All the Pokemens

[Aura]

Hippowdon Temple (Exterior)

Last time, we made it to Hippowdon Temple and used Hippowdon's Sand Fill to open the way to the temple proper! Now it's time to go inside and see if we can't find our way to the Yellow Gem!

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Mission 14: Get the Yellow Gem!

YouTube Thumbnail from LuckySevenDx

Once again, neither the Bulbapedia or Serebii offer a good image of this location, but I was able to find a good screenshot from a YouTube Thumbnail! This sort of thing is quite baffling to me, but whatever. As soon as we enter the Temple, we receive a voicemail from "Keith" yet again, this time scolding us for not having gotten to the yellow gem yet and accusing us of not being a very good friend.

Inside the temple, we're met with a long hallway with moving sand on either side. If we stand on the moving sand, it'll carry us with it. Essentially, they're underwater currents but on land. Simple enough, right?

Marching on forward, you're met by a Golem which will try to ram you and damage your styler in the overworld. Approach carefully to capture it! Golem is fairly standard. He'll attack with Rock Throw and Earthquake, tearing the ground in an X-Shape around him. Charge up your styler when you're not comfortable looping him and go at it! Golem provides a Rock Assist and Crush Lv. 4.

  

As you proceed forward, you'll pass three more Golem for a total of four you can bring with you if you want.

At the end of the path, you'll find Keith's partner, Buizel, who beckons you to follow him. He must really be in danger!

We follow Buizel into the next room which is a long horizontal hallway. As we enter, an Ariados will drop from the ceiling. Ariados is a bit annoying as it'll create Spider Webs at its feet as it wanders around. Although it isn't very aggressive and doesn't seem to use Poison Sting like you might expect, the Spider Webs are surprisingly large and difficult to avoid. You might want to pull out some Poke Assists for this one. Those Golem should be able to help with that. Ariados provides a Bug Assist and Tackle Lv. 3.

Passing through the hallway, you'll notice several Bronzor embedded in the wall. They'll hop out at you as you pass through. Bronzor is a very simple capture, it attacks with Gyro Ball and teleports around occasionally. Gyro Ball is a very slow-moving projectile, so you should be able to avoid it easily while capturing Bronzor fairly quickly. Bronzor offers a Steel Assist and Crush Lv. 1.

  

Once again, there are three more Bronzor that'll ambush you along the hallway. That's four Steel Assists for your use, too.

At the other end of the hallway, there's a Magneton at a fork leading North or South.

 

Taking the south exit will lead you to a dead end with two Skorupi inside.

Heading up north, you'll find a really annoying room filled with moving sand and canons firing giant balls of sand. The sand can carry you into pits and the balls damage you and can knock you into the pits as well. Falling into the pits will drop you into the dead south of the room, though, meaning you can capture that Magneton on the way back for easy healing again. This room is entirely focused on your skill with navigating your character and I found it to be incredibly annoying due to the surprisingly precise timing you need to dodge these sand canons. Be quick and also pay careful attention to where you go. There are points where you have to run quickly across moving sand without falling into the pits they try to push you into. Pay close attention tot he map and where you can stand safely and be patient! Some of these canons are placed quite rudely and some fire faster than others causing them to get out of synch.

         

Once you've made your way through the onslaught of sand cannons, you're met with another hallway with an Ariados and eight Bronzor. On the other end of this one is a Bronzong! Bronzong attacks with multiple Gyro Balls and occasionally uses Flash Canon to create electric orbs on the ground. Like Bronzor, it's capable of teleporting, too. Bronzong offers a Steel Assist and Crush Lv. 3.

Over here, there's a strange gap to the south that just might come into play later on.

To the north, we find a Save Machine and a Drifblim as well as a spotlight where we can use its Elevate to reach the next floor!

On the next floor, we'll soon stumble across a really annoying maze of Springy Grass. At the south end, we'll see Buizel again, so we know which direction we need to go to proceed, but that just might be easier said than done. The Springy Grass in this room never seems to bounce you where you expect. Hop on the first one here and it'll take you to the large area near the center.

There's a Victreebel over here and only one more Springy Grass to bounce on which will take you to the northeast.

Up here, there's an Ariados and another Springy Grass which we can use to bounce our way to the western section.

This time there's another Ariados and two Springy Grass to choose from. One on the eastern edge of the section and one to the south.

The grass to the south will bounce you up to the northeastern section where you can find a door!

Through the door is a small empty room with only a Sandslash inside! Probably an important one! Sandslash will attack with Sand Attack to create piles of sand you'll have to avoid, but it's not too difficult to manage. It provides a Ground Assist and Tunnel Lv. 1. Lv. 1 was a bit of a surprise, I'd expect the evolution of Sandshrew to provide Tunnel Lv. 2. Anyway, this guy's in a speical place so we'll probably need to bring him along with us.

The Springy Grass outside will take you back down to the eastern section where you can take the other springy grass forward. This will lead to the Southwestern section.

There's a pile of sand over here which we can use Sandslash to dig up!

 

This will reveal Springy Grass below. If you don't have Sandslash, you can use the Springy Grass nearby to go back and find your way to it.

Taking the Springy Grass hidden under the sand will bring you to the Southeastern section where we saw Buizel exit through the door.

 

 

Down here is a bit of a nightmare of a room: Four Claydol and a Gengar.

The Claydol on their own aren't so bad. They're fairly aggressive, but their attacks are pretty easy to dodge. They can teleport, attack with a barrage of Shadow Ball, Flash Canon to leave hazards on the ground, and use Ancient Power to create a shockwave around them. As long as you're mindful of their attack options and charge up from a safe position, you should be able to capture it fairly easily. Claydol provides a Psychic Assist and Crush Lv. 3. The only thing that's particularly annoying about these guys in this room is the sheer abundance of them. They chase you down in the overworld and you might find yourself having to capture all four of them back to back just to get them off your back.

The same can't be said about Gengar who is significantly tougher than Claydol and its prevolution Haunter. It moves around fairly quickly, teleports, attacks with lingering Will-O-Wisp and a barrage of Shadow Balls, and it's just an all-around menace. I really hate these teleporting pokemon, especially when they're so aggressive and that Will-O-Wisp is by far the most dangerous hazard to me. Anyway, Gengar provides a Ghost Assist and Psy Power Lv. 3.

As you make your way past this strange chamber, you'll find a Magneton to heal up with on your way out.

The door here will lead you, bizarrely enough, through an elevator that'll carry you up through the Hippowdon's right nostril. The Elevator will retract back into the statue and you can enter the left nostril by walking straight over to it from the west. Another lift will appear to carry you back down into the dungeon proper.

This side contains a path of disappearing platforms a la Megaman. The platforms will guide you across a pit and if you fall down, you'll end up back in the room with the four Claydol and Gengar. Carefully cross the bridges and avoid standing on the platforms as they disappear. Look ahead and watch for patterns before rushing recklessly to the next one that appears or they'll disappear from under you and it can be annoying having to go through those elevators every time you need to try again. Once you reach through the end, you'll find the doorway progressing deeper.

Through this doorway, once again, we've got another maze where we see Buizel. This time, he's on the northeast section of the maze. We'll need to follow Buizel through the door as well. Instead of Springy Grass, this maze utilizes Rocket Hideout-esque arrow lifts. Hooray. It's a bit of a headache to keep track of which arrows take you where, but for the most part the wrong paths will just loop you back to previous areas.

If you can make your way to the northwest area, you'll find a Gabite! Gabite will rush around and attack with Slash or Mud Ball. As long as you're wary of the quick Slash, you should be okay to capture it. Gabite offers a Dragon Assist and Cut Lv. 3.

A section near the center area has a Banette in it! Banette creates a protective barrier of Will-O-Wisps which I'm going to start labeling as the move Spite for now. It also attacks by scattering Shadow Balls. Banette offers a Ghost Assist and Psy Power Lv. 2.

If you can make your way to the door in the northwest, you'll find a Tyranitar in a small chamber. Tyranitar is capable of attacking you in the overworld, so approach carefully. It can attack with Rock Slide, Hyper Beam, and Dark Pulse, and they can all do some pretty hefty damage, so watch out. Charge when you can't loop, as per usual. It's fairly resistant so that's highly advised. Though it's not hard at all to survive against. Tyranitar is a Rock-Group Pokemon that provides a Dark Assist and Crush Lv. 4. Another pokemon you can probably expect to need.

In order to make it to the door in the southeast, you'll need to first make your way to the door Buizel was at, but take the eastern arrow lifts and make your way down to the door.

Inside, you'll find Espeon! Espeon can attack with Shadow Ball and defend itself with Shadow Ball as well. I suppose I can start to call this move Barrier since it's what Mr. Mime does? Anyway, Espeon provides a Psychic Assist and the Map Move Teleport in case you want to emergency exit the dungeon.

 

Making our way back around, we can finally return to the door Buizel went through. In here, we can find two Bellossom who will attack all sides of it with Leaf Storm! Bellossom provides a Grass Assist and Cut Lv. 3.

In the back, we'll also find a giant Boulder which we'll need Crush Lv. 4 to break.

 

If you're unprepared, you're going to need to step out and make your way to Tyranitar. This will reveal a hole leading down to the next floor below.

    

Down here is a nice secret oasis where the game basically hand-delivers you a whole team of pokemon to use if you're unprepared as well as a Drifblim which you can use to return if you feel the need to get some other pokemon. The pokemon down here include Two Bellossom, a Magneton, Drifblim, and Sableye. There's also a save machine just up ahead. Of course, as you can probably guess, we're drawing near to the Yellow gem and we'll receive a voicemail from Rhythmi warning us of a tough pokemon up ahead. It looks like it's time.

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I was absolutely prepared to battle with a Ground-type pokemon here in the desert, so I came prepared with two Bellossom. In addition, Bronzong's Steel Assist is one I find to be pretty universally helpful. Gengar was a strong pokemon I figured I'd want to keep around for a while, and Rhydon's Ground Assist is another I find incredibly useful. Finally, a Magneton for healing and, of course, there was my partner Mime Jr.

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As we approached the Yellow Gem in the next room up ahead, I was surprised to find that it wasn't a Ground-type I'd be faced with, but a Psychic Type--Cresselia!

Vs. Cresselia

Cresselia actually seemed to be quite simple as well. It can attack with a Ghostly Fire like Spiritomb and Mismagius, which I'm going to start referring to as Psychic. it can also use Barrier to protect itself with a Shadow Ball as well as create a longer range barrier that extends a shadow ball to creep along the outside edge of the screen, making it fairly difficult to keep your loop in the sweet spot between the two to loop. Remember to charge when you're not comfortable making a push!

Cresselia was fairly easy to capture, all I needed was Gengar to do accomplish this task. And even then, I can't quite say I needed Gengar. It was just really easy with him. And that was it!

Cresselia provides a Psychic Assist and no Field Skill according to the Browser.

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Upon defeating Cresselia, it entrusts us with the Yellow Gem! And with that, it's mission clear! But... something doesn't seem right... where's Keith?

As we exit the Yellow Gem's chamber, we hear the sound of a helicopter lowering toward us. In case it wasn't obvious what was going on, this is where you'll find that it wasn't Keith who has been contacting us, but Heath of the Sinis Trio who has Keith captured on board his helicopter!

Music: Battle! (Sinis Trio)

Heath mocks us for falling for his trap. The broken english he speaks in certainly matches up with the voice we'd hear over the voicemail. Apparently, Heath couldn't get past the Gem Guardian Cresselia just as the others of the Sinis Trio struggled. But then he saw Keith arrive and had the bright idea to wait for Keith to claim the Yellow Gem so that he could take it from him. But, Keith wasn't skillful enough and failed to capture Cresselia. This was when Keith came up with the idea to capture Keith while he was defenseless and use him as bait to lure us here to get the Yellow Gem for him instead!

So, Heath presents us with a deal: He offers to return Keith to us in exchange for the Yellow Gem. Quite frankly, we have a Rhydon with us we could easily use to crush his Helicopter and rescue Keith, but I suppose the game doesn't want us to take such an easy solution, so we're going to have to admit defeat and give up the Yellow Gem to get Keith back. After the exchange, in order to ensure we don't try to steal the Yellow Gem back, Heath distracts us by pulling out his Miniremo and attacking with a powerful pokemon while he makes his getaway!

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Vs. Heath & Magnezone

This must be the true boss of this dungeon! I thought it was a bit suspicious that we hadn't run into any opposition from Team Dim Sun this whole time! Anyway, Magnezone is also a pretty simple capture. It'll attack with Flash Canon, surround itself with an electric ball, if I called the Shadow Ball Barrier then maybe I can call this one Light Screen? And it can attack with Discharge like Magneton.

Anyway, I used Rhydon's Ground Assist, but unfortunately, Magnezone's floating in the air so it's immune to the assist's main ability rendering this one pointless. I was under the impression until recently that the type advantaged also increased the amount of damage you dealt with standard loops, but apparently that's not actually the case. In fact, since you can't charge while an assist is active, it actually decreases it! Yikes! I suppose that's info to be wary about in the future.

At some point, I did need to heal with Magneton. But other than that, it was mostly just standard looping with Magnezone. Nothing particularly difficult about this capture, either.

According to the Browser, Magnezone offers an Electric Assist and Electrify Lv. 3.

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After the battle resolves, Keith seems to have gotten pretty quiet. He seems really bothered by what's happened. He apologizes really quickly and admits to being incredibly embarrassed about his failure. Buizel is happy to be reunited with him, and he apologizes for Buizel, too, for worrying him so much. Keith insists that he'll work harder next time. With that, he and Buizel head off back to the Ranger Union.

And with that, we're going to finish off here for now. Next time, I think we should do some questing before we return to the Ranger Union. Something tells me the plot's about to get fairly heavy so I can't necessarily expect any free time between now and our next mission after I report back. See you then!

[Aura]

Ranger Union

Last time I said we'd probably jump right into quests rather than return to the Ranger Union, and that is what I did, but I found that things go a bit more smoothly once again if you come and revisit the Ranger Union now.

As we report back to Chairperson Erma and Prof. Hastings, they're of course sad to hear that Dim Sun managed to obtain the Yellow Gem, but he and Erma agree the most important thing is that we've both returned safely. Erma urges us to get well rested for the night as our next mission will be crucial.

The next morning, Prof. Hastings fills us in on his findings. Unfortunately, the blueprint disc is password protected and Isaac has yet to speak up about it, but they have made more substantial progress in deciphering the diary! He recites another entry that mentions Brighton having learned of the Red, Blue, and Yellow Gems and how the Shadow Crystal fears and loathes their energy yet also strangely seeks their harmony. Something about this discovery drove Brighton's resolve toward some end, but that's about how far deciphering has gone. It looks like it'll continue to take time to learn more. But for now, this entry seems to confirm what we've already found through experimentation: That the three gems do indeed seem to have a strong effect against the Shadow Crystal's power.

Just as things are about to wrap up, Isaac steps into the room and explains that he's thought everything over through the night. He explains that it was hard for him to come to terms with it, but after being treated kindly by the ranger union, he seems to have realized just how horrible working for Altru has been. People here are friendlier, happier, and even though he had important information, Prof. Hastings did nothing to weed it out of him beyond asking a few times. Even Hastings seems to have the patience to deal with people like Isaac! That's actually quite impressive! Isaac adds that he's come to the conclusion that he was just being used by Mr. Kincaid and Altru, Inc. He laments that and apologizes for failing to recognize what was going on sooner. Now that everything seems to be adding up, he seems sure that this is the correct path to follow for him, so he tells Prof. Hastings the password: "Melody," the name of his little sister who he hasn't seen in years.

Man, this is honestly some pretty heavy character development. I knew this was gonna be rough for Isaac, but I didn't think they'd keep things so real. Isaac has basically been gaslit by an authority in his life into doing his bidding. It makes me glad we got the guy out of there when we did.

After some preparations, everyone assembles in the meeting room and, once the data is accessed on the disk, it's put up on the big screen where the blueprints for this Incredible Machine can be viewed. The machine is a shape that looks all-too-familiar to everyone here. It's Altru Tower! The tower that's been under construction since the beginning of the game! And that tower is only one day away from completion! It appears to me that Altru Tower is essentially a massive Gigaremo with the Shadow Crystal on its roof. It's likely Altru is planning to use the tower to control all the pokemon of Almia! Is this the source of their "Dream Energy"? I can only imagine what kinds of effects such a massive machine could have on the wildlife in Almia. This machine has to be stopped.

Prof. Hastings and Isaac go off to plan the Union's next move. We need to act quickly and put a stop to the tower. But while they form their strategy, Chairperson Erma assigns us to go out on patrol as per usual. She also suggests that you go around and find some strong pokemon to take with you, as we just might be going on a dangerous mission shortly after our patrol.

And with that, we now have a whopping eight quests to do! Four of them opened after our previous mission and another four opened up just now. This is why I suggested coming back here because there's nothing of significance separating these two batches of quests. May as well do them all in one round trip!

Among these 8 missions, we have:

2 in Pueltown

3 in Haruba Village

1 in Hia Valley

1 in Chroma Highlands

and 1 in Vientown.

That's a lot of missions! And they're all over the place! I suppose we could start with anywhere, so let's open up with the ones in Pueltown, how about it?

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Pueltown

There are two clients here in Pueltown. Both of whom are at the harbors on the east edge of the town.

The first of these clients is the angler standing at the edge of the harbor who's always bickering with the young fisher next to him. It seems they've once again gotten into a squabble, just like with the incident involving Lumineon. But this time, they're arguing over whether or not it's true the angler really caught an Omastar! The kid insists it's not possible because Omastar went extinct long ago, so you know the drill. We've gotta head out to sea to find an Omastar, register it in our browser, and show the kid that Omastar really does live out there! To do so, we'll need to return to the Sea of Wailord.

Before we head out there, I wanted to note something kinda funny that I never noticed until now. The sailors who take you to various places are all named after the places they take you to. The one in green who takes you to Pueltown is Capt. Puel. The red one is Capt. Boyle, the Yellow one is Capt. Haruba, there's even ones named after the sea areas. The one in light blue is named Capt. Puel while the one in deep blue is named Capt. Wail. As you can expect, we can find Capt. Haruba and Capt. Wail in the boathouse here on the harbor. Capt. Wail is the one who will take us to the Sea of Wailord.

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Quest 33: Unidentified Fleeing Omastar

Remember that odd location you had to go out of your way to get to by bringing a Mantine behind a Boulder, just to find there was nothing there? The one that I said would likely be used for a quest later on? Bingo, that's exactly where you'll be finding this Omastar in question.

 

Of course, if you haven't gone there yet, you'll need something to break through the boulders. If you don't have a Sharpedo, don't fret. I think you can find one somewhere nearby if you explore the areas that were previously blocked off by the traps set for Wailord. Or maybe Wailord was blocking the way himself? Either way, it's kinda hard for me to describe exactly where it is going just off of my memory, I just sorta stumbled upon it. I'm pretty confident you couldn't find it during the mission, though. In addition to Sharpedo, you can also find Kingdra in the maze of currents in the southwest.

 

With either of these pokemon's Crush Lv. 4, you can destroy the Boulder and push your way through!

Once on the other side, you'll need Mantine to swim around the chasm to end up on the other side of the current.

And it's over here that you'll finally find that elusive Omastar! Omastar itself is a fairly easy capture, it just attacks with Bubble and BubbleBeam and doesn't move much. It's fairly aggressive but as long as you're mindful of the BubbleBeam, you should be golden. Omastar provides, can you guess? That's right! Another useless Water Assist and an even more useless Soak Lv. 3. Thanks, buddy. Thankfully, we don't have to lug this guy around, the browser entry is all we need.

Once we return to the Angler in Pueltown, he'll thank us and we'll be rewarded with a Latent Power upgrade which boosts the effectiveness of our styler when our HP is in the orange zone which I believe means 50% or less HP? I don't know how big of a power boost this is, but it might actually give use to those lower-level healers like Pikachu and Raichu since they might be able to heal you without taking you above the threshold for this power boost. This seems like a nice ability to have, for sure!

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Our next client here in Pueltown is another Angler that we can find inside the boathouse! He explains that he was fishing out at sea when a Wailord took his line and was far too heavy to reel in. The rod means a lot to him because it was willed to him by his late father, but Capt. Wail insists that rod is good as gone. That's why he's enlisting our help to try and find his lost fishing rod! Looks like we're headed back to the depth of the sea!

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Quest 34: My Precious Fishing Rod

This mission is easy enough, you'll just have to progress through the area as normal a little ways in and you'll eventually find the area with the Kingdra I mentioned earlier. You'll notice a flashing spot on the ground. Go to it, and you'll find the rod in question! Easy as that! Now you've just gotta take the rod back to the angler.

The Angler will thank you for your help and that's quest clear!

The reward for this mission is our second Psychic Defense upgrade!

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Haruba Village

Since we're already in the boathouse, I figure our next destination should probably be in Haruba Village! A healthy chunk of quests can be found here, so I think this is a good place to look around.

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Our first client here is going to be the Researcher who specializes in researching Grass-type pokemon! It's Herbert, the guy who we captured Oddish and Abamasnow for before! This time, he asks us to go into Haruba Desert and search for another pokemon: Cacturne. Simple enough, let's go!

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Spoiler

Quest 35: Cacturne Research

This one's another quickie. Just make your way back to the Cacturne in Haruba Desert.

 

You might find yourself needing to cut down the vine here with a nearby Fearow if you haven't already, but it shouldn't be too hard to make your way there.

And a friendly reminder that you don't actually have to tackle the Strange Cactus! Cacturne will begin to move if you draw near!

Once Cacturne is captured, bring it back to the researcher in Haruba Village to complete the quest!

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Our next client in Haruba Village is the Coffee Salesman from before. He'll tell you that he saw a new version of Gigaremo at Hippowdon Temple! He adds that these Gigaremo were capable of moving! It sounds scary but, frankly, doesn't quite add up with what we know about Dim Sun's focuses right now. Still, it's a rumor that we should at least look into.

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Quest 36: Capture Gigaremo Units

We can fly our way back to Hippowdon Temple to see just what this man saw. And we'll actually have to go quite a ways into the dungeon to find it. Eventually, when you come across the room with the Claydol, it'll all become clear.

 

As it turns out, the "New Model of Gigaremo" the man was worried about turned out to just be Claydol! It's actually kinda funny, as if you didn't know about Claydol, I could genuinely see this misunderstanding. Regardless, you'll need to capture the two Claydol. Capturing two Claydol at once is actually fairly annoying, but we've handled much worse. Once the Claydol are captured, the merchant will show up and realize the mistake he's made. Of course, it was a false alarm just as we'd suspected. Regardless, it could've been bad if Dim Sun actually had unleashed some automated moving Gigaremo.

Our reward for capturing the Claydol is our second Ghost Defense upgrade.

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Our final client in Haruba Village for now is this guy who's standing on the cliff in the northwest edge of the village. It's the explorer we brought Muk at Boyleland! This time, he's looking to capture the scent of two pokemon: Skuntank and Weezing... neither of which are found anywhere close to here. We're not actually going to accept this quest just yet, though, because we can just gather up these pokemon while completing some other quests. Keep in mind, Weezing can be found in Almia Castle while Skuntank can most easily be found in the Oil Field Hideout.

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Hia Valley

With the need for Weezing in mind, we'll head up to Hia Valley and seek out Mrs. Winter in her cabin. She explains that there's been a mischeivous Sneasel up on the second floor of Almia Castle. Even though nobody lives in the castle, she still wants the Sneasel to be calmed so that the pokemon living there aren't disturbed.

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Quest 37: Mischievous Sneasel

Once you've entered Almia Castle, head east of the dining hall and go up the stairs there.

Along the way, you can go ahead and capture the Weezing you'll need for the quest back in Haruba Village.

Continue along this path until you pass the room with the slippery maze of icicles.

As you enter the next room, you'll find the Sneasel in question running around like it owns the place! It'll soon notice you and attack! Sneasel is quite fast and energetic. It'll attack with Night Slash and Ice Shard and it hops and dashes around at fast speeds. Be mindful of its mobility as you try and loop it.

 

You might've guessed it, but Sneasel forms a bond with us after we capture it and joins as our new partner pokemon! Sneasel provides a Dark Assist! Mime Jr. still hasn't actually seen much action, but at least we gave it some adventure! For now we'll have to send it home again for our new friend: Sneasel.

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Oil Field Hideout

Now that we have Weezing, we're going to want to pick up Skuntank as well to finish off that quest at Haruba Village. We can use Staraptor to return to Oil Field Hideout.

Skuntank can be found right where you last saw him... I can only assume Isaac plans to come back for it soon? Either way, that's our second stinker!

Unfortunately, I wasted a bunch of time exploring this area here thinking there might be a secret pokemon like Lickilicky in the Cargo Ship, but no such luck. It seems there's nothing of significant interest here at the Oil Field Hideout beyond easier access to Skuntank than the Chroma Ruins. To leave the hideout, we need only exit and fly off with Staraptor once again.

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Quest 38: Smell of Skuntank and Weezing

 

With our stinky friends in tow, we can come back to the explorer in Haruba Village and show him the two pokemon he requested. He extracts the scents from the two just as he did with Muk and thanks us for our assistance once again!

Our reward here is a second Dark Defense upgrade!

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Chroma Highlands

Our next client is in Chroma Highlands, just outside the ruins! He complains of a Misdreavus inside that keeps playing pranks on him, making his exploring impossible. He tells us the Misdreavus is inside a chamber in the ruins and sneaks up behind you to scare you. That's nto a whole lot to go off of, but hopefully it won't be too difficult to find.

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Quest 39: Misdreavus Mischief Mystery

The Misdreavus in question isn't too terribly deep into the cave. Just head a little ways in and make your way to the chamber where you'd find Electabuzz before. Inside, you won't find Electabuzz.

Instead, you'll find the Misdreavus in question! It disappears when you enter and when you turn around to try and leave, it suddenly appears and attacks! Mysdreavus attacks fairly aggressively with Night Shade and Psybeam, but is fairly standard as far as Ghost-types go.

Once Misdreavus is captured, the explorer will come in to thank you for your help in getting it under control, and it'll disappear and reappear behind him one last time to give him one last scare!

 

Once again, Misdreavus seems to have taken a liking to us and wants to join us as a partner pokemon! So, we'll swap Sneasel out for now and add it to the list of pokemon we need to give extra attention to later on. Misdreavus, of course, provides a Ghost Assist.

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Vientown

We've still got one more quest to do! This one's in Vientown! Our client this time is Ollie! Ollie seems to have taken a liking to Elaine for treating his burns so gently and wants to surprise her with her favorite pokemon. He found out her favorite pokemon is Dragonair which was a bit disheartening since he had no idea how to find one. Frankly, I wouldn't either. But apparently he's put some research into it because supposedly they've been found in Almia Castle. I guess that's as good of a lead as any.

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Quest 40: Elaine's Favorite!

Our Dragonair friend can be found quite a ways into the dungeon. Make your way to the room in the hallway before the icy platforms leading to where we met Ice. The one where we met those Dim Sun Minions talking about the Sinis Trio. Man, I need to find better ways to describe these areas. Anyway, head to the cellar down below where Dratini could be found.

Down here, we'll now find the Dragonair in question! Dragonair will attack with DragonBreath like Dratini, but will also surround itself with a weird triangle thing... Reflect? I guess? The triangle shaped object is distinct, so it feels wrong to name it so arbitrarily but I can't think of any move associated with triangles besides Tri Attack which Dragonair has never been associated with... I think Reflect works well enough. Anyway, Dragonair is fairly resistant to capture but surprisingly easy to manage. Dragonair provides a Dragon assist and Crush Lv. 3.

With Dragoniar in tow, bring it back to Ollie in Vientown and he'll be delighted to see it! Even more delighted will be Elaine when he rushes in to get her to come out and see it! Elaine never expected to be able to see a Dragonair in person her whole life, so this moment really must mean a lot to her! Ollie comments about how he's never seen her smile like that before. Honestly? This whole quest is just really sweet all around. What a lovely scenario all around!

============

And that's that for our quests! How exhausting! But while completing these quests, you're likely to get a voicemail from the Ranger Union asking you to report back once your patrol is over. I suppose Isaac and Prof. Hastings have decided on a plan! Next time, we'll report back at the Ranger Union and see what's up! See you then!

 

[Aura]

Ranger Union

With that massive laundry list of quests completed, it's time to report back to the Ranger Union and hear what plan Prof. Hastings and Isaac have hatched. We check in with Chairperson Erma and then everyone assembles at the roof of the Ranger Union where the Red and Blue Gems are gathered. Alongside us and Keith are Sven and Wendy as well as Barlow and Isaac and, of course, Chairperson Erma and Prof. Hastings, too. Hastings begins the meeting by asking Isaac to explain more about Altru Tower.

Isaac begins by explaining Altru Tower is tall enough to see the entirety of the Almia Region from its roof. As I suggested before, Altru Tower is essentially a massive Gigaremo that utilizes the Shadow Crystal to affect all pokemon within a 500 mile radius. Isaac equates its power to roughly 8 million Gigaremo units. He adds that there's a central control room halfway up the tower that can be used to control every individual pokemon using unique signals for each one and it contains an even more advanced selection of commands than the Miniremo.

Hastings adds that Isaac was manipulated into designing the machine through deliberately misleading him to the conclusion that the machine was being used to foster peaceful communication between people and pokemon. The professor then goes on to go over more that has been deciphered from the diary. Evidently, Blake Hall had driven his father out of the company as soon as he turned 16. Blake's goals lie in nothing short of world domination, and he claimed he would destroy anything that would get in his way, even his father. So as it stands, it seems the president of Altru, Inc. has his sights set on world domination, and that's his motivation for establishing Team Dim Sun and experimenting with the Gigaremo.

As we continue to discuss, we suddenly hear a loud rumbling sound! Isaac suggests that must be Altru running an electrical signal through the Incredible Machine as a test. He suggests the loud rumbling must indicate that the test was a failure. It failed because the machine still needed some final adjustments that were Isaac's duty. Unfortunately, even without those final adjustments, the tower will still be operational, only about half as strong.

Now comes Prof. Hastings' plan. Through extensive analysis of the blueprints, he has determined shutting off the electrical circuits to be impossible. As a result, the only solution is to utilize the three gems to counteract the Shadow Crystal. Braving the tower would be a task frought with danger, so Prof. Hastings insists that two Top Rangers each take one of the gems and approach the tower from the air. Of course, we only have two of the three gems so this won't be fully effective. However, we should be able to drain approximately 70% of the crystal's power using these two.

For this task, Prof. Hastings assigns Wendy and Sven. Hastings insists that we and Keith remain here on standby since there's no telling what will happen when "Operation Brighton" begins. With the plan established, Sven and Wendy each grab a gem and rush out toward their objective. Unfortunately, it seems we're being left out of this one. I suppose it makes sense, we did technically fail our previous mission. I can imagine Keith must especially be beating himself up over it. But, there's nothing to do for now but wait for further reports.

So, we're left with nothing much to do but wander around the base. As we make our way toward the ground floor, however...

Music: Crisis (Call to Action)

We suddenly hear a loud explosion! Murph comes running to us and tells us some huge guy just blew a hole through the front door of the Ranger Union! Immediately, we race down to see what's going on.

In the lobby, we find none other than Heath! Heath mocks us by explaining the Yellow Gem we gave him is hidden somewhere in the tower and then he pulls out his Miniremo. A pokemon is brought into the room to attack us!

============

      

At this moment, I'd already been warned to bring an array of strong pokemon, so I made it a point to keep some of the pokemon with the assists I've considered most useful with me. I didn't actually have a healer with me, though. I was planning to capture one after using Staraptor to fly to the destination of our next mission. The last thing I was expecting was to be attacked at the Union itself! Well played, I'll be honest. Anyway, Bronzong provides a Steel Assist which is great for stopping attacks, Pupitar provides a Ground Assist which can stop enemies anywhere, is very safe, and is just an all-around fantastic assist, Machamp provides a Fighting Assist to capture any pokemon a lot faster, Walrein provides an Ice Assist which, with a little practice, can stunlock any pokemon while simultaneously looping it, making it an incredibly useful and versatile assist. Lastly, there's Dragonair who provides a Dragon Assist. I've already lamented that this assist isn't nearly as nice as I'd like it to be, but it's mainly just here by courtesy of not being freed after being shown to Elaine. It just happens to be a pokemon I never replaced, honestly.

============

Vs. Heath & Electivire

Electivire opens up with an electric Light Screen to protect himself with two balls of electricity. He can attack with Discharge and Spark as well. Much like Magnezone, he's surprisingly easy to capture. Even easier, in fact, since he's vulnerable to Pupitar's Ground Assist!

Naturally, I opened up with Pupitar's Ground Assist only to find that I was able to wipe out most of Electivire's capture meter without letting him get off so much as a single attack! By the time the assist was over, he was nearly captured!

In the interest of giving Misdreavus some action, I decided to use her to help tide Electivire over and keep his health from draining in case he did any especially disruptive attacks, but nope. Nothing, he just went down with ease.

According to the browser, when not under the effects of hypnosis, Electivire provides an Electric Assist and Electrify Lv. 3.

===========

That was really easy, a bit too easy, in fact... Heath suggests he must've gotten a bit careless, but he doesn't seem phased by his loss. And that gave me a bad feeling. Soon, we hear another loud explosion coming from upstairs! Heath laughs in response and explains that this attack down here was a diversion! He adds that it's already too late for us to go upstairs and stop their plan!

===========

Mission 15: Protect the Ranger Union HQ!

As we rush upstairs, we find a whole blasted through the wall on the second floor! Ice is here and Keith is standing between him and Isaac. It's clear Altru wants to bring Isaac back to finish the final adjustments on the Incredible Machine, we'd better step in quick! Ice tries to smooth things over with Isaac, but Isaac won't have any of it anymore! He scolds Ice and Altru for their lies and deceit and insists he'll never return! Ice tries to assure him that they're a peace-oriented company which infuriates Prof. Hastings who calls to attention the fact that they blew a hole through the Union's wall!

Recognizing Ice isn't doing so hot, Lavana steps in to up the ante in a much dirtier, more underhanded way. She's brought with her Melody, Isaac's little sister! It's clear what their angle is, here. To demonstrate, Lavana gives Melody a pinch to hurt her. And threatens that she'll get much more than a pinch if Isaac refuses to come. Isaac understands the situation and begrudgingly agrees to go with them to ensure Melody doesn't get hurt. Once again, I feel like we're really underselling how useful our Pokemon could be in this situation, but I guess having Machamp shove Lavana and Ice to the side isn't something the writers thought about. With that, Melody, Isaac, and Lavana all leave through the hole in the wall.

Ice is left behind, feeling insulted that Lavana showed up and stole the show all to herself, like he was completely unnecessary. So, since he didn't have anything else to do, he pulls his Miniremo out and has his pokemon do some rampaging!

