Musings & Miscellaneous Articles (current: Legends: Arceus Thoughts)

[Daren]

I've decided to make a blog. I find I have lots of things I'd like to write about, but they aren't worth making a topic for.

Contents:
2: Historical Anecdote: Sun Quan
3: My Gaming Influence: Ogre Battle
4: Random Reflections on Decades of Pokémon
5: Platinum Travel Log Day 1 (links to later days contained there instead to avoid filling this post)
6: Replaying Heartgold 1: Some thoughts
7: Thoughts on The Mandalorian (major spoilers; post is spoilered for this reason)
8: Legends Arceus Thoughts (spoilers)

***
I recently replayed Leafgreen, and this was the first time I bothered clearing the round two Elite Four.

First round team at level 50:

*Bowie the Blastoise
*ZYNX the Jynx
*Gigante the Snorlax
*Overdrive the Dodrio
*Elecman the Magneton
*Salsa the Primeape

Bowie did fine--Blastoise is sturdy, a bit slow (fast enough back then thanks to the badge bonus though), not the best water-type but he did his job all game.

I'd never used a Jynx before, but ZYNX was actually one of my better Pokémon throughout the run. The lack of strong fire-type opposition in Kanto probably helped, plus in-game trades having solid IVs (and in ZYNX's case a +special attack nature). If/when I replay Heartgold I'll probably grab one for Lance.

I used to use Snorlax all the time in the Kanto games and decided to treat myself to another go. It's Snorlax, it's awesome. Everyone knows the drill. He even beat Lance's Dragonite instead of ZYNX doing it.

Dodrio is pretty good, although Overdrive, ironically, seemed to have unusually bad speed.

Mankey is a Pokémon I often use for a bit in gen 1 games and never after, since there are usually better Fighting-type options. Still, Salsa did her job here.

Elecman was great pretty much up until the Elite Four. At that point they were a bit too slow and not quite durable enough to handle the enemy's huge level advantage. They were also slower than Gyarados which would be fatal in round 2 where Blue and Lance both have Earthquake.

Rematch team at level 62:

*Bowie the Blastoise
*ZYNX the Jynx
*Gigante the Snorlax
*Dragonlord the Dragonite
*Pippi the Raichu
*Heracles the Heracross

Heracles was Bold, so -attack nature. He still hit very hard and had good all-around stats. I also had pretty good luck with Megahorn not missing.

Pippi was Timid, a rare "best nature on catch" moment. I used her for a long time in the story until subbing Magneton in. Elecman's speed issues convinced me to use Pippi again for round two--Pippi handled Lance's Gyarados just fine, where Elecman would have gotten blasted.

Dragonlord was a bit of luck--I got a female Dratini in the safari zone so I bred one with Dragon Dance. They also had Earthquake, Thunderbolt, and Wing Attack. Unsurprisingly they are by far the most powerful in raw numbers, but the lack of good physical STAB stopped Dragonite from reaching it's absurd heights from Gen 4 and onward.

During the rematch Lorelei fell for my trap card; Heracles used Endure to tank a Psychic from her Jynx then used Reversal to sweep her entire remaining party. He also took out Bruno's first Steelix but the second barely held on (the -attack nature caused trouble there), but Bowie and Dragonlord finished him easily.

The final battle with Blue went oddly; I had Dragonlord lead and Dragon Dance. This let him defeat Heracross, Gyarados, and Tyranitar while taking nothing other than sand damage and a Dark Pulse. He couldn't quite beat Alakazam, though, and Blue Full Restored him after. Pippi then fought Alakazam to a "draw"--more accurately Tyranitar's sandstorm knocked them both out. For the blind turn I sent out Heracles and Blue sent Arcanine--Heracles got outsped and KO'd by Overheat. Bowie came in and forced Arcanine to retreat; couldn't quite beat Venusaur, took a Solar Beam and fainted, so I sent in ZYNX; Blue swapped Arcanine into an Ice Beam, fainting it, and ZYNX finished off Venusaur. Gigante didn't get to battle.

I like to give species I haven't used before a spin when I replay, and in this case it was Jynx and Heracross. Both did very well, though Heracles wasn't around for long.

 

[Daren]

You may be familiar with China's "Three Kingdoms" period; it's been covered in various video games such as Dynasty Warriors or the recent Total War: Three Kingdoms, and has been covered in television shows, films, and more. It's the subject of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Classic Chinese novels (and the main source for most adaptations rather than the history itself).

A very prominent figure of that period was the first Emperor of the Wu dynasty, Sun Quan. However, no adaptation has really done Sun Quan justice; he's usually portrayed as a fairly serious figure, although how competent he is varies by adaptation.

The real one, however, had a pattern of unusual behaviour.

It started out fairly innocent; when he was young he was admonished multiple times for risking his life by hunting tigers from horseback (and got a custom made chariot to do it from instead) and being careless in battle.

This progressed to having one of his generals remove their clothing at a party to show off all their scars to deflect criticism of their promotion, and poking holes in the wall so he could check in on a sick man without disturbing them.

He got worse with age, though. The single weirdest story came later. Sun Quan long had an unusual relation with his advisor Zhang Zhao that was full of obvious affection but also incredibly strained. At one point they got into an argument and Zhang Zhao retired to his home, the two piling up dirt on both sides of Zhang Zhao's gate.

Zhang Zhao turned out to be right, as he generally was. Sun Quan went to apologize, but Zhang Zhao still refused to come out. So Sun Quan made his most rational decision yet:

He lit the gate on fire. So he could apologize to the person inside.

Zhang Zhao was not just highly intelligent, though; he lived through decades of horrifying civil war and was probably incapable of fear by this point; he just shut the door to his house even firmer, and Sun Quan had the fire put out.

Ultimately, Zhang Zhao's sons carried him outside so Sun Quan could apologize, breaking the stalemate.

Now, if that had occurred in a work of fiction that wasn't a comedy you'd find it ridiculous, right? That's why adaptations like Dynasty Warriors don't even try to portray Sun Quan accurately.

 

[Daren]

A number of people have some work that really influences their interests. In games we have things like Super Mario Bros. Final Fantasy, Doom, and (of course) Pokémon.

One of mine was a somewhat more obscure title; the SNES game Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, released in 1993. Developed by Quest and published by Enix.

The overall basic plot is very simple. Rashidi, a powerful wizard and sage, assassinated king Gran of Zenobia and joined with Empress Endora of the Highlands. The Highlands vast military power (no doubt aided by Rashidi's magic) conquered the entire continent of Zeteginea, forming the Zeteginean Empire, which soon proves a brutal tyranny. There's a minor plot twist later on regarding this, however.
The game begins in the twenty fourth year of the Empire. The player gathers an army around the remnants of Zenobia's forces to start a rebellion.

Ogre Battle was a game far too mechanically complex for me at the time. It's a fantasy themed strategy RPG where you command an entire divided up into units of up to 5 troops, including both expected standards like Knights or Wizards but also monsters like Dragons, Gryphons, giant Octopi, and Golems. You deploy these units to liberate towns, look for hidden cities and treasure, and of course battle your enemy. The battle system is positional based--you do not directly control your troops actions (but it's not random--the AI is simple but predictable and you can switch "Tactics" on the fly to have a lot of control over what happens) and what they do varies by their class and which of two rows they occupy in a unit--a wizard in the front row is a frail old man, but in the back brings down powerful destructive magic. Some characters are useful in both positions--Dragons can rend enemies up front or use (generally more powerful) elemental breaths in the back at the cost of the bulky monster not being up front absorbing hits.

Not only do all your units have a set of expected RPG stats, each also had poorly explained but vital "personality" stats in the form of Charisma and Alignment that were affected by how the unit behaves. A unit that slaughters enemies too low level compared to it is seen as a bully and loses Charisma, making it hard to promote them. Alignment is a bit different; Charisma is always good but some classes required low (or balanced) Alignment, so your army was likely to have both good and evil characters, although "High Charisma, Low Alignment" is tricky to manage without reading a guide because what raises and lowers Alignment has a number of links to what raises and lowers Charisma.
(Later games in the series adjusted this; instead of good and evil alignment became Law Vs Chaos). To some extent the game is overdesigned as it has a number of mechanics that frankly have too little effect to be worth mastering.
Finally, you need to manage your rebellion's overall reputation--a low value closes doors as people see you as just as bad as Endora. Aside from decisions this is mostly influenced by how you play the game, rather than "yes/no" prompts--sending Evil characters to liberate towns (and even a high reputation rebellion is likely to have some) lowers your reputation, because you just sent a violent and brutal person as your introduction to them.
Despite--or because of--this complexity I was hooked. I'd never seen anything else like it. The game eventually became available on the Wii and Wii U virtual consoles (with some minor changes--an ability called "Jihad" was renamed), but cartridges are generally very expensive.

But what really makes the game stand out to me now is the theme. Ogre Battle is never vulgar or graphic (the sequels, however...) and the storytelling is fairly minimal (the main character isn't silent but doesn't get a ton of dialogue), but it does not pull punches about this; you're fighting a war. Good people die, sometimes by your hand--there are sympathetic bosses you have to kill, and some of the towns you liberate will criticize your decision to rise up because of the inevitable price. There's occasional comedy but it's very subdued compared to contemporary console RPGs and even it's own sequels.
The game sets it's tone right away; it opens with the player being asked a series of questions to determine what sort of person and leader they are--it affects your starting army and the abilities of the "Lord" (despite the title a woman main character is allowed--something missing from the sequels), your main character and leader of the rebellion.
This sort of character selection quiz is likely familiar to many BMGF members from the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, but the questions are of a very serious nature in comparison: "if in a battle you could only save the life of one person between your child, your mother, and your lover, which would you choose?" is one example.
Later games in the series got significantly heavier on plot and characterization, exploring their themes even more, with the main characters of the later games being more fleshed out and undergoing character arcs.

