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!