New Years Day 2024 (A): Rampage

- Received WFC Mystery Gift. It was a Lv. 50 shiny Eevee with a Classic Ribbon, Adaptability as its ability, and a Focus Sash.
- Wonder Card message: "Thanks for coming to a 2010 Pokemon Video Game Championships event! Be sure to save your game after you pick up the Pokemon at the Poke Mart."
> Magic: EEVEE [M] (VGC10/05080)
- Caught a Cubone in the Rock Cave for no particular reason.
> Caught: CHAMP [M]
- I somehow managed to miss the Power Plant and got to Cerulean.
- Went back, saw the little stream of water, and figured out that surfing on it would get me to the Power Plant.
- Entered the Power Plant. Queue the song from One Must Fall 2097.
- Got told there was a shady character I should go check out in Cerulean. Great.
- Got back and went into the gym to find the guy.
- "Bye-bye a go-go!" is probably the best parting phrase I've heard in a while.
- Beat the Team Rocket guy after finding his "clever" hiding spot on the bridge.
- He stole the machine part and hid it in the Gym of the Cerulean. Near inflatable tube put it he did.
- His response to Team Rocket being no more was to go back to his home country. I'll miss him.
- Found the part and returned it to the plant.
- Oh my god please make the wild Goldeen encounters stop.
- Went up through Route 25 and interrupted Misty's date.
- Challenged Misty. Peep one-shot the Golduck and Starmie. I somehow didn't notice when looking it up that one of her Pokemon was Quagsire. Gorb was able to take it out with only a Light Screen set up to help him. The Lapras took out Peep, but not before taking a lot of damage from a discharge. Super! finished it with an Earthquake.
- Went to Saffron and took a photo with the team.
- Made it to Celadon and spent a while in the Game Corner.
- Got free masks from whoever Wake is.
- I'm realizing now that Celadon is probably the Kanto equivalent of Goldenrod.
- Wake is one of the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum gym trainers. Probably why I didn't recognize the name.
- Time to take on the gym after I make a quick switch.
> Magic: SYNC [M] (Lv. 54 Typhlosion)
- The first battle I took was against the twins. It was awesome having Sync and Sync III side-by-side in a battle.
- Sync III one shot the first three of Erika's Pokemon. The Bellossom took two Flamethrowers to take down though. I imagine it would be a menace to underleveled players with not enough Fire-type power.
- Took the Cycling Road to get to Fuchsia. Got into another double battle.
- Did the Janine gym battle. Gorb got knocked out by the Crobat and Sync III managed to take care of everything.
- Put Sync back in Box 10 and got Gemini back.



- Headed for the Seafoam Islands next.
- Road's blocked. Need to take the scenic route.
- Went to Cerulean to go West. That road is apparently one way. Need to take the Diglett tunnel.
- Diglett tunnel is still blocked by Snorlax. Need to go back to Lavender to get the expansion card.
- Knocked out Snorlax in the first battle. My bad, I guess. Reset.
- Accidentally took a path that led me to the house on Route 5 with the woman that gives the Cleanse Tag. That might be handy.
- Second time around, caught him with the second try of a Heavy Ball. Super!: Earthquake, Yawn, Earthquake, ball, Surf, ball.
> Caught: RALPH [M]
- There is no fucking universe where the Diglett Cave is long enough to go from just East of Vermilion to just South of Pewter. Not that I'm complaining.
- Got a Rainbow Wing from an old man in Pewter.
- I expected Brock's gym fight to be kind of a joke given that I have Super!. Brock's Kabutops was a fucking problem though. Peep managed to take it out and none of my party ended up fainting, but I was really not expecting that.
- Barbecued my way through Viridian forest. Got to the side that would go to Viridian only to see there was a way faster and easier way just to the side of the forest that I would have taken if I knew it was there before going through it.
- Stopped in Viridian long enough to get healed up and inspect the gym.
- Took a photo on Route 1. This is my first time being on Route 1. I wonder how many millions of players have started their journeys through it.
- Talked to Professor Oak in Pallet Town.
- Cameron must have teleported because he was on a small island in the water south of Pallet. Took another photo.
- Found Blue on what's left of Cinnabar Island. Still need one more badge before he'll face me.
- Got to the Seafoam Islands. Need to figure out where to go.
- Caught a Psyduck for no particular reason.
> Caught: PAMMY [F]
- Spotted Articuno in the depths of the Ice Caves Part 2.
- Made an attempt to catch Articuno. Peep hit one Discharge that got it into the red and paralyzed it. Switched in Super! to take hits and Yawn if needed. Wasted a Heavy Ball, Friend Ball, and every single Ultra, Great, and Poke Ball I had. Didn't take. Killed it, reset, and just moved on.
- The gym was up a ladder I originally ignored. After the Articuno encounter, I lost all patience and just had Super! destroy everything in my way to getting Blaine's gym badge.

Due to how long this was getting, I needed to split it into two parts. At this point, I was down to just Blue and Red that needed to be conquered before I technically beat the game.

I liked the Power Plant arc. It was short and I liked the Team Rocket guy's dialog. It was a nice little addition to make completing the Kanto gyms have some additional eventfulness. After that, I went right into Misty's gym battle. I know her design from the anime is iconic, but I think the design she has here is cooler. I like it better. I also like Brock's design in these games, even if it's not too different from his design in the anime.

Sync, unsurprisingly, is my starter Typhlosion from 2010. I didn't necessarily need him for either of the fights I brought him to, but his inclusion in this save was never going to be a matter of necessity. I brought him in so I could have him there as part of the journey to finally reaching the end of this game. Due to my having a save from 2019 where I also chose Cyndaquil, my starter in this save is actually my third, hence the name "Sync III".

The level curves in most of the Kanto gyms seem kind of inconsistent, except for Blaine and Blue, who feel like the last two in terms of how their Pokemon are leveled. I don't think it's a bad thing, but it feels weird.

I just left Articuno there after my attempt yielded nothing. I don't really care about the legendary Pokemon all that much. My best guess as to why is because Pokemon games treat them like they're super cool and rare and that I should care because of that. The actual reason is probably that I perceive them as being more trouble to try catching than they're worth. I caught Lugia because the game basically made me do it, and even then I gave up at some point and hit it with a Master Ball.