One sadly underutilized element is that your character's alignment is separate from your overall faction reputation--you can theoretically play as an evil leader who people think is respectable and heroic, but the game mostly cares about reputation, even for the ending, though a handful of characters will see through this and only help you if both are high. There is one interesting event where the two are at odds; an enemy leader surrenders after being defeated and executing her raises your reputation but lowers alignment, and vice versa.

For me, Ogre Battle was very notable for being my first sad ending in a video game. It was the first game I cleared that had more than one (it has over a dozen , each named after a tarot card) and I did not get the happiest conclusion--although victorious, my character was assassinated and the person who had him killed took power and credit for the rebellion, the real hero being forgotten to history. Being a young child I bawled my eyes out at the unfairness of it--no other game had managed to wring an emotional reaction from me like that before. It's possible for a heroic Lord to get this ending, in fact, if you make just the wrong mistake--like I said, this game was fairly minimalist in writing but it pulled no punches.

The game was remarkably uncensored for a 90s game on a Nintendo system. Religion is present and not only are demons part of the story without being covered up but an evil player can make a faustian pact late in the game to recruit a very powerful character at very significant cost, not all of which is immediately obvious, and even a non-evil one can recruit generic demon troops. There's even an ending for a successful low reputation player forming their own evil empire using black magic.

As a franchise Ogre Battle has been mostly stagnant since Square bought Quest in 2002--we got a remake of the sequel, Tactics Ogre, in 2011 (Tactics Ogre was apparently quite popular and influential in Japan, at one point being Famitsu's 7th favorite game of all time) but no new games. I think it's dead, sadly, because the series' storyline had ended on a large cliffhanger.

My Ogre Battle experience is oddly enough probably very connected to my membership here. Ogre Battle was the first game I played that had monsters as allies and not just enemies. This had a big influence on how I viewed monsters, and monster allies are something I love in video games and other fiction now. It's entirely possible I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in Pokémon if I hadn't played Ogre Battle years earlier!
It also really started my interest in medieval fantasy.

 

[Daren]

Time has a funny way of creeping up on you.

I still remember playing Pokémon Red for the first time on my birthday over two decades ago--it released just a few days beforehand. There was plenty of buildup--Nintendo Power promoted it, there were commercials all the time, and of course the anime. I got all the way to the SS. Anne, got defeated by my rival, and restarted because I thought I had messed up my party irrevocable and needed to try again from the start (I don't remember why I thought this).
I don't think I realized at the time Pokémon would still be going now (not the games and especially not the show).
I certainly didn't think I'd ever find out Pokémon was now bigger than Star Wars.

So here are some random memories and reflections:
*Early on I learned about various Japan-only Pokémon manga, the radio drama, and so on. It was a very interesting experience reading about these. Sometimes frightening, like when I read about some of what happened in this.
*Two errors I read online a few times; that Ditto did not copy it's enemies stats when Transforming, and that Normal moves didn't get a same type bonus when used by Normal types.
*Its funny seeing how Hold Items have become more and more powerful. I mostly remember people liking the recovery berries or Leftovers in Gen II, and now we have powerful things like the Choice items and the Life Orb.
*The anime shipping wars. At the time there was quite a bit of fighting between AshXGary and AshXMisty, then AG removed both from the story as major characters. JessieXJames, the other major ship, survived, and remains quite strong to this day.
I don't see shipping wars quite as much nowadays, though I see hints of it at times.
*MissingNo really set those early internet days on fire. The idea he was just a glitch was hard for some people to accept; I recall a theory it was Ho-oh making an early cameo, or the bird Ash saw in the first episode.
*One very strange thing that happens when you're part of a franchise this long lasting is how you can see certain opinions go from mainstream to niche over time. My personal example is that I was part of the group who disliked the D/P anime during it's run--not an especially controversial opinion at the time--but now it's often held up as a highlight of the series.
*During Gen 1 the net was full of dumb internet legends about how to get special rare Pokémon like "Pikablu" or Togepi or Yoshi (!), or get into "Bill's Mysterious Garden". This era was packed with gaming urban legends; ways to play as Luigi in Mario 64, ways to find the Triforce in Ocarina of Time, rumors about fake monsters in the MMO Everquest...it was interesting in many ways. Of course tying up the phone line to go online back then put a bit of a limit on the ability to read up on these rumors.
*There was some concern initially about the gen 4 special split (which I still call the "second special split" with the first being G/S/C making special defense separate) but now it's hard to imagine the games without it, looking back at the weird era of "all ghost moves are physical, all dark moves are special" where we got things like Sneasel being a Dark/Ice physical attacker.
*Similarly, I recall some people unhappy about the gen 5 TM change. Now it seems quite popular.

 

[Daren]

My blog is getting significantly more views than expected. I'd like to thank all my readers!

Here is the start of my first long term project; a semi narrative Pokémon Platinum travel log.

When I first played Platinum all those years ago I sent some Eggs from my copy of diamond so have a form of new game plus (I sent some stuff like Riolu, Pichu, Munchlax etc. so I could use them a bit earlier when their stats hold up better). This time I'm playing normally.

Special Rules:
*May not use items such as potions during trainer battles. Hold items are acceptable. Using items in wild encounters is okay.
*Options on Set.

I do not intend to clear the Battle Frontier.

Day 2: Jubilife to Eterna City

Day 3: Eterna City to Solaceon Town

Day 4: Solaceon Town to Pastoria City

Day 5: Pastoria City to Celestic Town

Day 6: Celestic Town to Lake Verity

Day 7: Lake Verity to Spear Pillar

Day 8: Final

*
Day 1: Twinleaf to Jubilife City

One day, a young boy named Marcus was watching a television report about the return of the renowned Professor Rowan to the Sinnoh region when his close friend Barry decided the two of them should ask this perfect stranger for Pokémon. The two not only bump into this man when planning to run through tall grass and hopefully not get mauled by wild monsters, but Rowan decides they are perfect candidates to be Pokémon trainers. It is said he worked with Professor Oak, who apparently has similar views regarding giving children pet monsters when he catches them trying to wander into tall grass without protection.

Marcus chooses Chimchar, who is a rare female of the species. Barry picks a Pipulp and four seconds after Rowan and his assistant are gone challenges Marcus to a battle. Marcus loses this due to his decision to try to brute force past repeatedly having Chimchar's attack lowered by Growl. Barry only fines Marcus 40 pokébucks though. Marcus apologizes to Chimchar for his defeat and promises to do better in the future.

After arriving in Sandgem he is properly introduced to Rowan's assistant Dawn, who notes that her own first partner was Turtwig and if Marcus had picked it back at route 201 they would have the same starter, and she definitely would not have a Piplup.

Rowan notes that Chimchar is quite happy already and asks Marcus if he'd like to give Chimchar a name; Marcus asks about the namy "Ruby", which Chimchar seems to like. He then explains he has a request; for Marcus to take a Pokédex and chronicle every Pokémon in the Sinnoh region! Marcus accepts.

Taking his new duty seriously, Marcus buys a set of Pokéballs and catches two new friends: Avro the male Starly, and Ranger the male Bidoof. He spends some time training his three Pokémon before returning home for dinner and an awkward conversation.

After letting mom know he is requesting emancipation--which is accepted after fifteen seconds--Barry's mother appears, asking Marcus to deliver a parcel to her son, who she suspects would have gone to Jubilife city. Marcus happily agrees and sets off for route 202, where he meets Dawn, who tells him how to capture Pokémon even as he introduces her to Julie, Avro, and Ranger. She does give him five Pokéballs to help, and he captures an oddly intimidating Shinx he names Livewire and a Kriketot he names Julie. He finds route 202 has a number of rival trainers who wish to battle--Marcus is able to defeat them all, and before long reaches Jubilife city.

Jubilife city is surprisingly large--he'd never seen such a big city! Luckily Dawn is there, where they meet a very unusual man claiming to be working for the police. Dawn points Marcus to a local trainer school where he wins some battles and catches up to Barry so he can deliver the parcel--it turns out to be two maps of Sinnoh; Barry kindly gives Marcus one.

Marcus' luck holds out; the instant he leaves the school a local entrepreneur somehow notices he doesn't have a Pokétch and accosts him with the knowledge that he can win a free one by finding three promotion clowns and answering very simple quizzes! He does so, gaining the watch.

Recalling Barry mentioned that there was a Pokémon Gym in Oresburgh to the east, Marcus explores west and north instead--he's played enough Dragon Quest to know how this works. The west is a small but nice fishing hole. Up north he finds more trainers and a cave to the north--but large rocks are blocking off the route!

Exploring around the grass, Marcus meets and captures a male Budew names Oberon.

Current Party:
*Ruby the Chimchar (F)
*Avro the Starly (M)
*Ranger the Bidoof (M)
*Livewire the Shinx (F)
*Julie the Kriketot (F)
*Oberon the Budew (M)
All levels 5 (newly caught Oberon) to 8.

Current mon thoughts:
*Ruby is staying; she's my starter.
*Avro has a long career ahead of him--maybe not all game but quite possibly! Starraptor is a great regional bird.
*We all know why Ranger is here in the land of 8 hidden machines. We salute him.
*It's a good thing Livewire has Intimidate because she won't learn an electric attack until level 13 which is sort of awkward but better than 17 like in DP. I'm not sure about her long term. She's a pre-Wild Charge physical electric type but her Special Attack is quite usable. Jolteon would probably be better, but if I go with Espeon for my psychic type that would be an issue if I don't get lucky with a female Eevee. I could also go with Magnezone. Electivire is theoretically an option but appears too late for me to want to use.
*Julie was caught to fill the ranks early on and will not be around forever—might get a Heracross instead for a Bug type since Fighting is a type I don’t mind doubling up on since it doesn’t have many defensive weaknesses and both are dual types--plus since Ruby has a -attack nature Heracross would do the fighting-type part a lot better. Of course Heracross is very random, being honey tree only, so I can’t rely on getting one. For that reason I’m thinking about Yanmega, but I’m worried about having two fliers on the team. Yanmega also takes a very long time to learn Bug Buzz, but the Silver Wind TM is available early enough. I don't need a bug, of course.
*Oberon should prove useful for a good while; I'm gonna need him for Roark, but Roserade is pretty strong once I get a Shiny Stone and Stun Spore is always nice to have.

