[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 7

            Ok, it’s been long enough. I think it’s finally time to put Pokémon White down for 2 seconds and get back to the Pokémon Platinum Nuzlocke Run! Sorry it has been so long but between schoolwork and playing Pokémon White 24/7 (not really) I have been neglecting this run. I did some things about 2 weeks ago or so that I should share with you guys before we get started here. I went back to Floaroma Town a few Fridays ago and got a female Drifloon at the Valley Windworks. I named it Skye because I am unoriginal =P Then I went to the tree that I lathered with honey and found…… a male Combee…. completely pathetic because only the females evolve into Vespiquen. But I killed it anyway so it really didn’t matter. I then made my way back to Eterna City and tried to get over to Route 211 because there was a Pokémon that I could possibly get from that route. I was stopped by my Rival who took me over to a huge dragon Pokémon statue in the middle of town. Who do I see there but the creepy blue haired dude that keeps talking about how the world will be his or something (I wasn’t paying much attention to him at the time). After that I found a  Dragon Plate behind the stature which could prove useful someday. Then I get to Route 211 and avoid all the battles until I get to the grass. The first wild Pokémon I find is indeed what I wanted, a Bronzor. Being Steel/Psychic it can be a nice back up for Nimbus in the next gym (Skye the Drifloon would have taken this role if I had not found Bronzor). I name it Copper and it is at Lv. 15. On the way back to Eterna City I run into a lady dressed in black who asks about Barry and my Pokémon, gives me HM01 Cut (which I can use to cut down small trees that block my way), and then just walks away. She seemed nice but mysterious which totally couldn't mean anything. Now that I have told you everything that I have done in the past week I need to go and level up Copper so it can fight with the rest of the team.   

Ok, 1 day later I have Copper up to Lv. 20 so it can fight with the rest of the team. Since I haven’t said yet, Copper is a Bronzor (no gender since it is made of metal) with a Hardy Nature which doesn’t affect any stats. I head back to Eterna and go inside the house next to the Pokémon Center to get the Explorer Kit so I can go underground if I want too. I could get some fossils from there but considering I make the fossils become Pokemon in Oreburgh I’m not sure if that will go against the rules of the run since I got Kazza from Oreburgh. I’m going to assume I can’t get them but I’ll keep it around for the after game when the run is officially over (if I get that far). Now to take on the gym which focuses on Grass types, so Nimbus and Copper will have the run here. Before I can enter the gym, the leader is standing in front of it telling me that Barry already beat the gym and she looks forward to our fight. The main puzzle of the room is different from the days of Diamond/Pearl where you just had to find the trainers and fight them. Here you have a huge clock like machine where the minute hand turns only after you fight trainers and eventually it takes you to the top of the clock where you face the leader. So fighting trainers is pretty easy so I’ll take care of that real quick.

After defeating all the trainers in the gym, healing my Pokémon, and getting all my Pokemon to Lv. 21, it is time to take on Gardenia the Grass Gym Leader of Eterna City. I start out with my (Nimbus) Staravia because I remember that she begins with a Turtwig. Since Turtwig is not part Poison type Bronzor would not be too good here. Thankfully I was correct and thanks to my Staravia’s “Intimidate” ability I cut her Turtwig’s attack stat in half. I go in for the quick attack and get her Turtwig down to red health, she goes for the “Grass Knot” but since my Staravia is not to heavy and since that attack is physical, and grass is not being very effective on flying types… it didn’t do much =P I go in for another Wing Attack knowing that she will heal her Turtwig with a Super Potion and I’m correct. One final Wing Attack takes it out and she sends in her Cherrim. The worst thing about this Pokémon is the fact that it can use Sunny day which will help her other grass Pokémon a lot so I can’t let her do that. I keep Staravia in knowing that Cherrium is pure grass like Turtwig and will do the most damage. Surprisingly her Cherrium is faster than me and uses a Leech Seed and I follow with a Wing Attack. She then uses safeguard surprisingly and I take her out with another Wing Attack. Nimbus grows to Lv. 22 and she sends out her last Pokémon, Roserade. This thing can make or break you. I decide to switch Staravia out and get Bronzor in there to get Leech Seed off of Staravia. Plus Bronzor takes barely any damage from Grass types and can hit Roserade for some nice damage since it is part Poison along with Grass. She hits Bronzor with Magical Leaf which does 12 damage to me so that is not too bad. She paralyzes me with Stun Spore though and thanks to that I cannot hit her with Confuse Ray this turn. I go for Confuse Ray again and she goes for Grass Knot. However, it then hits me that Roserade can’t be hit by Confuse Ray thanks to Cherrium’s Safeguard *FACEPALM*! I try Extrasensory after she hits me with Grass Knot again. It does not do too much despite being “Super Effective”. I heal up Copper this turn with a Super Potion since I’m worried that it can’t take another Grass Knot. She goes for Grass Knot which did 16 damage so had I not healed I would have lived with 1 HP but it is best to not take chances. Now that Safeguard has worn off I go in for the Confuse Ray which does hit after I got hit with Grass Knot. I bravely try Hypnosis. Roserade hits herself in confusion and takes more damage and my Hypnosis hits so she should be asleep for a few turns. She sleeps the next turn and I use Extrasensory, which gets her into red health, but she was holding a Sitrus Berry which heals 30 of her HP D:< Still asleep, going for another Extrasensory, she is in the red health again. Now please don’t use a Super Potion and Copper please do not get paralyzed this turn…. She heals with a Super Potion and I go for Extrasensory which leaves her still in green health. She is still asleep and I get off another Extrasensory. This turn however, she wakes up, gets freed from Confusion, hits me with Grass Knot, leaves me with 13 HP, and I get paralyzed this turn…. that was not my turn to shine…… I decide to switch into Staravia and Intimidate Roserade to lower her attack stat. I am not faster and get hit with Magical Leaf! Hit leaves me with only 5 HP left and I follow with a Wing Attack and kill her… THAT WAS WAY TO CLOSE!!! *takes a sigh of relief* The battle ends and Gardenia gives me the Forest Badge which I gladly take. With this badge, I know get the ability to use HM01 Cut outside of battle which I will give to Slave the Bidoof after I’m done. I also get TM86 Grass Knot from her which I may or may not use. Now I need to go and heal my Pokémon after a long fight. Now I could go to the Old Chateau and get a Rotom or Gastly for a Ghost Type but I will do that next time. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it and now I’m going to play some more Pokémon White. :D  

