A bit of a bottle episode, this one, as we explore the city of Not much to say here, let's get on with the Let's Play.
As a mistake on my part, I accidentally swapped the dates for parts 11 and 12. Oops!
We're in Venice! There are yachts around, but it's functionally just a regular city with a bunch of bridges and statues. I kinda wish that we would've gotten a far more "the roads are water" bit since this is a fantasy version of Venice, but, eh. It's still pretty.
The ships in this city aren't gondolas, though, buddy. They're like tiny yachts. And there are bridges and streets connecting every part of the city so what's the point?
A bunch of people in East Tandor keep mentioning Angelure Town, but that's apparently part of a game that was never implemented? I know a little bit about the areas that aren't in this game, at the very list.
Free TM's! Embargo's not very useful, but Dazzling Gleam's a pretty great Fairy-type move.
Taxonomaly can't make full use of the move, though, being more of a physical-type attacker (Dazzling Gleam's special) but until she learns Play Rough, it'll have to do.
You want a weird Titanic fused with the iceberg with a bizarre mono-Ice typing and some general insensitivity for... for whatever "Garglyph" is? Sure, I'll send over Leonardo DiCaprio to you. Have fun with it, I'm happy to be rid of it.
Ohhhh Garglyph's this thing. It's one of the gargoyles that is dotted all over the roofs and buildings of Venesi City. He's neat, even if I don't really need one.
Garglyph's pure-Rock, and has a unique ability that restores HP when not damaged on this turn. It's... it's kind of an interesting ability since I guess any time Garglyph uses an attack like Protect it can heal up on the same turn, but I'm not going to use him in this playthrough.
Some old lady doesn't have the energy to take care of her baby fox, so she gives an Eevee to me. I've been catching a bunch of Eevees while grinding in Maskara Island, since I think I need a bunch more dex entries to get rewards from Professor Bamboo.
Oooh, a very unsubtle hint about a ninth Eevee evolution exclusive to this fan game! That other dude also just straight-up gives me random held items that will evolve Eevee into Glaceon, Leafeon and Sylveon, since Uranium doesn't have the mechanics that tie in to either of those three's evolutions.
Un-subtle hints at Mega Evolution! A lot of exposition is given by the people in this house, too, which feel like they are just dialogue lifted from every single Mega Evolution explanation ever.
Yeah, they're also living, and really like tummy scritches. Have you ever tried to tummy-scritch a rock gryphon gargoyle? Your fingers get chipped off.
Hmmm. I know that it's easy for players to tend to get attached to starter Pokemon since it's the one you start off your adventure with, but while some of my favourite Pokemon have been starters, I've also grown to be a bit numb to them, if you know what I mean -- I know that I've definitely gone on playthroughs (sometimes Nuzlocke, sometimes regular) on various games where I didn't even use my starter beyond a crutch through the early areas.
(Hell, if I didn't like Raptorch and Archilles's design, I would 100% play through this game with a Birbie or an Owten as my "main").
That's why Pokemon's so replayable, honestly -- your experience really changes depending on what creatures you put in your party. Buff your team up with legendaries? Nuzlocke challenge? Mono-type challenge? Mono-starter? Just use the ones you think look cool? All of the above?
Ah, apparently we're still in the Johto games in this part of time. I wonder if we'll even get to the GBA games by the time I beat up the Elite Four?
...the fuck? There's some ugly-ass rat with punk pink hair in an alley.
It's apparenty Ratsy, one of the designs in Uranium that I'm not sure I hate or like. It's a very stylized cartoon rat with a Smeargle tail and has accessories and a punk rocker hairstyle, and it's apparently a Banksy homage? I name mine Graffiti.
Next to the Ratsy house is the move relearner and move deleter, conveniently placed in the same house. Thank god. Also, unlike most official versions of the move relearner, This one is happy to od so for free, so no grinding Luvdiscs for Heart Scales. Huzzah!
I don't think I'll need their services for now, but I admittedly haven't really looked at all the possible learn sets for my party members.
Oh, and their grandma is apparently the starter-elemental-hyper-beam move tutor. It's always impractical, but it's also fun to have the option to BLAST BURN the shit out of your enemy as a little emergency button. Charlie hasn't really been getting the best mileage out of Brick Break anyway, since he's got a physical-attack-reducing nature, so he gets to learn Blast Burn. As if my pyromaniac dinosaur needed any more firepower.
Coconut gets to learn Brick Break in Charlie's stead, and after a bit of shuffling around, I also teach Steel Wing to Taxonomaly after realizing that my party really doesn't have anything against Fairies (LV-426 doesn't have any good Steel moves).
Darn rats, dirtying up our streets and walls!
Oh, there's a pub. Is Venice well-known for its pubs or some such? I genuinely don't know and am too lazy to look it up. Pubs are always fun as a little pit-stop in any RPG, though I'm pretty sure official Pokemon games won't ever put one of these in a game.