Future prospects:
*I plan to get a Buizel for my water-type; I’ve never used the line before so I’m looking forward to it.
*I prefer offensive stats for Psychic types so the main options I'm looking at are Espeon and Gardevoir. Both take a while to get usable though; Espeon won’t learn a Psychic attack until I can reach the move re-learner in Pastoria since Eevee comes at too high a level while Ralts and Kirlia are incredibly weak until they evolve at 30. I guess I could grind the casino for a TM but I’d really prefer not to.
*I've used Weavile a lot, but it's a good Pokémon who could help check Cynthia's Garchomp and Lucian's team. Definitely on the table.

Suggestions and ideas are welcome!

 

[Daren]

Day 2: Jubilife City to Eterna City

The next morning Marcus heads out east to route 203. He meets Barry, who challenges him to battle; Barry has also caught a Starly but the six to one advantage in Marcus’ favor proves decisive. Barry is shocked by his defeat and swears never to lose again.

On route 203 he battles a number of trainers, and to his surprise Julie evolves into a blade-wielding samurai known as Kricketune.

Route 203 is divided from Oreburgh by a large cave—inside a hiker gives Marcus a rare Hidden Machine for Rock Smash. This would let him get past that cave north of Jubilife but he needs the Oreburgh Gym badge to use it outside battle. He teaches the move to Range and Julie.

The cave is short and after a few battles he reached Oreburgh, where a young boy drags him to the Gym after seeing that Marcus doesn’t have any badges. Barry it waiting for him and explains that the Gym Leader is in the mines south of town.

While exploring the city Marcus meets a young woman named Hillary who wants to trade a Machop for an Abra. As luck has it the route north of Oreburgh is full of Machop, and he is able to catch one and trade her for Kezza the Abra.

Unfortunately Kezza may prove difficult to work with as traded Pokémon are known to be very picky with their trainers, so he leaves them in storage until he can earn enough Gym badges to win his respect.

Marcus explores the Oreburgh mine where he meets and captures a Geodude he named Adrienn. At the end he finds the Gym Leader, Rorark, who returns to the Gym for their match.

The Gym battle itself is surprisingly swift. Marcus sends out Oberon, who powers himself up with Growth and then defeats Roark’s Geodude—and in doing so learns a powerful new Mega Dragin technique! With this he defeats Onix and Carnidos as well. Roark is shocked to lose to someone with no badges, but strangely enough says the other leaders are all much tougher than him. Marcus receives not only the badge but a TM for the move Stealth Rock.

On the way back to Jubilife Barry meets him and informs Marcus that the next Gym is in Eterna City—there’s a rout between it and Oreburgh, but a bicycle is required to pass. It seems the only bike shop in the whole country is in Eterna, so that is the next destination.

In Jublife city Marcus finds Professor Rowan and Dawn being hassled by members of Team Galactic, a group he has heard dark whispers of. The Professor destroys them with words, and then Marcus and Dawn destroy them with Pokémon.

(Rowan is my favourite professor for this scene)

Having mastered Rock Smash, Marcus makes his way through the cave north of Jubilife past route 204 to Floaroma town.

All this training so far has been good for us as on the way Livewire evolves into Luxio, Avro into Staravia, and Ruby into Monferno.

Floaroma is a quiet town being disturbed by a gather of Team Galactic, who are blocking off roads and have captured the man running the local power plant at the Valley Windworks! On his way to investigate Marcus encounters and captures a female Buizel, who he names Nixie.

Although Marcus defeats the Galactic agent guarding the windworks, they simply go inside and lock the door! They foolishly let slip, however, that another key is in the hands of some other Galactic members, who Marcus finds harassing a honey seller. Marcus beats them, finds the key, and makes his way into the windworks.

There he finds his strongest opponent yet; although most of the Team Galactic grunts fall easily their leader, Commander Mars, proves a sturdier opponent. The commander confidently wagers that if she is defeated she’ll leave the valleyworks, and soon shows why she is so confident.

Adrienn has no trouble defeating her Zubat, but Mars sends out a mighty Purugly that defeats Adrienn handily! Livewire challenges the feline next but is also defeated, though her reckless Spark attacks manage to paralyze her enemy, allowing Julie to score a winning critical hit with Rock Smash!

Marcus is victorious, but shaken—Mars’ Purugly had defeated two of his Pokémon. There were much stronger trainers out there than he expected, and the confidence his easy victory in Oreburgh had given him was shattered.

Supposed International Police investigator Looker appeared after to investigate the claims of Galactic activity, and was impressed by us driving them off.

After the battle with Mars we go north to Eterna Forest, where we meet a young trainer named Cheryl concerned about being attacked by Team Galactic, so the two of us team up to get through the forest. Apparently the wild Pokémon are incensed over this and start attacking in groups of two, but we make it through past a gauntlet of bug catchers and psychic trainers

Reaching Eterna City, Marcus meets up with Barry, who takes him to see a statue of an unusual Pokémon. It’s also being viewed by a weird guy muttering stuff about the world; in fact they had previously seen him at Lake Verity doing much the same.

On the way to the Pokémon center Marcus is met up by a woman named Cynthia, who is studying Pokémon mythology. She gives Marcus the Hidden Machine for Cut, but he needs to local badge to use it.

The city has a large Team Galactic presence—a younger kid mentions a friend of his accused Team Galactic of stealing his Pokémon, but the kid thinks they dress too cooly to be criminals like that. Marcus is shocked by the child both accusing his friend of lying and of having such awful taste. He soon hears the owner of the bike shop also had their Pokémon stolen by Team Galactic and has gone to confront them in a building they own in the city—however it is protected by a row of tall trees, so he must defeat the Eterna Gym leader first.

Eterna Gym is grass themed but has no real puzzle—you simply need to defeat every trainer here. He is surprised to learn there are some people who don’t do this.

He sends out Julie to face the leader, Gardenia. Julie puts up an amazing show, building up her Fury Cutter against Gardenia’s Turtwig to such power it also defeats her Cherrim and her Roserade, single-handedly winning the match! Julie’s certainly become a great swordsbugwoman!

Marcus decides to train out east by Mt. Coronet before trying to handle the Galactic building. Now with two badges he feels secure training Kezza, who evolves into Kadabra and—with the help of a kind stranger—into Alakazam, giving him truly inspiring power!

Feeling ready, Marcus brings Kezza, Ruby, Nixie, Livewire, Oberon, and Adrienn into the Galactic building to confront them…

*

Today had a nice long playtime.

And full of surprises. I didn’t expect Budew to beat Cranidos, I sure didn’t expect Julie to sweep Gardenia with Fury Cutter, and I didn’t expect to have to reset after being wiped by a Galactic scientist with a Kadabra who used X special on turn 1 than one shotted everyone but Kezza, who was lower level and still couldn’t stop him.

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

*Ruby the Monferno (F)
*Nixie the Buizel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staravia (M)
*Livewire the Luxio (F)
*Oberon the Budew (M)
*Ranger the Bidoof (M)
*Kezza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Geodude (F)

Geodude is usually good in the early game with sturdy defenses and attack for an early game Pokémon, and Platinum is no exception.

Nixie hasn’t done too well so far; it’s a while before she’ll get good STAB moves. If I have enough shards I may even spring for Dive instead of waiting for Surf, especially with her higher attack. It’s too bad wild Buizel in this game are too high level to have Sonic Boom because it would have helped a lot up to this point.

Alakazam isn’t the unstoppable monster from gen 1 due to various mechanic changes, but he is still easily my strongest right now.

Julie is pretty much retiring soon but she had a great ride. I think letting her go out on a strong note after beating Gardenia is the right thing to do because starting with the next Gym I expect her stats to start failing to make the grade.

I was hoping Oberon would have evolved by now, but he only got to 1 heart on the Pokétch a bit after reaching Eterna. As long as he evolves before level 25 it’s okay but I’m a bit concerned.

 

[Daren]

Day 3: Eterna City to Solaceon Town



The Galactic Building has already been infiltrated by Looker, who tells Marcus each floor has two staircases, one of which is a trap. He finds the correct staircase on each floor is marked by a sign, but goes into the “fake” stairs to defeat as many Galactic agents as possible—they openly brag about stealing Pokémon but the police have done nothing but send a single undercover investigator?

On the top he finds the bike shop owner confronting another Commander; Saturn.

Saturn is just as strong as Mars; Ruby defeats her Zubat easily with her new Flame Wheel technique, but her second Pokémon is a Stuntank that defeats her! Livewire challenges her next and is defeated as well, though she brings Stunktank to the brink of defeat, and Adrienn triggers her Quick Claw and brings the poison type down with Magnitude!

The bike shop owner is thrilled to have his Clefairy back—Team Galactic apparently wanted it because of the old belief that Clefairy are from outer space. What are these weird people after?

On the way to check up with the owner at his store Cynthia appears again and gives Marcus an odd Pokémon egg. Not only that, but the owner is so grateful he gives Marcus a free bicycle of the latest model! It’s nice to have, but Marcus feels bad about getting it the way he did.

*

Cycling road proves full of trainers, and Marcus is forced to bike back up to recover more than once. In the end he makes it to the bottom and goes east, battles past more trainers, and reaches the entrance to Mt. Coronet, where Dawn appears and gives him two nice gifts; a Vs. Seeker and a new App for his Pokétch to find hidden treasure. He is slightly disheartened to realize he must now go back and explore everywhere with it.

Still, with the powerful trainers he has met recently he decides to train hard before trying to conquer Mt. Coronet. Here is what happens:

*He meets Gardenia outside a spooky mansion in the Eterna Forest. Inside he captures a Gastly that he dubs Phantom and finds general signs of a paranormal presence, but cannot do anything about it.

