The length of this particular 'part' is pretty long, but it's probably going to be a speedy read.
A reminder to support the official product! Detective Pikachu is a great Pokemon movie! I'll have a review up maybe sometime next week.
Anyway, last we left off, I beat Maria, gym leader of Nowtoch City as well as saw her shoo off a creepy stalker. As Ura leaves, we meet our own significantly-less-creepy stalker. Theo's a lot more whiny, though.
Also, jeez, get over the whole "my starter's weaker than yours waaah" mentality already, child.
Haha, what do you take me for, you chicken-haired fool?
Theo is surprised at how fast I beat the gym leader and her small army of cats. He then challenges me to battle, to prove that he's stronger than both me and Maria.
Okay, last time you saw your dad, he told you to round off your team with types that'll beat my starter. I admit that it probably won't help you out too much, and I'm not super familiar with the region's Pokemon, but maybe you caught one of those round Water-type frog things? A Rock-type, perhaps, even if Barewl's Steel-type does admittedly end up making it vulnerable to my fire dinosaur? Maybe something that'll deal neutral damage, like a Mankey or a Tonemy or something?
...oh. A Birbie.
You poor fool, you probably ran into this thing as your first encounter in Route 1 and thought it's the coolest thing ever, huh. The Birbie tries to Quick Attack Charlie, but dies in two turns.
Orchynx doesn't even stand a chance, getting turned into fried metal cat once more. One of these days, maybe Orchynx will get a move off.
I really feel bad for Orchynx, if we're being honest.
It's a Birbie, Theo. Literal random five-year-old preschoolers in Route 1 have them.
You challenged me to the fight first, you little twit.
Oh, hey, plot device progression! Oh man, I miss the ride Pokemon from Generation VII and the lack of HM's at all in that game. This'll let me access some obvious Rock Smash gated areas.
Ah. "Lingering around town", is it? Fool kid really needs to get his act together if he wants to get on my level. Anyway, we need Rock Smash to progress, and I'm genuinely pretty sure that I'm not going to use any of these fools other than Charlie, so Tremors gets to be designated rock-smasher.
Also, despite my derision, Chippette continues to actually be useful with Pickup, which is great this early in the game.
OWLFIGHT GO!
There are some trainers as I make my way south of Nowtoch and use the non-bat-infested cave route. I feel the need to note this, even if none of the fights are notable.
Pretty weird thing to say to a total stranger, but do it, hiker man! I believe in you!
Oh hey useless TM. I genuinely don't remember what Captivate does. -googles- Ah, a shittier Attract that lowers special attack instead of immobilizing. What a shit move.
Yep, a landslide. These are Rock Smash boulders, and Tremors can smash them so that I can return back to my hometown and-
Wait, what? This dude gives a dramatic speech about how he's a Pokemon Ranger, basically peacekeeper-policemen-superhero. Theoretically, anyway. Since the rangers in this region is ran by Kellyn, Ura's predisposed to think that every single one of them is shady.
Let my little land-snake break the rocks, man!
Information dump let's go! It sounds stupid, but honestly, is it any more stupid-sounding than capturing and shrinking monsters down into balls? I like the Ranger games, as weird as the concept is -- mostly due to the genuine lack of explanation of how bizarre the
Ura uses a ball that converts wild Pokemon into energy and/or data, and then forms a permanent, ambiguously-consensual bond between them. Likewise, they will assist Ura.
I'm 100% not sure if we're going to have Pokemon Ranger style missions, otherwise this entire information dump is just a bizarre tie-in to the side-games. Which, don't get me wrong, lore will never be a thing I mind, but it's weird to shoehorn this in. Also, Ura would've gotten through that rock barrier with a single Grozard instead of using the Styler to capture two of them.
This next segment of gameplay was done during the day, which is a lot more pleasant to screen-cap. We basically make our way through the side of Route 2 that we couldn't access before. Lots of trainers.
Encounter montage! Basically Charlie sort of carried the fight through the entire route, although I did try to let Taxonomaly and Bubo get some chance to shine since I'd like to have a backup plan if Charlie gets wrecked by a Water-type or something. Taxo learns Struggle Bug, which is... it's neat, I guess? Not the best Bug-move, but at least he gets STAB now.
(Also, Magikarps are in the game).
I got the idea of grinding my B-team against the rich kid with the Chyinmunks. Basically it lasted for a couple of battles to get Charlie, Taxonomaly and Bubo level up a bit more.
Taxonomaly learns Fairy Wind, which is genuinely useful, and replaces the otherwise useless Charm. Also, thanks to Pickup triggering at the end of every battle, Chippette helps me stock up on random items.
Online connectivity is something that is bizarrely a thing in a fan-game. I guess it appeals to people? I'm not one of them (my dream Pokemon game is one that doesn't need me to trade with anyone to complete the Pokedex), but I'll give it a shot. I don't care about online battles, or virtual training, and GTS is a bit too troublesome, but I'll do a wonder trade for shits and giggles.
For those who never played the 3DS era games, wonder trade is a fun feature where you just throw a Pokemon into the internet and get a random on also being wonder-traded back at you. Sometimes it results in you getting a super-powerful traded Pokemon at a point you're not supposed to.
I trade away Happy Birb, because I don't really care for Happy Birb. It would've been Chippette, but she's actually useful with Pickup.
...and we got back another shitty Birbie. You know what? Pretty on-brand for a random trade.
