Day 8 - Flowey is disappointed in GameFreak.
Call me Mr. New Vegas, because today’s Pokemon Journey was spent trying to deal with glitches and gambling. (That game really is fantastic, but even fully patched it’s got problems. Didn’t stop me from beating it three times with all the DLC. Bethesda’s games got nothing on New Vegas, though Fallout 4 would have been great if the other 90% of the script had been included in the game)
So turns out the save problem I encountered a couple of days ago with Lt. Surge wasn’t isolated, I seem to have saved the game in a way that it didn’t like. Which means that my progress catching the elusive Vulpix, the most time-consuming task, was what I lost out on. Wonderful. I didn’t talk to the creepy Cubone man when I got to Lavender Town the second time, and a part of me feels good about that.
I get when games have glitches. It happens. It is the inevitable result of working conditions which are appalling while dealing with a machine that has millions of variables. But if any feature is to work outside of the basic controls, I insist that it be the ability to save the game. And for once in my life it’s an insistence that I know for a fact isn’t unreasonable. This is you and me establishing an implicit contract, GameFreak. For me to play your games, the save function has to work. I’ll be saving more often to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Okay. Well, let’s… go over what today was. It was actually pretty productive, all things considered. I got to Celadon City, beat about fifteen trainers, found HM 02 (Fly, which means I can stop using the Bicycle to get everywhere), snagged a bunch of TMs, recaught a Vulpix (the game had pity on me and gave me a Vulpix for my first encounter), gambled just a truly, truly excessive amount, and found my beloved Eevee.
How can you not love Eevee? The fact that I was/am an anti-social dork whose terror regarding social interaction is so great meant that I never fulfilled this particular dream, but by God, now’s my chance due to the introduction of the Breeding mechanic: I am going to have a full team of Eeveelutions for part of this journey.
One thing I’m really digging about this project is that I remember how great the original anime was. The Eevee episode with that kid and his three brothers? I still remember it to this day. It’s not my favorite episode (we’ll discuss that when it comes up, but that won’t be for a little while), but that’s only because of the high quality you generally experienced in that Kanto run.
I do feel a little bad about getting Umbreon though, I played a kid in the TCG with an Umbreon deck and beat him so bad he cried. I felt bad about it, but… I mean, someone has to lose in the card game, and it was a tournament. I didn’t start doing a touchdown dance or anything.
… besides, he was cheating and I still kicked his butt like he owed me money. Trying to play from a set on release day in a national tournament, before anyone else had the chance to buy or even understand how the cards work? He got off lucky. He could have been like the dude I beat in Munchkin, he had to go to the hospital. I’ll tell you that story sometime if someone asks, but I’m not doing it when I’m cranky.
Right, so let’s talk about gambling.
Everything about the Rocket Game Corner (which may be secretly run by Team Rocket, which makes sense since it’s called the Rocket Game Corner and has a Team Rocket member hanging around in there guarding things) is absolutely terrible and not fun. In 45 minutes I used the slot machines and managed to go from 50 coins to 650, which is about 1/10th of what I need to get a Porygon. This isn’t a challenge of anything except my patience. Sometimes you win, but mostly you just lose.
I’ve actively avoided spoilers about the games yet to come, but after all that time trying to get the RNG to go my way, I googled to see if there was, perhaps, a less terrible way of getting Porygon. And there is! if you have Pokemon Platinum, which I do.
In terms of progress… I’d say that it’s going pretty well. The game’s more complicated than it was when I was in the single digits, but that’s okay. My mind’s sharper too. I got my saves ready. I’ve got 20% of my Kanto Dexter filled to completion. I’m getting the hang of the game again. I’ve got new Pokemon, new ways to fight, new moves to rock and new ways to roll. Charmeleon is rip-roaring raged out and ready to ride, wreck and ravage and raze the rainforests of the Celadon Gym.
Tomorrow’s going to be so cathartic. Not just because I’m getting a new badge, but because the Gym Leader has the same name as one of my exes.
Sometimes it’s the little things, you know?
DAY 8 RESULTS
Current Team – Charmeleon (Ashes), Meowth, Pikachu, Machop, Kadabra, Pidgeotto
Pokemon Caught - 1 (and a second one AGAIN)
Eevee, Vulpix (AGAIN)
Evolutions – 0
Total Pokemon - 33
Badges - 3
NEW CATEGORY - Game Save Failures, for when the game fails to… save.
Game Save Failures - 2
I always just grinded money (one of the Sevi Islands has a FANTASTIC spot for that) and bought coins (something HG/SS really NEEDED).
