SS - Three badges down, three more to go

Because I am a lazy doofus, instead of enjoying the gorgeous weather and getting all kinds of exercise like I should have, I went on something of a Poke-binge.

Ended up taking the eastern seaside route from Lavender down to Fuschia.  The part just south of Lavender that's all wooden piers over water is now apparently called Silence Bridge -- people tiptoe so as not to scare the water Pokemon away.  ^_^  This was a decidedly long haul, especially as I took the opportunity to clear the route east of Vermilion that I couldn't get to because of the Snorlax. 

(It occurs to me that Vermilion the town is easily confused with Vermillion my Red Gyrados.  Heh.)

The southeastern-most part of Kanto, south of the fence maze, is now a pretty hill with wind turbines.  A surprise awaited me there:  Suicune, calling to me from out on the water.   It ran away as usual when Eusine showed up, but he said something about it liking windy hills near water -- "somewhere up north".   (Apparently that's not the Cape north of Cerulean, either, 'cause I've looked.)

Having made it to Fuschia and verified that the Pal Park was available, and seeing as it was Saturday, I hopped the border back to Jhoto and entered the Bug Catching Contest with Rotti again.  This time, Rotti was more than strong enough -- in fact, he KO'd pretty much everything with one hit.   It was still good training for him, though, and as a bonus I caught myself a female Combee:  trading gold.  This also got me second place, and another Everstone (though what I could really use is another Exp Share).

After that, I hopped back over to Kanto and opened up Cerulean.  Misty was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to tackle Cycling Road.  The bikers on it were astonishingly friendly after being defeated;  I got a bunch of phone numbers, and one of them called me up later to hand me a Dusk Stone, of all things.  Since I'd used the one I bought to evolve Rotti after he reached lvl 35, that was an unexpected but very welcome gift.

All that battling had finally gotten Rotti and Tremor up to decent levels, so I went for some badges.  Erica's Gym was pretty easy, between Rotti and Cynder.  In Janine's Gym -- she took over in Fuschia from daddy Koga after he joined the Elite Four -- I bungled a little and missed a trainer battle.  Instead of being subtly marked on the floor, the invisible walls were only obvious when you stumbled into them, and then a small section would become visible.  Worse, all the trainers were disguised as Janine.  And I found her before I found all of them.  So, missed one there.

Still, that got me two more badges, and with the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave, the only way to western Kanto was the long water route past the Seafoam Islands.  So I decided that I'd check out what was up at the Power Plant.  I'd been expecting a Rocket hideout, but all that was there were the workers who'd cleaned the place up and gotten the generator working.  A part had been stolen by some "shady character", was all.  Sure enough, the guy turned out to be a Rocket when I chased him down -- and with his badly mangled English, from some other country at that (Isshu, maybe? heh) -- but his single Golbat went down easily, and the Power Plant was running again in short order.

At some point, though, I'll have to go back that way and go through Rock Tunnel, which I totally skipped.  Vermillion's really the only one of the team that's strong enough against Rock types.

With that wrapped up, I was able to chase down Misty on her date at the Cape (was that really Red?  He didn't look at all familiar) and nab the Cascade Badge.  Sadly, though I was able to get the Expansion card for my Radio, neither Lavender Tower nor Silph Co. were accessible beyond their first floors.  The only thing left to do was to go play PokeFlute music on my Radio to wake up the Snorlax, which I caught easily enough.

All that being quite a Poke-marathon, I stopped outside the entrance to Diglett's Cave.  Next stop, Pewter City and the Boulder Badge! 

I have to say, I'm really impressed with the new rendering of Kanto in SS.  Besides the basic improvements to the graphics, the routes have more variation and, well, for lack of a better word, really great landscaping.  Instead of just being long stretches between cities, they feel like real countryside now -- but at the same time, they're similar enough to bring back that Red/Blue-era nostalgia.  It's very well done.  Props to Nintendo on that one.

You'd think I'd be Poke'd-out after all this, but I have the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and check where I was...

SS - Kanto it is

Allright, so maybe I'll be staying in Kanto.  :P

It turns out that one can easily Fly between regions by using Victory Road/Indigo Plateau as a transfer point.  Thinking that the Bug-Catching Contest would be a great way to get Rotti levelled up some, I flew over to the National Park and sallied forth into the grasses.

Only, I'd forgotten that after one gets the Nat'l Dex, the park now features bugs from all the regions -- at levels twice as high.  Poor Rotti was KO'd within five minutes, and I simply rebooted the game instead of taking the hit to my Pokeyen. 

So instead, I decided to look around Kanto some more.  Conveniently enough, the levels of the wild Pokemon north of Vermilion were around level 13 or so, just in the right range for Rotti and Tremor to get in a few levels.  The weird thing was, the trainer battles along the same route were at waaay higher levels, as in low-40's.  This disparity seemed strange to me -- if you went through with low-level Pokemon, the trainers would clobber you;  but if you went through with Pokemon strong enough to defeat the trainers, there'd be little point in the wild encounters.  Lots of switching up was required.

I'd expected Saffron to be blocked off as always, but it wasn't;  so I went up and netted myself the Marsh Badge from Sabrina.  This wasn't too hard, especially since I dodged out of the Gym to heal up after defeating the other Gym trainers.  Both Silph Co. and the Magnet Train were inaccessible, though -- it seems that the Rockets are up to something at the Power Plant.

Instead of jumping on that situation immediately, I ran over to Lavender.  Lavender's Pokemon Tower is now a Radio Tower, but again, not in operation due to the Power Plant issue.  If it were, there'd be a PokeFlute station, which would wake up the Snorlax blocking the path east from Vermilion.  With not much else to do there, I went over in the other direction, to Celadon.  There I discovered that the Game Corner there is also a Voltorb Flip game, and satisfied my itch to play for a bit.

Erika's Gym ought to be a cinch with Cynder, though I'd like to get Rotti up to the point where I can use him there as well.  From there, I have several options.  I could go back to Vermilion, and through Diglett's Cave to Rt. 2, and do the usual trek eastward through Mt. Moon and Cerulean.  Or I could just run north to Cerulean from Saffron, and grab the Badge.  Finally, there's Cycling Road, which would take me to Fuschia to net another Badge and open up the Pal Park.

With the guidebook ending at the League, there's really no way to tell which Gym to hit next.  From Bulbapedia, it seems like most of the Kanto Gym teams are around high-40's to low-50's levels, so maybe it doesn't really matter.  I'd like to get most of the towns opened up to Fly to, at least.

With no gaming (though I wish the reason for that was not so unfortunate! D: ) and a holiday weekend coming up, I should be able to make some definite progress.

Also -- Saturday is supposed to be cool and windy, so I should get me out for some triking if I can.  I've been looking at the Spring Grove campus as a potential location closer than the BWI trail.  I should also try for some serious steps, since I'm now on the Hoenn Field Pokewalker course.  Pity I didn't think to stay on the previous stroll, which could have netted me a Skitty.  I now have a second PC box dedicated to Pokewalker catches, and I intend to fill it. 8D

SS - Onward to Kanto

Simply decided, heck with it, and boarded the S.S. Aqua to Vermilion City.  The re-done graphics look pretty good.  But the Gym was way harder than I'd been expecting -- one of the trainers almost took me out, before I even got to Lt. Surge.  Tremor and Rotti are apparently just not up to Kanto standards.  Even the wild Pokemon near Vermilion would likely be more than they could handle.

To get them properly levelled, not to mention EV'd, it looks like I'll have to make the trip back to Jhoto and do some tedious training.  But I missed the Wednesday return voyage of the SS Aqua,  and haven't looked yet to see if I can Fly to Indigo Plateau or Victory Road, then back to Jhoto from there. Honestly have just been too tired to bother with Poke-ing, despite a growing craving to play some Voltorb Flip.

SS - The Elite Four are down

Yay!  first current post!

By dint of sheer stubbornness and too many wild battles to contemplate, I finally got Sheepish and Cynder caught up to the rest of the team.  With everyone at lvl 50, I finally went for the Elite Four.

The funny thing is, the trouble was not where I'd anticipated.  I'd been thinking that Lance's lvl 50 Dragonite would be the Poke to beat, but instead it was Bruno's Machamp and Lance's Aerodactyl that gave me the most trouble (along with a few tense moments during the battle with Karen's Dark team).

Machamp was a problem mostly because it hit so dang hard.  But Aerodactyl exposed a real weakness in my team:  none of them can stand up to Rock-type attacks.  And with Vermillion down, no one else had something super-effective.  I was reduced to using hasty Max Revives just to stay in the fight, as one after another of my Pokemon were one-shotted.  Also, Chet really must have crap IVs, because his stats are far lower than everyone else's at lvl 50, and he wasn't nearly as much help as I'd have liked.

Still, once I finally got Aerodactyl down by reviving Vermillion, the rest of Lance's team went down to Ice Beam, and it was over.  I hit the Hall of Fame with something between 85-90 hours on the game (I blame this on the lack of easy trainer rematches).

Following the credits, the game took me back to New Bark Town.  Mom told me to go see Prof. Elm, who gave me the SS Ticket for Kanto.

Except, I was strangely reluctant to depart for Kanto.  Instead, I bred me that Murkrow.  Took a few tries to get a male with Super Luck.  I named him Rotti -- for Rotti Largo from Repo the Genetic Opera -- and set about raising him.  I also pulled my Larvitar Tremor out of storage to raise him as well, and put away Peya and Chet.  [and I forgot to say, I spent a truly stupid amount of time chasing around to get the whole team their three Shiny Leaves;  except Tremor who was put off by the rain on Rt. 33.]

The next task was to get a Dusk Stone for Rotti.  Research said that one could buy one at the Pokeathlon Dome, or get one by winning the Bug Catching Contest.  However, it turned out that this was only after one has the Nat'l Dex, and a tiny little, easily-missed superscript on Bulbapedia's Pokeathlon page was the only indicator of this.