And then we get a Tricwe, who is this baby bee-ant thing and look at him he's adorable! The three "elemental ants" are honestly kind of ultimately weak, but we'll see if I decide to use them. Tricwe is pure-bug, but his coloration and him knowing Thundershock tells us that his evolution will be Bug/Electric.
I swap out Ahoge for Tricwe. He's not going to be a permanent member of our team, but it's nice to have a Pokemon that's above level 10 for swap-out purposes should things get hairy for Charlie.
See, this random forever alone youngster has a Birbie that's as strong as the one that Theo thinks can beat up Charlie. (Also it's night again now.)
Ah, yeah, random dude on Route 1 gives me an Old Rod! I really do enjoy the fishing part of the Pokemon games and am pretty pissed that Generation VII severely limits them, while the Let's Go games does away with fishing entirely. LET ME FISH, NINTENDO
We'll probably just fish up a Magikarp or something...
And we do! Not much to say here, Magikarp's an official Pokemon, and I'm not sure why I call him Jon. I guess after Jon Snow, because Magikarp definitely knows nothing.
I think Magikarp's dex entry is taken from the Emerald game. As noted before, unless there's something particularly eye-catching, I won't be using "official" Pokemon in this Uranium run.
The other fishing encounter is Fortog, who we've fought a couple times in this route. He's a happy fat fatty fat frog and apparently it rolls around everywhere. Probably not going to use him, though. Not the hugest fan, although the elemental coverage would probably be neat. I named mine Spittor.
As I enter Moki Town, Professor Bamboo accosts me. I mean, I guess he's my boss.
Not a whole ton of important dialogue, he basically congratulates me for beating Maria and her cats, tells me to participate in the gym challenge, and directs me Eastward to the next gym. Also, another HM tutorial.
Apparently Bamb'o's payment is giving me rare items in exchange for filling up the Pokedex. It's interesting, but without Fly, I don't foresee going back and forth to Bamb'o's lab too often.
Yeah, I'm not super-great, but you can potentially get every single Pokemon available in the game through GTS and Wonder Trading at this point of the game, which is another reason why I think that stuff like those really should've been relegated to the post-game even in official games.
Also, a mere Rare Candy? Cheapskate.
We check up on Aunt May. Good stuff, auntie. Live your life! Be healthy!
I like Aunt May. Totally not a deadbeat parent like that piss-off Kellyn.
ROCK SUMAAAAASHHHHH
-insert All Might yelling-
Oh, hey, here's another one of the elemental ants I mentioned, and the first one that I should've normally meet if I didn't go through that wonder-trading stuff. Smore is adorable, but because of his coloration and his usage of Ember I keep mistaking it for a Bug/Fire.
I catch one of my own and it's got an adorable pokedex entry. The "Cute Ant"? It approaches picnics to get attention? D'awww. I'm uncertain on whether I'll ever use these ants, because I really want to... but grinding is so boring in this game and even when evolved neither Smore or Tricwe are going to be all that useful.
Also, capturing Picnic Boy elevates good old Taxonomaly to level 10!
Time for evolution! Dun-dunnn dun-dunnn dun-daahhh dun-DUNNN DUN-DUNNN DUN-DAAAHH
doo-doo-doooo doo-doo-doo-doot-doo-doo!
Taxonomaly evolves from a pink, bear-faced Sewaddle into... uh... that thing. Yeah! It's... it's a weird-ass green acorn with a face and little stubby wings and legs glued onto it. Some people online have compared Cubblfly (not Cubbfly, not Cubblly, but Cubb-l-fly) to a buttplug, and I don't blame them.
Taxonomaly is... slightly stronger than before, I guess? The critters in this route sort of outclass my team other than Charlie, and Taxonomaly can just barely keep up. I love how goofy those little stubby legs look. She's trying to punch other bugs in the face with them!
Oh hey, another official Pokemon! I don't think I've ever used Mankey in any playthroughs. I call her Bonobo after the Bonobo apes.
At this point I realize that the Return TM is basically far, far more useful than any move other than Tackle, so I teach it to every member of my team. Except Ahoge, because fuck him. He's our HM slave, replacing Tremors.
Wait what the fuck?
What the hell is an end-game move lying around in Route 3? To put it into perspective, I've completed Let's Go Pikachu all the way to the Elite Four and haven't even gotten Giga Drain yet. Lord almighty, barring a few exceptions, Giga Drain is probably the best special Grass-type move, and it's handed to us at a point in the game where you'd probably be handed fucking Bullet Seed or some shit.n
Holy shit, Taxonomaly suddenly becomes super useful. Unlike all of the others, she now has type coverage with a pretty damn great move.
Brief detour back home to Aunt May... NO AUNT MAY MY ZELDA SAVE FILES
To the east of Moki Town is Route 3, which is near a beach! It's... it's no Alola, but it's still a pretty beach.
You know, if you live next to something and get exposed to it everyday, it ceases to be anything special.
Hee hee, sandcastles and sea-shells Those little decoration sprites might not be the prettiest, but I do like them. (That random kid had a Fortog, which probably isn't the best Pokemon for a kid)
Fishing in the ocean nets me... Lotad? The lilypad Pokemon? Y'know, all those fresh-water ponds in earlier routes genuinely feel like more appropriate places to find a Lotad in. It's also floating above the ground for some reason.
Caught it, and named her Wigglefoot due to the hilariously adorable animation that she has. You can't see it in screenshots, of course, but some of the sprites are constantly animated, a la Generation V. It's pretty jarring, though, to see how some sprites constantly move around while some are static images.
Evolution stones this early in the game? It's not as egregious as the Giga Drain TM, but still...