=============

Vs. Ice & Garchomp

I'm gonna be honest, a Garchomp was probably the last pokemon I was expecting Ice to use against me. I was certainly expecting a Mamoswine or something along those lines. Ironically, I think I'm better prepared to deal with Garchomp than a Mamoswine, anyway. Garchomp opens up with a double Mud Bomb and runs around swiftly attacking with Dragon Claw. While you're unable to loop him easily due to the lingering puddles of mud, you can be charging up your Styler! This is another fairly easy boss fight, in case you can't tell.

Once again, not really sure of how easy the fight was going to be, I opened up with Walrein and was able to just stun-lock Garchomp into oblivion. Easy as that.

According to the browser, Garchomp can provide a Dragon assist and Crush Lv. 5.

===========

Ice admits defeat and nonchalantly walks off, exiting the same way Lavana and the others did. But the attack still isn't over! Someone else was able to sneak up to the operator's room on the 3rd floor! Hastings asks us to go ensure Erma's safety.

Up here, we find Wheeler and a whole hoard of Bidoof! When he notices us, he attacks with his army!

===========

   

   

Vs. Wheeler & Bidoof, Bidoof, Bidoof, Bidoof, Bidoof, Bidoof, Bidoof & Bidoof

Okay, this one's actually just funny. Even the music is more comedic rather than the Sinis Trio theme we've grown accustomed to. The eight Bidoof can easily be captured all at once with a single loop, they aren't hard to dispatch at all.

============

After destroying Wheeler's Miniremo, a Dim Sun Minion approaches and tells him the objectives of the raid are already over. Apparently, he failed to notice. With that, the two flee through the roof and an explosion blocks the way to the rooftop with rubble.

As the Union recuperates from this raid, Prof. Hastings and Erma seem in agreement that we needn't rush into retaliation right away. We have until Altru's anniversary tomorrow to plan our retaliation. In the meantime, we must reevaluate Operation Brighton and shift the priorities to rescuing Isaac and Melody first and foremost. But, before that, Erma recognizes our mission as being officially cleared and Hastings promotes us to Ranger Rank 9! With this upgrade, we can finally use 7 Friend Pokemon at once in addition to our partner!

As if things weren't bad enough, we receive a voicemail from Sven that mentions there are three barriers in the way preventing them from getting close to the Shadow Crystal with the Red and Blue Gems. Erma admits she never expected the task to be so easy that this would work unopposed. Evidently, they intentionally left this barrier out of the blueprints just in case the blueprints were stolen. But Hastings seems at a loss for how we could turn off the barriers. Erma reminds him that there are yet two more Top Rangers, but he initially shrugs it off, suggesting we simply lack the experience necessary for such a mission. That's almost offensive considering half the shit we've been through! But when Prof. Hastings turns around to see the determined looks on our faces, it finally registers in his mind that we aren't just rookies anymore and he agrees right then and there that we're the ones for the job.

With that, Prof. Hastings assigns us with our biggest mission yet, a three part mission.

1: We are to infiltrate Altru Tower and rescue Isaac and Melody. 

2: We are to locate and retrieve the Yellow Gem

And 3: Keith is to fly the Yellow Gem to the top of the tower using another Staraptor.

We are to remain inside the tower and disable the three barriers, allowing the others to draw closer to the Shadow Crystal and drain its power.

Of course, this mission is incredibly dangerous and we'll be met with lots of opposition, but we have to keep pushing! And next time, we'll begin what's sounding more and more like our final mission in the game's main story! We're getting close to the end, let's see this thing through!

[Aura]

Altru Building

It's finally time to take the fight to Altru! We've got quite a stacked mission ahead of us, but it's sounding more and more climactic as we go!

I feel like I should probably mention that I did take a trip back to Chicole Village to swap Misdreavus out for Sneasel for this mission. I figured Sneasel's Dark Assist could prove useful against some tricker encounters and a Dark assist isn't something I generally find myself too eager to take up Friend Pokemon slots with.

As we approach the Altru Building, we're given a shot of the Incredible Machine from below as it towers over all of Almia. It's unseen in this shot here, but in-game you can also see the Yellow, Red, and Blue glows of the three barriers surrounding the top of the tower that keep Wendy and Sven at bay.

When we first arrive at the entrance to the Altru Building, it seems as though the Altru Inc. employees have all been suddenly fired and locked out of the building! There's a Dim Sun Admin standing at the entrance to the building.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

Naturally, the Dim Sun isn't about to let us into the Altru Building if even the employees aren't allowed inside. So, he pulls his Miniremo out for an attack!

============

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

He attacks with a Yanmega! This one's a new encounter. It'll attack periodically with Air Cutter, a large projectile, or String Shot creating puddles of sticky silk. It can also attack with Uproar, surrounding itself with a shockwave. Most of all, though, this thing is a bit restless so you might find it difficult to loop.

When not under the effects of hypnosis, Yanmega provides a Bug Assist and no Field Move, telling me it likely only exists in this context as a miniboss.

============

After destroying his miniremo, the Admin retreats into the building. With the cheers of the Altru employees behind us, we charge inside!

============

Mission 16: Execute Operation Brighton!

Shortly after we enter, two Dim Sun Minions block off the entrance with fences to keep anyone from getting in. They laugh at how the rangers won't be able to get in before noticing we're already inside! They can't run away because they've already barricaded the door, so they just stand there awkwardly avoiding eye contact with us. I guess we'll just leave them there on their own for now.

As we make our way toward the elevator in the back of the lobby, we're stopped by a Dim Sun who sets off the alarm! With the alarm sounded, some more minions and an admin spill in to try and take us down! Two of the grunts pull out miniremos and attack!

===========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Minions

The minions attack us with a Weezing and Skuntank. A simple enough capture, I'd prioritize the Weezing over the Skuntank, but you should be able to capture them together fairly easily.

---------------

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

Immediately after, the Admin plops down her Miniremo and attacks as well! She comes at us with a Shiftry and two Nuzleaf. Deal with the Nuzleaf to get them out of the way first because Shiftry might be a bit of a headache. Shiftry hops around a lot making it really difficult to loop, and it attacks with Razor Wind, surrounding itself in gusts of wind. His hopping will not only interrupt your looping of him, but also the Nuzleaf, so take every opportunity you can get! Outside of hypnosis, Shiftry provides a Dark Assist and Cut Lv. 3.

==========

Once we defeat the minions and the admin, the admin commands the other minions to grab us with brute force just like before!

Unfortunately for Dim Sun, just in time, we hear a loud "TARGET CLEAR!!" with a powerful thud as Barlow and the Vientown Rangers crash through the barricade at the entrance to the Altru Building!

Music: Mission

  

Outpowering us is no longer an option for the Dim Suns! Barlow insists they'll keep the Dim Suns occupied down here while we go on ahead. Together, the three Area Rangers corner the Dim Suns, getting them nice and out of the way for us to continue to the elevator.

Unfortunately, not everything is clear for us. The elevator is password protected! Keith suggests we try to guess a password that would mean something to Isaac. He first suggests "Miniremo," then "Kincaid," but soon comes up with "Melody." Of course, it's the same password used for the blueprint disk. Isaac might be a genius, but security is clearly not his area of expertise. Still, it's really sweet that his sister's name is the password he uses for everything.

The Elevator accepts the password and begins lifting us up toward the 9th floor, but it stops prematurely as the power cuts out! We hear a voice calling out to us, insisting that he's here to rescue us. But as the lights turn back on...

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

It's actually a Dim Sun Admin who was lying about coming to rescue us! He instead attacks us with his MIniremo!

===========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

This one is just two Dusclops. Nothing too terribly major. Certainly a good opportunity to pull out Sneasel's assist, though!

===========

After destroying is Miniremo, the Admin offers to let us use his rope ladder as compensation for attacking him in exchange for mercy.

Music: Altru Building (Takeover)

As we leave the elevator, it looks like we'll have to climb the rest of the way up the elevator shaft.

Up here, we'll pass a Magneton if you need healing after all those captures.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

As we climb up the nearby ladder to the next floor, we're met by another Admin who'll try to stop us with his Miniremo.

==========

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

This one attacks us with three Gabite, nothing too terribly intimidating. You can take them each out with relative ease, just be mindful of their Dragon Claw attacks.

===========

With the admin out of the way, we can pass by a Sableye as we make our way to our next ladder. I think you can guess how this section is going to continue to play out.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

As we reach the next floor, we're met by the admins of the Dim Sun Crimson Unit who worked under Lavana.

===========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

They both attack us with Gengar! One Gengar is annoying enough, two is a major headache. Once again, this is a good place to bring Sneasel out for a test run! It's great to get rid of those pesky Will-O-Wisps.

===========

The next floor up, we'll find a Glalie, the Ice Assist is one of the most powerful in the game so I strongly recommend it if you don't have it on your team at the moment.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

At the top of the elevator shaft, we'll face off against one more Admin, this one worked under Ice.

===========

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

He attacks with a new pokemon: Mamoswine! Mamoswine attacks with Icy Wind and Stomp. It might be huge and intimidating, but it's quite easy to capture. Mamoswine provides a Ground Assist and no Field Move, so it's probably only found as a boss.

============

Past this guy, there's an air vent you'll travel through to get back on course. At the far end of the narrow tunnel, you can fall into some sort of trash shoot... on the 9th floor? Sure, okay.

Down here, or up here I suppose depending on your perspective on all this, there's a save point and another Magneton.

As we step out, we find ourselves in a hallway with several rooms. There are a bunch of admins standing around a barricade in the center of the hallway with four lights turning from blue to red as locks are engaged. This is a barricade to keep us from reaching the Yellow Gem and the four locks are protected by the Miniremos of the admins on the floor. In order to get that Yellow Gem, we've gotta seek all the admins out and destroy their miniremos to open the barricade it's secured behind.

Right near the entrance to this area, we pass a Crobat. Crobat will attack with Sludge, Poison Gas, and SuperSonic all while dashing around fairly crazily. It can be a little annoying to capture, but be persistent and you'll get it! Crobat provides a Flying assist and Crush Lv. 3.

Near the Crobat is a Steel Frame we'll need Cut Lv. 3 to get through. Not too big a deal, we'll just need to look around for any pokemon with that ability.

 

Heading south, we'll find another Magneton and a Primeape.

Primeape is a fairly simple capture. Just like Mankey, it'll use Thrash until it tires itself out. At that point, you can capture it with a fully charged Styler for an easy win. Primeape provides a Fighting Assist and Crush Lv. 3.

  

Continuing around the hallway, you can find another Crobat, a Hypno, and another Primeape, before looping back around to where we started. Now let's turn our attention to the doors. Of course, there's the one guarded by the Steel Frame. In addition, there are three doors on the south end of the hallway.

 

The first of these from the east side leads to a bathroom with two Ariados inside.

One of the admins inside has hidden himself away in one of the bathroom's stalls, praising himself for such a clever hiding spot that a ranger will never be able to find him in. He explains the only way he'll ever have to leave is if it somehow starts to rain inside! This might lead you to the conclusion that we'll need the Rain Dance area move, but the solution seems a bit more clear when you notice the Smoke Detector in the room.

This thing requires Burn Lv. 3 to interact with and I think you know where this is going. But for now, we don't have that ability so we'll need to come back for it.

The center door is the elevator that's now fully operational. It'll freely carry you back to the first floor lobby, but it seems it doesn't go any further up than the 9th floor so we're on our own for getting higher than that.

 

The last room is a dark one which we'll need Flash to light up. In here, we can find an Absol and Scyther which might immediately scare you out of the room as they'll both try to attack you on sight! Yikes! But it might register with you that Scyther's going to be important.

Absol, though, is also important for the same purpose, but it's a new capture! Absol can teleport using Double Team as well as attack with Dark Pulse and Night Slash. It's a really dangerously aggressive pokemon so you'll need to be especially careful in trying to capture it. They say this pokemon's appearance warns of disaster and that might reflect well with your C-Rank captures of this thing! Anyway, Absol of course provides a Dark Assist as well as Cut Lv. 4.

Anyway, in order to explore this room more thoroughly, we'll need to come back with Flash. So again, we'll have to come back in a bit. But we do have one of the keys to help us explore a bit better.

In the northwest corner of the hall, we'll find the stairway to the 10th floor, but it's walled off with electricity, so it doesn't look like we'll be going there just yet, either.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

In the next door over, we'll find a library with an Admin inside! She'll attack us with her Miniremo after claiming we've fallen into her trap by coming in here!

==========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

She attacks is with a Mismagius and Banette. Yet again, Sneasel can help us deal with their pesky Will-O-Wisps while we evade Mismagius's attacks. It shouldn't be too tough to bob and weave your way through this capture.

==========

After defeating the admin, her Miniremo blows up and we get a shot of the first lock on the gate turning blue again. The admin at the gate will notice and shrug it off as a defect. He isn't worried since there's three other locks.

 

Now that the admin's out of the way in here, we now have access to the Gengar and Electabuzz in here. The Electabuzz is going to be necessary for exploring that dark room, so let's get going there!

With Electabuzz's Flash, we can light up the room! And as we do, an admin will jump out from his hiding spot behind the boxes in the corner! He'll attack with his Miniremo, too!

==========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

This one comes with an Espeon and Umbreon. I recommend prioritizing the Espeon over the Umbreon. But if you have the Bug Assist from Ariados, this is an excellent place to use it since it's good against both of these foes!

===========

With the second miniremo destroyed, another lock is undone on the gate and the guard begins to notice that something is wrong, but he rests assured that there are still two locks active.

 

Now let's go and Cut that Steel Frame! Either Scyther or Absol are enough to cut through it, I just used Absol since it was a new pokemon and I had to capture it anyway.

 

As soon as you enter this room, you're likely to be ambushed by one of the two pokemon that are right at the entrance: Scizor and Blaziken. React quick because they can both damage you quite rudely as soona s you enter.

Scizor is perhaps the most annoying pokemon in terms of movement so far. It is constantly hopping around, even moreso than Scyther, and it'll lunge forward with a Metal Claw, too. Scizor will provide a Steel Assist and Cut Lv. 4.

And Blaziken is likewise perhaps the most aggressive pokemon we've tried to capture yet. Its attacks are frequent and quite intrusive to boot. It'll attack with Blaze Kick, scattering fire in an arc in front of it, as well as Lava Plume to create pillars of fire in a straight line in front of it, too. Try and charge when those pillars are in the way of potential loops, but don't commit too hard to your charge because Blaziken might just interrupt it with a Blaze Kick anyway. Patience is a virtue, especially with pokemon like this! And don't forget your assists! Blaziken, naturally, provides a Fire Assist and, you guessed it, Burn Lv. 3 which can be used to trigger the Smoke Detector in the bathroom.

In the back of the room, we'll find our next Dim Sun Admin. Another miniremo! You know the drill!

==========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

This guy attacks us with a Bronzong and Claydol. Neither are too bad, I definitely recommend prioritizing the Claydol as Bronzong's Gyro Ball isn't nearly as difficult to avoid as Claydol's Shadow Balls.

==========

With the third miniremo destroyed, there's one last lock remaining and the guard begins to panic recognizing he's one more failure away from having to face off with a ranger! And we're not too far off, either!

 

With Blaziken, we can now trigger the Fire Alarm by setting up a Fire in front of the smoke detector, thus triggering the sprinkler system in the bathroom and forcing the admin out of the stall! It's just another nugget of comedy gold as he complains about how, against all odds, it actually began to rain in the bathroom! Now that he's been driven out, he has no choice but to face off against us.

==========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

This guy attacks us with another team that's more intimidating on the surface than it really is in gameplay: A Tyranitar and Aggron. If you have a Primeape from outside, that's perfect for this matchup! Just be mindful of Aggron's reach with Iron Head or Tyranitar's Hyper Beam, but these guys are surprisingly gentle giants, so you can get several loops on 'em between attacks.

==========

With the last of the miniremo destroyed, the gate is completely unlocked and unfolds, causing the guard to resort to blocking the door with his own body as a last resort!

So, we make our way to the gate to continue onward where we have one last encounter ahead.

==========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

Two Blaziken at once is a very scary duo, so you'll need to be careful and use your assists! Be patient and wait for openings in their attack patterns. There's no Water, Rock, or Ground assists nearby, so I'd recommend Crobat's Flying assist to scatter gusts across a wide area. It can get some damage in on the Blaziken from a healthy range and keep their capture gauges from depleting over time as you wait for openings.

===========

Once we defeat this Admin, we can push deeper in and reclaim the Yellow Gem inside the room that was being so heavily guarded! That's one part of our mission completed, but our top priority is to rescue Melody and Isaac, so we have to keep going. The two reserachers in this room approach, but they're not actually against us! They plead with you to rescue Prof. Isaac. They clearly can't stand for the hostage situation being used to force Isaac's compliance, so they choose to assist our efforts. One of the researchers disengages the lock on the stairwell, and we see the electricity that was previously blocking the way disappear. We've still got a lot of work cut out for us, so let's not hestiate!

As soon as we take the stairs to the next floor, other power outage occurs.

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

When the lights come back on, we're completely surrounded by Dim Sun Admins! We're gonna have to fight our way out again!

==========

 

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

These guys attack us with a swarm of Spinarak. Seems simple enough, though they aren't quite as easy to pick off as Wheeler's Bidoof, especially since their String Shot can make the board pretty messy.

===========

Once we've fought our way through the admins, they retreat and we can progress deeper into the floor! We find ourselves in a hallway that branches off into two other hallways. There are two doors that are accessible.

 

In front of these doors, you can find a Scizor and Absol.

Down the other hallways, we can only go so far before being stopped by electrified floors. We've gotta find a way to cut the electricity from these paths before we can continue.

 

Inside the west door, there's a couple of Electrode waiting to explode on you! Get away from it or capture it quickly! Electrode rolls around extremely fast when it's not attacking, but it'll Charge up before using its Discharge or Explosion attacks. Take advantage of this period before these attacks to get some quick loops in and pull out before you take damage! The key to capturing Electrode is fast movement! Electrode provides an Electric Assist and Electrify Lv. 3.

In the back of the room is a Large Cage containing an Electabuzz! The Cage requires Cut Lv. 4 to break open.

 

Luckily, we have just the right pokemon for the job right outside! Scizor's Cut Lv. 4 can tear right through that sturdy cage and free the Electabuzz inside! Doing so will shut down the electricity in the center hallway, allowing us to get to a new door. I suppose the cage was being used to drain electricity from Electabuzz? Regardless, we can now capture Electabuzz! And its Flash ability is about to make itself useful!

 

Through the east door, we'll find a dark room with a couple of Gabite.

Using Electabuzz's Flash, we can light up the room to help us poke around a bit better.

In doing so, we'll find another Large Cage containing an Ampharos!

 

Cutting this one open, too, will release Ampharos from inside and stop the flow of electricity through the east hallway.

This also makes Ampharos available to capture! Ampharos is as you'd expect. It shoots lingering Sparks, and fires ThunderShock more aggressively than Flaaffy. It's more resilient, but not particularly tough. Ampharos provides an Electric Assist and Electrify Lv. 3.

Now, if we go through the east hallway, we'll be met by another stairwell that's blocked off by electricity. But of course, we're not looking to leave this floor until we rescue Melody and free Isaac from Dim Sun's grasp.

As we approach the door at the end of the central hallway, we'll hear Isaac's cries on the other side as Admins demand he continue working. We rush to the door but can't get inside. The door is too sturdy even for a pokemon to break through with a target clear. As we mull over what to do, we receive a voicemail from Barlow telling us they've finished arresting the Dim Suns in the lobby and will be moving into Pueltown to take care of any unrest there. That's when Keith gets the idea to call Barlow and ask for his help in breaking through the door.

After calling Barlow back, he immediately puts Crawford in charge and makes his way toward the 10th floor. It doesn't take him long at all to get there and, with our help and all of our full strength, we charge and break the door down!

Music: Crisis (Call to Action)

As we break into the base, but sadly come to understand that we've arrived too late and Isaac has just finished the final adjustments on the Incredible Machine. The machine should now be fully operational in preparation for the anniversary. Naturally, the admins pull out their miniremos to try and fend us off.

===========

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

They attack us with a colorful assortment of pokemon: Alakazam, Sceptile, and Luxray. Sceptile and Luxray are fairly simple to pick off, but Alakazam here is the star of the show as he's a new capture! Alakazam teleports frantically around the stage and occasionally attacks with a barrage of Shadow Ball. It's a bit of a headache to capture due to all that teleporting, so I recommend focusing your efforts on getting Luxray and Sceptile out of the way so that you can focus on Alakazam. But Alakazam's teleportation will also make capturing the others annoying since he'll frequently teleport right into your line. Just endure it and keep looping until you've got them all captured. This isn't actually a difficult capture, just a long and grueling one.

When not under the influence of hypnosis, Alakazam provides a Psychic Assist and the Teleport Map Move.

===========

With the admins defeated, they all try to run away but end up running right into Barlow who's standing guard right at the door. With that sorted, we get to witness a heartwarming reunion between Isaac and Melody. Isaac laments that he's completed work on the Incredible Machine already, but Keith insists the most important thing is that he and Melody are okay. Isaac insists he goes with us to accompany us on the rest of our mission to stop Blake Hall's plans. He knows the way around the tower, of course, and also has the technical know-how to disengage the barriers preventing Sven and Wendy from approaching the Shadow Crystal. He sounds like an invaluable ally for the last step of our plan, so it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Barlow escorts Melody home to Pueltown while we continue with our mission with Isaac in tow.

As we make our way back into the hall, we're swarmed once again by Dim Sun Admins. I swear these guys are breeding like rabbits!

...don't look too deep into that choice of idiom.

============

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

This time, it's Skorupi! Not much to say, just dodge their attacks and capture them.

--------------

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

But then we're attacked from the other side with three Bronzor! Same story, different pokemon.

============

With the swarm of Admins swatted down, we make our way toward the stairwell. Isaac steps up to disengage the electric barrier and grant us access to the 11th floor. But as he gets to work, we hear more Admins coming our way. It looks like we're gonna have to stall for time while Isaac works the lock.

============

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

Three Bellossom! Their Leaf Storm can be tough to dodge, especially in high numbers, so watch out! 

-------------

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

The next two attack us with three Cacturne! Pretty much the same difference. Their Pin Needle is more dangerous in larger numbers, so be careful as you try and capture them!

-------------

  

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

And the last three admins work together to attack us with a Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. It's a cute matching set, but none of these are particularly threatening pokemon and don't really synergize very well, either. So it's a pretty simple capture even compared to the ones that came before. I suppose the catch is that there's no obvious weakness they all share, but I didn't feel particularly pressured to use any assists in any of these battles.

============

With the admins fended off, Isaac finally gets the lock disengaged and we can make our way up! The 11th floor is an outdoor balcony where we receive a voicemail from Prof. Hastings commending us for our excellent work. Hastings is sending a Staraptor up to our location for Keith to ride with the Yellow Gem.

As the Staraptor arrives, Keith gets on board, but just as he's describing how excited he feels...

Music: Crisis (Call to Action)

Lavana arrives with the Crimson Unit and a Magmortar! She attacks the Staraptor with the Magmortar, sending the Staraptor flying off along with Keith who dropped the Yellow Gem, leaving it behind. Lavana happily picks up the Yellow Gem.

A loud sound is heard and Lavana is confused. The sound apparently indicates that the Incredible Machine's already being turned on, but she quickly realizes that the machine is being activated because it'll slowly creep up in power until it reaches 100% by midnight. With that, Lavana retreats with the Yellow Gem and leaves us to the Crimson Unit once again.

============

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admins

These two attack us with a Scizor and Gardevoir. A troubling combination. Scizor is already really annoying to capture, but Gardevoir shares all its annoying qualities with Kirlia and is tougher to boot. Gardevoir will teleport around like Kirlia and also fire off Shadow Balls in sporadic directions. She can also create a large Barrier of Shadow Balls that's pretty much impossible to loop around, so you'll just have to wait it out unless you've got some projectile assists to pull out. This battle isn't too terribly difficult, but patience is definitely necessary with Gardevoir. Focus on getting Scizor out of the way first and foremost, then focus your efforts on capturing Gardevoir when she's not constantly warping around.

When not under the effects of hypnosis, Gardevoir provides a Psychic assist and Psy Power Lv. 3.

=============

With the girls defeated, they surprisingly seem to turn around. Rather than running to Lavana, they confess that they're actually starting to think the rangers are pretty cool and decide to run away instead of back to their boss.

After receiving word of Keith being blown off the roof of the tower, we receive another voicemail from Hastings who insists we have to continue going up. Even without the Yellow Gem, the Red and Blue Gems should be able to dramatically reduce the power of the Shadow Crystal. As we speak, the Incredible Machine is already starting to take effect as we can see the effects of a typical gigaremo creep up around here even at these low power levels.

Thankfully, Prof. Hastings adds some good news to this exchange: He'd had our styler modified to contain the fragments of the three Tears of Princes and the reason, he reveals, is that the scientists have made a breakthrough and just now finally finished development on a new upgrade to the Fine Styler. One that should be able to reverse the effects of the Shadow Crystal entirely when used to capture a pokemon. In essence, this means with this upgrade, the Styler should be capable of allowing us to befriend even pokemon under the effects of Gigaremo hypnosis. This program is dubbed the Incredible Program and the newly upgraded styler will be called the Vatonage Styler, named after a mostly-forgotten word "vatonage" which means to rekindle light that has been lost to darkness, as explained by Principal Lamont way back in the beginning of the game. It was obvious foreshadowing back then, but it's still cool to see things come full circle!

With that, Hastings sends us the data to upgrade our Styler with the Incredible Program to create the first ever Vatonage Styler! And with that, we're entrusted to the last leg of the mission!

But ooh boy do we still have quite a ways to go. And with that, I definitely think this is a good stopping point. There's a Save Point here, after all, and for good reason. Keep in mind, we've yet to deal with the Sinis Trio and, of course, they're going to be defending each of the barriers ahead of us. The Sinis Trio is the last thing standing between us and Blake Hall himself.

In this post, we've completed the first leg of Operation Brighton: We've rescued Isaac and Melody. Our next priority is to get those barriers shut down. Hopefully in the process we can recover that Yellow Gem. And with our new Vatonage Styler, we no longer have to fear the effects of the Incredible Machine making the upcoming pokemon impossible to befriend. We'll be able to get them to lend us their power even if they're under the effects of hypnosis!

With that in mind, next time, we'll continue with this mission and march the rest of our way up Altru Tower. See you then!

[Aura]

Mission 16: Execute Operation Brighton! (Cont.)

We're in the final stretch of the mission and things are getting serious! Lavana knocked Keith off the rooftop and took the Yellow Gem. For now, we have no choice but to trust Keith is okay and continue marching up the tower to disable the barriers for Sven and Wendy's approach to the Shadow Crystal. We've also gotta get that Yellow Gem back from Lavana!

   

Inside the tower on the first floor, we'll find two Magneton as well as an Alakazam and Vaporeon. They're all under the effects of the Shadow Crystal's hypnosis, but thanks to our new Vatonage Styler, we can befriend them through capture anyway! This is functionally no different than capturing pokemon like before.

As we approach the stairs leading to the next floor, we can hear the computer announce that the machine is already 50% charged to reach level 2. Isaac explains that the tower has three power levels and with each level the range of the Incredible Machine's effects will be extended. If it reaches Level 3, all pokemon in Almia will be under the influence of the machine. So it sounds like we've got to book it!

  

The next floor has a Rhydon, Ampharos, and Golem. The stairs leading up to the next floor are blocked off with an electrical barrier that won't even disengage for Isaac. He's no longer recognized as an ally, which is only to be expected quite frankly. But that's fine, for now, we've gotta focus on disabling the Barriers, anyway. As we prepare to enter the room on this floor, Isaac warns us that Heath is likely to be guarding it. So we'd better be prepared for a matchup!

==========

        

My team here consisted of Magneton for healing, Primape for raw damage, Blaziken to tire them out, Scizor to stop attacks, Rhydon for easy damage plus pausing, Ampharos for pausing as well, and Golem for easy projectile damage. And then, Sneasel as my partner, of course.

==========

As we step inside, of course, Heath is standing right in our way and he's of course going to attack us with his Miniremo.

==========

Vs. Heath & Rhyperior

Rhyperior can attack with Rock Slide, Rock Throw, Stomp, and Earthquake, of course. It's not at all hard to dodge most of its attacks and it's pretty predictable all things considered.

I used Rhydon early on, Rhyperior's a Ground-Group so this didn't have an advantage, but I was a bit worried he'd be tougher than he turned out to be. The battle was over pretty much right away. Rhyperior didn't stand a chance.

Rhyperior offers a Ground Assist and no Field Skill. Unfortunately, even though the Vatonage Styler helps us befriend hynotized pokemon, boss fights still follow the classic rules where the pokemon immediately flees, just like in the original game. So we don't get to keep this Rhyperior to help with the next fight.

===========

After defeating Heath, he bails but not before warning us that we can't actually destroy the Circuit Ball he's guarding. This machine is what generates the yellow barrier surrounding the tower. Heath's designed a program to protect it! Quite surprising, actually, but Isaac explains he's the one who taught the Sinis Trio how to program, so Isaac has the program taken care of in 1.38 seconds. We can now do a target clear on it! The Circuit Ball requires Crush Lv. 3 to break. It's like a higher-tier Gigaremo! With that in mind, we can assume that Red and Blue ones will require Soak Lv. 3 and Electrify Lv. 3 respectively.

 

With Golem, we have just what we need to break it! With the Circuit Ball destroyed, the electricity surrounding this floor is removed, we can climb the stairs to the next floor, and we receive a voicemail from Sven confirming that the first barrier is down! There's still two more to go and no time to lose!

On the next floor, we hear the computer announce that 20% of charge remains until Level 2. This thing is charging fast! We've gotta step it up!

  

Up here, we'll find an Arcanine, Primeape, and Absol. Of course, there's another door. This one is home to the Red Circuit Ball guarded by Lavana, no doubt.

=============

        

My team here was mostly the same, I restocked on Rhydon but replaced Golem with Vaporeon. I figured if my assumption was right, I'd need Vaporeon's Soak and Ampharos' Electrify Field Skills.

==============

As we enter the room, we notice the Circuit Ball appears to be unguarded! As Isaac insists we go in and deal with it, though,

Lavana steps in, of course, and she's got her Magmortar with her. She tries the power of suggestion to insist that Isaac came to apologize and deliver the ranger to us, but it's of course a fruitless attempt, so she uses her Magmortar to attack!

=============

Vs. Lavana & Magmortar

Magmortar opens up with an explosive Eruption, surrounding himself in explosions similar to Infernape's Blast Burn. He also attacks with Lava Plume to create pillars of fire and Flamethrower to create a small, steady stream in front of him. It's surprisingly tiny for such a large pokemon.

Once again, I opened up with Rhydon's Earthquake expecting this thing to be a bit more intimidating. A little bit of Earthquake later and Magmortar was done for.

When befriended, Magmortar offers a Fire Assist and Burn Lv. 5.

=============

After defeating Lavana, she tells you she doesn't have the Yellow Gem on her, so we're outta luck on that front. But with her out of the way, Isaac can get to disabling the protection on the Red Circuit Ball. In 1.07 seconds he's done and we can target the ball with Soak Lv. 3!

 

Vaporeon, of course, is capable of handling this one for us. And with the Red Circuit Ball destroyed, a voicemail from Wendy confirms the second barrier is down and we can ascend higher up the tower!

As we make our way to the stairs, the computer chimes in again. There's only 10% charge remaining before Level 2 is reached. But as the computer assures there are no abnormalities, it seems to be bugging out and stuttering a bit. I suppose the system is starting to notice something wrong.

 

On the next floor, we'll find Vaporeon and Gardevoir. And, of course, Ice will be behind our next door. So let's get prepared.

============

        

The Vaporeon I replaced with the Gardevoir out here, and I of course replaced Rhydon once again, too. You can't convince me to turn down a Ground Assist when it's available!

============

And sure enough, we find Ice standing guard over the last of the Circuit Balls, and he's not gonna let us slip by without a fight! Isaac states that Ice is the "leader" of the Sinis Trio which is a genuine surprise to me. He always seemed like the runt of the three. If anyone, I'd think Heath was the leader since he's the only one to actually "defeat" us in our first encounter with him. But Ice is apparently the head of the trio. Huh.

============

Vs. Ice & Gallade

Ice attacks us with a Gallade! Gallade is a bit more intimidating than the others for reasons you can probably guess. It teleports around and unleashes fast Psycho Cut attacks, projectiles that slice quite a distance in front of him. He also drops electric orbs on the ground. Even still, Gallade isn't all that difficult, either. He's treated as a Fighting Group pokemon rather than a Psychic Group, though.

Luckily, I did have Gardevoir with me, so that's one Fighting type pinned down with Psychic energy!

When befriended, Gallade offers a Fighting Assist and Cut Lv. 5.

===========

With Ice's defeat, Isaac rushes ahead to disable the protection for the Blue Circuit Ball, but is surprised by the sophisticated code it's written with! Ice reveals that he took the time to study up on programming independently after not being satisfied with the simple code Isaac had provided.

We hear the computer's voice again announcing that the power remaining to reach Level 2 is "very little," and the computer's stuttering as it insists there's no abnormalities has only worsened, to which Ice replies that it sounds like it's got "abnormalities galore." Ice taunts Isaac that he won't have time to disable the program, but Isaac assures us that he'll have the program down soon.

While Isaac continues hacking away at the program, Heath and Lavana enter the room to make one final push against us, all together!

===========

  

The Sinis Trio & Rhyperior, Magmortar, and Gallade

Now for the real showdown with the Sinis Trio! All three attack us with their pokemon at once. This fight's a bit more dangerous.

Yet once again, it's nothing a little Rhydon juice can't cover for! Ground assists do wonders for group assaults like this one. All things considered, this one's obviously tougher than the trio individually, but they're still not so tough even together.

===========

Upon defeat, Lavana and Heath run off in a panic and Ice scolds them for their spineless behavior. As long as his program stands, the last barrier can't be destroyed! But as he speaks, he notices a smirk from Isaac who has successfully cracked the code! Ice immediately begins to panic at this realization, finally understanding how scary it is to have such a genius working against him. He leaves the Yellow Gem behind and runs off like the others.

With the Yellow Gem reclaimed and the program disabled, we can finally destroy the last of the Circuit Balls! Inspecting it, we can find it requires Electrify Lv. 3, as expected.

 

Naturally, with Ampharos, we can destroy the Ball and remove the last of the three barriers!

Just as it seems the action here is over, Isaac shouts for us to watch out and shoves us to the side before the machine explodes! As it turns out, there was one last booby trap left in the program. Without Isaac there, we could've been a goner from that explosion!

