Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 8 - Jet Dragon of Death

So last we left off, I beat Team Galactic, caught Palkia and steamrolled the eighth gym. And then I go through Victory Road, and... and there's really not much for me to say about it, really. It's a big cave, filled with the same old, same old Golbats, Medichams and Machokes we've been seeing in every single damn cave in this game. One rather big problem of the original Diamond/Pearl is that they locked even the Sinnoh dex behind the post-game for no real reason other than to make the postgame feel a bit smaller, but it really does make these caves feel a lot more boring when there isn't a 'chase' rare encounter every now and then. The water route leading up to Victory Road had Mantyke as a rare encounter, but the super-long Victory Road? Toss in some Nosepass, or Magneton, or Lickitung, or Dusclops, or Bronzong, some Pokemon that would be thematic for a Sinnoh cave? No? Some Pokemon that would evolve in this game... no? Nothing? Oh well, super repel time. There's also a bunch of Strength puzzles and whatnot, but with the Poketch taking care of all HM slavery in this game, Victory Road ends up feeling just like a long corridor. Which is all right, I suppose. 

Actually, the trainers are at least kind of fun. In a mechanic that I don't think anyone cared for, original Diamond/Pearl needed you to see every single Pokemon in the base Sinnoh dex before you can unlock the National Dex, and Victory Road's trainers are some of the only trainers to hold final starter evolutions or trade evolutions. It is always a bit cool to see trainers with Empoleon or Torterra or Machamp or Golem, for sure.

And... with minimal fanfare, I exit the long cave that is the Victory Road and, behold, it's a big church-like building! 

And anyway, my party at this point consists of Torterra, Gastrodon, Drifblim, Drapion, Toxicroak and Palkia. All of which are around somewhere around levels 55-60, or thereabouts. And... and I have been derisive about the difficulty of this game so far, and what proceeded to come afterwards is very... interesting, shall we say.

Right before I enter the Elite Four and champion, my rival Pearl/Barry shows up in his usual energized self, and he challenges me to a battle with a full party. And... and for once, he's actually not a joke! The designers of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl actually properly EV-trained the final series of battles and gave them held items. Which suddenly makes this last leg of the game surprisingly challenging. Pearl himself isn't much to talk about, of course, because his party still isn't the most impressive. 

He starts off with a Staraptor against my Gastrodon, but the emo-bird has a Focus Sash that allows him to survive an Ice Beam, and the bird manages to get off a couple of Close Combats. Pearl's Roserade isn't particularly useful against my Drifblim, who takes him out with a Fly. Neither is its Floatzel, though it having Ice Fang to fight my Torterra is kind of... expected, I suppose? 

Pearl's Heracross is a bit more fun, and it's a bit of a slug-out between it and my Toxicroak. He spends a turn (not his first turn) trying to Swords Dance, though, which was his downfall. My Toxicroak also two-taps his Snorlax with a Brick Break followed by a Sucker Punch, but the fact that I have to rely on priority moves is actually interesting. And Pearl's final Pokemon is his starter, Infernape, who I take down with an Earthquake from my Torterra.

Pearl does his usual excited ranting before running off, but for once, he's not a joke. Which I do appreciate, at least -- even if every showing before this was sub-par, at least he gave me an interesting final battle. 

And now, it's Elite Four Time! And unlike Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which went all-out in redesigning the Elite Four rooms with long walkways and lights and a random creepy ghost girl hidden in Phoebe's room, Sinnoh's remade Elite Four run is... quite boring. Boring rooms with four fans and basic elevators. Yawn! And it's not like Sinnoh's Elite Four is ever interesting, like, ever. The first three generations had some help thanks to showing up in the Adventures manga, while the ones from Unova onwards tend to have some members show up in the game's story itself. But Sinnoh... you have Flint, I guess, and his bro-mance with Volkner. That's about it.

Our first Elite Four member is Aaron, who also has a most basic design -- label him 'Ace Trainer' and put him in Victory Road, and I wouldn't bat an eyelid that this is supposed to be an important NPC. His speech is also the most generic 'bugs are cool and perfect, I guess'... sorry, Burgh does that much better than you do. 

But then he tosses out his Dustox. Aaron has been the butt of jokes for being an elite Four member that uses Dustox and Beautifly... and turns out a finely-tuned Dustox can be quite annoying! He sets up Light Screen, which neuters my Gastrodon's Ice Beam. And he proceeds to heal with his held item, a Black Sludge, and continues to heal even more with Moonlight! I waltzed in not even stocking up on revives and hyper potions, and I am flummoxed -- delightfully so -- that a Dustox is even giving me problem. I took it out, of course, but with way more effort than I thought I would. That... that was fun. 

Aaron's second Pokemon, his Beautifly, took a turn to Quiver Dance up and that allowed my Drifblim to two-shot it with Thunderbolts. And then his third Pokemon is a Heracross, which fails to land a Rock Slide against my Drifblim (who flew)... and then proceeds to gimp himself with a held Flame Orb. I'm not sure what the Heracross is supposed to do with the Flame Orb, since it's a physical attacker and burning yourself kind of... makes your physical attack suck? That nerfed rock slide failed to kill my Drifblim, and the rhinoceros beetle is out. 

Now Aaron's fourth Pokemon has given me problems ever since Platinum -- a Vespiquen who spams Defend Order. Aaron's Vespiquen was probably what made me  Not having anyone that could one-shot her majesty, I tagged in Toxicroak and launched a Toxic to slowly poison her majesty to death, while slowly launching Poison Jabs. Aaron's ace is a Drapion, who isn't a Bug-type but evolves from one. I have a bit of a cheeky Drapion vs Drapion slugfest, which I probably shouldn't do since I don't exactly have a lot of items... and his Drapion has Earthquake. My Drapion falls, and my Torterra takes out his Drapion with my own Earthquake, but that's probably the first actual 'fainting' I have in this playthrough that isn't me joking around. 

So yeah. The Elite Four is actually a somewhat legitimate challenge this time around!

Our second member is nice grandma Bertha. I remembered there used to be some theory that she was Agatha's sister or cousin or something based on them both being little old ladies and also having a similar name? Eh. Her party doesn't really get to show off what they could do, since my team is really tuned to destroy her. Torterra hops in and uses Wood Hammer to execute that Quagsire in one go, then turns around and uses Giga Drain on the Whiscash to recover the health from recoil. 

I swap around to toss out Gastrodon to take out the Sudowoodo (who really can't do anything) with Water Pulses, then the Golem and its Sturdy proved to be a bit of a challenge -- it hits hard enough with Earthquake, and Sturdy means that it's guaranteed to get one hit off in-between Bertha fully healing it. But not by much. And then Torterra one-shots Hippowdon with a Wood Hammer. 

And next up is Flint, who is happy that I helped out Volkner for him. I remember that his team is also a bit weirder in Diamond and Pearl, although it's not exactly a parallel of Volkner's as I had hoped... that wouldn't come until Platinum gave the two bros an Electivire and Magmortar. But Flint comes up with a Rapidash, who gets washed away by Gastrodon. His next Pokemon? A Lopunny. God bless you, Flint. That Lopunny tries to do a High Jump Kick against my Palkia, crashes and gets knocked out by the subsequent Aura Sphere that the God of Space launches. Flint's third Pokemon is a Steelix of all things. Didn't we kill enough Steelixes in Byron's gym? Come on, guys, if you're going to meme, at least give him something less boring. My Torterra takes the Steelix out with an Earthquake. 

Just as I was about to handwave Flint as a nothingburger, his fourth Pokemon is Drifblim. Oh! Respect, I have one of those, too. It's Balloon Wars time, except while I set launch a Phantom Force, an attack that takes two turns...  Flint's Drifblim uses MINIMIZE. Which causes my attacks to miss, of course,  which is hilarious. And then the Drifblim proceeds to BATON PASS. Baton Pass! In an Elite Four battle! That's glorious. And coming out as Flint's ace is that monkey Infernape, infinitely more terrifying than Pearl's Infernape since this is a minimized, high-evasion monkey. 

Flint's Infernape proceeded to unleash a THUNDER PUNCH that takes out my Drifblim. I swap out to Torterra for another starter-vs-starter fight. Flint's Infernape unleashes a Fire Punch (Flint's first actual Fire-type attack in this whole battle, which I found funny) which takes my Torterra to red, but an Earthquake knocks out the monkey. And as Flint's final Pokemon proves to be the Drifblim again, I finish it off with a Crunch from my Drapion. 

...you know what, Flint? Good show. Good show, good show. That Minimize trick was unexpected, but very cool that you were able to actually execute it. I like this. 

