Intermission

So, I know I haven't posted a blog in over a month now, and for that I am extremely sorry! Then again, it is Christmas time. And with that being said, also mentioning that I just finished exams and am now being thrown into the situation of helping relatives prepare for Christmas, I still don't have a ready blog to post yet.
I'll be posting on Christmas Day, however, I promise! I have a new chapter almost ready by then, and soon after that, probably that Friday, I'll be posting another Pokemon White 2 blog, so keep an eye out for those two posts soon!
I'd also like to mention that my boyfriend is visiting me on the 29th, so I'll have one more period of no posts during the week that he's here, then I'll be back on schedule like usual. I promise. ; w ;

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far!
- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Grumblings

Laziness cupcake

Warning: This blog post may or may not contain spoilers. Just to be on the safe side...

So why did I draw a cupcake instead of my team? Well...let me be honest...I had one, but I'm finding that I really don't enjoy drawing Lucario. Besides, the cupcake is of Litwick, my newest team member, so be happy! It's cute!

Luz (Litwick) ♀ - 35
Cesar (Serperior) ♂ - 37
Eris (Krokorok) ♀ - 37
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 37
Corro (Crobat) ♂ - 37

Alright...I decided, since honestly, the game's been running pretty much exactly how B/W ran, I'm going to spend today talking about a few things I dislike about this game...and this generation as a whole.

1. Difficulty

Now this, kids, is MATH.

A friend of mine gave me Pokemon Red the other week, and though I have played multiple times through Blue and Yellow, I decided to give it a play-through, mainly to see what was different about the variety types. Every time I go back to these older games, I remember how freaking DIFFICULT they could be at times. I mean, yeah, you had the simple formula of catching good Pokemon, leveling them up until they could stand a chance against trainers and the gym leader, but in those days, you didn't have fancy movesets, abilities, natures, characteristics - all that nonsense. You learned...maybe 12 or so moves in the ENTIRETY of your Pokemon's existence, unless you wanted to use a TM on it. When you finally got  Pokemon who used Hyper Beam, Thunder, or Earthquake, you were God.

Now everything's all fancy. Now, don't get me wrong - the characteristics and natures and whatnot are cool additional aspects to the game. It gives more complexity to your Pokemon. Not every Pikachu has the same exact stats anymore. Zigzagoon use pickup to get you cool items, Sandile and their evolutions get an attack boost every time they knock out an opponent; it's awesome! But there are other aspects that kind of annoy me now.
For instance. Remember how when you got a Pokemon on your team poisoned, you hightailed it back to the Pokemon Center and healed it up before it fainted? I do, too. Remember how in Pokemon HeartGold, your Pokemon would somehow magically heal from its poison a point away from fainting? Yeah, that was kind of annoying. Well, I got a team member poisoned for the first time in this game, my Flaaffy, actually (I was leveling it up). Well, I start heading back toward the Pokemon Center, when I noticed something. There was no flash on the screen, no bleeping sound telling me that an HP had just left my poisoned Pokemon. That just makes me sad. I want it back! I want my challenge back!

2. Technical Machines

Speaking of TMs, this frustrated me a little when I started playing Black. Normally, when you would pick up a TM on the side of the road, you would often either sell it if you knew you weren't ever going to use it, or you'd keep it for a special occasion, for when you got the right Pokemon to use it on. You'd then carefully chose which Pokemon you'd give it to, and the TM was gone. Well, as you probably have guessed, you get to keep all the TMs you pick up. Now, I know this has its good side as well, but I'm going to go back to the difficulty aspect on this. I think that letting you reuse TMs over and over takes away from the special feeling you got when you picked up one you really wanted to use on your team. For example, Thunderbolt (TM24), Flamethrower (TM35), and Ice Beam (TM13) were three of the most sought after moves, for me. They were raw, and powerful, and usually difficult to obtain. And after I would get them I would usually keep them until I found the right Pokemon to use them on. Now, whenever I get them, I can just throw them all out on anyone that's compatible and not give it a second thought. It takes away from the special feeling you get when you find a TM.

3. Freaking...Hugh

I just don't like this guy. He's melodramatic; he's excessively Sasuke-esque; he's easy as nonsense to beat in battle...I mean, at least Cheren and Bianca provided a challenge, in that they popped up to battle in the absolute LEAST opportune places, particularly in ones where I hadn't healed up my team. I'm sorry, guy. I wanna like you. Maybe you'll grow on me later.

Sorry for the ranty blog post. Hopefully I'll have more productive things to say next post.

- Churl

Pokemon W2 - I luff this game~

Dis my pic. Click to make big n' stuff. 

WARNING: This blog post will, *most likely*, contain spoilers. 