So I spent a good bit of time trying the Bug Catching Contest.   From Bulbapedia, I found out that the Bug Catching Contest is about only two things:  the stat total, as inferred by rarity and level, and how undamaged the captured Pokemon is.  I'd had no idea that the amount of damage even mattered.  Sure enough, I was able to catch a lvl 15 Beedrill with max HP, which won first place.

Right after that, I stupidly fainted Raikou on a chance encounter on Rt. 32. D'oh. I couldn't find whether the roaming beasties reappear if you faint them, so I was forced to turn off the game and do the Contest again.  I didn't win that time, but since I'd also learned that the Sun Stone was the only pre-Nat'l Dex first prize, it didn't really matter.

Finally, I bit the bullet and flew to Olivine, to see if I could get the Nat'l Dex without boarding the ship to Kanto.  And sure enough, up came Prof. Oak, before I could even talk to the guy at the boarding gate.  So I was able to go back and buy the Dusk Stone from the Pokeathlon Dome.  I just have to check if Rotti gets any more good attacks as a Murkrow -- he's currently got Fly, Sky Attack, Wing Attack, and Night Shade -- because it'll be a LONG while before he learns Night Slash or Dark Pulse.

Only problem is, this leaves all of my current games basically finished, except for after-game stuff.  I mean, I know I still need to do Kanto in SS, but we'll see if I can keep up my motivation.

In retrospect: SS - Drive for the Enigma Stone

(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(8/23/2010)

According to Petty, the Enigma Stone isn't needed to catch whichever of the Lati@s pair roams in your game version -- it's needed to catch the OTHER one of the pair.

Technically, since I've already caught a Latios in Emerald, I don't strictly need the Enigma Stone; but no self-respecting Pokemon fan should pass up a chance at a legendary. So, just in case, I went over to the Pokeathlon Dome and got my Aprijuice Blender and my jersey, and gave the whole thing that ol' college try.

And, as I expected, it was a pain in the ass. The Apricorns don't blend by the same rules Berries do, so a juice that raises one performance stat can unexpectedly lower another. And there's several of the minigames that require you to control multiple Pokemon at once. So I failed to get any medal except Stamina.

With that done, however, I headed out towards Kanto, as Petty has assured me that my legendary beasties will happily continue to roam Jhoto until I return. So, while it was too late to attempt Victory Road last night, I'm in position to make a go of it.

Now if I could only remember what the heck I was doing with my team! Looking over the target movesets in an earlier entry, I think Izzel, Sheepish, Vermillion, and Chet are basically in final form (Chet just hit lvl 50 and learned Poison Jab) so it's just Cynder who needs to level up to 46 to get Rollout, so I can let him evolve. He may have to do without Blast Burn for the E4, though, since once I get through Victory Road I won't be able to Fly back to Blackthorn to have him learn it.

So tonight's agenda is just to make it through Victory Road, doing the complete run of trainers and items. Hopefully that'll get Cynder to 46, and catch the rest of the team up to Chet somewhat. I think the levels of the Indigo E4 are lower in HG/SS, so getting the team up to lvl 50 should be enough. ...I hope.

To be sure, getting past the E4 gets me more than just the Enigma Stone -- it means more Pokewalker courses, and access to Pal Park once I reach Fuschia. More courses will be helpful, as I've indicated my intent to sign up for the Shape Up the Nation walking program, and it'll be good to have that extra motivation. At my last allergist appointment I was actually down to 244, from a high of 262, and that's just from watching portions, 'cause the weather's been WAY to hot for walking.

But sadly, I'm still not in much of a Poke-mood; not in much of a mood to do anything, in fact. Otherwise I'd be tempted to bring forward all my Emerald Pokes into GIV and restart Emerald...


(8/25/2010)

Petty was right, the Enigma Stone triggers an event that lets you fight and capture whichever of the Lati@s pair that doesn't normally appear in your game version. Unfortunately, though, I looked this up at Bulbapedia, and it seems this is my only try at a Latias! It's Latios that roams in SS.

So I've been training like a mad thing the past couple nights. Victory Road was something of a let-down -- it wasn't all that hard, more like annoying because the constant encounters kept interrupting my Itemfinder. And there were NO trainers, except for the one rival battle at the end. Now that, I had not counted on. Every other Victory Road has always been a long-haul ordeal of encounters and trainer battles to get you properlly levelled up to face the E4. But not here. Not at all.

That leaves me with no ready source of Exp, since you have to wait for folks to call you for trainer rematches, which means it's wild battles or nothin'. Even so, I got all the team up to at least lvl 45/46, with Chet at lvl 50. And Cynder finally learned Rollout, so I let him evolve at last. Better yet, I discovered that you CAN Fly back to Indigo Plateau, as well as to the start of Victory Road. So I went back to Blackthorn, got Cynder Blast Burn, and found that only Peya still needs her Effort Ribbon. I also collected a crapton of Apricorns, and discovered that blending longer actually makes Aprijuice worse. Fought a few trainer rematches, but nowhere near enough.

Where this leaves me is, if I want to get the whole team to lvl 50 before taking on the E4, I've got a LOT of wild battles to fight, and not much time to do them in. I'm debating using up my Rare Candies to save me at least a little time; or just making a go of it with the team at lvl 46 (since most of the E4's Pokemon are well below that, except for their standouts, and Lance). At this point, I think everyone's got their final attack sets. I guess it'll depend on my level of impatience with the whole thing, when I get home tonight.


(8/26/2010)

Argh.

Via Exp Share, the team is now up to lvl 50 for Chet and Izzel, and up to lvl 47 for everyone else. And everyone's got their Effort Ribbons. If there is time/patience, I may try and get Cynder to 50 as well. But otherwise, levelling properly is simply too time-consuming without trainer rematches. LOTS of rematches.

So tonight's plan is grind Cynder through those last three levels as quick as possible (i.e. without Exp Share on anyone else), then maybe feed one Rare Candy to the other three to get them to lvl 48. And then just save and GO for it.

After the E4 are down and I'm on my way to Kanto with the Nat'l Dex in hand, I should sync over the Pokewalker to get all those new courses. Broke 5000 steps already today by walking to Pratt St and back for the Shared Services training; it'd be nice if that could have gotten me some new Pokemon. I should probably do some Item Dowsing before syncing over, just for the heck of it.


(8/27/2010)

Well. Apparently there was no need at all to go through all this trouble, because Dave had left a message last weekend that one did NOT have to have the Nat'l Dex in order to download the Enigma Stone. And sure enough, I was able to download it last night with no trouble at all. D'OH.

Still, as long as I'm so close, there's no point in just putting the game down again. So, with the Enigma Stone safely bagged, I kept on training. Got Peya up to lvl 50 via Exp Share, and the remaining team members all up to lvl 48.

As luck would have it (or unluck, because Joni and Kaye are both sick, poor things) there is no gaming tonight. Without Exp Share active, getting everyone up those last couple levels shouldn't be nearly as time-consuming. Some stupid, stubborn part of me wants to get everyone to lvl 50 without resorting to the Rare Candies.

And then it'll be time to take on the Elite Four at last! Hopefully my levels will be high enough that even Lance won't be TOO problematic. I'm hoping for a nice satisfying trouncing, if not exactly an easy battle.

From there, it'll be maybe one more sweep of Johto for Apricorns, and then onward into Kanto. The guidebook ends at the Elite Four, so I've no idea at all what to expect. Should be fun.

I'm seriously thinking about changing the team up somewhat, though. Maybe I just haven't given Peya the right moves, but I'm finding Xatu somewhat underwhelming. I'd really like to train the Murkrow from the Pokewalker, see what they're like. Plus I should train up my two Dratini (and breed them for a third one, to trade). I'm also not feeling the Ariados vibe as much as I'd hoped, so maybe there's room in the team for something else there.

I dunno. I'm fairly certain about swapping Murkrow in for Peya (heeee, if it's a male I should name it Sayik), but the other slots will likely depend on how well they do against the E4.

Oh, and I should likely run up to the Shinjo Ruins with Arceus, and get me my lvl 1 dragon legendary. Get a Dialga (since that's my only chance at a self-caught Dialga) and name it Tardis. 8D

further -- research shows that Honchkrow learn Night Slash and Dark Pulse at lvls 45 and 55 respectively. Murkrow can get Drill Peck by breeding, and learn Night Shade fairly early, at lvl 21. With Fly, this'd make for a really awesome moveset. They can also learn Shadow Ball or Psychic by TM, plus the usual heavy-hitting Flying type TMs. Abilities include Insomnia or Super Luck. Super Luck would be especially nasty, as it doubles the normal critical hit ratio to 12.5%. On top of that, moves that have an increased crit ratio like Night Slash and Sky Attack (also an Egg Move) would be particularly vicious. Sky Attack is also available from the Frontier Access tutor for 64BP, or can be relearned by Noctowl for a Heart Scale. ...I think that gives me a breeding project!

(note:  this entry catches me up to the end of the "pokeplans" file -- finally!)

In retrospect: SS to Victory Road, and putting off Entei

(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(5/25/2010)

Whoah. Haven't updated this in a while.

Part of that is, I haven't been Entei-hunting in FR as much as I should. And another part is that I finally nabbed me some Munchlax, after saving up Watts for a whole week and then getting to a point where I could do enough walking to get the 8K steps. So until they distribute another route or I win the Indigo League, I've got everything the Pokewalker can get me. At the moment I'm on Night Sky's Edge again for the expensive goodies.

Though I haven't tried for Entei nearly enough times, I'm already heartily tired of looking. So I ended up booting up SS and playing for a bit. I got to Blackthorn, which has the Move Deleter and all the Move Tutors (the Relearner, Granny Wilma, and the ultimate starter move person) in the same little cabin. It also has a house with the gal who gives out Effort Ribbons, and only Chet has all his EVs (probably 'cause I'd slapped the Macho Brace on him).

Only, Heart Scales are horribly difficult to obtain, in HG/SS. You can pretty much get them only from the Pokethlon -- and then, only on Wednesday -- or from using Rock Smash. I may have to resort to trading them in from Pearl or Platinum.