The grass on route 3 nets us one of these nasty little bastards that Maria's gym uses. A bunch of other trainers on this route have Feleng as well, and apparently the AI really, really loves spamming Yawn. Which is hella annoying. SleepyShit over here won't ever see the light of day.
"It can manipulate other Pokemon just by giving them a pleading look and meowing cutely?" Fuck you, Feleng, you horrible little shit, after all the yawning nonsense you put me through in the first gym, I don't like you.
AAAAAA LOOK AT THAT THING IT'S ADORABLE
Comparing it to Smore and Tricwe, which are pretty cute, Sponee definitely wins in the adorableness meter. Look at those eyes and that little blob body and those stubby widdle feet!
I've got a taxonomy anomaly, a chimeric mixture of an acorn, a butt-plug, a cocoon and a bear. Don't you want to see her?
Snatch is more in-line with what we should find at this point of game.
Anyway, after fighting sailors, tubers and black belts, Ura finally makes it to Burole Town, the town of the second gym. Let's explore first, though.
Huh, apparently this "Davern" fellow really loves caves, and cave Pokemon, and themes his gym around caves. That's... that's pretty neat, actually, theming your gym not after a single type, but after a location. Did I say something along those lines in the last part of my let's play?
Unfortunately, this probably means that Davern's gym will feature lots and lots of Tonemy, which isn't something I'm looking forward to.
Also, the town is a mining town and the biggest mine is the local gym. Sort of reminds me of Oreburgh from the Sinnoh games, but less in-your-face about the theme.
I'd mock the little kid, but Team Rocket was canonically disbanded by a ten-year old beating their mafia boss so many times that he got severe depression.
Random lampshading of mechanic and story segregation! Y'know, Uranium, why don't you do something about it? You're a fan game, give either an explanation or have a bigger shop inventory!
One of the main buildings in the city other than the gym is a Pokemon School, but we don't get an info-dump on status conditions or whatever like the official games. It's just a school for the sake of being a school.
I'd agree with you, little girl, but no one mocks that backwater town but me! It's not like your town's much better.
Y'know what, is that why Theo's so dumb? He never went to school!
More lampshade of the Pokemon games existing in-universe. At this point it's starting to get a wee bit annoying. The trainers on this second floor of the school wants to battle me, by the way.
Also, some random dude outside the school also mentions Pokemon Silver, so apparently Nintendo of Tandor has been releasing these games at a pretty high speed. Maybe by the time we beat the Elite Four equivalent of this game, the NPCs will be talking about Pokemon XY and Sun/Moon.
One of them has all three Tandor starters, but Orchynx is still pretty shit and dies in one shot. His death does end up giving Charlie the ability to unleash Flame Wheel! Finally, a somewhat decent Fire-type move instead of relying on spamming Ember! God it took a while.
Wigglefoot can't really do anything against the enemy Raptorch, but Charlie manages to deal with it just fine due to a 7-level difference giving him better stats. I didn't take screenshots of the Raptorch cockfight, though.
This is the final starter we never got to see, Eletux, the Water/Electric hippocampus. Who's actually probably the best of the three main starters if we're being objective about it. But between the weird head borrowed from Charmeleon, the dainty pointy legs, and whatever the fuck's going on with those weird orbs on its rump, I just can't take Eletux seriously.
Eletux would, by the way, totally fuck up Charlie if he actually used Water Gun. Instead it just spams Defense Curls for some reason, allowing Charlie to Mud-Slap Eletux to submission.
Raptorch's able to use its Ground typing to deal some damage to the starter it's weak against, and Eletux presumably can learn ice-type moves to beat Orchynx, but poor, poor grass kitty just can't do jack shit against Raptorch.
Other trainers in the school have Kinetmunk, the Normal/Electric evolution of Chyinmunk. It still looks goofy, and I can't decide if it's just the angle or the proportions and design as a whole. I don't hate it, but, yeah, I'm definitely not in a hurry to evolve Chippette.
Oh man, what the shit? It's pretty fucking weird, for sure. It's just a snake-dragon with a hand on its bum. As a Dragon-type, Barand resists Flame Wheel, but spamming Mud-Slap takes Barand down jsut fine. It's an interesting design, I'll give them that, but it's just... it's just kinda there, y'know? A lot more interesting than Kinetmunk, but I really wished that they actually did a bit more with Barand.
Okay, there's a subway, but I can't enter it? Didn't we see one of these in Nowtoch City?
There's a segment of the city that's just a park surrounding a lake, and the people around it none-too-subtly hint at something hiding in this totally deep lake.
One of the NPC's randomly sells cheap Chinese herbs. The traditional medicine heal your pokemon but decrease their happiness. I care more about money efficiency than Pokemon happiness, though, so I buy a bunch.
Bit weird to have a shop where there's no clear sign or whatever, though. How does Lisa attract customers? Although then again, maybe these "Energy Powders" aren't quite the legal if you know what I mean...
I decide to explore the route on the east side of Burole Town just to toughen up my Pokemon a bit. Some of the trainers hint at the Comet Cave, where apparently pokemon are attacking in groups. Horde battles?
Also, there's the obligatory shorts-are-comfy Youngster.
Most of the creatures used by the trainers are things we have seen before, other than these two. Jerbolta is a pretty neat-looking jerboa Pokemon with spiky hair and everything. He's supposed to be the Pikachu expy of this region, and I honestly wished that Pokemon went more in this direction instead of being a bit too samey with most of their Pika-clones.