Before I go any farther, please lemme remind you about how dissatisfied I am about the variety of wild Pokemon you experience in this game, at least toward the beginning. I need a water-tyyyyyyype! ; A ; Alright, done. 

Midnight (Zorua) ♂ - 25 
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 30 
Eris (Krokorok) ♀ - 30 
Cesar (Servine) ♂ - 31 
Corro (Golbat) ♂ - 31 

Okay, real talk. I'm not personally a fan of Pidove and his evolutions because...well, just meh. He's a little boring. But I kinda want a flying-type, and I know that they had Zubat in the sewers of Castelia City, so broke down and got a Zubat, because frankly, Crobat is one of my favorites. Also...I have a Zorua now. I'm in Driftveil City at this point, and you get a Zorua droppe off on you when you get there. He's cute, and he has pretty decent stats, but I'm not sure...I already have a dark-type Pokemon on my team, so I'll just have to see what happens with him. I'll train him for a while, at least. But anyway...

Alright...this pleases me. As I'm slowly plowing my way through the game and finding out new things, I'm finally beginning to realize that the gym themes are more various now. I mentioned in my last blog post about the ambient bug-like music in Castelia's gym, and I experienced the same thing when I got to Nimbasa. I PROMISE I won't post about every gym's music, but this really excites me, considering I had grown almost more-than-used to the generic gym theme whenever you enter a gym. But anyway, back to Nimbasa. If you played B/W, you remember that Elesa, Nimbasa'a gym leader, is a fashion model. In B/W, you challenged her in an amusement park. In this sequel, they changed things up a bit. You can still access the theme park, but now you get to challenge Elesa on a freaking RUNWAY. Like, a catwalk runway. This music here is what you hear when you've beaten all the trainers and have only her to defeat. It is SO cool. No lie.

But yeah. I'm in Driftveil City, now, and it is the hosting spot of your Pokemon Tournaments. Now, I realize that this aspect of the sequel was well-advertised before it even came out in Japan, but I never thought that you'd get to experience it so early on in the game. I thought it would be an extra for after you beat the main storyline. but nope, it's PART of the storyline. It's enjoyable, albeit a bit stressful at times. Mainly because the first match you have is against your rival, and he has a Tranquill that knows Roost. I'm sorry, but that is BITCH MOVE. Otherwise, you get Battle Points to redeem, and it's a cute idea to help plan battle strategies.

M'sorry for the abrupt edit. I'm a silly person who doesn't do her research enough.
- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Creepy Crawlies

Picture es small. Click to make big.
WARNING - This blog post WILL contain spoilers.

So, I've done a bit of changing around with my team. Here's who we have now.

Cesar (Servine) ♂ - 20

Maverick (Darumaka) ♂ - 20
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 21

Eris (Sandile) ♀ - 22

Maverick is a bit of a...guest team member for now. Mainly because I'm not the fondest of his stats and would prefer a different fire-type, but I'm not in the best shape, currently being in the Castelia City gym, filled with bug-types. I also released Ross. He won't hold up well in the next few gyms, if my predictions of where I'll be headed next are true. But yeah, I'm in Castelia City now, and am looking for Team Plasma with Hugh.
Oh, by the way, this is Hugh:

Instead of Cheren and Bianca being your companions in this one, since it's two years from the prequel, you get this little twirp. He means well, but JESUS CHRIST, he's like a Sasuke for Pokemon. Don't get me wrong, he does mean well, cares about his Pokemon and whatnot, but he's a little churlish! (Neheh...churl-ish.) Regardless...back to Castelia City.

M'kay...this is more of a personal issue than anything else, but people who know me - my boyfriend, my parents, my close friends - will all tell you that I'm not at all fond of bugs. By bugs, I mean insects, spiders, crayfish, (except Corphish...Corphish is adorable) and everything related to creepy creatures. Over the years of playing Pokemon, I've become okay with them being around. You have the occasional gym and whatnot that'll be host to Bug-Type Pokemon and I've been just fine. Well...y'know how Burgh's Bug-Type gym was all art and honey? Oh no...it's not pretty and gooey anymore. It's THIS:

Pardon the quality...

You stand in front of these cocoon sort of things and they SUCK YOU UP and DRAG YOUR BODY down a thin tube to another part of the gym so you can eventually get to burgh, hiding up top in a creepy sort of rainbow art room. Go look it up. Not only does this new gym design resemble an actual hive, but listen to this background music! ; n ;

No me gusta. That is all.
Sorry this post was a bit longer than usual. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game thus far, though. <3

- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Pretty Graaaaphiiics~

Das my picture. Please don't steal it. I like it. ; n ;

WARNING - The following blog post may contain spoilers.

