This game currently doesn't have documentation because they're moving it from google docs to a miraheze wiki, which is cool! I can't think of many games nowadays where you have the ability to truly go in blind. As far as I can tell it's got the same old mechanics, with some moves ported from future generations, but still.
Starter selection!
Chikorita is Fighting type, Cyndaquil is Ice type, and Totodile is Flying type. Pretty neat options... it breaks the weak/resist circle but I can forgive it because they gave Totodile wings. Chikorita's whole thing is whipping the leaf on hits head to attack, so making that a nunchuk? Really good. Say hi to Fruit Punch.
I'm sleepy so this is all we've got tonight. I was gonna stream this but I don't feel like putting the game off til I have time for that lol
Okay, so far it's the same as Crystal, which admittedly isn't a game I've played. Just Soul Silver specifically. I traveled up Route 29 and 30 to get to Mr. Pokemon, grab the Mystery Egg, fought my rival, and got back home.
A bit later, I went back to Cherrygrove City and checked out Route 46, since there's a small section here with some grass.
In my time out I got to see a bunch of cool new designs, so let's go over them:
Did a little grinding, and got Gong to learn Peck and Eepy to learn Lick. Real moves! I ended up joining the discord to ask if the EXP Share was available earlier, and it isn't. Not until late-game at the Lake of Rage. Thankfully, Chip learned Absorb by level 7 instead of waiting til 10 to learn Tackle like in vanilla Crystal.
Route 30 has some pretty standard trainers, including this goofy new Pidgey that's Fighting type. I need to get one wherever they show up. As you turn left on to Route 31, you run into Bug Catcher Wade with some cool Pokemon - Venonat, Spinarak, and Sneasel. While Venonat's design is nothing special (it's green and smooth, kinda alien-like), I really love Spinarak and Sneasel's new designs.
Before I go, there's a small bit of Dark Cave to explore for a Potion, and the new Zubat (Diglett is also here again). Finally, we reach Violet City. In front of the gym, the sign mentions that Falkner is a master of Flying-type Pokemon, so it seems like the gyms and probably Elite Four use the same types.
So, first off there's a couple areas to explore. We can't grab anything on Route 32 without beating the gym, so let's go to Route 36. Here you can find some of the same old encounters and Aipom, one of the main 'mons of Fool's Gold. Here the little goofball is a Psychic type. You can also access the Ruins of Alph and Unown, but I'm not going to spend much time here.
Next up, Sprout Tower! You'll never guess, but Bellsprout is Steel type now, which makes things interesting if you don't pick Chickorita, as your only other option is to catch Corsola (Fire type now) or tough it out with the Electric types available at this point. Here you can also find the elusive Cubone, which is at least part Ghost and always seem to flee the first or second turn. I tried to catch it after I got lucky and Eepy was paralyzed, but it would always escape the ball and run.
Anyhow, before the gym it's time to grind. Nightlight the Ledyba takes til level 12 to learn Thundershock, Dwayne the Diglett gets Rock Throw at an earlier 9, and Bazooka the Bellsprout learns Aurora Beam at 11. Wait, Aurora Beam? I'll take a decently strong Ice move at this point. Anyway, the gym is full of funny Pidgey. Falkner runs a team of Marill (which knows Icy Wind to prevent a clean sweep), Hoothoot and Pidgeotto, an even funnier bird.
(I forgot to post this one last night, busy weekend, but I've got a few of these drafted up.)
After beating Falkner, I get a call from Prof. Elm about the Pokemon egg, which one of his aides is delivering to me in the Pokemon Center. This can hatch into a random Pokemon like in vanilla Crystal, but who knows what that could mean here. Route 32 time, and we have some standard trainers plus two Fishermen. Here you get a sneak peek at some fun designs, including the strange Tentacool and cloud-faced Wooper.
If you head back up to Violet City, you can fish up Wooper and Porygon! There's not much else here, but I like both of them a lot. Down Route 32 is Union Cave, full of interesting encounters and some good battles. Onix and Drowzee give a lot of EXP here if you need it. You also get to see Scyther and Slowpoke, the latter of which I actually really want on my team now. Finally, the last trainer in the cave packs a sole Dunsparce, turned into a cool Fire/Steel type.
