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marchionessofmustacheOK, so I played up to Bugsy's fight and didn't realize that my emulator wasn't saving and loading battery data, so when I reset the game to load my save, there was just... nothing. So I had to load from my last save state which was, like, right at the beginning of my play session. So I lost like 2 hours of gameplay...
But I was able to recover fairly quickly (I ALMOST gave up on this run after this hahaha) by fast-forwarding through the battles and not really talking to all the people in town and stuff like that. Only took me like 10-15 minutes to catch back up to where I was.
Anyway, we last left off in Violet City after defeating Falkner and climbing up Sprout Tower. There was Dark Cave to the east, but there wasn't much we could do there even with the hidden move Flash, because there's a rock that can be crushed in the way. So we had to come back after picking up a single item, which I think was like... a potion.
We head to route 32 to continue our journey.
Route 32 is where we're able to catch the third member of our team -- Isaacs the Hoppip. This isn't a "revenge" run, so I'm not using the fast, hard-hitting Pokemon here necessarily... just a little team I thought up with the following criteria:
That's it :) So we have Pokemon like this in the team... Isaac's strat is to drain Pokemon slowly. Paralyze them with Stun Spore, then leech their health with Leech Seed, healing with Synthesis if needed. When there's nothing else to do, we can Tackle (or later, Mega Drain). Later, she'll combo with another Pokemon, but we'll save that as a secret for now ;)
Also on Route 32, a guy gave us Miracle Seed, and Mom called us to say she spent our money while out shopping. I don't know if I mentioned this in the previous entries, but one of the features in this game is to wire home money every time you win a trainer battle. Your mom will save it for you like a bank... until she decides to spend it on an item. It's mostly useless, and you're better off just not having her take your money at all and spending it on what you want, but since it's a unique feature to this game, I'mma do it :) And she sent us a Super Potion this time.
Later, we find a guy on the road selling delicious Slowpoke Tails. Yes, Slowpoke Tails, for eating! This is a confirmed instance of people eating Pokemon in the games. Sadly he wants 1,000,000 Pokemon Dollars for one. That's the same price as a bicycle! Because it's only possible to carry 999,999P, there's no way to actually buy this, even if you tried to grind for it early (I don't even know if it's possible to grind for money in these games like that, though?)
Anyway, without buying a tail, we head on to Union Cave. Someone inside says that on weekends you can hear roars from inside the depths of the cave, then someone else says it's on Fridays. WHERE IS THE TRUTH??
After passing through the cave, we arrive in Azalea, where the next gym is. But there's a dude guarding the gym, so we can't go inside. It seems the Slowpokes from the town have been going missing. There's a well called Slowpoke Well, though it's also called Rainmaker Well because the people of Azalea believe that a Slowpoke's yawn can bring rain. And apparently "records" show that 400 years ago, a Slowpoke's yawn actually ended a drought.
Now, I don't know how they attribute this to Slowpoke's yawn because that's all the things do, so of course they yawn before a rain. But they yawn all day every day, so???? Why wouldn't they???
Anyway, looks like we can't go in the well. A "good Samaritan" is blocking the well, saying that it's dangerous. We instead head further into the city where we discover a man named Kurt who makes Balls out of Apricorns. According to a lady in town, before the invention of Poke Balls, everyone used Apricorns to catch Pokemon. Now, in Pokemon Legends Arceus, you fashion Poke Balls out of Apricorns. So you're using Apricorns to catch Pokemon, but it's still after of the invention of Poke Balls...? Was there some kind of Apricorn Ball BEFORE the Poke Ball? And if old Poke Balls are made from Apricorns, what are new ones made of?
Though Legends Arceus takes place in a different timeline. Yes, there are timeline shenanigans in Pokemon. Basically as a way to explain all the retconning between games and differences between original games and remakes, at a certain point in the series, some kind of dimensional time distortion thing happens and there are two separate timelines created. So there's at least two separate canon. We're in the 'classic' timeline right now, which is not the same timeline that Legends Arceus occurs, so perhaps Apricorns were never used to make what we know as "Poke Ball" in the classic timeline, and instead Apricorn balls are the precursors to Poke Balls here. Or mabye there was just simply an overlap. But it sounds like the invention of the Poke Ball, from what this lady says, is definitively the END of Apricorn Balls.
The world may never know.
Probably just her little one line of text was overlooked in the creation of Legends Arceus and retconned to nonexistence :) Or there really is a discrepancy in the evolution of the Poke Ball from Apricorn Balls between timelines. We'll have to wait and see where the rest of our lore playthroughs take us... I'd like to replay the entire series examining the lore more closely like this.