Which brings me to several problems. One: To properly dupe Blue's Aquamarine, I need a Heart Scale to re-teach her Slam. And then I need to train her like crazy to get her up to where she'll learn Hyper Beam, if I can't buy the TM (or substitute Draco Meteor). Only, I can't train both her and Vermillion. Two: To properly dupe Silver's Vermillion, I need a second Heart Scale so he can have Thrash.

Three: I need an HM slave to dump Waterfall, Whirlpool, and Rock Smash upon (and possibly Flash) because I do NOT have room in the party for so many dang HM moves. Ideally a Jhoto water-type for this, but more likely candidates are Lapras or Golduck, or duping Silver's Wyrmling. Thing is, I'll have to cart that slave along, which means not training one of the core team. ARGH.

Since Aquamarine isn't meant to go to the E4, I put her away after learning Dragon Rush at lvl 35, and started training Vermillion instead. To help him catch up on EVs, I put the Macho Brace on him and fed him some vitamins. I did a whole level's worth of very low-level Poke-battles in the early routes, then moved up to Rt. 42's Mareep and Flaffy for some EVs in Sp. Atk. Somewhere in there, he found a Shiny Leaf, so I whipped out the book and found the other couple I can get before the E4. I also got a bunch of calls from trainers wanting rematches, which helped.

Aquamarine hadn't done well against the first trainer in the Blackthorn Gym, since dragon-types are weak to other dragons. Vermillion did much, much better, since he had Ice Fang and wasn't weak to dragon moves. He and Sheepish got me through the whole Gym until Clair. For her, I needed a lot more Hyper Potions than I liked to use, and it was Peya who finally knocked down her lvl 41 Kingdra. I was definitely underpowered for that Gym.

Worse, Clair wouldn't hand over the badge. Sore loser! So now I've got to go into the Dragon's Den and fight the Master there....which means, I need Whirlpool. And that means I've got to solve the HM slave problem before I can make any progress. ARGH again.

Crap, I forgot to call the Reed Group about that appointment. ARGH a third time!


(5/26/2010)

OK, so I didn't do any Entei-hunting, but did solve a couple of the above issues.

As I suspected, there were few Pokes who could have a moveset of Flash, Rock Smash, Waterfall, and Whirlpool, and one of the evo families that could was Psyduck/Golduck. But another was Wooper/Quagsire, and I'd wanted to use a Jhoto Pokemon for this purpose. So I fetched my random-caught Quagsire out of storage, named her Big Woop (like my other HM slave Big Mama) and taught her the necessary moves. For the moment she's taking Chet's slot in the party (since he's got all his EVs).

But I didn't make it into the Dragon's Den, between trying to train Big Woop up a little (she was caught at lvl 24), going through Dark Cave looking for smashable rocks, and doing a couple trainer rematches (I don't think I did the last two though, 'cause Deadliest Catch was on).

Turns out that not only was there a Heart Scale hidden on Rt 32, but going over to Cianwood and repeatedly attacking the rocks there netted me two more. I figure that if I keep bashing the rocks there, I can get all the scales I need -- one for Aquamarine to re-learn Slam, one for Vermillion to be taught Thrash (though I should look into replacing that with Outrage, maybe?) and then a few for Hootie, to get his attack set in order.

And speaking of Hootie, the Beautiful Beach course on the Pokewalker also has Heart Scales at a moderately rare find rate, so I'm on that course until I can build up Watts and steps to try finding some.


(6/1/2010)

Quite a bit of progress.

Between Beautiful Beach and lots of smashing rocks, I was able to get quite a few Heart Scales. I brought Hootie in long enough to have him relearn Confusion and teach him Fly; however, Noctowl can't learn Nightmare anymore, so I will need to think of something else. Vermillion relearned Thrash, and I'll mess with Aquamarine later.

Upon looking in the book and finding out the Dragon's Den involved a quiz rather than a battle, I went ahead and did that. Answering all the questions correctly netted me a Dratini with Extremespeed. This will be my new Wyrmling, though I think I'll tweak his moveset some, replacing Slam with Extremespeed and Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor instead of going for a straight dupe.

That got me the badge from Clair, which in turn got me the Master Ball from Prof. Elm, who told me to hop over to the Ecruteak Dance Theater. Fighting all five Kimono Girls got me the Tidal Bell, so it was off to the Whirl Islands to catch Lugia. After making my way through the caves, there was a really nice sequence with the Kimono Girls summoning Lugia with a dance, and Lugia making an impressive entrance. However, the damn thing took all but one of my Ultra Balls to catch. Don't have a name for it yet, either.

After that, I spent waaaay too much time chasing down rematches and collecting Apricorns before finally deciding to try for Victory Road. I put Peya away to make room for Big Woop, since you pretty much can't fly in Kanto 'till you make it to the League. Once I get through, I can bring Peya back out and go back into the caves to get everyone to lvl 50 (the Jhoto E4 are a bit lower in level than is usual).

And of course, I still haven't managed to find Entei in FR.


(6/2/2010)

Bored, and so thinking about SS movesets.

The thing about the nostalgia vs. utility debate is this: it occurs to me that it's reasonable to approach this as if I had been able to bring forward the originals, then update their movesets with all the fabulous new GIV options. Start with the original movesets as a basis, then tweak from there.

Cynder originally had Swift, Rollout, Flame Wheel, and Flamethrower; new target moveset is Swift, Rollout, Flamethrower, and Blast Burn, the ultimate Fire move. He'll need to learn Rollout at lvl 46 before I'll let him evolve to a Typhlosion so he can get Blast Burn, though.

Izzel originally had Cut, Swift, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes; new moveset is Cut, Headbutt, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes. Reasoning here is that Swift isn't as kickass as it used to be, whereas Headbutt can now be used on any tree and therefore becomes a useful field move.

Sheepish originally had Strength, Flash, Thundershock, and Thunder; new target moveset is Strength, Thunder Wave, Thunder Punch, and Thunder. It makes more sense to have an HM slave for Flash, and with the new physical/special split, it's useful to have a typed attack of each kind.

Hootie originally had Hypnosis, Fly, Confusion, and Nightmare; new target moveset is Hypnosis, Fly, Extrasensory, and possibly Dream Eater or Roost. Extrasensory is an upgrade to Confusion. Nightmare was TM50 in Silver, but it's no longer a TM, and Noctowl can't learn it.

Vermillion originally had Surf, Thrash, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; might replace Hyper Beam with an Ice attack, because I'll need one against Lance and his dragons. [ Going with Ice Fang, and will likely up its PP as well. ]

Wyrmling originally had Waterfall, Outrage, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; it seems perfectly natural to replace Outrage with Extremespeed, since I got the special Dratini with that from the Dragon Master, and to replace Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor.

Peya's target moveset is Fly, Miracle Eye, Psychic, and possibly Future Sight.

Chet's target moveset is Spider Web, Night Shade, Poison Jab, and possibly either Psychic, or relearn Bug Bite which would be good against Dark types.

In retrospect: Focus on FireRed, with a side of SS

(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(4/9/2010)

Realtor guy had a contract on the house already on Wednesday and it took forever for him and Dad to get through initialing and signing it all, so too tired and late for anything afterwards. Hootie spontaneously found me an Oran Berry, though. I should grow some this weekend, so I can wrap that sideplot up in SS.

Last night, despite being TURNED AWAY for Xolair after driving all the way up to the allergist's, I got FR restarted. Traded out the starter and a Rattata, holding the Star Piece and a Moon Stone respectively. Then went to breed Norton the second, and it took FIVE TRIES to get a male. ARGH. With that done, though, I finally started my new FR game, got to Viridian, and traded Norton in. For insurance, I did catch another Mankey -- I remember that I was going to name the female I'd had in the last game Scorn, so I did that. Got Irving up to lvl 10 and the other two to lvl 8, then marched off to trigger my second rival battle, which was harder than I expected. Still won though, and the next step will be to get through Viridian Forest and take down the Pewter Gym.

The Forest will probably level Norton past where he'll listen to me until I can get to Misty, but with the Mankey to get me through Mt. Moon, that should be okay. I dunno that I'll bother to look for a Pikachu this time -- if one appears I'll catch it, but otherwise, eh. Likewise with Metapod and Kakuna. It's faster to do a few rotating trades than it is to wander endlessly through grass searching for stuff, and at my fourth turn through Kanto, I'm really just looking for speed.


(4/13/2010)

Some progress in both games. Grew me some Oran Berries on Saturday between oysters, visit to house, and an hour's walk around Centennial Lake (which wore me out just as much as the hour's walk on the Boardwalk). Fed the Miltank, got my Seal Case, traded for that Krabby, and wrapped up Olivine. Also got through the bit with the Lake of Rage, and Team Rocket's hideout in Mahogany, but have not yet tried for the Mahogany Gym (which will let me use Whirlpool). Nor did I venture into Mt. Mortar. But I did catch Vermillion, with an out-loud "welcome back." 8D And Sheepish now has Strength, as she ought to.

As for FR, I got through Viridian Forest, swept through the Pewter Gym, and headed out towards Mt. Moon but didn't yet go in. I even managed to catch a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff without too much searching, so my 'dex is getting reasonably filled out. So far I've been able to manage with just Irving, Norton, and Scorn; though at lvl 12 Norton is starting to disobey me. If Irving and Scorn can get me through Mt. Moon, then maybe I can hit the Cerulean Gym before trying to catch another Slither so that Norton will listen to me again. Then I can train Slither up to match the team, clean out Rt. 25, and head for Vermillion, which will catch me up to the previous game. (reading back, I was just about to take on the SS Anne after training Norton when that game poofed.)

Not sure how much of that I'll get done tonight, though, since both V and the new season of Deadliest Catch are on. Might also have an episode of SGU waiting in On Demand. At least I did get my taxes done and filed... And it's raining, plus we're at EOB, so there's nowhere to walk today. I may have to jog during commercials to try and get in at least SOME exercise.