Azalea Town means a couple new areas - Slowpoke Well and Ilex Forest. It takes a while, but you can still find Slowpoke here. Team Rocket is here as expected, and they mostly use Sandshrew and Zubat, with a special appearance by Meowth, which is a cool Psychic/Dark type now. The Rocket boss here uses another Sneasel, which isn't much trouble now. With that done, we can move on to the Ilex Forest.
Before heading to the Ilex Forest, our rival shows up for a battle. His team is Bellsprout, Zubat, and in this case Croconaw. Of course, most of the forest is blocked by a Cut tree, so it's gym time.
Thanks to her learning Aerial Ace, Gong cleans things up nicely until we reach Bugsy. With a team of Ledyba, Sneasel, Venonat and Scizor, he's not much trouble til the end. Scizor comes out swinging with Dynamicpunch, so I'm lucky Eepy completely walls it. TMs so far haven't been changed except for being reusable, so we get Fury Cutter.
Through the Ilex Forest there's a bunch of neat encounters. If you missed Yanma, Hoothoot or Ledyba earlier, they're here too, plus Houndour, Venonat, and Spinarak. I found a Pidgey, but I guess I missed it before since I was playing late at night. You also get Headbutt here, but Headbutt tree mechanics are a little obscure, randomized based on your Trainer ID. There's an online calculator for them, so with some poking around I find a Pineco on a rare tree.
After that, we're on to Route 34. There are a few trainers out here, including a guy with this cute Snubbull which looks... well, exactly like a bulldog. I dunno, despite this being more realistic I really like the new look. If it's late enough, you can also run into a policeman with Growlithe, sporting a wild new Fire/Ice type. On this route I also try and fail to catch the new Ditto, who is a cube now. And that's it as we come up to Goldenrod City!
First stop, the department store. You can buy a lot of stuff here, including vitamins that are way out of my price range. On the 5th floor you can get the TMs for Fire, Ice, and Thunder Punch. On the 4th floor, a boy holding a game lets me know you can evolve Slowpoke, Kadabra, Growlithe and Eevee with a Moon Stone, so keep that in mind.
I scan the city for items and other stuff, and end up with a bike. Before taking on the gym or checking out the underground path, I want to look at Route 35 and the National Park. You can battle trainers with some new Pokemon, including an Ice Pikachu and Fire Hitmonchan. The latter takes out my weakened team with Flame Wheel, oops.
On Route 35 for a second time, but I decide to sneak up to Route 36 thanks to a corner with a Cut tree. There are some strong trainers here, including a schoolboy with a Tangela. For now though, I'm taking on the bug-catching contest. Somehow I won by catching the first Ledyba I ran into, maybe it's just free, but the prize is a Sun Stone.
Bit of a short one but that's all I got to play through today. Fairly productive episode considering we got through two evolutions!
The National Park is full of good Pokemon, including Mankey, Jigglypuff, Mantine, and Girafarig. I caught a Girafarig and named it Geist, once again struggling to think of how to fit a new member on my team.
Down on Route 35, there's also a house with TM04 Rollout beside it. Inside is a man named Adanson, who claims to be the brother of Baoba, the Safari warden from HG/SS. He sells you a Psyduck for p3000. While walking back to Goldenrod, the mystery egg from the daycare hatched into Smoochum. Before the gym I check out the underground, and I really like the Magnemite and Nidoran I saw.
The gym is pretty much the same, though some trainers break from the Normal type gimmick with Meowth and Jigglypuff. Whitney's team is pretty good - Porygon, Snubbull, Koffing, and Mantine. No terrifying Miltank here, so Nightlight sweeps with its newly acquired Tail Glow. Honestly, considering how many Steel and Fighting types you get by this point (including Steel/Fighting Shellder), it would've been no trouble.
Up on Route 36, you can finally get past the weird tree. Since Sudowoodo is a Ghost with Curse, it can cut its own HP in half, making it annoying to catch. Fortunately, its only direct attack is Low Kick, so bring a Psychic or Ghost type that can put it to sleep. At this point there's like, 20 Pokemon with designs I absolutely love, and like 5 of them are Ghost type. Let's move.
Route 37 doesn't have much on it that's new, but you could pick up Mareep, Hoothoot or Koffing here again. Ecruteak City connects to a few places, including Route 42 to the east and the new Route 51 to the north. Unfortunately, there's nothing on Route 51 without Surf, so we'll come back later.