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 6

On Route 205 I decide to not check out the grass, knowing there is nothing on this route I want. I’m going to take the time to fight all these trainers and give Nimbus and Kazza some well needed Level ups. However, something bad happens. During a battle with an Aipom, I send out Kazza to fight it. Kazza ignores orders like 5 times before using Confusion once. While it was doing that, the Aipom was using Leer on me to lower my defense. Then it happened… the Aipom was at red health and one more Confusion would have taken him but Kazza ignores orders (shocker…). Then Aipom uses Astonish which is a super effective ghost move on me and gets a critical hit. Kazza was one-shotted and dies (remember in Nuzlocke runs they do not just faint, they die and you can NEVER use them again and they must be released). I take the Aipom out with Sparkrai and head back to Floaroma to release him. The first death in a Nuzlocke is usually not fun… In all honesty, I saw it coming for Kazza eventually because with it being traded it did not really trust me as its new owner (as most trade Pokemon do this early in the game until you get like the 3^rd badge or so.) I know it was its own fault because it disobeyed so many times but it is still disappointing none the less. I have a replacement for Kazza in mind but I can’t get them until tomorrow when I go back to the Windworks which I will do before taking on the gym so Nimbus can have some back up. Anyway, on with fighting the trainers I guess…. but first I accidently run into a Shellos on Route 205 (joy… I really didn't want to get a Pokémon here yet but I’m stuck with it). I catch it and name him “Jello” because it’s a freaking jiggly slug thing. And I’ll keep him around in the PC for safe measure because having a Water/Ground type can be nice to avoid pesky Electric types that can get in the way. Grass on the other hand is a job for Nimbus. Back to training…

Well I beat all the trainers with no more death in the party and Nimbus learned Endeavor which I may or may not use but I had nothing better so yeah. On to the Eterna Forest where we find a lady named Cheryl who joins our party for fight with us through the forest because she is worried she may be harmed by Team Galactic or something like that. I have no problems with that because she heals your Pokémon after every battle so she is ok with me. She also uses a Chansey and that thing is a Sp. Defense beast (not as much as its evolved form Blissey but you get the picture). The first Pokémon I find here in the grass is a Budew (2 to be exact since wild Pokémon appear by 2 when there is another trainer fighting with you. I’m only catching one though for obvious reasons. However, Chansey accidently kills them both so not Budew for me which is alright because at this point I’d much rather get Roselia. I also find a strange moss rock here which I may or may not come back to with a certain Pokémon. I need to weigh my options first. Either way, time to fight the trainers here in Eterna Forest with Cheryl and make out way out of here.

Finally, I’m at the end of the Forest. I Almost lost Nimbus because of a Pachirisu that got a super effective critical hit with spark. He hung on with 2 HP but he is still alive. Everyone in the team is now Lv. 20 and Karen go Bubblebeam which I removed Bubble for. Cheryl and I depart ways and she gives me the Soothe Bell which will be nice if I get a Pokémon I need to evolve through max happiness. I fight all the fisherman trainers on the upper half of Route 205 (one of them had 6 Magikarps which took forever to sweep though even though they are the weakest Pokémon of all time and can’t do a thing to me until they evolve.. way to go fishing dude!). That’s done and now I enter Eterna City. There is a lot to do here but before I do, I’m going to go back to Valley Windworks, wait about 3 ½ hours and catch both the “Balloon” Pokémon as a backup for Nimbus and see what the Honey tree decides to treat me with.   

