PB:SitC Ep 5: Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head.
Here we go!
Last time I saved right outside the Dreamyard, so the first thing I’m going to do is enter the dreamyard. There’s a gauntlet of trainers itching to duel in front of the place, and at the end of the line is a person who wants to help me shore up defenses by giving me a Pansear. Personally, I don’t care much for the stupid elemental monkeys but I actually do need some fire-type firepower on my side so I take it. Your name is Flambaby now.
Through a little gate, I find a pokeball holding an X-Defense, and… That’s all there is of the area? There are areas blocked off with oil drums, and a traffic cone that I guess is made from solid steel because you can’t move it or get past it. There’s a spot down the wall where there’s a gap covered by a Cuttable tree, but I don’t have Cut yet. This can’t be right, so I check Bulbapedia where I find out there’s apparently a spot somewhere with level-appropriate critters, but most of the place is level 50ish! I thought this was a place for “Novice Trainers”! Well, Wiki also tells me that I get Cut for beating the gym, so I guess I need to get around to that soon.
At this point the game is shouting “Challenge the Gym!” from so many directions, I’m almost expecting the gym leader to stop me in the street for an old-west style showdown. You know what? Fine. I’m not as high level as I would like to be, but let’s do it anyway. I got Water. I got Fire. I don’t have Grass, but I have Dark and a couple of Normals.
Quickly duck into the Pokecenter to freshen up and head over to the gym. I’m met by a green-haired fellow who writes down my Starter Pokemon and informs me that Grass is strong against Water and therefore that’s what I will be fighting. Jokes on you, I have a monkey now, and I am going to light it on fire and throw it at your face!
As mentioned, this gym is restaurant-themed, and that idea just doesn’t ever start sounding well-advised, does it? There’s a greeter, because this is a gym, and surprisingly he does not also fill the role of the Restaurant Host. There are big Fire, Grass and Water symbols on the floor, and since I was told I will be facing grass, I step on that one, only to have it buzz disapprovingly at me. I guess it wants me to stand on the Water symbol? Okay.
In the first fight against one of the lieutenants, I pit my level 9 Patrat against his Level 11 Lillipup and nearly get my rump braised in white wine sauce and served back to me. I run back to the Pokecenter to rest up and buy more Windex for mid-battle healing and head back. Thank goodness once you beat a trainer they don’t bother you again.
Three more symbols, and this time it buzzes at me when I try to stand on the Water symbol, and the Leaf Symbol lets me in. Make up your mind, okay?! Next Waitress tells me the “Trainer De Luxe” is the gym’s specialty and I’m struggling really hard to not make a joke that’s like, so super off color you don’t even know. Then she tells me “I’m your second course” and any joke I could make is just redundant.
She’s got a Level 10 Patrat and I figure if Lillipup almost kicked one’s ass last time then Terrie can handle this one. This works, but it probably is because it keeps trying to use Bide instead of actually doing anything. She follows up with a Level 10 Purrloin, and she gets her Bide to pay off with a devastating unleashing that one-shots my Lillipup, so I finish back up with Silas the Patrat and move on. I don’t have any Revives yet, but I don’t really want to run to the Center after every fight, so I press on. Three more symbols. Since it was Water the first time and Grass the second, I’m going to guess they want me to stand on Fire this time. This is true, but it’s only now I realize that each of them have had a curtain they opened and that curtain has the symbol they want you to defeat. Oy.
Ah, well. Moving on! I finally get to the Gym Leader-s. There are three of them. Green-haired Cilian, Fiery-maned Chili, and blue-mopped Cress. Each has a specialty to match their drapes. You only have to fight one, but you don’t get to decide which! Or, not directly anyway. You get to fight whoever is strongest in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors versus your Starter Pokemon. Which. I might add, Cilian told me when I entered the gym so I don’t know why they’re going over this now. Cilian seems apologetic, or at least nervous. Don’t. I’ve prepared for this.
Or not, as the case may be as his first Pokemon is a Level 11 Lilipup who does way more damage than he takes, despite being only a few levels above my Pokemon. This winds up being true across the board, in fact, as he neatly takes out my entire goddamned team with his first Pokemon, including oneshotting my Level 11 starter! What the hell! He’s not even grass typed! This actually gets me to pitch my DS into a basket of laundry across the room. At least I have the presence of mind to aim at something other than the wall. I rush back to the Pokemon center.
This isn’t too bad, I guess. I mean, the exact same thing happened to me during my playthrough of X, and I had a Fire starter going up against Bugs. This only justifies my sentiment that no, I don’t want to challenge gyms willy-nilly the second I hit town, thank-you-very-much game! I head back to Route 2 to grind.
And what a grind! With all my opponents levels 4, 5 and 6, it’s going to take me forever to get to levels 12 and above for everything.