I'm not gonna lie, guys, I was relatively surprised at this game. I mean, I've never played an actually sequel to a Pokemon game. Yes, Pokemon Coliseum had a sequel, but it didn't necessarily have a 2 beside it. But I digress. Say hello to my new team. <3

Cesar (Snivy) ♂ - LV 16

Luke (Riolu) ♂ - LV 18
Ross (Flaaffy) ♂ - LV 18

Lemme get this out of the way, first. I love the variety the game gives you this early in the game. I have a freaking FLAAFFY and RIOLU. I really can't complain too much. I look forward to some more variety later on in the game, but for right now, I'm stoked with the team I was able to scrounge together. I had a Purrloin named Coya at the very beginning, but I can't deny, after I started seeing Mareep and Riolu, I knew I would end up having to make some difficult decisions with making my team.

Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied so far with the gameplay. Not only have they shifted the story line for the game, but they've improved a bit on the graphics of the game. They're mainly small little things, but they've added some touching animation to the game. For one, your battlefield is more animated! What I mean by that is, well, blades of grass move when you're in battle on a grassy field. Plus, all of your opponents have animations as well. I had noticed that a little bit in some of the previews, but I never imagined that they'd let your Youngsters and Lasses have their own animation at the beginning of battle, too. Like I said, small stuff, but they make a difference, to me. If you have a copy, see how many little details you can pick up on. 

Another difference I noticed is that you have a bigger map of Unova to explore. Your character starts out the journey not from Nuvema Town, which you see at the very bottom right of the map, but in Aspertia Town, at the very bottom left of the map. I find this to be rather interesting, because you still have only 8 gym badges to collect, to my knowledge. Three of your gyms are new, and this makes me wonder if you get to interact with the other gym leaders in the game.

I'm not exactly far in the game, but I've beaten past the first gym, which happens to be your good pal Cheren, who is now a Normal-type gym leader. And yes, Team Plasma makes a comeback; I'll make mention of them later on in this little tutorial. So that's that, a little summary of how things are running thus far.

By the way, I PROMISE that I'll have a new chapter up for Glitchy Red Retold. I just recently got a small break and I'm working on it as we speak. 

OMG YES PLEASE

Do you see this? Here, look - I'll show you:

This is a box. For the new freaking Pokemon game. I bought Black for the previous one, so I figured, why not get the opposite for the sequel? So yes, I now have in my possession the game of Pokemon White 2.

I'm gonna do something fun with this. Remember back in the day when I used to do semi-walkthroughs of different games? I think I'll do one for this game, too, only this time, I'll be a first-timer.

...And this is where I grow sad inside. You see, it is midterm week, and I have much to finish and turn in before Wednesday, when I'll finally be in my fall break. I may play a few minutes here or there between now and Wednesday, but I won't have anything to post most likely until this weekend, so be patient, and I'll whip up a nice blog sequence for White 2. <3

Also, I know I've been neglecting my story remake of Glitchy Red. Have no fear, though. I promise you - no, I pinkie promise you, I'll have a new chapter up by this weekend as well. Hope you'll like it. :D

-Churl

9 Reasons Why Johto is my Favorite Gen.

Everyone who's ever immersed themselves in a few Pokemon games will tell you that they have a preference for a specific generation, usually with reasons to back them up...usually. Most of the time, the winning candidate will be the original Pokemon Red, Blue and (in Japan) Green, with Yellow on the side. Though I will definitely agree that the simplicity of these GameBoy games are unmatched in some aspects, I truly cannot deny that I enjoyed playing Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal far more, and here's why...in no particular order.

9 - Timing

(Behold, my childhood in a closet.) Anyway, Pokemon Gold and Silver came out mid-to-late 2000. I, at the time, had recently turned 7-years-old, just about the time for my vocabulary to sprout its wings and allow me to actually play video games without my mother reading everything to me. Silver, which I had chosen, was not my first Pokemon game - Blue was. The only problem is that when the very first Pokemon came out in 1998, I wasn't familiar with how to read. My mother taught me how to read through video games, to a certain point; she would sit me on her lap and let me hold the GameBoy, but would read to me whatever people said to Red in the older generations, so now that I was old enough to comprehend what people were saying for myself, that made the experience twice as memorable. I'm sure you've all experienced something like this, you gamers since childhood.

8 - Graphics

I've lightly mentioned this in a previous blog post about Pokemon graphics, but when I played the very first Pokemon games, the sprites tended to freak me out, until Pokemon Yellow sort of fixed that. Still, the grave images of...Golbat (shudder) and some others were branded into my memory. Pokemon Silver helped me believe in cute little pocket monsters again. I won't go into too much detail, but I thought they looked far nicer, and polished, particularly the newer additions, with these sorts of graphics. Not only that, but when I picked up Crystal the next year, I was amazed in a childish sort of way at the little animations they had added to all the Pokemon. It truly gave you the desire to "Catch 'em All."