Also, it's really hard to develop a concrete canon because most of the games are ambiguous in which timeline they appear in, and various games tell the same story in different ways (such as RGBY telling the same story as FRLG, which tells the same story as Let's Go, but all with their own differences). It could be assumed that the most recent games would be the active canon, replacing the canon of the previous games, but it doesn't seem to be that way -- there seems to be some kind of parallels with the Fire Red/Leaf Green story and the Let's Go story (as if they took place at the same time and both would be canon... but then there's still contradictions), and if the Let's Go story is canon, then it messes with the canon in other games, and yeah. GameFreak/TPC/Nintendo has said before that they don't take the timelines/canon too seriously, so I guess we're not supposed to, either. But it's fun to try to place everything together and find out an overall canon... It's generally agreed upon that there are multiple timelines/universes though, with old games and new games all being canon, but in separate timelines/universes.
As for this game, it does take place as a direct sequel to Pokemon RGB (Yellow, I personally consider to be non-canon), happening 3 years after, and events of the first games are referenced in this game. So with this and Red, we're still in one canon/timeline/universe.
But even within the different timelines/universes, there is some overlap -- Pokemon Data is able to be transferred between dimensions and stuff using all kinds of strange technology. You could even consider something like Red, Green, and Blue to be taking place in slightly altered timelines of the same universe, with the ability to link timelines within their universe via Link Cable technology. Though I guess if we went that way, Yellow could be canon as well.
... I think I'm going to create a "Pod Canon," a personal headcanon canon of where everything lies. (Pod being based on my YouTube namesake, Metapod). For my personal canon I'm going to say that there are many parallel timelines within each universe, and Pokemon Data is able to transcend time and space and even universes.
The timelines for RGB&Y may have even coincided up until just before the beginning of the game, with the branching happening when Red decides to leave his house for the first time in-game, so they all share the same past. Would make sense. Then those would branch into the second generation games, which also share the same history, so we can assume that the history from generation 2 is shared by those of generation 1.
I'm going to also consider a "major" canon and "minor" canon with 'final' games being the major canon which may even be a single timeline, and other games being essentially non-canon or minor canon timelines that don't branch into any later games. So Japanese Blue, Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum may very well be one continuous timeline, while the other games are more branched from those. Fire Red, Leaf Green, HeartGold, and SoulSilver may be an alternate universe, or just more branched timelines.
...
ANYWAY, Kurt isn't even making Apricorn Balls right now because he's mad that Team Rocket has been taking the Slowpokes into the well and cutting their tails off to sell. He storms out after we talk to him, which opens up the well to us. Also, there's a nice little workshop station in his house where he must make the Apricorn Balls, and a model of the Ilex Shrine. Very cool little details.
(Oh, I didn't explain what an Apricorn is. It's a hard, round fruit that grows on trees lol. Similar to picking Berries, you can also pick Apricorns in this game).
After scaring away the "good Samaritan" who was just a Rocket Grunt, Kurt falls into the well and hurts his back, causing him to be unable to move. Pretty nasty fall! We can continue through the well to beat up some Rockets and return the Slowpokes to their home.
There are two different Rocket Grunt sprites; now we have guys and gals as Rocket Grunts! Also, these trainers don't have names. Could it be that we're actually introducing ourselves before each battle? So we know the names of the other trainers because we exchanged greetings and introductions? And of course the Rockets wouldn't do that.
Anyway, on these sprites. I really like the black uniforms for the Rockets, they look more sinister and it matches the way they looked in the first game. But now we have the female sprite which has a white uniform similar to the ones worn in the anime. I think that's kind of a let-down that the female Grunts get a drastically different uniform. I also couldn't parse what was hair and what was arm at first glance. But it looks like she has big pigtails. Not a big fan of pigtails usually. So I'm kinda disappointed with the lady Rocket sprite. but I do really love the lad Rocket.
We learn that the Rockets are doing all this solely for the money. One of the Grunts seems a little sad that he has to cut off the Slowpoke tails. It also is revealed the Slowpokes' tails regrow very quickly so there's not really any cons to cutting them off. I have to say, if it doesn't HURT the Slowpokes, why not sell their tails? Or maybe they could use some kind of anesthesia on the Slowpokes so they don't feel it. There's probably a humane way to harvest Slowpoke tails. But I guess the Rockets probably wouldn't bother with that (easier money if they just chop 'em without bothering to care for the Pokemon).
