Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 2 - Eterna Wish

Last we left off, we beat up Roark and I begin the slow walk up towards Eterna City, backtracking and going up now that I have Rock Smash. It still is kind of cute that the way HMs are done in this game is by calling random local Bidoofs to come and smash the rocks?

As we exit Jubilife City, Team Galactic Grunts accost Professor Rowan and he gives a rather hilarious line telling me to teach these weirdoes a lesson... something that feels like it should come from a yakuza boss than a well-mannered professor. Rowan ain't taking no bullshit lying down, it seems! A lot of the stuff on the way to Eterna City deals with Team Galactic causing all sorts of chaos as they gather resources, and I think part of why Team Galactic doesn't get a lot of respect among the fandom is that... even the locals keep emphasizing what weirdos these guys are, and how no one understands what they're saying. I mean, Team Galactic does have one of the most generic "we shall create a new world, rah rah" anime villain plot ever, so.

As I slowly make my way to Floaroma Town and enjoy the calming music, I talk to all the NPCs... and I dropped my Switch controller when one of them just very randomly gives me a Jirachi. "Hey, you like stars and wishes, right? Have this Jirachi!" I was so confused, I thought it was going to be a gag (that he gave me a mimic Pokemon or something) because Jirachi doesn't even have anything to do with Generation IV! That NPC's wife explains things out a bit better, because she notes that I've had an adventure in Kanto, so I get a Mew. This is one of those 'past save file' things, and... I was completely and utterly not expecting this. 

I'm not sure if I'll really go around carrying two mythical Pokemon with me throughout the entire playthrough, but I did want to do this game using Pokemon I've not used before. And I most certainly have never used Jirachi or Mew in a playthrough! I think I'll pick one, but at the end of the day it's a really surprising thing that made my day.

The game goes off on a bit of a railroad, forcing me to go to the Valley Windworks, then to the Floaroma Field, then back to the Valley Windworks to beat up all the Team Galactic Grunts that are terrorizing the populace. Again, pretty simple stuff, and one that I feel does a nice job at showcasing how the game works for newer audiences. We slowly unlock a bunch of things throughout this, like being introduced to berry trees and the honey-slathering gimmick (which I'm a fan of).

As I fight through the short Valley Windworks encounter, I'm confronted with Commander Mars and her tanky-for-this-point-in-the-game Purugly. I mean, I wasn't in actual danger since I have a full party of six, but that Purugly did take down some of my Pokemon before my Turtwig takes it out. Around this point, Turtwig does finally evolve into Grotle. Yay! Off-screen, my Starly and Shinx have also evolved into Staravia and Luxio, who probably won't make it all the way to the final team but it's neat as well. 

At this point I get to thinking a bit as to what Pokemon I want on my final team. I'm not attached to anything I've caught on the early routes like Shinx, Bidoof, Starly or Budew. Having passed Valley Windworks, I think it would do Drifloon a bit of a disservice for me not to try and catch one on a Friday and add it to my party. But I'm really drawing a blank on who else I could add.

Anyway, I make my way up north from Floaroma Town through a little gauntlet of trainers before entering Eterna Forest. Always love the little foggy filter it's got even in the older games, and I'm immediately stopped by Cheryl, who battles alongside me throughout Eterna Forest. I've always thought that these 'friend trainers' was a cute concept, but Cheryl and the other ally trainers really don't have enough of a personality in the base game to really matter, and it's not like they recur later on. It is, I think, meant to be more of a way to prevent backtracking in long caves and forests... which kind of isn't a particularly huge problem in the original Diamond & Pearl, and even less so in this game when I'm trying to keep my Pokemon not over-leveled. 

Also, having the double-battle animation with all of the extra animation points of a newer game? It does really make the pacing of any given battle feel much, much longer compared to the original DS game. I got a bit tired of the dragged-out pacing of the double battles and animation, sprayed some repel and just tore through the forest.

Anyway, Eterna Forest is always quite simple -- a bunch of double battles, some bug Pokemon, a couple of uncommon encounters like Buneary... I don't think I have much to say about this one. I did catch a Misdreavus. Maybe I'll use a Mismagius in this playthrough? I'm kind of married to the idea of using a Drifblim, though. I also caught a Shellos, and while I think I'll get the blue variant, I don't mind using Gastrodon as my Water-type for this run. 

Eterna City is up next, and we're immediately exposed to the fact that Team Galactic is going around and making the citizens feel unsafe. They erected a huge, evil-capitalist new office building in the corner of the city; and some of the NPCs have had their Pokemon stolen from them. Actual villainy! I go to the gym first, though, and I am actually surprised -- and kind of pleased -- that I'm allowed to fight the gym without dealing with the city's "villain of the week" problem. 

This is actually the first time I've been through this puzzle, too, since I've only played Platinum for Generation IV, and they changed a bunch of the puzzles. For Eterna City, the Platinum puzzle was a giant flower-clock thing that I have to rotate. Diamond and Pearl's Eterna gym... is a bit more weird, with me having to find a bunch of trainers hiding behind trees and stuff. I imagine it would be a lot easier and more laughable in the original Nintendo DS, but with the angle of the more 3D-ified remake, I guess it's marginally more difficult? 

It's always cute to me that the Eterna City gym trainers actually have Turtwigs... reminds me of random trainers with Bulbasaurs or Squirtles in Gold & Silver. I've always thought that later games made the starter Pokemon feel so special that only you and your rivals ever get to use them, and I sometimes wish that there's a bigger presence for the Grookeys and Rowlets and Froakies in the game they debuted in... but that's what the anime and other secondary games are for, I suppose. 