Oh no, Ura is a young child! He can't legally drink! Oh noes!
His buddy literally doesn't give a shit, though, and just sells me carrot wine. Which apparently is a real thing, but honestly just sounds pretty weird and gross. Unfortunately, there's no way for Ura to actually drink this illegal alcohol, and it's basically a more powerful Coconut Milk.
The pub-goers are trainers, though, and I am baffled at the logistics of summoning a giant cartoon monster-boat with an iceberg inside a pub. Charlie uses his newly-acquired Blast Burn to murder-kill this massive angry ship of bad taste.
Honestly, when they tried to make a horrible Titanic fakemon, couldn't they at least given it a more appropriate typing? Ice/Steel, because it's a ship fused with the iceberg? Ice/Ghost, since it's the ghost of the ship or some shit? There's like so little care put into this genuine joke of a Pokemon that looking at how much effort was put into designing some of the other fakemon in this game, I'm 100% baffled at why Titanice is a thing.
Oh, hey, look, a drunk man who was apparently attacked by a feral Tanscure. His story actually went a fair bit longer than this, but you get the essence -- he was drunk, and some pink thing shows up to rescue him.
Apparently it's got "wings, horns, bunny ears and Golduck-esque webbed feet". I mean, I've got a Jackdeary, and it has horns and bunny ears (and wings if you're charitable), but I don't see the duck like webbed feet anywhere. Like, the fake cryptid wolpertinger that Jackdeary is based on sometimes have duck features, but not the actual Jackdeary or its evolution in this game.
I do love that the story ends with the weird jackalope-fairy Pokemon telling the dude that he's drunk, though.
WHOA LADY CALM DOWN I DIDN'T TRY TO DO ANYTHING YOU DRUNK BITCH
The lady is so angry she sics two Pokemon out at the same time. Hey, lady, mind lending me one of the Jackdearies so I can show them to drunk Jim over on the bar? It's a long run back to the PC.
Also, this lady apparently was just "making a scene" just because she was bored, which... wow, Ura could get you sued for that, for false accusations of molestation. What a bitch!
Oh hey, there's more joke about underage drinking, with a random school kid being so happy he's allowed to drink wine.
You know one thing I always find fan-games struggle with doing? Finding a funny joke and proceed to ram it into the ground with how many times it's done. Uranium is, I think, actually better than some of the others I've played through, and probably why I managed to stick it out after so long.
What is this, the city of the cryptids? We've got Chupacho, the Chupacabra Pokemon, and he's... I'm not sure what he is. Definitely poison, since Cerebella's psychic dealt damage. I had thought poison/dark, but evidently psychic hit, so it can't be that. Ah well.
Also, the school kid had a Garglyph of his own. It wasn't very impressive, because I kept damaging it every single turn. Well, for a single turn. Cerebella drowns the gargoyle with a single Surf.
Oh, um... did I come at a wrong time? Shit, that's what I get, walking into every single home I see. Shit, ma'am, sir, I'm really sorry for your loss, I'll let myself out now...
Oh, wait, what? She's just asleep? Oh. The dialogue really actually made me think that she was dead and the parents are grieving, since, y'know, this is a fan-game and fan-games are allowed to put whatever they want in.
So I take it there's some Darkrai shenanigans going on? It is bizarre that the mother's logic goes from "my child's in a coma" to "gee whiz could we, like, get into her dream in some way and walk around?" I am unfamiliar enough with Uranium's legendaries to know if any of them are responsible for this, and there's nothing I could do, so, uh... good luck?
Oh thank god there's more fast travel. Honestly, I'm like more than halfway through the game at this point, why the FUCK don't I have access to Fly?
Some old dude offers to tell me about all the super-powerful legendary Pokemon. The information about Baitatao, Lanthan and Actan are basically abridged versions of the long, meandering monologues from the church in Vinoville, and far easier to read.
"Urayne", who I assume is the big nuclear dude in the opening screen, nets me with this little answer of the old man being baffled. Why is that a question, then? Why would Ura know how to ask about that name?
A white bird Pokemon really doesn't tell me anything. It could be something as majestic and imposing as a Lugia, or just a random Owten.
One of the houses is basically filled with a bunch of people talking about how Venesi is well known for its opera house, but it has a checkered past. Which... which is more ancient Greece theater than actual Shakespearean theaters, but eh, whatever.
I bring Mad Sweeney out of the box to show Drunk Jim, and he is overjoyed by the fact that he's not drunk. Toxic really has nothing to do with drunkenness, though. I guess there's an "intoxicated" pun somewhere, but I was a wee bit baffled by this.
Heh. I actually chuckled at this joke. Oh, Mew jokes, never change.