Last time I saved right outside the Dreamyard, so the first thing I’m going to do is enter the dreamyard. There’s a gauntlet of trainers itching to duel in front of the place, and at the end of the line is a person who wants to help me shore up defenses by giving me a Pansear. Personally, I don’t care much for the stupid elemental monkeys but I actually do need some fire-type firepower on my side so I take it. Your name is Flambaby now.
Through a little gate, I find a pokeball holding an X-Defense, and… That’s all there is of the area? There are areas blocked off with oil drums, and a traffic cone that I guess is made from solid steel because you can’t move it or get past it. There’s a spot down the wall where there’s a gap covered by a Cuttable tree, but I don’t have Cut yet. This can’t be right, so I check Bulbapedia where I find out there’s apparently a spot somewhere with level-appropriate critters, but most of the place is level 50ish! I thought this was a place for “Novice Trainers”! Well, Wiki also tells me that I get Cut for beating the gym, so I guess I need to get around to that soon.
At this point the game is shouting “Challenge the Gym!” from so many directions, I’m almost expecting the gym leader to stop me in the street for an old-west style showdown. You know what? Fine. I’m not as high level as I would like to be, but let’s do it anyway. I got Water. I got Fire. I don’t have Grass, but I have Dark and a couple of Normals.
Quickly duck into the Pokecenter to freshen up and head over to the gym. I’m met by a green-haired fellow who writes down my Starter Pokemon and informs me that Grass is strong against Water and therefore that’s what I will be fighting. Jokes on you, I have a monkey now, and I am going to light it on fire and throw it at your face!
As mentioned, this gym is restaurant-themed, and that idea just doesn’t ever start sounding well-advised, does it? There’s a greeter, because this is a gym, and surprisingly he does not also fill the role of the Restaurant Host. There are big Fire, Grass and Water symbols on the floor, and since I was told I will be facing grass, I step on that one, only to have it buzz disapprovingly at me. I guess it wants me to stand on the Water symbol? Okay.
In the first fight against one of the lieutenants, I pit my level 9 Patrat against his Level 11 Lillipup and nearly get my rump braised in white wine sauce and served back to me. I run back to the Pokecenter to rest up and buy more Windex for mid-battle healing and head back. Thank goodness once you beat a trainer they don’t bother you again.
Three more symbols, and this time it buzzes at me when I try to stand on the Water symbol, and the Leaf Symbol lets me in. Make up your mind, okay?! Next Waitress tells me the “Trainer De Luxe” is the gym’s specialty and I’m struggling really hard to not make a joke that’s like, so super off color you don’t even know. Then she tells me “I’m your second course” and any joke I could make is just redundant.
She’s got a Level 10 Patrat and I figure if Lillipup almost kicked one’s ass last time then Terrie can handle this one. This works, but it probably is because it keeps trying to use Bide instead of actually doing anything. She follows up with a Level 10 Purrloin, and she gets her Bide to pay off with a devastating unleashing that one-shots my Lillipup, so I finish back up with Silas the Patrat and move on. I don’t have any Revives yet, but I don’t really want to run to the Center after every fight, so I press on. Three more symbols. Since it was Water the first time and Grass the second, I’m going to guess they want me to stand on Fire this time. This is true, but it’s only now I realize that each of them have had a curtain they opened and that curtain has the symbol they want you to defeat. Oy.
Ah, well. Moving on! I finally get to the Gym Leader-s. There are three of them. Green-haired Cilian, Fiery-maned Chili, and blue-mopped Cress. Each has a specialty to match their drapes. You only have to fight one, but you don’t get to decide which! Or, not directly anyway. You get to fight whoever is strongest in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors versus your Starter Pokemon. Which. I might add, Cilian told me when I entered the gym so I don’t know why they’re going over this now. Cilian seems apologetic, or at least nervous. Don’t. I’ve prepared for this.
Or not, as the case may be as his first Pokemon is a Level 11 Lilipup who does way more damage than he takes, despite being only a few levels above my Pokemon. This winds up being true across the board, in fact, as he neatly takes out my entire goddamned team with his first Pokemon, including oneshotting my Level 11 starter! What the hell! He’s not even grass typed! This actually gets me to pitch my DS into a basket of laundry across the room. At least I have the presence of mind to aim at something other than the wall. I rush back to the Pokemon center.
This isn’t too bad, I guess. I mean, the exact same thing happened to me during my playthrough of X, and I had a Fire starter going up against Bugs. This only justifies my sentiment that no, I don’t want to challenge gyms willy-nilly the second I hit town, thank-you-very-much game! I head back to Route 2 to grind.
And what a grind! With all my opponents levels 4, 5 and 6, it’s going to take me forever to get to levels 12 and above for everything.