*The egg hatches into a Togepi, who he names Lugh.

*A hiker he meets mentions rumors of a second cave underneath Cycling road, which he finds—it’s only hidden from a birds eye view so he is unsure why it was so hard for people to find. He is forced to leave soon after being attacked by a Gible. He captures it, but Oberon is knocked out by the powerful dragon. He names his new Gible Athena and then escapes.

*After some effort, he trains Oberon enough for him to evolve into Roselia!

*He enters a horrible, no good, very bad cave under Cycling Road. He rescues a lost girl named Mira, burns all of his Repels, and develops of phobia of dark places and Bronzor.

*Ranger evolves into Bibarel while raining with Exp. Share.

Finally feeling ready, Marcus enters Mt. Coronet and soons runs into that weird guy from Eterna City and Lake Verity mumbling about the start of the universe and human weakness. The cave proves shorter than expected and before long he is passing through the mountain road and then meadows and into Hearthome city, where he stops a rambunctious Buneary from escaping a woman named Keira, who asks him to meet her at the city Contest Hall.

Luckily, a tourist is able to guide him to the contest hall where he finds his mother visiting! Of course she was a famous contest entrant, but the timing was odd. Keira is there, and thanks him for helping stop her Buneary, and before long Marcus finds himself being asked to enter contests. He’s a little unsure but will think about it. While there he meets the Hearthome Gym Leader, who heads to her Gym to prepare for the challenge.

Exploring further, Marcus meets Bebe, who created the Sinnoh branch of the Pokémon storage system! She offers him an Eevee, explaining a friend of hers from Johto has raised many. He names the young female Eevee Jade.

*

Hearthome Gym is pitch black and uses a simple symbol riddle. On the way through Nixie gets defeated in a single blow from a Haunter using Shadow Ball! He can tell the Buizel is growing anxious at her difficulties, and decides to give her some Rare Candies to help. This triggers evolution and she becomes Floatzel!

Marcus lets Athena out first to taste her first Gym Battle. She overcomes Fantina’s Duskull after a tricky battle but is then defeated by Fantina’s Haunter. Livewire overcomes Haunter, but cannot defeat Fantina’s powerful Mismagius, who drops Livewire before she can even move!

Nixie steps up and delivers a crushing Crunch attack, but is confused by Mismagius’ counter! Hoping the damage will be enough, Marcus substitutes Nixie for Avro. Avro fights well, but Fantina uses a potion to heal Mismagius, who wins again! Nixie returns, however, and drops Mismagius with another Crunch before it can counter.

Fantina proved the most powerful opponent Marcus has faced so far! He’d have likely lost a fair three on three battle, so he really has a long way to go, it seems.

*

Marcus is not too surprised to meet Barry on the road to the next Gym, and this time Barry wants to battle!

Marcus leads with Kazza, who overcomes Barry’s Staravia attempting to trick him with Double Team. Barry then uses Ponyta, and Marcus switches in Adrienn, who laughs off Ponyta’s attacks and crushes him. It turns out Barry has copied Marcus and caught his own Roselia, so Adrienn is recalled for Ruby, who wins. Barry only has his Prinplup left! Marcus is going to send Livewire, but Ruby asks to stay in so she can defeat her rival. Marcus agrees, but Ruby’s new fighting techniques are insufficient and she is defeated. Livewire beats Prinplup.

*

After a lengthy road Marcus passed by an odd tower to reach the ranching town of Solaceon. It’s a quiet place. Barry is here already and tells Marcus about putting seals on Pokéballs to give them special visual effects. A nice woman in town explains more about it to Marcus and gives him a case to carry seals.

There are a few notable things in Solaceon; a newspaper, a Pokémon daycare, and a set of ruins. The ruins are quite odd; Marcus is told the Hidden Machine for Defog is located there—even though Barry already found it—and after getting through the maze finds it among many other treasures, including Fire, Thunder, and Leaf evolutionary stones. Not only that, but Adrienn evolves into Graveler (and then Golem) in the ruins!


*

Today had much less plot progress than day 2 but significant increases in the strength of my party.

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

*Ruby the Monferno (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staravia (M)
*Livewire the Luxio (F)
*Oberon the Roselia (M)
*Ranger the Bibarel (M)
*Kazza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Golem (F)
*Lugh the Togepi (M)
*Jade the Eevee (F)
*Phantom the Gastly (F)
*Athena the Gible (F)


*Like most trade evolutions a Golem is incredibly powerful when first available. I look forward to see Adrienn in action.

*Athena could have evolved but I’m holding out for her to learn Dragon Claw at 27 first; if I evolve her first I have to wait for level 33.
She has poor stats for this point but Dragon Rage at this level makes up for a lot.

*Evolving has helped Nixie, but it will be access to either the Dive move tutor (if I can get enough shards) or Surf that’ll really help her, especially the former. I think she’ll be very useful by the end but for now the lack of good STAB moves slows her down.

*Livewire has done well, but being a physical focused electric type will be a huge problem eventually. Once I get the Shockwave TM she’ll be retired for Jade, who will be evolved with the Thunderstone from the Solaceon Ruins into a Jolteon.

*Lugh has Hustle instead of Serene Grace, unfortunately, so no Air Slash fun. I’m a bit divided on using him, but will probably save the Dawn Stone for Oberon instead.

 

[Daren]

Day 4: Solaceon Town to Pastoria City

The road from Solaceon to Veilstone is long, with two routes. The first, route 210, is overgrown with very tall grass you can’t bike across. On this route a doube battle with a father-daughter pair ends with Athena evolving into Gabite!

The road forked ahead—the northern route to Celestic town was blocked off by a herd of Psyduck. Luckily there is a Moomoo milk bar to stop at, though rather than the rest someone earlier had promised there were actually more battles inside.

East is route 215 to Veilstone. It’s raining heavily there, and the area is apparently known for raining all day every day. Bizarrely enough he read that Ponyta used to live here in moderate numbers.

*

In the end he makes it through to Veilstone, his next Gym battle, and the site of a major Team Galactic headquarters, because apparently the numerous reports of them stealing Pokémon and kidnapping people are not important to law enforcement.

Veilstone has an impressive Department store where he finds many TMs, including ones for the powerful but inaccurate Fire Blast, Thunder, and Blizzard. He teaches Fire Blast to Ruby, Thunder to Livewire, and Blizzard to Nixie.

He meets a young man with an odd Pokémon called “Porygon” that had apparently fled from the Galactic Warehouse. He offers it to Marcus, who names it Edda.

Marcus meets Dawn in Veilstone outside the Gym, and she wishes him luck in his Gym challenge—when suddenly a mountainous masked singing wrestler named Wake emerged from the Gym—he is the leader of Pastoria City Gym and warns Marcus that the local leader is very strong. After the harsh battle with Fantina Marcus feels uncertain and heads south of the city to trait a bit first.

Route 214 is a massive path south of Verilstone. It proves good training and he finds interesting treasure and catches a Rhyhorn he names Vaguard. Feeling satisfie with his Pokémon and his progress he heads back to the Veilstone Gym.

The Gym employed a bizarre punching bag based maze, but he fights his way through the quarter of blackbelts and reaches the young leader, Maylene.

Leading with Avro, the Staravia triumphs over Maylene’s Meditite, but is no match for her Machoke, which slows him down with Rock Tomb and then knocks him down with a powerful Strength attack. Oberon enters next and defeats the superpower Pokémon with his Giga Drain, then finds himself facing the part steel Lucario! Knowing victory is unlikely, Marcus paralyzes the creature with Stun Spore. Oberon fights tenaciously and even lands a critical hit, but is defeated. Ruby is next but misses with her Fire Blast and takes a powerful Drain Punch that recovers most of the damage Oberon did and leaves Ruby weakened. Her follow-up Fire Blast strikes true, however, and wins the match!

Leaving the Gym, Marcus meets Dawn again, who reveals that Team Galactic stole her Pokédex! Increasingly agitated at these criminals, Marcus is pleased to help. He and Dawn defeat a pair of undertrained goons with Nixie’s new Blizzard move, aided by Dawn’s Clefairy. Looker arrives right after; he and Marcus enter the warehouse but find a locked interior door, though at Looker’s urging Marcus grabs a hidden machine for Fly from the building.

*

Before heading south to Pastoria City, Marcus decides to add Jade to his party. Jade seems very interested in the Thunderstone he found earlier so he allows her to evolve into Jolteon. Then he heads south down Route 214 again.

Route 214 runs along Lake Valor, which hosts a large hotel complex with a restaurant by the lakefront. Marcus helps a young woman recover her missing suite key with his Dowsing Machine app then continues on to Pastoria as the route winds past a pleasant beach.

*

Pastoria city is built next to the great marsh, and is a wetland beloved of certain Pokémon types and hated by others. Marcus overhears a Team Galactic member muttering about a package and loving explosives, but nobody seems interested.

Marcus is not surprised when Barry challenges him outside Pastoria Gym. They end up trading wins—Barry’s Pokémon are very strong but type matchups win the day; Adrienn beats Staravia then loses to Roselia, Roselia loses to Ruby, who loses to Prinplup, who loses to Oberon, who loses to Ponyta (but gets off a Stun Spore)—then Jade defeats Ponyta in her first really high end battle.

Marcus figures he needs to get some good training in, so before challenging the Gym he decides to explore along route 212 and check out this “Pokémon Mansion” he’s heard about.

Route 212 is full of deep marshes and heavy rain, so progress is difficult. Along the way he finds a house run by a move master who can teach Pokémon special techniques in exchange for colored shards. He keeps this in mind as he has already found a number of these shards in his travels.

