leveled up to at least 36, I decided to have my first go at the Elite Four. I knew from the beginning that I was not going to make it very far, but I was performing a check of how far I still needed to go.

I had a lot of Fresh Water and Lemonade with me, plus a handful of Revive, and I managed to make it all the way to Lance (who pummeled me to the ground with his first Gyarados). Not bad for a party full of basic and first evolutions!

I made the grind a little bit easier on myself by increasing the game speed on my emulator. Sorry. Normally I don’t do this, but I am trying to get through this in a shorter amount of time even with a full time job. I no longer have the luxury of being able to stay up all night and fall asleep with my face smushed into my Game Boy light accessory after battling Pokémon for 5 hrs to scrape a few more measly levels for my sad little Cyndaquil who is going to be eaten by a dragon anyway (almost casually dropped a Fire and Blood spoiler but remembered there might be people who are watching the show. you are Welcome).

My second try was better, though not much: I made it through three of Lance’s dragons, and without as many healing items. My third try found me with few healing items again; this time, only what I could buy from the Indigo Plateau mart (three revives and three hyper potions). But the first two practice rounds and the levels gained from training on Victory Road and from battling and losing to the Elite Four helped. I got lucky and Haunter managed to take down the final level 50 Dragonite with Destiny Bond.

Oh look how cute Dragonite is!!! Awww. So after defeating Lance, I got the SS Ticket from Professor Elm but decided to take a quick break from story progression (it is officially the start of the end game content, after all) to evolve some Pokémon I forgot in the Day Care and catch some final missed wilds (like Skarmory). I started getting sleepy so I put it down for now, but next time I pick up the game I need to decide if I just continue to Olivine City and sail to Kanto, or if I should try hunting Raikou for a bit.

Over the weekend I was hoping to have my new long form review ready for Sunday, but I was up all night on Saturday finishing my cosplay for a photo shoot on Sunday and then did not actually even use that costume… as with all things, long story, but it is all fine. I really enjoyed the photo shoot even though I hate my appearance because my costumes are good! And the people at the studio were really nice and cool. Anyway, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate; I’m off to look for some green beer (which is not a thing in this country so I am bringing food dye with me).
2026.03.10 – Pokémon Crystal Pt.10

2026-03-10

This play through is taking waaaaay to long- anyway, hello! I haven’t been feeling very good about anything for the last week but I am going to keep all that for my Livejournal or whatever and just continue to talk about video games here.

The grind is slow going, as I said it would be in my last update. Using the EXP Share and good old switch-out method, I’ve been able to train up Cyndaquil, Oddish, Gastly, Cubone, and Umbreon (yeah that’s right) to around level 33, and Dratini is catching up in the mid-20s. I received the Master Ball from Professor Elm and instead of continuing to Tohjo Falls right away, I took Dratini down route 46 over and over again to KO Gravelers with Surf. This worked very well. However, you will have noticed from my list above that none of my Pokemon are yet evolved (with the exception of Umbreon). This is because I have certain movesets in mind for each, as I mentioned I think in a previous post, and they learn these moves sooner by a good 10-15 levels if they remain un-evolved. Of course, this means they are terribly weak, and I am certainly feeling this handicap as I battle trainers with evolved forms in their line up (I am thinking specifically of some of the Cool Trainers on Route 46 and 26/27.

That being said, my team if fairly well balanced and though there are a few weak spots, especially due to leaving behind Oddish to take my HM slave Azumarill to Victory Road, I can get through battles with higher leveled opponents without much trouble. But there is no way I will be able to challenge the Elite Four without getting a few evolutions in: I’m thinking Oddish, Gastly, and Cubone, since they will learn everything they need to by levels 33-37.

The last thing I want to mention is that I’ve hit 104 in my Pokédex, and have started planning quick run throughs of Yellow, Blue, and Silver to get the 20 or so Pokémon that you cannot catch in Crystal, since I very much would like to complete the Pokédex.

Anyway, I need to get my Star Wars cosplays done for this weekend so I likely will not post anything on Friday. But!! I think I will have something special to post for Sunday.

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