Route 42 and Mt. Mortar have pretty limited access without Surf, but if you poke around in the caves you can find Scizor, which is a fiercely strong Bug/Fighting type for this point of the game. It's important to note that it and Scyther have been decoupled, but Scyther always had pretty high stats to begin with.
On top of that, you can navigate through Mt. Mortar enough to get out the other side and visit Mahogany Town early. I don't know if this is a new thing or not, but I caught a Pinsir here from a Headbutt tree. The trainers around here are a bit overleveled, but it's fine. Or it would be... you can't go past the gate to the Lake of Rage, Team Rocket blocks your way. Back into the caves!
At Ecruteak, you can battle the Kimono girls, and their Eeveelutions all have cool new designs. Flareon is a dragon, Espeon is a bee, Umbreon is a mummy, Vaporeon is a shark (or seal?), and Jolteon is a robot. Their types are pretty intuitive. Next, we meet our rival Joe in the burnt tower again, this time with Magnemite added to his team.
Before heading into the gym, I decide to check on the daycare, which holds Sammy the Magikarp and Hawk Hogan the Pidgey. They're actually really high leveled now, 21 and 26 respectively. I quickly evolve them, and boy does Gyarados look awesome here. There's also the Game Corner in Celadon, but I don't have that kind of money. The TM prizes are the same, but the Pokemon are different, and cheaper, being Sunkern, Grimer, and Wobbuffet.
I clear out Route 38, some cute designs (Mr. Mime), some fucked up ones (Doduo). In the grass, I found Miltank, another really creepy design, but one I actually like. Anyway, I realize there's a lot more to go after this route, including the new Laceleaf town to the south, between Route 38 and 39, so it's gym time.
These trainers have packed teams, and some new Pokemon including the sad-looking Goldeen and spiky new Misdreavus that feels inspired by Rotom's beta sprite. As for Morty, his team of Ariados, Girafarig, Marowak and Miltank could give you trouble. It didn't for me since I had a Gyarados, but still.
Surf means lots of places to backtrack to. Starting with Violet City, we pick up a Rare Candy and PP Up, and there's more of Dark Cave to access, though you can also reach a part with scary overleveled Pokemon - I saw a level 36 Dugtrio and walked right back out. After poking around and exiting from the southeast, I was on Route 46. Here there's a couple trainers with a Primeape and two Phanpy, plus some berry trees. This is a dead end, so it's time to go forward... again.
Next up is Route 32, where you can find Chinchou on the water. Now, the real highlight it Union Cave, which is full of trainers in the lower floors. Here I evolved Dwayne into a Dugtrio, and one of the trainers has all 3 Kanto starters for a sneak peek. You can also find not Lapras, but Machoke here on certain days.
If you go back up and head north, you can find the exit to the Ruins of Alph with a lone trainer and grass. Here I caught Natu, and you can also find Farfetch'd. Anyway, I've done a bunch of exploring this episode, so I think this is a good place to call it a night.
More backtracking with Surf. Unfortunately, Slowpoke Well still has some sections blocked off by Strength boulders. Route 34 has a path to the south where you can find a Nugget, and later some trainers. They have Goldeen/Seaking, Porygon/Porygon2, and Shellder/Cloyster. Anyway, I head up to another bug catching contest in the National Park and get second place with a Venonat, netting me an Everstone.
On Route 42, there's another entrance to Mt. Mortar, but some of the cave is cut off by a waterfall and more boulders. Still, you can find items including Carbos and PP Up here, and I caught a couple new teammates. Route 51 is new and open to explore, and even features an original soundtrack that's really uplifting. You can catch some old favorites like Skiploom and Sudowoodo here, plus Magby and Swinub.
Up north you come to Tumbleweed town, playing the Lavender Town theme. The Pokemon Center is derelict, but the nurse there, speaking in glitched tones, still heals your party fine. This part seriously unsettled me when I got to it, but it's just Pokemon at the end of the day. There are tons of good creatures here, including the devil Chansey we've seen before, Slugma, Magnemite, and more.
At the end of a winding hallway, there's a machine that "compels you to get inside". Thankfully, a person runs from offscreen to warn you not to get in, as they did and it turned them into a Nurse Joy. They unlock a door for you, which leads into a room with the Kanto starters, of which I pick Squirtle. After that, you're out!