The Sinnoh Elite Four's final member is Lucian, the Psychic-type bookworm. And he leads with Mr. Mime, who is a fairy mime in this generation! So he actually can do some things against my Drapion with Dazzling Gleam, and that's after setting up a couple of screens. Cross Poison knocks out the Mr. Mime, though. Lucian sends out a Medicham, which I face with Drifblim. Ghost-type should be able to sweep Psychics, right? Wrong, because that Medicham has Ice Punch, knocking out my Drifblim. I toss out Torterra to Wood Hammer the Medicham to death.

Lucian's next Pokemon is an Alakazam, poor poor Alakazam whose bark has always been worse than his bite ever since Generation II. Drapion one-shots the fragile spoon-bender with a Crunch, then takes on Lucian's fourth Pokemon, a Girafarig. It tries to set up a Trick Room and launch a couple of Thunderbolts against Drapion, but otherwise isn't much to talk about. It tried, at least. 

The last Pokemon Lucian tosses out is a Bronzong, who manages to outspeed my Torterra thanks to the Trick Room. It uses Earthquake! I use Crunch! But the already-wounded Torterra gets taken out, and I had to bring in Toxicroak to take down the Bronzong with a Sucker Punch. And, again, having treated the game as an easy joke of a cakewalk before, it is very refreshing... particularly since I had maybe four or five revives coming into this run, meaning any defeat is damaging and even healing up was a luxury as well. 

And finally, we have our champion. There is some attempt at gravitas by having the camera spin around, but it's honestly pretty minimal effort with what they had already modelled into the game. Cynthia thanks me for Mt. Coronet... and wow, you did absolutely jack-shit in this version of events, did you, Cynthia? My previous exposure to the Sinnoh story was Platinum, where this confrontation actually meant something since Cynthia has been doing what Lance did in Gold and Silver. That's the reputation that Cynthia has in my head, where she runs around trying her best to at least do damage control even if our protagonist is the one getting into fights. She even went to Spear Pillar and into the Distortion World with us! But here, she's just some lady who gave me duck migraine medicine one time. 

And Cynthia's first Pokemon is... a Spiritomb! Infamous for being Dark/Ghost, without any weaknesses, back in Generation IV. And actually having stats to back it up, unlike its poor predecessor Sableye. Technically, I can use Fairy-type moves against it, but I don't exactly have a Fairy-type to use at the moment! So I launch Drapion. Both Drapion and Spiritomb are tanky enough that we can comfortably take each other's Crunches and Shadow Balls, and I was planning to use the Spiritomb to burn through Cynthia's potions. It... it didn't work out so well, because the Spiritomb procced enough 'Special Defense goes down' with Shadow Ball, and a critical hit takes out Drapion. Toxicroak comes out, and I hoped to be able to deal enough damage with Sucker Punch. I didn't deal enough damage to knock it out with Sucker Punch, and Spiritomb unleashes a Psychic. I knew that 4x-effective hit was coming the moment my Toxicroak's Anticipation was set off. 

Torterra finally comes out and takes down the Spiritomb, but two for one was an insane trade this early on. Cynthia's second Pokemon is a Roserade, who tanked an Earthquake like a boss, enough to Sludge Bomb and poison my Torterra, before falling down to the next Earthquake.

Cynthia's third Pokemon? Milotic. Whether it was Wallace or Cynthia, Milotics have earned both respect and fear from yours truly. And I just know this thing has Ice Beam. But I was banking on being able to kill it with a Wood Hammer. Torterra even has a Quick Claw! Alas, the Milotic outspeeds me, and headshots my Torterra with an Ice Beam.

...the Milotic also has a Flame Orb, and gets set on fire. Which sounds stupid, but Milotic does have the ability Marvel Scale, which ups her Defense stats if she's afflicted by a status condition. And it's not like Milotic cares about the physical attack stat that is nerfed by the Burn effect...

I chuck out Drifblim, who has Thunderbolt. Milotic has very high special defenses, but I thought I could chip away at its health. Thunderbolt hits... and Milotic uses MIRROR FUCKING COAT. The attack that reflects special attacks. Drifblim dies to it. I tried to then overpower Milotic with a legendary, unleashing a Spacial Rend with my Palkia, but Milotic very handily tanks that and kills Palkia with another Mirror Coat. That... that was not my most intelligent play, I must admit. 

Finally my Gastrodon pops out, and I barely kill it with a critical Earth Power...  which would have been dangerous since that is also a special attack that Mirror Coat could reflect back. But Cynthia has three more Pokemon remaining, and even if I tried to revive someone, there was no way I was surviving a gauntlet that also contained Cynthia's powerful Garchomp.

Ironically, Cynthia's fourth Pokemon is also a Gastrodon. Earth Power faces off against Earthquake, but my already wounded Gastrodon finally gives up the ghost. 

Yep, I lost to Cynthia! That... that honestly sounds about right. 

It's rematch time, and this time I bring up a whole ton of revives and full restores to use in-between battles. I also finally cracked the TM box and gave some of my Pokemon better moves. Palkia gets Surf and Flamethrower, Drifblim gets Psychic, and Drapion gets Aerial Ace. 

And...  and I'll spare you guys the Elite Four rematches, but basically the ones that give me pause is still Aaron's tanky Dustox and Vespiquen; and Flint's damned Minimize play. Knowing what's going to happen and having a slightly more leveled-up team, and not afraid of taking some knockouts since I can revive them afterwards really does make it a lot easier to go through the gauntlet, though. 

And then, the rematch with Cynthia again. This time, I lead with Toxicroak against her Spiritomb. I use Toxic on the Spiritomb, and then just intend to turtle the heck out of the Spiritomb with Drapion. Cynthia actually got wise to the toxic tick-downs, and swaps it out for her Gastrodon. I send out my own Gastrodon for a rematch of the slugs. This time, Cynthia's Gastrodon kept spamming Rock Tomb for some reason, while my Earth Powers have much heavier STABs. 

Next up is Cynthia's Roserade against my Palkia. A little rose-dancer sprite versus the Kaiju God of Space. Palkia unleashes a Flamethrower... and Roserade replies with a critical hit Dazzling Gleam. A fairy-type move! That... that's very cool, actually. I pop Toxicroak out, another Pokemon vulnerable to Dazzling Gleam, and proceed to Sucker-Punch the little sliver of health that the enemy Roserade has. That was cool, though, not going to lie.

Cynthia brings out the wounded Spiritomb again, and I take a turn to revive Palkia. Toxicroak somehow hangs on for dear life at 3 HP (so it isn't even the bullshit 'fake sturdy' mechanic) and then manages to trigger one of Cynthia's Full Restores, sets off another Toxic, before I swap him out at around 10 HP or thereabouts. I didn't actually expect much out of Toxicroak since neither of his Poison nor Fighting types are particularly useful in this Elite Four, but that I salute you, punk frog. 

Torterra comes on in and takes down the Spiritomb with an Earthquake, and then... it's the Milotic rematch time. My Torterra manages to tank the Ice Beam, and unleashes a Wood Hammer. As Milotic unleashes a second Ice Beam, I swap out for Drapion, who can tank the Ice Beam better. Thinking that I could finish off Milotic at my leisure with physical attacks... Cynthia's Milotic uses RECOVER.

Right. This is a bit of a problem. I can't even try and cheese-poison the Milotic, since the Burn actually protects it from an attempt to use Toxic or whatever. So I just spam Cross Poison, while Milotic continues to Recover... and unleashes a couple of Scalds that eventually takes out the Drapion, who was already not in full health. I did take one of the Drapion turns to fully heal Torterra. 

And with some of the accumulated damage that Drapion has managed to do to the Milotic, Torterra tanks an Ice Beam (which I knew he could do), before finally slaying the majestic oarfish with a Wood Hammer. It's a mutual kill, but dang, Milotic, that was badass. 

I send out Drifblim, and Cynthia sends out Lucario. I find out quickly that my attempts to spam Psychic aren't doing enough damage to Lucario, even if it's just spamming Flash Cannons. Eventually, I swap out to Gastrodon, who tanks Flash Cannons a lot better, and proceeds to take down Lucario with Earth Power. 

And finally... the pseudo-legendary of Sinnoh. The Land Shark of Death, the Jet Dragon of Doom, the Harbinger of Sandy Ruin, the Terror of the Deserts, ace in the hole of Cynthia...

Garchomp. 

I start off with my already wounded Palkia. A god against a pseudo-god, sounds fair, right? But one thing about Garchomp is that Garchomp is really, really fast.

Boom, Dragon Claw, critical hit, and Garchomp proved that the sheer, unparalleled speed and power jet engine is truly enough to slay the God of Space. 

I move in to Drifblim, trying to buy a turn to fully heal Gastrodon... and Garchomp does Swords Dance. "Yep, I'm fucked", I say. Knowing that Drifblim can't really damage Garchomp substantially, I take another turn to heal Torterra. Garchomp unleashes a Swords Dance powered Dragon Claw, and pops Drifblim. Aftermath damages him a little, but not enough. 