Pahar has a pretty m'eh sprite, but he does look cute. Pretty obviously a Fire/Flying, and I learn the hard way that these shits have Flash Fire as an ability -- meaning they negate fire damage and gain a buff when Charlie chucks fire loogies at them.
Another official Pokemon! There's a fair amount of variety in the grass, but official Pokemon Ekans seems to be one of the more common ones in this route. I name mine Yuan-Ti.
This Dark/Normal angry raccoon dog Tancoon is the other common encounter, and look far, far more dog than raccoon. In fact, he looks like a feral, rabid dog that's going to fuck your whole family up, and one that you'll let root through your trash because it looks so mean. It's like Zigzagoon's jock cousin! "Nega-Chopper" doesn't fit, and Tanuki's too cute of a name for it, so I just call him Rabies.
AAAAAAAAAAA IT'S SO CUTE I LOVE IT
There's a lot of possible names I could've given this thing, but I just shut down from the cuteness of Sponee and just call him Cutie-Pie.
I tried fishing next to where that shorts-youngster was standing near, and fished up... this glorious brain-fish thing with huge lips. I love it, and I know for a fact it's Water/Psychic. It's so far my absolute favourite fake Pokemon design from this game, combining the tropes of exposed brains in psychic monsters, brain coral and oranda goldfish. I want it.
Brailip immediately shows off her power by obliterating Charlie with a 4x effective Water Gun. Yeah, okay, calm down, you've definitely earned your spot on the team, buddy.
While I chuck pokeballs at her, Lotad and Tricwe also fall to her water guns and confusions. But this is why we bring a full party, kids.
Hooray Brailip!
I didn't realize she's a girl until later on, and named her Cerebros after cerebrum, the main part of your brain. I probably should've gone for Cerebella, the plural form of cerebellum (the 'little brain'), which sounds more like a girl name... but I'm too lazy to go back to the name rater. Eh, whatever. I'm just going to assume that this is my particular Brailip's full name, Cerebella Cerebros. She's Cerebros if you don't know her well, but Cerebella to her friends.
Unfortunately, Cerebella's moveset isn't the best. Confusion and Water Gun are some of the weakest psychic and water-type moves, while Harden's kind of pointless (if funny to see on a brain fish). I love the design enough to really want her on my team, but I don't think she's going to do a whole ton of fighting with her being pretty under-leveled.
That said, the people did say that the Burole gym has rock and poison types (basically Barewls and Tonemies) as part of the creatures they use, so maybe I'll have to pull out Cerebella if Charlie can't handle something?
Don't travel west- DON'T TRAVEL WEST? ARE YOU THROWING SHADE AT MOKI TOWN, YOU DAMN CAVE-LOVING FUCKS? I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR TOWN WITH MY FIRE RAPTOR, YOU TROGLODYTE SHITS!
IT IS ON, YOU CAVEMEN!
The gym's literally located in a cave on the north side of the city. The gym trainer guide recommends a water type.
...which we just got! Cerebella isn't the strongest or fastest, but she can whittle down the Tonemies used by some of the trainers in the gym with Confusion, while taking out the Grozards with water gun. Charlie will help handle the Barewls with Flame Wheel.
Oh goddammit, apparently the rock smash rocks aren't here for decoration. After a quick detour to the pokemon center to grab my HM slave, I smash all the rocks in the gym to find the bright gem, in order to put into the gate. I mean, I guess with the relatively limited resources, I can't expect too complex of a puzzle from fanmade games?
YOU MOCK MY TOWN PREPARE TO DIE MINER BOY
Yeah, you're a loser, miner boy. Is everything you do based on mines and caves? You love caves, you turned a gym into a cave... I've seen Generation I gym leaders with more personality than you.
Pffft, what are you going to throw at me? Evolved versions of your flunkies' Pokemon? BRING IT ON! FOR THE HONOUR OF MOKI TOWN!
Do google the VS Sprite for Roark, the miner gym leader of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl's Oreburgh City, and come back here. I really don't want to mock a fan-game that's clearly the labour of love, but come on, they just gave him different clothes and... and I'm not sure if those are four nostrils or just particularly horrible facial hair.
Come fight me, miner boy! His first Pokemon is a Grozard, and I try to see what Cerebella can do first. Water Gun isn't quite enough to take down Grozard, but Davern's Grozard is four levels higher than Cerebella.
Also, have a screenshot of battle animation. Again, as a fan-game, Uranium doesn't have the most sophisticated battle animations (i.e. for the most part, they... get by), and I tend to switch them off outside of important battles like gyms and the like. But they're there.
Cerebella does enough damage to force Davern to use his potions, which is all well and good. Waste your potions on this harmless Grozard instead of something more powerful! Cerebella ended up taking down the land-worm, washing it down back into the subterranean level from whence it emerges.
Oh-kayyy, that's new. It's just a fat mole with a drill for a mouth! I genuinely forgot the types of a lot of these since I just skimmed through the wiki while doing the "gotta review 'em all" segment for this fangame, but I just assumed Modrille is part-Ground? Regardless, Cerebella continues to spam Water Gun...
OH SHIT ABORT ABORT THE DRIMOGEMON KNOWS PURSUIT
It didn't actually use Pursuit on the turn I switched out, by the way.
One Flame Wheel later, and Modrille gets turned into toast. Pretty neat, Davern, but all you did was hurt my little brain-fish that I literally caught five minutes ago. Do you have anything that can give Charlie a moderate challenge?
