If you've played Pokémon Black 2 or White 2, you may remember the lost Xtransceiver plot where a person named Yancy or Curtis (depending on whether you're playing as Nate or Rosa) loses their Xtransceiver, and frequently calls the player until they can return it. They can't see each other until they first meet because Yancy and Curtis are using one with a broken camera. After returning the Xtransceiver to Yancy/Curtis, the player can then call them and meet up with them multiple times at the Nimbasa Ferris wheel as they slowly develop a crush on the player.
But you see, I have recently fallen into the Yancy x Rosa ship hole (of which there is incredibly little (shout out to the exactly three fanfics on AO3)).
Yancy is secretly a TV idol who frequently appears on TV, but she is nervous and secretive about this fact. While talking to Yancy anonymously, Rosa slowly becomes more and more famous (taking down Team Plasma, beating all eight gyms, Pokéstar Studios, winning at the PWT, becoming the champion etc.). So imagine if Rosa is equally humble about her rising fame, and because of the broken Xtransceiver cameras, she's able to hide that she's THAT Rosa from her. But Yancy slowly starts figuring it out as Rosa appears on TV more and more, and that beautiful voice sounds more and more familiar. When they finally meet, Yancy is absolutely starstruck. It was, in fact, Hero, Movie Star, Champion, etc. Rosa returning her Xtransceiver. And she is even prettier and sweeter in person.
After several polls, we're going to FINALLY start playing through our first (and maybe only if i cant keep it up) installment of Tumblr Plays Pokemon!
You voted and now I will begin playing as Polly. An eager young trainer whos catching choices have been decided by YOU loyal tumblrites!
Just to refresh your minds as to the rules of this playthrough, here is the rough outline;
You, tumblr user reading this right now, will vote on a series of 24 hour long polls I post up on this blog deciding what pokemon we will attempt to catch in each area. When we've voted on all the available areas between the gyms (been using bulbapedias White 2 walkthrough to help me sort that out) I will play through the section attempting to catch the pokemon in question, and playing through the game with them.
Seems simple right?
Well not quite. To keep things interesting I added some additional rules to keep things interesting for all involved. After all it wouldn't be nearly as interesting if we had it all our own way right?
Here are the rules in full;
(warning; long post ahead)
All attempted Pokemon catches on each route will be decided by tumblr poll. This includes choices regarding trade pokemon, gift pokemon, fossils, etc when they come up.
Can only catch a single pokemon from every route.
Can only catch a single member of each evolutionary family. (No team of all eevees)
Can only attempt to catch each species of pokemon ONCE. If I fail we don't get a second chance. (Can't catch pidgey on route 1? NO pidgeys on the team for the rest of the game)
Can only have a single pokemon of every type.
No repeat natures.
Any HM slave/mule will be a permanent member of the team and count towards all previous rules.
Outside of the pokemon there are two additional options on polls; Randomize will mean choosing a pokemon based on the results of a random number number generator. Choose this if you want a pokemon but don't care which or otherwise just want to cause a little chaos.
Abstain will mean skipping the route without catching any pokemon. Choose this if you want to reserve the catches and typing for the pokemon on another route.
So keep in mind that winning the poll for a route doesnt necessarily mean that that pokemon will be a 100% guranteed catch or member of the team. If I fail to catch them, or if they have a conflicting nature, they will not be added to the team.
(Note; Also please note that this is NOT a nuzlocke. There are no permadeath rules in this playthrough. So a pokemon added to the team is a permanent member of the roster both in and out of the PC.)
With all that rigmaroll explaind lets get started!
Our name is Polly and we're a freshly minted trainer starting out on our pokemon journey for the first time on a lovely Spring evening! See our mom is friends with Professor Juniper, one of the pokemon professors, and shes offered to give us a pokedex of our very own!
Which she tells our mom at the last second, the DAY Biana arrives with our pokemon. What a character that Juniper.
Naturally we're not going to say no to having a Pokemon of our very own. With a Pokemon we'd finally get to leave town on our own, and maybe Hugh would finally stop asking us if we have one every damn day.
Speaking of Hugh;
We meet him outside and he more or less INVITES himself to find Bianca. Ah well, the more the merrier. Maybe.
Found her...
So in the first ever poll to decide our roster you guys voted that our starter should be...
SNIVY!
First off the table is the grass type. As one of the three starters in the game, Snivy is bound to be a longstanding addition to the team.
Sadly in the older games you can't rename your pokemon until you find the Name Rater, and in this game you don't run into him until Castelia City. So we won't be able to gurantee any nicknames based off of natures. As a result we're going to have to name this guy blind!
With that in mind I decided to name him Bentley! Which is a name that refers to a meadow with course grass.