His party tires themselves out fighting through the marsh, so he changes tactics; he flies to Hearthome City and approached from the north. Much of the northern part of the route is dominatd by the massive mansion and property of Mr. Backlot. On his way down Marcus is attacked by bored rich folk and security guards before reaching the manor, some of which is open to the public. There he participates in a knockout tournament against five Maids. He wins but not fast enough for a special prize, though it was good training for Adrienn.

*

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

*Ruby the Monferno (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staravia (M)
*Livewire the Luxio (F)
*Oberon the Roselia (M)
*Ranger the Bibarel (M)
*Kezza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Golem (F)
*Lugh the Togepi (M)
*Jade the Jolteon (F)
*Phantom the Gastly (F)
*Athena the Gabite (F)


*Oberon’s displayed his prowess again by getting Maylene’s Lucario to half health despite the type weakness, though it did involve a critical hit.
*I spent some time Underground mining so I could get Nixie Dive from the route 212 move tutor—now she finally has a decent Stab move!
*Athena’s done really well for herself—I don’t usually get this good of results from second stage psuedos.
*Fire Blast has proven very effective for Ruby.

 

[Daren]

Day 5: Pastoria City to Celestic Town

Marcus decided to explore the Great Marsh. The first Pokémon he saw was a strange colored Yanma, but it fled. Overall it was a horrible experience.

(HNNNNGH.

Also the Marsh is so annoying; all the regular irritations of a Safari Zone but much slower thanks to getting stuck in the mud.)

After repeated sparring with some trainers along 212 Livewire evolves into Luxray, so Marcus decides he’s as ready as he will be and enters Pastoria Gym. He finds it doesn’t have a puzzle so much as an overly long series of switch that raise or lower the water level. He reaches Crasher Wake and begins with Oberon; Crasher Wake sends out a terrifying Gyarados that bites Oberon, causing them to flinch. Realizing he cannot win, Marcus recalls Oberon for Jade, who withstands Gyarados’ attack then brings it down with a crashing Thunder attack. Crasher Wake’s next Pokémon is a Quagsire; Marcus sends Oberon back in, and although he’s slowed down by a shot of mud he’s able to defeat Quagsire with Giga Drain and restore his own strength.

Marcus is shocked when Crasher Wake’s most powerful teammate is a Floatzel! However, Crasher Wake’s is more experienced than Nixie; Oberon barely withstands an Ice Fang and his counterattack with Stun Spore misses. Marcus sends in Luxray, who withstands an Aqua Jet and a Brine attack and defeats Floatzel with her own powerful Thunder attack. For the first time since Gardenia Marcus won a Gym battle flawlessly!

It was also against the coolest Gym Leader he’s ever met.

Outside he meets Barry, who turns out to be claiming himself as Crasher Wake’s apprentice despite the latter never agreeing to that. More importantly, he tells Crasher Wake about the Galactic grunt muttering about bombs, and it seems Crasher Wake actually considers this troubling and runs off. Unfortunately the bomb detonates just as we arrive at the gate to the Great Marsh.

With Barry and Crasher Wake ensuring nobody goes into the Marsh, Marcus chases down the Galactic Grunt, defeats him, then lets him walk away for unknown reasons. Cynthia arrives to give him a cure for some headache suffering Psyduck blocking the road north of Solaceon and Barry tells him the damage to the Marsh was minor.

*

North of Solaceon, Marcus cures the Psyduck and Cynthia appears, somehow catching up to him having Avro fly him there, to ask him to deliver a charm to her grandmother in Celestic town.

The remainer of route 210 proves rough (and the training allows Avro to evolve into Staraptor), going from very tall grass, to dense fog (thankfully Avro was able to clear it up) to mountain terrain, so when Marcus finally made it to Celestic town he was not amused to find a Galactic grunt threatening to blow up the town, and has Adrienn smash him into the ground before delivering the charm to Cynthia’s grandmother.

Celestic is a very historical town, and Marcus finds the ruin engravings of various legendary Pokémon quite interesting. Annoyingly, that odd man he’d seen a few times before showed up, said he was going to destroy the paintings for stupid philosophical reasons, revealed he was the leader of Team Galactic, Cyrus, and battled Marcus.

Cyrus led with a Sneasel, but after battling Ruby for a few rounds he withdrew it and sent out a Golbat which outsped and defeated Ruby. Jade comes out and defeats Golbat with a pair of Shockwaves, finished off Sneasel, then defeats Cyrus’ final Pokémon, Murkrow with Thunder.

Instead of restraining Cyrus and calling the police Marcus lets him leave, and Cynthia’s Grandmother rewards him with a hidden machine for Surf. Cynthia meets him right outside the ruins and suggests he studies the old myths further in Canalave city, west of Jubilife.

Marcus uses his new ability to cross the water to explore some ironworks near Flaoroma town. It’s full of treasure a foreman assures him he can keep, and the owner, Mr. Fuego, offers a great deal; Star Pieces for one of each shard.

*

Today was mostly leveling and making money off the rich trainres near Backlot’s Manor so I could buy TMs, hold items, and Vitamins.

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

*Ruby the Monferno (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staraptor (M)
*Livewire the Luxray (F)
*Oberon the Roselia (M)
*Ranger the Bibarel (M)
*Kezza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Golem (F)
*Lugh the Togepi (M)
*Jade the Jolteon (F)
*Phantom the Gastly (F)
*Athena the Gabite (F)
*Edda the Porygon (no gender)

Livewire is now basically retired, having reached her final form and defeating Floatzel so she can step down on a strong note before her weird stats for an electric became problematic. Thanks for your loyal service; I hope you enjoy your fine wines and caviar in the box.

Staraptor is famous among regional birds for good reason; I expect good results from Avro for a while now. Ranger is now full HM specialist and will be in my party for pretty much every exploration part from now on.

Ruby should evolve soon. Her -attack nature has been a bit of a hindrance so far so Fire Blast has become reliable, but I hope STAB Close Combat will fix that right up.

Nixie's running both Blizzard AND Focus Blast now with a Wide Lens on permanently. It's worked fine so far...

(Is anyone reading this? It's hard to tell.)

 

[Daren]

This was delayed for personal reasons I won’t go into, but I have not abandoned the project.

Day 6: Celestic Town to Lake Verity


Now able to conquer water--mankind’s old nemesis—Marcus begins a walkabout of previously visited areas, looking for anything helpful he could not reach beforehand, and finds quite a few treasures and items. He also explored the water routes 220 and 221, south of Sandgem town. At the end he finds something called “Pal Park” under construction. He doubts he’ll ever return, though.

While passing through Orebrugh he stops at the mining museum and learns that they can now uses fossils to revive extinct Pokémon! Marcus found such a fossil digging in the underground and receives a revived Cranidos he names Grond.

*

After finishing his second-run of exploration he goes to Jubilife city and crosses the river west to reach Canalave, one of Sinnoh’s western port towns and home of an extensive library.

While crossing the bridge that divides Canalave in two, Marcus was approached and challenged by Barry, who had already defeated the Gym Leader.

Barry led with Staraptor against Adrienn; the flying type was able to avoid Rock Blast with repeated Double Team moves, but Barry was clearly aware it wouldn’t work forever and swapped in his now evolved Empoleon! Marcus sent in Oberon, who found himself outmatched, but able to paralyze Empoleon; this allowed Adrienn to finish them off after Oberon was defeated.

Barry sent in his own Roserade, so Marcus sent in Ruby. Ruby was outsped and took two hits coming in and delivering a Flame Wheel, so Marcus gambled that a Mach Punch, although ineffective, would be enough to finish Roserade—and they were right.

Barry sent Staraptor back in, so Marcus let Adrienn finish him. In response Barry revealed their newest Pokémon, a very rare Heracross; Avro defeated them, and Barry sent in Rapidash; Marcus swapped in Nixie, who absorbed a Take Down then washed Rapidash away with Dive.

Barry declared he was going to win the League and become champion and advised Marcus to train at the Iron Island before leaving.

Marcus considers this good advice, but first he stops in the library to read up on Sinnoh mythology. He finds some interesting folktales and myths, wondering how much truth there is in them.

*

Marcus catches a ferry to the Iron Island, where he meets a trainer named Riley. Riley came to train with his Lucario but finds the Pokémon in the area seem agitated. He and Marcus team up to find the reason. The cave proves good training; Ruby evolve into Infernape, and Marcus finds a Shiny Stone that allows Oberon to evolve into Roserade (and it turns out the mine is filled with Star Pieces). Deep in the old mines they eventually discover what is angering the local Pokémon; two Team Galactic agents hoping to capture many Pokémon in the area. The two defeat them, and Riley gives Marcus an egg.

Marcus brings it to the bicycle path and is not too surprised it hatches into Lucario’s unevolved form, Riolu. He names them Luke.

This side trek finished, Marcus enters Canalave Gym. It features a maze of lifts moving between several levels, but does not prove too confusing. It turns out the leader is the father of Roark, Oreburgh’s leader!

Marcus leads with Adrienn against Byron’s Magneton; Adrienn activates Quick Claw and beats Magneton. Byron’s next Pokémon is Steelix—Adrienn brings it to the bring but it knocked out by a critical earthquake. Ruby comes in and strikes with a Flame Wheel, but Byron uses a Full Restore to heal them. A follow up Fireblast decides the issue.

Byron’s final Pokémon is Bastiodon—although a defensive powerhouse it is both a rock and steel type, and Ruby’s Close Combat defeats it instantly and wins Marcus his sixth badge.

Barry met him outside gym, even saying Marcus could be champion if he wasn’t stronger, and then brought him to the library to meet Rowan and Dawn. Rowan wanted Marcus, Barry, and Dawn to investigate the three Sinnoh Lakes of Acuity, Valor, and Verity. However, he is interrupted by a powerful earthquake, and the news reports a massive explosion at Lake Valor! The three trainers are sent off to investigate the lakes.

At Valor Marcus finds a horrible sight as poor Magikarp flap uselessly in the drained lake while Team Galactic agents prowl. At the center of this is another Commander, Saturn, who attacks Marcus, scoffing that Mars had been defeated by him.