With the Three Barriers removed, Sven and Wendy can now draw in on the Shadow Crystal with the Red and Blue Gems. And with the Yellow Gem reclaimed, we've gotta be the ones to carry it to the roof and drain the power of the Shadow Crystal for good!

As we step outside, though, it seems we're too late to stop the machine from reaching level 2. A loud rumble is heard and the system begins counting down from 100% for the machine to reach Level 3. But the computer still seems to be having technical difficulties.

         

              

  

We soon get a shot of a laboratory on a higher floor where an arrangement of black Gigaremo are surrounding an ominous black fog. The researchers comment about how the Gigaremo are behaving weirdly, almost as if the creature in the shadowy fog is controlling them.

We then cut to a shot of Chroma Road where we see the influence of the tower spreading, infecting the pokemon in the areas immediately surrounding Altru Park. It seems even Dim Suns battling with rangers elsewhere in Almia are having difficulties controlling pokemon with Miniremo. They're only accepting commands from the Tower, now.

 

As we arrive on the next floor up, we find the room with the strange Black Gigaremo. There's not much we can do but talk to the two researchers who are confused as to what exactly is going on. There are also two Gengar in here for you to capture if you must.

And as we arrive at the next floor up, Isaac calls attention to a strange machine he's never seen around before... suspicious... There's also a save point here.

Once again, I think we've arrived at another good stopping point. Next time is certainly the finale of this story! We've completed the last two legs of our mission, to retrieve the Yellow Gem and Disable the barriers surrounding the tower. Next time, we'll bring the fight to Blake Hall himself!

[Aura]

Mission 16: Execute Operation Brighton (Finale)

As the clock ticks toward midnight of Altru's anniversary, the Incredible Machine, too, is charging up toward its third level of power that will allow it to reach the edges of Almia and take full control of all pokemon in the region. We've shut down the three barriers and reclaimed the Yellow Gem from the Sinis Trio. Keith is still missing in action after having been knocked off of the roof of the Altru Building, so it's up to us to carry the Yellow Gem to the Shadow Crystal as Sven and Wendy approach with the Red and Blue Gems. This is the final leg of Operation Brighton!

At the top floor of the tower's interior, we find a Magneton and a strange machine Isaac doesn't recognize. The way up to the roof of the tower is blocked by an electric panel that's no-doubt linked to this machine. Isaac steps up to the machine to disable the program but winds up springing a trap that locks him at the computer's terminal. He urges us to go on without him, he's unhurt, just trapped inside. We can get him out after we stop the Incredible Machine. He warns us that Blake Hall is surely going to have incredibly powerful pokemon, so we should only continue up once we're fully prepared.

============

        

I went back and grabbed Rhydon to replace the one I used against the Sinis Trio. I also have a Gengar from the floor below now. Other than that, my team isn't changed much at all from the last several times. These are what I consider some of the best abilities in the game, though I do prefer Ice to Electric and admittedly I'm not too crazy for Ghost either, but frankly all you really need are Ground, Steel, Ice, and Fighting. With those four, just about any pokemon can be captured with ease. Regardless, even without Ice, I can't imagine I'll have too many issues with the final boss. Worst case scenario, I can always go back after a failed attempt.

===========

Music: Blake Hall & The Shadow Crystal

By the time we reach the top of the tower, the Incredible Machine announces that it has reached Level 3.

We see shots of Pokemon falling under the effects of hypnosis now in Hia Valley, Boyle Volcano, and even Haruba Desert.

Back at the Union, we see Linda plead with Prof. Hastings to go help out on site, but Hastings strictly forbids it. The Rangers rely heavily on Operators' help from the Union. While the mission at Altru Tower is certainly critical, there are still vital operations all over Almia that require the help of the operators here. Chairperson Erma assures her everything will turn out fine, that the most important thing is to have faith in the Top Rangers at Altru Tower.

As we approach the shadow crystal, we find Blake Hall, alongside Heath and Wheeler, standing in our way. Blake Hall begins to explain his plan to us with this newfound power.

He explains outright that the Incredible Machine's range now reaches across all of Almia and announces that all pokemon are now belong to Altru and will do his bidding. He goes on to explain how this equates to dream energy, as all of these pokemon can be utilized to generate heat and electricity, completely removing the need for oil in Almia. And, he adds, in times of crisis, it would be hard to argue against the use of pokemon as soldiers in war, as well.

Wheeler insists Mr. Hall's words are lost on us and decides to make a "light meal" out of us with his pokemon.

=============

Vs. Wheeler & Bidoof

This one got an even bigger laugh out of me than the initial battle with Wheeler. Using the influence of the Incredible Machine, out of all pokemon in the entirety of Almia, what does Wheeler attack us with but a single, lowly Bidoof? The music is that of an Admin Battle, so you'd think it'd be at least a strong Bidoof, but nope, it goes down in a single loop like any other. You almost have to applaud Wheeler's bravery in thinking this would work.

=============

Upon defeat, Wheeler decides to use the Incredible Machine to summon another Bidoof to try again, but recognizing the pointlessness of this all, Blake shoves Wheeler to the side and takes his place.

Blake decides to give us a taste of what we can expect out of the sheer power of the Incredible Machine and goes to it to search for a pokemon fitting of the new era of darkness he plans to usher in. One pokemon immediately comes to mind, but he dismisses the idea. It's too early to use that one. So he searches the region. Eventually, he settles on one he found in Haruba Desert.

All the way from Hippowdon Temple, a Dusknoir arrives at Blake's command.

=============

Vs. Blake Hall & Dusknoir

Dusknoir attacks with Night Shade, Will-O-Wisp, streams of Shadow Ball, and Spite. All fairly standard attacks from Ghost-types, but his size and aggression make him likely the "definitive" Ghost pokemon.

Knowing this was likely just one phase of a grander boss battle, I decided to use my Partner's Dark Assist rather than committing to any assists from my other Friend Pokemon. The Dark Assist is particularly useful agianst Ghost Types not just for the type advantage but due to the many lingering hazards they like to spawn.

Thankfully, nobody's getting dragged into an abysmal future today! With some good spacing and careful looping, we can have Dusknoir captured in now time. As a Friend, Dusknoir will provide a Ghost Assist and Psy Power Lv. 3.

============

Upon defeat, Blake explains that he's impressed by our skill, but mocks us by explaining that he's already won. As long as he has the Incredible Machine, he can just summon another Pokemon and another, one after another until he winds. He is invincible. That is, until he notices the glaring weakness of his plan as we step toward him and our Yellow Gem begins to glow. We show him the gem, which he's surprised to see in our posession. Heath begins to panic and explains that he meant to report earlier that the Yellow Gem had been lost to us.

Blake is infuriated by this failure and begins to drill into Heath over it. He condemns Heath for having not even having the courage or wit to run away like the other two of the Sinis Trio. He adds that Heath has a lot of nerve to show his face after failing yet again. Heath responds by saying he stayed because he was worried about Blake, but he's silenced by Mr. Hall who adds that he has no need for underlings now that he has the Incredible Machine.

 

This is overheard by Sven and Wendy, who call out to Blake as they draw near. They bring their gems closer to the Shadow Crystal and call out for us to do the same.

As they speak, the clock turns to Midnight, which Blake notices and decides that it is the perfect time to summon the pokemon he was considering earlier. He returns to the Incredible Machine and summons one more pokemon: Darkrai! We see that Wendy suddenly begins to keep her Staraptor calm. From the lab lower in the tower, the Black Gigaremo all blow up surrounding the ominous Black Fog that begins to float upward toward the roof.

Behind Blake Hall, the ominous black fog begins to manifest, and from the center of it...

Darkrai appears under the influence of the Shadow Crystal. He commands Darkrai to attack, but not in the same way that pokemon usually do. Instead, a mysterious dark void begins to appear under our feet! Blake announces that Darkrai is dragging us into its world of darkness! But, just in time, Keith swoops in with Starraptor to rescue us from the sinking void! Apparently Keith was sent flying to the lookout range in Vien Forest. I suppose since the cliff is so high up, he wasn't badly injured from the fall! We hand the Yellow Gem to Keith so that he can return to the original plan.

Blake Hall is frustrated by this, but he reveals that the true extent of the Incredible Machine's power has yet to be tapped into. As there is actually a forbidden fourth level of power: Power Dark. This sends even Wheeler and Heath into a panic. Wheeler explains that even Blake himself said it's a level that must never be pushed as there's no telling what would happen, and Heath's loyalty is finally broken as even he can no longer follow Blake's command.

Music: The Incredible Machine (Level Dark)

As the machine reaches Level Dark, the machine's influence becomes unbearable for Darkrai and the screen begins to violently shake as the green lights indicating the machine's power level turn red in warning. Blake commands Darkrai to swat the Staraptor out of the sky overhead, but Darkrai no longer seems interested in taking commands from Blake. Instead, it uses its Dark Void to swallow up Wheeler. This is shocking to Blake who wholly expected to maintain control of Darkrai. Soon, Wheeler is completely swallowed up into the World of Darkness, leaving Heath and Blake alone. The Incredible Machine's control unit is destroyed under Darkrai's power as well. Heath finally decides he's had enough and runs away, leaving Blake alone with Darkrai and us. Blake pleads with Heath to stay and promises a promotion, insisting that he can make Heath the next president, but Heath no longer has any interest in continuing this lifestyle. Again, Darkrai's Dark Void begins to spread out to swallow up Blake. Blake pleads against Darkrai before begging for us to save him. Soon, he, too, is fully swallowed up by the Dark Void.

We are now left alone with Darkrai and can still hear the faint, confused voice of Wheeler from the void. It seems it's not too late to rescue them.

=============

Vs. Darkrai

Darkrai will teleport around and attack with Night Slash, and Ominous Wind to create shockwaves around himself. To make matters worse, our Styler doesn't seem to have any effect on Darkrai at all. Even when fully charged, nothing.

I somewhat foolishly took this to mean I'd need to use Poke Assists to capture Darkrai, so I went for Primeape and, still, nothing.

============

After attempting to capture Darkrai for a little while, the screen will fade to black and we'll be shoved away from Darkrai... is this the effects of Level Dark? Pokemon under its effects are immune to Stylers completely? Apparently Sven and Wendy are struggling to get close to the Shadow Crystal because visibility is rapidly dropping to zero. But as Keith draws close to them, the three Gems begin to glow together.

Music: The Three Gems and the Shadow Crystal

The light from the gems begin to leave their source and travel through the darkness as if seeking something... The lights approach us and begin to circle us, reacting to our Vatonage Styler! I wanted to note here that the music that plays during this section is the leitmotif of the Shadow Crystal that's been playing in the background of the recent tracks as well as the theme of the Three Gems that has been playing around the gems in many cutscenes involving them. I haven't linked that theme because I can't seem to find it on its own, only this version where it's mixed in with the Shadow Crystal sound.

Anyway, as the lights reach our Styler, they're infused with the Tears of Princes we've gathered together. With this, maybe we can make a difference against Darkrai.

=============

Vs. Darkrai

And now we get some true final boss music! With our Vatonage Styler powered up with the light from the Three Gems, we can finally make a dent in Darkrai's Capture Meter! As we draw with our Styler, the three lights will circle the Capture Marker. Darkrai will continue to attack with the same attacks as before. But this time, I wasn't sure if I wanted to use any Poke Assists to help. You probably can, but the standard line on its own felt pretty climactic. I instead just wanted to focus on using standard charged loops to capture Darkrai. Eventually, Darkrai will begin to use Dark Void to create a void in the center of the screen that'll grow larger. Steer clear of it to avoid damage! His Ominous Wind and Night Slash will get stronger and he'll also begin to attack with Dark Pulse. In addition, he'll unleash an especially powerful Dark Pulse that manifests at the top of the screen like a Spirit Bomb. This attack won't be launched like a projectile but will linger across the top of the screen forcing you to keep your loops along the lower part of the screen until it recedes. There will also occasionally be bolts of darkness that fall from the sky and create tears in the ground. This tears will also damage your line if you hit them, so you'll need to keep an eye out for them, too.

While I took quite a lot of damage in the process, Darkrai wasn't too terrible to capture even without assists. If you're going to use assists here, though, I strongly advise you to wait until this phase, obviously.

When befriended, Darkrai provides a Dark Assist and an Area Move: Dark Power. Perhaps in the postgame we'll be able to use Darkrai? We'll just have to wait and see.

=============

While we capture Darkrai, the darkness begins to lift allowing Sven, Wendy, and Keith to approach the Shadow Crystal with their Gems. As they do, the Shadow Crystal seems to resonate with the Gems and a bright line is shared between the four stones. The Incredible Machine loses its power and Darkrai releases Heath and Wheeler from the World of Darkness before leaving.

Blake and Wheeler are awakened from the terrible nightmare they'd just been having.

Barlow and Prof. Hastings arrive on the scene and Hastings catches Blake up on everything that's just happened before revealing the diary of Blake's father. He begins to read the entries previously deciphered aloud to Blake. In one previously undeciphered entry, a name we've yet to hear comes up: Brighton mentions his only son, Wyatt Hall. Another entry notes that Wyatt's name was changed to Blake with the desire that the Shadow Crystal would flow its power to him with the interest of Blake leading Altru to glory. But another entry reveals how Brighton greatly regretted this decision, as he came to understand that the power of the Shadow Crystal came by drawing on negative emotions. It took darkness from the hearts of people and stored it as energy. By drawing the power of the Shadow Crystal into Blake, Blake was experiencing an endless stream of negative emotions. This is why he had suddenly taken over the company and been so merciless to his employees.

Everybody makes a point now to refer to Blake as Wyatt, knowing that the name change was made in commemoration of a mistake that ruined his life. But even in light of this excuse, Barlow still insists that Wyatt must make ammends for what he's done. After leading Wyatt Hall down to meet the escorts who will take him in for questioning, we're left alone with the others of the Union and Hastings officially recognizes our mission as cleared!

All around the world, we see the Incredible Machine's influence being lifted from the pokemon across Almia. And we finally get to see the Go Rock Quads perform their new song! Now in celebration of our victory over Altru and the Shadow Crystal as opposed to in celebration of Altru's "dream energy." We catch up with those around us. Apparently Isaac promised to play with Melody all day. Barlow gives us one last mission for the day even though we just pulled an all-nighter. He asks us to go back home to Chicole Village and show our family that we're doing well as well as to show off the Vatonage Styler! Barlow gives us a Doduo to travel home on, so we do just that!

As we march through Vientown, the locals are all gathered to cheer for us. It's clear Barlow set this whole thing up so that we could see everyone here. What a sweet moment! We finally return to Chicole Village where our sister greets us excitedly, our mother tells us she knew we'd be okay and made Breakfast for us ahead of time and insists that we march up to bed and get a well-deserved rest after we eat, and our father tells us he's proud of what we've become.

We get one last shot of Darkrai circling the brightly glowing "Shadow" Crystal and with that, we see the credits!

What an incredible game! I can definitely see why this seems to be the fan favorite of the Ranger series. There were some really high-stakes moments, top-notch comedy, endearing characters, and shockingly emotional moments here and there. Even if you came into this game only expecting it to just be a bigger version of the original with a focus on Gen 4 pokemon, you're certainly not going to be disappointed! I think this game did everything the original did either the same or better. I can't think of anything I prefer from the original over the way it was handled here. I truly do feel like there is something missing form my childhood having not played this series because I would've loved these games, I think! Even if I likely never would've gotten past Drapion as a kid.

Anyway, after the credits are over, the game ends by saving and resetting. Next time, we'll boot the game back up and see what the postgame has to offer for us! According to the ending statistics, we've still got 20 more quests to do, and there's traces of the Legendary Golems throughout Almia which only makes sense since Regigigas was introduced in Gen IV. Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and Arceus were also suspiciously absent from the game's story. I wonder if they'll make appearances the way Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza did in Fiore? Well next time we'll start looking around at what's changed now that the Shadow Crystal has been purified! See you all then!

[Aura]

Well, yesterday we finished off the main story of Shadows of Almia, but as always, we're still not quite done with the game! There's still quite a significant chunk of postgame content remaining including a whopping 20 quests, several missing Browser entries, and we've yet to touch on those strange statues we've found throughout the world.

Chicole Village

As soon as we start up the game again, we're woken up in our bed by our little sister! She tells us that Operation Brighton was a week ago but the media is still writing about it!

She shows us another entry of the Almia Times detailing the events of the operation.

As we head downstairs, our family tells us that Chairperson Erma sent for us, though it wasn't urgent. Still, we'd better report to the Union anyway to see what's up.

Ranger Union

As it turns out, reparations on the Union after Dim Sun's raid have just finished, so Erma wanted to take this opportunity to officially promote us to Ranger Rank 10! This promotion doesn't grant us any new Poke Assists or the ability to bring more Friend Pokemon along. Rather, it grants us one new privilege. Erma gives us an entry pass to a Capture Arena. However, she decides not to tell you where the Capture Arena is. She'd rather have you explore the world and search for it yourself. An interesting challenge. I had a few ideas as to where it might be, but we're gonna put that to the side for now. In addition, Erma also calls to attention the fact that nobody has ever completed the Ranger Browser before. Perhaps we should strive for such a cause as well? One last priviledge our promotion grants us is that we can now view our statistics in the Union's lobby by speaking with a new receptionist at the desk.

But, first and foremost, we can bring up our Quest menu to see that, indeed, just about all of the remaining quests are available to us! Normally I'd single each quest out and go to them individually, but there are so many quests available to us all of a sudden that I think it's for the best to just explore the entire game's world and do the quests as we pass them! So, that's what we're going to do today: We're going to explore the world of Almia and go over everything that's new. At least, everything new that I happened across, myself. I'm sure there are some details I may have overlooked. This is gonna be a hefty post and I can't guarantee we'll finish everything here. So let's not hesitate!

Starting with our first client, here in the Ranger Union, you'll find Rhythmi and Linda Blocking the escalator leading to the top floor. Rhythmi stops us and tells us we can't go up! Linda mentions something about roses which Rhythmi responds to by telling you that they were arguing over what color the rose on the right hand of Roserade is. She pleads with you to go and capture one of them for her. Linda adds that Roserade can supposedly be found deep in the forest. We haven't seen one yet, but I suppose it's not out of the question we'll find one if we go back to the depths of Vien Forest.

============

Quest 41: Roserade Red, Roserade Blue

In order to find the Roserade in question, I went to the only forest I knew of in Almia: Vien Forest! Since I was told to search deep in the forest, I went to the deepest place I could reach.

You can actually get here by riding a Floatzel south from the Ranger Union. It'll take you down a winding, scenic path that leads you to the northern edge of Vien Forest. You'll drop down the waterfall and can dock at the landmass where you can find the cave with the Rock Statue. But, I decided to explore from the entrance of Vientown and ride using the Floatzel that appears near the Ambipom and Blastoise. (I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but every time you clear a quest where you catch a new pokemon in an area, that pokemon will begin to appear there in the future).

Along the way, while surfing up the river, I stopped by the first dock to poke around and found a Leafeon in the grass! As suspected, after clearing the game new pokemon appear all over the world! Even more incentive for us to thoroughly explore Almia again! And I encourage you to come and capture, and hold on to, this Leafeon. The reason is about to become obvious with our next mission. Hint hint. Leafeon will attack with Razor Leaf and create large thorny vines from the ground with Grass Knot. It can also use Razor Leaf to create a protective barrier around it. Leafeon provides a Grass Assist and Cut Lv. 3.

Continuing further up the river, we can now find Shiftry in the grassy field you can reach from the northern dock.

And down near the cave is where we'll find our Roserade! Roserade will attack with Razor Leaf and Grass Knot just like Leafeon, but it's a lot easier to capture with no barriers of leaves. Roserade provides a Grass assist and Cut Lv. 3.

The Rock Statue inside is still curious. And though we have seen a pokemon with Crush Lv. 5 to interact with it, that pokemon was Ice's Garchomp. For now, let's keep our eyes peeled for Garchomp.

------------------

Once you have Roserade, you can return to the Ranger Union with Staraptor to bring Roserade with you. Don't worry too much about wasting your friend pokemon you have with you, except for that Leafeon. You're gonna need to free up a lot of space in your party for some of these upcoming quests, anyway.

When you return to Rhythmi with Roserade, she doesn't actually seem all that interested? Instead, she tells you to quickly follow her. She seems excited about something!

As it turns out, Rhythmi and Linda were lying to us and made up that quest because they wanted to keep a surprise party for the Ranger Union a secret! The Tree of Harmony is surrounded by all sorts of beautiful flowers, there are jugs of milk and even a whole wagon! It must've taken a lot of work on the girls' part! They invite Prof. Hastings, Erma, and all the Top Rangers for their party! Linda sets up a Picnic up here! Linda asks Rhythmi to provide opening remarks, so Rhythmi explains that she and Linda wanted to do something to show appreciation for the Rangers for their heroics during Operation Brighton! How sweet! And so, everyone shares in a delightful picnic thanks to these girls. Afterward, we meet with Rhythmi who gives us our reward for completing the quest in person.

The reward for this quest is a Bug Defense Upgrade.

=============

Our next quest is on the second floor of the Ranger Union. In the Laboratory, we'll find this researcher here, Nage. Nage, along with Vatona, helped to create the Vatonage Styler. A curious name those two share. As it turns out, there's actually a bit more logic to their names beyond a quirky naming convention. But we'll cover that more as we explore the world. Anyway, Nage tells us the Ranger Union is collaborating with Altru now to research alternative energy sources from various angles. And to assist in this research, he requests you to bring him three Electric pokemon. Specifically, Raichu, Luxray, and Ampharos. This shouldn't be too tough.

==============

Quest 42: Charge Up the Trio!

The three requested pokemon are fairly easy to get.

Raichu can be found outside Almia Castle.

Luxray can be found a little bit into the Oil Field Hideout where we initially found it.

And lastly, Ampharos can be found in the Altru Building.

  

With these three pokemon, we can return to Nage who will be delighted to see the requested pokemon!

Our reward for completing this quest is an Electric Defense Upgrade.

=============

Our next quest is also on the second floor of the Ranger Union. In the Reference Room is where we'll find Murph! He has a special challenge for all rangers, dubbed, the Murph Cup Ranger Contest. Apparently this is a regular competition in which Murph tasks rangers with seeking out specific pokemon. The first person to bring back the requested group of pokemon is granted the title of "Awesome superstar." I'm not sure how official that title sounds, but a quest is a quest.

This one in particular is the fourth Murph Cup, and in this challenge, he requests to see all seven pokemon that evolve from Eevee! That's a very tall order. Most of these Eevolutions are hidden away in dungeons, they're scattered all over the world, and we haven't even seen Glaceon yet! Another caveat you may or may not have noticed: That's seven pokemon we need to bring. That means we won't have any spare room for a Staraptor and, if we capture them in the wrong order, we'll be stuck having to release one of them to make room for, say, Floatzel to get Leafeon or Drifblim to get Umbreon. This is a world tour of a quest if I've ever seen one! Well, we'd better get started!

=============

Quest 43: Murph's Ranger Contest

A task like this requires a plan of action: The top priority is to search for Glaceon while my party has no clutter. There's no telling how many Field Skills I might need to reach it. It could be free, it could be difficult to reach. Aside from Glaceon, all other Eeveelutions I know the locations of. I should prioritize the pokemon that require other Field Skills to reach, so that I get them while I have the free space to capture them and get out.

Vaporeon is actually found in two places, Almia Castle and Altru Tower. Altru Tower seems like it might be the easier of the two options, and it's not far of a walk from the Ranger Union. So it makes sense to save this one for last.

Jolteon can be found in Haruba Desert just north of Haruba Village if you exit from the upper cliff. Jolteon doesn't require any Field Skills to get to, either, since you can take a boat to and from Pueltown to get here. That makes Jolteon another low priority.

 

Flareon is in Volcano Cave and requires Torkoal's Magma Flow. I'll also need room for another Torkoal, or a pokemon with Teleport, to get out of the cave. Flareon's going to be higher priority.

 

Espeon, is a bit more complex. Actually getting to Espeon requires us to go all the way near the end of Hippowdon Temple which will require me to capture a Drifblim for its Air Lift. That said, Espeon is so close to the end of the dungeon that actually getting out will be as simple as just taking the extra few steps to drop down into the chamber at the end and take the warp back to the dungeon's entrance. Alternatively, I could bring another pokemon with Teleport to make the task slightly faster. Ideally, I'll also want that extra space in my party for a Staraptor to fly the heck away from Hippowdon Temple so I don't have to trek through the whole desert.

 

Umbreon also requires Drifblim to reach. It's found near the end of Chroma Ruins. Thankfully, the majority of Chroma Ruins doesn't actually require any Field Skills to navigate. You can actually drop through the whole thing after clearing the dungeon initially. But it just so happens that we need to use Air Lift at the very end of the dungeon to reach Umbreon's chamber. Once you've done that, I'll also likely want to make sure to have another empty space for a Kirlia to teleport out. I'll also want Staraptor to fly away, too.

 

Leafeon we just found in Vien Forest. We already have it, but it would be a high priority anyway since it requires Floatzel to reach and either another Floatzel or a Staraptor to get away.

Lastly, there's Glaceon who we've yet to find.

So, top priority is to find Glaceon.

  

Flareon, Umbreon, and Leafeon are all second priority as they all require at least one spare slot in addition to their own slot to leave their locations. I technically already have Leafeon, so I can go ahead and scratch that one off.

Espeon is third priority because, while I technically don't need an additional slot, it'll certainly be helpful to avoid a long trek through the desert.

Jolteon is fourth priority since it's right outside Haruba Village and can be reached without any Field Skills at all.

And finally, Vaporeon is last priority as it can be found in Altru Tower, making it not only accessible without Field Skills, but also the closest to the Ranger Union, making it the ideal final pokemon to pick up.

----------------

Ice Lake

I figured what better place to start my search for Glaceon than the frigid north, right? My initial idea was to start by exploring Almia Castle as I suspected Glaceon might replace Vaporeon here now that I can find Vaporeon in Almia Castle. Turns out, I was actually wrong!

A quick poke around outside the castle reveals that Glaceon can be seen on the ledge that previously didn't have any pokemon of interest on it!

In order to get to said ledge, we'll need to capture a nearby Empoleon and use its River Flow to surf down the east side of the icebergs and swerve around the corner to get up there. I suppose it turns out that Glaceon would've been another Top Priority then, after all.

Glaceon attacks with Ice Beam and Icicle Crash, but it's a mostly standard capture. Glaceon provides an Ice Assist and Crush Lv. 3. Now it's time to go down the priority list!

---------------

Volcano Cave

Flareon I feel is the trickiest of these pokemon to reach, so I figured I'd go there first.

With Flareon captured, leaving was as simple as riding another Torkoal back to the ledge to the south and hopping down toward the entrance. Easy-peasy.

-------------

Chroma Ruins

The next one was Umbreon. I actually thought this one would be a bit trickier, but just the one Drifblim is all you need.

After capturing Umbreon, I used a Kirlia to leave the cave.

---------------

Hippowdon Temple

Espeon was next! This required traveling all the way tot he depths of Hippowdon Temple, one of the trickiest dungeons to navigate, though I still prefer it to East Volcano Cave if I'm being totally honest. Espeon's chamber is at the very end in the maze of arrow panels. You'll need to navigate your way to the east side of the cave.

Along the way, we'll pass by a Dusknoir in the room with the Claydol and Gengar. Though we have no need for such a pokemon right now, it's there if you want it for something.

While following through with my plan to leave the dungeon, I actually found Garchomp! It's a bit sad to find him under these conditions, but we'll get other chances. Trust me, we're going to have a few chances. For now, we aren't going to have the party space to spare for him, so we'll just have to come back. But hey, we know where it is!

--------------

Haruba Desert

Up next was Jolteon, easy as can be.

--------------

Altru Tower

Last but not least, there's Vaporeon at Altru Tower which we can fly directly to without having to go through the Altru Building! I'll go over this place in a bit more detail as we do some more cleanup stuff. But long story short, with Blake Hall out of the way, Isaac seems to be taking charge at Altru and is working tirelessly to seek new ideas for alternative energy sources. Most of the old Altru staff has been hired back, so things seem to be running fairly smoothly here, if not a bit hectic because of their president suddenly going crazy. Anyway, for now, we're just stopping in to nab that Vaporeon and making our way back down to the lobby. Now that we have 7 pokemon, we can't capture any more without replacing any of our Eeveelutions.

---------------

Ranger Union

      

Finally, Finally, we have all seven Eeveelutions. We return to Murph with team of colorful foxes to claim our title of "awesome superstar," listen to Murph's... er... tasteful song, and, most importantly, our official Quest Clear!

Our true reward for completing this mission is another Time Assist upgrade! Wow, that was a lot of work for just one quest. Thankfully, I'd say that's the bulkiest of them. At least, until the tail end of all this.

============

We've got one last quest from the Ranger Union! And you might think we're done with flooding our party, but not quite yet. Wendy has a request for us just outside. She mentions that her partner Staraptor had a terrible experience during Operation Brighton and has been left traumatized. It no longer seems to want to fly. She suspects seeing wild Staraptor flying freely will make her partner want to fly again, so she asks for you to go and seek out wild Staraptor. Well that's fine, there's one right here, right? No, she wants six Staraptor. Okay...

Thankfully, six Staraptor isn't quite as overbearing as seven Eeveelutions. We don't have to concern ourselves with making our way back on foot if we can just find a seventh Staraptor to fly back with. With that in mind, let's plan our route!

=============

Quest 44: Staraptor High in the Sky

So, Staraptor are kind of all over the place. Getting six is pretty simple.

Of course, there's one right here at the Ranger Union.

A second Staraptor can be found in the southeast corner of Altru Park.

 

A third and fourth can be found on Chroma Road.

Our fifth will come from outside Chroma Ruins in the Chroma Highlands.

While you're here, you might also notice there's a new pokemon found outside the Chroma Ruins! It's Altaria! Altaria is a really annoying capture. It attacks with an obnoxious Reflect like Dragonair's and also attacks with DragonBreath and Twister, a new move that leaves a lingering tornado on the ground as a hazard. And Altaria isn't really worth the effort at all beyond the browser entry as it merely provides a Dragon Assist and Cut Lv. 2.

Back on subject, we're gonna head south through Vien Forest and explore around Vientown for our sixth Staraptor on School Road.

And last but certainly not least, we can find a seventh Staraptor on Chicole Path just outside Chicole Village which we can use to Fly back to the Ranger Union.

     

With our team of six Staraptor, we can return to Wendy and be treated to a heartwarming scene of the six Staraptor flying around in circles, encouraging Wendy's Staraptor to try and take off again, too! The group of seven circle around and fly higher and higher until they're offscreen! Wendy's Staraptor soon returns and she couldn't be more thankful for your assistance in helping her Staraptor relearn to fly!

Your reward for this one is a second Latent Power upgrade which increases the power of your styler if it reaches the Yellow Zone! I previously mistakenly suggested that the first one increased damage at 50%, but I somehow forgot that there's a Yellow Zone between Green and Orange! I believe the Yellow Zone is below 50% while the Orange Zone is probably closer to 25%. Either way, this thing allows us to tap into Latent Power at with more Styler Energy to spare! It's certainly a useful ability to have even if it's not going to see much use.

============

Anyway, that's it for the Ranger Union missions. And while I definitely don't intend to cover all of these quests one area at a time, I think the Ranger Union is a special case. My original intention was to cover all 20 quests in this one post, but Murph's mission alone was certainly a tall order. I think it's reasonable to cut things here for now. Next time, we'll try to do the remaining 16 quests around the world and hopefully explore the world a bit more thoroughly, too! At the very least, we're going to be exploring Altru Park, the Altru Building, and Pueltown.

[Aura]

Union Road

Alright! We're back to exploring for quests! Last time we focused exclusively on missions at the Ranger Union. This time, we're going to be trying to explore more of the world. The goal is to cover as many of the remaining 16 quests as possible, but at the very least I want to explore the Pueltown area. For now, let's start with Union Road since it's right outside the Ranger Union!

Right down the stairs from the Ranger Union is this old man who tells you about a Machop he saw training at Peril Cliffs. He watched the Machop train by lifting the boulder until the old man fell asleep. He was suddenly awaken by a loud boom and noticed the boulder on the ground without the Machop in sight. He fears the Machop may have gotten trapped by the boulder! He asks us to go and check on the Machop and see if it's okay.

===========

Quest 45: What Happened to Machop?

This quest brings us back to Peril Cliffs. It's been a while since we've had anything of interest here. If you've broken the boulder to create a shortcut to the east side of the mountain already, this quest should be a really simple one.

Along the way past the Boulder, you'll pass by the area where you fought the two Rampardos earlier in the game. Now, you'll find a wild Rampardos here, and I recommend you catch it as its Lv. 5 Tackle is going to be important for an upcoming quest.

As you reach the cliffside where you previously had to destroy Gigaremo, you'll find the Machop in question behind the giant boulder it was supposedly lifting! It must be too tired to lift it now, so we've gotta help it! This thing is going to require Crush Lv. 4 to destroy, however. You might think to leave and seek out a pokemon with Crush Lv. 4, but we may as well continue exploring this area. Maybe something new's appeared?

And sure enough, at the top of the mountain along the vines, the part of the mountain where you can find Cherrim and have to dodge Gligar while climbing vines, you'll find Aerodactyl! Aerodactyl is a rather threatening pokemon that attacks with Hyper Beam, Tackle, and Roar to attack in a shockwave around it. It moves around a lot as well, so leave space for it! Aerodactyl provides a Rock Assist and Crush Lv. 4, exactly what's needed for that boulder!

 

So, with Aerodactyl's help, we can smash the Boulder here.

Immediately after being freed, it seems the Machop is scared by the sudden attack and attacks us! Get ready to capture! Machop isn't a very difficult capture, of course. It attacks with a strange Aura Sphere-like projectile? I wouldn't expect an attack like that form a Machop, but the projectiles come out four at a time in a fan shape, so be wary of it. I haven't mentioned yet, but I actually did swap Mime Jr. back in as my partner since Sneasel got plenty of time to shine earlier and Mime Jr. still hasn't really gotten much to work with. This is a good opportunity to make use of that Psychic assist!

 

Of course, after this mission is finished, Machop joins us as our new Partner! A Fighting assist is certainly a really powerful tool to have, so I certainly wouldn't turn this one down.

==============

As we continue to explore Union Road, we won't find any more missions, but if we talk to Mr. Stubborn, the man who had a major aversion to science, we find out that he's the father of Vatona and Nage who created the Vatonage Styler that saved the world from Dim Sun. He acknowledges that perhaps he's misjudged science, and Rangers, and after this change of hard asks you to stay for a cup of tea. While a simple character arc, I thought it was pretty neat.

==============

Altru Park

Bringing our attention to Altru Park, life seems to be returning to normal for the people inhabiting the park. Some of them are talking about the Go-Rock Quads while some of them are expressing surprise at what was going on at Altru this whole time. The security guard watching over the exit to Chroma Road mentions that he wants to work for the new Altru. As a security guard, of course.