Gastrodon pops out, and Quick Claw triggers, allowing the slug to somehow outspeed the jet dragon that had outsped the God of Space. 4x damage should be enough to take down Garchomp. It isn't, because it's holding one of those fucking berries that reduces super-effective damage. Another Dragon Claw is unleashed by Garchomp, and Gastrodon falls. 

One last Pokemon on my side. My starter, Torterra. The Garchomp is bleeding, slightly wounded. And Garchomp outspeeds me... and fails to kill Torterra. At 5 HP, Torterra unleashes Wood Hammer... and Garchomp falls. Torterra falls, too...

Which means... with a half-dead Toxicroak in my party (who I completely forgot about at this point, since his HP was so low that I thought that he was dead), I win. I win! That was a really fun battle, a challenging one, and I am so, so happy that they actually accounted for the stupid experience scaling in this game and still made Cynthia as challenging as she used to be back in 2010 or whenever. 

And Cynthia and Rowan show up and give the typical bullcrap about winning the game, and I register my Pokemon in the Hall of Fame. Toxicroak, with his smug-ass frog face, was the first to show up. I haven't been the most engaged with Shining Pearl and I think my let's play has been quite reflective of it,  but this last battle has been surprisingly challenging and fun. The credits roll, over some nice shots of my 3D character biking down a road, and a vignette of me meeting all the supporting characters, a nice CGI cutscene of Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit showing up as I cycle back, before it closes on me returning to my house in Twinleaf City. 

That's nice. Diamond and Pearl, I feel, has one of the better post-game areas in that they actually prepared an extra island in the north for post-game. There's also a bunch of legendaries to catch -- Giratina, Regigigas, the Lake Guardians for sure. Arceus, from the Azure Flute. I wouldn't be surprised if Darkrai and Shaymin's events also became triggerable here. 

But I think I'll move on to the next game before that. You'll no doubt see a couple of post-game posts over the next few months, but I do really need a break from Shining Pearl. Playing through it really does make me realize just how poorly-paced the original Sinnoh games were, particularly the repetitiveness of the wild Pokemon thanks to the much more limited dex -- which they really have no excuse for, do they, since Platinum just simply made Sinnoh a much more pleasant overworld to run around in just by introducing a couple extra Pokemon available from the get-go, and not arbitrarily locking Rotom or the Trophy Garden behind the National Dex or whatnot. 

And... yeah. There are some parts of this game that I really did like, but if we're being honest a lot of them are cosmetic and feel like the bare minimum of a remake and update. Especially when you're comparing it to FireRed/LeafGreen, HeartGold/SoulSilver and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire. And I think this goes a bit double with remaking the Generation IV games because Platinum is probably one of the 'remastered' third versions whose changes are universally beloved. And taking away those changes and giving us... really, nothing in return -- makes the original script and gameplay feel a lot, lot worse.

Anyway, that's enough bitching on my part. I had fun, I had some nice appreciation for a bunch of Generation IV Pokemon I wouldn't have had before, and while BDSP wouldn't rank high up on my absolute list of Pokemon games, it's still not... not fully terrible. Next up... another remake game!

Random Notes:

• Normally not a huge Infernape fan, but how cool is that special illustration Infernape EX artwork from the game? Also, that Spiritomb and Alakazam art goes hard as hell. 
  
• It is so weird not seeing these guys with some of their Pokemon from Platinum, having farmed them for dozens of hours back in the day. Aaron without Yanmega and Scizor? Bertha without Rhyperior as her final Pokemon? Flint without Magmortar? Lucien without Gallade? 
  
• Aaron's Dustox and Cynthia's Milotic break my 'only TCG Pocket art' rule for this playthrough, since the two of them did give me a bit of a run for my money. 
  
• Honestly, I do feel a bit sorry for Bertha's Sudowoodo the most. A lot of the other 'weaker' members of the Sinnoh Elite Four at least try to do some gimmick -- Beuatifly's Quiver Dance, Girafarig's Trick Room, the stalling Dustox that surprised me... even Flint's Rapidash has some surprising coverage with Iron Tail and Poison Jab. But not Sudowoodo. His movepool and general setup is just so... so bad. 
• It's a bit of a funny coincidence mostly due to my selection of a starter Pokemon, but it is funny that Pearl shares multiple Pokemon with the Elite Four and Champion -- Roserade, Heracross and Infernape. 
• The musical piano piece in the conversation leading up to Cynthia's fight is great. I don't think I've ever paid attention to that piece of the OST before. 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 7 - God of Time

So yeah, this is the climax of the game's legendary Pokemon story. But what comes before that is a long, winding, and boring trek up Mt. Coronet. Again, caves in Sinnoh are super-duper boring, and I think the only new wild Pokemon encounter in Mt. Coronet would be Clefairy? It's otherwise the same glut of Graveler, Golbat, Machoke, Chingling and Medicham that we've been seeing all around Mt. Coronet throughout the game. There is the outer area with some snow, which is cute I guess, but I just super repel'd and didn't bother. There are a bunch of Team Galactic goons, but there weren't enough to really pose much of a threat or even to set up the vibe that they've 'invaded' Mt. Coronet. Again, the rather inconsistent direction in having some Team Galactic grunt rant about the Anime Plan of Universal Ennui and Destruction while the next one bitches about bad work benefits just... doesn't work for me. 

Ultimately I climb up to Spear Pillar, and two Team Galactic Commanders await me to fight. Mars and Jupiter seem utterly unconcerned about the madness that their boss is up to, and is about to fight me in a double battle. My rival Barry shows up, and we get a double battle. Barry has apparently 'leveled up'... which is to say, he leads with a rather useless Munchlax. The Staraptor that came out after I earthquaked the field is a lot more useful, I must say. 

Mars and Jupiter have a party of a Bronzor each, a Golbat each, and a Skuntank and a Purugly. By dint of having a party of six and both Galactic Admins piling it on my Torterra, it's actually a somewhat decently challenging battle. But Earthquakes followed by Giga Drains allows ol' Torterra to beat down Mars and Jupiter's minions, and some of Barry's too. It's neat, perhaps the first Team Galactic battle that didn't feel like a chore. 

Barry then heals my party, talks about how he's "hit a wall", how he can't help anymore... and buggers off? Yeah, that's some very confusing writing and messaging on Barry's part. Even if he feels he can't help to fight, at least have him stick around for the finale? I dunno.

Anyway, I walk up to the tip of Spear Pillar, where Cyrus summons Palkia with the Red Chain. Palkia, the dimensional ruler of space, appears and is immediately enveloped by the Red Chain created from the essence of the Lake Guardians. There's an admittedly cool mosaic colour effect that radiates from Palkia on the sky, which is neat! We get to see this spread over some recognizable landmarks in Sinnoh, which is, I suppose, a nice attempt at making Palkia's arrival on the material plane feel somewhat apocalyptical. 

Cyrus rants about how the world can't be modelled into what he wants, so he's going to use Palkia to wipe the world out and create a brand-new world without fighting. That he will rule over as god, of course. Yeah, Cyrus... isn't the best-written Pokemon villain, really, particularly with the Diamond/Pearl script. But Palkia roars a bit, Cyrus gets overwhelmed by Palkia, who starts creating a galaxy beneath him. As the music slows... Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf show up, make some noises, and shatter the Red Chain. 

And the three lake pixies just disappear after that. My character goes :o and... and I suppose it's supposed to be the culmination and the reward for releasing them from Team Galactic's lab, but it feels like it's barely five seconds after Cyrus subjugated Palkia. Other than the psychedelic light show bit, there was really not much of a menace here. 

Mesprit stops in front of me briefly and teleports away. Cyrus is confused, and he's angry! It's final boss battle time. And... and I wish I could say Cyrus was a challenge, but he's not. He's got four Pokemon -- a Honchkrow, a Gyarados, a Weavile and a Crobat. They're... they're all right, but at this point they're not very challenging. My Gastrodon wipes out his two fliers, my Drifblim make sashimi out of his Gyarados, and my Toxicroak breaks his Weavile. 

Cyrus rants about perfection, about how he will make the ultimate 'his', and fucks off -- a horrid exit for the character, especially since I was way more familiar with how his character is handled in. I've been hyping up Platinum a lot compared to Diamond and Pearl and I honestly feel kind of bad. I have a whole paragraph detailing that in the 'random notes' section below. 

Professor Rowan and Lucas show up, and gives a brief talk about Palkia being 'saddened or angered', and how it's kind of out of control after the Red Chain... but it's also waiting for me? Make up your mind, guys! Again, in Platinum, at this point it's Cynthia that's going around talking to me, and Cynthia has been going around the game being a proactive ally. Rowan and Lucas are just two real nothing-burgers.