Anyway, Gardenia herself isn't particularly difficult. Using a Grass Pokemon myself does put me at a neutral ground with her, but Staravia and Jirachi sweep through her team with ease, including her underleveled Roserade. She laughs and sends me off on my way... yeah, Crasher Wake you aren't, Gardenia. You're not trying to investigate all the criminal activity in your town at all!

As I explore Eterna City, I accidentally talk to the 'Underground Man', which gives me the Underground Kit... but unlike 90% of this game, they actually upgraded the Underground with some additional stuff! The mining game (and theoretically, if I ever care to do it, multiplayer) is still there, but there are now nice little caverns in the Grand Underground with overworld Pokemon encounters, a la Let's Go or Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet. The couple of chambers I've entered are somewhat appropriate for an underground area, too, with a watery cavern filled with Psyducks and Gastrodons; and a large generic cave with Geodudes, Zubats and some Budews on the grassy areas. I don't foresee myself really doing a lot of this, but it's a nice bit of exploration I could do while I watch a movie or something, just to unlock every room. 

After all that, I bump into Cynthia for the plot-mandated early meeting. Cynthia gives me the HM for Cut. Which is hilariously enough, still represented by a Bidoof. Is the Poketch HM-rental service going to all feature Bidoof? Is that going to be the big joke? I approve. I attempted to go off to the Old Chateau to get a Rotom, but turns out in BDSP it's post-game exclusive. Boo, I say. Boo! 

Cynthia also points out the weird statue mixing Palkia and Dialga's features, which features a 3D glow-up. I genuinely don't remember if this is something in Legends: Arcus, but probably not, right?

Anyway, I then assault the Eterna Building. Not really much to say about it, most of the Team Galactic dialogue alternate between generic 'NEW WORLD!!!' monologues, or gags in the expense of the grunts that are blindly following and not realizing what's going on. I do find it weird that at one floor, the grunts are all facing laptops on office desks. What are they doing? Scam-calling or something?

Ultimately, I face off against Jupiter, who is holding Rad Rickshaw's Buneary and Clefairy hostage. Jupiter actually managed to KO two of my Pokemon with her Skuntank... I completely forgot that Skuntanks naturally Flamethrower, and my poor Grotle got absolutely annihilated. That is more of a fight than Team Galactic puts out normally! Anyway, Jupiter gets driven off after some talk about 'actually, we won because we got some data'. Apparently, they want to steal Clefairy because Clefairy came from space, which I don't think has anything to do with Team Galactic's actual plans, but okay, sure. 

With that, Rad gives me a free bicycle, and lets me pick a colour based on the Generation I games (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green). By a mis-click I picked green, which is the worst colour visually compared to my character's biking outfit, but I guess that's the subconscious Bulbasaur loyalty for you. Oh, my character also changes clothes when I hop on a bike, and I do think the bike outfit is... not bad. I still would like to customize it at some point, though. 

After clearing out the Cycling Road, I've just been going around catching Pokemon and filling up my Pokedex a bit. Currently my team's made up of Grotle, Jirachi, Shellos, Golbat, Luxio and Bronzor, but I don't foresee holding on to the latter three particularly long.

Random Notes:

• 
  One thing that this remake does great? In-battle backgrounds. They made a background for almost everything, with custom backgrounds for the Eterna gym. I especially like the underground watery-cave!
• After rescuing Rowan, Bebe (the region's Bill) shows up and tells me that she's impressed by my help. In this version of the encounter, Bebe allows me to access the PC remotely, which is an actual upgrade to my capabilities! I'm never a big fan of 'access the PC anywhere in the world' gimmick, but it's inoffensive enough. 
  
• Another item I got -- and I'm not sure from who -- is the Pokeball decorations. It's always been something that existed in Generation IV, but it's also always been kind of a cute but ultimately a huge nothingburger. I think the only times I've ever seen it used are super-basic stuff or to make haha bad words show up. While I tend to have some kind of attachment to most of Pokemon's non-battle, non-exploration gimmicks, this is one I genuinely forgot about. 
• I really do like the Team Galactic OST that plays in both the Valley Windworks and the Eterna Building, with the snappy music and stuff. One of the nicer things about replaying a game or playing a remake is getting to appreciate some of the less-prominent OST pieces.
• I really do like the flowers in Floaroma Town. Ultimately in the original game there wasn't anything super-important here, but it's literally just there to give us a nice little location where they can show off what they can do with the terrain on the NDS at the time. But it's just a nicely pretty place, isn't it?
• The professor's aide that gives me items at different checkpoints in the map is actually Lucas's dad. I completely forgot about this! Although to be fair, Lucas (or Dawn) have always been one of the most bland alternate-protagonists, with most of the characterization going to Barry.
• I've always thought that the Underground stuff should've been introduced in Oreburgh City, which would've made a lot more sense, instead of just a random house in Eterna City that's completely easy to miss if you don't have a habit of checking out every single building. 
• The Psychic trainer model has some genuinely cool texturing representing the orange energy as they hold their Pokeball aloft. I do think it is kind of a huge waste for them to rig all of these 'full-body' trainer designs and only have them show up in brief bursts before and after the battle. 
• Not sure if the ghosts are still there, but I couldn't get the creepy butler or the girl to spawn in the Old Chateau. One of the Beethoven paintings on the wall have glowing eyes that disappear if I get close, though.