While exploring Altru Park, we'll find a young woman east of the stage who mentions a white pokemon of peace that's been spotted flying around the top of Altru Tower recently. She asks us if we could go and look for it to show her what kind of pokemon it is.

==============

Quest 46: White Pokemon for Peace

As we climb up Altru Tower, we'll find that things are mostly left unchanged, except for the top few floors where the pit that once contained Darkrai with Black Gigaremo is now empty and glowing with a bright light.

At the rooftop, we'll find the White pokemon of Peace in question: Togekiss! Togekiss will kite around the stage, attacking with a flurry of Aura Sphere in random directions as well as creating Twisters to generate hazards. Most annoying, it can use Reflect to generate a barrier around itself with quite a large radius, making it really difficult to loop. Togekiss provides a Normal assist and Cut Lv. 3.

Also, while you're up here, you'll find the three Gems still swirling around what used to be the Shadow Crystal, now the Luminous Crystal shining with a brilliant light.

 

In front of the Luminous Crystal is the Drowzee Guy from the first game! He'll offer to let you relive a memorable battle. Just like in the first game, I suspect this will let you redo the final boss battle whenever you want. I think I'm gonna pass on that offer for now. But I'll probably take a peak at it in the end just to see exactly what it's like.

There actually isn't a Staraptor to Fly back down, so I suppose we'll need to make our way down the tower manually.

As we make our way down the tower, we can go ahead and explore it a bit. We can find Isaac in the room where he was previously forced to work by Dim Sun. Now, tensions are a lot less, but he still seems very busy trying to find a new solution to the energy problem. Let's not forget the whole reason Altru got fixated on the Shadow Crystal in the first place was due to an oil crisis in Almia.

 

The most significant change in this building is that you can now find Gallade in the room where the Yellow Gem was being contained! If you recall, Gallade had a Lv. 5 Cut Field Skill which is one of the three skills we needed for those strange statues. So you may wanna keep these guys in mind.

With Togekiss in tow, we can return to the girl in the park and show it to her. She'll be happy, call the pokemon adorable, and us adorable, too. I guess we're getting a little flirty now, are we?

Your reward for completing this quest is a Poison Defense upgrade.

===========

 

Chroma Highlands

Before we head south into Pueltown, let's make a quick detour to Chroma Highlands were there is a single new quest for us. But it's a bit of a pain to get to as it involves traveling through the entirety of Chroma Ruins to get to.

That's right, this one is located in the abandoned Altru building at the Chroma Highlands. You'll find Ponte here and he seems to have finally found his calling in life! He's inspired by Mr. Woodward in Vientown and wants to practice wood sculpting! There's one pokemon in particular he wants to carve a statue and he asks you to help him find a pokemon with a big red nose and an impressive moustache.

============

Quest 47: Ponte's Path to Take

The pokemon Ponte is referring to sounds to describe Probopass! But that's a bit of a problem if you haven't gotten to Probopass' chamber yet. Remember that it's blocked off by a Red Sealed Door that requires Psy Power Lv. 3 to open up.

Well, you no longer have to go all the way to th eend of Almia Castle to get such a power, Gengar can be found in Altru Tower. You might find that one a bit more convenient for this task.

Since I've already captured Probopass before, this one was as simple as going back to where I'd caught Umbreon and catching Probopass instead. But if you haven't found Probopass yet, you'll need to bring Gengar or any other Psy Power Lv. 3 pokemon to open the Sealed Door first.

Bring Probopass to Ponte and he'll get to work with his carving right away, and he'll ask you to go with him to Mr. Woodward in Vientown.

You'll then appear in Mr. Woodward's house where Ponte will show his sculpture to Mr. Woodward. Woodward will criticize the statue quite harshly, but follow up by saying that he can see Ponte's spirit shine through, and he agrees to take Ponte on as a student of his craft. He is getting on in his years, so I suppose it's good to pass his knowledge down to the next generation. And that's quest clear!

For completing this quest, you're rewarded with a Rock Defense upgrade.

============

Pueltown

Now let's get back in Pueltown! Everyone in town is discussing Altru and recent events. We find that the plans to revamp the city have been canceled and the name for Altru Tower has finally been finalized. It will be called Peace Tower!

There is one mission in particular in Pueltown and it's from Melody! Melody recognizes that Isaac is working hard at Altru and doesn't get much time to rest, so she wishes to go to Altru herself and perform a song for Isaac! She wants to perform with four pokemon that can help with the musical aspect. Those four are Chatot, Kricketune, Chingling, and Jigglypuff. This doesn't sound too difficult!

===========

Quest 48: Gift of Music for Isaac

Once again, this is a quest that we'll want to do a bit of routing for. But it's not nearly as big a deal since there are only four of them.

Chatot is the easiest of these four to get, since they're right here in Pueltown.

 

Kricketune can be gotten from Vien Forest. It'll require Floatzel's help to swim up the river to it, though and you'll wanna leave room for a Staraptor, too.

  

Jigglypuff and Chingling can both be found in Crysta Cave, though they're easiser to get from opposite ends of the cave. You can enter from the Ranger Union side to get to Jigglypuff and from the Hia Valley side to get to Chingling. Both paths will require a Floatzel's help.

And while going to look for Jigglypuff, you might be surprised to find a Salamence in Crysta Cave, too! This guy's a bit scary to see! Salamence will try to attack you in the overworld and, in capture, it'll attack with Stomp, Lava Plume, and DragonBreath. It's quite resistant to capture, too, so you'll likely want to get a level 2 charge and try and capture it in one line. Salamence provides a Dragon assist and Crush Lv. 4.

-------------

   

So, I went and grabbed the four pokemon in no particular order and brought them back to Melody, who was ecstatic that she could now perform for her big brother!

Altru Building

We go together with the girl to Isaac at Altru. Isaac asks what we're here for, and Melody reveals that it's his birthday! Isaac had completely forgotten since he's been so busy. It turns out, this performance is a birthday present! How sweet! With this in mind, Isaac decides to let his employees take a break to watch his sister's performance with him.

And so, Melody performs her song "My Brother Isaac's Lullaby." And after the performance, Isaac thanks his little sister. Evidently, we were dozing off, ourselves. That was Melody's intention, though. She wanted everyone to fall asleep to her song because Isaac doesn't sleep enough with all his hard work. That's quite thoughtful of her! But that's that on that front.

We step outside to get our Quest Clear and receive our reward: A second Long Line upgrade! It's about time! Man, I wish we got this upgrade during the main story because, while the line was decently long, it bothered me not having the maximum line length for so long and now it feels like it's a little pointless. There's really not much game left. That said, we haven't been met with the toughest challenge in the game just yet, so this thing isn't going to complete waste.

===========

Vientown

In Vientown, there isn't too terribly much going on. We seem to be quite popular around here! We get a lot of appreciation from the townsfolk. If we check in at the Ranger Base, we can speak with Barlow who will give us a hint as to where we can find the Capture Arena Erma mentioned. He tells us it's in a place where we have to travel over the sea, but no boat can take you there. You'll need to get a pokemon to take you there. That's an interesting thought. But I imagine we'll stumble across the place sooner or later. We can also find out that Ollie has been convinced by Barlow to go and join the Ranger School! After all, people of all ages can join the school!

More importantly, we have a mission with Big Bertha! She has finally found the source of Little Tim's fear of pokemon, she overheard him talking in his sleep one night about a traumatic incident when he was a kid where he mistook a Slakoth for a plush doll and accidentally jumped on its belly only to wind up getting scratched. With that in mind, Bertha asks for us to go and bring a Slakoth there to help him overcome his fear.

=============

Quest 49: For Little Tim

The Slakoth we're after can be found at the Ranger School. You'll need any pokemon with a Tackle Field Skill to Tackle the tree at the entrance to the school.

 

The local Budew will get the job done nicely!

With this, Slakoth will drop out of the tree and we can bring him to Big Bertha.

-------------

Vientown

With Slakoth, we return to Big Bertha and she's delighted to see we've assisted her! Now, she calls Little Tim in and has him give the Slakoth a hug. Little Tim is terrified at first, of course, but as he hugs the Slakoth and realizes he isn't being hurt, he starts to notice that the pokemon is actually kinda cute. While it's certainly going to take a few extra steps going forward, he and Big Bertha are thankful for our help in getting him to overcome his fear.

Our reward for this one is a Ground Defense upgrade!

===========

Now, we can return to Chicole Village! There's actually two missions for me, here, but only one of them will appear at a time.

The first of these clients is our little sister who seems surprised to see us come in through the front door because she thought we were already upstairs! Apparently, she's been hearing sounds from up there and is now worried that it might be a burglar! She asks you to go check for her.

============

Quest 50*: Things That go Bump

As we go upstairs, we'll find a Munchlax in our bedroom! Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be the very Munchlax same munchlax as the one that Mr. Woodward was feeding at the beginning of the game! In case you haven't pieced two and two together yet, I numbered this quest with an asterisk because it's not actually available if you captured Munchlax way back then. I captured Pachirisu, if you recall, so Pachirisu was my first partner. Of course, these post-game quests are your chance to get the other two you didn't capture in the beginning! That also means that I'm not going to have access to Pachirisu's quest. But that's fine since we captured it early on, anyway.

Since Munchlax was an early cpature, he's quite easy to capture here. Though he is a lot tougher than in the beginning of the game, so you might want to do some charging. I could use Machop's assistance to soften him up faster, too.

 

Of course, upon completing this quest, Munclax joins us as a new partner! Our sister will be relieved to find out it wasn't a burglar after all and is happy to welcome the new friend to the partner farm!

============

Our second quest here is in the same location. This time, it's our mom! She says Prof. Hastings gave her a coupon to redeem for one free quest at any time, ironically voluntelling us for any quest she desires. Thanks... But, in a sweet turn of events, she decides to ask us for a very simple request: She's so busy that she needs somebody to read her the recipe she has taped to the fridge.

============

Quest 51: Mom's Recipe

Literally all we have to do for this one is click on the fridge right next to her and read the recipe to her. The recipe itself is very simple, just plop a bunch of vegetables from the farm into hot water and boil them. That's literally it. She thanks us for our help, and our little sister ends up booing! She says that's too easy to be a quest! But your mother insists that's okay with her, she doesn't want to tire you out with any challenging requests after all the hard work she sees you do.

With that comical quest out of the way, we're rewarded with a Fighting Defense upgrade!

=============

Ranger School

Our next destination is the Ranger School which hasn't changed much since we last saw it after the Cargo Ship incident. By the way, nothing significant has changed in the Cargo Ship, either, unless you've yet to go in there and get Lickylicki.

Our next request here is from Ms. April in the teacher's lounge. Ms. April explains that a Pachirisu has made its home in the schoolhouse, but it's become a nuisance by gnawing on and hiding things. She and Mr. Kaplan tried to capture it, but they were unable to because it was too fast. So she requests your help to capture it!

============

Quest 52*: Pachirisu's Hide and Seek

In case it isn't obvious, this is the Pachirisu mission I can't actually play myself. You'll only get to play this mission if you chose Munchlax or Starly in the beginning of the game. As such, I'll call the next quest Quest 52 as well. In the in-game list, this quest will replace the quest for Munchlax or Starly depending on which one you chose in the beginning of the game. It's not too terribly different from the Munchlax one. Simply head up to the second floor of the schoolhouse.

You'll find a Crate where there wasn't one before in the corner of the room.

 

Smash the crate with any Crush pokemon, the local Bidoof will suffice.

Inside, you'll find the little rascal! Pachirisu won't hesitate to attack when revealed, so get ready for capture! Like Munchlax, this Pachirisu is significantly tougher since you first met it on the beach, but it's still an easy capture overall.

 

And of course, the reward for this mission is Pachirisu as a Partner Pokemon.

==========

Our next client is Principal Lamont! He wants to let us in on a secret kept by only three people in the world: Himself, Prof. Hastings, and Chairman Erma. He doesn't say much more than pointing us to the Pledge Stone in Ascension Square. He also gives us a mysterious key to use there.

===========

Quest 52: Secret Kept by Three

If you recall, we found out before that the Pledge Stone could be interacted with but, at the time, we lacked the Tackle Power to knock it away because it needed a Lv. 5 Tackle. But that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

 

Indeed it does! With Rampardos' Tackle, we can move the Pledge Stone to reveal a secret stairway underneath it!

Down here, we'll find what looks to be some sort of abandoned study with a diary on a lone desk. Looking around, you can find a framed photo of what appears to be Prof. Hastings, Chairperson Erma, and Principal Lamont in their youth as well as bookshelves of reference books in their respective fields of interest. It looks as though these three were close friends, much like us, Keith, and Rhythmi. We find a diary on a nearby desk which the key from Lamont will unlock. Inside, we see that these three used this diary to communicate with each other.

This diary seems to explore the origin of the Capture Styler, the Ranger Union, and the Ranger School. Prof. Hastings starts the diary off by noting that he's on the verge of a breakthrough and will soon discover a new way to communicate feelings between people and pokemon! Lamont notes he's been looking into running a school to teach people about pokemon, and Erma notes that she wants to form an organization to protect pokemon and nature. From there, Hastings developed the idea for the Ranger Union! He proposed that the three of them work together to realize their dreams. Hastings would develop a tool for capturing pokemon, Lamont would create a school to teach about pokemon capture, and Erma can form an organization around protecting people and pokemon using captures in a peaceful manner. Erma responds with the title "Pokemon Ranger" she thought up to describe a person who would use Pokemon Captures to protect pokemon, nature, and people. With that in mind, she proposes the name of the Ranger Union as well, and Lamont adds that he would call his school the Ranger School. Meanwhile, Hastings doesn't seem quite as keen on coming up with the final name so well. He's drawn up the blueprint for his tool in question and calls it the Capture... Loopy-Looper. Yeah, the other two quickly suggest he comes up with a different name instead. The diary ends on the note of Erma suggesting they all meet at the secret room Hastings dug up on the island east of Vientown. Of course, referring to the final resting place of this diary.

So this was the base of operations for the trio as they finalized their plans for developing the Ranger Union, huh? And it was created by Prof. Hastings.

Once we finish the diary, Principal Lamont enters the room and adds that this was the place they pledged to make their dreams come true. Chairperson Erma and Prof. Hastings also join in. It's quite nostalgic for all three of them, for sure! Principal Lamont notes that we made a pledge here with Rhythmi and Keith, just like they did so many years ago. Erma wishes for their dreams to live on forever by passing their ideals on from generation to generation. Prof. Hastings adds for us not to feel pressured by these requests and to continue on doing as we will by the strength of our own conviction instead.

With that, our quest is cleared and we receive a Dragon Defense upgrade.

============

And with that, I think this is another good stopping point. We've explored the majority of Almia's Mainland now and uncovered the origins of the Ranger Union. Next time, we're going to take our journey to the more remote areas of Almia: Boyleland, Hia Valley, and Haruba Desert and finish up the last of these quests. We've only got 8 more to go!

[Aura]

Boyleland

We're back to more questing! This time we should be able to finish up the remaining quests in the game by visiting the more remote locations in Almia. And we'll begin here in Boyleland!

Our first client is in the elder's house. It's his granddaughter once again! As it turns out, apparently there used to be a tradition here in Boyleland called a Snow Festival where they would do a performance with pokemon to call snow to the island, a rare sight in such a hot place. However, this tradition has gone the wayside recently because the necessary pokemon haven't been showing up. So, at her grandfather's suggestion, she asks if you'd be willing to bring a Froslass and Glalie to the village!

=============

Quest 53: Snow in Boyleland

We already know we can find Glalie in Almia Castle, and I can't imagine there's any better place to look for Froslass as well.

And, sure enough, near the end of the dungeon, we'll find Froslass as we cross the bridge leading toward the tower where you can find Mismagius.

 

And before we take our leave, I'd also like to address that there are now two Weavile in the room where we faced off against Ice before. Weavile hops around restlessly and attacks with Night Slash, Dark Pulse, and Icicle Crash. It provides a Dark Assist and Cut Lv. 4.

 

Once you've got the requested duo, bring them back to the house and the Snow Festival will begin!

 

The two pokemon will hop onto the ceilings of the two houses in the front of the village and call forth a gentle snowfall over the island! The islanders are mystified by the beautiful sight. With that, the pokemon run off and the mission is cleared!

Your reward here is an Ice Defense upgrade!

===========

Our next client is the old lady out here in the village. She'll mention that she saw a Pelipper in Volcano Cave that seemed to be trying to communicate something. She requests that you go and look for the Pelipper to see if you can figure out what it wants. We'll need to go check it out!

===========

Quest 54: Pelipper's Plea

We'll need to enter the east entrance to Volcano Cave for this one. It's only natural, really, as this is the direction we'd find Pelipper normally.

As soon as we enter, we'll see the Pelipper in question. Just like Keith's Buizel or the Mime Jr before, it seems to want us to follow it! It flies up to the next floor, so we'll need to use a Torkoal and Drifblim to chase after.

On the next floor, Pelipper will lead us outside, where we'd normally find one.

As it turns out, the Pelipper was trying to lead us to an injured Gible! But Gible is afraid due to its injury, so it of course tries to attack us! It only tries to attack with Mud Bomb, so it's not a difficult pokemon to capture.

After calming Gible down, we treat its injury.

 

With this, Gible forms a strong bond with us and joins as a new partner! I've already expressed my distaste for the Dragon assist, though, so I can't promise this guy will get much use compared to the others. But I'll make sure to use it... once.

While we're here, we may as well explore this area more thoroughly.

As you progress through Volcano Cave toward the Red Gem, you'll eventually cross paths with a Charizard! Charizard will attack with Lava Plume and Fire Blast. It's actually a lot easier in this game since it doesn't rain fire all over the environment like in the original game. Charizard provides a Fire assist and Burn Lv. 4.

In addition, you can also find Magmortar. That's a Burn Lv. 5! Why does that sound significant, again...?

============

Shiver Camp

Our next destination is Shiver Camp!

Our first client here is Pamur! He mentions that Murph was staying the night here but seems to have disappeared overnight. He's a bit worried about his son and asks for you to go look for him. He mentions that he went off to see Mrs. Winter the previous day, so that seems like as solid a lead as any.

==========

Quest 55: Murph's Disappearing Act

Our first lead is to go and check in with Mrs. Winters at her cabin. She mentions that Murph dropped in earlier today and then headed out toward Almia Castle. Simple enough, he must be at Almia Castle, then!

---------------

Almia Castle

We've been to Almia Castle a lot recently, and there's really not much else to talk about here. Well, there is one thing, but I think that's best left for a future post.

Get to the very end of Almia Castle and you'll find Murph standing at the altar where the Blue Gem was. He explains to you that he just came here to search for more Tears of Princes with the intent to repair his pendant. He's a bit confused as to why his father would send a ranger to look for him because he claims he left a note explaining that he'd be out. But he soon finds out that very note is still sitting in his pocket! Having realized his mistake, he rushes right back to camp!

Back at camp, Murph apologizes to Pamur about his mistake. He explains that he wanted to repair the pendant because it was a gift from Pamur. Pamur isn't mad in the slightest and just asks if Murph is feeling a little cold. He asks for Murph to stay another night at the camp, which Murph agrees. And that's mission clear!

Our reward this time is a Steel Defense upgrade!

===========

Hia Valley

Our next destination is Hia Valley where there is one more quest. And we've already spoken with our client, actually.

I'm, of course, referring to Mrs. Winter. She explains to us that the path to Almia Castle is obstructed with ice and asks for us to go and melt the ice in front of it. A bit annoying, but nothing too terrible.

============

Quest 56: Access the Ice Castle

  

There are now three chunks of Solid Ice in front of the castle. That's odd, we've been here several times and those weren't here before. Though they aren't quite blocking the way to the castle proper, they are restricting the space and I can see how they might be a bit disruptive. Each of these requires at least Burn Lv. 2 to melt. There are two approaches to this task.

One is to head into the Castle where you can find Ninetales. You can travel back and forth between Ninetales and the ice three times and melt it all that way, this is actually the approach I took. I could've used the Magmortar from earlier, but... well, I'll leave to your imagination why that wasn't desirable. Unfortunately, there are no new pokemon in the area with Burn Lv. 2 or higher, so if you take this approach to conserve space on your team, you'll need to make a few trips.

The alternative is to get Burn pokemon from elsewhere. You have a few options in this respect.

 

At the Chroma Highlands, you can find two Rapidash side by side. Paired with the Ninetales at Almia Castle, these three will be sufficient for melting the ice.

      

Alternatively, there is a wide array of Fire types in Volcano Cave that are capable of melting the ice! If you don't mind traveling on Torkoal or some Drifloon carrying you, you have the king's choice of pokemon to bring with you! You can easily grab three pokemon and head back to Almia Castle to melt all the ice in one go.

 

 

 

As previously mentioned, I took the first approach to melt all three chunks of Solid Ice with Ninetales.

With the ice cleared, we report back to Mrs. Winter who's happy to hear the ice has been cleared!

Our reward for this mission is a Flying Defense upgrade!

============

Haruba Village

Our next destination is Haruba Village!

Our first client here is this boy up here who seems worried about something weird he saw crawling around the nose of Hippowdon Temple. He suggests it might've been a Tumble Weed, but he's worried it might've been a pokemon that needs help. So, let's get going there.

=============

Quest 57: Who is on Hippowdon's Nose?

To answer this question, we've gotta make our way to Hippowdon Temple. Specifically, we've gotta progress through the Temple until we reach the elevator that takes us up to the top of the Hippowdon Statue.

It's up here that we'll find the suspect to be none other than a Hippopotas! But this is no time to settle, it's stuck at the ledge and is about to fall off! Let's go rescue it! Of course, it's scared and will attack us as per usual. Hippopotas is a standard capture, it occasionally attacks with Mud Bomb and its description says it creates tremors, so I assume it attacks with Earthquake, too? Or perhaps it's more like Stomp. I only remember seeing it throw Mud Bomb, myself.

 

As you'd probably expect, Hippopotas joins us as a new Partner representing the Ground type! Contrary to Gible, this is a partner I'm really excited for! The Ground Assist is incredibly useful for any pokemon that's touching the ground. I do think Munchlax, Machop, Shieldon, and Snover are the most universally helpful partners, but I won't say no to a Ground Assist, either! It's probably the type of assist I've used the most during difficult battles.

===========

Haruba Desert

While we're not quite done with the quests in Haruba Village, this quest leaves us right at the footsteps of another quest! There's an explorer here who mentions a Starly that seems to frequently get lost inside the temple. It keeps going deeper and deeper until it can't find its way out anymore.

===========

Quest 58*: Starly Lost Its Way

As you can probably guess, this mission will only appear if you didn't befriend Starly in the beginning of the game. It seems to be the most unique of the three, so I'm kinda glad I chose Pachirisu.

Anyway, for this mission, we're once again going to have to make our way to the depths of Hippowdon Temple until we arrive at the maze of arrow panels.

It's down here where we'll finally find that Starly! But we'll need to chase it around a bit as it'll get scared and run away from us if we approach it. Eventually, it'll stop at an area where we can take a specific arrow path that'll take us directly into it! And that's when we'll have our chance to capture it! Starly attacks with Gust and just like the other two, it's more difficult here than in the first encounter, but it's still a baby-easy capture all things considered.

 

And with that, we've got one more partner obtained! Though I'm not sure I can say the Flying Assist is too terribly useful at this point in the game.

===========

Our next client is an old lady in one of the houses. She mentions that there are kids trying to perform traditional rituals to summon rain and restore the village's oasis. They don't seem to be having success and the Oasis does need to return so they can have easy access to water again. So, she asks you to bring a pokemon capable of making it rain. However, she doesn't want to ruin the children's imaginations,s o she asks that you use the pokemon's ability in such a way that the children do not see it. It's an interesting one!

==========

Quest 59: Bring Back the Oasis

Obviously, the pokemon we need here is Blastoise! I think it's quite fitting that Blastoise was probably our first difficult capture in the game and now, things have come full circle with it being one of the last pokemon we need to capture, too. It's significantly easier now with all of the upgrades and levels we've gained since our last encounter, it just goes to show how far we've grown as rangers! I remember when this thing was scary to me.

Haruba Village

With Blastoise in tow, we return to Haruba Desert, but we've gotta find out how to make it rain from out of view of the kids. The old lady recommends we take Blastoise to the top of the cliffside to use its ability. So, we do that and use Rain Dance to call rain and fill the oasis again! The children are ecstatic and convinced that their rituals worked! How heartwarming! That's quest clear!

Our reward for this one is a second Recovery upgrade! With this, every successful capture will now recharge our styler by 3 units rather than just 1.

===============

And that's it! But... wait a minute, really? I've only done 59 quests and the game said there were 60! Well, as it turns out, if we check our list of quests we'll find one new mission has opened up in Chicole Village. So, let's make our way there.

===============

Chicole Village

We're all the way back home! We've been all over the world, yet there's one last quest we've yet to do.

Our final client turns out to be our neighbor, Ollie's mother. The woman is worried about her son, telling us that he still has nightmares of the forest fire. It must've been a really traumatic incident for him. Even though he's pulling his weight and really helping out the Ranger Base in Vientown, he still feels guilty about all the damage he caused for the forest. I can only imagine, honestly. Vientown rangers probably spend a lot of time in Vien Forest and that place is a living reminder of the biggest mistake of his life in the sorry state it's in. Ever since the fire, the main part of the forest has never been the same.

Ollie's mother asks for us to go and have a talk with Ollie, as he seems to really need a sympathetic ear.

=============

Quest 60: Wish for Vien Forest

We can find Ollie in the burned section of Vien Forest. Ollie explains that he told his mother not to worry, but he's finally found out what he needs to do to make things right. He wants to seek out a legendary pokemon called Celebi that he heard Elaine talk about. Apparently Celebi is seen in the forest only very rarely, but it's said that it lives near a waterfall. The only problem with that is, Ollie isn't even certain there is a waterfall in the forest. However, we happen to know exactly where one is. He asks for our help in finding Celebi, so let's get going!

So, we go and grab a Floatzel to travel upstream to the waterfall at the end of the river. And when we get off at the nearby dock...

By some miracle, we just happen to spot Celebi at the river! Celebi quickly flies off but it seems to want us to give chase! Does it think of this as a game? Well, let's play tag!

You'll need to chase Celebi through the field of grass. But it's much too fast to catch up to on foot.

There are Doduo for you to hitch a ride on. You'll need to weave between the patches of tall grass in order to keep your speed up and cut corners where you can until you can catch up to Celebi. It's a lot like chasing Lumineon and Sharpedo.

Once you finally catch up to Celebi, you'll have to capture it, of course! And Celebi is one of the more difficult pokemon to capture in the game. It flits about rather sporadically, it can create the most intrusive Shadow Ball Barrier in the game with a bunch of Shadow Balls that surround it in a wavy pattern, and it attacks with Grass Knot to create large thorny vines and Razor Leaf. There are points in its pattern where the barrier, its movement, and the vine hazards just make it impossible to approach.

Starly's Flying assist actually proved quite useful here as I could build Celebi's Capture Gauge even while I couldn't get anywhere close to it to loop it.

Anyway, Celebi offers a Grass Assist but no Field Move. Well, I suppose it does have one Area Move, but it's not listed as such in-game.

With Celebi captured, we bring it back to Ollie in the burned section of the forest. Ollie is incredibly excited to lay his eyes on the legendary Celebi! He jumps for joy and pleads with Celebi to restore the forest to the way it was before the fire, but in a tragic turn of events, Celebi seems... afraid of Ollie. It hides behind us and when Ollie tries to approach, it runs away...

Ollie is heartbroken by this, but he soon comes to realize why Celebi was afraid of him. Beyond just having caused the Forest Fire, he was still careless of the forest while searching for Celebi.

However, it seems that Ollie was mistaken in what he saw. Or perhaps Celebi was waiting for him to recognize his mistakes. Somehow, it seems Ollie's feelings got through to Celebi and the legendary pokemon suddenly swoops overhead and spreads its power over the forest, leaving a brilliant sparkling dust in its wake. A bright light fills the forest and, soon, the entire forest is restored to its former glory again! The people of Vientown all gather in the forest to see what the bright light was and are amazed to see the plantlife restored to the area that was so heavily damaged before!

And that's quest clear! But our reward this time is a special one. Instead of receiving a call from Rhythmi, Prof. Hastings arrives in person.

Our ultimate reward for completing our final quest is the Supreme Defense upgrade. This one upgrade boosts our defense to all types of attacks by 1. Combined with all the type defense upgrades, that reduces all damage we can take by 7!

=============

And with that, we have all 60 quests completed! But we're still not quite done with our cleanup operation. There's still that Capture Arena we haven't visited yet. There's also a small handful of Browser Entries left untouched. Next time, we'll be focusing on completing our Ranger Browser!

[Aura]

Chicole Village

We are rapidly approaching the end of Shadows of Almia! Yesterday we completed the last of the postgame quests, leaving us with a small handful of pokemon we don't have registered in our browser yet. These are pokemon that we haven't ever captured during the main story, as part of a quest, or found around while looking for any of that.

I decided to get Hippopotas out to help with this endeavor. Of the most useful partners, I think this is the one we've used the least.

==========

Haruba Desert

Our first destination is Haruba Desert. This is an area we've mostly bypassed by flying straight to Hippowdon Temple or Haruba Village. None of the post-game quests ever took us to the desert proper.

And that's quite significant because it's here where we'll now find Flygon zooming around! Flygon attacks with Whirlwind, creating a shockwave around it in the air, and Air Cutter slashing in front of it with projectiles. It's nothing too terrible to manage, but that Whirlwind can break your line if you don't give it the space it needs. Flygon offers a Dragon assist and Cut Lv. 4.

==========

Oil Field Hideout

Our next destination is Oil Field Hideout! One of our quests actually did bring us here to get Luxray. However, when I initially explored the area I actually left out one crucial location. I made the mistake of assuming that any new pokemon would appear where we faced off with Mr. Kincaid, but as it turns out, that isn't actually the case.

In the analysis room, just outside the room where we found Isaac, we'll now find Porgyon-Z! Porygon-Z will stop and begin spinning in place, firing ThunderShock in random directions. It also attacks with Discharge. Porygon-Z provides a Normal assist and Crush Lv. 3.

===========

And now we have only a few more empty slots in our browser.

  

There are still those three mysterious statues that have been plaguing me for a while now. No doubt, they're related to the Legendary Golems. And from that, we can deduce that the new pokemon Regigigas is also in this game, and that should account for all remaining Browser entries. So, how will we solve this mystery? Well, I suppose we should start with these statues.

Each of these statues required a different Lv. 5 Field Skill: Rock needed Crush Lv. 5, Ice needed Burn Lv. 5, and Steel needed Cut Lv. 5. None of which were available until the post-game. But we've already noted the location of the three pokemon in question.

For Crush Lv. 5, we need to head back down to the depths of Hippowdon Castle to find Garchomp.

For Burn Lv. 5, we'll need to look for Magmortar deep in East Volcano Cave.

And for Cut Lv. 5, we'll need Gallade from the Altru Building.

  

With these three pokemon by our side, let's go and solve the mystery of those statues!

==============

Vien Forest

The fastest way to get to the Rock Statue is to ride Floatzel south from the Ranger Union. Dock at the first dock and head south until you reach the cave near Roserade.

Inside the cave, you'll find the Rock Statue from before.

 

With Garchomp's Crush, we can destroy the Rock Statue. And when we do, the mysterious statue will be destroyed and reveal that it was sealing a pokemon underneath!

It's Regirock! Regirock will attack with Rock Slide and Earthquake. Frankly, a surprisingly easy capture. The Rock Slide lasts a little while and the Earthquake might catch you by surprise, but with a bit of care you should be able to avoid damage. Of course, assists can always help with that, too. Regirock provides a Rock Assist, obviously, but strangely no Field Skill at all. I guess they don't want you wasting this guy opening up a crate somewhere.

===========

Almia Castle

Up next is the Ice Statue in Almia Castle! There's no real quick way to this one. You've just gotta push toward the end of the dungeon until you reach the point where you needed to go seek out Mismagius.

We're going to the same room where we found Mismagius, but this time we're interested in the statue!

 

We'll, of course, need Magmortar's help to melt the statue and awaken the pokemon inside.

Of course, this one is Regice! Regice is fairly annoying because it'll continuously use Icicle Crash to generate large obstacles that'll wall you from being able to loop it. Hippopotas' Ground assist is able to help with this, as is a Steel Assist. Other projectile assists can also help, as would the Normal assist. Otherwise, just be patient and wait for an opening to present itself. Regice provides an Ice Assist and, again, no Field Skill.

=============

Chroma Ruins

Our final statue is actually the first one we found during the story. The Steel Statue is in the depths of Chroma Ruins, in the shaft that Spiritomb was guarding. Again, there's no real fast way there since you can't fly to the abandoned Altru building, so we'll need to find an alternative.

In this shaft, we'll find the Steel Statue right where it was left before. Back when we first saw it, I thought it might be some sort of special Gigaremo design. But now I understand what it actually is.

 

With Gallade's help, we can cut right through the thick steel armor of the statue and reveal the pokemon sealed by it!

That is, of course, Registeel! Registeel will create lingering mixture of magnetic orbs and sprts and can also protect itself with an Electric Light Screen. To capture Registeel well, you'll need to know when to keep your distance or when to push in. Or, do what I do and just spam Hippopotas to keep it from attacking! An easy victory for sure! Registeel provides, you guessed it, a Steel assist and no Field Skill.

============

And that's... every pokemon in the Browser, right? Well, of course not quite. There is yet one more pokemon that's nowhere to be found. Just who would that be?

Ranger Union

We return to the Ranger Union to see if we can find any information on our last pokemon. As soon as we enter the door, we're met by Murph who tells us the Union wants our expert opinion on something! We go and meet with Erma and the operators. Apparently, a strange pit of sinking sand has opened up in the maze of Hippowdon Temple. People are apparently reporting that the sand seems to be "calling for someone." That's an odd trait for a pit of sinking sand, for sure... Erma is concerned that it would be dangerous for the explorers at the temple if the pit is left unchecked. Erma is suddenly reminded of a legend she recalls of a great pokemon in Hippowdon Temple, with a saying that the pokemon awaits the "chosen one" who must deliver three three pokemon to it. She wonders what kind of pokemon it was, but apparently Rhythmi is one step ahead of her! Apparently we were taught in Ranger School about Regigigas!

Erma suggests you go and investigate the pit. It isn't an official mission, but she suggests an opportunity to meet a legendary pokemon is once in a lifetime. But I'm one step ahead. Of course I'm gonna get there asap!

============

Hippowdon Temple

I feel like I've gone through Hippowdon Temple and Almia Castle more times than I can count at this point, but I promise this is going to be our last time... at least... for this adventure. But that's neither here nor there.