Saturn soon learns his mistake; Jade defeats his Golbat, Ruby is Bronzor, and Avro his Toxicroak; none of Marcus’ Pokémon are defeated. Saturn is amazed, but states they had already taken the lake Pokémon and leaves.

Worse; some of the Galactic agents said they are also going to Lake Verity; Marcus flies to Sandgem and checks to ensure Twinroot is okay. He finds Rowan fighting with a Galactic Grunt and Sawn battling someone familiar in the distance…

Marcus fights his way past them to find Dawn could not defeat Commander Mars, who is burning to avenge her defeat at the windworks.

Mars was Marcus’ most dangerous opponent once, but he has improved more than her; Jade defeats her Golbat and, although she is confused and harms herself three times, also beats Mars’ Bronzor. Then comes out the mighty Purugly, who defeats Jade with Fake Out. Adrienn comes out next and—recognizing the cat who defeated her as a Geodude—not only moves first with her Quick Claw but delivers a critical earthquake, instantly defeating the once-terrifying feline!

Mars is unable to comprehend losing again, but reassures herself she completed her mission and stupidly exposits about Galactic’s plan to capture the lake trio and “create a new world”. Rowan is very worried about Barry, and Marcus agrees he must check on him at Lake Acuity, far to the north past Mount Coronet.

*

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

*Ruby the Infernape (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staraptor (M)
*Livewire the Luxray (F)
*Oberon the Roserade (M)
*Ranger the Bibarel (M)
*Kezza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Golem (F)
*Lugh the Togepi (M)
*Jade the Jolteon (F)
*Phantom the Gastly (F)
*Athena the Gabite (F)
*Edda the Porygon (no gender)
*Grond the Cranidos (M)
*Luke the Riolu (M)

Current plans for my final E4 team: Ruby, Nixie, Avro, Jade, Oberon, and Athena.

 

[Daren]

Day 7: Lake Verity to Spear Pillar

Editor note: I accidentally deleted a mention on day 6 that Ruby evolved.

*

Marcus crosses through the northern cave to Mt. Coronet—with Strength, a Hidden Machine he receives from Riley but forgot to mention—he is able to move aside massive rocks and make his way north to the frozen route 216 that leads to Lake Accuity and Snowpoint City.

Making his way north, Marcus captures a male Sneasel he names Wendigo, and arrives to route 217, which leads to Lake Accuity. Marcus is surprised to meet Maylene, shoeless and lightly dressed, who says she is walking to Snowpoint City instead of Flying. Marcus guesses she must have a flying-type she doesn’t use.

Route 217 is lengthy and full of deep snow with many lost items in it, and Marcus even stumbles on a lost hidden machine for Rock Climb. He soon after finds the owner, who not only lets him keep it but gives Marcus an ancient plate as a reward for honesty.

When Marcus reaches the lakefront he finds the lake itself is atop a steep cliff. Barry is already there and tells Marcus he cannot use Rock Climb without the Snowpoint Gym badge.

Arriving in Snowpoint, Marcus meets Maylene in the center, who tells Marcus the local Gym Leader, Candice, specializes in Ice type and wanted to battle Maylene as training because of Ice’s weakness to fighting.

Marcus meets a woman who wants to trade her Haunter for a Medicham, but Marcus finds he does not trust—there’s a sinister aura of some sort surrounding her…

*

Marcus makes his way to Snowpoint Gym, which has the legally mandated sliding ice puzzle to get through before he can face the Gym Leader.

The first round is Nixie against Sneasel; it ends swiftly as Nixie lands a Focus Blast and wins instantly. The next round has Candice send out an Abomasnow—this time the Focus Blast is a critical hit, and Nixie claims carves out another notch on her plate. Candice’s third Pokémon is a Frosslas; Nixie defeats it with a pair of crunches but is severely weakened after. Candice’s last Pokémon is a massive Piloswine! Nixie manages to dodge Stone Edge and land a Waterfall attack, but is defeated by Earthquake.

Ruby is sent out next, and although Candice heals her Piloswine with a Full Restore, Ruby’s Close Combat defeats it in a dizzy assault, giving Marcus the seventh Sinnoh badge!

In the Pokmon Center Maylene notices Marcus’ new badge while he rests his team. Now he needs to make sure everything at Lake Acuity is okay.

When he arrives he sees that Barry was defeated by Commander Jupiter. Jupiter tells him not to go to their HQ in Veilstone. An unusually dour Barry admits he could do nothing, but insists he will become stronger.

Marcus tries exploring around the lake, but finds nothing. Wanting to prepare before trying to storm Galactic’s main base, he decides to goes exploring the mountains around Sinnoh with his new Rock Climb—in one amusing moment along Route he encounters a “dragon tamer” dressed like a vampire who tells Marcus not to be shocked by his Pokémon —a Gible—when Marcus had Athena leading his party. Nearby he finds an elder woman who says she can teach the ultimate Dragon Attack to Pokémon. It’s something he will keep in mind.

In Veilstone he confronts a Galactic agent who accuses him of costing them their Clefairy. Right after Looker arrive, revealing he has a key to Galactic’s warehouse. The two enter.

Unsurprisingly it is full of grunts, as well as teleporters. Marcus makes his way through until he finds another key that gets him into their main HQ, which has more grunts and more teleporters; he and Looked find Cyrus addressing his followers, praising their work and promising their day is near. Deeper in the building he meets Cyrus himself, who muses that Marcus probably heard his speech, but admits he considers his agents incompetent and has no intention of sharing his new world with them. Although he claims he no longer needs the lake Pokémon and Marcus may rescue them, he also wishes to punish Marcus for allowing his emotions to make him try to rescue them, and attacks!

Marcus sends out Wendigo—and he faces Cyrus’ own Sneasel! The two exchange Slash attacks, but Marcus can tell Cyrus’ is stronger and sends in Ruby, who takes a blow coming in but defeats Sneasel with Mach Punch. Cyrus Crobat is next; Ruby lands a Fire Blast, but is badly hurt by Air Slash and slowed than her enemy; Marcus sends in Jade, who blasts down Crobat and Cyrus’ final Pokémon, a Honchkrow.

Cyrus commends Marcus’ bravery and hands him a Master Ball, which can catch any wild Pokémon, and tells Marcus to take the teleporter ahead if he wishes to rescue the lake Pokémon. For some reason Marcus lets him leave, and goes into the portal.

On the other side is a creepy lab with odd liquid filled jars and several shaken and disturbed scientists who express horror at their own actions. In a final room Marcus finds the lake Pokémon, trapped in jars and in pain, while Commander Saturn talks to the scientist Commander Charon whom he had seen before at the Wind works.

Saturn sees Marcus and desires revenge for his previous defeat. Wendigo leads out against Saturn’s Golbat; Wendigo lands a good Ice Punch but Golbat uses Confuse Ray, so Marcus sends in Jade, who defeats Golbat and Saturn’s follow up Bronzor—Bronzo does not try to confuse Jade this time and is defeated with two thunderbolts.

Saturn’s Toxicroak manages to beat Jade; Wendigo leaps into the battle, angry at his recent retreats, but cannot finish off Toxicroak and is defeated. Kazza finishes the amphibian fighting/poison type.

Saturn steps aside and allows Marcus to free the lake Pokémon. Charon muses that Cyrus may fail and considers finding something worthy of his talents instead. On the way out Marcus rinds a Razor Claw and gives it to Wendigo, who seems sad after his recent defeats but interested in the object.

With things as dangerous as they are Marcus heads to Mt. Coronet immediately. Climbing it he finds a shattered mural; Looker arrives and admits he does not have the power to face Team Galactic and wishes Marcus luck, handing him a Black Flute.

Mt. Coronet is a difficult climb, the outside is frozen, and Cyrus’ followers are everywhere—although the odd claw allows Wendigo to evolve into Weavile. In the end, however, Marcus reaches the summit, where a structure resembling some sort of altar is located. Marcus is confronted by Mars and Jupiter, but Barry arrives to help; the two boys defeat the Galactic Commanders. Barry admits his party cannot go any farther and withdraws, but Cynthia arrives right after.

Cyrus, however, carries out his plan; he has created two “red chains” to summon and control Dialga and Palkia, the Pokémon who respectively control time and space. The lake Pokémon arrive, but Cyrus dismisses them, saying they can only stop one of the two.

Then a strange shadowy Pokémon arrives. Cyrus is intrigued but unworried…until the odd creature drags Cyrus into some sort of portal.

The room begins to bend inward; Cynthia explains that according to myth there was a third Pokémon, Giratina, with powers equal to Palkia and Dialga.

Marcus and Cynthia pursue—Giratina seems to be lashing out and merging it’s own strange world with ours, endangering it.

Giratina’s world is an odd series of floating platforms where neither time nor space apply. Marcus and Cynthia make their way past puzzles (with the lake Pokémon’s help) and find Cyrus, who rants nihilistically about the uselessness of emotion and attacks Marcus.

Cyrus sends out a Houndoom, but Ruby outspeeds it and wins handily with Close Combat. Cyrus responds with a mighty Gyarados; Marcus swaps in Avro—a wise choice, because Gyarados was attacking with Earthquake! The two exchange blows, Avro using Fly and Gyarados using Ice Fang; the second Fly is a critical and Gyarados is down!

Cyrus sends out his Weavile again; Avro tries to use Close Combat, but Weavile is faster and defeats him with an Ice Punch. Ruby comes out and downs the Ice type with two Mach Punches. Crobat is next; Ruby dodges an Air Slash and delivers two Fire Blasts, winning.

Finally Cyrus sends Honchkrow; Ruby hits hard with Close Combat but falls to a Heat Wave attack. Wendigo comes next and finishes Cyrus’ plans with an Ice Punch.