(4/15/2010)

Did laundry, got my exercise by running around the basement, and STILL had time to Poke before my shows -- getting off at 5 really helps! Made a speedy run through Mt. Moon by doing most of the upper level in a few go's, then using an Escape Rope and healing up before the final push. This got me to Cerulean, where I did not wait to catch my Ekans before taking Misty down, so Norton was once again compliant. Then went out to catch my Slither, who is NOT made of glass this time. Did the route up to the cape then headed for Vermillion.

Only, I didn't get Slither up to team level, and spent waaaaay too much time running around Diglett's Cave trying to find a Dugtrio. Apparently the RNG still hates me, 'cause I used up all Irving's attacks while looking. Finally one appeared and I caught it. Also ran out towards the end of Rt. 11 on the vague recollection that one of Prof. Oak's Aides was there, but unfortunately I didn't have the 30 species it would have taken to get the Itemfinder. Gotta buckle down and get Slither up to the point where I can comfortably take on the SS Anne, blow through there, then head for Rock Tunnel. I have an Abra to teach Flash to, and am debating whether to give Dig to Slither, or wait until I've got my Growlithe.


(4/16/2010)

Brought Slither up to speed by going through the rest of the trainers on Rt. 11 east of Vermillion, took down Lt. Surge's Gym, and fought my way through the SS Anne. The rival battle went spectacularly well -- not only was the team quite nicely overlevelled by that point, but Norton's Swords Dance made the whole battle a series of one-shots. With the Thunderbadge, I can now use Fly outside of battle. Normally I wouldn't have the Fly HM at this stage of the game, but thanks to breeding Norton has the move anyway.

Next push will be to get to and through Rock Cave. That'll get me to Lavender, and while I won't be able to do anything about that Snorlax to the south yet, I'll be able to catch my Growlithe (gotta think of a good name). And I can also get the Tea for the thirsty Guards and open up the way though Saffron.

Movesets: I've decided that Dig should go to the Growlithe, and Giga Drain (after I beat Erika in Celadon) to Slither. Poison, as it turns out, seems to be weak against Ground, so having a Grass attack in his moveset would help with that. I might also bring over a Sludge Bomb TM from the main Rue cart, since Acid isn't terribly powerful and doesn't poison; and I had been thinking to give Toxic to Irving. I believe I'll go with a moveset of Bite, Dig, Flame Wheel (or Flamethrower if I can buy the TM) and Extremespeed for my future Arcanine.


(4/19/2010)

Rock Cave went fairly quickly, between Irving and Scorn, and I arrived in Lavender. Caught my Growlithe, though it took forever to find a female with the Flash Fire ability, and named her Khamsin (hot desert wind), which enabled me to retire Scorn. First thing after that, I nabbed my Eevee from the Celadon Mansion, then got the Tea and opened up Saffron. Between the trainers on that route, the Celadon Gym, and the Fighting Dojo, plus a passle of wild battles to rack up some EVs, I got the whole team up to lvl 33 (Norton to lvl 37). Taught Dig to Khamsin and Giga Drain to Slither.

So that gives me four out of six of my final team. The next objective is to get the Snorlax out of the way and get to Fuschia, which means getting the Poke Flute from Mr. Fuji, which in turn means getting the Silph Scope from the Team Rocket Hideout in Celadon. I might also try working the Game Corner enough to get Flamethrower for Khamsin, though that'll take 4000 coins -- not chump change.

Haven't done a darn thing in SS -- I'm still standing in front of Pryce's Gym. Didn't get many steps over the weekend due to cramps, either, so haven't caught anything new with the Pokewalker. Probably I'll keep going with the push through Kanto in FR until I get tired of it (most likely when I get impatient with Entei-hunting).


(4/20/2010)

Blew through the Game Corner Hideout and Pokemon Tower and got both Snorlax out of the way. Because the team's so overlevelled, most of the battles were just a series of one-shots, including the rival battle. Everyone's now lvl 35-37.

I also spent some time at the Game Corner and was able to rack up over 4000 coins -- though, now that I think about it, I might put them towards Ice Beam for my prospective Shellder. Or maybe try to win enough for both Ice Beam and Flamethrower; but if I can only have one, it'll be Ice Beam. Should probably take care of that before leaving Celadon.

So the next thing is the push towards Fuschia. Because I always take the waterside route, I'm thinking of going down Cycling Road this time. But I'll still want to grab the Super Rod, run out to Vermillion, and catch me a Shellder first. In fact, why haven't I done that already? D'oh.

Fuschia means the Safari Zone, which will net me a passle o' Pokes, plus Surf. Once I'm done there, I can take the waterside route back up around to Saffron to clear out Silph HQ. Then once Saffron Gym's down (and between Slither and Khamsin having Bite, this should be easy as long as they're properly levelled) it'll be off to Cinnabar. And THIS time I won't ignore Bill when he invites me to the islands.

...Though, it would likely be worth it to take a side-trip down to the Power Plant the moment I do get Surf, and get my Electabuzz. That way I can train it on those water routes.

That makes the plan: Get Super Rod > Catch Shellder > Down Cycling Road to Fuschia > Visit Safari Zone and obtain Surf > Catch Electabuzz at Power Plant > Circle back around to Saffron > Boot Team Rocket out of Silph HQ and get Master Ball > Defeat Sabrina > Head for Cinnibar > Do the Island sidequest.

Got my 5000 steps yesterday with a solid half-hour of walking and netted myself a Smoochum. Today's stroll on Blue Lake does not include either Dratini or Shellder, so I'll want to return and go back out to Blue Lake when I get home. Tonight's also Deadliest Catch and V, so maybe not much Poke-time.


(4/26/2010)

Much progress.

Got the Super Rod and caught my Shellder, a gal who I named Bertha (after Baltimore's "eat Bertha's mussels!" bumper stickers [ forgot that Pearl's hand-raised Cloyster is also named Bertha, oops ]). Bought Ice Beam at the Game Corner, and after levelling her up to get Aurora Beam and Protect, bought a Water Stone and evolved her to a Cloyster. Whereupon I set off down Cycling Road -- didn't fight all the Bikers right away but got to Fuschia.

That got me Surf, which Bertha immediately got taught, and finding the Warden's teeth got me Strength as well. Thus I ran up to the Power Plant and finally netted my Electabuzz, a male named Farraday (need to check spelling on that though). With my E4 team finally assembled, I went down Cycling Road again and took out the rest of the Bikers, then did a few turns through the Safari Zone to fill out my 'dex. Started up the coastal route back to Saffron, but didn't make it through all the trainers because it was getting late. I did get Exp Share, though, which should prove helpful, and the whole team's at lvl 39.

The next thing will be to finish up the coastal route, and to comb through the grass for a Ditto or two. Even though it's only that gang of Bikers and the fence-maze trainers, it could take a while to spot a Ditto. Then it'll be onward to clear the Rockets out of Silph Co. so I can get into the Saffron Gym. This'll also get me the Master Ball.

I've put almost 26 hours on FR so far, so I probably won't beat it in anything near 31 hours, but still. I've nearly got enough 'dex entries to get the Nat'l 'Dex right after the Elite Four, as long as I rescue Lostelle this time. Evolving Irving should do it; and he's got Synthesis now so I've taken away his Everstone. Getting through Silph should take care of levelling him enough to evolve -- in fact everyone should be lvl 40 or over by the time I hit the Gym. Koga gave me Toxic, so I should replace Poisonpowder with that, too.

After completing Saffron, the path will be: Return to Pallet > Surf to Cinnabar > Detour to Islands and rescue Lostelle > Find Gym Key in Cinnabar Mansion > Defeat Cinnabar Gym > Return to Viridian and defeat Gym > Hit the trail to the Pokemon League. I can leave the birds for after the E4, and after going through the Mansion and Victory Road I should have more than enough 'dex entries.

Once I've caught Entei (fingers crossed and knock on wood!) I'll probably transfer all the Berries to Emerald via rotating trades. Items can go to LG for now, and random catches should be Pal Parked (in fact I don't necessarily need to wait until the game is finished, for that). I should also take the opportunity to catch a breeding pair of all the FR exclusives, for transfer to both Emerald and LG.

So, besides that -- I got 5000 or more steps a day for five of seven days last week, along with my half-hour of walking. However, I managed to severely blister my feet by doing 50 minutes barefooted on Heather's and Julie's treadmill. So, won't get my steps for a few days, and will have to debate some other kind of exercise. I've netted a few more Pokes via the PW, but right now am on Night Sky's Edge for the valuable items.

And I actually DID make some progress in SS -- did some training in Mt. Mortar, and defeated Pryce's Gym. That, of course, triggered the call from Prof. Elm that the Rockets have taken over Goldenrod Tower, so that'll be the next task there. Interestingly, that puts both games at about the same point, and the teams at nearly the same levels.


(4/27/2010)

Definitely am not beating FR in my record hours -- I already have over 30 hours on it, and still have several major chunks of story to go.

Wrapped up the coastal route and caught a Ditto (might go back for another later). Then went to Saffron and cleaned out Silph. I'd been thinking it was about time my rival showed up again, and he did; his Gyrados gave me a little trouble but otherwise he went down pretty easily. With the Gym unblocked, I managed to sweep through all the minor trainers just with Slither. Sabrina's Alakazam gave me a LOT of trouble, though. It one-shotted two-thirds of my team by boosting Psychic with Calm Mind, and Farraday only JUST pulled through long enough to hit it with Strength one last time. Still, I got the badge, so that gives me obedience to lvl 70.

From Pallet I turned south, caught a Tangela, then avoided all the trainers on the way to Cinnabar. Bill was nowhere in sight, which means that I will have to get the key from the Mansion and beat Blaine before I can do the Island subquest. Should also go back over the water and take out all those trainers. And I keep forgetting to teach Irving Toxic; though I did finally let him evolve.


(5/3/2010)

Did not get nearly as many steps from Sheep and Wool this weekend as I'd expected. Too many people and more shuffling and standing than actual walking. My feet hurt from the standing but the blisters were OK.