In memory of “Kazza” the Kadabra

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 5

Welcome back to the Text Let’s Play of Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge]. We left off here at Floaroma Town which is a really nice town with flowers everywhere. It’s quite relaxing to be honest. While I was away I leveled the whole team up to Lv. 16. Sparkrai evolved into Luxio, Nimbus into Staravia, and finally Kazza into Kadabra who learned “Confusion” which means he can actually attack now! I also collected a lot of berries around town to give some of the “Oran Berries” to my Pokémon to hold during the upcoming fight. I also got TM 88 Pluck which is a good flying move I may give to Staravia (provided he lives the next fight) so he can take held items from the enemy. I also just got the Sprayduck can so I can create more berries if I need them. From the same place where I got the Sprayduck I got a free Chesto Berry which is nice. :D Ok, enough procrastinating I need to go to Valley Windworks and get this over with.  On Route 205 I get some more berries from the trees and run into a little girl whose father is trapped by Team Galactic at Valley Windworks (where the man works as a scientist). They are forcing him to work for them to give them the secrets the Windworks use for making energy from wind and I have to stop them (Oh God… here it comes T_T). There is a Team Galactic goon blocking the entrance to the Windworks so I need to fight him to get in. I beat him and his 1 single Glameow and he retreats into the Windworks and locks the door. Back to Floaroma town we go…. where I find two more Galactic grunts wanting to steal jars of honey from a man who sells them. They want it so they can put it on trees and attract Pokémon with the honey or something like that. During the battle with a Zubat I send out “Kazza” so it can attack it. Then it hits me, Kazza gets confused and I use Confusion on the Zubat but it “Pretends not to notice”. I forgot that traded Pokémon do not obey you that much unless you have more badges. This could be bad…. After a lot of frustration Kazza finally takes out Zubat. This may cause issues later on though so I’m debating wether I should get something to replace him for the time and use him later or take a risk and keep him on the team. Well I need all the help I can get so I’ll take my chances. I beat both the grunts and they drop the key to the Windworks so I can now get in (oh, and the man gives me some free jars of honey.) I decide to put it on a tree here in Floaroma since you don’t get Pokemon to catch in this town by any other means (at least to my knowledge). I’ll be back for it in a few hours since it takes awhile for Pokémon to come to the tree (just hope I don’t forget). I heal up, put an Oran berry on both Sparkrai and Karen, and buy a few Super Potions (they are much better than regular potions) and a few more potions. I’m really neverous about this next fight because I rarely come out of it without losing the battle once let alone trying to lose none of my Pokémon. It is a surprisingly tough fight for me considering it’s the beginning of the game. I go back to the Windworks, use the key and fight the Galactic grunts that are in the building. I go back to heal once more (and fight one wild Pokemon back on Route 204 to give Karen a level up, but it did lose its Oran berry in a fight with a Budew so that is not good.) and now it is time to fight one of the commanders of Team Galactic, Mars.

 I start out the fight with Sparkrai the Luxio and she uses Zubat. I spark it to death in one shot, so far so good. Now here comes the killer, her Purugly. This is where not being able to switch after a battle really hurts me. This thing has great attack and defense so I need Sp. Attacks. It uses fake out first which annoys me since I can’t attack that turn now and I follow up with a Spark after getting hit with a good Faint Attack from the dumb cat. Spark does not do much and I lost my berry… great. Spark again and it paralyzes which is great because it is slower than all my Pokemon and may not attack. I know Sparkrai can’t take any more hits so I’m switching him out with Nimbus who’s “Intimidate” ability lowers this dumb fat cat’s attack stat. I go for Wing Attack and I get it to the red, but it’s Oran berry activates which I forgot she had. Quick Attack! YES! It goes down and I have no casualties!! :D She goes on and on about how she lost to a child and the other Commander in the room (Charon) calls here a disgrace and says it is time to leave for a meeting with their “boss”. Either way, I win that fight and save the little girl’s dad who mentions something about a “Balloon” Pokemon who only appears here at the WindWorks on Fridays. I’ll be back for that tomorrow since I don’t really want any other Pokémon that you can find here at the WindWorks. Oh look, it’s Looker who is here to save the girl’s father and arrest Team Galactic… too late buddy I sent them packing. But he does say they have another hide out in Eterna City which is convenient for me since I was heading there any way (though the fight with them there is just as bad as the one I just did). So I’m going back to heal and then I’ll take on the whole Route 205. 