Righty-o, that's... that's a longer city-exploration segment than I expected, but we're here, we're ready, time to tear this gym down!
Oh god sliding floor puzzles. At least with ice gyms it's thematic, but I'm genuinely not sure what theme it has in this opera/theater-based gym. I'm not a big fan of these, but at least this one's simple enough.
Oh yeah, every single person in here quotes Shakespeare! "To thine own self be true" is from Hamlet, and is probably one of the Shakespearean quotes I'm the most sick of. It's got a good message, but the sheer amount I've seen this quoted in tumblrs, twitters, random motivational images and videos has sort of made me feel tired of this quote.
The actresses have their sprites modified from the maids from the Sinnoh games, I believe, and they wear the Comedy/Tragedy masks from ancient Greek theater.
The theme of this gym is... vaguely Fairy and Psychic-based? Mostly I just think they picked pink and purple Pokemon. Jackdeary, Duplicat and Masking make the vast majority of the Pokemon in this gym, but we've got odd outliers like Aromatisse, Espeon, Trawpint and Mismagius, and the only real common ground between all of those is a vaguely pink/purple colour scheme.
Oh, I taught LV-426 Overheat, which is unintentionally useful against these Duplicats. They waste a turn in turning into LV-426, at which point the severely-underleveled LV-426 just pulls out all stops and unleashes a massive Overheat that one-shots any Duplicat that pretends to be him. It's actually pretty awesome. Go, my little UFO baby!
The second, less-quoted-by-random-zen-guru part of the quote from Hamlet is this. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
Honestly, the meaning of the quote is more about being honest in all you do, but has been warped due to the ambiguity of the first line to a generic "be true to yourself, be yourself" message. It's as hilarious as the ever-popular Disney song "Let It Go" being used as a song for a similar "be yourself" message when in context of the movie, it's about a woman who's basically doing the equivalent of shutting herself out from the world and refusing to take responsibility for her actions.
It's from As You Like It, but that's a play I haven't read or watched. Another pretty fun line.
The male actors are modified from... waiters in the Unova games, I think? They're wearing the tragedy mask to contrast the ladies wearing the comedy masks.
I really tried to give LV-426 work, but Gyro Ball calculates damage based on how comparatively slower the user is compared to the opponent, and S51 is sadly not that slow, so despite being super-effective against fairies this does nothing.
Those wits that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I that am sure lack thee may pass for a wise man.
From "Twelfth Night", a pretty fun play on words, actually.
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes; for they in thee a thousand errors note....
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise; who in despite of view is pleased to dote.
-A Midsummer's Night Dream
Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.
-Macbeth
The fire and cracks of sulfurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, yea, his dread trident shake.
-The Tempest
In-between quoting Shakespeare, Taxonomaly proves to be a far, far more potent fairy-slayer than the actual Steel-type.
What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; an actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
A lot of the trainers use Masking, which... which ends up being more of an inconvenience because their party lineups don't really make full use of the Illusion ability of appearing as the last Pokemon in your party.
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness, wherein the pregnant enemy does much.
How easy is it for the proper false, in women's waxen hearts to set their forms!
Shall we their fond paegeant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Finally, free of Shakespearean quotes and sliding block puzzles, I challenge the leader!
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead!
-Henry V
Game makers, I would report a bug where the VS screen with my player's face and the gym leader's face did not appear before the fight. This Leader? Iago also does not quote enough Shakespeare for my liking.
Regardless, come, Iago! I shalt smite thee!
Okay, LV-426 is leading. Perhaps we could get-
AW FUCK NO
Well that was a miserable a failure. Poor LV-426.
Coconut manages to duke it back and forth, tanking Shadow Balls while launching coconut shells at Mismagius's witchy face.
Okay, we don't have LV-426 to do the Overheat switcheroo. Taxonomaly could probably Aerial Ace the transformed Duplicat down, but so can he...
FIRE BURN AND CAULDRON BUBBLE
DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE
Yeah, you're not quoting Shakespearean lines. What a shit leader you are, making everyone else quote Shakespeare, while not doing so yourself.
Whaaaaat? He's an impostor??? HOW COULD ANYONE HAVE FORSEEN THIS?
That dick Iago dropped me down a trapdoor into a basement.
Out of all the gyms I've been in, this one has the least OSHA compliance.
Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth sans eyes sans taste sans everything.
Okay, backstory time! Of course the girl's going to be the gym leader herself, but it's polite to pretend to not know who she's talking about and go WHAAAAA???? afterwards. It's polite, y'know?
Ah, the Hua Mulan strategy. Or, since we're talking Shakespearean, the Portia strategy. Or Viola strategy, if you'd prefer.
Somehow, none of the rest of the stage's actors or stagehands or whatever noticed until the day of the show.
If she had makeup to pretend to be a man, how could the audience notice her?
Hooray, gender equality! Break the system that only allows men to perform!