A "Dearewl"? Oh, right, Barewl's evolution, where it turns from an angry mouthless blob into a mutant clay armoured dog-deer thing. I'm not a big fan of mocking fanmade designs, but Dearewl is the few times I'll make an exception to that rule. Burn that dumb thing to ashes, Charlie!
It scored a critical hit on Metal Claw, but ultimately is no match for Charlie and his Flame Wheels. It's probably the only thing in the game so far outside of maybe Maria's Felunge to really threaten to take out Charlie.
I have no idea what that is. A tofu monster?
I'll send out the wonder-traded Tricwe to tank a few hits while I heal Charlie.
Oh. Huh. Right. Tonemy's evolution is a big bat-eared ugly hippo named after tofu. I feel like it will eat my baby ant. It sure is intimidating, but Tricwe isn't here to attack Tofurang anyway, he's just there to tank hits while I heal...
Huh. Let's see if I can't actually do some work with Cerebella instead. After all, Tofurang is Poison-type and she can do some work with confusion. And if Cerebella should fall, well, we've got Ahoge and Chippette as alternate human shields.
Unleash confusion, Cerebella!
I love the animation of Confusion being just the enemy having its sprite flipped around while little speech bubbles with "?" and "!" appear around it.
It took a couple of hits, but Cerebella is a pretty defensive little fishy and she keeps grinning with her luscious lips as she just unleashes her psychic powers to break down this poisonous mutant hippo-bat.
Yeah, I'm convinced. Finally, I get a proper permanent team member. Welcome to the real party, Cerebella -- you and Charlie are basically the backbone of my team at this point. I might even swap Charlie out at some point, but mark my words, Cerebella will be here to stay.
Apparently the random gem that is just hidden inside some rock in the gym is actually the badge. Is there any reason for me to not just steal the bright gem and bugger off without fighting your dumb cave hippo? Your gym is dumb, Davern. Admit defeat, and admit that Moki Town is superior! Take back your vile, contemptuous sign outside home into your dumb man-cave!
Oh holy shit, that's actually a pretty decent Fighting-type move! Charlie can learn it, and while Charlie's more of a special attacker, it'll make dealing with Tancoons and Barewls a lot easier with 4x damage from a 75 power move.
As I continue up along the route on the east of Burole Town, I meet with this dude, Gentleman SIR Goldkorn. He's not just Gentleman Goldkorn, or Sir Goldkorn. No. He is the GENTLEMAN SIR Goldkorn.
He has an Ekans and a Tancoon, the latter of which falling prey to Charlie's new ability to break bricks with his itty-bitty raptor arms. A rabid trash-dog and a poisonous rattlesnake aren't what I'd associate with such an affluent and aristocratic nobleman like Gentleman Sir Goldkorn, but perhaps that is my peasant sensibilities showing.
Jolly good show indeed, quite marvelous, wot?
This is actually a rematch I wouldn't mind having.
Ew, Fortog's evolution ends up becoming this horrid mutant frog-dog creature. Me no like.
Someone bumped into me on the bridge to really hammer home that, yeah, the cave's infested with horde battles or some such. Maybe nuclear Pokemon? I genuinely don't know where the story goes from here.
Brain fish mirror match fight go!
At some point in the route, Cerebella learns Yawn, meaning that we can get sweet, sweet karma revenge on any Felengs that cross our path.
I also caught one of these little fire birds, Pahar. I named him Tajador. Naming him something phoenix-like seemed to be a bit too obvious. While I'm not convinced of using him, Pahar seems a mite more useful than Owten will ever be, so Bubo gets to sit in the box and gets replaced by Tajador.
This random hiker is just stopping anyone from going into the dangerous cave. Not the Pokemon Rangers, as you might notice, becauseof creator oversight the Rangers are clearly incompetent, bumbling buffoons under the direction of a thundering dumbass.
"It's not safe to go alone, take this!" Theo basically shows up and convinces the hiker to let the two of us go since we're together. Because two trainers against a cavern full of rampaging beasts is safer. I guess instead of horde battles, we're getting some Generation IV style team-up through an area?
Okay, then, next up... Comet Cave!
Oh, hey, here's another one of the elemental ants I mentioned, and the first one that I should've normally meet if I didn't go through that wonder-trading stuff. Smore is adorable, but because of his coloration and his usage of Ember I keep mistaking it for a Bug/Fire.
I catch one of my own and it's got an adorable pokedex entry. The "Cute Ant"? It approaches picnics to get attention? D'awww. I'm uncertain on whether I'll ever use these ants, because I really want to... but grinding is so boring in this game and even when evolved neither Smore or Tricwe are going to be all that useful.
Also, capturing Picnic Boy elevates good old Taxonomaly to level 10!
Time for evolution! Dun-dunnn dun-dunnn dun-daahhh dun-DUNNN DUN-DUNNN DUN-DAAAHH
doo-doo-doooo doo-doo-doo-doot-doo-doo!
Taxonomaly evolves from a pink, bear-faced Sewaddle into... uh... that thing. Yeah! It's... it's a weird-ass green acorn with a face and little stubby wings and legs glued onto it. Some people online have compared Cubblfly (not Cubbfly, not Cubblly, but Cubb-l-fly) to a buttplug, and I don't blame them.
Taxonomaly is... slightly stronger than before, I guess? The critters in this route sort of outclass my team other than Charlie, and Taxonomaly can just barely keep up. I love how goofy those little stubby legs look. She's trying to punch other bugs in the face with them!
Oh hey, another official Pokemon! I don't think I've ever used Mankey in any playthroughs. I call her Bonobo after the Bonobo apes.