After defeating all the Grunts in the well, they decide to leave and the Slowpokes are able to return home. Now that the Rockets have fled the town, we're able to enter the gym and defeat Bugsy. Interestingly, Bugsy claims to have "discovered" the Technical Machine for Fury Cutter (which seemingly wasn't a move that existed 3 years ago).
And Fury Cutter is a huge pain to fight against -- it actually took me four tries to defeat Bugsy because of that darned Scyther building up power in Fury Cutter. I eventually had to win by having Stallings use Rage from the very beginning of the battle, hoping that Metapod and Kakuna would damage him enough times that his Rage would be sufficiently powered up to take out Scyther in two hits. It worked on the first try, but easily could have failed if they just hardened and string shotted a bunch. Also, I wasn't able to absorb any extra EXP into the other Pokemon in the party...
Anyway, with Bugsy down and the Rockets gone, we're pretty much done with Azalea Town and can continue on to the next area. Just west of Azalea is Ilex Forest, a thick forest that's so overgrown you can't see the sky. The Charcoal Man's apprentice has lost control of their Farfetch'd, which he needs to be able to Cut trees down to turn to charcoal. It's our job to chase the thing back to him. Even though he says his boss would be "steamed," he doesn't seem angry at all. Thankful that we got Farfetch'd back, he gives us the Hidden Machine for Cut.
The Pokemon I want to ultimately have use Cut isn't in our party yet, so I caught a wild Oddish from the forest and named him CutBuddy.
With that, I went back to the beginning of the game to see what all areas we could now find thanks to having Cut available. Most of it was just shortcuts through the routes, but I did get the Technical Machine for Roar and a Hyper Potion, so that was cool.
And then we're on to Route 33 where I stopped for today :)
Oh yeah, in the forest there is a shrine to the forest's protector:
A girl in the rest area north of the forest claims that the protector watches over the forest, transcending time. She also guesses it must be a grass-type Pokemon.
ETA: Some other little things from this play session:
Charcoal is on sale in Azalea Town but it costs 9800P!
Another interesting feature of the game is "mail" -- you can buy Mail stationery items, write in them, give them to a Pokemon, then trade it... the mail will go to your trade partner's "mailbox" on the PC, where you can actually print it out on the GameBoy Printer!
But I was able to recover fairly quickly (I ALMOST gave up on this run after this hahaha) by fast-forwarding through the battles and not really talking to all the people in town and stuff like that. Only took me like 10-15 minutes to catch back up to where I was.
Anyway, we last left off in Violet City after defeating Falkner and climbing up Sprout Tower. There was Dark Cave to the east, but there wasn't much we could do there even with the hidden move Flash, because there's a rock that can be crushed in the way. So we had to come back after picking up a single item, which I think was like... a potion.
We head to route 32 to continue our journey.
Route 32 is where we're able to catch the third member of our team -- Isaacs the Hoppip. This isn't a "revenge" run, so I'm not using the fast, hard-hitting Pokemon here necessarily... just a little team I thought up with the following criteria:
- Contains only Gen 2 Pokemon
- Doesn't contain Pokemon from the planned Crystal Revenge
- Can use all HM moves within the main party
That's it :) So we have Pokemon like this in the team... Isaac's strat is to drain Pokemon slowly. Paralyze them with Stun Spore, then leech their health with Leech Seed, healing with Synthesis if needed. When there's nothing else to do, we can Tackle (or later, Mega Drain). Later, she'll combo with another Pokemon, but we'll save that as a secret for now ;)
Also on Route 32, a guy gave us Miracle Seed, and Mom called us to say she spent our money while out shopping. I don't know if I mentioned this in the previous entries, but one of the features in this game is to wire home money every time you win a trainer battle. Your mom will save it for you like a bank... until she decides to spend it on an item. It's mostly useless, and you're better off just not having her take your money at all and spending it on what you want, but since it's a unique feature to this game, I'mma do it :) And she sent us a Super Potion this time.
Later, we find a guy on the road selling delicious Slowpoke Tails. Yes, Slowpoke Tails, for eating! This is a confirmed instance of people eating Pokemon in the games. Sadly he wants 1,000,000 Pokemon Dollars for one. That's the same price as a bicycle! Because it's only possible to carry 999,999P, there's no way to actually buy this, even if you tried to grind for it early (I don't even know if it's possible to grind for money in these games like that, though?)