Cyrus is shocked at his defeat, but believes that Marcus defeating Giratina will destroy the world for him. Cynthis states he is wrong, a Pokémon canno cause the world to vanish. She says Giratina is merging the worlds out of anger that they are in danger, and suggests if Marcus shows his bond with his Pokémon by defeating Giratina or showing how much he wants Giratina to join him by capturing it, Giratina will understand and cease merging the worlds.

Marcus approached Giratina. He has no Pokémon suited for capturing, but has an idea.

He pulls out the Masterball and addresses the shadowy Pokémon.

“You can understand me, right? This is a special type of ball. It’s said it can catch any Pokémon, but I bet something as powerful as you could leave anyways, right?”

No response.

“The guy who endangerd the worlds gave me this; he thought it wouldn’t matter since he was going to end and recreate everything. So wouldn’t it really tick him off if you go into this and stop his plans right now?”

Giratina pauses, and then bobs up and down in a nod.

Marcus throws the Master Ball.

Cyrus rants about how he will one day destroy everything, but Cynthia is standing in the way and Marcus is unable to capture him for arrest. Giratina kindly leaves a portal that returns them to a spring near Route 214. Cynthia suggests Marcus visits Professor Rowan, who has been worried about him.

*

Rowan and Dawn are relieved to find Marcus is safe and sound, and astounded to hear he already has seven badges and suggests Marcus get the final one from Sunnyshore city and challenge the Pokémon League.

It’s funny; up to now Marcus hadn’t really been thinking about that; he just always seemed to need a Gym badge to continue his travels to meet every Pokémon…but now that he’s so close he cannot possibly turn back!

Still…he wants to stop by Twinroot and spend the night home. His mother wants to hear about his adventures but he leaves some choice parts out to avoid worrying her.

*

Current Pokémon (ones who were caught to bump the dex but won’t see combat not noted):

A fun note: I usually forget to use Rare Candy and while climbing Mt. Coronet I realized I had enough to Evolve Athena. Doing that to get past the annoying double battle with Barry was tempting, but it would have ruined the battle with Cyrus so I resisted.

*Ruby the Infernape (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Julie the Kriketune (F)
*Avro the Staraptor (M)
*Livewire the Luxray (F)
*Oberon the Roserade (M)
*Ranger the Bibarel (M)
*Kazza the Alakazam (M)
*Adrienn the Golem (F)
*Lugh the Togepi (M)
*Jade the Jolteon (F)
*Phantom the Gastly (F)
*Athena the Gabite (F)
*Edda the Porygon (no gender)
*Grond the Cranidos (M)
*Luke the Riolu (M)
*Wendigo the Weavile (M)


*Nixie is a confirmed BA at this point. She got explosively better over time compared to some of her team mates.

 

[Daren]

Day 8: Spear Pillar to End

Marcus passed by a peaceful beach path (bar the trainers, of course) to reach Sunnyshore City, where he met a man named Flint, who introduced himself as a member of the Elite Four. He wants Marcus to defeat the local Gym Leader, Volkner, who had grown bored due to a lack of good challenges, and wants Marcus to give him a good battle.

Sunnyshore is an interesting city with massive solar panels that double as roads and a great lighthouse. It seems that Volkner is using so much power in his Gym that the city is suffering brownouts—in fact Marcus was unable to come to the city earlier due to the road being closed because of one of these power outs.

It’s in the lighthouse that Marcus finds Volkner, who leaves to accept the challenge at his Gym, declaring that if he finds Marcus weak he will challenge the league next.

In a small set of houses Marcus learns that Cyrus was from Sunnyshore; a women recalls him but does not seem to realize he is Team Galactic’s leader, wondering what happened to him. An older gentlemen nearby mentioned that Team Galactic never came to Sunnyshore. He thinks it’s because of how strong Volkner is, but Marcus wonders…

Outside the Gym he finds Flint, who says Volkner looks better and must have sensed Marcus’ toughness. He wishes him luck and returns to the Pokémon league, seeming confident Marcus will make it there.

At the Gym Marcus notices that Barry hasn’t beaten him yet, so that part of Flint’s story checks out. The Gym is filled with an odd mix of Ace Trainers and very young school kids.

After going through another lengthy but simple puzzle Marcus meets Volkner.

Marcus leads with Wendigo against Volkner’s Jolteon, Wendigo manages to dodge Iron Tail and defeat Jolteon with two Ice Punches. Next is Raichu; Wendigo avoids a Focus Blast and his Ice Punch freezes Raichu solid! Volkner uses a Hyper Potion, but Raichu is defeated before it can thaw.

Volkner’s next Pokémon is a Luxray; a strong Fire Fang causes Wendigo to flinch and he is then defeated with Crunch.

Ruby is up next, using a Fire Blast followed by Close Combat to defeat her opponent. Volkner’s last Pokémon is Electivire, which withstands another Close Combat and defeats Ruby with Thunderpunch.

Athena is next, and she shrugs off Quick Attack to KO with Earthquake.

Volkner is thrilled at his loss and awards Marcus the final badge; now he can challenge the Pokémon league!

*

At a small beach north of the city Barry runs up; however, he admits he’s still weaker than Marcus and does not intend to challenge him. A young woman nearby named Jasmine overhears and, happy at seeing the strong friendship between the two, offers Marcus a Hidden Machine for Waterfall, which he will need to reach the Pokémon League.

There’s a lengthy water route north filled with wild Pokémon and trainers, but he reaches the small island that the league stands on. There’s a Pokémon center right outside a massive cave called Victory Road—only those who can conquer the cave can challenge the Elite Four.

Victory Road starts off promisingly when Athena defeats an Onix and evolves into Garchomp! Athena is so strong now Marcus feels very confident in his chances.

*

Although lengthy and full of trainers and rocks to push, Marcus makes his way through after some time and reaches the League HQ; which has its own Pokémon Center and shop. He rests up and approached the door to the Elite Four challenge when Barry arrives! He insists they battle again for the right to challenge the League.

The first round sees Jade defeated Staraptor; Barry sends his Snorlax, who takes only modest damage and hits Jade with a powerful Earthquake. Jade manages to stay in the fight, but Marcus recalls her and sends in Athena.

What follows is shocking; Athena takes Snorlax’s Body Slam and then defeats the great creature with a series of Earthquake attacks despite Snorlax’s attempt to Rest. Barry’s Heracross comes next and uses Close Combat—Athena holds on and defeats…and then with a single earthquake each beats Rapidash, Roserade, and Empoleon!

Barry remains enthusiastic, ordering Marcus not to lose to anyone else and leaves to train more for another attempt.

Marcus heads off for some final training before beginning the challenge…

Pokémon League Challenge Team:

*Ruby the Infernape (F)
*Jade the Jolteon (F)
*Athena the Garchomp (F)
*Nixie the Floatzel (F)
*Oberon the Roserade (M)
*Wendigo the Weavile (M)


The Elite Four are quite dramatic with halls and elevators separating each member.

The First Elite Four is a bug type specialist, Aaron. Marcus puts out Ruby, who defeats a Yanmega with Flamethrower. Next is a Drapion—this proves a harsher battle as the creature recovers with a berry and delivers a critical strike with Aerial Ace. Gambling on a hit, Marcus orders a Fire Blast, which defeats Drapion. Ruby is then able to use flamethrower to defeat Aaron’s remaining Pokémon—Vespiquien, Heracross, and Scizor--in one blow each.

Marcus goes on to the next challenge.

*

The second is a ground type specialist, Bertha. Marcus leads with Oberon against her Whiscash, defeating it with Giga Drain. Next is a Gliscor—Marcus puts in Wendigo, who withstands an Earthquake and defeats Gliscor with Ice Punch. The third is a Golem—Ice Punch isn’t enough, and Golem finishes Wendigo with Earthquake. Oberon is sent back; Bertha uses a Full Restore but Golem is still defeated with a Giga Drain, as is her next, a Rhyperior.

Bertha’s final Pokémon is Hippowdon; it trades blows with Oberon, Earthquake to Giga Drain, but on the unfavourable end. Bertha heals it, but it loses to two more Giga Drain attacks.

*

The third member is Flint, who specializes in Fire. He’s excited to battle Marcus. Marcus leads with Nixie again Houndoom, defeating it—and all Flint’s other Pokémon, Infernape, Rapidash, Magmorar, and Flareon—with one blow each.

Flints claims he didn’t take Marcus for granted but admits he had never even considered he might lose.

*

The final Elite Four is Lucian, a psychic type expert. The first match sees Wendigo defeat Mr. Mine with Night Slash. Lucian sends in a Gallade, so Marcus substitutes in Jade. However, her Shadow Ball proves insufficient and she is defeated! Nixie is sent in and finishes Gallade with Waterfall, then with Crunch defeats Alakazam. Espeon is next and withstands the Crunch, delivering it’s own powerful blow with Psychic. Nixie barely withstands the hit, and Lucian uses a Full Restore—the second Crunch hits just a bit harder, however, and defeats Espeon.

Lucian’s final Pokémon is Bronzong, which withstands Waterfall and defeats Nixie with Earthquake. Ruby ends the battle with Flamethrower.

There is one more battle, however. At the end of a lengthy hall is…Cynthia!

Marcus wonders why Cynthia did not stop Cyrus herself if she has such strong Pokémon, but there is no time for questions.

First up, Jade takes on Spritomb! Two thunderbolts defeat the odd ghost, Jade withering a Shadow Ball. Cynthia then sends out a Garchomp of her own! Jade’s Shadow Ball weakens the dragon’s special defense and she even avoids a Dragon Rush. The next Shadow Ball forces Garchomp to heal with a berry, but it uses Earthquake and defeats Jade.

Wendigo is next and defeats the powerful dragon with an Ice Punch. Next is Lucario—Wendigo uses Dig to dodge a Stone Edge attack and land a good hit, but is defeated in a single powerful Aura Sphere. Ruby is sent out next and beats Lucario with Flamethrower.