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 4

After training Nimbus, beating all the trainers on Route 203, buying some more potions and pokeballs at the store, and finishing my schoolwork for the day I think it is time to finally move on to Oreburgh Gate. Currently, Numbus is Lv. 10, Sparkrai is Lv.12, and Karen is Lv. 11. Upon entering Oreburgh Gate, the hiker near the entrance gives me HM06 Rock Smash because he liked my Poketch for some odd reason. I mean it’s pink but I kind of like the blue version you get as the boy character better. I defeat the two trainers in this small cave and Nimbus and Karen get Level ups. Now we enter Oreburgh City where plenty of caves and mines are found. If I’m lucky enough to get a few things I may get them but that mostly depends on what Pokémon I am allowed to get here. Immediately after entering some random kid is like “Hey you have no gym badges, you need them to beat the Elite Four so come with me to the gym against your will”. Ok so I may have exaggerated but still you get the point. And who do we find blocking the Gym? It’s Barry who says he beat the gym leader who is no longer hear because he is out helping at the mines and I need to go get him. But before that I’m going to explore the town. I manage to get a free Dusk ball which will help in catching a certain legendary later on and I meet some dude who named his Psyduck “Yellow” because it was yellow … real original my friend. Before I head to the mines I’m going to pick up a Pokémon from Route 207. I am hoping for a Machop or a Ponyta. I really don’t want a Geodude since odds are I’ll be running into them in the mine like a hundred times. And the Pokémon that appears is Machop. This is useful for reasons I’ll show in a minute. I catch it and name it “Machopper”. Dumb name, I know but he won’t be with us for long so I will not bother with stats. Now since I have no gotten a Pokemon inside of Oreburgh itself I’m going to head back inside and do an in game trade where I give my Machop for an Abra (which is a much better deal in my opinion). I’m a little sad that I did not get Ponyta for a nice Fire type but Abra being a strong Psychic type when fully evolved was my second choice. So I trade for the girl’s Abra which is already nicknamed “Kazza” and since it is an in game trade. So, let us look at the stats of our new Abra. It was holding an Oran Berry which will be useful early in the game if I get in a pinch. It is a Lv. 6 Male Abra with a Quiet Nature again (just like Nimbus) which is pretty good because it will raise it’s already high Sp. Attack even more. A drawback is low speed but Kadabra/Alakazam is already really fast (not sure if I will evolve it fully yet). It is also “Highly curious”. So with that in mind it is time to head to the mines and train this thing. Before heading in though I found a heart scale next to a huge bolder outside of the mine! It’s my lucky day :D And the first Pokémon in the Oreburgh mines is a…. Lv. 4 Geodude, just like I expected. Ok, Kazza switch out…. accidently hits run instead of Pokémon …. CRAP! Well a loss is a loss. Further into the mines I battle the miners and their Pokémon to give Karen and Kazza some Level ups and eventually find Roark, the Oreburgh city Gym Leader and Sinnoh Master of Rock type Pokémon. After talking to him he breaks a Rock using Rock Smash and then leaves to go back to the Gym for me to fight him. Yes, weird I know but it is time to head into the gym for the first (and hopefully not last) badge. Well I’m fully healed up and it is time to fight Oreburgh City’s gym trainers before I can get to the leader. With all the trainers down it is time for fight Roark himself for the badge. The team is:

Piplup (Karen) Lv. 14 – female

-Pound –Growl –Bubble –Watersport

Abra (Kazza) Lv.11 – male

-Teleport (that is it’s only move and it does nothing good in battle which makes him useless until it evolves at Lv. 16)