We make our way to the depths of Hippowdon Temple once again until we find our way to the Arrow Panel room again. This time, the gap in the center now contains a massive hole of sinking sand just as reported! Naturally, I jumped right in to see what awaits me.

When you drop down, you'll find yourself in a chamber with three pedestals resembling the faces of the Legendary Golems. A voice will then call out to you, asking for you to deliver the three pokemon to him. As we approach the pedestals, they have inscriptions leaving hints toward the pokemon needed for them.

A body of stones and rocks. This Pokemon repairs itself with stones if its body breaks.

A body made entirely of ice. Yet, this Pokemon defies even the power of fire.

A body made entirely of metal. This pokemon's body is more sturdy than any metal.

As we place the three pokemon on the pedestals, they obediently wait motionless. Once all three are in place, the door leading deeper into the chamber opens up. The voice resonating within our heart beckons for us to enter. The Legendary Golems all take their leave and we'd better prepare to capture Regigigas!

=============

     

I'm pretty sure this door will open for you even if you leave and come back, so you aren't forced to jump right into this battle, but I suspect we'll be okay. I have a Machamp prepped specifically for this battle. In addition, I have Rapidash to tire it out, Bronzong and Hippopotas to keep its attacks at bay, and Magneton for healing.

=============

Inside the chamber, we find a platform hanging over an incredibly deep abyss.

And on that platform is none other than Regigigas who has been waiting for who knows how long to meet with its chosen one.

============

Vs. Regigigas

This is the secret final boss of the game, Regigigas! He is by far the most difficult pokemon to capture in the game. Regigias is so massive that just taking a step is equivalent to a Stomp attack. If this thing even starts moving as you try to capture it, its Stomp might break your line. You've gotta make sure to have plenty of space when looping, or expect to take massive damage. And that damage is nothing to shake a stick at, either. Each Stomp deals 18 damage. Reminder that that's on top of all of our defenses. That means it really does 25 damage! Though I don't think it's actually possible to do this fight without all the defense upgrades since I'm pretty sure you have to capture all other pokemon in the browser before this battle opens. In addition to Stomp, Regigas will also attack with a Hyper Beam that you'll want to steer clear of for sure. There's no telling how much that can do! He can also use Earthquake and Rock Slide, so be wary of those attacks, too.

The best approach to this battle is to try your best to cheese it with powerful assists.

I opened up with Hippopotas to prevent Regigigas from attacking. This makes it really easy to get a lot of free damage. What's more, even while the Partner assist is active, you can still fill your partner gauge by looping pokemon. So you can actually get Regigigas caught in an infinite loop by alternating between scrubbing and looping with Hippopotas. By the time the assist is over, you should have another built up already.

My biggest mistake during this battle was not going for another Ground Assist right away and trying for a Machamp's Assist instead. This is where I realized how much of a mistake trying to be aggro against this thing really is. The Fighting Assist I thought would be incredibly helpful since it's strong against Normal types, but I was dead wrong. It does nothing to make it easier to loop Regigigas and that's where I quickly realized just how powerful and scary its attacks really were!

I had to stop Machamp's Assist abruptly because I was taking too much damage and had to heal with Magneton.

I wanted to use Walrein to try and stunlock him, but I figured Hippopotas was probably the safer route. Regigas isn't actually all that mobile, so I think it's more important to just stop its Stomp attack.

Regigas provides a Normal Assist and no Field Skill, but it doesn't seem interested in following you around.

===========

Upon capturing Regigigas, our browser is complete! We're the first ranger in Almia to accomplish this feat! Regigigas congratulates us on this victory and remains in the chamber to await our next challenge.

As we leave, we receive a voicemail from Prof. Hastings congratulating us on our achievement and insisting you return so that he can analyze the data from your browser. Rhythmi interjects in the voicemail and congratulates you before telling you to hurry back to the Union because everybody is waiting on us!

===========

Ranger Union

We cut back to the rooftop of the Ranger Union where everybody is gathered around! Erma, Hastings, Sven, Wendy, Crawford, Luana, Barlow, Murph, Keith, Rhythmi, and even Isaac! Erma officially recognizes our achievement by etching a special mark into our styler. As we're the first to accomplish this task, we're the only ones to have this mark! And with a word of congratulations from everyone, we strike one more Ranger Pose and fade to white.

And that's it for today! I think there's only one more thing to do in our adventure. Now that we've finished everything in all the areas we've explored so far, why don't we find our way to a new location in that Capture Arena? I think I have an idea of where to look now. I wonder if any of you can guess it?

[Aura]

Haruba Village

It is time to get looking for that Capture Arena! The only lead we have is that we have to ride a pokemon across the sea to get to it. Where could we possibly find such a pokemon? Well, there is at least one location we haven't really explored since the postgame. Specifically, it's a location with a fairly redundant dock that was only used once in the story for Sven to drop us off at the Haruba Desert. I'm, of course, talking about the dock on the outskirts of Haruba Village.

It's out here where we'll find Wailord waiting for us! Wailord will happily deliver us to the Capture Arena!

===========

Capture Arena

This is the Capture Arena, available only to Rank 10 Rangers. It's supposedly the facility where even the best of the best take on tough challenges to improve their capturing prowess!

And our capture ability is tested right away with- oh, no, that's just a Staraptor. Why don't we go ahead and head on inside, huh?

Music: Capture Arena (Inside)

This place is a pretty easy to understand. I think we can skip most of the details and jump right into my own explanation. Essentially, when you take on the challenge of the Capture Arena, you'll have to leave your Friend pokemon behind, only your partner pokemon can come with you.

This place contains four floors of challenges, each floor having multiple rooms which will unlock in a static order. You'll need to clear one room in order to open up the next room, and the next floor will only open once all rooms have been cleared. The facility is shaped like a piramid, so the higher floors are smaller than the lower ones, but the battles only get tougher!

So, what do you find inside these rooms? Well, why don't we take on the first one to see just what's up?

For the record, I'm taking on this challenge with Hippopotas. I figured a place like this might be tasking me with capturing a large number of pokemon at once and I thought a Ground Assist would be perfect for such a task.

============

Capture Arena (Floor 1)

The first floor contains five rooms. Of course, only one is available to you in the beginning. In order to clear a room, you'll have to capture the boss pokemon in the back. But in order to unlock the door to the boss pokemon, you'll need to take the elevator in the room down to a small chamber where you'll capture a smaller pokemon, first. The friend pokemon you capture in these elevators can help you capture the boss

Once a room is cleared, the next room is permanently unlocked. You can replay each room as many times as you want, but you can't bring any friend pokemon into any other rooms. If you leave a room without completing it, you'll have to start over from the beginning. You'll also have to start over if your styler breaks.

--------------

Capture Arena (1-1)

In this case, it's a Gardevoir! You'll need to capture Gardevoir with your Styler alone. Without assists, Gardevoir is a huge pain in the butt to capture, so what would make for a better start? Yes, be prepared for some fairly annoying captures ahead of us. And you're gonna want to be good at capturing pokemon without Poke Assists as those are in quite limited supply here. The only assist you can rely on is that of your partner's. So make your choice count!

With Gardevoir captured, the door to the back opens up! Inside, we'll find our first boss in a room that resembles the meeting room at the ranger union. The screen seems to be showcasing the Capture Arena, but once the boss fight begins, the room will morph into a completely different environment!

Vs. Toxicroak

Gardevoir's Psychic assist can obviously help with this matchup. Easy as can be! Though it's worth noting this Toxicroak is a lot tougher than the one you met in the beginning of the game. It needs to, your Styler is a lot stronger now! I think you can see how this area is quickly going to get a lot tougher as we continue onward. And if not, it'll become clear that this is indeed the ultimate capture challenge in the game. It looks like all those Styler upgrades we've been gathering throughout all that questing are going to good use, after all!

---------------

Capture Arena (1-2)

In the next room, Shiftry is the pokemon you'll be facing off against down the elevator.

Vs. Spiritomb

This one is where the cheese strats start coming into play. Spiritomb is really annoying to try and capture with just your styler, and I imagine the idea is you're supposed to use the Dark Assist to deal with Will-O-Wisp and make it easier to capture. But I found the solution much easier to just use Hippopotas. I've learned my lesson from Regigigas. If there's a cheese strat, it's probably the best option to go for! Spiritomb is baby-tier if you just spam the Ground Assist with Hippopotas over and over.

---------------

Capture Arena (1-3)

 

This time, there are two separate elevators! These will lead to a Crobat and Alakazam. You'll need to capture them both before the way to the boss opens. I recommend trying to save their assists for the boss, but if you feel the need, you can use one pokemon's assist to help with the capture of the other.

Vs. Lucario

A little bit of Flying Assist to get some chip damage on Lucario,

And a little bit of Alakazam to keep him quiet when he's grumpy.

But above all else, a whole ton of Hippopotas cheese to top it off!

-----------------

Capture Arena (1-4)

 

Once again, we've got two elevators for this room. This time we've got Gabite and Absol. It's easy to underestimate how tough these pokemon can be to capture, but these are significantly stronger than any you'd find outside of this facility, that's for sure. Don't expect the same fast strats to work here.

Vs. Heatran

Can you say Hippopotas Cheese? Good job!

----------------

Capture Arena (1-5)

  

This is undoubtedly the toughest room on this floor. First of all, there are three elevators this time and these three pokemon, Gengar, Bellossom, and Blaziken, are really tough to capture without taking damage. Don't try to single-line these guys, I promise you it's not going to work.

Vs. Cresselia

And wouldn't you know it? The boss is the third of the Gem Guardians: Cresselia. Also the most annoying of the three. It's not on the ground so Hippopotas is useless here, too. You can use Blaziken and Gengar to tire Cresselia out if the projectiles get to be too much. I'm not really sure if Bellossom's Grass assist even works on Cresselia since it's in the air. Yet I can't imagine what other purpose Bellossom could possibly serve! Anyway, this fight was genuinely scary to me as it was the closest I'd come to dying yet! But I powered through and tried to paly things extra safe while makig sure to get some greedy loops in here and there to keep Cresselia's Capture Meter from depleting. Casual reminder that you're not permitted an emergency Magneton in these challenges! No brute forcing here!

===========

Capture Arena (Floor 2)

With the five bosses on the first floor cleared, the second floor opens up to us! Up here, there are four rooms instead of five, but we're warned there are more pokemon here than on the first floor. I wonder what that could mean?

---------------

Capture Arena (2-1)

   

Ah, of course, that's what they meant. The first room alone has four elevators! These lead to Honchkrow, Drifblim, Fearow, and Swellow! All of which have flying pokemon. Is this a theme?

 

Vs. Yanmega & Gliscor

As a slightly unexpected twist, though, the boss chamber contains not one but two pokemon! Yanmega and Gliscor attack us at the same time! The assists you're given aren't too terribly useful here. But I definitely recommend focusing on Gliscor first as it's certainly the tougher of the two. Yanmega doesn't really have much to offer at all.

--------------

Capture Arena (2-2)

   

Tyrannitar, Abomasnow, Kangaskhan, and Aagron. Four large monsters of pokemon!

  

Vs. Tangrowth, Rhyperior, & Mamoswine

As you can see, the pokemon we encounter don't always match up with the environments we capture them in. We capture these guys in the Boyle Volcano arena where we captured Infernape. Odd, but I guess I shouldn't question it too much.

Anyway, this is the perfect time for the Normal Assist to shine! With our maximum line length, Kangaskhan's Normal Assist can help us to easily loop all three pokemon at once. You can practically loop the entire screen! Just don't let yourself be stuck chasing your line if you accidentally let the timer run out!

--------------

Capture Arena (2-3)

    

It's Vaporeon, Flareon, Eevee, Jolteon, and Espeon! That's 5 pokemon in the elevators this time!

  

Vs. Umbreon, Leafeon, and Glaceon

Once again, don't underestimate the sheer power of the Normal Assist for group captures! You can loop these three more effortlessly than the last one! Though make it count because Eevee's Normal Assists lasts a lot less. I focused on Umbreon first because its Dark Pulse seemed the most intrusive to this strategy.

----------------

Capture Arena (2-4)

    

Five more pokemon again! Houndoom, Garchomp, Banette, Ariados, and Cacturne. Garchomp and Banette can be pretty tough to capture without damage. But you'll manage. The real threat comes after these guys.

   

Vs. Drapion & Weavile x4!

Remember that Drapion that ended so many runs for so many kids? Well, now he's got friends! This one is just stupidly obnoxious. Even with spamming HIppopotas, it wasn't easy to be able to loop all these pokemon with the weavile hopping around all over the place.

 

Cacturne and Ariados can help slow the Weavile down to make them more managable. This battle is just enemy spam, so it's not easy to find any openings at all. Once you've made a dent in Drapion's backup, you should be good to go with finishing things off!

============

And with that, the second floor is cleared! Two more to go!

Capture Arena (Floor 3)

For the third floor, there are only two rooms and we're warned that there are no elevators, they just lead straight into the boss room. While that does mean we get to the boss faster, it also means there's no Poke Assists besides our Partner's to help us! Yikes!

--------------

Capture Arena (3-1)

 

Vs. Magmortar & Electivire

This is a fairly standard battle. These two are both weak to Hippopotas, but the Assist spam isn't even all that necessary. This one's actually kind of a joke compared to some of the battles we've been through so far. I focused on Electivire first since his Discharge is far more intrusive than most of what Magmortar was doing.

---------------

Capture Arena (3-2)

  

Vs. Torterra, Infernape, & Empoleon

Hippopotas Spam was much more important here than anywhere else so far. I definitely prioritized Infernape since it was the most mobile of the three by far. Torterra and Empoleon would be a joke comparatively speaking, but it's worth noting that by this point my arm was actually getting tired from all the frantic looping and these guys took quite a while to capture. Eventually, though, I did push through, got Infernape captured, and after that Empoleon and Torterra were pretty easy relatively speaking.

=============

With the two rooms on the third floor cleared, one elevator drops down to carry us up to the top floor of the Capture Arena. What kinds of challenge awaits us there?

Capture Arena (Top Floor)

The top floor is the roof of the Capture Arena, and up here there appears to be a jungle theme, with trees enclosing a tight space around our final opponents...

  

Vs. Charizard, Flygon, & Salamence

Are you ready for an aching wrist? Because this battle irritated the piss out of me. All because of that Flygon being immune to Hippopotas' Ground Assist, this capture took far longer than it otherwise would've. What makes this capture so tough is mainly the fact that Charizard can be quite oppressive with its Fire Blast, and it as well as Salamence are quite large! But the Ground Assist cheese doesn't work quote as well against that duo because of Flygon zooming around the screen. So capturing Flygon first to get it out of the way seems like the way to go, but that's nearly impossible due to how oppressive the other two can be, so it has to be the other way around. This whole capture is trying to get Charizard and Salamence off the board just so that you can begin to capture Flygon. It genuinely felt like an uphill battle at points because I'd think I was making headway only to watch in dismay as those Capture Meters would deplete while I can't get in due to the positioning of the pokemon. And, while Ground Assists normally combo into themselves due to the constant looping they allow for, due to the size, number, and mobility of these three pokemon, it's near impossible to build up the meter in Hippopotas' time, either. So, I just had to grit it out. My wrist was hurting but I managed to push through and capture Charizard and Salamene! That left only Flygon, but that would be a way easier capture now that it was alone.

============

Music: Browser Complete

And, with that, we've cleared the Capture Arena! When we exit the arena, we're met by Sven, Keith, Erma, and a bunch of unnamed Rangers. I suppose this isn't quite as momentous as completing the Browser, but it's still a big deal! And to commemorate our achievement, we're given another mark on our styler. Next to the Pikachu mark that indicates our completed browser, we also receive a mark of a gold medal indicating that we've completed the Capture Arena, too! And with that, we're finally finished with Story Mode.

But, don't think we're ready to move on from Shadows of Almia just yet! There's actually a little bit more to touch on, and something that was a neat little surprise for myself as well! I hope you're prepared! Next time, we start to take a peek at Ranger Net!

[Aura]

We're nearly done with Shadows of Almia, but there's still a bit further to go! Just like the original Pokemon Ranger, this game has some secret extra missions you can participate in. In the original, these missions could be unlocked through a secret password. But here, no such password exists. Instead, the missions have to be unlocked through online Wi-Fi Distributions similar to events in main-series Pokemon games.

Due to this, I was worried these missions would be essentially lost to me and I'd be unable to play them. But, after some researching I managed to stumble across a way to extract and patch my save data so that, not only can I play these missions, I don't even have to lose my save data!

An alternative approach is to use a proxy server to download the missions, but my router's security options aren't compatible with early DS games' requirements, so that approach doesn't quite work for this scenario.

In Shadows of Almia, there are 6 downloadable missions. Three are classified as Special Missions while three are classified as extra missions. Special Missions unlock special gift pokemon that can be received in Diamond and Pearl through Mystery Gift, same as the Manaphy Egg from the first game. And speaking of, you might feel a sense of deja vu as we explore this first mission.

Just like the first game, and just like story mode, we'll be giving each of these missions their own designated post. That means we have a designated limit of 6 posts left with this game!

==========

Vientown Ranger Base

When we boot up the first special mission, we start out at Vientown's Ranger Base where we've dropped in for a visit with our old friends! It turns out that Mimi is here, however, and she seems to be having some sort of problem!

Mimi tells us that one of her Happiny is acting strangely ever since she and her Happiny saw a Chansey the other day. She and the other Happiny were happy to see the Chansey, but one of the Happiny seemed upset and threw its round stone! And ever since, it's kept picking up other round things and throwing them away, too. Now it's run away!

Luana offers to help Mimi search for the Happiny, and Barlow asks if we'd be willing to help out, too. Of course we will! So, we step outside with Mimi and Luana!

Vientown

As we step outside, we see a strange acorn-shaped berry rolling along the ground. Little Tim soon approaches it and mentions that he's lost that berry and has been searching for it ever since! He got it from the Jam Maker on Union Road but it disappeared when he left it in his yard. Mimi quickly apologizes to Little Tim, suspecting that her Happiny must have stolen the berry because it was round.

  

If we head over to Mimi's house, we'll find only three of her Happiny are home and she seems sad the Happiny hasn't returned.

Poking around the other houses, Mr. Woodward claims the Happiny poked its head inside as if looking for something before leaving. He doesn't know where it went, though. In Little Tim's home, apparently we find that Tim plans to turn that berry into berry pudding which would apparently be really bitter, and the entire household doesn't seem very fond of the idea.

At the four edges of town, there are NPCs who have been at the edges of town since Happiny went missing and they'll insist they haven't seen the Happiny run by. You'll be turned around if you try to walk past them, so I suppose we'll just have to stay in town. Unfortunately, this means you can't visit Chicole Village to change your partner, either. So you're stuck with whatever active partner you had when you last saved in story mode. I suppose that's good to know for future reference. Next time I'll be sure to bring a partner other than Hippopotas to spread the screentime out a bit better. That said, this mission doesn't exactly feature a whole lot of capture action, so there's not exactly an opportunity to use your partner anywhere.

As we roam around town, we'll eventually stumble across another round object--an apple--rolling our way. We catch a glimpse of the Happiny running off, so let's follow it! If we talk to the NPC's at the edge of town, they'll tell us what direction they saw Happiny run in, so we keep on Happiny's trail and watch it throw away some other items--A yellow pepper, a turnip, and a plumb--Each time, Mimi seems more disappointed that Happiny won't come back to her. Eventually, we end up chasing Happiny out of Vientown toward Nabiki Beach.

Nabiki Beach

As we step out toward the beach, the couple will mention that Happiny ran by them just now and has been fixated on a strange blue object that washed up on shore.

Standing at the shore is Happiny staring at... a Manaphy Egg! Mimi approaches Happiny and suggests they go home, but Happiny picks up the egg and runs off with it, causing Mimi distress. She runs off to chase after Happiny again!

Luana recognizes the egg form a book at the Ranger School and mentions that it must've gotten washed up here from a faraway sea. Barlow soon arrives on the scene, confirming Luana's suspicious and mentioning that they just got word from Prof. Hastings who wants them to protect the egg.

And with that, this becomes an official mission!

==========

Special Mission 1: Recover the Manaphy Egg!

We follow Happiny and Mimi up toward Breeze Hill.

 

Along the way, there are two Buneary which we may as well capture since we don't have any other Friend pokemon. But as we approach Breeze Hill, we find Mimi at a roadblock!

 

She explains that Happiny blocked the path with the Small Rocks, adding that Happiny are far stronger than they appear to be. Luana suggests it might be trying to protect the Manaphy egg.

 

 

These small rocks are no problem for our Buneary! you only have to break one but there's no reason not to break both of them!

 

We continue northward to find Happiny with the Manaphy egg behind a Pichu and Glameow. Pichu and Glameow get defensive over Happiny, so it looks like we'll have to give 'em the ol' Capture treatment.

==========

 

Vs. Pichu & Glameow

I'm framing this like a boss fight, but it's nothing. These are just normal run-of-the-mill Pichu and Glameow. Just loop 'em once and they're done for.

==========

After capturing the two pokemon, Happiny is startled by the Manaphy Egg suddenly moving! Mimi approaches and feels like she understands now what was going on with Happiny. It saw Chansey's egg and decided it wanted to carry a real egg instead of its round stone, and that's what it went looking for.

  

Shortly after, the other three Happiny come along bringing its round stone with them. It seems they've been worried for their friend. The runaway Happiny seems content with leaving the Manaphy egg in our care now and now the five can go home together.

===========

Vientown Ranger Base

And so, we return to the Ranger Base to discuss what to do with the Manaphy Egg with Prof. Hastings. We also receive an official "Mission Clear" form Barlow.

The main idea with this Manaphy egg would be to return it to its natural habitat, but in order to do that, he'll need to have it delivered to the Ranger Union. It's incredibly delicate, so he struggles to come up with a way to transport the egg until Mimi's Happiny volunteer for the job. The Four Happiny work together to carefully carry the egg. Mimi decides to go with them as well. And with that, the mission is complete!

=============

I find it interesting that Mimi mentions that they saw a Chansey. Chansey isn't actually in the Almia Browser... I suppose that means it could be possible there are still pokemon in the region no one has seen before? Food for thought, I suppose...

Anyway, upon clearing this mission, you gain the ability to transfer the Manaphy Egg to Diamond and Pearl, just like in the first game! I suppose the "natural habitat" of this egg is some rando trainer's PC, huh? The egg transfer comes with a message.

Quote

To Pokemon Trainers:

I have a Manaphy Egg under my care. I seek a Trainer willing to raise it. If you're the one, please connect with Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and send your Application No.

From: Pokemon Ranger

That... doesn't sound like returning it to its natural habitat, Prof. Hastings. I suppose I can give the Ranger Union the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they decided this would be the best course of action. I mean, it's not like the first one's just rotting in my PC or anything... /cough.

Well, that's it for the first Special Mission! Next time, we'll be taking on Special Mission 2: Rescue Kidnapped Riolu! This time, it looks like Dim Sun is getting involved! I guess just like the Go-Rock Squad, there are still some remnants...

[Aura]

Vientown

From Vientown, some concerning explosions can be heard from the direction of the Ranger School. The locals of Vientown have been disrupted by these explosions for a while now. They complain about the noise and are worried it might be trouble.

The area rangers at the Vientown Base come spilling out and discuss what to do, but apparently we've already been assigned to this case and they're waiting for us to arrive. And soon enough, we drop in riding on a Staraptor! Everyone is glad to see us and Barlow fills us in on where the sounds are coming from. Soon, a young boy from Chicole arrives, it's Kyle, the boy who seems to be a really big fan of Riolu! He runs up to tell us he knows what the sound is. He insists its the sound of a Riolu's Aura Sphere and that the pokemon is doing it to call out to him!

The rangers are immediately suspicious of the explanation. Riolu can't normally learn Aura Sphere unless it evolves into Lucario, first! But Luana suggests that Kyle is normally a really quiet boy, so she doubts he would feed a story. Even though it's unusual, Barlow decides to believe his explanation and asks for us to bring Kyle with us as we go to the Ranger School to investigate further.

==============

Ranger School

As we arrive at the Ranger School, we see that Kyle was indeed telling the truth! A Riolu is standing on the roof of the school and is firing Aura Sphere into the air! Kyle calls out to the Riolu who jumps down to meet with him. He apologizes to the pokemon. Apparently, these two knew each other from another region but his family had to move to Almia in a hurry so he had to leave without saying goodbye. Riolu must've been upset about that and that's why he came all the way out here! But just as this emotional reunion is playing out...

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

Team Dim Sun Admins appear! What are they doing here!? Well, they reveal that there's actually a faction of Team Dim Sun still lingering. These guys were in the Oil Field Hideout when Operation Brighton was taking place and, apparently, deep under the water, the effects of the Luminous Crystal couldn't reach the dark shards within the Miniremos. These guys are trying to use these last few Miniremo Units to revive Team Dim Sun! I'm... not entirely sure how that works. Shouldn't these Dark Shards be overpowered by the Luminous Crystal as soon as they entered its range? Apparently that's just now how it works. I guess we're just not supposed to think about it too hard.

With one of the remaining Miniremo, we're attacked by the admin!

=============

 

Vs. Dim Sun Admin

He attacks us with two Tangrowth that are incredibly easy to capture, just loop 'em once or twice and you're good. The first mission had an excuse to be easy to clear because you didn't actually have to have beaten the game to unlock it, you just had to become a ranger. But this one you actually do have to clear the story and become a Rank 10 ranger, so I'm not really sure why exactly this mission would have such an easy capture in it.

===========

Anyway, with that baby-difficulty battle out of the way, it looks like we've got the upper hand on these guys, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The admin mocks us that we've won the battle, but not the war.

We soon hear another Miniremo before we find another Admin using the Miniremo to control Riolu!

 

The Dim Suns get away using a couple of Drifblim, but not before commanding Riolu to attack us with an Aura Sphere!

============

Music: Prologue

We cut to a strange white screen where Kyle seems to hear a voice calling out to him.

He soon recognizes the voice to be Riolu's, but Riolu soon fades away.

==========

Vientown Ranger Base

We soon come to at the Ranger Base. Elaine explains that the Union is doing its best to find Riolu's location. But Kyle explains that he's heard Riolu tell him of its location. Somewhere deep in the sea. In a huge building that smells like oil... Elaine quickly chatches on and links those traits to the Oil Field Hideout! She explains that Riolu must be using its aura abilities to communicate to Kyle! Barlow hurries us off to the hideout, and Kyle insists he goes, too. I'm not sure that's the best idea ever but I suppose it'll be important for Riolu to communicate with us through him.

Music: Mission

While reluctant, Barlow agrees to let him go with us, and together, we head off to the Oil Field Hideout!

===========

Special Mission 2: Rescue Kidnapped Riolu!

We arrive at the Oil Field Hideout using a Staraptor and immediately begin making our way through the base!

At the helipad, we meed a Dim Sun Minion who insists they aren't actually Dim Suns, they're just playing dress-up and pretending to be Dim Suns! She panics after her lame excuse and immediately runs deeper into the hideout.

We take the elevator down and find that things are seeming relatively familiar. There's a Magneton right at the entrance.

 

Inside, we find a Houndour and Houndoom. No reason not to capture them since we have all the free space in the world.

Along the way, we'll find that all the wrong paths are barricaded off, so we're heavily funneled into a single linear path.

Up ahead, we're stopped by a Dim Sun Minion who attacks us with a Miniremo!

===========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Minion

He comes at us with a Luxray and Jolteon! Not too terrible of a combination, but it's definitely a big step up from those Tangrowth earlier.

I should mention that I swapped my partner out for Munchlax between missions, so no Ground Assist to help out here, not that it's too terribly needed.

===========

As we continue deeper into the hideout, we'll pass another Magneton.

We'll eventually reach the point with a fork where we can either head north to take the elevator down toward Kincaid's office or south toward the control room.

Heading south, your path will of course be blocked off, but there'll be another Houndoom to find!

Heading toward the elevator, we'll be stopped by another Dim Sun.

===========

  

Vs. Dim Sun Minion

This time it's Dusclops and two Haunters! Houndoom or Houndour can help out a bit here, but it's again not too terribly important. At least not until their obstacles start to pile up. That said, I'll go ahead and tell you right now you're probably not going to be desperate for Poke Assists at any point in this mission, so you may as well use them when you see an opportunity.

============

We soon reach the basement with the red and blue gates.

We'll pass by yet another Magneton (Thank God, I was really worried 105 HP might not be enough).

As we continue further, we find the minion from the helipad arrive to report our intrusion to the admins from the Ranger School! When we approach, she immediately offers to take us out with her miniremo!

===========

 

Vs. Dim Sun Minion

She attacks us with Houndoom and Honchkrow. I suppose Honchkrow is a bit annoying.

I figured now was as good of a time as any I'd probably get to use Munchlax's assist, though it's still not totally necessary. These guys were dealt with pretty easily.

===========

The Admins complain that the girl was useless as she runs off crying that she should've stuck to just dressing up. And so, they decide they'll just have to rely on their "new recruit," Riolu. Kyle is appalled by the suggestion that Riolu will become a Dim Sun and yells at the Dim Suns who decide to make Riolu attack with another Aura Sphere. The attack doesn't hit us this time, however. Instead, the power goes out suddenly and the admins use the darkness to get away.

It's difficult to see in the darkness, but Kyle can still hear Riolu's voice telling him which direction to move in. We follow his guidance to navigate our way through the dark room.

  

Along the way, you'll pass a Dusclops, Luxray, and Sceptile. At the end, we'll find ourselves back into a lit room. I suppose with the power out, those gates all drop allowing free access without having to mess with the switches.

Here, we'll find, you guessed it, another Magneton.

As we continue forward, we corner the Admins in Kincaid's office. With their final Miniremo, they decide to attack us with Riolu! Kyle tries to plead with Riolu not to let the Dim Suns take control. The Admins insist no amount of yelling or screaming will get to Riolu, but Kyle insists that he can hear his heart's voice. The admins mock him for this, but it's clear Riolu is trying to fight the control of the miniremo as well as it can. We're gonna need to capture it to save it!

============

Vs. Dim Sun Admin & Riolu

This is a special Riolu capable of attacking with Aura Sphere like Lucario! Otherwise, it jumps around and jabs like a normal Riolu. It's not very resistant but you may want to come at it with some assists to slow it down. Sceptile and Luxray can help to that effect.

=============

With that, the last of the Miniremo are destroyed and Riolu is free from its control! The two admins panic and try to run away with Kincaid's escape pod, but Riolu attacks with Aura Sphere to destroy the escape pod!

It's revealed that Riolu had been trying to fight the effects of the Miniremo the whole time and was successful to a certain extent. It intentionally missed its Aura Sphere earlier to destroy a switch and shut down the power in the room earlier. Sven soon arrives on the scene for backup but is impressed to see the entire situation seems to already be resolved.

============

Ranger Union

We return to the Ranger Union to discuss what to do with the Riolu we've recovered. Wendy suggests that Kyle should be able to bring Riolu home to Chicole Village, but Kyle surprises everyone by insisting instead that Riolu should go back to its home with its friends. Apparently Riolu only came here because it was worried about Kyle, who used to be a crybaby back in Riolu's home region. But he tells Riolu he'll be fine.

The only reservation Kyle has is the idea that there may be other villains out there that will try and use Riolu's power for evil just like Dim Sun. He's worried that if Riolu were to go too far away, he may not be able to help it again.

After giving us an official mission clear, Prof. Hastings comes up with an idea to resolve the issue of keeping Riolu safe. He suggests they deliver Riolu to a trusted Pokemon Trainer! Riolu seems on board with this idea, too! Kyle is happy to allow Riolu to travel with a trainer.

===========

And that's the end of this episode! It almost plays out like a filler episode, which I pretty much expect all of these missions to feel like. Some will probably be more interesting than others and I can't imagine plot holes are going to be uncommon. I've already questioned that the miniremo shouldn't be able to be brought within the range of the Luminous Stone without losing its ability to control pokemon, but I suppose I can give that a pass since we've never actually explained how that process works with the giant Luminous Crystal. Maybe the Incredible Machine would have to be booted up again to shut down the Miniremo. But beyond that, this story seemed to completely forget about the Vatonage styler. The three Tears of Princes should be enough to counteract lone Dark Shards and beyond even that, we could've just captured Riolu from the start and avoided all of this hassle!

Anyway, I'm not exactly expecting these missions to have thrilling storylines and this one was serviceable, for sure. The main focus of this mission, though, is of course the reward! Which is, of course, the Riolu knowing the special move Aura Sphere! It can be received in Diamond and Pearl using Mystery Gift, just like the Manaphy Egg!

===========

 Riolu Lv. 30 (OT: Kyle)

 

Item: None

Ability: Steadfast | Moves: Aura Sphere, Shadow Claw, Bullet Punch, Drain Punch

==========

It's actually a pretty interesting moveset all things considered. In addition to the unique move Aura Sphere, it also has the egg move Bullet Punch and two TM moves! Unfortunately, it's still just a Riolu so it's not exactly going to be breaking any boundaries. But if you're a big fan of collecting pokemon with special moves, this is one to keep for your collection! Just make sure not to evolve it or it'll lose a lot of what's special about it.

It also comes with a Classic Ribbon! Something that most event pokemon will come with.

And that's that! Next time, we take a look at the final Special Episode. This one seems to involve a takeover of Altru Tower, so it sounds like stakes are pretty high! Next time, we'll dig in!

[Aura]

Ranger Union

We begin our next story at the Ranger Union, and something is clearly wrong! Rhythmi and Linda are issuing an emergency signal for all personnel to report to the union. We arrive at the operator room with Keith to report to Erma who informs us that the Altru Building has been occupied by an unknown group. That certainly can't be good! Apparently Sven and Wendy are off on a mission in Fiore, so she asks for us to go and infiltrate the tower again. We don't hesitate to make our way to Altru Tower.

============

Special Mission 3: Liberate the Tower!

We arrive at the tower by way of Staraptor to find the entrance to the central tower blocked by an electric Gate. It looks like we're going to need the help of some pokemon to push up the tower.

On the west side of the tower is a Swellow.

And as we take the stairs back down into the Altru Building, we'll pass by a Magneton only to find the path to the control room barricaded off. Employees are trapped behind the barricade by... Dim Suns, of course! But they insist they no longer fall under the moniker of Dim Sun. Instead, they now go by the name Team Debonairs under their new stylish new boss! Of course, this group seems to have also taken some Miniremo that were left behind in the Oil Field Hideout, implying that the unit we dealt with in the previous story might've defected from this squad and stayed behind with the remaining functional units. It looks like we've still got some mess to clean up.

The Debonairs attack with their Miniremo!

