Brain Full of Games

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.