Route 50 is a desert route, a part of Pokemon that wouldn't start til the next games. There's nothing new in the sand for me, but the water has some neat Pokemon like Kabuto and Exeggcute. This route leads to Laceleaf Town, which contains a maze to its north and exits to Route 49 to the south. You can also buy many evolution stones here - all the standard Gen 2 stones, including Moon and Sun Stones.
Before I close out, here's who I can evolve:
Fire, Thunder, Leaf - N/A
Water - Machoke
Moon - Slowpoke
Sun - Sunkern
Went into the maze first, and grabbed some valuable items while catching Gligar. You have just one flight of stairs to go down to reach a special room containing a Level 30 Lapras. On the way out I also grab an Abra, and you can find Nidoran-F here too. Treading along Route 49, I catch Exeggcute and Ekans, and then come back to Route 39.
Finally, we're in Olivine City. You can grab Strength by talking to people in the cafe. The lighthouse is full of trainers as ever, and at the top Jasmine tends to a sick Corsola. I take some time to backtrack to Slowpoke Well and grab a Moon Stone and the TM for Rain Dance. You can also find Horsea on the lower level here, it's Electric type as well.
While I'm out, I visit the daycare where Donald the Psyduck has grown to level 31, and Lynn the Onix has grown to level 30. In their place I drop Glenda the Pineco and Willard the Wooper. Anyway, we're back to Route 40 and 41, which are full of swimmers and wild Tentacool, not much else. Chuck's gym is open without any trouble, so why not go in? His Cloyster, Smeargle, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan don't put up much fight for Hawk Hogan.
Of course, the Storm Badge lets us Fly back, but you may have noticed that there are some more routes in this game. Yes, Route 47 and 48 are in Fool's Gold, but they lead up to a place called Daffodil Creek. Unfortunately, the path is blocked by whirlpools and waterfalls for now. Thanks to all the trainers we've been fighting, Jasmine also isn't too difficult. Dunsparce, Slowking, Qwilfish and Victreebel go down to a combo of Ronald the Porygon2, Sammy the Gyarados and Fruitpunch.
Jungle Maze
Gligar - Rock - Gargoyle Pokemon
It silently watches over the homes of many trainers, but it is often confused for an actual statue.
I would like to have a Gligar statue for my own home. Gligar was already a little gargoyle-like with its pointed ears and silly expression, and one of the cases where the minimal colors really work.
Lapras - Dragon - Triplet Pokemon
Severing Lapras's heads used to be a common quest. As a result, these Pokemon are now endangered.
Lapras shows up in this hack as a simple three-headed hydra, with two legs and a long tail. It's pretty cute, honestly, but could do with differently colored horns or a belly like typical dragon designs.
Abra - Dark - Hieroglyph Pokemon
It clings to flat surfaces and can only move in straight lines. A strange aura emanates from it.
Okay, so Unown is kind of loosely hieroglyph-inspired, but this Abra really hits the spot by being a weird little guy. The Dark typing is fine as a direct opposite to Psychic, but Ghost or Ground would've been just as fitting. There's nothing that dark in a "sinister" sense going on here, but maybe that'll change.
Route 49
Exeggcute - Grass - Crabapple Pokemon
These fruit-like Pokemon never separate from one another. Their barrage attacks are formidable.
Okay I like Applecute here but I think it's a little weird that in game terms it's just losing a type. Getting pelted with apples would hurt a lot more than eggs though, so it makes sense with Barrage being a sort of signature move for it.
Ekans - Water/Poison - Sea Snake Pokemon
It as evolved from land-dwelling snake Pokemon. It is a remarkably fast swimmer but is slow on land.
Sea snake is a neat twist, something that almost sounds made up but is very real! The blue, black, and yellow colors are pretty much an exaggeration of the real thing and works nicely to sell the Water/Poison type combo.
Route 47
Tauros - Normal/Psychic - Oracle Pokemon
Lives high up in the mountains. It has a third eye under its big tuft of hair, but few have seen it.
Interesting choice to make Tauros the oddball Normal-type, similar to Girafarig or Stantler. It's a bit fluffier to really separate it from the original design.
Evolution
Ampharos - Ghost/Ground - Lurking Pokemon
It lives in the woods, and it feeds off of the souls of Pokemon lost or trapped within them.