At this point I realize that the Return TM is basically far, far more useful than any move other than Tackle, so I teach it to every member of my team. Except Ahoge, because fuck him. He's our HM slave, replacing Tremors.
Wait what the fuck?
What the hell is an end-game move lying around in Route 3? To put it into perspective, I've completed Let's Go Pikachu all the way to the Elite Four and haven't even gotten Giga Drain yet. Lord almighty, barring a few exceptions, Giga Drain is probably the best special Grass-type move, and it's handed to us at a point in the game where you'd probably be handed fucking Bullet Seed or some shit.n
Holy shit, Taxonomaly suddenly becomes super useful. Unlike all of the others, she now has type coverage with a pretty damn great move.
Brief detour back home to Aunt May... NO AUNT MAY MY ZELDA SAVE FILES
To the east of Moki Town is Route 3, which is near a beach! It's... it's no Alola, but it's still a pretty beach.
You know, if you live next to something and get exposed to it everyday, it ceases to be anything special.
Hee hee, sandcastles and sea-shells Those little decoration sprites might not be the prettiest, but I do like them. (That random kid had a Fortog, which probably isn't the best Pokemon for a kid)
Fishing in the ocean nets me... Lotad? The lilypad Pokemon? Y'know, all those fresh-water ponds in earlier routes genuinely feel like more appropriate places to find a Lotad in. It's also floating above the ground for some reason.
Caught it, and named her Wigglefoot due to the hilariously adorable animation that she has. You can't see it in screenshots, of course, but some of the sprites are constantly animated, a la Generation V. It's pretty jarring, though, to see how some sprites constantly move around while some are static images.
Evolution stones this early in the game? It's not as egregious as the Giga Drain TM, but still...
The grass on route 3 nets us one of these nasty little bastards that Maria's gym uses. A bunch of other trainers on this route have Feleng as well, and apparently the AI really, really loves spamming Yawn. Which is hella annoying. SleepyShit over here won't ever see the light of day.
"It can manipulate other Pokemon just by giving them a pleading look and meowing cutely?" Fuck you, Feleng, you horrible little shit, after all the yawning nonsense you put me through in the first gym, I don't like you.
AAAAAA LOOK AT THAT THING IT'S ADORABLE
Comparing it to Smore and Tricwe, which are pretty cute, Sponee definitely wins in the adorableness meter. Look at those eyes and that little blob body and those stubby widdle feet!
I've got a taxonomy anomaly, a chimeric mixture of an acorn, a butt-plug, a cocoon and a bear. Don't you want to see her?
Snatch is more in-line with what we should find at this point of game.
Anyway, after fighting sailors, tubers and black belts, Ura finally makes it to Burole Town, the town of the second gym. Let's explore first, though.
Huh, apparently this "Davern" fellow really loves caves, and cave Pokemon, and themes his gym around caves. That's... that's pretty neat, actually, theming your gym not after a single type, but after a location. Did I say something along those lines in the last part of my let's play?
Unfortunately, this probably means that Davern's gym will feature lots and lots of Tonemy, which isn't something I'm looking forward to.
Also, the town is a mining town and the biggest mine is the local gym. Sort of reminds me of Oreburgh from the Sinnoh games, but less in-your-face about the theme.
I'd mock the little kid, but Team Rocket was canonically disbanded by a ten-year old beating their mafia boss so many times that he got severe depression.
Random lampshading of mechanic and story segregation! Y'know, Uranium, why don't you do something about it? You're a fan game, give either an explanation or have a bigger shop inventory!
One of the main buildings in the city other than the gym is a Pokemon School, but we don't get an info-dump on status conditions or whatever like the official games. It's just a school for the sake of being a school.
I'd agree with you, little girl, but no one mocks that backwater town but me! It's not like your town's much better.
Y'know what, is that why Theo's so dumb? He never went to school!
More lampshade of the Pokemon games existing in-universe. At this point it's starting to get a wee bit annoying. The trainers on this second floor of the school wants to battle me, by the way.
Also, some random dude outside the school also mentions Pokemon Silver, so apparently Nintendo of Tandor has been releasing these games at a pretty high speed. Maybe by the time we beat the Elite Four equivalent of this game, the NPCs will be talking about Pokemon XY and Sun/Moon.
One of them has all three Tandor starters, but Orchynx is still pretty shit and dies in one shot. His death does end up giving Charlie the ability to unleash Flame Wheel! Finally, a somewhat decent Fire-type move instead of relying on spamming Ember! God it took a while.
Wigglefoot can't really do anything against the enemy Raptorch, but Charlie manages to deal with it just fine due to a 7-level difference giving him better stats. I didn't take screenshots of the Raptorch cockfight, though.
This is the final starter we never got to see, Eletux, the Water/Electric hippocampus. Who's actually probably the best of the three main starters if we're being objective about it. But between the weird head borrowed from Charmeleon, the dainty pointy legs, and whatever the fuck's going on with those weird orbs on its rump, I just can't take Eletux seriously.
Eletux would, by the way, totally fuck up Charlie if he actually used Water Gun. Instead it just spams Defense Curls for some reason, allowing Charlie to Mud-Slap Eletux to submission.
Raptorch's able to use its Ground typing to deal some damage to the starter it's weak against, and Eletux presumably can learn ice-type moves to beat Orchynx, but poor, poor grass kitty just can't do jack shit against Raptorch.
Other trainers in the school have Kinetmunk, the Normal/Electric evolution of Chyinmunk. It still looks goofy, and I can't decide if it's just the angle or the proportions and design as a whole. I don't hate it, but, yeah, I'm definitely not in a hurry to evolve Chippette.