He has a Quiet nature which actually fits well with the stuffy british name we wound up giving him XD And he has Overgrow as an ability which should be expected.
All the same with this decision we can cross all grass types off our options in the future, and any pokemon we catch with a Quiet nature outside of Bentley will need to be released! The nature rule is first come first serve!
After we get our Pokemon Hugh comes up and basically demands poor Bianca give him a pokedex. Which, by some miracles, she actually HAS.
I try to leave but Hugh won't let me. Guess we gotta fight.
Hugh is going to use the little Tepig hes raised from an egg, adn we're gonna use out newly minted Bentley.
I start things off with leer, but tepig hits back with tackle. After that it was tackle after tackle until Bentley laid a critical hit and beat Tepig! Which is odd considering Hughs had his pokemon for longer.
(Lol if this were a written story I'd have us lose. I mean it'd only make sense. But eh. Video game logic.)
After the obligatory Pokemon Center tutorial (which we arguably wouldn't need given out mom works there) Bianca gives us some free pokeballs. Then we meet our mom outside who gives us some running shoes (you kids have no idea what a god send these were back in the day) and Hughs sister gives us a map. As we head to Route 19 for our obligatory catching tutorial the lady at the gate gives us a free potion.
Bianca gives the practice tutorial against a Purrloin which, coincidently, is the pokemon that we were voted to catch for Route 19! So after Bianca finally leaves a get into the grass and make my search for a Purrloin... which I found right away!
It was level 2.
Bentley one hit KO'd it with a critical.
I don't know what to tell you guys. I legit thought Purrloin was going to be a guranteed member of the team but uh... Bentley decided against it and went in for the kill. Maybe thats why Tepig lost despite Hugh having it for longer. Bentley is a quiet little guy who hides the soul of a killer.
So, uh, yeah Dark types are still on the table going forward. Purrloin and Leapard not so much. Oh well at least it gave Bentley enough exp to learn Vine Whip.
We continue on our way and find another potion in some grass.
And then a spiky haired old man jumps out at us.
I'm not kidding.
He jumps off that cliff by the way.
Are your legs okay?
I feel like hes dodging the question.
He encircles around us and then says our "snivy" is fine-looking. He then asks us to follow him.
Remembers folks theres no "stranger danger" in the poke-verse XD
Alder invites us to visit his house, but I opt to explore the town a bit instead. This bit of independent thought netted me another free potion from an old man in one of the houses. Nice guy.
We run into Alder again who tells us Hugh is probably on route 20 training his mons. And it just so happens that route is out next goal!
The attempted capture we aim for on route 2 is Pidove! Hopefully since it has a type advantage against Bentleys grass type it won't go down in one hit!
Before that though I have to fight some trainers. Not that its a huge difficulty. Bentley took them both out no problem. Issue is... hes now level 8. Hope that PIdove hops out soon...
And as I type that we find another trainer. Oh boy.
Of note though is that in the Unova games you'll often have moments like this where you'll see unreachable items.
These are here to encourage you to revisit routes during different seasons. We're in Spring at the start of the game so this pokeball will likely become reachable in the Fall or Winter when the holl around it fills with leaves or snow.
Thing is, the seasons in Unova change monthly. Back in the day you coudl adjust the season by changing the time on your switch buuuuut I'm playing on PC so that options isn't available. Lol here's hoping the polls keep us busy.
Still I liked this mechanic a lot growing up. It kept you invested in the game for a longer amount of time, and enouraged you to backtrack to older routes to see what new things you could find there.
North of this area is Floccessy Ranch but we gotta try and get our Pidove encounter before then. After running away from a few sewaddles we come across a Pidove.
Who is level 2.
Bentley is level 8.
Oh boy.
The thing is. I could just throw a pokeball. That could catch the Pidove. But I dont want to get into the habit of doing that because having to battle the pokemon just... makes things more exciting? But I don't want to just ignore your guys votes either.
So, at least temporarily, I'm going to give myself one chance to throw a ball at a wild pokemon if I think its too low level or that my pokemon might one hit KO it. However I don't want to resort to doing that the whole playthrough. So if I don't do it again in future, well... the lack of excitement is why. Plus once you unlock quick balls, doing this just kills the fun entirely so yeah. With that in mind I'm limiting it to the basic red and white pokeball.
With that being said here we go...
opening the bag
selecting the ball
throwing the ball
aaaaaaaaand
it busts out.
Okay. Still a chance though. I mean its a flying type. It has a type advantge on Bentley. Maybe if I just use the normal type attack tackle it'll leave it with a bit of health.
Okay Bently use tackle but do not under any circumstances=
... aaaand youve killed it....
. . . . .