Ampharos as a spooky forest monster wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I kinda love it. The horns and antlers with the skull definitely give it this classic horror movie vibe.
Porygon2 - Normal/Water - Rubber Pokemon
These buoyant Pokemon are commonly found in whirlpools, but never quite reach the bottom.
A baby blue duck with a little sailor cap. In a game full of pretty grim designs, I'm glad we have this bright little guy.
Meganium - Fighting - Shuriken Pokemon
It is a master of discipline and rarely strikes. When it does lash out, however, it can't be bested.
This design feels kinda awkward to me, but I like it anyway. I guess the weapon progression feels backwards, like shurikens are small things compared to nunchucks or kama.
This episode, we take on Lake of Rage and the Rocket Hideout. Like in the originals, there's a shiny Gyarados here, and you meet Lance and raid the hideout with him. You can exchange the Red Scale you get from Gyarados for the EXP Share at Mr. Pokemon's house, back on Route 30. While we're at the lake though, there's a bunch of Cut trees on the left side that lead to TMs for Hidden Power and Detect, plus an Elixir.
The Rocket Hideout has a bunch of traps - statues that summon guard grunts and a floor that has Qwilfish, Koffing, and Slugma encounters. Team Rocket uses what you'd expect, Zubat and Sandshrew, and you see Raticate for the first time here. After a lot of wandering around and battling to get passwords, you free the Slowbro powering the machine. Now you can take on the Ecruteak gym. Pryce has a team of Ursaring, Stantler, Delibird and Jynx, which nearly wipes my team thanks to some lucky freeze.
Route 44 is to the east, and it's been change to be a snow-covered route. You can find stuff like Gloom and Growlithe here, both of which I catch. Ice Path is unchanged, with the same sliding ice puzzles, and you can catch Delibird here. There's not much to do in Blackthorn City yet, since there's still the radio tower in Goldenrod to clear out, but it's nice to be able to Fly here later. We might as well take a trip down Route 45 to clear things out. Afterwards, my team's hovering around level 37-40.
Also, spotted Entei here and did a little damage with Hawk Hogan's Mach Punch. I don't have the patience to chase down roaming Pokemon, so that's it for tonight.
With Whirlpool, we can explore a few more places. First is Route 48, which gives you access to a house where you can buy the Dusk, Dawn, and Gaia stones. They're a bit expensive at p20,000 each. Next, Route 52... which has a patch of grass with nothing special, and a waterfall. There's also Whirl Islands, where you can pick up some good items, but seems like no new Pokemon for now. On to the Radio Tower!
Fighting my way to the top, these Rocket grunts are actually pretty challenging. Magneton, Magcargo and more can tank hits and hit hard back. This is even more true thanks to moves like Energy Ball being backported. At the top, there's a Rocket Executive with Ditto, Starmie, Rhyperior, Magcargo, Magneton, and Seaking. A pretty balanced team, but as long as you carry a Ghost and Flying type, you'll be fine. Next, the underground.
Immediately after opening the locked door and going downstairs, it's time for a rival fight. Golbat, Magneton, Weepinbell, Sneasel, Feraligatr, same as it ever was. After clearing out the warehouse, you can pick up the card key to unlock floor 3 of the radio tower, and the Amulet Coin. Money can get tight between potions, balls, and repels, so it helps.
A few small boss battles later and you get the Clear Bell, so it's time to go into the Tin Tower. Here, you have to battle and catch Suicune, sporting a cool new design and moves. Monsoon hits and causes rain to fall, which is an effect I'm surprised hasn't been done in the official games. After a bunch of attempts, I finally caught Suicune. That seems like a good place to stop for tonight.
At this point, we can actually continue climbing the Tin Tower to find Ho-oh. I only have 1 Pokemon after that Suicine battle so that can happen later. Final gym (for Johto), Blackthorn's Dragon gym. Thanks to TM16 Icy Wind, which you get from Pryce, Ronald is able to take hits and clean up. Clair runs Nidoqueen, Kingdra, Muk, Gyarados, and Lapras. Ronald takes out Nidoqueen, but I don't have a safe switch so Kingdra takes it out. Hawk Hogan handles the rest.
Dragon's Den is the destination, and here you can finally get the Rising Badge, which lets you use Waterfall. If you come back, the elder gives you a Sneasel that knows a special Dragon type move called Revelation. Now that we've got Waterfall, there's a few places to visit before entering Kanto.