Oh man, what the shit? It's pretty fucking weird, for sure. It's just a snake-dragon with a hand on its bum. As a Dragon-type, Barand resists Flame Wheel, but spamming Mud-Slap takes Barand down jsut fine. It's an interesting design, I'll give them that, but it's just... it's just kinda there, y'know? A lot more interesting than Kinetmunk, but I really wished that they actually did a bit more with Barand.
Okay, there's a subway, but I can't enter it? Didn't we see one of these in Nowtoch City?
There's a segment of the city that's just a park surrounding a lake, and the people around it none-too-subtly hint at something hiding in this totally deep lake.
One of the NPC's randomly sells cheap Chinese herbs. The traditional medicine heal your pokemon but decrease their happiness. I care more about money efficiency than Pokemon happiness, though, so I buy a bunch.
Bit weird to have a shop where there's no clear sign or whatever, though. How does Lisa attract customers? Although then again, maybe these "Energy Powders" aren't quite the legal if you know what I mean...
I decide to explore the route on the east side of Burole Town just to toughen up my Pokemon a bit. Some of the trainers hint at the Comet Cave, where apparently pokemon are attacking in groups. Horde battles?
Also, there's the obligatory shorts-are-comfy Youngster.
Most of the creatures used by the trainers are things we have seen before, other than these two. Jerbolta is a pretty neat-looking jerboa Pokemon with spiky hair and everything. He's supposed to be the Pikachu expy of this region, and I honestly wished that Pokemon went more in this direction instead of being a bit too samey with most of their Pika-clones.
Pahar has a pretty m'eh sprite, but he does look cute. Pretty obviously a Fire/Flying, and I learn the hard way that these shits have Flash Fire as an ability -- meaning they negate fire damage and gain a buff when Charlie chucks fire loogies at them.
Another official Pokemon! There's a fair amount of variety in the grass, but official Pokemon Ekans seems to be one of the more common ones in this route. I name mine Yuan-Ti.
This Dark/Normal angry raccoon dog Tancoon is the other common encounter, and look far, far more dog than raccoon. In fact, he looks like a feral, rabid dog that's going to fuck your whole family up, and one that you'll let root through your trash because it looks so mean. It's like Zigzagoon's jock cousin! "Nega-Chopper" doesn't fit, and Tanuki's too cute of a name for it, so I just call him Rabies.
AAAAAAAAAAA IT'S SO CUTE I LOVE IT
There's a lot of possible names I could've given this thing, but I just shut down from the cuteness of Sponee and just call him Cutie-Pie.
I tried fishing next to where that shorts-youngster was standing near, and fished up... this glorious brain-fish thing with huge lips. I love it, and I know for a fact it's Water/Psychic. It's so far my absolute favourite fake Pokemon design from this game, combining the tropes of exposed brains in psychic monsters, brain coral and oranda goldfish. I want it.
Brailip immediately shows off her power by obliterating Charlie with a 4x effective Water Gun. Yeah, okay, calm down, you've definitely earned your spot on the team, buddy.
While I chuck pokeballs at her, Lotad and Tricwe also fall to her water guns and confusions. But this is why we bring a full party, kids.
Hooray Brailip!
I didn't realize she's a girl until later on, and named her Cerebros after cerebrum, the main part of your brain. I probably should've gone for Cerebella, the plural form of cerebellum (the 'little brain'), which sounds more like a girl name... but I'm too lazy to go back to the name rater. Eh, whatever. I'm just going to assume that this is my particular Brailip's full name, Cerebella Cerebros. She's Cerebros if you don't know her well, but Cerebella to her friends.
Unfortunately, Cerebella's moveset isn't the best. Confusion and Water Gun are some of the weakest psychic and water-type moves, while Harden's kind of pointless (if funny to see on a brain fish). I love the design enough to really want her on my team, but I don't think she's going to do a whole ton of fighting with her being pretty under-leveled.
That said, the people did say that the Burole gym has rock and poison types (basically Barewls and Tonemies) as part of the creatures they use, so maybe I'll have to pull out Cerebella if Charlie can't handle something?
Don't travel west- DON'T TRAVEL WEST? ARE YOU THROWING SHADE AT MOKI TOWN, YOU DAMN CAVE-LOVING FUCKS? I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR TOWN WITH MY FIRE RAPTOR, YOU TROGLODYTE SHITS!
IT IS ON, YOU CAVEMEN!
The gym's literally located in a cave on the north side of the city. The gym trainer guide recommends a water type.
...which we just got! Cerebella isn't the strongest or fastest, but she can whittle down the Tonemies used by some of the trainers in the gym with Confusion, while taking out the Grozards with water gun. Charlie will help handle the Barewls with Flame Wheel.
Oh goddammit, apparently the rock smash rocks aren't here for decoration. After a quick detour to the pokemon center to grab my HM slave, I smash all the rocks in the gym to find the bright gem, in order to put into the gate. I mean, I guess with the relatively limited resources, I can't expect too complex of a puzzle from fanmade games?
YOU MOCK MY TOWN PREPARE TO DIE MINER BOY
Yeah, you're a loser, miner boy. Is everything you do based on mines and caves? You love caves, you turned a gym into a cave... I've seen Generation I gym leaders with more personality than you.
Pffft, what are you going to throw at me? Evolved versions of your flunkies' Pokemon? BRING IT ON! FOR THE HONOUR OF MOKI TOWN!
