aubergion | Entries tagged with liveblog: pokemon scarlet

It's been a while since I've posted! TLDR:

Got 2 gym badges (Grass, Bug) and the conviction Nemona is stalking me
Got 2 titan badges (Rock, Flying) and a newfound sympathy for Arven despite my best efforts
Defeated the Dark Star Team and I think you're supposed to face him before the Fire one because his truck was much lower level
Finally found False Swipe and a Pokemon who can learn it! Thank god for Spidops.
Caught a bunch of new Pokemon
Ran into a tunnel....

Where I ran into a problem. Namely, level 38 Pokemon I've never seen before. My highest level Pokemon at the time was level 29.

Anyways, thanks to Dulcinea the Mudbray, I escaped with Zapporah and Ohm the Toxtricities and Almalexia the Salandit. I do not think I will go to the Psychic gym today.

I thought I'd take this point to give a team update! I have 12 on rotation right now, which is much larger than I normally make my teams, but there's just so many new Pokemon! I've missed so many generations. In catch order:

Puddles the Quaxwell (Water) - Starter
Jarmakee the Fletchinder (Fire/Flying, Normal Tera)
Ariadne the Spidops (Bug) - Dedicated false swipe user for catching new Pokemon
Sala the Naclstack (Rock)
Nobby the Shroodle (Poison/Normal)
Alba the Frosmoth (Ice/Bug, Dragon Tera)
Manchegita the Skiddo (Grass)
Quixote the Paldean Tauros (Fighting)
Ampere the Wattrel (Electric/Flying)
Jack & Jill the Tandemous (Normal) - only in the party for Pickup
Vetrina the Dolliv (Grass/Normal)
Dulcinea the Mudbray (Ground) - just joined, but I am in love with Stamina

I haven't really used Fairy type at all - I have a Fidough but she just hasn't gotten a lot of play compared to the others. I've been told Shroodle evolves into something good and its attack stat is kind of bananas, so I'm keeping an eye out there, but I'm tempted to swap Nobby for Almalexia when I can use her without her disobeying for the combination of Acid Spray and Incinerate.

Anyways, I need to chase a man across a desert. Wish me luck!

Current Location: Cascarrafa (isn't that a Pokemon?)

I finally got the hang of the difference between auto battles and throwing Pokeballs in random directions. It's actually pretty nice? I'm definitely enjoying not having to grind. After a few hard battles and a distinct lack of potions, I made it the rest of the way to Artazon. My rule about having to try and catch every single Pokemon I've never caught before is causing a surprising amount of trouble, because whenever I get into a new area, two things immediately happen:

I see a cool new Pokemon
It turns out to be higher level than the highest level Pokemon in my entire party

And since I have to try to catch it, I can't knock it out, which means it is free to devastate my entire team while I huck 20 Pokeballs at it in hopes that one will eventually stick. So far this has happened to me vs Oinkologne, Skiddo, Litleo, and Oricorio, and it's only through my extensive Sinnoh experience that I haven't had to force myself to chase after a Luxio as well.

I haven't even done the first gym yet. I really need False Swipe.

But I made it, and met... Clive? The director, in the ugliest wig I've ever seen? I have no idea what is up with him vs Team Star. It doesn't make any sense based on what I know of them. Why does he seem like, emotionally upset by the existence of these teen delinquents? Anyways, he was confusing, useless, and further exacerbated the feeling of Pokemon Scarlet being unwilling to let you simply run around and make your own mistakes without being supervised. Did not appreciate it tbh.

Anyways, it's a good thing I figured out auto battles, because apparently the Team Star battles rely on them! There aren't actually any early water types besides my Quaxley (Quaxwell at this point), so I'm glad I had Puddles - and then Sala the Nacli and Canker the Klawf rounded out the team. The leader, Mela, fielded a Torkoal, sending me right back into Ruby/Sapphire flashbacks - and then a car? Hello? WHAT?