Shinx (Sparkrai) Lv. 12 – male

-Tackle –Leer –Charge

Starly (Nimbus) Lv. 11 – male

-Tackle –Growl –Quick Attack –Wing Attack

With that, let us begin the battle. I lead with Abra for free experience and then switch out to Piplup safely because his Geodude used Stealth Rock and I have plans to switch any more during this fight. Karen sweeps his Geodude and Onix getting up to Lv. 15 in the process and learns Peck (I get rid of Water Sport for this). Now comes out his last Pokemon and star player, Cranidos. This thing has Mold Breaker as an ability so it’s not that bad. He brings Piplup down to 8 HP with Headbutt, but 2 Bubble attacks take it out. That is it, the Coal badge is mine and so is TM76 Stealth Rock. I heal up and head to Oreburgh Gate when someone runs into me. Guess who? Yep, it’s Barry who is surprised I got the badge and tells me Eterna City Gym is the next place to go which is just north of Jubilife City *Yay for backtracking!*. So let us go back there but real quick I want to get my Pokémon from Oreburgh Gate that I never picked up (hoping for Geodude so I can have an HM Slave to use Rock Smash). It’s a Zubat… that is not good. Well I will catch it but I really hope something I have (be it on my team or not) can use Rock Smash. Otherwise this game is over because I missed the Geodude back at the mines and under no circumstances am I allowed to pick up more than 1 Pokémon from an area. And I believe Rock Smash is required to move on… *gulp*… well let’s just catch this Zubat. I get it and name it “Woobat” after the bat Pokemon in 5^th generation that is more or less a rip-off of Zubat (when I get a Woobat in Pokémon White I’m naming it Zubat =P).  I don’t plan to use him but he may be a nice replacement for Starly if it goes down or if I decide to get something more powerful. But I would rather get a Golbat later in the game and level that up since training Zubats take FOREVER because they learn no good moves early on. Ok, back in Jubilife and look its Looker who tells me to pick up a Pal Pad in the Pokemon Center so I can trade and junk like that which I never really do. Ok, now that is over so it is the moment of truth. Does anyone I have so far have the ability to learn Rock Smash? The answer is… no…. not a single one… *double gulp*… Well I have one more shot at this. There is a cave on the next Route and it may have Geodudes. Ok, after further investigation on Bulbapeda, I have 2 options. 1. The Ravaged Path which connects the lower and upper pars of Route 204 has a 20% chance that Geodudes will appear. 2. This is my last resort, evolve Piplup at Lv. 16 (currently 15) and teach it Rock Smash. Well I know I won’t lose the challenge now but having Rock Smash on my starter Pokémon until the 6^th gym in the game is almost as bad of a punishment. For those that don’t know, Rock Smash is a horrible fighting type move. T_T Well before I can get to Route 204 there are these two dudes that look like astronauts chatting with Professor Rowan and Lucas. Time to see what is up. They turn out to be bad guys who want ALL of the Professor’s research findings. Rowan tells them off though and even insults their clothes (which I found really humorous) and sends me and Lucas to fight them in a double battle. Lucas uses Chimchar and I go in with Starly. The seemed to like hitting Chimchar with all their attacks which worked out for me ok (poor Chimchar, you’ll always be my favorite Sinnoh starter). Nimbus gets really close to death but I manage to pull it off without losing him (Thank God for Quick Attack always going first). Then the two baddies spout something off about Team Galactic and run off like chickens. Rowan tells me he studies Pokémon evolution and says that Team Galactic seems to be interested in his findings somehow. They run off and some dude from Jubilife TV comes up to me and gives me the pointless Fashion Caste (for Pokémon Contests) and then runs off. I go into the TV station since it is now open and play the lottery. I lose and then head upstairs to unlock “Mystery Gift” in case I can get a hold of any event stuff soon.  To unlock find the guy who asks for your opinion on TV and tell him “Everyone Happy” and then tell him “Wi-fi Connection” for his second question. That unlocks mystery gift which you will see on the start screen next time you turn on the game. The allows you to take part in many Nintendo Pokémon events (even though they are all over since Gen 5 comes out in a week). Could have sworn there was an old lady here who gave you the TM for Recycle but looks like I’m wrong. I head over to see Mr. Poketch who gives me another app for the Poketch itself since I have a gym badge. It is the Memo Pad which you can use to write things down to remember for later (as long as you don’t switch to another app along the way because if you do it erases the memo….).  I don’t feel like registering myself at the GTS because I don’t use Wifi that much so off to Route 204 to get the next Pokémon… *trainer sees me and wishes to fight*… right after this. Well, that is done and the Pokémon of Route 204 is… Bidoof!? Crap Bidoof is horrible… wait… Bidoof can use Rock Smash >:D I must have this Bidoof for I have plans for him *evil laugh*. Got him! And I shall call him “Slave” because he will be my HM Slave. There we go, Bidoof learned Rock Smash and its purpose has been fulfilled. I fight the trainers on the Route and give everyone some level ups and with that I head into Ravaged Path. Inside I use Slave to Rock Smash around and get TM 39 Rock Tomb and I was right, you do need Rock Smash in order to move on with the game. The Pokémon I find in here is Psyduck and to be honest I was surprised. I catch the female Psyduck and name her Amber (a shade of yellow to make fun of the dude that named his Pysduck “Yellow”). I may use her if Piplup ever goes down because it is another water type and Golduck is not too bad. I’ve used one before. Amber is a Lv. 4 Female Psyduck with an Impish nature and “loves to eat”. The nature is not that great. It raises defense and lowers Sp. Attack but if it comes to it, I’ll give her a shot. Since that is done let us get out of this cave and it is time to fight some more Route 204 (upper part) trainers. But what is this? Karen the Piplup is Lv. 16 and is evolving into Prinplup. This is good but I hate the way Prinplup looks. I was never a fan of middle starter evolutions (except for Grovyle, Quilava, and Bayleef) but this one takes the cake. It did learn Metal Claw though which is an “Ok” Steel type move. Oh well, just 20 more levels until it evolves into Empoleon which is fine by me. Well all the trainers are defeated and we have now entered Floaroma Town (the town south of Eterna). There are a lot of grass and bug type trainers coming up so you can tell we are entering forest territory. Now the events coming up feature a really tough boss fight (for me at least) where I usually white out on more times than 1. And if I do this time it is Game Over and this LP is done. So I’m going to train for the next few hours and get everyone up to Lv. 17-20 so I have a small fighting chance. I am severely under-leveled right now and almost lost a lot of the team more times than once while fighting the trainers. If not for the potions we would have lost Nimbus and Sparkrai. So we will see what happens with that next time and hope for the best. Thanks for reading and have a nice day! (Unless I post more later today which I doubt.)

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 3

Welcome back to the Text-Play (get it? Text only Let’s Play? ... Yeah, I’ll never use that term again.) of Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] I’m writing this at about 9 in the morning and I have a half hour left until school begins, so let’s start this up before I have to take a break. We left off here at Route 203 and since it is early morning let’s see what we can get. And the Pokemon of the Route is… a Starly. Well at least it is much more useful than Bidoof and I did need a flying type. It was probably going to be this or Zubat. Ok Karen, let’s catch this Starly. Well, after it broke out of the Pokeball 2 times (I guess it wanted to be annoying) it’s mine. Starly I will name you… Nimbus after the prefix for clouds. Let’s take a look at your stats. Nimbus is a Male Lv. 4 Starly who “often likes to scatter things”. He has a quiet nature which raises Sp. Attack and Speed. I all honesty the typing is not that good since Staraptor does not really know any Sp. Attacks, just attacks. And his Speed is one of his more good qualities but since I caught him this Starly is my own and I don’t care. His ability is Keen Eye so that is nice to have (Shinx is Rivalry if I never said that before and Piplup’s is Torrent like always). So it looks like I’ll be spending the rest of the time I have until school training him up to Lv. 9 or so. Sorry for the small part but that is all I have time for at the moment. There might be more later today after school, but only time will tell. 