Got through the Cinnibar Mansion, though, and took down most of Blaine's Gym with Khamsin and Dig. That triggered the Island sequence, so I followed Bill down there and rescued Lostelle. Since I was around there anyway, I also trucked out to the cape on Two Island and got Frenzy Plant for Irving. With that done, the next thing was Viridian Gym, which I wasn't levelled enough to tackle. So I spent a bunch of time running around the Power Plant and Cinnabar Mansion, as well as fishing off Cinnibar, to collect more of the FR exclusives. Besides those, you can also catch some final evo's that aren't in LG, like Seadra and Weezing; so I went ahead and nabbed those too.

When I'd caught enough, the team ranged from Norton at lvl 45 to Irving at lvl 50, so I decided to take on the Viridian Gym. Lots of trainers there with large teams, but Bertha Surfed all the Ground-types to oblivion, and Norton handled the fighting types. Bertha took down all of Giovanni's team as well -- I'd held Irving in reserve but didn't even need him. I remembered to pick up the hidden Macho Brace, healed up at the Pokecenter, and saved.

So now all that stands between me and the E4 is Victory Road. That'll give me a chance to fill out my 'dex some more and get my levels up properly. For the E4 themselves, Khamsin and Farraday should take care of Lorelei and Agatha, Bertha and Norton should be good for Bruno, and Bertha and Farraday should be able to take on Lance. Then it's just that last rival battle, and I can grab the Nat'l 'Dex and start Entei-hunting!


(5/4/2010)

Got through Victory Road in just a couple runs. I was able to catch some Ekans and a couple Arbok, though I missed catching a Machamp. Oddly enough, the wild encounters were almost more trouble than the trainers.

That left me at the doorstep of the Elite Four, and got me Fly access to Indigo Plateau. Thing is, the team's still only lvls 47-50, which is too dang low to take on the E4. Training will be required -- I think I've beat the E4 with a lvl 55 team, so I'll aim for that (which, amusingly, should let me have a nice even battle with one of my other teams, while I'm doing my trading).

From there, I should probably start the process of cleaning out the cartridge. Theoretically I should Pal Park all the non-exclusive random catches to Pearl and transfer them to the Ranch....by the time I'm done I might actually have caught Entei.

FR exclusives will go to LG only -- I don't feel like going through the Islands and fixing the dang machine AGAIN. Although maybe it'd be worth it to pick up another Sludge Bomb TM, since I plan to teach that to Slither. Dunno.

I should likely collect the legendary birds as long as I'm at it, though Mewtwo will depend on whether I feel like completing the Islands again. Then it's items/team/specials/exclusives to LG, Berries to Emerald (if I work the rotating trades with the FR exclusives, that'd take care of that, though the machine would have to have been fixed first).

Bah, who am I kidding, I'll probably finish the whole thing again, 'cause I'm me. Maybe I should go Entei-hunting first, and see how I feel about it after I've netted him.

Still. SO CLOSE. And then I can concentrate on SS, after all this is over with.


(5/5/2010)

Note to self: lvl 50 is too dang low to take on the Elite Four, especially with several weaker team members.

Since I was there, I figured I'd give the E4 a try. Not that I expected to win or anything, but whoah were they a LOT harder with the team not properly levelled. I was already in trouble in the first battle, and had to fall back on revives and potions just to keep going. Even so, I made it all the way to the final rival battle, and through most of his Pokemon. I had just two more to take down when he finally got me.

But that gets me thinking. There's no way of telling when you've maxed your EVs in FR/LG, short of trying to feed your Pokemon vitamins, and them having no effect. If I did that, though, and was able to confirm that the team's got its max EVs, then I could level them with the Rare Candies I've been saving. I've already got three games' worth of the dang things, and it sure would be a lot faster. And I lost with a narrow enough margin that just a few more levels should do the trick.

The other thing I should really do before hitting the E4 again is bring over Sludge Bomb for Slither, because Acid sure as heck wasn't cutting it, and Sludge Bomb did a LOT of damage when Agatha's Arbok hit me with it. While I'm at it I could probably trade the FR exclusives for the LG ones, and fill out the 'dex just a bit more.

I do have to say, though, Slither did better than I thought. When my supereffective choice went down (which happened a LOT) I found myself going back to him time and again as the one to throw out there until I could get my other Pokemon revived. Hopefully that won't be necessary next time, and I can one-shot or two-shot most everything.


(5/10/2010)

And the Elite Four are DOWN.

The vitamin idea didn't work, because as it turned out, more than one team member did not have their full EVs. So instead, I ran around a bit in Victory Road and elsewhere to train, then got impatient with that and just fed everyone a Rare Candy and went for it.

At around lvl 53 this is probably the lowest-levelled team that I've ever taken up against the Elite Four. Still, it went a heckuva lot better than last time. I was able to down most of their Pokes in one hit, and only a few really gave me any trouble. Not an easy win, but not as difficult as, say, the E4 were in Platinum.

This is both good news and bad news: I can go Entei-hunting! Which means....going Entei hunting, and all the time and patience that requires. I've only gone at it three or four turns so far, and I'm already tired of it. But I've got to remember, it took weeks of searching to find Suicune and Raikou, and there's no reason to hope that the RNG will be any kinder to me this time around.

On the SS side of things, I booted up long enough to sell some of the Pokewalker goodies and see if my trade went through yet (after what, a couple weeks?), and discovered that Team Rocket are blocking access to the GTS. How dare they! A trouncing is clearly in order.

I also kept Hootie on the cartridge long enough to feed him a Rare Candy and evolve him. At some point I may fix his moveset, but I have to get to Blackthorn first, which means clearing the Rockets out of Goldenrod.

More importantly, I cleared 9,000 steps for the first time! Since the Mt. Airy shop didn't have any Sidewinders to show me, I went by Subaru for a test drive of an Outback, and came to the conclusion that it's more car than I can justify needing. And then I went out to Ellicott City to check out the Short Line #9 trail. I did at least fifteen or twenty minutes each way, for a good 6,000-some steps, then went home and jogged for the other few thousand. Caught a Bouncing Magikarp, a Bronzor, and a Duskull, but did not get the Munchlax with Leftovers. They only have a 5% appearance rate, but I'm fairly sure they're on my current stroll, so I'm going to save up my Watts until I can get 8,000+ steps again.

In retrospect: SS up to Olivine

(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(3/25/2010)

Too tired after Lorien last night to do any Poke-ing. But I did have over 3,000 steps -- and when I activated the Pokeradar, I only saw Paras. Which MIGHT mean that the Group A Pokemon for this stroll is Wobbuffet, who is the rarer one. That would mean, in turn, that I need to rack up 4,000 steps today so I can try to catch one. Maybe I can walk around my allergists' building or something?

I also owe Petty a Buneary with Sky Uppercut, to trade for that Spinarak Sunday. Luckily I'll be breeding in Pearl, and Hitmonchan get Sky Uppercut at lvl 36, plus all the elemental punches at lvl 31. Ah, but wait -- if I'm going to tutor Bounce instead of levelling two Buneary to lvl 46, I need to breed in Platinum, where I might not have a Hitmonchan. Graaaaah. Oh well, will make it work somehow. I'm thinking Sky Uppercut, Bounce, Ice Punch, and some interesting TM.


(3/26/2010)

Caught my Wobbuffet last night, though I needed over 5000 steps to do it. Today's stroll is on the Rugged Road, where the selection of the day includes Onix, Geodude, and not sure what the group B one will be.

Also booted Team Rocket out of Slowpoke Well -- Executive Proton was surprisingly weak -- then went for the Azalea Gym. Their bugs burned nicely as expected, with the exception of Bugsy's Scyther. Switching out Cynder for Rocky did the trick though. Then I ventured far enough into Ilex to find the missing Farfetch'd and get Cut (need to remember to pick up the Charcoal from the kiln apprentice). So I'm now at the point where I need the event Pichu for Ilex. All the core team are now trying to evolve (except Cynder, who's holding the Everstone).

I also need to decide what I want to do with Izzel's moveset. The original Izzel from Silver had Cut, Swift, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes -- a theme of quickness, accuracy, and slashing claws. But I'll need someone on the team to learn Headbutt, shortly. I'd wanted her to learn Slam, but Headbutt is nearly as good and more accurate. Cut is a natural replacement for Scratch. But Fury Swipes? why did I keep such a pathetic attack? I see from Bulbapedia that back in GII they didn't learn much after that (Swift was a TM, and this was back when it was a kickass attack). In fact, they STILL don't learn much of use beyond Slam at 19. And she's already got Quick Attack and Fury Swipes, so maybe I teach her Cut and then just replace Swift with something. Again, it's nostalgia vs. utility. [no. I forgot the kind of damage Fury Swipes can do in a fast Pokemon with a high Attack. Izzel totally rocks the Fury Swipes, as the original Silver one must have.]

Maybe I could teach Headbutt to Rocky instead. I already stuck him with Rock Smash. This creates its own problem, though, because that puts two field moves on a Pokemon I am not planning to keep on the team. ...y'know, though. Making him a Steelix might not be a bad idea; they get Crunch later, and they're Steel/Ground, so Dig would be super-effective. Hmmm.

The essential conundrum here is the nostalgia thing. Do I duplicate my Silver team move-for-move, even though the GII learnsets were so limited? Or do I give up on straight duplication, and go for the newer better moves in GIV? I suspect that the answer is somewhere in the middle....keep signature moves/themes, but replace what just doesn't make sense. I can't just ignore the new attacks, after all. Goodness knows my Blue-redo team in LG didn't end up much resembling their forebearers.

The original Cynder had Swift, Rollout, Flame Wheel, and Flamethrower, all of which they still learn. The only HM they can learn is Cut. Think I'll go for nostalgia here....or maybe, replace Flame Wheel with Lava Plume?