Cynthia’s next Pokémon is Milotic; Ruby tries to defeat it with a powerful Close Combat, but the water type resists and defeats her with Surf. Oberon is sent out and defeats them.

Cynthia’s next Pokémon is Togekiss; the two trade Sludge Bombs and Air Slashes; Oberon manages to dodge and land a good hit, but Cynthia uses a Full Restore and defeats Oberon with the next attack.

Athena is sent out next; she defeats Togekiss with Dragon Claw and Cynthia’s final Pokémo, Roserade, goes down to an Earthquake!

Marcus is now the Champion! Professor Rowan arrives to congratulate him, and Cynthia takes him to the back room to register him and his Pokémon in the Hall of Fame.

Marcus and his Pokémon had an amazing adventure together, and he knows they’ll have plenty more to come…

…but for now he thinks he could afford to spend some time back home.

*

*Cynthia’s Pokémon are quite powerful and switching in wasn’t a great idea with anyone I had on hand other than maybe Athena. Trading KOes while making sure I got the first one is key. I considered using Oberon to lead, but Jade was a better choice since it lured out Garchomp early on.

*I forgot the actual levels of the Sinnoh Elite Four and went in over leveled at 55, having forgotten they’re about 6 levels lower in Platinum.

*The postgame feels sort of like a postscript, so I don’t plan to cover it.

*I put in Wendigo against Volkner expecting him to do some damage, but not that much! He did great.

*I found Gabite seems a lot more useful than most “mid stage” psuedos. Part of this is they get Dragon Claw at a decent level while the other gen 1 to 4 psuedos often struggle to get decent STAB moves for a bit. Getting Earthquake’s TM so early in Platinum is also hugely helpful.

*Nixie was kind of weak until evolving and learning some decent TM and Tutor Moves, then became a top level performer. I’m quite impressed.

*Like I’ve read, Ruby was quite good. A very solid starter.


*Sort of wish Ranger got in the hall of fame for all that vital HM work.

Overall I enjoyed replaying the game. Thanks for reading!

 

[Daren]

This is not going to be a small AAR like last time, just some commentary.
*I picked Chikorita because I enjoy pain. The universe decided to oblige by giving him a -SpAt nature. His name is Darius and I love him.
*My Heracross (Medb) was a bit unlucky and had the Timid nature, though she still hits pretty hard once Brick Break comes out.
*Infinite Headbutt tutor for free can be quite useful when you get there.
*I miss buying coins. Platinum in general is probably a better game for doing the Battle Frontier for that reason and easier money grinding and EV berry growing.
*Javelin the Fearow made kind of a joke out of Morty, which I suspected would prove true.
*I decided to use the trade Onix/Steelix (Rocky) in the main game for the first time (I did catch a Steelix in Sword and use it a bit in the tournament). Onix is actually better than I thought it would be early game since early Screech makes up for it's poor attack. Steelix is pretty much immune to non-effective physical attacks, of course.
Rock Tunnel was probably still too late in the original R/B for one since you're closing in on Graveler at that point.
Currently using:
*Darius the Bayleef
*Shaun the Flaafy
*Medb the Heracross
*Kraken the Tentacool
*Zhurong the Magmar
*Morgan the Espeon
*Rocky the Steelix
*Javelin the Fearow

Retired:
*Endo the Butterfree
*Eggbert the Togetic

I later want to use a Kingdra for my water type but that's some time off.
I've reached Olivine city and am trying to get Morgan (who evolved today) leveled up. Should be able to beat Chuck and Jasmine today.

 

[Daren]

I wasn't joking turn back now if you haven't watched the end of season 2, but plan to.

Spoiler

Overall I like the show but one thing I find irritating—I have seen other posts about this—is the heroes are way too invincible in the fight scenes against Stormtroopers/random pirates and so on. I first really felt this in the last episode of season 1 but I've found it a consistent thing in the second.

I don’t mean in the same way the heroes in the OT films were good at not getting shot (though Leia got blasted twice), but here we have people going hand to hand in gun fights with no trouble, Stormtroopers are not just missing but utterly failing to even try to fire, and the Evil Empire’s troops managing to sneak up on some heroes and giving them a chance to surrender before firing then getting killed to a man just looks awkward. Why are the villains more merciful than the heroes when they spend so much time driving home that the Empire is supposed to be 125% evil?

I dunno, I just found most of the action scenes in season 2 unexciting because of this. The heroes aren’t just safe narratively, but they are safe in-universe because Stormtroopers being inept went from mostly a meme based because of the heroes plot armor in the films to explicit canon in the show (despite what Obi Wan said and how well they performed against non-protagonist rebel troops in the first film).

Some other quick thoughts:
*Luke showing up was ridiculously cool. Sadly I got spoiled beforehand by Youtube's algorithm but the buildup was great.
*Wonder what this "Book of Boba Fett" is going to be? A whole new spinoff or the third season of this show?
*So...is Baby Yoda/Grogu gonna get killed by Kylo Ren? That's kind of a downer.
*I guess Thrawn is gonna be in that newly announced Ahsoka show? I loved Thrawn in the novel trilogy that introduced him in Legends but I'm not sure how the Disney era one differs; I've read conflicting reports on how similar he is.

 

[Daren]

I haven't done all the post-game things, but I completed the dex, captured Arceus, and all that.

I think it's safe to say PLA is the most experimental the main series has gotten since...well, at least gen 4, and quite possibly ever. I think a lot of these ideas were interesting, a few didn't work out so well, and some I wonder if will carry over into future entries, such as the upcoming Scarlet and Violet.

Mechanics
*One major change is the switch from EVs and IVs to Effort Levels. I personally prefer this system to the EV one we got in gen 3 (and I've always thought IVs felt contradictory to the themes the game tries to push) but I suspect IVs and EVs will remain the standard in future games.

*The general game "flow" has improved by an astounding amount; you no longer need a special NPC to change nicknames or switch moves around, the game doesn't brng up menues for every item you find, you can gather a bunch at once by throwing our your Pokémon to collect them. You can even keep moving during a capture!

*Although it isn't fleshed out much being able to call out party members whenever you want is really good and I hope to see this expanded on in the future.

*Less favourably is the new battle system. Ultimately I think it simply plays worse than the old one; it's kind of silly when a Pokémon can get two or three attacks in a row and some of the removed moves left holes in some rosters, like Surf. It's also a bit too safe to switch since a fast Pokémon going in can generally attack right away, though this did make sweeping somewhat harder. Removing Abilities and Hold Items also felt like a noticeable step backwards.

*The game's new stealth focus is a bit of a surprise; some Pokémon are very skittish so trying to recruit them all the classic way is not advised. Having different capture strategies adds a bit of variety though there aren't a ton of different methods. That said I find the new action based gameplay can be awkward during boss battles; the camera and lock on often misbehave and I feel your character has too few options for the rather lengthy boss fights to be very engaging.

*Pokémon are generally a lot easier to capture. Behind strikes after stunning or feeding are very powerful and you can get some extremely strong Alpha Pokémon a bit early this way, though considering the dex filling goal this was reasonable.

*Research tasks eventually prove repetitive; it helps to combine it with new captures or exploring for items but it still feels a bit grindy at times.

*The Space distortions could be annoying since you have to wait around for one to appear and hope the right Pokémon spawns in it--in particular it took me a very long time to get Cranidos.

*Difficulty is a bit closer to what I expect from a modern RPG after how easy the last few games have been. Partly I think this is the anti-sweeping turn order system.

The World
*I find it noteworthy that this is by far the most single player focused the main games have ever been, especially after Sw/Sh went so heavy on MP integration. You do not need to trade to complete the dex, and there are no trade evolutions. I imagine version exclusives will remain in the future but I hope trade evolution remain gone. Another thing that sticks out in that regard is the post-game challenges; in the other games the Battle Tower and it's equivalents feel like a sort of psuedo-multiplayer; everything is set to the same level, you don't use a full party, you don't gain exp, and so on. PLA's feels more like a regular RPG postgame and honestly? I approve. It's nice to be able to use your full party instead of half of one.

*The new ride Pokémon doing more than just removing differently shaped obstacles helps make the world feel more alive and interactive than other, with your ability to get around so clearly improves over time and opening up new areas to explore making older areas very worthwhile to go back to (and helps give something to do with handling research tasks), and the stealth elements have added a new form of catching. Figuring out how to capture Alphas were certainly much more interesting for me than Sw/Sh's raids, though once you figure the best methods out it becomes a bit too easy to get very powerful Pokémon.

*The number of NPCs is very small, and there's only one real town with shops and so on, and it's closer in size to something like Pewter City than Saffron or especially Lumiose. This of course is intentional as part of selling the world as fairly empty and hostile. However this is a game where they experiment with randomly appearing NPCs, something I suspect we might see used in the open world Scarlet and Violet.

The Story
*Legends Arceus' story is a bit darker than some other entries. The player is told early on that being alone in Hisui is a death sentence, and if they don't prove useful this will be their fate, adding a bit of a dark undertone to your player's allies and superiors. The two local groups, the Diamond and Pearl clan, do not get along and it's strongly implied there's been war in the past over religious differenes--not something you expect this series to even mention.
Still, it's a Pokémon game; you don't get themes or nastiness on par with something like Suikoden, or really even the spinoff "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" games. But the acknowledgement of genuine danger is good, and the major characters are slightly more rounded than usual for the mainline games.
However, while the basic plot remains simple the storytelling has taken a big step up, with fewer canned animations and more time spent with characters like the alternate gender player and Professor Laventon.
One flaw that may always exist is that the player's own Pokémon are mostly non existent in cutscenes outside one very special example in the late game. There's one scene in particular I think would have been a good way to work the player's party in:

After being banished from Jubilife when a wild Shinx comforts the player character. A scene with your current party would have been a great touch.



Final Thoughts
As one of those old timers disappointed with the last few generations I found Legends Arceus a huge breath of fresh air. Not everything worked, but I had a lot of fun with it, and it's certainly my favourite mainline game in some time.