==========

 

Vs. Debonairs Minions

I'm not gonna lie, I actually found this capture to be incredibly annoying and a huge step up in difficulty from the previous mission and it's sadly a bit of an outlier. But it definitely sets the precedent that this is the toughest of the three special stages. Basically, Electrode on its own is a fairly annoying capture due to its fast movement and disruptive attacks, but Ampharos' Sparks and ThunderBolt further reduce the opportunities you get to loop Electrode while it's still. I found it best to focus on Ampharos first, but Electrode rolling around can easily disrupt your loops there, too. Not to mention if Ampharos is even remotely close to Electrode at all, it'll be protected by Discharge and Explosion. And Discharge is especially intrusive because it lingers for so long and Ampharos might start healing up while wandering around in the danger zone. If you're really unlucky, its sparks will be strategically placed with its movement to where you still won't be able to avoid it.

The main saving grace is that due to all of our defense upgrades, most of their attacks won't do any damage. Still, that doesn't stop the fact that it can take several minutes to clear this capture. And Explosion still does a ton of damage in a single hit, so try not to get caught off guard. Even Poke Assists don't really help because the only ones you have access to form here are Swellow and Magneton. Even your partner won't have their gauge filled up yet, so you'll need to fill it up a bit more before you can use it.

The only real approach that works is to just be extremely patient and loop Ampharos when you can. Once Ampharos is out of the way, Electrode is a lot easier to capture, just loop it when it stops and starts charging up for its next attack.

===========

The employees tell us the group's boss is at the top of the tower and that he was a strange man who was scolding his grunts about the hallways... Fashion, an obsession with hallways, I think we all know who this guy is, huh? Keith seems to be lost on that line of logic, though. He'll catch up, I'm sure.

Anyway, barricades prevent us from going further down the building, but there is a Scizor at the west side of this hall.

 

In the west room, you can find Electrode which will help with the gate outside.

  

And the east room has Ampharos and two Gible, same as the vanilla.

 

Back at the tower, we can use Ampharos or Electrode's Electrify skill to open up the Gate and progress further up the tower!

Inside, we'll be ambushed by another of Team Debonairs.

===========

 

Vs. Debonairs Minion

This one is a lot more tame than that first one and the two Ariados can be dispatched with ease. If you need help, Swellow can provide it, too.

===========

  

Inside, we can find a Magneton, Vaporeon, and Gardevoir.

Up the stairs, another Debonairs! Does that rhyme? I'm not sure, it the S silent?

===========

 

Vs. Debonairs Minion

This one attacks with two Rhydon and, while it's not too threatening, I decided to bring my partner out for this one.

Machop didn't get much time to shine since he was quickly replaced by Munchlax in our story mode playthrough, so he's the one I brought along for this mission! H ehelped reduce the time it took to capture these Rhydon. Though they aren't Rock-Group Pokemon, so this wasn't a type advantage decision.

===========

 

Also on this floor are an Ampharos and Golem.

And inside the central room is a Rhydon! Definitely well worth the visit!

As we head up to the next floor, another debonairs meets us at the door.

==========

  

Vs. Debonairs Minion

This one attacks us with an Acanine and two Growlithe.

While nothing too menacing, I figured it would be less of a headache to just use Rhydon's Ground Assist to make quick work of this trio. Arcanine annoyingly got Fire Blast off before I could pause it, though, so the capture took a little bit longer than I would've liked, but you can't win 'em all. Anyway, the Growlithe are practically nonexistent, they go down right away, so the Arcanine is the main focus here.

==========

A bit further down, you can find Primape.

And inside the central room is a Blaziken!

As we try to climb the stairs, we're stopped by another debonairs.

=========

  

Vs. Debonairs Minion

This time, it's two Haunter and a Gengar. These guys are always hit or miss. Use assists if you feel lit's necessary.

=========

 

On the next floor, we can find Luxray and Glalie. We also find that the electrical barrier blocking the way to the next floor is active again! That's odd... It was disabled when we destroyed the Circuit Ball last time.

And if we go inside, sure enough, the Circuit Ball has been restored! Well that just won't do!

 

You can use Luxray, Electrode, or Ampharos for this task. I happened to have Electrode with me at the moment. We destroy the Circuit Ball to disable the electrical barrier again. But when we go to leave the room... the door's locked!

Debonairs outside mock us for falling for their trap, they locked us inside! Try as we might, we can't just bust through the door like Barlow would. But just as we're stuck thinking of ways out...

Music: The Incredible Machine

Darkrai emerges from a cloud of darkness! Keith panics at the sight. Could it be under the new boss' control? But no, that doesn't seem to be the case. Even still, it seems angry and, before we know it, it begins sucking us in with Dark Void! We have no one to rescue us, so we both end up sinking into the abyss of darkness...

...but we soon awaken on the next floor up. It seems Darkrai was actually just helping us to escape! It wants to protect the Luminous Crystal at the top and joins our party! Cleverly, we had to use a Field Skill right before initiating this cutscene, so you'll always have a free slot in your party here. With Darkrai in our party, that means we might finally be able to use its Area Move? We'll just have to see!

If you head back downstairs, you'll be treated to an optional scene where the Debonairs standing guard at your door grow suspicious that they don't hear any sounds inside. They suspect it might be a trap but decide to go in and check anyway to make sure you haven't escaped. They're surprised to find out nobody's inside but wind up trapping themselves with their own locked door! Serves them right! We'll come by and pick them up sooner or later.

 

The next floor up contains two more Magneton if you need them. And finally, it's off to the roof.

Music: The Three Gems and The Shadow Crystal

When we arrive on scene, who do we see but the Debonair Admins and Mr. Kincaid himself? He's yelling at the admins as they try their hardest to remove the three gems from the shadow crystal!

Music: Almia Castle (Hippowdon Temple)

We step up to Mr. Kincaid and demand he halt his actions. And indeed, Kincaid's motivation here is as simple as you'd expect. He merely plans to take over the world, same as Mr. Hall. But he simply intends to revert the Luminous Crystal into the Shadow Crystal by removing the Gems and continuing where Mr. Hall left off.

The Admins shove us down the stairs and we're suddenly surrounded by Debonairs minions. With nowhere to run, we have no choice but to resort to our strongest asset.

Darkrai's Dark Power Area Move allows it to extend its Dark Void to draw the Debonairs and trap them in a world of darkness, just as it did to Mr. Hall and Wheeler. Though he's a bit more merciful with these guys and simply teleports them to Nabiki Beach.

Of course, Mr. Kincaid isn't deterred by the failure of his subordinates. We already know his has zero faith in them. Instead, he attacks us head-on with his Miniremo!

==========

 

Vs. Mr. Kincaid; Drapion & Gliscor

It's both of Mr. Kincaid's pokemon at once! A bit more of a threat than they are individually, they're still not too terrible together.

I used Glalie to try and keep the two stun locked while I focused on capturing Gliscor, the more intrusive of the two, first. But this doesn't work nearly as well against two pokemon, so ultimately I had better results just looping the two normally.

Once it was down to just Drapion, the capture was a joke. This thing isn't scary at all anymore.

==========

Upon defeating Mr. Kincaid and destroying his miniremo, he complains that we're always able to ruin his plans at the last minute, but he's corrected by Prof. Hastings who arrives on the scene shortly after. Hastings calls to attention that, from the start, Mr. Kincaid's plan was doomed to fail as the darkness in his heart paled in comparison to the brightness of Almia's people. I'm not sure exactly what that's supposed to mean in this context, but I'm sure he has a point. Anyway, with that, mission clear once again!

In addition, Prof. Hastings suggests that Darkrai must've felt obligated to remain here in order to protect the Luminous Crystal, but Hastings insists that we'll be able to protect the Shadow Crystal from now on. He offers to take Darkrai to a place where he can belong better.

==========

And that's the end of the story! Once again, it felt a bit like a filler episode, somewhat retreading the events of the climax with a significantly weaker crisis. Aside from that one capture in the beginning which proved to be a massive outlier, none of these were particularly challenging. Though it was definitely the hardest of the three special missions, that's not really saying much. But again, challenge and story aren't really what these special missions are offering. It was fun to be able to drag all those Debonairs into the darkness with Darkrai's ability. It's something I wish you got to do at some point during the main story.

But of course, the most exciting part of this mission is the reward you get for clearing the game!

=========

 Darkrai, Lv. 50 (OT: Almia)

 

Item: None

Ability: Bad Dreams | Moves: Dark Void, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Double Team

==========

This is a big deal! This is a pokemon we've yet to see in main series and technically I am poking ahead a little bit, as this mission wasn't actually distributed until after Platinum's release. In Japan, this pokemon was first distributed through Shadows of Almia. And later, it would be redistributed the same day as the event that allows you to catch Darkrai in Platinum. In both Japan and international instances, this game was the first way you could get your hands on a Darkrai as it would be abit longer before you could catch one for yourself. And it's the only way you can legally obtain Darkrai at all in Diamond and Pearl without hacking or trading since the item needed never got a distribution in Diamond and Pearl.

Anyway, that's the last of the Special Missions. All that's left are the three Extra Missions. These missions don't allow you to transfer any pokemon to Diamond and Pearl. Instead, they're focused on expanding the world of Shadows of Almia with a new pokemon to capture. Whereas the Special Missions seem more like glorified event distributions, the Extra Missions seem more like genuine DLC missions for the original game! Next time, it looks like we've got a mission involving Dialga!

[Aura]

This story opens up quite strangely. We're woken up by our little sister who tells us it's morning, then noon, then night already! And after a strange breakdown with some muttering, we wake up, alone, in our bedroom in Chicole Village. It's completely silent, too.

We step downstairs and our family is completely missing, too.

Chicole Village

And when we step outside, things only become stranger. A police officer asks us how we got in there and scolds us for breaking into houses! He claims this house has just been sold to a family from the Fiore region! The Partner Farm no longer exists, either! Ollie and his mother have just had an argument and we see Ollie being recruited by a Dim Sun agent... Chicole Village is brand new and only one of the houses is lived in. How ominous...

It's clear from all of this that we've been sent back in time somehow. As we go to leave Chicole Village, we run into Wendy who tells us we need to go back to Almia Castle! She explains to us that we were on a mission to capture an injured Dialga that mysteriously showed up at Almia Castle, but we were struggling to capture it and it wound up using Roar of Time to send us back in time. With that explanation, she returns our Styler to us and our mission is now back on track!

==========

Extra Mission 1: Dialga in Hia Valley!?

Wendy flies us on the back of her Staraptor to the bridge near the end of Almia Castle. Since we're in the past, as we look around, things are going to look a little bit different. Mainly, obstacles we've cleared before will be in our way again and we'll need to find a new way to get around them.

   

As we head toward the sound of Dialga's cry, we pass a handful of pokemon, Wigglytuff, Haunter, Swinub, and Vulpix, all of which you may as well capture since you once again only have one pokemon with you.

Of course, the way deeper into the castle is blocked off again by the Sealed Door from before. We'll need to find Mismagius again, because Haunter's Psy power is insufficient. We need Psy Power Lv. 3!

Continuing further east, we'll reach another outdoor bridge with a Vulpix on it. The door on the other side is locked, preventing us from going into the earlier areas of the castle. That makes our task a bit easier for narrowing down where to search, not that there's any question of where you should logically search first for Mismagius.

 

Heading back to the bridge we arrived from, we'll need to take the door to the west that leads to the tower where Mismagius resided before. In here, we'll find Haunter and Weavile.

 

And, you guessed it, we're gonna need to light the torches to open the door since this is before the first time we did that.

 

 

The two Vulpix we've captured so far are perfect for the job!

 

And inside, we find Mismagius and Raichu!

 

With Mismagius' Psy Power, we can open up the Sealed Door and proceed deeper into the castle!

Now, this is where the different time is extremely apparent. If you recall, this door previously led to a room with narrow slippery paths of thin ice over a pit. But here in the past, the floor was apparently completely filled in! The whole floor is slippery. The danger now comes from the pokemon residing here!

      

There are lots of aggressive pokemon in here that'll try to attack you while you're slipping around. It can be tough to evade them on the slippery ice! There's also a Raichu in here to help you recover any HP lost to those pokemon tackling you into submission.

There's a chunk of Solid Ice blocking the path to the west. That'll require Burn Lv. 2 to melt.

And an Ice Block obscuring the way further north where Dialga supposedly is. Wendy warns that its injury makes it far more aggressive, so we need to capture it quickly. But we'll need Burn Lv. 4 to get to it at all, so let's keep looking!

   

The east room isn't blocked off and contains two Weavile, a Riolu, and a Houndoom! That Houndoom is one of the pokemon we need!

 

Houndoom's Lv. 2 Burn skill is strong enough to melt the Solid Ice blocking the room to the west.

 

And it's in there that we'll find Raichu and Ninetales!

 

Of course, Ninetales' Lv. 4 Burn is strong enough to melt through the Ice Block to the North. So now, we can go in to try and capture the injured Dialga!

============

       

I wasn't prepared with the most strategic team, but I didn't expect the battle to be too difficult. I didn't know whether Dialga would be treated as a Dragon Group or Steel Group pokemon, so I tried to be prepared for either. Mime Jr. was my partner because I still haven't actually used it for anything signfiicant, and that unfortunately still holds true, here. Psychic isn't a bad ability, but I'm noticing I find myself opting not to use it as much because it requires me to lift my stylus to fling the rings and that in turn removes your one-line bonus, so I only ever want to use it if it has a type advantage and even then it's not likely to really work out. But I still wanna show Mime Jr. some degree of action!

===========

Inside, we see Dialga in front of a distorted portal. Wendy warns us that it's liable to use its Roar of Time again if it suffers to much, so we need to capture it quickly! I don't know if this translates meaningfully into gameplay or if it's just flavor text, but it certainly made me feel a bit more pressure to capture Dialga faster than I would've otherwise.

==========

Vs. Dialga

So, I'll be honest, I actually cheesed this fight really badly. I didn't mean to, I just figured he wouldn't go down so easily.

The approach I took was to use Walrein's Ice Assist to stun lock it. Dialga is indeed treated as a Dragon Type, so it's particularly weak to this OP assist.

But if you don't stun-lock Dialga, he likes to attack with Draco Meteor to rain iron balls form the sky that explode on impact with the ground! The Diamond on Dialga's chest will shine during the windup for the attack, giving you plenty of time to loop him before the attack gets off, but remember to pull back of a meteor is about to land on you! Dialga's huge as well, so make sure to leave ample space with your looping or he'll quickly break the line when he starts moving again. Dialga can also attack with Hyper Beam. According to Serebii, it has a third attack I haven't seen where it shoots blue flames across the screen. This sounds like DragonBreath, but I'm not sure without seeing the attack in action.

Also, according to Serebii, there is indeed a time limit to this capture. If you fail to capture Dialga in time, it will use Roar of Time and send you back to the beginning of the mission! I suppose that explains why the mission is so short.

Once Dialga is captured, he's recorded with a special entry at the end of your Ranger Browser with a Dragon Assist and no FIeld Skill.

==========

With Dialga captured, Wendy can finally approach it to treat its injury. She suggests it must've gotten into a fight with an incredibly tough pokemon in order to get injured, she's surprised a pokemon like Dialga could get injured at all! And with that, Dialga retreats into the portal to disappear.

By the time we leave Almia Castle, it seems we've returned to our own time as well, as we receive a voicemail from Prof. Hastings asking if we're okay. He noticed he'd lost our styler's signals for about 10 seconds and wanted to make sure everything was okay. Wendy responds that everything is okay and that we've successfully captured Dialga. This blows Hastings away as it's an impressive record time! But by the time Wendy can explain that the cause was probably the distortion of time, he's already hung up. There's no real way to know exactly how long we took according to Wendy, so I suppose we just have to keep an impossible record?

Anyway, with that, it's mission clear!

===========

So that was a really interesting mission! I really love the way they played with Dialga's power over time here. And the narrative of the story is really interesting as it creates this time loop that can only be broken by successfully capturing Dialga. The mission plays out setting the precedent that you've already failed your previous attempt, and if you fail in the end, you're sent back in time having fulfilled that prophecy. I think that's a really clever use of a mission that has to exist in its own little pocket dimension.

Anyway, as this is an Extra Mission and not a Special Mission, you don't get to transfer Dialga to Diamond and Pearl or anything like that. It simply gets registered in your Ranger Browser as your reward. I imagine that probably disappointed a lot of kids back in the day who were really hoping to get Dialga in Pearl or Palkia in Diamond.

Anyway, if Dialga has a mission, you can be certain that Palkia does as well. Next time, we'll see how things work out with Palkia!

[Aura]

  

Ranger Union

Our story today begins at the Ranger Union. We're meeting with Prof. Hastings in the meeting room where he's giving us the assignment to investigate Almia to see if there are any lasting effects of the Incredible Machine. The same assignment was given to Sven and Wendy, but as the task is region-wide, three rangers shall be assigned to the large-scale patrol. As we speak, we receive a voicemail from Sven in Haruba Desert. He informs us that something weird is going on over there. So, Hastings insists we focus on helping Sven out in Haruba Desert for now. But, on our way out, we bump into none other than Sven, ourselves! Wait a minute, wasn't he just in Haruba Desert?? Behind him is Henry, the guy who tried to use a Gigaremo as an espresso machine before. But he asks us what everyone's doing in... his house? But this is clearly the Ranger Union! He seems just as confused as we are.

At this point, it's pretty clear what's going on. We're in for one chaotic adventure. Of course, this matter seems a bit more intrusive than anything we could hope to gather on our own. So, an official mission is assigned!

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Extra Mission 2: Palkia in Haruba Desert!?

As we step outside of the Meeting Room, sure enough, we come out of Henry's house in Haruba Desert! And things are certainly extremely wacky here! Henry tries the door to the house nextdoor and pops out of a house at the top of the ledge! And upon entering the other house up there, he immediately begins screaming for help from Sven!

And the weirdness doesn't stop there. If we try to leave Haruba Village to the north, we loop back around from the east, and vice versa. Capt. Puel tells you he was out sailing and somehow ended up in the glacial seas! Yikes!

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Hippowdon Temple

As we follow after Henry, we'll find ourselves inside the entrance of Hippowdon Temple! As soon as we enter, we receive a voicemail from Rhythmi noting that a powerful pokemon is in the temple, catching Sven's suspicion who suspects the legendary pokemon Palkia is at the root of this problem. Sven tries to ask Henry to head back home so that we can get to the bottom of things ourselves, but Henry insists on seeing it out to the end. Sven gives in, suggesting that we can't really guarantee he can get home safely, so we may as well bring him along.

And if you think we've seen the extent of the chaos this mission has in store for us, just you wait!

   

As we explore the room, we'll find Sandshrew and Fearow, not normally found here, but not too strange since we can find Sandslash normally and Fearow is in the desert. Arcanine isn't terribly weird, but then... Floatzel?? There's also a fisher trying to fish out of the sand! He says he was fishing in a river and wound up here somehow! What in the world?

And if we try to head deeper into the temple...

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Ranger Union (Exterior)

We end up outside of the Ranger Union! Henry is blown away by the greenery! Apparently, he's never been outside of the desert and had no idea a place like this existed!

   

But things aren't quite as you'd expect. Amidst all that greenery, there are Piloswine and Swinub! And up the stairs, there's a Magneton for healing. The ranger standing guard outside the union seems oblivious to what's going on. Best not to get her involved and just head inside...

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Altru Tower

Of course, it doesn't at all go where you'd expect, but instead the entrance to the Ranger Union leads us to Altru Tower! Specifically, the room where Darkrai was being contained before.

  

There are a few more strange pokemon to select from here: Carnivine, Rapidash, and Aggron! And further up the stairs...

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Shiver Camp

You didn't honestly think we were going to the next floor of Altru Tower, did you? Of course, we come out of a hut in Shiver Camp! Henry is absolutely blown away by the snowfall and how cold it is here! He scoops up some of the snow into a jar as a souvenir for his son, Hank. Should we tell him? I... guess it's best to just let him figure it out for himself.

The chaos of all this spatial distortion is starting to show up a little more. There are kids here in Shiver Camp having snowball fights! This place is a research camp, keep in mind, there's normally only adults here!

Music: Vien Forest

   

Inside Pamur's hut is the cave from Chroma Highlands! In here, there's a Magneton and three Vileplume in disguise! If you have that Piloswine or Aggron with you, you can trade it out for one, here! I don't think it's necessary, myself, though.

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Nabiki Beach

As we try to leave Shiver Camp, we arrive at Nabiki Beach! There's a Shiver Camp researcher complaining about how hot it is here and how they should've brought a bathing suit instead!

    

And the pokemon here are just as out of whack as usual, you have Primeape, Haunter (out in the sunlight), Jigglypuff, Cacturne (far from the desert!), and Sceptile!

The tide is high right now, so we can't reach Marine Cave, but we can head toward Breeze Hill!

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Hippowdon Temple

This brings us up through the elevator on top of Hippowdon Temple! We receive another voicemail from Rhythmi who mentions that our location readings are bouncing all over the place, we must be taking a very roundabout route, but she tells us we're drawing closer to the pokemon's position now! I suppose we just need to keep moving forward! We take the other elevator!

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Chicole Village

The elevator takes us... down the stairs from our bedroom! Our little sister and mother are shocked to see us come downstairs with... two guys secretly in our bedroom... let's try and wave the awkwardness. Sven introduces himself and apologizes for the intrusion, and we head on out.

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Volcano Cave

We arrive in the back of Volcano Cave now! As we step forward, we hear Palkia's cry! We must be getting clower to it through the spatial distortions!

   

There's a Moving Tree here in Volcano Cave. Not a very healthy place for a Torterra to plant itself... Anyway, the only pokemon with a strong-enough Tackle to awaken it is Aggron and I really don't think it's worth giving up that Steel Assist for a Grass Assist. That said, there is a Scizor here, too, so it might be worth the trade for the sake of variety. Up the path toward the Muk Cave, you can find a Hypno and Raichu as well, but the path to the chamber with Muk is blocked off by a rock we can't destroy, so no exploring in that direction.

As we head south, we'll pass by a fisherman with his line in the lava. Everything's melted, he said! Well of course it is! That's no water!

  

As we continue, we'll pass Raichu, Bellossom, and Lopunny on our way out.

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Chroma Ruins

This leads us to the area near the end of Chroma Ruins where we used Skuntank to clear out the Dim Suns.

 

There's a Walrein and Sableye here. And as we approach the hole to drop down, we hear Palkia's cry again, this time, Sven comments that there's pain in the cry. Palkia must be injured just like Dialga was. We'd better get to it quick! Down the hole we go!

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Hippowdon Temple

Finally, we arrive at the depths of Hippowdon Temple and we receive a warning from Rhythmi that we're right on top of the powerful pokemon! Indeed, we're going to need to capture Palkia, just like we did with Dialga, to treat its injury. With Styler in hand, we approach!

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This time, no target clears are necessary to reach the boss, so I approached with a full team of seven! I tried to compile the most useful pokemon I found along the way. This isn't quite the dream team, but I don't think you'd really need anything more than as many Ice Types as you can get. I opted for variety with Sandshrew, Fearow, Arcanine, Magneton, Aggron, Primeape, and Walrein. And, of course, Mime Jr. I promise it'll get some use this time!

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Vs. Palkia

The Palkia battle is a lot more involved than Dialga's. But let's start with its regular attacks for now before we get into the gimmick of this battle. Palkia attacks similarly to Dialga with Hyper Beam and it also uses Dragon Pulse, Aura Sphere like projectiles that scatter around the screen in all directions. But give it some time and it'll eventually use Spacial Rend! While Spacial Rend is active, you can't use your styler at all. When the attack is over, the environment will be completely different! Suddenly you're in Boyle Volcano! While in Boyle Volcano, pillars of fire will randomly appear in the environment. Next, we'll end up in Hia Valley where Chunks of Ice begin to appear! Then, he'll return to Hippowdon Temple and use a similar trick to Cresselia's Barrier around the perimiter of the screen, reducing the space you have to work with immensely.

I decided to open up with Mime Jr. this time, figuring I'd make sure to use him before I end up cheesing my way to victory again. But I quickly realized that, because Spacial Rend wastes a lot of time, it's actually a pretty solid counter to just about any Poke Assist... notice I said just about any.

To follow up, I used Aggron to try and slow Palkia's attacks and continue looping.

And in Hia Valley, I switched up to Walrein and this is where I discovered that, of course, you can stun-lock Palkia and keep it from ever using Spacial Rend at all. This Ice Assist is consistently proving to be the most broken ability in the game to the point where I almost feel bad abusing it so much, but the devs had to know what they were doing by slipping so many Ice types in this mission!

Anyway, upon capture, Palkia is registered in your Browser, a Dragon Assist and no Field Skill, of course.

============

Once Palkia's captured, Sven tends to its wound just as Wendy did for Dialga and then Palkia retreats through the wormhole it arrived from.

Haruba Village

It seems that the world is finally back to normal with Palkia's wound treated. Henry thanks us for the thrilling adventure we brought him on. With that experience, Henry decides he has a new dream: To Travel the world with his son!

We receive a voicemail from Prof. Hastings asking about what the cause of all the bizarre happenings was, and we explain the situation. Hastings seems quite jealous of our encounter with the legendary pokemon Palkia. Anyway, with Palkia's wound treated and the world back to normal, that's mission clear!

And just before we leave off, Henry's son, Hank, arrives, so we see Henry deliver that souvenir he collected earlier: A jar of... water, of course. It's melted after all that traveling! Even still, Hank seems excited by how clear the water is. So it seems the feeling is all the same. And that's the end!

===========

This mission was a lot more funny than it was interesting, which is certainly not a bad thing for it to be! I definitely prefer it to the Dialga mission which I already had pretty high praise for. It was surreal traveling around the world in this way, it almost felt like playing a randomizer! I wonder if you could do a randomizer of a Pokemon Ranger game...? Anyway, seeing all these pokemon and NPCs in bizarre environments was certainly something I was never expecting to see and I loved that the game kept uping the ante every time I thought things couldn't get weirder. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

Once again, this is an Extra Mission and not a Special Mission, so there's no reward beyond Palkia's entry in the Ranger Browser. So, there's one last mission remaining and then... we're completely done with Shadows of Almia! Our final mission appears to deal with the Mythical Pokemon Shaymin... another pokemon we've yet to meet in the main series and are probably not really supposed to talk about yet, but consider this a preview of things to come. See you soon for the final update on this game!

[Aura]

Ranger Union

Our final story begins with a brief exchange in the operator's room of the Ranger Union. We're told we've received an invitation to a wedding! Who's wedding? It's being kept a surprise! That's... odd. The wedding is being held in Altru Park, so we head there immediately to learn more!

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Altru Park

We arrive at the park and find that the Vientown rangers have also been invited! But after hearing a few comments from the rangers expressing their surprise, we soon find that the lucky couple is none other than Ollie and Elaine! It's surprising to me that they're getting married so quickly, but I suppose it took longer for them to get married than for me to start and graduate Ranger School, so I guess time just works differently here. Then again, we technically don't actually know how far after the end of the game this is. Maybe it's been a significant amount of time?

As the wedding proceeds, Ollie begins to speak to the guests when he's suddenly interrupted...

Music: Team Dim Sun Appears!

Yes, yes, once again, for the love of God, Team Dim Sun apparently still is getting involved in places they have no business! Two admins, remnants of Dim Sun, approach the ceremony and demand the bridge's bouquet. Why? Well, we quickly get our answer as Elaine is surprised to find the bouquet moving! It's a pokemon! And not just any pokemon...

It's Shaymin!! Apparently the Dim Suns need Shaymin to resurrect the team, but Shaymin notices their evil intentions and immediately runs away. We don't know what Dim Sun's plan is with Shaymin, but if it'll help them resurrect themselves then it's certainly something we can't let happen! And we've gotta make sure Shaymin is safe by stopping those goons, too! It's an official mission!

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Extra Mission 3: For the Bride & Shaymin

All of Vientown's rangers report for the mission, chasing the Dim Suns into Pueltown. The rangers block the various exits: Crawford blocks the way to the harbor, Luana blocks the way to the forest, and Barlow blocks the way to Altru Park. With these three in place, the Dim Suns can't leave Pueltown! That leaves us to track them down on foot! Prof. Hastings will be joining us on this mission as well as he's interested in getting a close look at Shaymin. Who wouldn't be?

    

Of course, you can find your typical Pueltown captures around central Pueltown to help you out a bit: Chatot, Tyrogue, Growlithe, Magnemite, and Rattata. It's worth noting these are all really low-level pokemon with low assist timers, but this mission isn't exactly going to be all that difficult all things considered.

    

Heading into Western Pueltown, you'll find Voltorb, Tyrogue, Magby, Pichu, and Chatot. You can't enter any buildings, Hastings insists you're unlikely to find Shaymin inside one and going into a building might give the Dim Suns a chance to slip by us! We wouldn't want that!

Exploring around a bit more, we'll find Shaymin in a patch of grass! One of the admins is here and tries to fend us off with a Miniremo. Because of course there are more Miniremo from the Oil Field Hideout!

============

 

Vs. Dim Sun Remnant

He attacks us with an Absol and Umbreon. As you can see, the main challenge of this mission is to capture high-level pokemon with only low-level Poke Assists you can find around Pueltown. Of course, you have your partner's assist as well, but there's no getting around that one. Anyway, these two aren't much more difficult together than they are independently, you just have to watch out for more Dark Pulses. Absol is a bit of a pain as it always is, so Voltorb's assist might help you put it out of commission temporarily so you can get it out of the way. Alternatively, you can use Tyrogue to deal extra damage to the two. It's nothing too complicated.

============

During the skirmish, Shaymin runs off and the admin immediately gives chase! Let's follow them to Eastern Pueltown across the bridge!

       

As you explore the area, you'll find several Elekid, Magby, and Bibarel and a Chatot to help you out.

You'll find shaymin in a bed of flowers in front of Melody's house! The other admin approaches and, you guessed it, attacks us with her Miniremo.

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Vs. Dim Sun Remnant

She attacks us with two Bellossom and a Roserade! You've got an abundance of Fire Assists to help with this one, and the Flying Assist from Chatot can help, too! Though Bellossom's Leaf Storm can be a little bit dangerous, none of it is going to damage your styler if you have all the defense upgrades, so all you'll really lose out on is Exp.

===========

As we head back into central Pueltown, we receive a voicemail from Rhythmi stating that Shaymin's location has been pinpointed and it's been cornered by the Dim Suns on the bridge in Central Pueltown! So, we hurry along to the bridge!

Sure enough, we find Shaymin blocked in between the two goons, but it doesn't seem to be Shaymin who's afraid. It seems more angry than afraid and soon shows off its deceitful power by Tackling the two goons and destroying their miniremos before they even get a chance to use them! The Dim Suns run away from Shaymin leaving us to have to calm it down with our Styler!

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Vs. Shaymin

It's technically a boss fight, but it's not nearly as intimidating as any bosses we've captured so far. Shaymin seems quite passive as it just scurries around waiting to be captured. Its Browser Entry states that it attacks with Exploding Seeds and protecting itself with a Leaf Barrier, so I suppose that's an idea of what it attacks like, but it's captured so easily that I can't imagine even seeing it attack without outright letting it do so.

Anyway, Shaymin gets is browser entry recorded. It offers a Grass assist and, of course, no field skill.

==========

After capture, Shaymin is calmed down and Prof. Hastings gets his close look at the adorable Shaymin. Meanwhile, the Dim Suns have been round up by Luana and Crawford. That makes for mission clear!

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Altru Park

With everything back to normal, we return to the wedding where it was left off, Shaymin is back! We come to the conclusion that Shaymin wound up mixed in with the ceremony because it was attracted to the immense feelings of gratitude shared by the newlywed couple! I guess it is a really sweet relationship, huh?

I'm not gonna lie, while the wedding came as a surprise to me, I actually really do like these two's relationship. It doesn't feel forced to me and it's really cool how it diverts typical stereotypes with Ollie being the more sensitive one. While their relationship isn't given much focus, that might be for the better as it ultimately comes off as a lot more dynamic and realistic as a result. And there are several really sweet moments shared between them throughout the story, too.

Anyway, in the end, Shaymin leaves with an explosion of beautiful flowers that decorate the environment as a parting wedding gift before it departs in search of stronger feelings of gratitude!

Shaymin's a bit of a mystery for now, but we'll cover it in more detail in the near future!

===========

Anyway, that's it for not only Extra Mission 3, but all the Extra Missions, all the Ranger Net Missions, and all the new content in Shadows of Almia! The only thing I haven't touched on is the Drowzee Man at the top of Altru Tower, but that's just a retread of the final boss same as the original, there's nothing actually new there as far as I'm aware. And, frankly, as much as I love this game, I'm ready to get moving onto other projects!

So, I suppose I'll leave my final thoughts here! Last time I covered my feelings for the game's narrative and characters, this is where I'm gonna talk about the game's overall design. I do have some small criticisms, especially after having done the postgame. Most of my criticisms have to do with the way Quests were handled. While they are optional so annoyances aren't mandatory to interact with, I found that most of the quests were just "Go through this dungeon and clear this target or capture this pokemon and bring it here." It's tolerable, sure, but I felt like a lot of the quests were really redundant and that especially became apparent in the postgame when I was frontloaded with 20 of them all at once. That latter choice is an especially confusing one considering you can only do one quest at a time. Often there were several quests that involved a single dungeon, you saw how many times I revisited Almia Castle, and even more, Hippowdon Temple. Many quests had me go all the way to the near end of Hippowdon Temple again and again to the point where it's faster to leave by reaching the end of the dungeon than manually walking out.

I mean, you have to go all the way to the end to rescue Starly, that's one mission. You have to go all the way to a couple rooms before that to find Hippopotas, that's another. Then you need Espeon for Murph's mission, and there's also Henry's mission with the Claydol! And let this be a reminder that all of these missions require to you go through the more annoying parts of the dungeon like the room with all the sand canons, and you have to make room for the Drifblim at one point, too. And it's not like Mystery Dungeon where you can accept several missions at once and clear them all in one go, no, you have to go in and out each time! And nothing is different between quests! And then, of course, the Regigigas battle was also there near the end, too. Another dungeon I was kinda sick of navigating was Volcano Cave. Both sides of it require you to capture pokemon, sometimes multiple, just to navigate around.

And my complaints with quests don't end with just revisiting dungeons with no change, but often there are other issues like having to clear a bunch of obstacles. While I appreciate that it's a bit of a quiz to recall where you can find a pokemon with the appropriate field skill to clear the targets, it often requires freeing up three or four spots in your team to clear it all in one go, or three trips back and forth to a single pokemon over and over.