7 - Rival Silver

Alright, I have a confession to make...I thought Rival Blue was awesome. He was a good rival in the first game, and though he didn't often provide too much of a challenge, he always popped up in places where you never expected him too, especially when you hadn't healed your team...

...What? This is about Silver, not Blue? Ah, really? That's interesting...what? Noooo, I never had a crush on Silver when I was younger, why would you say that? He's a redhead? Yeah, I know, but what difference does that  make? He was an abusive and self-centered trainer, and though he had a beautiful change of heart later on and spoke to you like an angel whenever you'd run into him...NO. I NEVER HAD A CRUSH ON HIM. NEVER. I DENY THAT STATEMENT.

6 - Exploring Two Worlds

It honestly took me a while to plow through all the gym leaders so I could take on the Elite 4 and eventually beat the game. But after that, I figured that I would simply pass on to the next Pokemon game like it was nothing, just like what happened in Pokemon Blue. When I did defeat Lance and get the Pokemon Champion title, however, something interesting happened. I got a call from Prof. Elm and he shipped me off to Kanto. And at first I was like "Psh, yeah right." They were serious. It hadn't been that long after the first game that I did beat Silver, but it was almost like nostalgia to me, and it most certainly is now that I've played through HeartGold to pass on to Kanto. Though everyone somehow knows you're from the foreign region, you still get to take these more advanced trainers on and beat through the Kanto gym leaders, which I thought was an excellent layer of icing on the Silver cake.

5 - Shinies 

I'm not gonna lie - I played through Silver and Crystal quite a few times, and throughout those times, I did indeed hear people say things about some Pokemon being different. When you encountered the Red Gyarados in the Lake of Rage, it never occurred to me too much that it was a shiny. At the time I didn't have internet access to tell me what a shiny was, so I just thought it was a weird Gyarados, whatever. Then one day as I was playing Crystal I was breeding Eevee with my Ditto, and had like, 10 eggs. (I like Eevee, okay?) Then one hatched, and I noticed something different about it. It was a lot grayer than usual. Little did my small mind know that I had hatched one of the rarest shinies to grace Pokemon. I raised it to be an Espeon and nicknamed it Essence, and soon afterward...I erased my game. After I realized what I had done, I was almost heartbroken. These two shinies (Stantler and Tentacruel) are the only remaining ones I've caught on record, both on HeartGold. Thus, I will never again erase my HeartGold data...I'll just go pick up SoulSilver one day. ; w ;

4 - Berries

I honestly don't have too much to say about the Berries in G/S/C, because they weren't as advanced a system as they were in the next generation. Berries came in like...well, Berries, and status cure Berries. Very simple, eh? Well, when I was younger, this provided me with some sort of Animal Crossing effect - Berries grew once a day, since time had now been installed in the games, so I HAD to check the trees every single day so I would have all the berries. I dunno what was wrong with me at the time, but I spent a lot of time whilst playing through the games making sure I had all the berries I could ever need.

3 - Team Rocket

I initially didn't think much of Team Rocket in Pokemon Blue. I knew they were there, and I knew they were always causing trouble, but I really didn't display any emotion over whether or not they existed. Sure, they provided something to level-grind with, but that was just about it. Then they returned...3 years later, in G/S/C. I guess the return effect was what got me when you came across them in this generation. They had relatively the same Pokemon, but there was something different about them. Maybe it was the debut of your enemy's theme music? Yup, you got an epic battle theme when you ran into these guys. It pretty epic, too. Go look it up. Regardless, with their abrupt return and new look, they gave me another reason to be excite about playing this game.

2 - Breeding

Ah, what fond memories I had when I was younger, putting together two helpless Pokemon and pacing baaack and forth and baaack and forth on my bike between Goldenrod City and Route 34 in an effort that I would get an egg. It was usually just my Eevee and a Ditto, though, because my parents were too cheap to get me a strategy guide for a silly GameBoy Color game, so that's all I knew about. It was also an interesting epiphany that I had when I finally realized how the eggs randomly kept popping up at the Daycare center...Skitty/Wailord much?

1 - Overall Feel

I really dunno what it is about Pokemon Silver and Gold. Is it the concept of day and night that you experience when you decide to stay up past your bedtime under the blankets? Is it music style? Is it the plot difference? Or maybe the concept of Pokemon happiness? I really dunno. But it has my favorite starter of all time (Cyndaquil) along with your first debut for a female protagonist. Though I will never forgive GameFreak for replacing Kris with that bish Lyra in HeartGold/SoulSilver as your female character, I have very fond memories of playing this game, memories that I will share with my children when they learn to read. Video games are timeless, particularly Pokemon games, and I know that I will never forget this generation.

Sorry for the extremely long post, but I hoped you like my insight. <3