Route 48 leads up to Daffodil Creek, which has some strong Pokemon available. There's also a developer's house put here as an easter egg, and you can battle the devs. Clockwise from the bottom is:
Wes, who has Parasect, Persian, Seaking and Honchkrow
Max, who has Noctowl, Meganium, Ambipom, and Machamp
Amanda, who has Dodrio, Magmar, Ariados, and Tentacruel
Jack, who has Ampharos, Nidoqueen, , and Typhlosion
Joe, who has Weezing, Raticate, Xatu, and Octillery
After beating all 5 of them, you get the Pencil Eraser, which lets you erase the pencil statue from Earthbound that was mysteriously blocking a cave to the northwest. This cave is completely quiet and contains Missingno, which are stupidly fast and tend to use Explosion. They can be caught with enough luck, though.
Mt. Mortar can also be explored now, providing items like rare candy and TM 40 Defense Curl... why is this a TM? Anyway, you can travel around the cave and find the Karate King, who has Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Hitmontop, giving you a Tyrogue if you beat him. I forgot to leave space in my party and don't want to use them that badly, so it's off to Kanto.
Route 27 is full of strong trainers whose Pokemon hover around level 40, and my team barely makes it to the rest house. Eepy and Hawk are still standing strong, at least. Not far north of here, there's a house with two more new stones, the Mist and Abyss Stones. Now we enter Victory Road.
Victory Road has some new faces - Larvitar and Misdreavus are here instead of being stuck in Mt. Silver at the end of the game. You can also pick up Earthquake by falling down a hole on the third floor. Final rival battle! Sneasel, Golbat, Magneton, Alakazam, Victreebel, and Feraligatr. A full team to full team fight is exciting, and it takes most of my team to do them in.
The Elite Four levels are slightly higher, starting at 42-45 instead of 40-42. After some grinding, my team is all at level 45 and we're ready to take on the league. The current team is: Fuzzy the Wigglytuff, Ronald the Porygon2, Depthfist the Machamp, Chillydawg the Arcanine, Hawk Hogan the Pidgeot, and Eepy the Ampharos.
The Elite Four also has a new theme to go with them. Let's roll.
Taking a few steps outside of my house, Professor Elm calls! He gives us the S.S. Ticket and a password for hard mode, if I ever feel like replaying this. You can get on the S.S. Aqua from Olivine City, which will take you to Vermillion City in Kanto. There are lots of trainers to battle on here, so we exit around level 46-49.
In Kanto, lots of Pokemon take on new forms, like the Water/Electric Tentacool. The gym is open to you straight away, so let's fight Lt. Surge! His team of Raticate, Tentacruel, Kingler, Nidoking, Slowbro, and Wigglytuff is a bit of trouble, mostly due to Tentacruel having Quiver Dance and Eepy getting KO'd early.
There's only one way to go for me, since I don't have a way to wake up Snorlax and the underground path is closed. Saffron City is up next, with a gym to clean up. She runs Donphan, Persian, Tauros, Magnezone, Sunflora, and Rapidash. I decide to head east, crossing Route 6 to get to Lavender Town. Along the way I catch Kiryu the Nidorino, and we're heading up Rock Tunnel towards the Power Plant.
You can find a lot of cool Pokemon in the Rock Tunnel, like Steelix, Graveler, and Butterfree. Outside on Route 9, you can find Rhyhorn, and the Kantonian forms of Grimer and Venomoth. The Power Plant had an important machine part stolen. This puts you on a fetch quest to Cerulean City that eventually unlocks the Magnet Train and fixes the Radio Tower, letting you awaken the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave and Route 12.
Cerulean Gym is empty, except for a rocket grunt that you have to chase. He leaves the machine part in the gym's water, and after returning it to the Power Plant, we go to clear up Route 25. This gets Misty to return to the gym, with her team of Hypno, Starmie, Lickilicky, Kabutops, Arbok, and Machamp. This was probably the hardest fight so far, just due to the general bulk of her team.
Before I get ahead of myself, there's a new area to check out to the east of Bill's house. A special whirlpool leads to an underground lake where you can find... Articuno? Yep, the legendary birds are now the legendary fish, and their designs are hilarious. Articuno here is clearly a betta fish, with a Water/Fighting type to go with it. We'll find the other two sooner or later.