My other major disappointment with this game is the underwater missions. I've ranted about this a bit during the missions proper in terms of the odd choices in the design of underwater pokemon, so many poekmon are treated as Water group pokemon an dprovide Water assists even when they have distinct excuses to be other types! But this game contains 16 story missions, and even 6 bonus missions adding up to 22 in total. Yet only 2 of those are underwater missions! Why even bother implementing the concept at that point? I would've thought at least one of the extra missions would've invovled an underwater segment. Wouldn't it be cool if Palkia's spacial shenanigans ended up flooding a familiar location and we had to explore it underwater? What about the Manaphy mission? That is a major missed opportunity, I think. Maybe Guardian Signs will expand on the concept?

But, in the grand scheme of things, these complaints are very minor. Ultimately, I have very few problems with this game. I've sung my praises for it highly earlier and they all still hold true. Just expect some redundancy with the quests, especially in the postgame. And while it may be my brain going into fanficiton mode, I can't help but wonder how this story would be affected if Altru wound up getting involved with Cipher from the Orre region? Would the Incredible Machine be used to convert pokemon into Shadow Pokemon en masse? How would Stylers interact with Shadow Pokemon? This is how I think you know a Pokemon spinoff really succeeds in selling its concept to you. It's gonna be sad to see the Ranger series go, but we're not quite done with the series since there's one more game on the horizon! But that's gonna be quite a ways from now in the gap between Gens 4 and 5. We've still got three main series games in store for us and that means a whole generational cleanup, too.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've only gotten so far in this thread because we've taken it one step at a time. So next time, why don't we unwind a bit with a much more relaxing, casual game? If you can even call it much of a "game" at all. See you then!

[Aura]

My Pokemon Ranch

On March 25, 2008, My Pokemon Ranch was released on the Japanese Wii Shop Channel! This is Pokemon's first forray into the WiiWare space! It was developed by Ambrella, the ones behind Pokemon Channel and Dash. This game, I suppose, is Gen 4's answer to the lack of a central hub to store pokemon in Gen 4. Unfortunately, it's really not quite as desirable for that purpose as Pokemon Box: Ruby and Sapphire or the Stadium games.

This game is unfortunately one of those cheap, less-interesting WiiWare titles out there. And with the closing of the Wii Shop Channel, this game is no longer officially available and is not likely to ever come back thanks to Pokemon Home and BDSP making it pretty much moot. What you see in that trailer up there is pretty much all there really is to see in this game, but I figured I'd spend a few days to get some experience out of it.

When you first boot up the game, you're introduced to Hayley, a friend of Bebe who runs the PC Storage System in Sinnoh. Hayley doesn't waste much time in bringing us to the Ranch using... a Wii Remote?

At the ranch, Hayley takes on the form of a Mii character! And she eagerly tells you all about her dream of creating a massive Pokemon Ranch filled to the brim with tons and tons of pokemon! So, of course, we start a ranch with her! Of course, you'll have to start the game by selecting Miis. She urges you to put as many as you want in to liven up the ranch, but I only have the one Mii, so...

To kickstart your ranch, Hayley decides to bring seven of her own pokemon!

      

I'm not sure if these pokemon are always the same, but the six she brought to me are Pikachu, Turtwig, Mudkip, Magikarp, Staravia, Finneon, and Lucario. Obviously, they don't use their 2D Sprites but rathe  stylized 3D models like the ones you see in the screenshot above. Unfortunately, I don't have any resources for an exhaustive list of every pokemon in the game, so the 2D sprites from Diamond and Pearl will have to do. Anyway, these 7 pokemon will populate your ranch under Hayley's care.

From now on, every day you check in with the Ranch, Hayley will bring one new pokemon into the Ranch. I'm sure there are restrictions, I doubt she'll arbitrarily bring in Palkia or Dialga, for example, but the pokemon she can bring in seem pretty random, and she can get some rare ones, too! She'll tell you more about this process when you go to leave, so we'll go into a bit more detail about what that's like soon enough.

For now, though, the first thing we're going to want to do is get some of our own pokemon onto the ranch! To do that, we'll need to transfer pokemon in! To do so, you'll simply click the Connect to DS button. Of course, you're going to need a copy of Diamond and Pearl, this time, specifically. This game does not work for any DS Pokemon game the way Pokemon Battle Revolution does. You specifically have to use Diamond or Pearl. This is one major reason why this game isn't quite as good as a central hub. It's not quite so central if it only works with 2 of the 5 games in the gen, huh? Well, there's a bit more to that story, this game isn't quite as dated in Japan, but we'll cover that in a bit more detail later.

At the start of the game, your ranch is Lv. 1 and thus only has a maximum capacity of 20 pokemon and 5 miis, including yourself, Hayley, and Hayley's 7 pokemon. That leaves room for me to transfer 14 pokemon.

      

       

I decided to bring in the first 14 pokemon in my PC. This isn't the most organized approach since some of these pokemon I'll need to bring back in for evolution and the like, but that's all good and fine. I can always transfer them in and stuff. It is recommended that you max out the pokemon here ASAP if you want to get the most out of this game. Hint, hint, you might be interested in depositing 999 pokemon.

When connecting with the DS, this large blimp will fly over your ranch to physically transfer your pokemon into the ranch, it's actually kinda cool. You'll select the pokemon you want to transfer on the DS. The ones you transfer will appear on a projection of the PC box on the ground in the ranch where their projected box sprite will be replaced by their physical ranch model.

And this is where we get to the next reason this game is inferior as a storage tool compared to Pokemon Box or Stadium. You can only withdraw pokemon from the ranch if your Trainer ID matches the one that transferred them in. That means this can't be used as a mass migration tool at all whereas it was already a complaint of mine that the previous games would only let you transfer pokemon between saves once you caught enough pokemon in your pokedex. It also means that if you start a New Game on that copy, or your save data gets corrupted, all pokemon in your ranch are trapped there forever. Be very careful with either the pokemon you transfer or the games you transfer them with.

And after transferring the pokemon in, it's time to see what all we can do with them! And that's.... watch them? Yeah, there's really not much you can do at all. Especially at a Lv. 1 ranch where you don't even get free control of the camera. So, you can click on a pokemon with the wii remote to focus the camera on them, or you can search for them by name using the D-pad and you can just watch them move around. You can't really play with them, the most you can do is get their attention by clicking on them or use the horn to get all the ranch pokemon's attention. Other than that, it's just watching them. It's something that was probably a lot more endearing to me as a kid, especially in an era where you didn't have features like this built into the main games like you do now, but it's really not very exciting to watch.

Granted, we only have so many pokemon. And things definitely do get a lot more interesting as you flood the ranch with a ton of pokemon. Individual pokemon have special behaviors and interactions with other specific pokemon or miis, there are special behaviors large numbers of pokemon can do as you saw in the trailer, but ultimately this game's sole purpose clearly seems to be just to serve as a box to throw your pokemon in with a byproduct of being able to show off your collection in a more flashy way...

Oh, and you notice something I didn't mention? Honestly, you might've just assumed it would go without saying, but no, it evidently doesn't. You can't view the summaries of the pokemon you've stored in the ranch. The only thing you can see is their nickname and level. It doesn't show you their level, moves, ability, nature, not even their OT! Well, that's not entirely accurate. You can see some weirdly selective information about the pokemon here. How? Why, a parade of course!

In order to watch a parade of the pokemon in the ranch, you'll need to click on the Deposit Info button. This will show you a list of all the miis on the ranch and the pokemon they're responsible for. There's a button you can click to cycle between which pokemon will be included: All pokemon, Hayley's pokemon, or any pokemon under the responsibility of any miis. Then you can click on the flag to begin the parade! The mii will march by while each pokemon in their group will march after, one by one. As they walk by, some of their information will display on screen. But all you get out of this are their nickname, species, OT, and where they were met. Still nothing actually practical.

But, at the end of the day, I suppose I can't be too surprised that this game isn't as good as the others. It's not developed by GameFreak proper or Nintendo like its predecessors. It's made by a company that seems to focus more on the aesthetic of Pokemon and bringing them to life rather than the RPG element, which I suppose I can respect a bit more, but the problem I have with this game is that, when you get down to it, this is the closest thing we get to a Pokemon Box: Diamond and Pearl and it's certainly frustrating that this is the second time we've had an opportunity for such a simple tool in this gen and they still can't seem to get it right.

Regardless, I shouldn't be so harsh on this game. I think it accomplishes what it's trying to do. The focus isn't just to be a tool to collect your pokemon, but rather to bring them to life in a new way that wasn't quite done before. Even still, I'm not sure it does a good job at that. While there are unique behaviors for individual pokemon, for the most part, all pokemon behave similarly to each other. They wander around, hop around, emote, wobble, and even unique actions are hard to tell if they're truly unique. Even compared to Hey You, Pikachu! or Pokemon Channel, the behaviors can only carry your interest in this game for so long. I really do think I would have more fun just showing off my collection in the base game. But still, the game is functional for the sole purpose of clearing up space. And it's not like there's nothing you can do with this game... just... not much anymore.

One of the major focuses of this game is the ability to take photos of your ranch! You do so by clicking on the camera icon. You can take photos of your pokemon interacting with each other and your miis! There's also a few more special items in the game that I'll be covering a little bit later, too. I think there's a bit more to this game that I should cover in a follow-up post or two. These photos could be viewed with the Photo Album and saved to an SD card or posted to your Wii Message Board. Back when WiiConnect24 was still online, you could also send your photos to your friends or come visit their ranches and have them visit yours, too!

The main feature I wanted to focus on was the Bulletin Board. After you first connect with a game, Hayley will get the idea that, if you're going to catch pokemon to fill out the ranch, you may as well focus on filling out your pokedex while you do it! She checks your Pokedex and comes up with a list of 3 pokemon for you to seek out! You could use the Bulletin Board to view information on each of those target pokemon!

This is probably the coolest feature of this game to me, though even at the time it was a bit dated with resources like Serebii and Bulbapedia readily available, this was the most in-depth you could get with helping to locate specific hard to find pokemon. You can see from these screenshots that the game is surprisingly descriptive. Not only does it tell you the evolution requirement for Gliscor, it also tells you where you can get a Razor Fang and exactly what time slot qualifies as "night." Beyond that, there's also a button to press to look for information on the pokemon it evolves from! In this case, Gligar can be found on Route 206 at any time, and even provides details on the National Pokedex requirement and the Dual Slot feature that's otherwise unexplained.

So the objective for this game is clear. You want to fill out your ranch by catching a whole bunch of pokemon and transferring them into the game.

My three wanted pokemon were Gabite, Garchomp, and Staraptor. For reasons I'm not gonna go into just yet, I'm not quite going to focus on Garchomp. But Gabite and Staraptor are fairly doable, so before I come back next time, I'll have those two at the ready!

Anyway, so yeah, this isn't exactly the most exciting game in the world to cover for this thread, but it's something I wanted to look into. And unlike its predecessors, there is a bit more I'd like to cover. I don't know how realistic it is, but I know of a few things that can happen in this game that I'd like to wait around for. But I think it's quite realistic I'll keep up to date with this game as I do my playthrough of Platinum and catch you guys up if anything significant or interesting happens during that time. It's certainly a long-term project.

For now, if I try to leave out to the Wii Menu using the in-game button to do so, Hayley will stop me and ask me about what kind of pokemon she should bring to the ranch tomorrow. She asked me if a fast pokemon was okay, told me she had an idea of what pokemon she's gonna look for, and then showed me a silhouette of Kadabra! I suppose that's the pokemon we'll be seeing next time! Fair enough, fair enough. In addition, because we have so many pokemon in our ranch already, construction will begin on expanding our ranch! Construction will be completed tomorrow so that we have room for even more pokemon! I'll elaborate more on this in our next update which will probably be the last exclusively My Pokemon Ranch-focused update, but we'll see how I'm feeling. For now, I think it's time to sign off! We'll check back up on the ranch tomorrow and see how things are going!

[Aura]

You might be wondering, what else is there to talk about in My Pokemon Ranch? Well, there's a little bit more to explore on our second day at the ranch. This is our first day where we'll be able to actually explore the gameplay cycle of the game. Again, there's not really much to talk about, but there are a few new details.

To start with, construction on the ranch upgrade is complete! Since we have 20 pokemon in our ranch, it jumped from Lv. 1 to Lv. 5! This means we can now have up to 50 pokemon and 10 miis on our ranch at a time!

    

In addition, remember how Hayley was going to bring a "Fast" Pokemon last time? Well, she brought the Kadabra. Five of them, in fact! This is to celebrate the ranch's upgrade.

Once your ranch reaches Lv. 4, you'll begin to receive deliveries of Toy Boxes every day! These Toy Boxes can be opened to reveal toys that Miis or Pokemon can interact with! I'm not actually sure how you open the Toy Boxes at Lv. 4, but once you reach Lv. 5, you'll also unlock the Free Mode camera! As the name suggests, in Free Mode, you can now move the camera around the ranch, zoom in, zoom out, and basically watch the action from anywhere you want. The camera control is still pretty limited, so you may want to click on something to focus on and switch back to the Auto Camera to get a more detailed look at specific things, especially toys. In addition, you can also directly interact with pokemon, miis, and objects by picking them up using A+B and carrying them around. That's right, you have to unlock the ability to interact with your pokemon in any way beyond the horn to make them look at you.

Anyway, in Free Mode, you can pick up and drop a Toy Box to open it and reveal the toy inside!

My first toy was a Parade Drum! Miis will occasionally pick up this drum and begin marching along. As the mii marches, pokemon will follow in line behind them and form a parade line! It's kind of cute!

Anyway, now that I've got some gameplay, I've gotta do some transporting of my own. We can have 50 pokemon in the ranch and we have 25 at the moment, so I've gotta transport 25 more pokemon!

    

    

    

     

    

The 25 pokemon I transferred this time were the ones between Raichu and Primeape that I happend to have currently in storage. In addition, there's also Staraptor and Gabite who were two of the three Wanted pokemon from yesterday's session. I went ahead and evolved Sora the Stravia and Same the Gible to accomplish this.

Upon recognizing that we delivered some of the target pokemon, Hayley updates us on our Pokedex progress since our last visit and recommends new pokemon to take their place.

  

The first of these pokemon are Parasect which can be found as one of the random daily pokemon in the Great Marsh, and then we have Azumarill, who I'll need to evolve a Marill to get. Of course, Garchomp is still there all the same.

Next time I play, I'll try to bring in these three!

And this is the general gameplay loop. I suppose I've been approaching this game from the wrong angle. It's not really a tool to replace Pokemon Box, but rather a neat little companion game to aid you in completing the pokedex in Diamond and Pearl. From that perspective, I can actually see a bit more appeal in this game as it gives you additional goals to build toward and adds a bit more replay value to Diamond and Pearl for people who prefer the collection aspect of Pokemon. And it does reward you with a fairly cute atmosphere that you can passively leave on and watch like a screensaver. There are neat little events that play out when you idle in the ranch for a while, so that tells me you're likely intended to leave the game on to watch idly while you hunt for rare pokemon or grind out evolutions. It's surprisingly pleasant to play the game that way.

Well, from here it's clear what the gameplay loop is: You check in every day to receive your rewards, upgrade your ranch, and dump a bunch more pokemon in there. All the while using your ranch as an incentive to help you complete the pokedex. As you fill up your ranch, the ranch will level up.

Anyway, upon leaving, Hayley stops us once again to ask us what kind of pokemon she should bring. She suggests a "Focused" pokemon, and when I agree to it, she shows the sillhouette of... Lucario. Alright, well, we already have a Lucario on the ranch but I suppose she can bring some more, too, why not?

One more thing I'd like to note is that I actually left to create the miis in the middle of a session, so this is kinda two sessions spliced into one post. But when I returned, I was met by a new Mii named Bobby from Club Look-See! This is another feature of the game I wasn't expecting to cover just yet. Every once in a while you'll be greeted by a member of Club Look-See and invited to come look at their ranch.

 x 100

 x 20

Bobby's ranch is absolutely infested with Bidoof and Bibarel! He's clearly a big fan! The ranch also has three toys on it.

 

The Slippery Peel does exactly what you'd expect. Miis and Pokemon can walk into it and slip!

The Challenger appears to be some sort of training dummy. When pokemon touch it, they'll be attacked. If they dodge the attack, they'll be rewarded with some confetti!

Lastly, the Poke Pendulum is a bit of an odd one. It draws pokemon in with a hypnotic effect that can lull them to sleep or confuse them.

===========

Anyway, I think this is the last dedicated update I'll be making on this game. This game is clearly meant to be a companion piece to Diamond and Pearl and I intend to treat it as such. There's a bit more about this game I'd like to cover, but it feels a bit akin to a Chao Garden or Animal Crossing where it's clearly a long-term project that you build up over time and you only get the biggest rewards by investing a lot into the game. So, I don't think it's right to bring this whole thread to a screeching halt as I play this one game for years of my life. Instead, I'll switch my focus up to our next game which will finally be a return to the main series! And at some point, likely after I finish the story or postgame content of Platinum, I'll give you guys one big update on what's been going on here! See you in a while!

[Aura]

I probably said the same thing last time, but it feels like it's been forever since I've played a main series title, this is coming off of the heels of both Mystery Dungeon Explorers and Pokemon Ranger which were both fairly large projects. But now, the time has finally come for the next major step in the series. At the time of writing this, this is the last "third version" title in the series. There's a pair of games later on that fill a similar niche, but this is the last one in the traditional sense of being a definitive version of its two predecessors. Unlike Emerald, though, we don't have a remake between the original and sequel. So we're jumping straight into the third version of Gen IV: Pokemon Platinum Version!

Released in Japan on September 13th, 2008, this game is, of course, a major fan favorite among the pokemon community. Just like Emerald before it, the game expands on the story from Diamond and Pearl. It introduces new characters, new areas, and new features. Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of this game compared to its predecessors is this is the first Pokemon game to introduce new forms of pokemon within the same gen. That is to say, a small handful of pokemon that didn't have alternate forms in Diamond and Pearl now do. And this is on top of the typical additions in third versions such as an expanded postgame, reworked visuals, quality of life improvements, and other upgrades!

As per usual, this is the third time we've adventured in Sinnoh, so I'm not going to focus too much on the details of the game's story or world on the micro scale, but I will be focusing on specific details that are notably different from the original Diamond and Pearl as I did with Emerald and Ruby and Sapphire.

Introduction

The game begins, as always, with the professor's introduction to the world of pokemon.

Our first change is right away! The pokemon Prof. Rowan introduces us to in the intro is a Buneary instead of the Munchlax it was in Diamond and Pearl. In addition, we can see here that, not only does Buneary have a new sprite, it has a new animation as well! You'll notice a bit more movement in this game as you play. I'll try to use as many animated sprites as I can to show them all off, some of them are quite cool!

 

As you saw in the intro, the protagonists of this game have also seen some redesigns! They're now wearing heavier clothing to better reflect the colder climate of the Sinnoh Region.

 

Since I played as the male protagonist in Emerald, I figured I'd choose a female character this time! Her name will be Platina!

And then we have our rival, who I'm going to be calling Percy this time around. He unfortunately doesn't get a redesign like we do, which is a bit unfortunate, but I suppose he is the type to rush out without thinking about dressing for the cold.

===========

Music: Special Program: Let's Ask Professor Rowan!

The TV spot playing when we first start the game is a bit of a downgrade in my opinion. Rather than exciting coverage of a shiny gyarados, we catch the ending of an interview segment with Prof. Rowan. He leaves a fairly generic comment that pokemon are by our side always and the show mentions that he's just recently returned from the Kanto region!

Music: Twinleaf Town (Day)

Pace meets us in our room this time around and seems even more scatterbrained than normal, getting distracted by our PC while in the process of telling you what he wanted to say. Of course, he's interested in going to see Prof. Rowan in Sandgem Town to see if we can get starter pokemon from him! He warns us of his signature 10-million P fine if we're not on time, so I guess we'd better follow him outside!

===========

Twinleaf Town

Once again, the devs really want to emphasize that this is a new Sinnoh with upgraded visuals! There's snow on the ground in Twinleaf Town! The trees and tiles all look slightly different, too. And the houses really seem to pop out better. I'm not really sure what's different about them. Other than that, though, there's not really much of a difference, it's still the same-old Twinleaf Town. More importantly, Percy said he'd meet us outside, but he's nowhere to be seen? Just like the original, you'll need to meet him at his house before meeting up up north.

============

Route 201

As we meet Percy on Route 201, we'll find that events play out notably differently this time around. In the original, the TV Spot on the Red Gyarados inspired him to go to Lake Verity and try to catch the Legendary Pokemon of the lake. This time, he wants to go see Prof. Rowan instead. But we have an obvious obstacle: Tall Grass which is dangerous to travel through without pokemon. He insists we'll be alright as long as we just dash through the grass before any wild pokemon attack! It's extremely reckless, of course. But that doesn't seem to stop him from trying! Barry takes a few steps back and immediately starts running toward the grass when a loud voice shouts out at him.

The voice belongs to Prof. Rowan who stopped Barry just in time before he endangered himself by rushing out into the grass! Thank God, because the last thing we'd want is for him to get stuck in a softlock using a glitch pokemon. Prof. Rowan approaches from the direction of the lake where we would normally see him and his assistant first in Diamond and Pearl.

Prof. Rowan scolds Percy harshly for his recklessness. Percy apologizes and explains to him that we were trying to get to Sandgem Town to see if he would give them their first pokemon. Prof. Rowan initially scoffs at the idea, worried about what such reckless children might do with pokemon. But when Percy is willing to accept the consequences of his actions and insist that you still get your starter because going through the tall grass was his own idea, Rowan is impressed by his unexpected maturity.

It's here where Rowan notices his Briefcase happens to be missing!

That's when his assistant, Lucas (or Dawn if you're playing as a boy), arrives to return the briefcase he left at the lake! It's kind of strange that this intro sequence plays out so slightly differently, it's like a parallel universe where these things are just slightly off. Then again, I guess that's exactly what this is.

Rowan thanks Lucas for returning the briefcase and insists that he was about to entrust us with pokemon! Lucas is surprised due to the rarity of the pokemon in the briefcase, but Rowan insists he is certain that the time is right for us to receive our first pokemon. And so, with encouragement from Percy, we make our first choice!

  

We've got to make our choice of starter again! Of course, our decision is more or less made for us already. We've started with Chimchar and Turtwig before, so Piplup's the obvious next choice!

===========

 Moon (Piplup M); Lv. 5

 

Item: None

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Pound, Growl

==========

Strangely, even though we've officially been given this pokemon, we don't actually get to nickname it yet. Just like the original, we don't get to nickname the pokemon officially until a bit later on. It made sense originally since you hadn't properly confirmed that you would be allowed to keep it until he saw how happy it was with you. Oh well. However, what's different from the original is that, instead of a battle with wild Starly, we instead receive a traditional Rival Starter v Starter battle right away!

==========

Vs. Rival #1

Before we get into the actual battle, yes, you see that right! Certain significant opponents now have animated sprites just like pokemon! Just another small touch that's adds a bigger sense of life to these games and was probably a lot more exciting to see than it should've been as a kid.

Beyond that, this is a new battle with the rival that didn't exist originally! In Diamond and Pearl, your first rival battle was outside Jubilife City where he'd already have another pokemon on his team. This is more of a traditional first rival battle.

-------------

Turtwig, Lv. 5

                    

                    

This is actually a surprisingly weighted matchup and, honestly, I think this is probably why Diamond and Pearl didn't have a battle like this. Unlike the original, simply spamming your standard attack against Turtwig isn't actually going to make much headway. Piplup's attack isn't very high and Turtwig's defense is pretty threatening, especially as he gets his Withdraws up. While spamming your attacking move is typically the way to go, I recommend hitting Turtwig with a couple of Growls until his Tackle only does 1 HP. Thanks to Turtwig not having much attack either, this shouldn't take too long. Once he's only doing 1HP, though, there's no sense in continuing to use Growl, you're just wasting precious time. More importantly, we do outspeed, so as long as we can keep the pressure up, we should be able to get him down. He's going to layer up his defenses a lot more than necessary, we'll be doing 1 HP at a time, too, so many of his turns using Withdraw are going to be wasted. Ideally, you'll want to hope for a Critical Hit here to skip right past his defenses and do some major damage. If you're unlucky, he could crit you first and make all this strategy moot. But if you keep the pain train going, you're going to be the one most likely to get that crit. If nobody gets a crit, then you're certain to win as long as you just keep attacking.

============

That's a surprisingly intense battle! Probably the most difficult first battle in the entire series so far! Of course, the game will still go on if you lose the battle, and that's actually quite likely. After our battle, we return home to our mother.

============

Twinleaf Town

Back at home, our mother tells us to go and thank Prof. Rowan properly for our new pokemon and gives us our Running Shoes to aid in the trek. So, of course, we head off toward Sandgem Town!

============

Route 201

Back on Route 201, we run into Percy again! He says he wants to go thank Rowan, too, but comes up with the idea to go and look for the legendary pokemon of the Lake! He suggests that if we can catch it, Rowan will be really happy to see it! Fair enough, though going to the lake now seems a little bit redundant...

============

Verity Lakefront

There's nothing major going on outside of Lake Verity, but inside....

============

Lake Verity

It's a bit of a shock to see him so soon, but it's... Cyrus! We catch him monologuing to himself about the flowing of time and expanding of space and how he will make it his as a threat to the spirit of the lake. He passes by us, quite rudely, and shortly after he leaves, we hear the cry of Mesprit, the legendary pokemon of Lake Verity!

Percy gets excited by this and exclaims that this is our chance! But that's when he finally realizes the error in his plan... we don't actually have any pokeballs to catch pokemon with. Once he realizes Prof. Rowan might have some pokeballs to share, he decides to race us to Sandgem Town!

============

Route 201

So now we get a bit more freedom from all the cutscenes. We're not quite in the home stretch, but we have our first chance to do some optional stuff.

First of all, if we take the path at the top of the ledge to Verity Lakefront, we'll find a TinyMushroom where the hidden Potion once was. Definitely a downgrade, I'd say, and a bit of a bummer.

But, the potion from the market representative is still available on Route 201!

=============

Sandgem Town

When we first arrive in Sandgem Town, we go through a mostly similar sequence of events.

We go inside Rowan's Lab, he notes how happy our pokemon is, lets us give it a nickname, and gives us our pokedex! All standard stuff, to be sure.

On our way out, though, Prof. Rowan stops us by calling out to us and coming outside after us!

It turns out he has something else for us: TM27: Hidden Power! That's... certainly an odd move to get so early. It's a great move, don't get me wrong, but I feel like a new player might get the wrong idea teaching this move to their pokemon right now and wondering why it's doing so little damage. You definitely don't want to bother with Return over even Pound until your pokemon's gained a bit of Happiness with you.

===========

Anyway, we go through the same rigamarole as before, going back home, telling our mother we're about to go on an adventure, Percy's mother comes in looking for her son who already left in a hurry. We get a Journal from our mom and a parcel to deliver to Percy... yadda yadda yadda.

===========

Route 102

When we return to Route 102, it's time for our obligatory Capture Tutorial with Lucas!

                    

                                         

He catches a Bidoof with the help from his Chimchar as you'd expect, but now we get to see his backsprite!

============

Anyway, I think this is a good place to leave things off for now. We got the bulk of the early game slog over with and the game is about to open up a bit more to us! Next time, we'll begin our new adventure for real! Ah, it's good to be back!

[Aura]

Route 202

   

It's time to progress! Normally when I cover these third version games, I only focus on wild pokemon that are different. But that has the unfortunate side effect of new sprites for common pokemon often going overlooked during my coverage of the game, so this time I'll be touching on the sprites of all the new pokemon we have access to, but I'll still make special note of the ones that actually differ from Diamond and Pearl.

Outside of the minor aesthetic changes, things are pretty much the same on this route save for some minor rarity adjustments that make Bidoof more common at night and Starly more common during the day. Kricketot can also no longer be found in the morning.

One thing I should note that's a bit disappointing since this is our first time battling opposing trainers, most trainers in the game do not have animated sprites. For the most part, they all have the same sprites as their Diamond and Pearl counterparts. Even more unfortunate, this game doesn't actually seem to differentiate itself from Diamond and Pearl quite as drastically as Emerald did in terms of things like trainer placement. It's all more or less the same. Their pokemon are different, and I'll try to note locations where specific trainers are changed, but nothing like that really jumps out at me in quite the same way as Emerald where a lot of trainers were relocated or shuffled around.

Jubilife City

As we head north into Jubilife City, this is the first particularly drastic change in aesthetic. Jubilife as a whole is a lot grayer than it was in Diamond and Pearl. Comparing the two, I'm honestly not too sure I prefer this aesthetic as the original looks a lot more colorful. But I suppose the city was redesigned to look more technologically advanced. You'll notice that the Global Trade Station seems to have been replaced by a completely new building. We can't get there yet to investigate, though.

Anyway, we first arrive, we're met by Lucas at the entrance to the city. But things diverge a bit here as a new character is introduced.

Up ahead, we see a strange man trying to hide in the shadows of the lampposts along the streets of Jubilife. When we speak to him, he's surprised by our ability to deduce that he's a member of the International Police! Er... sure, that's why we approached.

Music: Looker's Theme

This man introduces himself by his codename: Looker. He's one of the new characters we saw in the game's intro! He tells us he's investigating a group of criminals who have been stealing pokemon. That's gotta be Team Galactic, though I suppose in-universe we don't really know that yet. Looker insists that we come and talk to him if we see him again, not because he's lonely, he assures us, but because he needs leads on the criminals of Sinnoh.

He bids us farewell with a gift: a Vs Recorder! This is a new item introduced in Gen IV, but it's functionally similar to the replay feature from Emerald's Battle Frontier. With the Vs. Recorder, you can record a Link Battle with it. It's not too terribly interesting, but judging by the way I described it just now, you can probably guess that it's linked to a much larger concept. In addition to that, there's a bit more to this tool related to Wi-Fi connection. That's a bit moot today with the official servers down, but I figured I should note it anyway when those features become usable. For a single player playthrough, though, this item isn't going to be doing much for us for a long while.

Anyway, after saying goodbye, Lucas carries on showing us to the Trainer School as normal and Looker will now be the one to stop you from leaving the city to the east now.

 

There are a few new items to be found here. Where you found the hidden Parlyz Heal in Diamond and Pearl is now a Stardust for selling! In addition, there's also a potion south of the Poketch Company. Most of what we can explore of Jubilife, at least right now, is the same as the original, so why don't we poke our heads outside of the city for a little bit?

============

Route 218

Heading out to Route 218 west of Jubilife, we'll find an item on the Pier that wasn't there before! It's an X-Accuracy!

And with the Old Rod from inside the gatehouse, we can find Magikarp!

=============

Route 204

  

Up on Route 204, we have some of our first major differences in pokemmon availability! You can now find Wurmple a lot earlier on this time around at 10% during the morning and day! In exchange, this 10% is subtracted from Budew and Starly's rarities in the morning and day respectively.

===========

Ravaged Path

Heading up to Ravaged Path, you might think there's nothing significantly differet here, and while you're technically right, you're also technically wrong.

First of all, the Parlyz Heal that was here in DP was once again replaced, this time by yet another Potion. But more importantly...

Psyduck is far more common here! You can catch Psyduck at a whopping 35% rarity as opposed to its original mere 2% rarity! You might notice I haven't put Geodude's sprite here, though. That's not a coincidence--The boost of Psyduck's encounter rate comes at the cost of Geodude not being encounterable at all here. A really surprising change. Zubat's encounter rate is also dropped a bit, but if you ask me it makes more sense to just cut the 35% from Zubat's encounter rate and have all three pokemon in here. But I guess that's just not how the cookie crumbles this time.

===========

Anyway, back on track, we finally check in at the Trainer's School to deliver the Parcel to Percy just like before. Believe it or not, this room also has a fairly notable change.

 

The two School Kids here now challenge you with different pokemon.

Instead of the much more interesting Abra battles we had here before, we're instead met with Starly. Instead of demonstrating the usefulness of TMs and the move Hidden Power specifically, these two instead demonstrate the ability to use items in battle. The Boy uses an X-Attack on his Starly and the girl heals hers with a Potion. I do suppose this tutorial is more practical for teaching a new player the game's mechanics, but I can't say I was ever a big fan of this change.

The bigger disappointment here, though, is that your reward for these battles is simply another Potion instead of the TM for Hidden Power.

If you're more interested in the X-Attack, well that's here, too! It's just in the corner of the room for you to pick up for free!

===========

 

Jumping a bit further ahead, our next difference is the Poketch! It has a new redesign. it still comes in a Blue or Red version depending on your gender, and don't let the screenshot of the blue one fool you, the default color is still green on both versions. Anyway, the most significant difference here is that you there are now two buttons instead of one! You can now switch to the next app in the list or the previous one! If you overshoot the app you're looking for, you can simply go back one rather than having to cycle through them all one at a time again. This is such a simple addition that makes a world of difference for QoL!

==========

Route 203

And here we finally arrive at Route 203! Just like before, we're not gonna be able to get very far before another rival battle with Percy.

============

 

My Team

-------------

 Moon (Piplup F); Lv. 12

 

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Pound, Growl, Bubble, Water Sport

============

Vs. Rival #2

I'm gonna be honest with you, I was genuinely nervous about this battle. Due to my stubborn way of playing these games, I like to stick strictly to the pokemon I plan to use. In my plan for Platinum, I want to focus on pokemon that couldn't be used in Diamond and Pearl's main story. The problem with that, however, is that we're not actually going to get our first addition to our team until after the second gym. That's going to lead to a couple of rough patches as we're essentially in a solo run until that point and this is one of the two battles I'm especially worried over.

--------------

Vs. Starly Lv. 7

                                        

                                        

Our initial matchup here is alright. Even though Bubble isn't as high power as Pound, STAB and Piplup's Special Attack seems to make up for the lack of power, so Bubble ends up doing more damage with the added bonus of reducing the target's speed occasionally! Not that that's particularly important since I'm much higher level due to only having the one pokemon. Starly got a few Quick Attacks in, but wasn't able to make much progress.

---------------

Vs. Turtwig Lv. 9

                                        

                                        

This is the one that had me far more worried. Turtwig is high enough level to use Absorb, but I kinda lucked out here. Turtwig focused a lot of time building up its defenses again. After a Withdraw or two, Bubble was able to do more damage than Pound in spite of the Not Very Effective matchup thanks to evading his buffed defenses and a bit to my level advantage. But even with that and a lot of luck leading to Percy only using Pound instead of Absorb, I was able to scrounge up a fairly undeserved win but a win nonetheless.

=============

And I think this is a good place to stop! With Percy out of the way, we can continue onward to our first gym in Oreburgh City!

[Aura]

Route 203

Continuing onward from our battle with Percy, we can now explore Route 203 properly!

Just like before, Abra is available here, so here's its sprite!

 

In addition, the Youngster and Lass at the southeastern edge of the route have swapped locations, with the Youngster now watching the stairs. The lass has also been moved into the patch of tall grass rather than standing next to it, making her a bit harder to sneak by.