Palkia's boss fight happens now, with a very cool portal in the sky and the always welcome score behind it. Bitch as much as I want about the plot of the Sinnoh games, I really do like the soundtrack! Palkia has a nice moveset of its signature Spacial Rend (which still 'shatters the screen', albeit differently than the very cool 3DS version), Slash, Ancient Power and... Aqua Ring? 

Small problem... I don't have Poke Balls. Or rather, I had like 5 Poke Balls and nothing else, because I forgot about the legendary encounter and totally did not prepare anything at all. Oops! And... and honestly, I don't think I care enough to save it, so I just chuck the Master Ball at Palkia, and catch it. Hooray, Space Godzilla is in my pocket! Rowan and Lucas congratulate me, I run to the edge of the altar to grab the Lustrous Orb, and... and the game awkwardly tells me to go to Sunyshore City and beat the last gym, before going to the Elite Four. 

So I fly down to the previously blocked road leading to Sunyshore City, beat some trainers and as I enter Sunyshore, I am greeted by Flint! I think Generation IV is the first generation to have a non-champion member of the Elite Four show up and actually be a character in the overworld? And actually foreshadowing the Elite Four? Anyway, Flint talks about how his boy- er, best friend Volkner is in a funk and that he thinks that I could give him a riveting enough battle to get him out of said funk. Okay, then. Apparently an Elite Four member can't do it, but I can. 

I do really like the design of Sunyshore, with solar panels that double as walkways and bridges around town. I don't think it's something that would be practical in real life on how hot the panels would be, but it's quite a cool concept for a town. 

There's also quite a bit to see in Sunyshore, even if there's not much to do exactly. Lots of trainers in the route both before and after it. There's a cute little market building that sells stickers. There's a little shack with an eccentric Poketch developer. Jasmine from Johto has a cameo on the beach, which if I remember correctly was a cheeky easter egg for HeartGold/SoulSilver back in the day. 

Speaking of easter eggs, there's also the random couple who briefly talk about Cyrus and note that he used to be an antisocial kid that likes machines. That's... that's honestly hardly enough of a backstory, is it? Elden Ring and its ilk get away with it because the little 'hidden' lore are actually a bit more elaborate than 'the emo antisocial man doesn't have friends as a kid'. 

And of course, there's a watchtower where Volkner is just lurking, watching through the binoculars at the Pokemon League. Somehow, my arrival is exactly enough to get him out of his funk, although he also notes that he'll challenge the Pokemon League if he's still bored with me. My man, the League is literally a couple of blocks away from you. Just... just go. This is even the game where you have an Octillery! 

Anyway, with Volkner reinvigorated, the gym's open. It's the final gym, an Electric-type one... but I start the game with Torterra. Oops! I do like the Sunyshore gym, though. It's pretty straightforward, but the gear-and-platforms puzzle is cute enough, and as usual ILCA actually delivers quite well with the backgrounds and the giant rotating gears. Again... it's just a bit of a shame that the rest of the game really didn't receive as much polish as water physics or battlefield backgrounds. 

Volkner himself is... y'know, I've always been of two feelings about the original Diamond and Pearl rosters. On one hand, I like the idea that not all gym leaders need to 100% dedicate themselves to a theme. But there is, I think, a spectrum between using exclusively a Pokemon of a single type to only having 50% of your party be tied to your theme. And Ambipom and Octillery? Other than how hilariously out of place they are, you can't even really make a case about them the way you could for Candace's Medicham. Volkner himself is also hilariously easy in original Diamond and Pearl, making his boast about taking on the league and being so bored with all the trainers in the realm sound like utter hyperbole. His two Electric-type Pokemon, Raichu and Luxray, are utterly fragile and a far cry from the Electivire that Platinum and most secondary media assign to him. Ambipom isn't much of a threat, and Octillery is just there, I think, to catch people unawares with the odd Aurora Beam or something. 

But anyway, Volkner was a cakewalk. He gives me the final badge, and sends me off to the Pokemon League. I get the HM -- or rather, Poketch app -- for Waterfall from Jasmine at the beach, and it's off to the Victory Road and Pokemon League for now!

Random Notes:

• Wow, yeah, the story of Cyrus and the legendary Pokemon... is really truncated and short in the base Diamond and Pearl, huh? I'm way more familiar with the Platinum version, where Giratina intervenes, drags Cyrus into the Distortion World, and both Cynthia and the Lake Guardians were more involved in the attempt to stop the angered Giratina. With some actual consequences of a legendary god-like Pokemon raging, it really puts into perspective how small and nonsensical Cyrus's plan was. Instead, the simplistic 'you can replace Dialga with Palkia and no one would notice' plot here feels so bland. There isn't any real pathos to Cyrus's ego being shattered by the sheer strength of the god-like beings he's trying to subjugate, or by having his 'emotions is unnecessary' thrown in his face by a very angry Giratina. Cyrus's more muted exit in Platinum after being dragged into the Distortion World and properly cowed after being defeated, kidnapped by poke-Lucifer, shown a different world and rescued by me and Cynthia... feels a lot more emotionally significant than 'throws a tantrum, gets his Crobat beaten, and fucks off forever'. 
• There really could've been something for the game to acknowledge about Cyrus, Mr. "Emotion is Useless", actually flipping out in anger and challenging me to a fight after his precious Red Chain shatters. Again, all the thematic pieces are there, but the script is so bad and it's something that could've been fixed in a remake.
• It really feels super bland, even compared to the Hoenn games were at least Groudon/Kyogre were allowed to rampage and we get to feel the effects of the weather on the region; or the Unova games where the legend of Zekrom/Reshiram and N's parallel with the protagonist was actually built up across the game. 
  
• The boss fight against Cyrus, at least, gives us a really nice background with galaxies and pulsars. This is a nice escalation from the Galactic Grunts having just space, the commanders having planets, and Cyrus having the whole galaxy. Say what you will about the third-party developers of this game, they put in some effort in the backgrounds. 
• One of the houses on the beach leading to Sunyshore is filled with a bunch of Pikachu and a Poke Kid among them. In the original DS games, the joke was that the model actually looked similar enough that it was a surprise. Here, not so much. 
• Next to it is the Remoraid house, where a fisherman really gets excited on wanting to see my big, giant Remoraid that he saw in a dream. 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 6 - Snow Way Home

So welcome back to Pokemon Shining Pearl! And... there's a lot of road going from where we last left off -- Lake Valor -- to get to Snowpoint City. There's really not much to say about the Mt. Coronet segments. With Strength and Surf, I can now bypass the roadblocks on the upper entrances of Mt. Coronet, and finally run around the insides. There's literally not much of interest, though, other than the customary item collection, since, again, just like Iron Island, the caves in Generation IV are unbelievably boring. There are Chinglings and Bronzors there to slightly break up the pattern, I guess? 

But going through the snowy terrain is a bit more of a delight. Three long routes is admittedly a bit of a slog, but the Pokemon are new. Snovers, Swinubs and Sneasels patrol the grass, and the environment is actually nice to look at instead of caves, more caves, and cave-with-a-lake, populated by Pokemon with Sturdy. The snowy areas first gives us a nice two-tiered route with grass on a valley and log bridges on the cliffs; which opens up to a massive snowstorm-y area with thick snow that's hard to get through and a bunch of log cabins to find shelter, before we get to the mass of trees and tall grass that leads to Snowpoint City and Lake Acuity. It's a slog, but it's a nice-looking slog, you know what I mean?

There's really not much in Snowpoint City other than the relatively unique novelty of having a city being snowed in. Snowpoint Temple, the place where Regigigas slumbers, is sealed off and guarded, and there's really not much else in the city other than the gym. Again, it's kind of interesting to compare what existed in Diamond and Pearl and how much they expanded it in Legends: Arceus.

The Snowpoint gym puzzle is probably one of the few gyms in this game that could actually be called a puzzle instead of just being a bunch of slightly-decorated corridors, yeah? I think the only other gym that qualifies would probably be Maylene's, which is kind of cute since Platinum would establish Maylene and Candice as BFFs. This isn't a typical ice-crack puzzle either, but you have to calculate momentum (based on the altitude that you slide down from) to smash snowballs; and all the floor tiles are slippery except for several spots. It's not actually difficult, but it's fun. 

Also, a bunch of the Ace Trainers in this gym also utilize non-Ice Pokemon. We've got Tentacruels, Pelippers, Steelixes and Quagsires mixed into the Snovers and Sneasels. Which... I don't mind as much because at least some of the Pokemon are Ice-types. It sure is a lot less boring than Byron's, where 80% of the Pokemon are Onix, you know? I think I'm of two minds about keeping a gym 100% 'on-theme' to the type it's supposed to represent. Obviously having none of the typings make sense is bad, but there's also something to say instead of just looking at the regional Pokedex's list and just picking out a representative of each evolutionary family. 