Anyway, without buying a tail, we head on to Union Cave. Someone inside says that on weekends you can hear roars from inside the depths of the cave, then someone else says it's on Fridays. WHERE IS THE TRUTH??
After passing through the cave, we arrive in Azalea, where the next gym is. But there's a dude guarding the gym, so we can't go inside. It seems the Slowpokes from the town have been going missing. There's a well called Slowpoke Well, though it's also called Rainmaker Well because the people of Azalea believe that a Slowpoke's yawn can bring rain. And apparently "records" show that 400 years ago, a Slowpoke's yawn actually ended a drought.
Now, I don't know how they attribute this to Slowpoke's yawn because that's all the things do, so of course they yawn before a rain. But they yawn all day every day, so???? Why wouldn't they???
Anyway, looks like we can't go in the well. A "good Samaritan" is blocking the well, saying that it's dangerous. We instead head further into the city where we discover a man named Kurt who makes Balls out of Apricorns. According to a lady in town, before the invention of Poke Balls, everyone used Apricorns to catch Pokemon. Now, in Pokemon Legends Arceus, you fashion Poke Balls out of Apricorns. So you're using Apricorns to catch Pokemon, but it's still after of the invention of Poke Balls...? Was there some kind of Apricorn Ball BEFORE the Poke Ball? And if old Poke Balls are made from Apricorns, what are new ones made of?
Though Legends Arceus takes place in a different timeline. Yes, there are timeline shenanigans in Pokemon. Basically as a way to explain all the retconning between games and differences between original games and remakes, at a certain point in the series, some kind of dimensional time distortion thing happens and there are two separate timelines created. So there's at least two separate canon. We're in the 'classic' timeline right now, which is not the same timeline that Legends Arceus occurs, so perhaps Apricorns were never used to make what we know as "Poke Ball" in the classic timeline, and instead Apricorn balls are the precursors to Poke Balls here. Or mabye there was just simply an overlap. But it sounds like the invention of the Poke Ball, from what this lady says, is definitively the END of Apricorn Balls.
The world may never know.
Probably just her little one line of text was overlooked in the creation of Legends Arceus and retconned to nonexistence :) Or there really is a discrepancy in the evolution of the Poke Ball from Apricorn Balls between timelines. We'll have to wait and see where the rest of our lore playthroughs take us... I'd like to replay the entire series examining the lore more closely like this.
Also, it's really hard to develop a concrete canon because most of the games are ambiguous in which timeline they appear in, and various games tell the same story in different ways (such as RGBY telling the same story as FRLG, which tells the same story as Let's Go, but all with their own differences). It could be assumed that the most recent games would be the active canon, replacing the canon of the previous games, but it doesn't seem to be that way -- there seems to be some kind of parallels with the Fire Red/Leaf Green story and the Let's Go story (as if they took place at the same time and both would be canon... but then there's still contradictions), and if the Let's Go story is canon, then it messes with the canon in other games, and yeah. GameFreak/TPC/Nintendo has said before that they don't take the timelines/canon too seriously, so I guess we're not supposed to, either. But it's fun to try to place everything together and find out an overall canon... It's generally agreed upon that there are multiple timelines/universes though, with old games and new games all being canon, but in separate timelines/universes.
As for this game, it does take place as a direct sequel to Pokemon RGB (Yellow, I personally consider to be non-canon), happening 3 years after, and events of the first games are referenced in this game. So with this and Red, we're still in one canon/timeline/universe.
But even within the different timelines/universes, there is some overlap -- Pokemon Data is able to be transferred between dimensions and stuff using all kinds of strange technology. You could even consider something like Red, Green, and Blue to be taking place in slightly altered timelines of the same universe, with the ability to link timelines within their universe via Link Cable technology. Though I guess if we went that way, Yellow could be canon as well.
... I think I'm going to create a "Pod Canon," a personal headcanon canon of where everything lies. (Pod being based on my YouTube namesake, Metapod). For my personal canon I'm going to say that there are many parallel timelines within each universe, and Pokemon Data is able to transcend time and space and even universes.
The timelines for RGB&Y may have even coincided up until just before the beginning of the game, with the branching happening when Red decides to leave his house for the first time in-game, so they all share the same past. Would make sense. Then those would branch into the second generation games, which also share the same history, so we can assume that the history from generation 2 is shared by those of generation 1.
I'm going to also consider a "major" canon and "minor" canon with 'final' games being the major canon which may even be a single timeline, and other games being essentially non-canon or minor canon timelines that don't branch into any later games. So Japanese Blue, Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum may very well be one continuous timeline, while the other games are more branched from those. Fire Red, Leaf Green, HeartGold, and SoulSilver may be an alternate universe, or just more branched timelines.