...wait, what? So the change happened relatively recently, then? Man, these East Tandor people are really backwards as far as gender progression goes.
Oh, Rosalind, as in Rosalind from As You Like It, another woman-that-dresses-as-a-man-to-get-freedom in Shakespearean play. I didn't actually get that until I googled the name Rosalind in Shakespearean works.
She's got... an interesting costume, to say the least.
Come, LV-426, that's Masking's evolution, Dramsama, but maybe you can get a 4x effective Dark Pulse off?
...also that attack from Dramsama did a lot less than I thought.
Ah-ha! It's a Masking pretending to be a Dramsama! You know, Rosalind, the idea of Illusion is to pretend to be something that will throw an attack that the Masking can take like a champ. Disguising a Psychic-type as a Psychic/Ghost... one that is Masking's evolution to boot, is kind of a foolish thing to do.
Rosalind wastes all of her hyper potions on the weak Masking, which is fine by me. What fools these mortals be!
Go baby alien go go go!
Y'know, S-51 is actually doing a lot more work than I thought he would've. I had thought that it's more of a trial for him to hang out in the party, but I think I'm going to use him for the foreseeable future.
Round 2: the four-eyed queen of fairies and insects, against some mutant rabbit-deer creature with wings that can only be seen by drunk people.
...does that mean that Rosalind and Ura are both drunk out of their minds throughout this battle, just to perceive Winotinger at all?
Drink sir, is a great provoker of three things... nose painting, sleep and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes.
It provokes the desire, but takes away the performance.
Anyway, it's just a matter of chipping at each other's health. Taxonomaly uses Aerial Ace, but Winotinger is pretty bulky and does decent damage with Play Rough, a couple of which scores critical hits.
We both use hyper potions, but it's basically the same thing repeated, only without the benefit of Winotinger getting critical hits.
Get you gone, you dwarf,
You minimus of hindering knotgrass made, you bead, you acorn!
Miasmedic? I'm genuinely not sure why I didn't switch out to Cerebella. I guess I really wanted to use Steel Wing?
DO NOT SWEAR BY THE MOON, FOR SHE CHANGES CONSTANTLY
Moonblast's animation is bizarre in this game, but also pretty hilarious. Also, Taxonomaly gets knocked out and not even by a super-effective poison move! That's a shame.
...to add insult to injury.
Let them be hunted soundly.
At this hour, lie at my mercy, all mine enemies.
-The Tempest.
If we are true to ourselves, we cannot be false to anyone.
-Hamlet
Anyway, Cerebella swept through the Miasmedic, and LV-426 takes out a Duplicat ten levels higher than herself.
Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry "Hold, hold!"
I lost a bunch of screenshots at this point, but Dramsama just spams Shadow Balls and Psyshocks and sweeps through LV-426 and Coconut with ease.
A shadow ball nearly takes out Cerebella.
Nearly being the operative word, and Cerebella manages to get a Yawn out.
O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee.
-Henry IV
Dramsama sleeps through all the abuse that Cerebella dishes out onto her.
Woe, destruction, ruin and decay
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
-Richard II
I could've used Charlie and E. coli in this fight, but I actually wanted a good fight, and, hoo boy, that Dramsama certainly was a piece of work for my B-team. I really do need to grind up my team more and not rely on these two.
That last sentence wasn't from Shakespeare, but Ura is a great person.
I think one of your lackeys already used the "to thine own self" line, Rosalind.
Also, it is thematically odd for the game to go "be honest to yourself!" and then immediately shoving a TM that creates a dimension where things move in the opposite direction, i.e. making a room where things are decidedly not honest and full of trickery.
Oh hey professor Bamboo calls me as I exit the gym.
Y'know, the professor (and other important NPCs) keeps showing up every now and then, knowing full well and I'm genuinely not sure we needed to know about the specifics of how he knows this. Like everyone else in Venesi, apparently the gym guy is drunk.
Ah, two more gyms left, and still nowhere close to solving the plot of the nuclear meltdowns. I guess we're going to shoehorn a whole lot of story in-between gym 7 and 8, or gym 8 and the final one? That's how pre-3DS main series Pokemon games tended to be, anyway.
I've played a bit forwards a little to know that despite Bamboo's grandiose talk about two options, I can't actually reach Tsukinami Village yet. Despite the fact that Ura (or, well, Ura's pet amoeba) is supposedly the goddamned Hokage.
...so I guess I have to go to Snowbank Town through that one cave that was blocked by a policeman hunting an Eevee or some shit. Okay, then.
Well, I think I'm due for a reward? Too lazy to return to Moki Town, though.
You.... you arranged a battle? Gee, professor, that's hardly necessary. In fact, Theo is pretty much only in two moods -- crying or battling. So long as he's not moping and crying, he's going to be in full BATTORUUU mode.
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