Candice herself has a rather... interesting team. It's got a Snover and Sneasel, both first-level Ice-types. Her ace is an Abomasnow, which I think is quite accepted. But where I'm used to Candice's other ace being a Froslass, she actually tosses out a Medicham as her third Pokemon. Which is... kind of random! There is, I suppose, some merit to this -- I think there's an argument that Medichams are found in the grass outside Snowpoint Temple, and it's a representation of Candice using a 'tough' Pokemon that can survive the extreme weather despite not being Ice-type. There's also the Maylene connection, too. 

...but that said, at least in the base Diamond/Pearl game, there's nothing to really lead you to that. No NPC that mentions that Candice uses Pokemon from around Snowpoint, or that she likes training tough Pokemon, or anything at all. What could have been a very cool characterization-via-Pokemon-roster like Oleana having Garbodor in Sword/Shield or Karen having Vileplume in Gold/Silver ends up just feeling very random. 

That said, Candice is probably the only gym leader that gave me a bit of a pause in this fight, mostly for the reason that I insisted on fighting her with Torterra, who holds the Amulet Coin. Putting a 4x-weak-to-Ice Pokemon before a horde of ice-types led to Torterra being knocked out at some point in the fight, 10+ level difference notwithstanding. 

Candice gives me the badge, which is seven out of ten. I walk out and head out to Lake Acuity, where the Team Galactic Grunts have finally made their way... and walk in to see Barry being bullied by Jupiter. Jupiter gloats that they have taken the Pokemon of the lake, Uxie, whose cave also appeared around the time that they blew up Azelf's lake. So I guess Barry and Jupiter just have been fighting for all the time that I took to scale a mountain, go through multiple icy forests, and beat a gym. At the bare minimum. M'kay. Jupiter wasn't subtle at all at telling me where she's going to go, telling me 'don't follow me to Veilstone'!

Barry mutters something about being weak and runs off, while I fly to Veilstone. In another string of bad Team Galactic HR, the guard standing outside of Galactic Headquarters rants about how Team Galactic took his Clefairy (No! Grunts! Use! Clefairy!), how they demoted him and his friend, and now he's totally not going to drop a Storage Key in front of me as he totally quits. That's a nice little character arc... if that grunt was actually a recurring character that we could've remembered. But oh well. With the HQ still sealed other than the cover-story lobby, I go to the Galactic Warehouse and use the Storage Key, opening the Team Galactic Base at last. 

And... it's quite linear, honestly. The underground base that's connected to the Galactic Warehouse does have a bunch of teleportation panels and whatnot, but it's hardly an interesting puzzle. It's at least a fair bit more fun than Iron Island, though, with the Team Galactic Grunts having rather fun dialogue (even if it really feeds into the whole 'they can't commit to a vibe or gimmick' vibe of Team Galactic in general) and the music being all right. It's mostly beating up a bunch of Dustox-es, Stunkys, Glameows and Zubats, though.

After a bunch of teleportation pads, I reach Cyrus. Cyrus waxes lyrical about how I'm here out of sentimentality and emotions, and how those are completely illogical and irrational, and that these emotions are borne out of my lacking heart or something. Cyrus fights me with the frankly very embarrassing team of Golbat, Murkrow and Sneasel. It would've been a cakewalk even without the insane level-scaling of the remakes! 

After being beaten, Cyrus goes on another rant about how the basis of my power is my compassion... but that's wasteful and illusory, and they will 'fade over time until death banishes them forever'. Which, by the way, are pretty cool lines if taken on its own. It's just that Cyrus's execution and portrayal as our big bad is so few and far between, and there isn't really even an attempt at making his team threatening. He also gives me the Master Ball, because... he... doesn't need to catch Pokemon, because... he... doesn't view Pokemon as partners or tools, but make their power his own? Yeah, I felt like they could definitely have tweaked Cyrus's infamous nihilistic ranting to be a bit more palatable. Don't change his character, because I kind of get where they're trying to go with him. It's just the execution that fails. 

Cyrus lets me go into the secret corridors, where in a nice little touch, we get a couple of scientists actually feeling bad and in horror once they realize the depths of depravity that Team Galactic is willing to get into. In the secret lab, we get to see Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit held in little cages, overseen by Saturn. Saturn openly questions why Cyrus would allow me to run around the Galactic HQ uncontested, but... y'know, it's not like Cyrus could stop me with his weak-ass Golbat and Murkrow! Saturn fights me with the same team of Kadabra, Toxicroak and Bronzor, and it's actually hilarious that Saturn actually is a harder fight than Cryus is. I mean, marginally -- he's not a challenge in this fight, but at least he could theoretically be a bit more dangerous.

After beating Saturn, I press the button on the machines, opening the mechanical seals around the three Lake Guardians, who promptly teleport away. Saturn, too, teleports away with that convenient NPC black-screen ability. From Cyrus and Saturn's words, they were planning to dispose of the Lake Guardians... for... no real good reason. I think you guys are severely lacking powerful Pokemon, Team Galactic. Maybe using that Master Ball on one of the Lake Guardians would've made you guys more credible as villains. 

By the way, hidden in one of the random interactable laptops (and not all laptops in this game are interactable) is an actual reason why they need the Red Chain. They managed to find out via research that the Pokemon in Mt. Coronet -- Palkia in this game -- can't use all its power if subjugated with a Poke Ball. However, using a Red Chain made from parts of other legendary Pokemon would allow Team Galactic to dominate Palkia and force it to use its power. That's a really nice thought put into this game's otherwise meandering storyline, and I really wished they had given these to Saturn, or to the scientists, or someone.

Anyway, Saturn and Cyrus both hint that the next step of their plan takes place on the peak of Mt. Coronet. I'm not really feeling up to going through another cave, though, so I've been running around gathering items now that I've unlocked a bunch of HMs. Rock Climb, Surf and Strength allows me access to a bunch of stuff -- in particular a lot of trainers and items south of the hotel network between Pastoria and Veilstone. I really, really do appreciate the water effects that the remakers did -- the way the water parts as the rental Bibarel swims through it is genuinely pretty. 

Not so pretty? The Rock Climb segments that are now a lot harder to spot behind houses, since the way the 3D modeling is done, the hotels actually do cover a bunch of the stuff behind them, making it a bit irritating for me to try and guess where the rock climb spots are. It's these little moments where you can really tell that they were focused more on making a one-to-one remake with pretty graphics, without really understanding how those graphics would translate into the new engine. Compared to HGSS and ORAS, you really can tell.

I've also completely missed the long route below Hearthome, filled with security guards who would only battle at night, as well as Mr. Backlot's mansion. The little minigame isn't active yet until after I beat the Elite Four, though. I always found the concept of the Backlot Mansion to be so weird, with rooms blocked away by maids who never go away even until the post-game, and the implied 'comedy' that Mr. Backlot likes to show off so much that he makes his butler run around, kidnap/buy a bunch of rare Pokemon and let them loose in his backyard just so he appears to be telling the truth. It's a cute mechanical way to get an area with rare Pokemon, but considering so much of base Sinnoh is so repetitive, I really felt like they could've just introduced a lot of the Sinnoh-dex's Pokemon they hid in Backlot's garden to actual wild encounters. 

Anyway, I actually did spent a bit of time running around the routes I haven't explored, but... there's just not much that's interesting, honestly. It's just trainers, and with how slow battles are paced in this game, I really don't have much to say here. Next up will be the climax of the game, though, so I hope it'll be a fair bit more fun!

Random Notes:

• There's a skier that talks about 'ghost stories' in the mountains, which I thought is just a clever reference to Froslass... but turns out we actually do meet what I think is a ghost. A friendly ghost! One of the cabins has a woman who speaks slowly and mutters about how not a lot of travelers come her way, and gives me a Spell Tag. Exit and re-enter the cabin, and she's gone! OooOooOO!
• The notorious trainer that will trade you a Haunter for a Medicham is still there, and she still puts an Everstone on her Haunter, with the same line of dialogue saying that she's doing it on purpose to stop her Haunter from changing forms after evolving. Little troll!
• At some point I went shopping in the Veilstone Department Store for TMs...  but decided that the game was easy enough thanks to, again, the level scaling, without me having to also have perfect Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Psychic/Shadow Ball coverage. 
• I do find it charming that half of the Team Galactic employees are grunts yelling about "the world will be purified, space and time will be rewritten before our great leader", typical villainous minion stuff....  while the other half are corporate jokes like "I haven't been promoted despite working for five years, FML". 
• One of the funnier things is the little post-it notes in the Team Galactic office cafeteria, with a lot of notes in the vein of "a healthy meal leads to a healthy life" and then our character sees that the sink is dirty and the fridge is filled with filthy crap. 
• Turns out the epic scene of Cyrus addressing his army of Team Galactic fanatics, and our player witnessing it from the shadows, is another Platinum-exclusive scene. And I'm not saying that Platinum's Cyrus is some kind of masterpiece in writing or anything of the sort, but the extra scenes would definitely have worked to make him feel less like a first draft. 
• I also remembered the Backlot Mansion maids having a little gauntlet battle minigame, but, again, another Platinum addition. 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 5 - Libraries and Bombs

We start off this time in Canalave City, the little lazy port town on Western Sinnoh. I really like the design of Canalave City, it's a city split in half by an opening bridge and a little docking area for the ferries that come into the harbour. First up, though, we've got a battle with our ever-hyper rival Barry, and this is the first time that he's actually a bit of a challenge. Not in this game with its whack level scaling, no, but he now has five Pokemon, has actually evolved his Starly, and he's packing a Heracross in addition to his normal gang of early-game Pokemon.