.... Bentley I'm starting to think there's a reason Juniper and Bianca gave you away.
((Is the game designed this way? Am I supposed to be one shotting the beginner route pokemon? I havent played this game in years so I have no idea.))
Okay Okay. Floccessy Ranch is our last chance. We NEED a pokemon from there or else we're going into the first gym with JUST Bentley and while hes turned out to be a tiny murderous green bean, I don't ultimately think it'd be wise.
Nows a good time to delve into an aspect of this method of playthrough that I am only just now realizing is an issue. See because Pidove won the poll for Route 20, I removed it from the polling from the subsequent routes in this section of the game. Which mean pokemon like Lillipup, patrat, and azurill weren't on the poll even though the normal typing didn't wound up being used up.
This is a bit of an early game mistake on my part, as its an eventuality that simply didn't occur to me. However rather than redo the whole poll, I think I'm just going to keep the result of the Floccesy Ranch poll as is and just refrain from making the same mistake in future.
So from now on, I will only remove pokemon from the poll if their typing/species/evolutionary family are confirmed members of the team. Beyond that they remain on the polls. If a Pokemon wins two routes in a row or something like that, I'll just count it towards the route it was caught on and label the second one "abstained" and do another poll for it later.
Sorry I didn't catch this eventuality sooner, but this is the first time I'm attempting this kinda thing and these growing pains were to be expected. Regardless here's hoping Bentley doesnt decide to make all this musing pointless by killing our next potential team member.
Continuing on we enter Floccesy Ranch and fight Hugh. I'm not sure if there was a chance to catch any pokemon here BEFORE fighting Hugh, but I'm here now so eh. He only has one pokemon still so I think it'll be okay.
Bentley starts off with a couple of leers again, bu Tepig does a couple of tackles and hits with his own tail whip. Since Tepigs a fire type theres no relying on vine whip here. So I'm gonna rely on tackle.
A strategy which works and takes Tepig down. Raising Bentley up to level 9.
Oh joy. This is gonna go straight to Bentleys head I just know it.
After the big fight the ranch owners arrives and are shocking chill about two teenagers having a monster fight on their property. They even give me a potion for Bentley.
They tell us one of their Herdier has wandered off and Hugh just flips out on the poor guy and his wife and runs off to find it. Guess we better help find it. Could be a good chance to catch us another team member.
Assuming Bentleys blood lust is finally under control.
The pokemon who won the poll for Floccesy Ranch was mareep which seems thematically appropriate for the location. I try to run from as many battles as possible while hunting for a mareep sine Bentley does NOT need anymore levels! A lot of the pokemon in this area seem to be at least at level 4, but since Bentley is at level 9 at this point and is eyeballing level 10 I really gotta be careful to avoid battles.
nO
nOoOoOOOOOO
ARCEUS WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!
i guess I should be happy hes not managing to kill this purrloin in one hit but hes basically guranteed to level up from this trainer battle.
You see what I mean?!
Honestly when I started this I did NOT think quick leveling or weak wild pokemon was going to be a problem. At least not this early on. I'm really really really hoping that when we find that mareep its strong enough to survive Bentley.
Bentley did learn wrap which may be useful but I can recall if you can still catch a pokemon caught in wrap or not? I'm not sure I want to risk it. Especially since mareep has, I think, a 10% appearance rate? So it'll take me a hot second just to find one and I'd prefer not to have this murderous little grass weasel make all that for naught!
Finally found a mareep!
Aaaand its level 5
Okay. Bentley. My starter. My partner. My friend. Do not, and I neeed you to listen to this! Do NOT kill this mareep in one hit! Yes, I know it is raining right now and as a grass type in a gen 5 game thats basically a god send, but just.... please.
OH BENTLEY YOU DO LOVE ME!!!
Now if the pokeball gods don't hate me...
YES
OH THANK ARCEUS
I WAS THIS CLOSE TO FACING THE GYM WITH ONE POKEMON.
Okay okay okay. We gotta name our new little friend.
I took a while deliberating on this one and after way too many various google searches I've decided to call her Aries and be done with it.
"But isn't Aries a boys name?"
I have no idea. I did way too much googling by this point, and I was, like, 80% sure Bentley was going to murder her. Now as long as she has a nature that doesnt conflict wtih Bentley (which is likely) then we're good.
Bentley had a quiet nature, so as long as she has literally ANYTHING different then we're fine.
AND ITS GOOOOOOOOD!!
Now I know this is a rather abrupt play to end this, but after that wild ride of Bentley going on a murder binger and this post already being incredibly long, I think I'll start a new one to detail finding the pokemon and taking on the gym!
Thankfully this DOES mean that I can go ahead and make some new polls for the next section of the game. So look forward to that.