...
ANYWAY, Kurt isn't even making Apricorn Balls right now because he's mad that Team Rocket has been taking the Slowpokes into the well and cutting their tails off to sell. He storms out after we talk to him, which opens up the well to us. Also, there's a nice little workshop station in his house where he must make the Apricorn Balls, and a model of the Ilex Shrine. Very cool little details.
(Oh, I didn't explain what an Apricorn is. It's a hard, round fruit that grows on trees lol. Similar to picking Berries, you can also pick Apricorns in this game).
After scaring away the "good Samaritan" who was just a Rocket Grunt, Kurt falls into the well and hurts his back, causing him to be unable to move. Pretty nasty fall! We can continue through the well to beat up some Rockets and return the Slowpokes to their home.
There are two different Rocket Grunt sprites; now we have guys and gals as Rocket Grunts! Also, these trainers don't have names. Could it be that we're actually introducing ourselves before each battle? So we know the names of the other trainers because we exchanged greetings and introductions? And of course the Rockets wouldn't do that.
Anyway, on these sprites. I really like the black uniforms for the Rockets, they look more sinister and it matches the way they looked in the first game. But now we have the female sprite which has a white uniform similar to the ones worn in the anime. I think that's kind of a let-down that the female Grunts get a drastically different uniform. I also couldn't parse what was hair and what was arm at first glance. But it looks like she has big pigtails. Not a big fan of pigtails usually. So I'm kinda disappointed with the lady Rocket sprite. but I do really love the lad Rocket.
We learn that the Rockets are doing all this solely for the money. One of the Grunts seems a little sad that he has to cut off the Slowpoke tails. It also is revealed the Slowpokes' tails regrow very quickly so there's not really any cons to cutting them off. I have to say, if it doesn't HURT the Slowpokes, why not sell their tails? Or maybe they could use some kind of anesthesia on the Slowpokes so they don't feel it. There's probably a humane way to harvest Slowpoke tails. But I guess the Rockets probably wouldn't bother with that (easier money if they just chop 'em without bothering to care for the Pokemon).
After defeating all the Grunts in the well, they decide to leave and the Slowpokes are able to return home. Now that the Rockets have fled the town, we're able to enter the gym and defeat Bugsy. Interestingly, Bugsy claims to have "discovered" the Technical Machine for Fury Cutter (which seemingly wasn't a move that existed 3 years ago).
And Fury Cutter is a huge pain to fight against -- it actually took me four tries to defeat Bugsy because of that darned Scyther building up power in Fury Cutter. I eventually had to win by having Stallings use Rage from the very beginning of the battle, hoping that Metapod and Kakuna would damage him enough times that his Rage would be sufficiently powered up to take out Scyther in two hits. It worked on the first try, but easily could have failed if they just hardened and string shotted a bunch. Also, I wasn't able to absorb any extra EXP into the other Pokemon in the party...
Anyway, with Bugsy down and the Rockets gone, we're pretty much done with Azalea Town and can continue on to the next area. Just west of Azalea is Ilex Forest, a thick forest that's so overgrown you can't see the sky. The Charcoal Man's apprentice has lost control of their Farfetch'd, which he needs to be able to Cut trees down to turn to charcoal. It's our job to chase the thing back to him. Even though he says his boss would be "steamed," he doesn't seem angry at all. Thankful that we got Farfetch'd back, he gives us the Hidden Machine for Cut.
The Pokemon I want to ultimately have use Cut isn't in our party yet, so I caught a wild Oddish from the forest and named him CutBuddy.
With that, I went back to the beginning of the game to see what all areas we could now find thanks to having Cut available. Most of it was just shortcuts through the routes, but I did get the Technical Machine for Roar and a Hyper Potion, so that was cool.
And then we're on to Route 33 where I stopped for today :)
Oh yeah, in the forest there is a shrine to the forest's protector:
A girl in the rest area north of the forest claims that the protector watches over the forest, transcending time. She also guesses it must be a grass-type Pokemon.
ETA: Some other little things from this play session:
Charcoal is on sale in Azalea Town but it costs 9800P!
Another interesting feature of the game is "mail" -- you can buy Mail stationery items, write in them, give them to a Pokemon, then trade it... the mail will go to your trade partner's "mailbox" on the PC, where you can actually print it out on the GameBoy Printer!