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 2

Ok, so after turning off the game for a few hours to do some more schoolwork, I decide to check out my Piplup and its stats. To my surprise, this is a female Piplup which I only had a 12.5% chance of getting. She has a bold nature which increases Defense but lowers attack. That is ok for a Piplup I think because Empoleon has higher Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense (looked it up on Bulbapedia to double check and I was right). She is “Mischievous” but as long as she listens when she is supposed to we will get along fine and she will not die. I head to Route 201 to find Barry who says we should go to Lake Verity to catch the legendary Pokémon that resides there for Rowan to repay him for his kindness. After we get there he realizes we have no, and I quote “P-O-K-accent-E-balls”. I always loved that line for some reason but like usual his logic is flawed. Oh yeah and we meet a weird dude with blue hair spying on the lake and talking to himself about the legendary Pokémon (totally not suspicious… probably nothing :D ). After that more story stuff happens and Barry runs off to Sandgem Town. I follow him and enter the wild grass for the first time, and encounter a Starly, my first wild Pokémon. Sadly, even if I had Pokeballs I could not get this Starly because technically Piplup was caught on the same route as this Starly so it is the only Pokémon I can get here. But it is nice experience for Piplup. I get my potion from the random dude from the PokeMart and meet up with Lucas in Sandgem Town outside of the Professor’s Lab. Oh look, Barry running right into me again as I try to enter the lab, only 98 Million times of that left to go. So after Barry runs off to do whatever it is Barrys do I enter the lab and talk to Rowan. After examining my now Lv. 7 Piplup he asks if I want to name it which I do. I name it “Karen” after a friend of mine because I want to try and give my Pokémon more human like names instead of the usual “Pengy or Penguin-Man.” Though looking back, I could have named it Penny and got away with it, Oh well, too late now. After stating that I have matured greatly as a trainer since like the 1 day I got my Piplup, he introduces himself and gives me the Pokedex to record data on the Pokémon of Sinnoh. I leave but not before he gives me TM 27 Return (which you get like 3 times in this game for some odd reason). So now Lucas gives me the whole “beginner trainer speech” which I’ve heard like 50 times before. Heal your Pokémon at the Pokémon Center and by stuff at the PokeMart. I got it the first time back in Kanto. He then tells me to go ALL the way back to Twinleaf Town and tell my Mom I’m leaving on an adventure, something she probably figured out by now when she told me to come here! Grrrrr… be right back…. *after pointless backtracking, getting a Lv. 8 Piplup, and eating dinner* I return home and Mom gives me a journal to keep track of what I’ve done so far each day (but this Text Let’s Play kind of defeats the point of it existing) and Barry’s Mom comes in looking for him and tells me that the next time I see him to give him a package ($10 says he forgot to pack clean underwear like with Ash’s Mom did to Ash in the anime). Ok! Back to Sandgem Town… *more pointless backtracking later*  Well, I’m broke. Spent all my money at the store buying 10 Pokeballs (got a Premiere Ball as a nice bonus) some potions, Antidotes, and Parlyz Heals. So on to Route 202 where Lucas will teach me how to catch Pokémon by using his Chimchar to get a Bidoof. Now that is done, it’s time to get our first and only Pokémon of Route 202. Please God let it be Shinx (but knows it will more than likely be Bidoof). And the winner is….. *gasp* my prayers were answered! A male Shinx at Lv. 4! Time to weaken it… don’t crit, don’t crit. OK, it’s in the Yellow. I’ll take it! Pokeball, GO! Got it! Shinx is mine and I must say that is really nice for my first catch. I will name you…. Sparkrai. A play on words with Spark and Darkrai since its later evolution should have been an Electric/Dark type in my opinion. I guess I’m not giving them all real names but who cares. Ok, let us look at your stats. Sparkrai has a Timid Nature which raises speed but lowers attack. He too is “Mischievous” which strikes me as odd. Now as far as nature goes, that is not too good because Luxray is best in Attack and it’s speed is ok. But most electric types are fast so it can work. Plus what are the odds of getting this thing as the first Pokémon I run into on the route?

 *After some training*

Shinx used Tackle on Bidoof

Bidoof used Tackle on Shinx

CRITICAL HIT!?

Shinx has 4 HP O.o

POTION!!!

All better

Shinx used Tackle on Bidoof

Critical Hit

Wild Bidoof Fainted

All is well with the world J

*More Training*

Sparkrai is now Lv. 8 to match up with Karen and I’m going to take the liberty of fighting all the trainers on Route 202 before entering Jubilife City like I’m supposed too. *fights trainers*

