Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke–Part 1

Last time I laid down THE LAW. The Nuzlocke Law.

As a callback to Generation I, I start my adventure as a young trainer named… I’m a boy, god dammit! Freakin’ hell, Birch. I start my adventure as a young trainer named Red. Apologies in advance. Forgot to take screencaps of the first couple hours of gameplay. Whoops.

So the day starts in the back… of… a van. Right. So mom lets me out of the moving van and I take a tour of the new house, making sure to set the clock. Apparently we’re family friends with this region’s PKMN PROF. So I should see him. To the lab!

I’m told the professor is out doing fieldwork. Fieldwork is then explained to me, in case I didn’t know what it was (HINT: I did). For some reason I then walked into his house and was told, by his wife, to go upstairs into their daughter’s room. SCORE. I think she said something about going to help her dad… I really don’t remember. Whatever she said, I end up going to the tall grass, where the wild Pokemon are. And there, Professor Birch is being chase by a level 2 Zigzagoon. Really? REALLY, Birch?

So I grab a Pokemon from his bag and use it to kick the crap out of saiz Zigzagoon. Now, I mentioned that I randomized the ROM. So my three choices for a starter could have been ANYONE. They ended up being Metang, Camerupt, and Sneasel. I opted for Sneasel and named it Fullmetal. After taking out my first wild Pokemon, Birch tells me to follow him back to the lab. Creeper.

TO BE CONTINUED

Nuzlocke!

So. As I said in my last post, I’ve started a Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke Challenge. Just what is a Nuzlocke Challenge, you may ask? Well I’m gonna tell you! Whether you want me to or not.

Nuzlocke Rules:

The Nuzlocke Challenge, in short, is a set of rules imposed by the player in any Pokemon game, designed to make the game more challenging.

1. When a Pokemon faints, it is DEAD. Dead. It must be released or permanently boxed in the PC.

2. All Pokemon MUST be nicknamed. This is technically an optional rule, but one that everyone follows, as it creates more of a bond between you and your Pokemon, thus making it more painful when one of them dies.

3. You can only catch the first Pokemon you encounter in any area. IF you accidentally knock it out, you CANNOT catch a Pokemon in that route.

I will be playing with the dupes clause. This means that if the first Pokemon I run into in an area is one I’ve already caught, I do not have to catch it and can look for a new one. Example: I catch a Rattata on Route 1. Yes I know that’s Gen I and I’m playing Gen III but whatever. So then on Route 2 the first Pokemon I run into happens to be a Rattata. That does NOT count as my encounter for Route 2. I can keep looking until I find one I have not previously caught.

These are the most basic rules, which I will be playing with. There are other rules which can make it even more difficult, such as limiting the sue of Pokemon Centers or even completely disallowing the use of them, forcing you to rely on Potions, Ethers, Full Heals, etc. for recovery.

Now, to make things even more interesting (I know, almost too much to handle) , I went ahead and randomized my ROM. So I have no idea what starters I will be able to choose from, or even what wild Pokemon I’ll be able to find.

So there’s the basics of it. Stay tuned for the first installment of the adventure!

Epic Return

So Hurricane (aka Super Storm) Sandy had me out of power for about a week and in the time immediately following… Well I just didn’t have the time, energy, or desire to do anything on here. I haven't even played Pokemon Yellow at all since the first post about that. I have, however, started another Pokemon adventure which I think will be interesting enough to hold my attention… more on that later.

So the NHL is back! I will therefore be fulfilling my duties as a Devils General, you can follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook. Do it. All… what like three of you that will read this? The Devils open up the season against the Islanders on Saturday the 19th so that’s definitely on my list of things to look forward to.

Other than that… Not a whole lot going on. I’ll have a post, maybe tomorrow with the start of my new Pokemon adventure. The Randomized Emerald Nuzlocke Challenge! Let me preface that by saying I have never done a Nuzlocke, nor have I ever played a Generation III game to completion. So this… should be interesting. Even more so because I’ve randomized the ROM. Surprises everywhere! And if you don’t know what a Nuzlocke is, I’ll explain in the first post about it. We’ll just say that it’s a set of rules enforced by the player to increase the difficulty of the game.

So anyway… Until next time!

Temporarily Down

Being in New Jersey, power and internet is now hard to come by. Not that anyone is actually reading this (?) but just in case… I’ll be down for a bit while I remain out of power.

New games during the lockout…

So I went ahead and picked up Pokemon Black 2. Not like I have schoolwork to focus on or anything. But I figured I had some money to play with in the form of MLB 12. No desire to play baseball after the Yankees abysmal non-showing in the ALCS.I had to choose between that and Dishonored. And given the price points… well I am in college. So $40 DS game it is!

I’m about five hours in and obsessed. This is what a Pokemon game should be. I love the redesigned battle menu (and the menu in general) not to mention the revamped Pokémon availabilities (Riolu was the second Pokemon I caught. Hells to the yes). As it stands now I am all set to take on the second gym and I’m not looking back.

They’ve also added some pretty cool online features, such as the Funfest missions in the Entralink. Good time-wasting diversion. You can also link up your Black or White save file to open up little cutscenes to show what happened between the two games. Also random NPCs will refer to “the hero who saved Unova” using your name from the original file. It’s like you’re Gold and SIlver’s Red.

