Beating Utsuho was easy. Maybe a bit too easy. I won't complain, though. The faster I'm out of Hell, the better.
Also... I still can't seem to get into Lunaris City. Obviously something must be going on there, but I can't look into it yet. But where to now?
After asking around a bit, I find out the next Gym Master is locked up in a basement on an island. I don't get it, but at least I know where to go next.
Before we head to that island, though, I think it's time to prune my team a bit and grind up for the adventure ahead. All major trainers from here on out are going to have level 100 puppets so it's about time I capped off as well. And thus from now on levels will no longer be an obstacle. And I'll be done grinding.
I've managed to knock down my current roster to 13 puppets, including the five new puppets I've added.
Trained a cSuwako
and focused on physical defense and hp. She's doing pretty good in both those stats and not too shabby on physical attack. By my calculations, given that she had no investment in attack, she has an attack IV of 26. Not bad. Enough that an Earthquake from her could be situationally useful. Moveset consists of Storm, Earthquake, Surf, and Aqua Blast. Her movepool, as mentioned, is a bit lacking. Can't even learn ice attacks. So, two water attacks. Aqua Blast for power, Surf for accuracy. Named her Keroline.
After Suwako, we have Utsuho. A Utsuho who wears a school swimsuit.
Unlike Suwako she not only learns ice-type attacks, she learns Ice Beam through level-up in this form. Go figure. Knows Outrage, Ice Beam, Aqua Blast, and Hell Caution. Hell Caution is pretty powerful, 135 base power and 85 accuracy, and probably a 50% burn rate I haven't checked. It's basically Sacred Fire, though, with more power and less accuracy. Might replace Outrage with Surf or Flamethrower. It's just not that useful a technique, really. Named her Nautilus. I think I'm getting better at this whole nicknaming thing, but I might be overthinking some of them...
The Youmu I raised
has speed that almost matches her physical attack, despite there
being 40 points in the difference base stat wise. Attack-wise she knows Blade Flash, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, and Petal Storm. If Blade Flash doesn't prove to be very useful I could eventually replace it with Earthquake. But I'm only going to have one Earthquake TM, so I dunno if I'd be too eager to use it. If I can find the move relearner, though, I'd be all set as F-Youmu has Earthquake at level 1. Petal Storm is basically a suped up Metal Claw. 95 base power, 95 accuracy, chance of raising attack one stage. Blade Flash is a priority steel-type attack which has some potential uses. Like if I ever run into an enemy Neko-Chen. Or a faster Remilia of some kind. Dark-type is weak to steel-type in Touhoumon, which makes her nickname of Dy Zen Gar seem kinda fitting.
Now, the fact that I've raised an Orange
should come as no surprise. Movepool is a bit lackluster, and she's specifically lacking one particular move I want to teach her that I need to beat the Lunaris City gym leader to get, but she's pretty bulky. Over 600 hp, both defenses near 200. For comparison, Blissey in Pokemon hits 130 defense MAX and still won't be OHKO'd by an unboosted physical attack unless it's a fighting-type attack. It's why some Blissey's have been known to run Counter competitively. Or at least they did back when I played. Physical attackers are the typical answer to Blissey, but any not carrying a fighting attack need to watch it. Also, rather than telling you Orange's movepool, I'll show you this.
See anything interesting? Yeah. Named her Korea.
Finally, Hatate
is my new psychic-attack-user. If that sounds like a pretty specific role, it is. She's fast, has strong special attack, and knows Psychosis and not much else. Smile doesn't hurt to have. Giga Drain sucks but she doesn't exactly have many other options. Her defenses aren't too shabby as well. Good enough for her to reliably switch in on a strong hit if she resists it at least. Knows Psychic Flash, Psychosis, Giga Drain, and Smile. Like I said, movepool is pretty limited but she'll be using mostly Psychosis anyway because her role is pretty damn specific to begin with. Beat up enemy fighting-types. Named her Tabby.
As for the old crew...
Accessory
I kept because there still seemed to be use for a fast, sturdy, grass-type.
Thief
is WAY too useful to give up between STAB Master Spark/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower, monstrous special attack, and good speed. I'll definitely be relying on her still.
Anonymous
, like Tabby, serves a pretty singular purpose: Aeroblast. She's the best puppet I can get to use it without going to Last Word puppets. Why do I want a puppet with a strong Aeroblast? Because of those goddamn Sanaes. They're only going to get worse from here...
DarkKnight
, naturally, is still on as well. Fast as Thief and carrying a powerful Superpower. Yeah, she is still very much a powerhouse on my team.
Ghost
is still here as well due to its stupidly high attack score and ability to completely shut down many puppets. Pretty much every puppet we encounter from this point on is going to be full offense anyway, so nothing will be trying to use things like Toxic. Thus any puppet lacking an electric, ice, or rock-type attack will be completely unable to hurt Ghost. If any late game trainer gives me too much trouble, I'll just find a hole in their team for Ghost to slip into and set up a Ghost sweep with my EX items.
Green
also stays on the team. Her ability to take out the more annoyingly defensive puppets will become even more important against some of the opponents I'll be facing later.