 Both Sparkrai and Karen are Lv. 9 now as I enter Jubilife. Lucas comes up to me telling me to catch more Pokémon but little does he know that I literally can’t right now. He then escorts me to the Pokémon Trainer School (I guess he thinks I’m a noob but I’ve been Champion of your region like 8 times and have conquered other regions too!) where we find a weird dude playing hide and seek with two lamp poles. He turns out to be “Looker” who is a member of the International Police (so he said as he blatantly shouted it out to us. Not much of a spy are ya bud?) He randomly gives me the VS. Recorder which I will most likely never use since I don’t do things in the Battle Frontier much and I don’t really EV Battle. I find out from Lucas that Barry is in the Trainer School so it is time to give the little doofus the package from his Mom. It turns out to be 2 Town Maps so he gives one to me. Not to helpful but I use it from time to time. So with him gone I decide to fight the two trainers in the school. I get Karen to Lv. 10 and go to the middle of Town where I find the Poketch guy. He says find all the clowns in town and answer their pathetically easy questions (here is a hint: all the answers are “yes”). So I do that and get the Poketch which is more or less a watch with some other applications that I really don’t care to much about (other than a select few). I take the time to buy more things at the Mart, get the Old Rod to allow me to fish, and get the Quick Claw for whatever slow Pokémon I may use later on. Now time to heal and leave the town. Onto Route 203… but wait! It’s Barry who wants to battle me (and I have no choice). His team is the same except he now has a Starly and a Lv. 9 Turtwig (haha mine is Lv. 10). I take Starly out with ease thanks to Piplup. And here we go again; Turtwig using Withdraw 90 million times to make its defense insanely high. Best part is that neither of my Pokémon are good Attackers and that is basically all they have to fight with (other than Piplup’s Bubble which is not very effective). After a VERY long stall war with Turtwig, Piplup’s Bubble takes it out. Barry swears to be the toughest trainer ever and goes on and on about the Elite Four and the Oreburgh City gym which we are going to tackle next. But I feel like doing that tomorrow since most of the good Pokémon you get in the day time and it is currently night. So that wraps up this part. Thanks for reading! (Time to play some more Heart Gold >:D)

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 1

Ok, so I begin the game as normal and for some unknown reason, I decide to watch the opening cutscene to the game instead of skipping right to the title screen, even though I’ve seen this like a million times. Ok, so I press start and Giratina does its weird little cry and the game begins. One thing I never understood is why did they opening screen in Platinum give off Giratina’s cry in Platinum but the opening screens in Diamond and Pearl did not give off Dialga and Palkia’s cries when starting the game? It’s something small I know but just some random thought that came into my head.

The game starts out with the Pokémon Professor of this region which is the slightly scary, Professor Rowan. He goes on to ask you if you need any control information or if you have played the game and since I have been a fan of the franchise for 8 years of course I need all the info I can get. Right? =P He then goes to ask if “I’d be so kind” as to touch the bottom screen and open a pokeball for him. This makes me realize that I have no stylus. 5 minutes later, I come back with a random crewed up pencil my cat must have gotten a hold of (lovely T_T) and continue the game. Now I choose the female character as I normally do and as usual I go with the name Hikaru which is the name I use for almost all my games because I don’t want to reveal my real name >:D After I hear Rowan’s speech of how your very own Pokémon journey is about to begin (like I haven’t heard that like 50 times) the game finally beg- WAIT! There is a TV screen on here saying that Rowan came back from the Kanto region with a message saying to love your Pokémon. Really surprised they did not say he came back from the Johto region with all the references they made to Gold and Silver in this game (obviously hinting toward Heart Gold/Soul Silver at the time). So after all that is said and done, I decide to open the menu and check the options. I change the text speed to fast because I can’t stand any other text speed, I leave the battle animations alone (after all this isn’t a speed run), change the battle style to “Set” like I said I would, and choose this pretty purple border that reminds me of space to be around the text box. After that I take just one step and surprise, it’s everyone’s favorite neighborhood stalker, Barry! (Yes, I named my Rival after the default name because I am boring and unoriginal.) He blathers on and on like the little hyper monkey that he is (as you can tell Barry is my least favorite of all the rivals) and says he’ll charge me 10 MILLION dollars if I’m late meeting him at Route 201. So I leave the house (but not before virtual mom reminds me to not go into the grass because of wild Pokémon and it would be nice if I could go into the grass if I did have a Pokémon but since I don’t I can’t :D .... Thanks for the reminder -__-) and head to Barry’s house. But, not before he runs right into my character without looking (only 99 million more times of that happening in the game left to go :D ) and he says he forgot something at his house. So I follow for no reason and talk to his mom who says it is delightful that Barry is so full of energy! (no comment…) After talking with her I go upstairs and talk to Barry who runs off saying to meet him at Route 201 or he will fine me 10 MILLION dollars if I’m late. He runs off and I decide to check his computer but sadly there is no potions in this game you can get from the PCs But he did leave his computer on his YouTube page which has a bunch of weird LOL CATS videos on them…. OK so that didn’t happen … but it would be funny.  So after meeting him on Route 201, Einstein over here has a great idea to go see Professor Rowan in Sandgem Town and get our first Pokémon, but in order to do that we need to enter the grass which has wild Pokémon in them with no protection from our Pokémon what so ever! Great plan buddy… But before doing so he is conveniently stopped by none other than Professor Rowan (darn I was hoping Barry would run into the wild grass run into a Starly and either send out Missingno or get attacked by it *sadface*). The Professor goes on to ask why were we so stupid and reckless and how could you think of doing such a foolish thing you FOOLS (BAKA!  … Soul Eater fans will get the reference)! Well considering I’m both the silent protagonist and I wasn’t the idiot who came up with the idea I decide to let Barry sweet talk himself out of this one, which he does after we are both asked if we love Pokémon like 4 times. The Professor decides to trust us with Pokémon and asks his assistant Luke to come and open his briefcase which has 3 Pokeballs in it, each containing the 3 Sinnoh Starters (Turtwig the Grass type, Chimchar the Fire type, and Piplup the Water type). Barry, being the gentlemen that he is (riiiiiight) decides to let me choose first. This was a very tough decision for me. Turtwig I used in my last game where I showed the boss fights on YouTube so he was out. Chimchar is my favorite of the 3 but Piplup has a lot going for it too. So I decide to leave it to fate (and by fate I mean I closed my eyes and mashed the D-Pad left and right like 20 times until I land on a Pokémon randomly) and I choose Piplup. This is good and bad. Good because Piplup when fully evolved becomes Empoleon which is a Steel/Water type with good Defenses/Sp. Attack and a lot of resistances. Bad because Barry gets a Turtwig (he chooses the type of Pokémon you are weak too) and the first fight against Barry with Turtwig has always been very difficult for me because Turtwig uses Withdraw to raise its defense and I only get Pound to hit it with (an attacking move). So with that said and done Barry challenges me to a fight. Piplup is luckily faster than Turtwig, and like I predict Turtwig uses Withdraw like 9 billion times which got really annoying. Lucky for me he used Withdraw 1 to many times. He tackled me near the end enough times to get me down to 1 HP but being faster I finish him off before he kills me and ends this challenge already. That was close…. After the fight we both go home to tell our parents (or just my virtual mom in this case) of our exciting day. My character tells Mom the events of the day offscreen and she replies with saying she is thankful that Rowan stopped us from going into the grass and worries about what could have happened if he didn’t (we would have been killed my Starlys and Bidoofs, the weakest Pokémon in the game HOORAY!). After that she tells me to go to Sandgem Town with my new Pokemon to thank Rowan personally and gives me the Running Shoes in order to do so (when pressing B you run faster) and calls them nifty (what is this 1980?). So now it’s time to save my game and continue this later.

