December 27th: Once More, With Feeling

- After the first attempt to save, got a "Saving a lot of data" message. Same with the second attempt. Third attempt and beyond was just "Saving..."
- Beat the fight again. Survived the credit sequence and loaded up into the home in New Bark Town.
- Got the S.S. Ticket from Professor Elm. Decided to walk to Olivine instead of flying or biking.
- Took two photos in Cherrygrove City. One when I just got there and still had Tops in my party, and one after I had put him back and got Gemini back out.
- Was surprised that Gemini hadn't been healed, then remembered that he wouldn't have been since he was "moved" to the box in the middle of the Elite Four.
- Went to Mr. Pokemon to talk to him about the Red Scale. One of the workers in the connectors mentioned he'd want it. Didn't realize that this is how you get the Exp. Share. Gave it to Gorb for now.
- Apparently, the worker in the connector at the north end of Goldenrod gives you an HP Up if you talk to him after delivering that mail.
- Decided to play the Coin Game while I was in Goldenrod anyway. Didn't do great.
- Took a photo outside the Miltank barn/house.
- Made it to the ship. Got the National Pokedex.
- Boarded the ship and started on the battles. Started with the two down below.
- Next was directly across from the room for me.
Ramelia survived a self-destruct with 2hp.
- Finished the rest of the battles before getting to the captain's quarters.
- Started the game of hide and seek. Found the girl and got her back to her grandpa.
- The boat arrived in Vermilion. Got off the boat.
- Spotted Suicune on the way up the path.
- Took a photo up at the undeveloped land in Vermilion.

YouTube Screen Recordings

This time, I did it. I beat Lance and actually got to have my progress saved. After that, I took my time getting to the boat. I was letting the feeling happen. I got good enough at Robotron: 2084 at some point to clear Wave 255 and roll it back to Wave 1. It was the same feeling I get when I do that. Being right back at the start after a long, well-fought battle through to the very end, with everything to show for it. Feels a bit like the start of a victory lap, except the race isn't over yet.

It's almost funny, in a way. Despite starting this game years before discovering Robotron, I've only just now reached the part in SoulSilver where I get that feeling. I can't imagine there are many people who can roll the waves over in Robotron, which is likely made worse due to the relative obscurity of the game. I assume it's a well-known game among the people who like playing arcade games from the 1970's and 80's, but that's not a particularly popular set of games for most people. A feeling I normally get when I play a game most people have probably never heard of and know nothing about is something I'm feeling in a game that's probably given the same feeling to many millions of people of all ages all across the world for over a decade. It's a strange thing to realize.

On my walk from New Bark to Olivine, I noticed some things along the way that I would have almost certainly missed if I had just used Fly instead. Even though there are things I would change and add to the standard formula for a Pokemon game to give it some better play and replay value, there are a lot of hidden things, secrets, and moving parts under the hood that make it feel more organic. A save in one of these Pokemon games will pretty much play the same as any other, but I don't think two different saves will ever be able to feel entirely the same after a point. I think that might be why Nuzlocks are as popular as they are. It emphasizes what's already in place to make different saves feel unique through a handful of self-imposed rules.

The ride on the ship was a fun little part of the journey. It felt like pretty much exactly the right length and made getting to Kanto more special than just walking into it from the connector at Victory Road. I also liked the hide-and-seek part of it. I found it funny that the trainer just "closes his eyes" (screen goes black for a second) when the girl asks him to despite knowing that her grandpa was looking for her. I thought it was sweet.

After that, I made my way off the ship and into whatever the heck a Virmillion City is. This is it. Kanto. All this time, and I'm just now getting to Kanto. I didn't even try to make any real progress after getting into the city. I just looked around at different things within the city. Obviously, it's a city in a Pokemon game, so there's only a dozen buildings or so. Taking in the atmosphere and listening to the new (to me) music was nice.

Now I'm presented with a problem. To avoid a repeat of the problem I just got myself out of, I looked up the levels of the gym battles ahead. It looks like I'll need to get everyone's levels to at least the low 50's, with Sync III and probably Super! needing to get to the mid-50's in order to be well equipped. This means adding about 5 levels to Sync III, over 10 levels to Peep, Ramelia, and Super!, and at least 15 levels to Gemini and Gorb. That's going to be a colossal amount of time to invest in getting ready. Not sure how I want to approach this problem yet. It's also entirely possible I'll just put this off and check out some of the other features in Johto before actually tackling Kanto. I was planning to hit the Safari Zone and Pokeathlon mini game thing at some point, so that might happen sooner rather than later. Might also try to get farther in that coin game. I did a lot worse than I was expecting, but maybe that was down to impatience.