The original Sheepish had Strength, Flash, Thundershock, and Thunder. I usually do end up putting Strength on my Electric types, so that's fine. But Flash? I suspect I needed that to get through Victory Road, and I would much rather keep Thunder Wave. Thunder is still the most powerful attack they learn, but now they can also get interesting stuff like Discharge, Signal Beam, and Power Gem. ...heh. If Faros were an Ampharos, he'd totally have those last two. But for Sheepish I think I'll do Strength, Thunder Wave, Discharge (i.e. an upgraded version of Thundershock), and Thunder.

Hootie's moveset doesn't really matter much, since moves aren't used on the Pokewalker, but I can probably do a close dupe of his original Silver moveset; I don't think Nightmare is available anymore though.

It'll be a while before I get my Natu, so I can worry about that when I get there....plus, since I didn't raise one last time, I can do what I want. Natu should learn Miracle Eye, though; this removes Dark's immunity to Psychic attacks. They also get Night Shade and Teleport pretty early. After evolving, Xatu can also learn Fly and Defog...no Headbutt though. Teleport can be replaced with Fly (which is essentially Teleport with the choice of destination), then the rest can be Miracle Eye, Night Shade, and Psychic.

Oh, but what about my prospective Spinarak? ...actually, they don't learn much either in terms of level-up moves, aside of Night Shade, and don't learn any HM moves either. But they can learn Flash and Dig (sadly, not Headbutt). Signal Beam can be tutored, in the Frontier Front for BP in SS, or by the Survival Area tutor for two of each shard in Pt. Given the Bug/Poison combo, Toxic would be a natural choice as well. Note that they also learn Spider Web, which keeps the target from escaping or switching out; this is one of two Bug moves they learn by level-up.

I gotta say, the necessity of Flash is really annoying. As is the fact that there's so darn many field moves, when only a few are really useful enough to keep around all the time (like Fly or Surf).


(3/29/2010)

And after all that, when I got to Ilex Forest and met the Headbutt guy, the only team Pokes I had with me were Cynder, Rocky, and Izzel, because of having to clear the party for the two Pichus. So, Izzel got Headbutt, and I let her evolve since she's got that instead of Slam. Might have to throw Rock Smash on her too someday....too many dang HMs and field moves.

On the plus side, I did pick up the special notch-eared Pichu. And bred a wacky Buneary with Sky Uppercut, Bounce, Ice Punch, and Solarbeam for Petty, and got a Spinarak Egg in return. Since it hatched male, it got named Chet. It's got no special moves, just what they get at lvl 1, but I'm going to take it out to the early Routes and train it. Can pick up Apricorns and take the notch-eared Pichu by Prof. Elm's while I'm at it.

On the not-so-plus side, breeding that Buneary took an awfully long time, seeing as I had yet to get up to the Survival Area in Platinum. And while I was levelling stuff up I made the decision -- unwise, in retrospect -- to go catch my Shaymin as per Oak's Letter. However, this turned out to be on Rt. 224, and for that I had to truck through the back end of Victory Road, and doing that got me stuck with Marley. In fog. So getting through there took longer than it needed to. But I did catch my Shaymin and named her Petunia, and Corwin did help me move stuff over to SS. He also gave me an Egg containing a Wooper with Surf, Earthquake, and Blizzard, bred I think from the Quagsire from the previous trainer's game.

All this Poke-ing, though, meant I didn't get in much walking. I did walk up to the Paradise 7-11 for some milk, but even that little walk had me panting for breath. I tried to offset this by stepping in place during episodes of SGU, but I can't do that for more than five minutes, either. So I ended up with maybe 3000 steps for the entire weekend, which meant I didn't get any Group A Pokemon from Beautiful Beach.

Also need to send Jirachi to the Pokewalker to unlock Edge of the Night Sky. And there's an event Saturday for a Pokemon group on dA, where everyone brings five Eggs, and trades them with everyone else so that everyone ends up with five Eggs. I know I've got stuff I can run off in Pearl, so I'm thinking of attending....I love the random mystery Egg trade idea.

Anyway. Need to do some walking today, and maybe fire up the Wii to get in a half hour of SOME kind of exercise. D: Maybe spring for Wii Fit Plus, or Wii Sports Resort? Also need to return that cart of FR....


(3/30/2010)

V starts up again tonight. And SGU starts up again Friday, and Deadliest Catch on Tues Apr 13. WHOO

Have been training Chet (have to check if his name should actually be Chester? can't remember) diligently outside New Bark Town, and he's finally getting to where he can hold his own against the weaker Pokes there. Took the notch-eared Pichu to show Prof. Elm, who talked about time travel and Celebi and that this Pichu had surely travelled too much through time so take extra good care of it. So of course I dumped it in the PC and went back to training. ;P

Managed over 5,000 steps yesterday despite the rain -- took the long way 'round the building, walked up 7 floors of the parking garage, and did a LOT of running in place while catching up with the season finale of Caprica. Caught a Poliwhirl, a Slowpoke, and a Staryu off the Pokewalker.

Also signed up for the Poke-fanclub's Easter Egg Scramble, despite having to join the group to do it, and also despite the fact that I'll be at a hotel on Saturday, which means re-configuring WiFi. I should look for a hotel and make sure to get one with wireless internet...

Tonight I wanna train Chet some more, pick up Apricorns along my way back to Azalea, and then see if I can't get to Goldenrod. This will get me Daycare access, and hopefully GTS access too. And I'll need to look over my breeding pairs in Pearl before this weekend, and see what's interesting for the Scramble.


(3/31/2010)

Holy crap, it's gonna be April already and I haven't done my taxes. O:

Trekked back to Azalea, picking up Apricorns and training Chet as I went. Made it through the rest of Ilex and up to Goldenrod, then spent time running around the town. The layout's basically the same, but the graphics are vastly improved -- the place looks great. I grabbed my Bike, answered a quiz for my Radio Card, fought trainers in the Underground and got the Fashion Case from Ethan, and finally got Izzel properly named. Stopped by the GTS to register my location and upload a Sunkern, in hopes of getting the international trade I need to unlock the Beyond the Sea Pokewalker course. And tried out the new Voltorb Flip game in the Game Corner, which is HORRIFYINGLY addictive.

Surprisingly, Ethan showed up to introduce me to the Day Care couple, who are apparently his grandparents. Given their confusion over where those Eggs keep coming from, it's my guess that they adopted. XD

In Pokewalker news, I think this stroll might have Elekid on it, so I didn't connect the Pokewalker last night, and took a 20-minute walk at lunchtime today. I've already got 3500+ of the 5000 steps I'd need to catch one, if it's there, so I think I can do it. Maybe.

Next goal in the game is to wallop Whitney, and that'll take some preparation. I have verrry bad memories of her Miltank -- between Stomp and Rollout, it's a huge powerhouse, and with Milk Drink, it might be almost impossible to take down. Plus Attract, to mess with the boys. It's lvl 19 so I'd best be at levels around 25. Luckily Sheepish and Izzel are both female; maybe if Sheepish can paralyze it (Lum Berry notwithstanding) then I'd have a chance.

After that I can get the Squirtbottle, and possibly the Berry Planter. Should also nab the Gracidea while I'm there.


(4/1/2010)

Well, THAT was anticlimactic.

In dread of Whitney, I spent time running up north of Goldenrod and fighting trainers along routes and in the National Park to get the team up around lvl 22 before I even set foot in the Gym. Yet, when I actually faced her, her Jigglypuff went down to Izzel in one hit, and Rocky and Sheepish took care of her Miltank without too much trouble. Got the Plain Badge first try, and can now use Strength outside of battle (not that I've found the HM yet).

With that done, I got the Squirtbottle from the Flower Shop, and caught the Sudowoodo. Flora from the Flower Shop was standing there, and gave me the Berry Planters, so during beach trip I might try growing me some Berries since I'll be around to water them. I did bring Petunia by the Flower Shop before doing that, and the lady there didn't react to her; but I ought to go back and try again now that the Sudowoodo has been dealt with.

Spent waaaaay too much time trying the Voltorb Flip. It's much easier to win coins a little at a time if you quit the games while you're ahead, but really dang hard to actually clear a game. Still, I've already got over 1000 coins. I'm saving for a Dratini (now I know where Wyrmling came from, in my Silver game).

Couldn't find an Elekid on the Pokewalker to save my life, even though I easily got 5000 steps yesterday. The book says the chance of them appearing is really really low....so maybe I just rack up as many watts as I can in advance of beach, then walk the Boardwalk to get the steps I need and just keep trying?


(4/2/2010)

Morty more than made up for what Whitney lacked.

In a fit of complacency, fresh from my victory at Goldenrod's gym, I trucked on up to Ecruteak (after a quick stop at the Bug-Catching Contest, where I placed third with a Pinsir). I made the rounds of the town, rescued the Kimono Girl from the Rocket Grunt (winning Surf in the process), and took a turn through the Burned Tower. Trounced my rival, met Euisine, released the legendary beast trio. And then, with no further training or ado, I took on the Ecruteak Gym.

The Mediums went down so easily -- one or two shots of Cynder's Flame Wheel for each Pokemon -- that I got cocky and went right up to Morty. And his lvl 25 Gengar proceeded to one-shot half my team with Shadow Ball. If I hadn't been carrying Petunia, I'd have lost that battle. As it was, I was able to squeak through with most of the team down, Cynder at 1 HP, and Petunia using Synthesis to fend off Curse. T'was not a pretty sight. But I have the Fog Badge, obedience to lvl 50, the ability to use Surf, and the Shadow Ball TM.

Before continuing on to Olivine, I want to check out the Bell Tower in Ecruteak, then head down to the Ruins of Alph to net me some Unown and catch my Natu. I'll need a temp Pokemon to teach Surf to, since I don't have Vermillion yet, but it can't be helped.

I should also check on that Ditto I caught, and see if it has Rocky's moveset. And possibly see about that guard and his Spearow with Mail. And let's not forget that somewhere before 7 PM tomorrow, I need to scrape together five Eggs in Pearl for the Scramble event.