Heading back to Vermillion now, we can wake up the Snorlax, who is meditating... it's a Fighting type, so watch out. It mostly spammed Protect though, letting me paralyze it for an easy catch. After that, it's down Route 12 through 14 to get to Fuchsia City, home of Janine. Her gym's gimmick is simple: invisible walls, and everyone's disguised as her. She's in the bottom left corner, unless it's actually random. Her team consists of Espeon, Sylveon, Glaceon, Umbreon, Leafeon, and Eevee (Level 68).
After that it's a quick trip up Cycling Road to Celadon City. The Game Corner is here with some choice prizes - TMs 32 Double Team, 52 Hold Back and 15 Hyper Beam, and Pikachu, Porygon, and Larvitar. There's also some other TMs available, notably Curse at the back entrance of Celadon Mansion. The gym isn't much trouble, and Erika's team is Exeggutor, Venomoth, Annihilape, Hitmontop, Vileplume, and Bellossom. That last one is the only reason Chillydawg didn't solo.
We've done everything we can at this point, since Route 19 is blocked by rocks and Route 4 is a one-way path. Through Diglett's Cave is Pewter City, so Brock is up next. Butterfree, Dugtrio, Gliscor, Skarmory, Electrode, and Kangaskhan are handled by Ronald and Depthfist. A trip south leads us to Routes 2, 1, 21, then Cinnabar Island, where you can get Blue to head back to his gym.
We're really here for Blaine's gym at Seafoam Island. He throws out Golem, Dewgong, Clefable, Scyther, Cursola, and Arcanine. Ronald handles it this time, with backup from Depthfist after the combo of Sunny Day from Dewgong and Light Screen from Clefable proves too hot to handle. For good measure, I travel up Route 19 to clear the remaining trainers. You can also catch Moltres in another underwater lake beside Seafoam Islands.
The final gym leader is in Viridian City, and it's none other than Blue. Blue's team is interesting... Dugtrio, Furret, Weezing, Muk, Granbull, and Meganium. These are all new Kantonian forms with different typings than usual, but he goes down from a few good hits from Hawk Hogan, Depthfist, and Chillydawg. With all 8 badges, you can visit Oak to get Mt. Silver opened up. He also grants a new password which lets you start a new game with Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle instead.
The Pokemon in Mt. Silver are strong, ranging from level 52-58. Dugtrio, Golbat, Sneasel, Graveler, Machoke, and in some rooms, Larvitar and Dragonair can all be found here and even outlevel my team. Outside, you'll see Gloom, Jumpluff, Noctowl, and Houndoom. In later areas, you can find wild Pokemon up to level 63, with fully evolved threats like Tangrowth roaming around.
At the top, you come to Golden Village, where you can heal up and enter the Crystal Sanctum, a new dungeon with lots of icy floors. You can come across Ice types like Arcanine as well as Pupitar here as high as level 64. The first room isn't too hard, but the second requires you to navigate in a bit of a circle to reach a button at the center. That leads out to Red. His levels are similar to vanilla, and his team is Fearow, Snorlax, Blastoise, Charizard, Venusaur, Pikachu.
Red is way too strong to take on now, so let's visit Mt. Moon and then idk, take on the Elite Four again. As you enter Mt. Moon, it's time for another rival battle. He runs Sneasler, Golbat, Alakazam, Magnezone, Victreebel, and Feraligatr. There's nothing else to do here, so it's time to visit Route 12 to catch Zapdos, which I missed earlier. This one's a Poison type, so any Steel type largely shuts it down, except for Ocean Song, a move the three legendary fish share.
To start this episode, I learned that you can rematch the Johto gym leaders. Not sure when this opens up - after the Elite Four, after getting all 8 gym badges... but it's a nice middle ground. See, Red's team starts at level 73 and the Elite Four also starts at level 70. There's not really anywhere else to grind as effectively, besides maybe the Crystal Sanctum.
I accidentally started on Bugsy first, but he runs Ledian, Venomoth, Rhyperior, Weavile, Parasect, Scizor, all level 45, 50 for their ace. I guess you were intended to find these before going to Kanto, oops. Falkner rolls with Azumarill, Noctowl, Feraligatr, Quagsire, Honchkrow and Pidgeot. Next is Whitney, Porygon-Z, Weezing, Sirfetch'd, Gengar, Granbull, and Mantine.