Puddles and a heaping pile of potions managed to defeat her, however, and she even gave Puddles a badge. She was very clear that it was for him, and not for me. And then a flashback with the rest of the Team Star leaders. Huh. I'm sure that'll be relevant later but honestly, there wasn't much memorable about it to begin with. Anyways, I think I want to do the gym next - I certainly have enough birds for it! And since Nemona ran off the other direction, I won't have anyone hanging over my shoulder this time.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Artazon

I am going to continue to have beef with these cutscenes, I can tell. The tutorial section for Pokemon Scarlet is so much longer than the Gen 4/5 games I'm used to. You don't need to stop every five minutes to show me how enthusiastic presumptive League Champion Nemona is! Just teach me to catch a Pokemon and get out of my way! As it is, every ten minutes of tripping over new Pokemon is interspersed with five minutes of watching Nemona babble on. I liked her when we met, but this is going to start wearing thin, I can tell.

Anyways, several rounds of cutscenes later, I have my three main quests:

Victory Road, your standard gym badges, with Nemona
Path of Titans, the BotW-esque giant Pokemon challenge, with the Skwovet asshole (his name is Arven, apparently)
Operation Starfall, which deals with the evil team of this generation, Team Star, featuring the mysterious phone hacker Cassiopeia

.... only the evil team isn't that evil, really. They're more like a bunch of high school delinquents stuck in a MLM scheme. Like, the teams in Pokemon are always a bit cartoonish but at least the ones from the past generations felt malevolent, you know? I just kind of feel bad for these kids, and I don't think it's just because I'm fifteen years older now.

Even so, their quest does seem like the most interesting one. I'm getting a little fed up with Nemona, and I'm not helping Arven with shit, so Cassie it is. I'm taking on Team Star first, and one of the nearest bases is Fire-type! Perfect place for me and Quaxly to get started. Except that's out the east gate, which means Arven thinks I'm helping him. Don't get your hopes up, bub.

Current Location: Mesagoza

I think I spent more time doing character creation than running around Paldea. To be fair, this is a known problem with me. But also - character creation?! In my Pokemon game? From the start? With gender-neutral makeup and haircuts?

It really is a whole new world.

( Read more... )

I have some quibbles with this game. The controls don't feel as fluid as Legends: Arceus, which is weird because it came out afterwards. I don't love the number of long, unskippable, interactive, cutscenes. I don't know why I can't h ave Nemona's skin tone, which is extremely close to my IRL one. But meeting all these new creatures reminded me what it felt like to be ten years old and stumbling face-first into the mysterious and unknown world of Pokemon. And that's a pretty amazing feeling.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Poco Path Lighthouse

Hello! It's been a while! Since I last posted, I've traveled a bunch, graduated from college, moved across the country, so I've barely had time to touch my Christmas gifts - including a brand-new copy of Pokemon Scarlet!

The very first video game I owned for myself, instead of playing at a friend's house, was Pokemon Pearl. The last mainline Pokemon game I played was Pokemon White 2, more than a decade ago. I have a copy of Legends: Arceus, but it's safe to say it's a little.... different from your standard Pokemon fare. I'm excited to see how the series has changed, and go back to my gamer roots taking on the gyms and Elite 4!

I have a vague idea of what goes on in this game - but I haven't watched any streams or even much in the way of trailers, so all I know is some secondhand Discord chatter. I'm really interested in getting to know the new Pokemon and new region.

Things I know about Pokemon Scarlet:

Less linear structure, can kind of do things in any order
You're a student at Pokemon University or something?
Some kind of Breath of the Wild-esque mega legendary situation, which sounds fun
The legendary is also a bike
There is an NPC who is a lesbian who looks like a twink
The Tauros will kill you
There is a long white Diglett that allegedly looks like a dick
There is also an olive

..... that's it.

When I did play Pokemon, I got really into type and Nuzlocke challenges. I'm also going to set down some ground rules for this playthrough, but much less stringent:

I need to try to complete the Pokedex - if there is any Pokemon I have never caught before, I have to do everything in my power to try and catch it.
I cannot, however, use any Pokemon from Gens 1-5 UNLESS they were single-stage Pokemon (does not evolve)
- I basically never use single-stage Pokemon, so I think they deserve another chance.
No looking up tutorials. If I take a wrong turn and end up in Victory Road, that's my burden and I have to suffer through it.

Ready? Let's go!

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: somewhere in the world of Pokemon

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