This is also probably the first time in the game that I buy that he's actually beaten the gym leader of the town. Between Monferno and Heracross, I can almost believe that he beat Byron before me.

Canalave City's got a lot of things to do and see. We've got the Move Deleter, who is useless now that HMs are no longer a thing. We've got the ever-mysterious Harbour Inn, with its faded signs and its tightly shut doors... since we get the Azure Flute in the remake, I assume that the previously Nintendo-event-locked location might actually be something accessible in this playthrough? One can only hope. 

At this point in the game, too, Sailor Eldritch's son is still running around happily and yapping a lot in their home, with Eldritch's wife commenting on how the child is a bit too energetic. Ominous, ironic foreshadowing, anyone? 

My favourite part of Canalave City is, of course, Canalave Library, which has a lot of foreshadowing about the world-building. It's filled with a lot of the Sinnoh Myths, which I remembered spending a lot of time reading and cross-referencing with Pokemon dex entries back when I first discovered Generation IV and V after my hiatus. Lots of fun bits here, and I always love the extra effort the development team spent on making the mythology actually sound like the verbage of real-world mythologies. From the strange, esoteric mentions of how Pokemon decide to join humans from tall grass; or the oft-memed one where 'Pokemon and humans dined at the same table'... to more specific myths like Arceus creating the world with a thousand hands, or the horror stories of how Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit can steal your emotions and memories if interacted with wrongly. Always maintained that the three Lake Guardians would've been a lot more memorable to me if they had actually been more distinctive about their themes instead of just being the same design wearing different hats. 

"Look not into the Pokémon's eyes. In but an instant, you'll have no recollection of who you are. Return home, but how? When there is nothing to remember?

Dare not touch the Pokémon's body. In but three short days, all emotions will drain away.

Above all, above all, harm not the Pokémon. In a scant five days, the offender will grow immobile in entirety."

How much cooler is that than how the Lake Guardians are in the actual gameplay? 

Out of the myths in the game (which I don't have the time to talk about every single one in this let's play) I do think that the one titled simply 'Sinnoh Myth': "Betray not your anger, lest ??? will come. Weep not with sorrow, or ??? will draw near. When joy and enjoyment come natural as the very air, that is happiness. Let such be blessed by the hand of Master ???. Those words were spoken often as customary." is probably the one I'm not sure about. I don't think it's referring to a specific Pokemon that I know of, unless anger and sorrow are more references towards Mesprit? 

Also, in probably one of the more obscure cross-game references is a 'newly decoded' book in the Canalave Library's second floor -- every other interactable book is on the third floor -- which talks about the 'Seaside Hollow', and how a Mantyke, a Buizel and a Qwilfish with longer horns recognized a human and brought them to the Prince of the Sea. I wasn't super active in the online communities, but apparently this brought a lot of discussion about a potential Qwilfish evolution... and the payoff would be Pokemon: Legends Arceus, which takes place in ancient Sinnoh and features Manaphy and the Seaside Hollow, and a Qwilfish evolution at that. Very cool, very 'guide dang it', but it's a nice little fanboy moment. 

Next up is the Canalave Gym, which I think is one of the few gyms to be identical between Diamond/Pearl and Platinum. It's a serviceable little maze, I suppose, with elevators going up and down that I think is meant to resemble a construction zone? Not the most memorable gym puzzle, and to be frank not the most memorable gym in general. My team having two Ground-types (Torterra and Gastrodon) with access to Earthquake and Earth Power, plus a Toxicroak having access to Cross Chop, also really trivializes the gym trainers that the only problem here is PP. All the trainers also almost exclusively use Onix, which isn't even Steel-type. There is a very random trainer with an Azumarill in the gym, and I'm not sure why... but I actually like it? I like it if gyms throw us little curveballs like this. 

Byron himself is... all right. I've always found it funny that he looks like an extra from Fairy Tail or something, particularly with his 'construction worker with a wanderer's cape for some reason' design. Byron tells us that Roark is his son, before challenging me to battle. His team is... all right? His Bronzor starts off with a Trick Room, and then he follows up with Steelix and Bastiodon. Of course, Earthquakes and Earth Powers make his team kind of a joke. Steel honestly isn't anywhere of the defensive bulwark it's supposed to be since Generation II, and the type combination of Steel/Rock and Steel/Ground is a liability more than a strength most of the time. 

Oh, my Skorupi finally evolves into Drapion at this point. I like my giant centaur-scorpion monster! 

After beating Byron, Barry brings me to the library where Professor Rowan and Lucas are there. Rowan has such a minimal presence in the Generation IV games, honestly, that I actually laughed when he talks about 'if you remember, my expertise is Pokemon evolution'. No, professor, you barely have a presence after your initial appearance, and you're so stoic that you don't have any of the goofy quirks that someone like Birch or Elm have. Rowan does give us a well-written speech about the philosophy of evolution, and how it relates to perfection... and if the legendary Pokemon that don't evolve are actually already perfect, if they are already complete as creatures. Interesting theory, professor, but some legendary Pokemon in Alola might disagree with you!

And it's actually a nice little speech that might have some thematic tie-ins with Cyrus's whole desire for a perfect world. It's just that the way that the Generation IV games are written, we get these huge moments of lore-vomit interspaced with long periods of not really meeting the main characters, making it rather difficult for me to be invested in the story the way that the Unova or Alola games grab me. 

Rowan wants us to go and check out the three lakes of Sinnoh, and as the lakes are being doled out (I'm assigned Valor), a huge shaking happens. Which... isn't actually as epic as I thought the remake would make it out to be. 

Everyone rushes out of the library, and I like that the game gives the NPCs some altered dialogue as they react to the massive earthquake. Barry immediately rushes off to Lake Valor, and that's where I'm supposed to go. Professor Rowan and Lucas... just mutters something about not doing anything too un-safe, and bugger off to continue investigating Lake Verity. I guess they don't really care about the huge explosion/earthquake that just happened? Although, not going to lie, completely understandable civilian response. 

But Lake Valor can wait, I'm going to Iron Island first to just rush through a side-quest. And one thing about Iron Island that I can say is that... it's completely boring. It's an okay enough length for a cave-type 'dungeon', but every single Pokemon there are Generation I cave Pokemon -- Onix, Graveler and Golbat -- that aren't even new in this game. Gravelers have been hounding me in all the grass patches around Mt. Coronet! There are items and trainers, I guess, but I just sprayed a ton of repel to go through this. 

Riley's here too, I guess, but he's... he's really got nothing going on to him other than his cool Lucario outfit, yeah? I guess this is supposed to be our big introduction to Generation IV's marketing baby, but Riley's Lucario keeps spamming Screech of all moves. Where are your Aura Spheres, Lucario?

At the end of Iron Island are a couple of Team Galactic members, with the very vague handwave of them 'agitating' Pokemon. Except none of the trainers, or even Riley, explains that this is even a thing that's happening. It would've been a cool little side-quest, but the conflict that Team Galactic is doing anything just feels randomly shoehorned in. It's honestly kind of lame. With Riley giving me the Riolu egg and my bag filled with more loot from Iron Island, I leave and head off to Lake Valor. 

As it was in the original game, Lake Valor is blasted up with all the water completely gone. I'm not sure that's what happens if you detonate a bomb in a lake, but I guess this is a galactic bomb, so what do I know? All the poor Magikarps are just karp-karp-karping all over the place, poor things! A huge school is blocking the upper-left corner, preventing me from exploring all of Lake Valor other than the area directly around Azelf's cave. It is kind of strange that there are ready-made stairs in the lake, though. Anyway, I've always found it cool that even in the Nintendo DS days that they bothered to put in all the effort to temporarily change this location for maybe 20 minutes of gameplay. 15 if you rush through the battles. Meanwhile you've got Sword and Shield who had the massive Dynamax Pokemon rampaging happen completely offscreen. 