As to the Pokewalker -- I finally caught a couple Elekid, even though I spent over 300 carefully hoarded watts to do it, so I was able to finally end my Suburban Area stroll. Downloaded the Yellow Forest, and when I went in to start a new stroll, I noticed that there was a second page of courses. Night Sky's Edge was right there on that second page. DUH. So, have started that, and will likely transfer stuff back at points tomorrow to rack up Stardusts, which are really really easy to find and will get me some money. WHOO. There's no Pokemon worth the watts on this course except Jigglypuff and Clefairy, which both require 5000 steps. We shall see.


(4/7/2010)

Too much progress to go into detail. I did get a Clefairy off Night Sky's Edge, and won enough coins at Voltorb Flip to net me a Dratini to use as my temp Surfer (since she's female I am duping Aquamarine from Blue instead of Wyrmling from Silver). Delivered that Spearow, and the Ditto did not have Rocky's moveset. Also got down to the Ruins after getting Surf and caught Peya, my Natu.

However, ComfortInn's WiFi was set to pop up a terms and conditions page, which prevented the DS from being able to connect. So, even though I'd bred Eggs for the Scramble, I couldn't participate. I even tried walking down to Somerset St to try the municipal WiFi, but with no luck. I've offered them as WiFi prizes for the club.

I tried the Yellow Forest course, but found that I'm not yet in shape enough to walk 10K steps. Mostly I just kept the Watts, since I spent more time cycling than walking (yay bannana bikes). I didn't do any Berry growing at all, despite my best intentions.

Got over to Cianwood and beat that Gym, which was also harder than I'd expected, and brought back the SecretPotion for Amphy. But my first attempt at the Olivine Gym was a complete disaster, so much so that I just switched off the DS rather than lose yet more money. The team's levels just aren't high enough, and preventing them from evolving is starting to bite me in the ass. Peya and Chet are also just weaker than they should be for their levels. I'm going to have to do some serious levelling before taking on Jasmine again -- get Cynder up to learning Flamethrower so he can evolve, and maybe go in there with Petunia as well.

Unfinished tasks include catching a good Krabby to trade that one guy, and getting enough Oran Berries to heal the farm's Miltank. I foolishly started feeding her all my Oran Berries without growing more, and guess what! I didn't have enough. Gonna have to net some off the Pokewalker and grow them -- according to Serebii, they appear with 50% probability on Refreshing Field between 300 and 500 steps.

And another thing: Before leaving for OC I swung by the Catonsville GameStop to exchange that FR cart. Turned out that the cartridge was an illegal hack -- as in, not even made by Nintendo! I should have spotted it -- the cartridge was clear red, not solid; and the version name printing was different. However, they did have a real FR cartridge, so I was able to exchange. Even better (from my viewpoint) there's virtually nothing already on the game. Just a gibberish-named Charmeleon and some common low-level Pokes in the party...the PC is empty. The only standout items are a Star Piece and a Moon Stone.

So I'll just trade out the Charmeleon and the Star Piece, and re-start. Pick my new Irving, get to Viridian, then breed another Farfetch'd (and thankfully the parents are already set up, so this won't take long) and trade it over. That way I'll have a Flying type going into Viridian Forest, and can Peck the heck outta all those bugs. It'd be nice to have something else as insurance, just to get me through Mt. Moon, but I may just see if I can blitz through there with only the two? Maybe I just need to invest in some Repels. Hopefully the new Slither won't be as fragile, and I can get back to Vermillion without too much trouble.

In retrospect: Starting SoulSilver, and FireRed evaporates

(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(3/22/2010)

FINALLY started SoulSilver! Petty got her package Friday, but I wasn't able to get my game going until Sunday night. Still, I now have the Pokewalker clipped on, and am counting steps.

Unfortunately, unlocking courses seems to count unspent watts only. So, unlocking the rest of the courses might take a while....

Also, while running around on Friday, decided to stop in the Columbia GameStop just in case, and nabbed a FR cart. However, there was no prep needed before starting that game, because when I booted it up, it acted as if it was completely new -- gave the rundown of the game controls, even. So, no catching stuff for breeding, no trading for the Farfetch'd, no cleaning out to do. Ominously, though, everytime I start up the cartridge, it says "The save file is ok" before it displays the continue game/new game screen. I take that to mean some idiot tried hacking the game, and wiped their save file. Hopefully it'll be OK to play a normal game on, though, because I'd gotten too far by the time I discovered this to want to restart.

So in Kanto I have a Bulbasaur named Irving, along with a Mankey and a Spearow that I don't really want to train. But all the Pokemon I actually WANT on my team aren't available until Cerulean or later, and I needed something to get me that far. Viridian Forest makes a Flying type almost necessary (and Spearow get Peck right away). So I will likely name those two and put them in the Specials box, even though I wasn't intending to train them.

I also have my Ekans, Slither, who I suspect has a crap IV in Defense because he is made of friggin' GLASS. Since I've already worked hard to train him, I suppose I'll throw vitamins at him later to compensate. For all my lack of an electric Pokemon, Misty went down to Irving with no problems, despite me taking time to raise my temporary team evenly.

So that got me to Vermillion, where I can trade for the Farfetch'd. Have caught a higher-level Spearow in the main Rue cart for this, then will breed my own Farfetch'd, hatch it, and trade it back. I was going to trade the unwanted Spearow I was training, but dang it, I've put too much work into it to just give it away.

From there I think I've got no choice but to fight through the SS Anne for Cut. Once I've got that and have gotten through Rock Cave, though, I can run over to Celadon, grab the Tea for the Guards, and open up the crossroads through Saffron. Then I'll be able to run to the other side of Saffron to catch my Growlithe, and level it up some before I take on Erica -- and, after I beat her, obedience won't be an issue for a good long while. Unfortunately, there's a Snorlax between me and the Super Rod I need to catch a Shellder in Vermillion until after I've done Silph Co. and Lavender Tower. I should likely give the Leftovers under it to Slither, to help offset his low Defense.

As for SS, my next foray will be into the Sprout Tower, followed by the attempt at Falkner's Gym. And lots of Poke-walking -- I've solved the nostalgia problem I was having over not wanting to train another Hootie by making him my walking partner. In the Pokewalker combats, level and attacks don't matter, so there's no problems with him not being strong enough. And Flying's one of the preferred types for the first two default routes. So Hootie has a new purpose, and will get raised despite not being in the team.

Other than Cynder and Hootie, though, I don't have any of my team Pokemon yet, which will no doubt prove a problem in short order. Maybe I can catch a Sentret off the Pokewalker today, and start raising my Izzel? Looking at Bulbapedia, there's nothing in Sprout Tower besides Bellsprout and Gastly, and it looks like I'll need Surf before I can get a Natu. This might cause problems, as the concentration on Cynder has gotten him levelled beyond where I can even catch other Pokemon easily.

Makes me wonder how far I have to get before WiFi trading is activated, so I can maybe get that Spinarak from Petty. Or maybe Hootie's going to have to get some training after all. WHY are none of the Pokemon I want available as early as I remember??


(3/23/2010)

Instead of advancing either game, I spent some time breeding Farfetch'd. Trading the lvl 32 Spearow I'd caught in LG got me a Farfetch'd that had Swords Dance, so I taught him Cut and Fly and bred a female. After raising her to get Swords Dance as well, I bred a Farfetch'd with Peck, Cut, Fly, and Swords Dance, named him Norton (although, I know I've got something elsewhere with that name [ yes, a Taillow]) and traded him back into FR. Then I spent time raising him up to lvl 20 to match the rest of the team. Norton seems to be holding his own pretty well, which let me put my Spearow away.

Did nothing in SS except rack up steps and catch two Doduo on the Pokewalker. Unfortunately, the more steps I get in a day, the less likely it becomes that a Sentret will appear. This means that to get the Sentret I want, I'm going to have to save watts from the previous day, then try first thing in the morning while the steps are still at 0. I'm already over 700 steps today which is too high to get a Sentret. Also, if I only see Pidgey when doing that, I'll have to return Hootie and start another stroll.

Though, catching Pokemon on the Pokewalker is way harder than I thought. First you have to pick the clump of grass showing the "!", up to four times for the rarer Pokemon. If you don't get to it in time using the two buttons, or pick the wrong one, the Pokemon gets away. Then, the battles are deceptively tricky. Besides losing the Pokemon if you faint it, it can also just up and run off. Worse, while all your steps get saved, the watts you spend trying to find items or catch Pokemon are NOT sent back to the DS. You spend it, you lose it. This means you have to rack up enough watts to spend on multiple attempts, AND to unlock new courses. Pain in the ass, really.

Another issue is the day/night thing, which I remember being an issue back in Silver, too. Quite a few Pokemon only appear during the morning or day, which is going to be a problem when I can usually only play at night. I'd wondered why I didn't see any Sentret on that first route.

Anyway, the plan for tonight is to blow through both the SS Anne and Rock Cave in FR, if possible. SS will have to wait until I manage to nab a Sentret.


(3/23/2010)

Aaaand the best laid plans of mice and men....

Upon sticking the FR cart in the DS and starting it up, I was greeted with a message declaring that "The save file has been deleted." So much for those ten or more hours, and all that training....yet, I'm surprisingly mellow about it. In fact, I half-expected this to happen. Restarting the game didn't seem to help, either, because the "The save file is OK" message still appears. So I'm going to take the cartridge back to the Catonsville store as defective, and see if I can't get another. Goodness knows Slither wasn't as strong as he could have been, and I can easily breed another Norton -- in fact, I can get Norton as soon as Viridian now, and train him from the get-go.

Conversely, I managed to catch a Sentret on the Pokewalker with comparatively little effort. So I ended that stroll, sending Hootie and my new Sentret back to the DS -- but a second later, another Sentret had spontaneously joined me on the Pokewalker! Sure, it's a function of the programming, but that's still awesome. I sent her back to the DS immediately, and put her on the team (even though I'll have to wait until Goldenrod to nickname her properly).