[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] - Introduction

Hey everybody, TheLightningspirit78 here. I would like to welcome you all to my first text-only Let’s Play which is on Pokémon Platinum. With Pokémon Black & White coming out in less than a week, I decided to say farewell to one of my more favorite generations of Pokémon with a bang. Now I know I have already done a small Let’s Play of all the boss battles in the game on my channel already, so I decided to spice this up a little bit. During this Let’s Play I will be abiding by the rules of a “Nuzlocke Challenge” which is something I’ve attempted to do multiple times but have never succeeded in doing. For those that are unfamiliar as to what a “Nuzlocke Challenge” is, it is basically when you play a Pokémon game following these mandatory rules:

§  Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and must be released (or you can store them in a PC box marked “Graveyard” and never use them again but I will be releasing them (unless it’s something amazing like a freaking shiny.)

§  The player may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else. If the first Pokémon encountered faints or flees, there are no second chances.

§  Players must also nickname all of their Pokémon, for the sake of forming stronger emotional bonds.

§  A black out/white out is to be considered a "game over," even if there are Pokémon left in the PC and you must restart your file. Whether you start the challenge up again is up to you.

With that said, these are all the mandatory rules I could find from various Pokémon forums and Bulbapedia. There are multiple optional rules you can follow in order to make it even harder on yourself (like this isn’t tough enough already) such as not using items outside of battle or limiting the number of Pokeballs you can get from stores. However, I will only be following 1 optional rule which is to change the battle style to “Set” which means I will not be asked to change Pokémon after defeating one of an opponent’s Pokémon in battle.

So with that said, I can say that I have tried doing “Nuzlocke Challenges” before in Pokémon Leaf Green & Sapphire but sadly they both ended in defeat. I decided to take my chances with the Sinnoh region and well, here we are. Before beginning I would like to say that “Nuzlocke Challenges” are indeed worth trying but before jumping head first into one (like I did with Pokémon Sapphire) know what you are getting into. I can say that it really does put the series into a new perspective because during normal playhroughs, when you lose a Pokémon, you can just rush to a Pokémon Center and heal. However, this is not the case here. These challenges teach you that the little things in our Pokémon games that we often overlook are not to be taken for granted. It teaches you to care for your Pokémon like they are your little pets, and when you lose on in these kinds of challenges it does hurt because you have to release them from your game knowing that you can’t get them back. So, while these challenges are meant for those dying for a challenge, they can also be related to life in many ways as I have just shown. So I recommend that if you are one who truly cares for the Pokémon you get and would hate to let them go, I can say this challenge is probably not for you. I do hate losing members of the team very much but knowing I can continue the challenge thanks to their contributions to the team gives me the fight to carry on with the game for the team member that are still around. Now, I know that I’m sounding totally crazy talking about this stuff and acting like Pokémon are real (which I know they are not, I’m not that crazy), but as an owner of real life pets of my own and with Pokémon being a big part of childhood, these kinds of things tend to touch me for some reason. One last thing I would like to say is that in the event I do get a “game-over: the text Let’s Play will end there. So this could be 1 part or 40. You never know. Ok, now that I’m done explaining the deep details of these runs and sounding like Ash Ketchum I think I can safely say that it is time to begin.