And that's what's kind of surprising, for such a cool location you really do breeze through like maybe three grunts that are battling? Not all of them fight me, for sure. Some are just ranting about the power of the Galactic Bomb. In the cave is Commander Saturn, the one with the spiky blue hair, and he gives a bit of a badass boast about how all of Team Galactic's plans are going as they have foreseen and whatnot. The battle against him is rather simple, he sports a Bronzor, Toxicroak and a Kadabra. That's new, I guess, for Team Galactic, even if it's not particularly powerful. After getting beaten, Saturn changes his tune about how 'even' a commander was only briefly delayed. And... yeah, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire really did a great job at giving extra quirks to the Magma and Aqua admins. Actually, HeartGold and SoulSilver did the same as well, giving them models and names. I dunno, even if they didn't quite go as extreme as the ORAS admins, they could've imported some of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn's anime or manga characteristics. Even expanding a bit on their dialogue would've done wonders. 

Saturn and gang somehow escape, because I guess I can't detain them with my Torterra and Gastrodon and Drapion. Despite Saturn and the grunts being quite clear that they've taken the legendary Pokemon to their base in Veilstone, I never bring this up to Rowan or anyone, which really does feel kind of disingenuous, isn't it? By all means, block the path into the Veilstone Galactic HQ until the game wants me to, but at least give an excuse, y'know?

Anyway, I continue to fly off to Lake Verity, which is the second lake that I can access. Rowan is supposed to be fighting a grunt, I think, although just like Generation IV they're just staring at each other. I forge through a bunch of double battles before I finally reach Lucas, who has been beaten by Mars. No double battles here, this isn't Platinum. Mars remembers me from Valley Windworks, gets angry, and fights me again with her team of Golbat, Purugly and Toxicroak. Again... not really a threat, even back in the day when level-scaling wasn't broken. 

Mars then gives a speech about how Azelf being disturbed also ends up causing Mesprit to pop out and try and aid his friend, allowing them to catch Mesprit. Honestly, Team Galactic, with your teams filled with Golbats and Toxicroaks, I am genuinely baffled how you guys are able to catch the Lake Guardians. I guess the grunts with Stunky could do something, but I really felt that the game designers really missed a chance to be thematic here. Heck, a lot of the game script even implies that Team Galactic collects Clefairy for some reason (the kidnapped Clefairy; and some grunts mention getting Clefairies as rewards), that would've been something, y'know? I don't think they really quite 'got' making evil team grunts a bit more interesting until Generation VI, maybe VII. 

Mars leaves, because apparently all of the legendary Pokemon have been transported off-screen. Rowan and Lucas show up and discuss what's going on with the lake guardians, and sends me off to back up Barry in Lake Acuity... all the way up in Snowpoint, which means it's time for another long trek! Which I will do... next time.

Random Notes:

• As I go through the little building outside of Canalave City, one of Rowan's researchers -- who's also Lucas's dad -- shows up and goes on to upgrade my pokedex with the ability to see gender differences, before commenting that my Pokedex actually has already been upgraded. I'm assuming this is something that was an actual upgrade in the original game that they gave us from the get-go in the remakes.
• Who names their child 'Eldritch'? Honestly, maybe it's just my exposure to D&D and the Cthulhu Mythos in general that makes this a common word for me, but it's such an on-the-nose name even for Pokemon. 
  
• Yes, Nintendo/Gamefreak's research to make 'mythology-sounding' material for the Canalave Library was the result of the very unfortunate drafts starring most infamously Typhlosion that was leaked online in the massive Nintendo giga-leak. Which I still haven't covered the prototype Pokemon in. Maybe someday.
• Gastrodon has learned Earth Power, and the animation for Earth Power and the massive lava-encrusted rocks that explode up from the ground is just so cool in this game. 
• Looking at the Platinum trainer line-up, its version of the Canalave gym actually replaces the Onix horde with Magnemites and Bronzors, which makes much more sense for a Steel-type gym. 
• Apparently, the dialogue implies that Barry either forgot he has a Pokedex, or he didn't even receive one at all because he never went back to Rowan? That's actually a totally believable Barry thing to do. 
• Okay, fine, Iron Island is good for catching wild Steelix, which is one of the few times that a trade-evolution Pokemon is available to catch in the wild. But other than that, it's really boring. 

Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 4 - Underground Secrets

Again, there's just a long gauntlet of trainers and exploration to do at this point, which is something that I admit to have missed in a lot of the more recent games with its mentality of 'map space is a valuable asset'. Admittedly, the walk down from Veilstone down to Pastoria is hampered a bit by the fact that there's really not a lot of variety in either wild or trainer Pokemon, something that I think is a bit more pronounced in Diamond & Pearl due to its smaller Pokemon pool compared to how I experienced Sinnoh the first time around, Platinum. 

There are a couple of other stuff on the way which makes this a bit less boring. The Ruin Maniac's Cave is here, and good ol' Ruin Maniac is going on digging through the cave. Turns out last time I was in Solaceon, I was just... completely goofing up and missed the little pathway that led to the eastern side of Solaceon and down into the Unown caves. The Ruin Maniac's Cave expands the more Unown variants I catch, which I thought was a nice way to incorporate the Unown into a sidequest. I've always thought that having all these Pokemon variations -- Unown and Vivillon being the major ones, but there are a lot of others in recent memory -- and not having anyone in-game really acknowledge them in any way is kind of a missed opportunity, so this is nice. Not quite as cool as Legends Arceus and its Unown hunt in the overworld, but this is nice. 

There's technically a fork in the road several times, but Generation IV is quite blatant in its roadblocks. A bunch of scientists associated with Team Galactic (or duped by them, as later dialogue implies) blocks the way to Lake Valor; and there's a blackout in Sunyshore and guards stop me from going there. M'kay. 

I reach the resort area on the southern part of the map, which is a nice bit -- the restaurant with repeatable battles is still here, although I honestly don't think I need to grind with my hideously overleveled team. I've actually been rotating out two members that are overleveled throughout this gauntlet just so I don't overshot the game's original level curve. 

At this point, I decide to explore the Grand Underground a bit more, and it's honestly a nice thing to do mindlessly running around as I listen to a podcast or something. The original Underground is itself kind of a more passive, more 'brainless' gameplay, just running around and excavating things on walls. It's nice, but not the most engaging. So having rooms with overworld Pokemon walking around is really nice. And there are some rooms at the ends, with one having a giant carved Bastiodon statue... I feel a fair chunk of effort went into the environmental backgrounds of these underground chambers, with the lava one looking particularly spiffy. I really just wished they had put this kind of effort in updating and be a bit bolder in changing the overworld. 

They've added a bunch of little mechanics, with NPCs underground that I can talk to -- they don't say anything important, but they count towards the infamously frustrating way of triggering Spiritomb to activate, which was not easy to do in the days of old-school Nintendo DS. I had to talk with the same guy like 40 times or something stupid, disconnecting and reconnecting our DS-es! It's nice. There's also a bunch of Digletts that randomly pop up, filling up a 0/40 meter. Initially I thought the Digletts were the ones that would count towards Spiritomb, but the Digletts are part of a Ultra Space style shiny encounter increase mechanic. Okay! That's neat.

More interestingly, they also use the Grand Underground as a way to make it so much easier to encounter more frustrating Pokemon to encounter. Hippopotas, who IIRC would only spawn in the Ruin Maniac's Cave after a certain amount of Unown has been caught, show up in the Grand Underground. Glameow and Purugly are also here; I remembered them locked off in a post-game area? More importantly, though, Munchlax shows up! Anyone that's tried to catch a Munchlax in the original Nintendo DS games knows what's up, these bastards that only show up on specific honey trees with a 1% chance or something? Yeah. I do like putting some effort into catching my rare Pokemon, but I can admit Munchlax was stupid to get back in the day. 

Anyway, I manage to fill up several more pages of my Pokedex throughout this little sojourn through the Grand Underground as well as the Hearthome-Solaceon-Veilstone-Pastoria run. But out of the dozen or so Pokemon I've captured, I've figured out who I want for my team member, finally rounding up my party to six... Skorupi! I've always loved the little scorpion bugger. Drapion's never been my favourite designs, but it's a cool bug and one that I feel works nicely -- and is a fair bit more of a one-trick pony than my go-to Generation IV bugs Vespiquen and the poor, underpowered Kricketune. 

I enter Pastoria City, which is fine and as laid-back as I remembered it to be. I didn't realize the epic Croagunk photo panel was a Platinum addition, though that's fine. The city itself doesn't really have a whole ton to it, since it's mainly revolving around the Great Marsh. I feel the Grand Marsh itself is mostly the same, and... again, not a whole lot of surprises there. The icky mud traps are still there, the four areas and the telescopes are still there...