If I weren't so overleveled these fights could be tough, so here's a dump of the rest of the teams.
Morty: Ariados, Mismagius, Sudowoodo, Farigiraf, Miltank, Marowak
Jasmine: Dudunsparce, Slowking, Jolteon, Overqwil, Golduck, Victreebel
Chuck: Cloyster, Smeargle, Hitmonlee, Meganium, Ninetales, Hitmonchan
Pryce: Ursaluna, Wyrdeer, Vaporeon, Delibird, Typhlosion, Jynx
Clair: Nidoqueen, Gyarados, Kingdra, Flareon, Muk, Lapras
After all that, evolving Ronald to PorygonZ, and some grinding to the early 60s, it's time to take on the League. Except this time Joe has to get the last word in and comes at us with his own mid-60s team of Sneasler, Victreebel, Crobat, Magnezone, Alakazam, and Feraligatr. The Elite Four has the same teams as before, but range from 70 to 85 (Lance's Tyranitar). Beating them again opens up Cerulean Cave, which you might remember isn't in the original!
The Pokemon here are a little underleveled (40-50), but you can find Electabuzz and Rhydon here. On the upper floor, TM51 contains Slapshot, a new physical Ice move that has a chance to flinch or freeze. At the bottom of the cave, you can catch Mewtwo, like you'd expect. After the battle, you meet Green, who teases you as to Mew's location and says you can find her at the Indigo Plateau. Of course, Mew is under the truck for real this time, and Green won't fight you until you beat Red.
With my team sitting at a comfy level 72, Red isn't much of a challenge. It took some niche moveset choices, like Sludge Bomb on Eepy for Venusaur, but otherwise you can still switch out of bad matchups fairly easily. Depthfist takes out his Fearow with Slapshot, I swap into Hawk Hogan to tank two Close Combats from Snorlax and retaliate with Wing Attack, then Eepy no-sells Charizard's Thunder Punch... His Raichu doesn't even get to do anything.
Beating Red rolls the credits again, dropping us at the base of Mt. Silver. Time to fight Green, who leads with a level 80 Furret. Depthfist handles it, her level 93 Missingno falls to one Aqua Jet, and her Dodrio puts up some fight, using a new move called Corrupt to poison and confuse at once (at the cost of some health). Aerodactyl, Shuckle, and Pinsir are all that's left, and a combo of Kiryu and Ronald make quick work of them.
"You are really one amazing trainer. Say... you might even be ready for Sevii's Shrine Challenge! You should talk to Prof. Elm. Tell him I sent you."
Well, there's something new. This game has not two, but three regions to explore, and as you might have guessed... all of the gen 3 Pokemon.
New Captures!
Crystal Sanctum
Pupitar - Dark/Ghost - Demon Pokemon
It pops in and out of wormholes at will. It is not affected by gravity.
The Larvitar line consists of some awesomely messed up designs. Pupitar has four eyes and bits of it floating around, which is cool. I proably would use it if I wasn't attached to my current team.
Feraligatr - Flying - Plane Pokemon
As a child, it dreamed to become a pilot. Instead, it has evolved into a living airplane.
This design might be a divisive one, and I'm not a fan, honestly. I think it loses a lot of character from Totodile/Croconaw, visible eyes would go a long way to make it more palatable.
Cerulean Cave
Electabuzz - Dark - Rebel Pokemon
They are reclusive and do not respect authority. As such, they are difficult to train.
I wasn't totally feeling it at first, but FG Electabuzz is a cool little guy. The purple and black palette really works for it, and the hairstyle and skull on its shirt make a fun design. It doesn't feel like something you'd see in a Pokemon game, which is sorta the point.
Mewtwo - Dark - Symbiote Pokemon
Said to rest quietly in an undiscovered cave, this Pokemon was created solely for battling.
So, not a huge change from Mewtwo lore-wise, but I like the design. It feels like it could be part Electric type too.
Evolution
Porygon-Z - Normal/Water - Floaty Pokemon
Pokemon lost at sea are saved by Porygon-Z, who offers them a ride to safety on its back.
Porygon's updated its look with a pirate hat and a tube shape. I'm not sure I like it as much as Porygon2, but it's still pretty neat.