Again, I’m only five hours in, but I have nothing but praise so far. Will continue to update as the time counter ticks up and up and up (I put over a hundred hours in on the original Black and White games… Three of them).

Also a couple thoughts on a console game, Dishonored. I rented it from Redbox and hoo boy. Did NOT want to return that one. Sadly, I only ended up a few hours in before letting it go. I’m definitely intrigued by the magic system, notably the ability to summon vicious swarms of rats, but that will have to wait until I can afford to actually buy the game.

And finally, some news on LOCKOUT: 2012 (pay-per-view). According to various sources (laziness will not link them just yet) Kovalchuk apparently wants to stay in the KHL if the new CBA includes salary cuts. He’s not the only one. While in Kovy’s case it’s almost comical, considering the details of his contract, I really can’t blame him. He signed on to make a certain amount of money and that’s what he should be making.

Anyways, hopefully this all gets sorted out in time for some hockey. And for us Devils fans, hopefully we can see Kovalchuk and Volchenkov (the latter of whom broke a bone in his foot playing in Russia)

Pokemon Yellow Adventures - Part 1

SO. This will hopefully be my first regularly scheduled series posting-type thing. As I mentioned in my intro post I am a video game nut. It started way back when with Donkey Kong Country and has just grown from there. One of my greatest loves (if not THE greatest) in the world of gaming is the Pokemon series. This was my childhood and to this day, 23 years old and in college, I still play the games, old and new. So I decided to chronicle and adventure through one of the classics… Pokemon Yellow.
I opted for Yellow because this was the first game whose release I had to countdown to on a calendar. I could not wait for this one to come out after pouring hours of my life into Red and Blue. Plus I already have a Blue file running and I didn’t want to have to start that over, so there you go.
Now I will be playing this one on an emulator as it is going to be significantly easier to screenshot special moments for the blog. This does mean, however, that I will not be able to trade any Pokemon, which rules out the use of certain monsters, such as Gengar, who can only evolve from Haunter after being traded. So we’ll go elsewhere to fill that void.
This won’t be a special playthrough. No Nuzlocke Challenge or anything like that. Just a basic, run-of-the-mill Pokemon Yellow run. I may, however, go out of my way to use the three Gen 1 starters, as you can acquire them all by the time you get the third badge. But the call to use better Pokemon may be too great (damn you and your shiny jewels, Starmie).
So anyway. I present to you, with not a moment to spare, fullmetal2405’s Pokemon Yellow Adventure-ish Thingy!



So we begin by listening to this old windbag babbling on about Pokemon. Some people use them as pets! Did you know that? What? You did? Okay well some people use them for fighting, too!

Now he needs to know my name. Pushy. So I think for this playthrough it is only right to use my name. Back in the day I would have just used Ash because I totally wanted to be him. But now that I’m older, I’m okay with just being myself. So Tim is it.
Now this is where Oak goes Alzheimer’s on us. He can’t remember his grandson’s name. His grandson, of course is the main antagonist in the series. Games and anime. A ruthlessly competitive braggart who always seems to be one step ahead of you. There can be only one name for such a diabolic, douche of a child.

So we find ourselves in our room. Well, my room. Our hero’s room. I haven’t decided what perspective I’m using yet, stfu.
Regardless of whose room it is, there is an SNES in there. Sweet. After collecting the arbitrary potion from the PC, we go downstairs were our mother doesn’t seem too concerned that her ten year old son is leaving home. Or is he eleven? I can never remember.
So off we go into the wild! Or not. Because there’s Professor Oldfart Oak running along behind us to tell us how dangerous it is to go into the grass without a Pokemon. And then, as if it was coded to do so, a Pikachu appears! Holy shit I thought you couldn’t get those until Viridian Forest! Holyshitholyshitholyshitcatchit! Unfortunately, Oak has no Pokemon with him. But he just-… Never mind. So he instead throws a Poke Ball at a full-health level 5 Pikachu. Bam. Caught. Makes sense.
Back at his lab, we learn that he intended on giving us a Pokemon anyway and it just so happens to be right there on his table. But his grandson needs to be patient so he can wait. Finally. After years of waiting. You. Me. I. We. We are about to become a Pokemon trainer and join the ranks of the Elite. The Elite Four… Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha and Lance. This is how they started, too. One measly, low-level Pokemon. A new friend. A partner. The journey begins.

Oh, you DOUCHEBAG.

To Be Continued…

Also, keep an eye out for another video-game-centric post. ust picked up Pokemon Black 2 and will have some thoughts, as well as a word or two about Dishonored

Why Hello There

And so it begins. I’ve never really gotten into the whole blogging thing but figure I should give it a shot.

Aside from being a video game nut I am also a fairly crazy sports fan, bleeding two different shades of blue (Yankees and Giants) as well as the standard red (Devils). Of late I’ve been getting into the social media mediums fairly heavily which ha sled to my joining the Devils Army Generals, so you’ll see a lot of that stuff on my Twitter.

Not really sure what I’ll use this thing for, probably just voicing random opinions/musings/complaints as the sports seasons progress (or don’t in the case of the NHL) as well as updates/thoughts/reviews on various video game playthroughs of mine. Also, I’m a full-time college student, so if I struggle to find a blogging schedule early on… well that’s why.

So anyway… Here I am.