I just feel that, again, I sound a bit like a broken record, the Great Marsh kind of sucks in Diamond and Pearl. There are so many Pokemon that repeated from the previous areas, and even super-early-route Pokemon like Starly and Bidoof still show up here. Platinum's Great Marsh introduced a lot of new faces like Yanma and Tangela straight out of the get-go, and right now it's just basically a way for me to go in, catch like a Wooper and a Marill, and get out. With the much longer loading time for a Pokemon encounter in the remakes, it is kind of a miserable experience. 

What I did get, though, was another partner, which means that I can put Jirachi into semi-retirement since I did say I wanted to play with an entirely Generation-IV team... Croagunk! I love the vibe of this frog punk, and I've never actually used a Toxicroak in my team ever. It does mean that once Skorupi evolves into Drapion I'm doubling up on Dark-types, but that's okay. The game honestly does feel really easy.

Which means that my current party is: Torterra, Drifblim, Gastrodon, Croagunk, Skorupi and Crobat; with Jirachi on reserve. Crobat might also join Jirachi in semi-retirement, but I haven't really thought of a Pokemon to swap him out with. 

Pastoria City is also home to the move relearner. The modern games have been great at having the 'level 0' moves be instantly learnt as a Pokemon evolves, like Crobat's Cross Poison, but one thing that remains a delightful move relearner thing? Torterra's Wood Hammer. STAB Double-Edge, baby! 

With that done, I go into Crasher Wake's gym, which has a water-level puzzle. I don't have much to say about the puzzle, I think it's perfectly nicely done, even if it does feel a bit samey with some gyms that rotate around with buttons from the GBA/DS era. It's nice, though. Of course, having a grass starter (and being, y'know, kind of overleveled), Torterra single-handedly swept the gym trainers in the gym. And at least unlike Maylene, Crasher Wake does have a fair amount of trainers!

Crasher Wake himself is.... is okay. Again, I do have an advantage with a grass-type starter, but as the fourth gym leader that comes off a long grinding road, he's only got a Quagsire, Gyarados and a Floatzel, and the only real surprise was an Ice Fang from the Gyarados... but there's really not much to mention here. Wake himself is nowhere as bombastic as his anime or manga counterparts, other than the design being 'surprise, a wrestler!' I feel like I'm nitpicking, though. Pastoria's a perfectly fine gym. 

After that, though, the very suspicious Team Galactic member standing outside the Great Marsh starts acting shifty and suspicious, before he runs off, and this leads us to a rather lame duck-chase as he runs to the entrance of Pastoria, across the beach, and all the way to Lake Valor. He refuses to fight us, which would've been a cute subversion of the Pokemon formula... except he eventually does. So, eh? I felt this could've been a bit more interesting with him having grunt friends to help us out. But he passed off his package, which is totally a fuck-ton of dynamites, to his commander. And the scientists who think Team Galactic is a legit company is still closing off Lake Valor under the name of nebulous research. Honestly, kind of a bit of a letdown of a sequence. 

Oh, right, a Barry rival fight happens at this point. I actually had to look through my notes to realize this, but honestly, while the Monferno is understandable due to remake level scaling issues, his Starly isn't. No, seriously, Blue at least had a Pidgeotto at this point! May had a Pelipper! This is the fourth gym, the mid-point of the game technically, and his party has a Buizel and a Starly, completely unevolved. Yep, Barry, you suck. 

Anyway, in front of the scientists, Cynthia gives me the Secret Potion to solve the Psyduck blockade, which would've felt random if I didn't find Psyducks having a headache so charming. I just really wished that there was more that I did to solve this blockade beyond the pretty champion showing up and tossing the plot device to me. 

Anyway, after I cleared out the Psyduck, Cynthia shows up and immediately gives me another plot coupon, the Old Charm, to take to Celestic Town. The route to get there is foggy, but the HMs are now stored on the Poketch and the fog just... it does end up feeling like a relic of a past game now. It's just a button press to get rid of the annoyance, and Defog is one of those things that you don't actually experience until after you've had the solution, so it isn't even a proper roadblock like Rock Smash or Strength are in this game. Anyway, we get another gauntlet, and I did actually like this part of the game having a bit more variety in its trainers and Pokemon. Some Ninja Boys, a bunch more new Pokemon like Croagunks and Kadabras show up...

(My own Croagunk evolved into Toxicroak at this point, which I've always found to be cool with the wrist-spikes). 

Anyway, I arrive in Celestic Town. It's much smaller and a lot less grandiose than the incarnation we saw in Legends: Arceus, but that game honestly does such a great job at expanding the Sinnoh mythos to actually feel like the epic storyline crafted by these background NPCs. And there always a lot of great bits strewn around even this original Diamond/Pearl script, with the talk about Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit... I just don't necessarily think the original game was that good in spotlighting the three fairy guardians in general. Both the anime and manga, with their respective three main characters, were a lot better in this regard. 

Anyway, an 'angry spaceman' is ranting in front of the Celestic Town Shrine, which is made up of murals of Dialga and Palkia; and a drawing of the three Lake Guardians around a red stone in its middle. I come down and beat up the Galactic Grunt, who buggers off and mutters about the 'Galactic Bomb'. Cynthia's Grandmother gives some background about the Lake Guardian origins, before Cyrus finally shows up and gives a whole spiel about us having to look at the world from a much wider scale, and that for a new world to be born, some destruction must happen. Yep, yep, obvious villain right here!

Anyway, I beat up the trainers West of Celestic Town, but the part of Mt. Coronet that it connects to is blocked by Strength. Meanwhile, Cynthia's Grandmother advises me to go to Canalave Town, but I need to get Surf to go there... which is an excuse to go back to Hearthome and fight Fantina! ...and it is a detour that feels rather arbitrary, since there's absolutely no story at all in Hearthome at this point. Nothing about Team Galactic, nothing about Cynthia, nothing even about Barry. It's no wonder that Platinum, again, just ripped off the band-aid and had Fantina be the third gym instead the moment you enter Hearthome. It really does feel like they wanted a 'the Viridian/Petalburg Gym is here, but it's not open yet!' moment but there's no real satisfying reason for Fantina to delay our gym battle other than a shrug. She is a diva enough to do it, yeah, but the Fantina we see at the gym has so little dialogue it doesn't really matter.

It's also the first time I've seen the Diamond/Pearl version of the Hearthome Gym. And... I know I'm a huge proponent of Platinum, but while Platinum's Hearthome revamp isn't the best (it's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with flashlights, I think), the original one is just straight-up bad. It's a Cinnabar Island style 'quiz room' gauntlet, except with mathematics instead of something actually on-brand for Pokemon... or even for Fantina! She's a dancing ghost-lady whose whole point is that she's a diva that loves Pokemon Contests. You're telling me that her idea of a gym is... a maths quiz? Hello? 

Fantina herself is a bit more formidable than the pushover Maylene and Wake, though I also think that's because I burned the PP on some of my Pokemon through her trainers, and all the Drifloons have Aftermath. Fantina has a Drifblim, Gengar and Mismagius, and the first two do aim to cripple my party with Confuse Rays and Will-o-the-Wisps. I did lose my own Drifblim due to stubbornness in trying to fight ghosts with ghosts, but that's okay. 

With Fantina done and five badges under the belt, time to go to the Western side of Sinnoh next in Canalave, which we'll get to... next time! 

Random Notes:

• Tinkering around with the different walking Pokemon, I find out that good ol' Torterra, very naturally, is... extremely slow. As befits a giant tortoise that's carrying a bonsai garden on his back. 
  
• Diglett being part of the Grand Underground makes absolute sense, although I find it funny since Diglett was never part of the Diamond/Pearl dex. Not even the Platinum one! 
• Crasher Wake's outfit is based on Swampert. Those fins on his head, the colours, and most importantly the black 'muscle' things on his pants. Swampert does not appear in Diamond and Pearl, but Swampert is also one of my favourite Pokemon, like, ever. Have I never realized this about Crasher Wake? Huh! 
• I also hatched the egg from Hearthome, which is a Happiny. Did I remember the identity of the egg? I think I wasn't sure if it was a Togepi or not. 
• I did have some fun with my Gastrodon's Storm Drain ability in the Pastoria gym, tossing Gastrodon into battle to absorb Water-type moves and then annihilating the enemy with Ancient Power. 
• Defog and Fly are done by a Straraptor, but everything else is done by good ol' Bidoof and Bibarel, everyone's favourite HM Slaves. 
• I do appreciate basically every single one of the trainers under Fantina's employ lampshading how easy the questions are and how I'm definitely going into the wrong rooms to fight them. Not that I need the extra experience points, but the money is nice.