Do google the VS Sprite for Roark, the miner gym leader of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl's Oreburgh City, and come back here. I really don't want to mock a fan-game that's clearly the labour of love, but come on, they just gave him different clothes and... and I'm not sure if those are four nostrils or just particularly horrible facial hair.
Come fight me, miner boy! His first Pokemon is a Grozard, and I try to see what Cerebella can do first. Water Gun isn't quite enough to take down Grozard, but Davern's Grozard is four levels higher than Cerebella.
Also, have a screenshot of battle animation. Again, as a fan-game, Uranium doesn't have the most sophisticated battle animations (i.e. for the most part, they... get by), and I tend to switch them off outside of important battles like gyms and the like. But they're there.
Cerebella does enough damage to force Davern to use his potions, which is all well and good. Waste your potions on this harmless Grozard instead of something more powerful! Cerebella ended up taking down the land-worm, washing it down back into the subterranean level from whence it emerges.
Oh-kayyy, that's new. It's just a fat mole with a drill for a mouth! I genuinely forgot the types of a lot of these since I just skimmed through the wiki while doing the "gotta review 'em all" segment for this fangame, but I just assumed Modrille is part-Ground? Regardless, Cerebella continues to spam Water Gun...
OH SHIT ABORT ABORT THE DRIMOGEMON KNOWS PURSUIT
It didn't actually use Pursuit on the turn I switched out, by the way.
One Flame Wheel later, and Modrille gets turned into toast. Pretty neat, Davern, but all you did was hurt my little brain-fish that I literally caught five minutes ago. Do you have anything that can give Charlie a moderate challenge?
A "Dearewl"? Oh, right, Barewl's evolution, where it turns from an angry mouthless blob into a mutant clay armoured dog-deer thing. I'm not a big fan of mocking fanmade designs, but Dearewl is the few times I'll make an exception to that rule. Burn that dumb thing to ashes, Charlie!
It scored a critical hit on Metal Claw, but ultimately is no match for Charlie and his Flame Wheels. It's probably the only thing in the game so far outside of maybe Maria's Felunge to really threaten to take out Charlie.
I have no idea what that is. A tofu monster?
I'll send out the wonder-traded Tricwe to tank a few hits while I heal Charlie.
Oh. Huh. Right. Tonemy's evolution is a big bat-eared ugly hippo named after tofu. I feel like it will eat my baby ant. It sure is intimidating, but Tricwe isn't here to attack Tofurang anyway, he's just there to tank hits while I heal...
Huh. Let's see if I can't actually do some work with Cerebella instead. After all, Tofurang is Poison-type and she can do some work with confusion. And if Cerebella should fall, well, we've got Ahoge and Chippette as alternate human shields.
Unleash confusion, Cerebella!
I love the animation of Confusion being just the enemy having its sprite flipped around while little speech bubbles with "?" and "!" appear around it.
It took a couple of hits, but Cerebella is a pretty defensive little fishy and she keeps grinning with her luscious lips as she just unleashes her psychic powers to break down this poisonous mutant hippo-bat.
Yeah, I'm convinced. Finally, I get a proper permanent team member. Welcome to the real party, Cerebella -- you and Charlie are basically the backbone of my team at this point. I might even swap Charlie out at some point, but mark my words, Cerebella will be here to stay.
Apparently the random gem that is just hidden inside some rock in the gym is actually the badge. Is there any reason for me to not just steal the bright gem and bugger off without fighting your dumb cave hippo? Your gym is dumb, Davern. Admit defeat, and admit that Moki Town is superior! Take back your vile, contemptuous sign outside home into your dumb man-cave!
Oh holy shit, that's actually a pretty decent Fighting-type move! Charlie can learn it, and while Charlie's more of a special attacker, it'll make dealing with Tancoons and Barewls a lot easier with 4x damage from a 75 power move.
As I continue up along the route on the east of Burole Town, I meet with this dude, Gentleman SIR Goldkorn. He's not just Gentleman Goldkorn, or Sir Goldkorn. No. He is the GENTLEMAN SIR Goldkorn.
He has an Ekans and a Tancoon, the latter of which falling prey to Charlie's new ability to break bricks with his itty-bitty raptor arms. A rabid trash-dog and a poisonous rattlesnake aren't what I'd associate with such an affluent and aristocratic nobleman like Gentleman Sir Goldkorn, but perhaps that is my peasant sensibilities showing.
Jolly good show indeed, quite marvelous, wot?
This is actually a rematch I wouldn't mind having.
Ew, Fortog's evolution ends up becoming this horrid mutant frog-dog creature. Me no like.
Someone bumped into me on the bridge to really hammer home that, yeah, the cave's infested with horde battles or some such. Maybe nuclear Pokemon? I genuinely don't know where the story goes from here.
Brain fish mirror match fight go!
At some point in the route, Cerebella learns Yawn, meaning that we can get sweet, sweet karma revenge on any Felengs that cross our path.
I also caught one of these little fire birds, Pahar. I named him Tajador. Naming him something phoenix-like seemed to be a bit too obvious. While I'm not convinced of using him, Pahar seems a mite more useful than Owten will ever be, so Bubo gets to sit in the box and gets replaced by Tajador.
This random hiker is just stopping anyone from going into the dangerous cave. Not the Pokemon Rangers, as you might notice, because
"It's not safe to go alone, take this!" Theo basically shows up and convinces the hiker to let the two of us go since we're together. Because two trainers against a cavern full of rampaging beasts is safer. I guess instead of horde battles, we're getting some Generation IV style team-up through an area?
Okay, then, next up... Comet Cave!
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