After a bit of training, I took my new Sentret up Sprout Tower and got Flash, then easily swept the Violet City Gym. From there I went out to the Ruins of Alph, but sure enough, I can't get a Natu there until after I have Surf. Will have to look to see if they're available elsewhere. [they're not.] Instead, I went south towards Azalea, and despite running out of Pokeballs for random catches, I did catch a Mareep. So now I have three of my final team: Cynder, Izzel, and Sheepish. I also have Merry, the Togepi from the Mystery Egg, and Rocky the Onix, traded for a Bellsprout. All are at lvl 15 (except Merry, who I'm not sure I'll train since I've got Surprise in Pearl).

That means the next tasks are to get through the Slowpoke Well and the Azalea Gym. I should likely pop back to Union Cave and catch a Zubat for 'Dex credit, and probably fish for a Magikarp now that I have the Old Rod. I missed catching any Unknown, but I'll be back that way later anyway so they can wait. After that, it'll be time for Ilex Forest, which means I'll need my special Pichu to trigger the event there. This weekend, I need to bring my DS and games to Traci's, and get the event Pokemon moved over. I also promised Corwin something but I forget what. [it was a Ditto.]

In retrospect: Giant squee over HG/SS announcement

(note:  next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer.  This one slightly out of sequence due to topic.  Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)

(5/8/2009, 7/17/2009, 8/17/2009)

Nintendo has officially announced that Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver (translated names) will be released in Japan in Fall 2009. [update: North American release announced for Spring 2010. update again -- March 14 2010! ]

SO stupidly excited for this. Unfortunately PokeFarm dumped my post 'cause I took too long to write it, so I will squee in fangirl joy here. SQUEE.


Things I expect:

--Selectable gender for the player character. This feature was introduced in Crystal and has been in all games since. [Confirmed.]

--Realtime (day/night, days of week). In G/S this relied on the cartridge battery, but in D/P/Pt is based on the DS clock. [Confirmed.]

--G/S PokeGear replaced with the Poketch. Otherwise the touch screen will be just hanging out down there doing nothing while the player runs around. And people now rely on some of those apps. [Wrong on this one, though PokeGear now has an Itemfinder function, and the Map Card shows roaming legendaries.]

--Word also has it that Ho-Oh and Lugia are version exclusives. That's fine with me, as long as I can catch all three legendary beasts as roaming Pokemon. It's just too much dang work having to play FR/LG three times to complete the Nat'l Dex. [Access to second of the pair after beating E4. Beast trio confirmed.]

--Breeding as soon as you reach the Daycare (same as in the originals but updated for new data structures and features). [Unknown but assumed.]

--Either no contests (because that'd change the town layouts) or an added Contest building in one town only. Possibly a post-E4 feature. [Unknown, but all indications are that the Pokethlon minigames have been substituted for contests. later update -- yep, no contests.]

--Trading with D/P/Pt, possibly only post-E4 (same as in FR/LG). Regular WiFi trading, instead of the Time Capsule. [GTS identical to Platinum's confirmed. Can trade with D/P/Pt as soon as Pokedex is obtained. Dunno about trading Eggs yet.]

--Which will mean G-IV standard stats/data structure, items, and TMs. Learned moves might differ a little bit though. [Most likely, though it seems they still have Apricorn trees, so I dunno what they'll do about that. later update -- berries can be found and grown using the key item Berry Planter. I would assume that apricorns can't be traded back to D/P/Pt. ]

--Shiny Pokemon will function the same as in other G-IV games (a shiny's stats are not higher, shininess is not more likely via breeding). [I'd assume so, given the trading capability.]

--The Radio Towers will be replaced with TV stations, since the Radio was on the PokeGear. [No. Darnit. The Radio was stupid, I like the TVs much better.]


Things I'm hoping for:

--Essentially the same storyline, with only minor tweaks to trainers and Gym Leaders (like in FR/LG). [Appearance of Eusine from Crystal confirmed. New areas on map for Battle Frontier, Safari Zone. But essentially looks like they're being pretty faithful to the original -- adding stuff, rather than taking it out. Looks like they're using the Crystal storyline; the Rockets have been considerably spiffed up too, with admins and such.]

--The original Jhoto Pokemon for the regional 'Dex, with access to the full G-IV National set of Pokemon post-E4. [No. Screenshots indicate different 'Dex numbers for at least some Pokemon.]

--Post-E4 access to the Kanto region, which would bring every region but Hoenn (and their starters and legendaries!) to the DS. (though this might not be practical, given the addition of the Sevii Islands in FR/LG) [Kanto access confirmed, Sevii Islands unknown. Legendary birds confirmed in Kanto, post-E4. One Hoenn starter available well after the E4, and most Hoenn legendaries available as well.]

--The Vs. Seeker. Makes it so much easier to get XP and EVs, not to mention cash. [Unfortunately, I don't think so, since they still have the PokeGear Phone. However, the Phone will apparently allow for trainer rematches. later update -- annoyingly, specific trainers will only fight on certain days of the week. ]

--The Running Shoes. Indispensible. [Confirmed, saw them on the touch-screen menu.]

--Berries intead of Apricorns, and buying the specialized Pokeballs in towns instead of getting one a day from Kurt. 'Cause man, was that a pain. [Both Berries AND Apricorns confirmed. Kurt's special Pokeballs confirmed, not sure what that will do to trading -- possibly code for those Balls has always been left in the games. Apricot Shakes added to increase Pokethlon stats, similar to Pokeblocks/Poffins. Portable Berry Planter to substitute for lack of soil patches.]

--Also, the Pokeballs should be the G-IV standard ones. The G/S versions would be either replaced with their G-IV equivalents, or ditched if there isn't one. [Kurt's special balls confirmed, not sure how this affects trading.]

--The Move Learner guy, with Heart Scales. [Unknown.]

--The Lottery (this used to be via Radio, so it'd be natural to put it in a TV station) [Now located in Goldenrod's Radio Tower. Buena's Password show also still on radio, can win points for prizes.]

--The Red Gyrados. I know shininess doesn't work the same as it used to, but I don't see why they can't program this one shiny encounter. I miss my Vermillion (in fact I might duplicate my entire Silver team: Cynder, Vermillion, Sheepish, Izzel, and Hootie -- what else? Last I remember, I was raising Evees...) [YESSSS. Confirmed. I will get my Vermillion back, in full glorious color.]

--A Celebi event. I was going to GTS Celebi, but now I may wait. [Thoroughly unknown but widely anticipated.]

I actually don't care if they include Contests, not being much of a contest peron anyway. Not sure I really care about the Pokethlons either, minigames are lame. The GTS would be nice, but I can skip it if there's trading with D/P/Pt. I can likewise skip the Underground, though I don't mind if it's included. [Rock Smash to allow finding fossils, etc instead.] PalPark would be convenient, but since Hoenn would be the only region not on the DS at that point, I can't see it being necessary as long as there's trading with D/P/Pt. [GTS identical to Platinum's confirmed. PalPark is in Fuschia, Safari Zone moved to Cianwood.]

There was one news post that mentioned features entirely new for this version; likewise someone speculated that there would be new Pokemon. We'll have to wait and see, but I don't care if there aren't. [New features indeed, though it doesn't seem there are any new Pokemon. Besides little stuff, like the touch-screen PokeGear, and being able to register two items, the major announcements so far are Pokethlons and the PokeWalker. Pokethlons are basically touch-screen minigames that you enter three Pokemon into. My reaction: eh. So what. Depends what you can win, I guess. The PokeWalker, though, is a pedometer that you can upload a Pokemon (or two?) onto, and raise them as you walk. Nintendo's trying to get folks active again. Steps accumulate Watts, which you can use to buy items; and you can encounter and catch wild Pokemon, though the battles are grossly simplified into Attack and Defend. But the items and caught wild Pokemon can then be transferred back to HG/SS. An excuse to get walking??]
[ more on Pokewalker: 1 Watt per 20 steps. Spend Watts to use the Pokeradar or Itemfinder -- which also means, this happens at your convenience. Wild Pokemon and items available depend on course selected and amount of steps accumulated. If no Pokemon are transferred to the PW, a wild Pokemon may spontaneously join your walk. Up to three Pokemon and three items can be kept at once. Step counter resets at midnight, and some things take a LOT of steps to get -- thousands of Watts. Unlocking all courses would take walking 1000 miles at 2000 steps each! ]

One thing I hope they DON'T do: make a Crystal version to sucker you into buying the game twice. [Preliminary fan feeling is no on this one. I wouldn't think so, since they appear to be using the Crystal storyline. Let's hope.]

Regardless, I am totally psyched for this. It's going to be hard to wait for the US release!! [Announced for Spring 2010.]

[addendum: My Silver cartridge didn't know the time when I fired it up; a sure sign that the battery's dying, according to one site. BUT it had all my Blue and Silver team Pokemon still on it! I copied down their names, levels, and attacks (gender for the Blue Poke's is a little optional, since it gets assigned at random when you trade them in.) So now I can duplicate my Silver team if I want! (assuming, of course, that they still learn all the same attacks, which is probably not the case.)]

[new information from Japanese release: In addition to the Jhoto legendaries, the legendary bird trio will be found in Kanto, post-E4. Doesn't look like they kept the Sevii Islands, though, since Moltres will be found at the Jhoto-Kanto border. But it doesn't stop there. Depending on version, Kyogre or Groudon will be catchable, and if you trade/borrow the other one of the pair (though it must be from HG/SS as well, not R/S/E), you can get Rayquaza as well. Plus, Latios and Latias are supposed to appear as roaming Pokemon. So all the Hoenn legendaries are available except the Regis, which are in Pt anyway. Even better, if you've got the movie Arceus in your party, you can go to a new area called the Shinto Ruins, where Cynthia will tell you that Arceus can create either Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina at lvl 1, knowing a special move, and holding its respective Orb. That's nearly four regions' worth of legendaries!]
[ later -- was wondering why a lvl 1 dragon would be a good thing, and then I realized: how much stronger would they be, if trained all the way from lvl 1? 8D ]