A new item can now be found on top of the ledge near the large patch of tall grass: It's an X Defend! It seems like they really wanted to emphasize these items early on a lot more this time around, but they've always just been noise to me.

=============

Oreburgh Gate

Because Geodude is no longer available in Ravaged Pass, Oreburgh Gate is your first chance to catch one here!

==========

Oreburgh City

Oreburgh City is more or less the same overall. There is one notable change here, but I think we'll cover that when a better time comes.

The biggest difference that's relevant for me right now are some new items! On top of the items and notable NPCs previously available here, there's now some new items found in the area outside Oreburgh Mine. 

 

A Dire Hit and Yellow Shard can now be found near the Slag Heap in place of the hidden Stardust from the original.

 

In addition, a Heart Scale and Pearl can be found hidden around the Slag Heap as well. You might have to feel around a bit to find them, but they're there!

===========

Route 207

 

Up on Route 207, we can now find Machop. But much more significantly, we can find Ponyta a lot earlier than before! Its 25% encounter rate cuts into the spawn rate of Geodude who Platinum seems to not like very much. But at night, it's only a 15% encounter rate with Machop getting the additional 10% that's still cut from Geodude. Granted, I'm not sure how much help a Fire type can really be before Roark, but you can get it on your team a lot earlier on than in Diamond and Pearl!

============

Oreburgh Mine [B1F]

Going down into OReburg Mine, you can see one fairly large change right away: The conveyor belts actually run a lot deeper into the cave in this game where they actually ended right at the entrance in the original. They don't block your ability to walk to the sides, though. As you head down the stairs, they end up overhead so you can walk under them and climb back up on the other sides.

Onix can be found inside Oreburgh Mine just the same as in Diamond and Pearl. There are no notable changes in encounters here.

A Poke Ball can now be found in the entrance in place of the X Defend in the original.

------------------

Oreburgh Mine [B2F]

The depths of the mine are much darker in color and wooden beams have been added to the walls to reinforce them, making the area more strongly resemble Sinnoh's Underground. Of course, we meet Roark here, same as in Diamond and Pearl, so that we can go to meet him at his gym for our first gym battle!

===========

Oreburgh Gym

It's finally time for the Oreburgh Gym which has a really hard time being notable in any way when I only have a single pokemon who also happens to be particularly overleveled. Not on purpose, of course! Just, it's the only pokemon I have so it gets 100% of the experience I earn.

 

Anyway, the gym itself is identical to the one in Diamond and Pearl which is, once again, a bit of a shame considering Roxanne's Gym in Emerald was notably different. Anyway, the trainer's pokemon are slightly higher level but otherwise the same. Their Geodudes and Onix couldn't hold up against Piplup, of course.

Anyway, it is now time to battle Roark! I've been using these mugshots of the Gym Leaders throughout Diamond and Pearl, and I think I said this at some point during my coverage of those games, but I was actually doing in erroneously. In the original games, I believe the game only uses a close-up of the gym leaders' in-battle sprites. Platinum actually uses distinctive artwork for these mugshots that I've been using! My bad! But it's time for the first gym leader in Platinum: The Rock-type Specialist Roark!

=============

 

My Team

-------------

 Moon (Prinplup F); Lv. 18

 

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Metal Claw, Growl, Bubble, Peck

During this session, Piplup ended up reaching Lv. 16 and evolving into Prinplup! So yeah, I might be a little over-prepared for this one.

============

Vs. Oreburgh Gym Leader Roark

----------------

Geodude, Lv. 12

                                        

                                        

So yeah, as I mentioned before, things are a little bit stacked against our gym leader here. With a simple Bubble, Geodude couldn't stand a chance.

---------------

Onix, Lv. 12

                                        

                                        

And nor could Onix, poor guy.

---------------

Cranidos, Lv. 14

Maybe Cranidos can stand a better chance? It's more offensive, has a higher level than the others, and lacks the 4x weakness!

                                        

                                        

Nnnope, still down in one hit.

----------------

And that's that for Roark's battle. A bit disappointing, to be sure, but I suppose I didn't really give him much of a chance to begin with.

We are, of course, rewarded with our Coal Badge.

And TM76: Stealth Rock as well.

---------------

MVP: Moon

It's not the first time it's happened, but it's hard not to win MVP when you're the only pokemon on the team. Good job, Moon!

[Aura]

Oreburgh City

It's another day! So let's push further along on our third adventure through the Sinnoh Region! Last time, we got the Coal Badge allowing us to use Rock Smash outside of battle.

============

Oreburgh Gate [B1F]

Before we get ahead of ourselves heading toward the next gym, we'll, of course, stop by Oreburgh Gate and grab ourselves the TM for Flash which will be important up ahead.

A major change down here in Platinum is that you can now find under-level Golbat down here! It's rare, only at 5%, but it's possible meaning Golbat as low as Lv. 10 are technically legal! The encounter rates for Psyduck and Geodude are also boosted by 5% over Diamond and Pearl, all of this cuts into Zubat's encounter rate.

In addition to Golbat, another difference here is that the Stardust has been replaced with a Big Pearl. I'm not really sure why, but there you go.

=============

Jubilife City

As we return to Jubilife, I had a brief run-in with Looker who questioned why I don't have a Pal Pad yet and pointed me to the fact that I can get one by visiting the Pokemon Center's basement. I can't help but wonder what he says if you already have a Pal Pad?

                                         

                                         

Vs. Team Galactic Grunt & Team Galactic Grunt

Of course, this is the point in the story where we fight off the two Galactic Grunts in Jubilife City.

                                         

                                         

This battle is slightly different as these two Grunts use tougher pokemon; A Stunky and Glameow rather than a Wurmple and Zubat, and they're higher level, too! Of course, this battle still went about how you'd expect with Moon carrying the whole fight alone.

===========

Jubilife TV

Now that we've reached this point in the story, more of Jubilife opens up to us! Let's begin by exploring Jubilife's TV station! Most of this area is the same as the original game, but there are some key differences, of course. Namely, the lobby area is a bit less significant now. You'll notice the daily trainers are no longer found here. I wonder why that could be?

In addition, the lowest reward in the daily lottery is no longer a random backdrop, but instead, an Ultra Ball! I suppose this is to ensure that you always get something for matching at least one digit, but it is a bit less exciting when you're looking to get those backdrops. So, if you don't get backdrops here, where do they come from, you might ask? Well, we'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

Jubilife TV [3F]

On the third floor, we have a familiar man. Anyone intimately familiar with Gen IV should remember this guy! He works all the same as he did in Diamond and Pearl, so that's not why I'm bringing him up. But, you might recall this guy was useful for more than just opening up Mystery Gift.

You might have noticed I haven't mentioned anything about the wallpapers this time. That's because the standard wallpapers are all the same across Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. However, what is different in Platinum are the special wallpapers you can unlock through this man! That's right, every single one of them is completely different! Some of them contain light spoilers for the game's story, but it's nothing that wasn't crammed all over the trailers for the game.

Friends 1

Spoiler

   

Distortion, Contest, Nostalgic, Croagunk

Friends 2

Spoiler

   

Trio, PikaPika, Legend, Team Galactic

As you can see many of the new wallpapers are themed the same as in the original game, even sharing a name, but take a different approach to the theme, sometimes including a stronger focus on new elements in Platinum. We'll get to some of the elements seen here eventually, but the other most drastically different wallpapers include Croagunk, which replaces the Torchic wallpaper, and Contest, which replaces the Backyard wallpaper. Other than those, Nostalgic now shows the interior of a house using a tileset from Red and Blue rather than the outdoor scene in Red and Blue, the Trio wallpaper now displays the three starters sharing a feast of berries, and the PikaPika wallpaper now shows Raichu alongside Pikachu and Pichu.

Of course, we can also gain access to Mystery Gift through this NPC allowing us to receive Mystery Gifts! This is a feature that Platinum is prominently known for as it had some of the most exciting Wi-Fi event distributions including many that were never officially distributed in Diamond and Pearl, hence why I never covered them back then.

  

I should mention that the three special mission pokemon from Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia can be obtained in Platinum just as well as Diamond and Pearl. Same can be said for the Manaphy Egg from the original Pokemon Ranger as well!

  

The Mystery Gifts from Pokemon Battle Revolution can also be transferred in, too!

All of this is assuming, of course, that you haven't already redeemed these Mystery Gifts in another game.

Is that really all I'm here to talk about though? Well, of course, not.

Just like in Diamond where I took this opportunity to "demonstrate" Mystery Gift by using an Action Replay to activate the Manaphy Egg event in Diamond, I'm once again going to do the same thing here in Platinum. Not long after Platinum came out, it received its first event: An exclusive one that didn't exist in Diamond and Pearl. I actually mistakenly believed this event was available day one because I remember a pamphlet advertising the event was packaged with my copy of the game when I first got my hands on it.

The event I'm referring to is, of course, the Secret Key event. I decided I wanted to utilize this because it's linked to one of the major new features introduced here in Platinum. So, I used an action replay code to gain access to the event. If you're interested, the code is as follows:

94000130 FCFF0000
62101D40 00000000
B2101D40 00000000
0000B5D4 0000000C
0000B5D8 00000000
D2000000 00000000

After entering this code, pressing L+R will cause the delivery man to appear in the Poke Mart. You may have to leave and come back in to get the event to actually work.

Anyway, we'll go over exactly what this weird key is useful for soon enough. But for now, let's continue exploring Jubilife!

============

Global Terminal

Global Terminal [Lobby]

Welcome to the Global Terminal! Based on its location, you've probably already deduced that this place is an expanded version of the GTS from Diamond and Pearl, and you'd be right! Of course, it's mostly meaningless today, but there are proxy servers you can access with a little bit of extra work. Officially, though, this whole building is almost entirely useless. The central lobby here has all the same features as the GTS from the first game, but you'll notice there are two warp pads as well.

There are two new terminals in here that can be used to check Trainer Rankings and Battle Video Rankings! Battle Videos from the Vs. Recorder can be uploaded and the most popular ones will be tracked here, allowing you to save them. The Trainer Rankings are exactly what you'd expect: the best trainers in the world are listed here!

Global Terminal [Green Room]

Stepping into the green portal will warp you to the Green Room where there are some more terminals! More importantly, though, this is where you'll come and get Backdrops in Platinum Version! It's no longer tied to a raffle. Instead, you simply get a new backdrop every day you check in with the lady here!

Here, you can upload snapshots of a PC Box or dressed-up Pokemon. While it's not too terribly exciting, I think this allows you to get a lot more mileage out of all those accessories you've worked so hard to gather. I can't help but wonder just how creative people could get with these features?

Global Terminal [Red Room]

The red portal will take you to the Red Room! Er... maybe I could've called it something a little better than that.

The Red Terminals here are where you can upload battle videos from your Vs Recorder as well as view videos from other trainers.

============

I can only imagine a lot of people spent a lot of time in this building back in the day. Nowadays, I doubt it sees nearly as much attention. But, it's still notable enough for being a place to look for those Backdrops!

Anyway, that's it for now. We had a lot to cover in Jubilife, but I don't think we have quite as much to talk about going forward from here. Next time, we're gonna try and make the push for our second gym!

[Aura]

Floaroma Town

We're back with more Pokemon Platinum! Last time we took a look around Jubilife City after getting the Coal Badge, so now it's time to make our way north. There isn't anything of particular note that's different along the way, at least not that we haven't already covered, but Floaroma Town is a bit different visually. The houses are more detailed, the flowers are arranged differently, and there's a cute little gate added to the entrances of the town!

As for what's actually in here, well, there's not much to talk about. There is one lady here who will tell you about a local tradition involving special Gracedia Flowers as a symbol of gratitude. She might not seem very significant, but she is of a bit more significance than you might expect.

=============

Valley Windworks (Exterior)

Of course, this part of the game is mostly untouched from the first game. We run into a little girl on Route 205 who asks us to help her daddy at the Valley Windworks, we go and a Galactic Grunt blocking the door, battle him, he locks the door. Then we have to go back to Floaroma Town to get the key from the other grunts.

   

Of course, some pokemon are available here for the first time, so here are their sprites! In addition, Shinx can also now be found here, cutting a bit into the encounter rates of the others.

===========

Floaroma Meadow

So, we make our way to Floaroma Meadow to battle the grunts giving the honey guy a hard time.

 x 10

This time, our reward is not one jar of honey, but 10! This feels much less stingy and does a lot more for getting you interested in honey trees! Furthermore, you can now purchase Honey in sets of 10 rather than just one at a time like in the original. That means a lot less time is spent talking to this guy and a lot more time is spent slathering honey on trees! A very welcome change if I do say so, myself!

============

Valley Windworks [Interior]

So, we've got our all-too-familiar takeover of Valley Windworks where we'll be battling our way through a handful of Galactic Grunts until...

 

We face off against Commander Mars. There seems to also be a strange new character with her, I wonder what that's all about?

===========

 

My Team:

--------------

 Moon (Prinplup F); Lv. 21

 

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Metal Claw, Growl, Bubble, Peck

===========

Vs. Commander Mars

Oh, this poor soul was not prepared to face off against me.

----------------

Zubat, Lv. 15

                                        

                                        

Zubat naturally went down to a single BubbleBeam.

----------------

Purugly, Lv. 17

                                        

                                        

Purugly opened up with Fake Out, and it also took two hits from BubbleBeam to go down, but it couldn't hold its own against me at all.

----------------

With that, Commander Mars was defeated.

=============

After Mars's defeat, the man next to Commander Mars comments how they've managed to harness enough energy from the Valley Windworks for their goals anyway and that there's no reason to be upset over her loss. But this only gets Mars more worked up and she yells to him that the boss is only one who she takes orders from.

This man seems to be the other new character we saw in the game's intro. His name is Charon and he appears to be a fourth Commander of Team Galactic, so he's probably gonna be a reason for some of the divergence between this game's story and that of the original game. All we can really gleam from him for now is that he's supposedly a genius whose brilliance is admired even by Cyrus himself. But I just have one major botherance with him right now and that's his name. In Japan, his name was Pluto which fits better with the naming scheme of the rest of the Galactic Commanders: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. But here, his name is Charon, which, while still named after a celestial body in the solar system, Charon is merely a satellite orbiting Pluto. Evidently, though, the intention seems to be that he's named after something much smaller than the planets of the Solar System, so I imagine he's going to be somewhat of an "unseen evil" in all of this, with most of his actions being hidden by his relatively invisible status. But only time will tell.

For the record, I never mentioned this, but I've never actually beaten Pokemon Platinum. I played it as a kid but never finished it, so I don't actually know how the story plays out here. I only know bits and pieces of how it diverges from the original.

===========

Route 205

Anyway, with Team Galactic driven out of the Valley Windworks, we can finally progress on our journey, and we'll start of course by making our way up Route 205!

  

X Sp. Def in place of the X Attack from the original game, and a Heal Ball in place of the Poke Ball below the bridge. Some hidden Stardust can be found on the small ledge in place of the Antidote from the original, too.

Other than that, the route is the same as the original, at least on this southern end.

=============

Eterna Forest

This is one of the more eye-opening areas in terms of visual distinction from the original game! Where Eterna Forest wasn't too terribly visually distinct outside of just having a lot of tall grass and trees, this game has a much more dense forest with sunlight filtering through the dense trees overhead leading to this beautiful shade casted over the entire area. The whole place looks a lot more whimsical to me here. This is the type of aesthetic shift I like to see!

-----------------

 

Just like before, you'll meet Cheryl here who will ask you to escort her through the forest. She'll keep your pokemon healthy and, in Platinum version, her Chansey is actually Lv. 20 rather than 15, so it's even more of a boon!

     

Just like in the original, there's a handful of new pokemon we can find here in the forest! Silcoon and Cascoon as well as Beautifly and Dustox are now both found here at the same time! However, their encounter rates are a lot lower than in Diamond and Pearl, with Silcoon and Cascoon being 5% each and Beautifly and Dustox being 1% each. You can find Gastly here now at 4% and Hoothoot at night at 10%. Notably, neither Murkrow or Misdreavus are found here which is just one of those really disappointing third version omissions that are included solely to make sure that both of the original games are still needed to complete the pokedex.

Other changes to the encounters here include Kricketot and now being encounterable in here... yay, I guess?

The Great Ball in the corner of the large patch of grass has also been replaced with a Net Ball, certainly a far more exciting find!

============

Route 205

After reaching the end of Eterna Forest, we pop out on the northern northern end of Route 205! The wild pokemon out here are closer to the ones found in the forest rather than the ones in the original which were much closer to the encounters in the southern end. Silcoon and Cascoon are twice as common here at 10% each, though Beautifly and Dustox are both at 10%.

 

The Potion along the south end of the pond is now a Guard Spec, but to make up for it, the pot of Honey hidden near the Honey Tree is now a Super Potion! You just gotta sus it out a little better!

Eterna City

And finally, we arrive at Eterna City!

As soon as we do, we bump into Percy who leads us toward the statue of the legendary pokemon nearby.

It's here that we run into Cyrus again. He's muttering to himself once again about Time and Space shaping the world and how the mythology of the Sinnoh Region warrants further investigation. Once again, he brushes us off before walking right through us. Percy shrugs it off again and begins telling us about his ultimate winning strategy of always hitting and never missing, but then he leaves.

Just about everything here in Eterna City is untouched from the gameplay perspective, though you'll notice the Galactic Building is far more visually distinct, resembling some sort of alien spaceship. The other buildings are generally darker in color. You might be curious about the Pokemon Statue! I've previously noted that the statue is cleverly designed to look like both Palkia and Dialga at the same time! Well, it's still the same here in Platinum as well, but the statue has been vandalized and the plate detailing the pokemon on it is gone! As it turns out, though, there's an NPC in one of the nearby houses that'll tell you about the inscription that used to be there. He'll explain that there used to be two plates, actually, and recite the words from both Diamond, detailing Dialga, and Pearl, detailing Palkia. It's also suggested there was once actually a third plate, too, but nobody seems to know about it... this is is the first time we've heard of any allusion to a third pokemon, hm?

Anyway, there's of course some sights to see here, but none of it is new, so let's jump right into the gym!

============

Eterna Gym

You'll run into Gardenia outside of the gym rather than inside an entrance room, and as soon as you enter, you'll see why. The Eterna Gym is drastically redesigned now!

  

The gimmick of the dungeon is more or less the same, but now, rather than playing a weird game of Hide-and-seek to find all the trainers in a maze of trees, the gym is instead an indoor garden and battling the trainers will cause the flower clock in the middle to spin into position allowing you to run along its hands to the next trainer. The Sprinklers will also go down allowing you to return to the entrance for healing. I'm glad to see this gym was dramatically improved considering the Oreburgh gym was completely untouched.

After defeating the three trainers, we can finally cross the clock to face off with Gardenia herself!

==============

 

My Team:

--------------

 Moon (Prinplup F); Lv. 29

 

Item: Oran Berry 

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Metal Claw, Growl, Bubble, Pluck

---------------

 

In addition to Moon, two other utility pokemon I've caught along the way ended up helping out a bit in this battle. I gave Rover the Bidoof a Quick Claw to hopefully get an extra move in. And I also have Starlight the Pachirisu!

===========

Vs. Eterna Gym Leader Gardenia

Aside from that second battle with Percy, this was the other battle I feared the most, and it was by far the one I had the biggest reason to. You might think I was over-level, but there's a reason I was kind of going out of my way to get as much Exp as I could on Moon before reaching this point: This battle was fairly difficult for me even with my previous teams that were much better suited for the battle. This time, I only have one pokemon and it's weak to her entire team, and she doesn't hold back with her Grass attacks! I'm not exaggerating when I say this battle took several tries. I tried really hard to make it without using any TMs but I eventually caved and decided to teach Moon Pluck because I found myself relying too much on damage ranges with Peck. I don't think I'll regret this decision, though, because Pluck isn't exactly a move I'm starving for TMs in and it'll make things easier while I hold out for Drill Peck.

---------------

Turtwig, Lv. 20

                                        

                                        

I led off with Starlight to spam Charm and soften Turtwig's physical attacks as much as I could. Its Razor Leaf isn't too threatening to Moon on its own, but it can get a decent chunk of damage built up. Unfortunately, this does give Turtwig the chance to set up Reflect. Ideally, I can stall him out for a while and get some chip damage off with Quick Attack. After a single Charm, Starlight can survive a Razor Leaf, and due to Turtwig's low speed, I can outspeed him easily, too. So that's two free Charms and if he goes for Reflect, I can squeeze a third Charm in, too. Sometimes he'll also go for Sunny Day which is a bit of a headache for the next pokemon, so it's also important to stall out as long as possible.

                                        

                                        

Once Starlight went down, it was time to bring out Moon! When I was using Pluck, taking out Turtwig had a bit more randomness to it, but with Pluck, I can much more consistently take him out in a couple of turns. And with all those charms, he has to rely on Grass Knot to damage me which doesn't do nearly as much.

--------------

Cherrim, Lv. 20

                                        

                                        

And this is where things start to get scary. Cherrim can do some dangerous things. The biggest run-ender was seeding Moon with Leech Seed, because that would not only cause Cherrim to take much longer to take out, but also allow Gardenia's Roserade to heal frequently while I'm constantly losing health. Not a fun time.

                                        

                                        

The strategy here is to switch into Bidoof to try and stall out more time for Reflect to go down and for the sunlight to pass. If I'm lucky, I can switch on a turn she tries to go for Leech Seed or Safeguard and get a chance to move in with a Quick Claw Tackle, but that's not really relevant in the long-term as it's only going to do one or two HP.

                                        

                                        

Usually, by the time Bidoof goes down, Reflect has faded at least, and maybe the harsh sunlight, too. Without Reflect in the way, Pluck is a 2HKO on Cherrim, so all I have to do is tank a Magical Leaf or Grass Knot and we're done on that front.

-----------------

Roserade, Lv. 22

But this battle is still far from over.

                                        

                                        

And in comes the biggest benefit of using Pluck over Peck: I can steal Roserade's Sitrus Berry and heal up! In addition to my own Oran Berry, I can get some additional healing and stop her from healing up to boot! All I have to do is survive the first hit to get that free healing. However, it's still not quite guaranteed because there's still a bit of luck involved even at this point. She's going to outspeed me if I continue to move, so I have to heal up with one of my two Super Potions and this is where things can go south. Depending on what my health is looking like, she might go for a weaker attack like Grass Knot or Poison Sting. These are the ones that spell my victory! If she goes for Magical Leaf, I have to drop another Super Potion and hope she doesn't do it again. At that point, I can slip in one last Pluck for the KO!

-----------------

I can't tell you how many tries it took to perfect this strategy, and how many times I came so close to winning without relying on Pluck. If I could just slip in a lucky crit get a lucky miss on her end with Leech Seed, things could play out differently! But eventually, I did manage to defeat Gardenia and I promise this is the last gym we're going to be taking on with only Moon!

With the Forest Badge to our name, we'll finally be expanding our team in the next update. In fact, we're actually going to jump to 3 party members! Well, technically 4, but one is a temporary teammate... you'll understand when I explain it! See you then!

[Aura]

Eterna Forest

Now that we have the ability to use Cut, the first thing I wanna do before anything else is make my way to Eterna Forest so that we can explore the Old Chateau. I think you can probably see where this is going.

============

Old Chateau

The most important thing to do is explore this place at night.

Before I make any detours, I want to head straight for the room with the TV. You might recall, in Diamond and Pearl, we could find the pokemon Rotom back here but only after obtaining the National Pokedex. Well, here in Platinum, that odd restriction is no longer in place! That's right, as soon as you defeat Gardenia, you can come here and catch Rotom!

============

Vs. Rotom, Lv. 20

The Rotom here is just as over-hyped as before, with the rather misleading element of using the Legendary Pokemon battle theme leading a bunch of kids to erroneously label this pokemon as a legendary. Not only is it available earlier in this game, but it's also a little bit higher level, being Lv. 20 rather than Lv. 15!

----------------

                                        

                                        

Rotom doesn't put up too much of a fight. It can take a BubbleBeam and then its off to pokeball central. I tried to catch it in a Dusk Ball but that didn't work, so I had to settle on a Great Ball.

============

 Radio (Rotom); Lv. 20

 

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: ThunderShock, Confuse Ray, Uproar, Double Team

More importantly, though, this is our next party member! Well, sorry to disappoint, this isn't planned to be a permanent party member. I'll explain my reasoning eventually but for now, Rotom's gonna be filling a void that's otherwise not going to be filled for a good while, and I think he'll be a fun pokemon to bring out occasionally, too. Just don't expect him to stick around for my final team.

============

With Rotom caught, there's a few more minor details to focus on here in the Chateau. Namely, the items available here! All the new items are only accessible in the rooms bordering the dining hall.

The antidote found in the garbage is nowhere to be found. Instead, you can find a jar of Honey hidden in one of the boxes!

 

In addition, a Rare Candy and Big Pearl can now be found on either side of the area.

The last point I'd like to draw attention to is that one of the books on the ground in the library can be read. The text is faded but it seems to say "Something so peculiar should make off with the motor." Honestly, I'm really not sure what exactly that's supposed to refer to, but it seems to be alluding to the presence of Rotom or perhaps something unique to Rotom in Platinum version...

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Eterna City

And now we return to Eterna City. Now that we have Cut, we can enter the Galactic Building!

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Eterna City Galactic Building

Er... ignore that weird room in the back. It doesn't exist yet. More importantly, the Galactic Building has beend rastically redesigned from its much more generic Diamond and Pearl version and that holds true for the interior as well!

As soon as we enter, we're met by Looker who is in disguise as a Galactic Grunt! He warns us that one of the two staircases ahead must be set up as a trap to ambush you, but he suspects there must be an easy way to tell the two paths apart. Ironically, this hint isn't too terribly helpful for sussing out which path is the "correct" one. You can see that one staircase is guarded by two Galactic Grunts and the other has a sign that says something about the path you've chosen leading to excellence.

I suppose the sign is supposed to be confirmation that this is the path you're supposed to go, but I suppose I was tripped up by reverse psychology thanks to Looker's warning to be wary of a trap. I was under the impression the more heavily guarded staircase would be the correct path and that this sign coupled with the fact that the path wasn't guarded would be the one that leads to a trap, yet I was completely mistaken. This one actually takes you to the next area. Huh.

 

Anyway, just like before, this first floor is your first chance to battle with a female Galactic Grunt!

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Team Galactic Eterna Building [2F]

Anyway, the "trap" we were warned about turns out to simply be a dead end. There's a grunt up here who will battle you, but it's not much of a trap and all it really does is give you Exp. And beyond that, there's even an item up here!

The item is just an X Speed, mind you, but it's not quite what I'd have in mind as a trap.

Anyway, taking the "correct" staircase will lead you to yet another choice of stairs with the same hint as to which one is correct.

Team Galactic Eterna Building [3F]

Once again, there's an item behind a brunt in the dead-end path. These guys aren't very smart about their traps, are they?

And again, we get yet another choice of staircase, and again, the "correct" path is designated with a sign.

Team Galactic Eterna Building [4F]

 

The "wrong" path this time leads to a Blue Shard and Revive. Yeah, really glad Looker was there to warn me to watch out for these traps!

 

We finally reach Commander Jupiter at the top floor of the Eterna Building with the Cycle Shop owner's pokemon! It's time to rescue the pokemon with a fateful battle!

=============

 

My Team:

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 Moon (Prinplup F); Lv. 30

 

Item: Pecha Berry 

Ability: Torrent | Moves: Metal Claw, Growl, BubbleBeam, Pluck

---------------

 Radio (Rotom); Lv. 23

 

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shock Wave, Confuse Ray, Uproar, Double Team

============

Vs. Commander Jupiter

I didn't comment on it before, but it's a bit disappointing the Galactic Commanders don't seem to have been deemed worthy of animated battle sprites like most other significant trainers.

--------------

Zubat, Lv. 21

                                        

                                        

Right away, Radio was certainly the right choice to lead with! A simple Shock Wave could wipe Zubat right out!

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Skuntank, Lv. 23

                                        

                                        

I had every intention of swapping Radio out against Skuntank knowing it probably still had Night Slash like in Diamond and Pearl, but I decided to try and tough it out a bit more and see how far I could carry it, especially after Jupiter went for SmokeScreen to reduce my accuracy. I figured it might be better to try and take Skuntank on with a pokemon that has a move like Shock Wave. I do think this was a bad move, I definitely should've switched Moon in for this fight, but I was getting a bit greedy for Exp on Radio and it did ultimately pay off! I opened up with Confuse Ray and all Skuntank really did on the turns it was able to get its attacks off was use Screech and SmokeScreen. A few Shockwaves and a bit of additional damage from confusion and Skuntank was down!

---------------

MVP: Radio

Nothing says MVP like a clean sweep with zero setup! Even if it did take a little bit of luck.

============

With Jupiter defeated and the cycling shop owner's pokemon returned, Team Galactic is driven out of Eterna City and their building is now vacant! But there's a few things to do before we rush on toward the next gym.

Aside from the obvious, the most significant difference between this game and Diamond and Pearl here is the presence of an Up-Grade, the item used to evolve Porygon into Porygon2. I wonder why the game would give me such a peculiar item long before we get the National Dex...? Hmmmm....

Anyway, it's time to stop playing coy. Just what is that Secret Key we technically cheated to get? Well, it's at this point in the story that it comes into play.

If we return to the first floor and make our way to the top-left corner, that's right, the giant tumor that I told you to ignore before, the key will react as you approach the exposed wall! Suddenly, the screen will flash and the passage will mysteriously open up!

Rotom's Room

Inside, we find a bizarre room with various electrical appliances lined up... A toaster, a fan, a refrigerator, a washing machine, and a lawn mower... and if we check one of these appliances with a Rotom in our party, it can enter the electrical appliance!

    

Upon entering an appliance, Rotom will take on the shape of the appliance as a new form! Meet Heat Rotom, Fan Rotom, Frost Rotom, Wash Rotom, and Mow Rotom!

These guys are a bit peculiar, but unfortunately they do miss out a bit on some of what makes them especially unqiue in future gens here. But in a way, that just makes this an especially interesting time to use them! Unlike in future generations, Rotom doesn't change type when it takes on these different forms. They're all Electric/Ghost. It does gain increased stats, though, so you can possibly consider this a type of evolution! Upon assuming one of these five forms, Rotom will also try to learn a new move! Heat Rotom will learn Overheat, Fan Rotom will learn Air Slash, Frost Rotom will learn Blizzard, Wash Rotom will learn Hydro Pump, and Mow Rotom will learn Leaf Storm. These are all really good moves! Likely to make up for the fact that they don't get STAB. Air Slash is notably lackluster in offensive prowess compared to the others, too. But perhaps it's a bit calculated since a Ghost type with a strong Flying-type attack is a really strong counter to a lot of Fighting-type pokemon. Though that doesn't stop other Ghost types from knowing strong Psychic attacks... The Flying type attack does also help it deal with Grass-types better, though!

 

Meh, whatever the reason, I want to start out using Fan Rotom as it does seem to be the weakest of the three forms and I don't necessarily want to have such overpowered moves so early on. But I'd like to reiterate that this event was hosted very early on after Platinum's release, and they very easily could've just put the Rotom Room in the Veilstone Galactic Building or something, instead. It seems intentional these forms are available so early on and, again, I suppose the lack of STAB on the moves do help to make them feel a bit less OP.

If you ever want your Rotom to return to its standard form, there's a couple ways you can do it. The most straight forward is to return to where the appliance was and have Rotom leave it. Upon doing so, it'll forget that form's signature move in the process and, if it only knew the one move, it'll learn ThunderShock in its place.

I think I'll make it a point to come back and swap Rotom's forms a few times here and there. I'd like to use them all but time will tell if that's realistic. After all, I'm not sure I'll find a need for Wash Rotom when I have Empoleon on my team, just as an example.

=============

Eterna City

Now that we've got that out of the way, would you believe me if I told you we're actually about to get not one, but two new party members, too? Can you guess who they are? Well, before we get our first one, I strongly recommend saving on your way to the Cycle Shop because you might want to do a few soft resets coming up.

As you approach the Cycle Shop, you'll be stopped by Cynthia who will give you a mysterious Pokemon Egg!

What could be in this egg? Normally, I'd continue playing the game as normal until it hatches. But in this case, it happens to be a bit sensitive and is the exact reason I recommended saving earlier, more specifically, before you get this egg. You see, the way Pokemon eggs work, the pokemon that hatches from the egg is determined the moment the egg is generated, not when it's hatched. In the event of an egg gifted to you, the egg is "generated" when it's obtained. So if you save after obtaining the egg, it'll always hatch into the exact same pokemon with the same nature, same ability, same shininess, etc. And that's no good for this one, because this is going to be our new party member, and I want it to have a very specific ability!

So, off we went for an egg hatching spree! I spent an absurd amount of time watching YT videos while soft resetting this stupid egg over and over, to the point where I felt like I must've been misunderstanding something. It's supposed to be a 50/50 chance to get the ability you want but I had to hatch like 9 eggs before I finally got one with the other ability! But finally, you can say hello to our new team member!

===========

 Comet (Togepi M); Lv. 1

 

Item: None

Ability: Serene Grace | Moves: Growl, Charm

Yes, the pokemon I'd been ripping my hair out over for about an hour was this cute little guy! For some reason, every single Togepi I hatched had Hustle as its ability which isn't nearly as useful as Serene Grace! Serene Grace is a really fun ability that makes a lot of RNG-related strats far more reliable by doubling the chance of secondary effects of moves. As such, moves like AncientPower and Air Slash are far more effective on a pokemon with Serene Grace! The main reason this is important is that Hustle is a downright atrocious ability for Togepi and its evolutions. Hustle only boosts physical attack and the Togepi line has terrible physical attack compared to their special attack. And it reduces the accuracy of all physical attacks by 20%! That means even 100% accurate moves like Quick Attack are essentially 80% accurate moves! And Hustle is just a bad ability all around when you consider that it only gives a 50% boost to your attack stat when Huge Power doubles your attack stat with zero downside.

Anyway, tangent aside, I'm looking forward to playing around with this ability! It's not an ability I've ever really used much so you can bet I'll be trying to abuse it as much as possible! Or perhaps I'll just be disappointed by how little certain ideas work out. But at least one of them I'm confident will be more than noticeable.

===========

   

Anyway, our team is starting to take shape! I did say we've got yet another teammate coming up real soon, too, but I think this is a good place to end things off. I did both Gardenia and Mars in the same post, so normally I'd try to push toward our next gym which is actually a bit closer than you might think this time around, but there's still a bit of stuff to cover between here and there and we did explore quite a bit today! So, next time, we continue on our journey and explore more of this new Sinnoh!

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is that we actually get the Soothe Bell a lot earlier in this game. Cheryl gives it to you at the end of Eterna Forest as thanks for escorting her to the other side. Somehow it slipped my mind that that was a new detail, but this is gonna be used to evolve Togepi a lot faster than normal!