Neko-Chen
is blazingly fast and hits as hard as an oni. Of course she's staying on. Ideally, any puppet she faces is going down in one blow anyway. So her lack of defense shouldn't be a concern.
Finally, Remirio
. I decided I still need this guy but can't remember why. Might be just for Intimidate, really.
I used some of my "Noob Candies" to level up at this point. When you already have max EV's, there's no difference between levels gained through rare candies and levels gained through grinding. On top of that... using them makes it feel like I'm flipping Drakuaza the middle finger.
Now that my team is all set, it's time to head to the next area.
But I won't be going through Seafoam. Screw that. Sure, it's completely unedited in this hack, but why would I go there? All that's there is a legendary puppet I have no intention of using anyway and a Strength puzzle. Pft.
Instead, I fly back to Youkai Town and Surf from there. It's an easier way to get to Cinnabar in this hack. We also pass through Route 21 doing this, where there's some grass and puppets to catch.
Route 21 Puppets (grass): cChen, cKoishi (Normal)
, cMystia, cRikako (Psychic)
, Rena (Normal/Steel). Level range 5 to 27.
Yep, the one Higurashi character I WOULD have recognized is hanging out here. I didn't find/catch one as I didn't have a puppet I could weaken her with when I was coming through. Wasn't quite thinking ahead. She's a pretty good puppet, very fast and very high attack. But she's still outclassed by F-Youmu anyway.
Koishi sucks. Normal type, but she's a special attacker with her special attack being her only good stat. So no strong, STAB special attacks and nothing to really help her get an attack off at all. Decent movepool at least. Rikako is a puppet I might have trained in Hatate's place had she shown up earlier as she's almost as fast and much more powerful.
The trip to the island is pretty uneventful aside from that brief stop. That's actually pretty lame compared to Lunatic. See, in Touhoumon Lunatic, where all those bullshit dungeons came from, there was a new bullshit dungeon added between Pallet Town and Cinnabar. A cave you had to go through first to get to Cinnabar.
So why am I complaining about that dungeon being gone? Well, first off, the dungeon itself wasn't TOO bad. It was still dark, but there were no random encounters and only one trainer. The dungeon was basically just a big ice puzzle. I think you were forced to go through it, too. The path from Seafoam to Cinnabar was actually blocked off in Lunatic I believe.
Incidentally, that one trainer in the added dungeon is the one reason I would have wanted to go through it. See for yourself.
Anyway, we arrive on the island without incident. What island are we on? We're on this island.
The Scarlet Devil Island. That mansion is basically the whole thing. The pokemart, pokecenter, lab, and gym are all hidden away inside.
This sign here tells us who the gym leader is.
Make note of it. It also refers to her as the Insane vampire girl. A nearby npc likewise calls her Insane. Capitalization. Drakuaza's. It's like he's literally tying this hack to Flandre even though she's a oneshot boss. We'll see more of that later, though as I have a special installment planned toward the end of this hack.
Anyway, enter the mansion. There's wild puppets here, but nothing worth noting except cSatoris can randomly be found here. Right-o.
The lab, pokemart, and pokecenter are pretty easy to find. You just go straight from the entrance. The pokecenter's the pokecenter, the lab can get you Dolls with the Old Amber - the only fossil I have or plan to get - and they're useless so I just hand over the fossil and don't bother to come back for them.
Here's something interesting
in the pokemart though. HYPER! POTIONS! FINALLY! I buy about 300 of these. I've got more money from grinding than I know what to do with anyway.
The other section of the mansion, where the gym is accessed from, is just the burned down mansion from Cinnabar. It's edited slightly and the apocalyptic logs all refer to Hourai and Shanghai for some reason. Meh. I stumble my way through the place and... well, I didn't get a screenshot of him, but we're fighting THIS bastard again.
I barely know anything about Link but he's suddenly acting like we're buddies. And what's he doing in the SDM anyway? Whatever, I basically stomp this guy flat until I get to his LwMarisa. I didn't have Neko-Chen with me, Keroline was already weakened, and I forgot to factor in Speed Boost. So two puppets go down before I send in Korea. I didn't even get to see how well Korea takes an attack from LwMarisa, though, because Marisa decided to use Rainbow Beam (read: Solar Beam) while Korea used Dig. Which one-shots Marisa. Battle over, Moon Stone obtained, Link says to be on the lookout for evil and then teleports away.
After wandering around a bit more, I FINALLY find the gym and... the quiz machines are gone.
You mean I actually have to fight all these trainers? Fuck.
Well, at least the trainer battles are interesting.
- First interesting trainer is... Rumia!
Rumia predictably leads with ExRumia. She follows up with EA-Cirno for some reason. M and MissingNo follow that one. Why she has the glitch puppets I have no idea. Then a LwMystia. Then, finally, F-Rumia. Why did I skim through all those? Because in an ironic twist, DarkKnight just kinda smashes through them one after another. Incidentally, Rumia's been guarding the basement
for days. Erm... why?
- Next is Meiling,
who has one of the better looking Touhou-character sprites it seems. Her puppets consist of F-Meiling, LwMeiling, and LwElly that are all beaten by Tabby. LwMomiji is beaten by DarkKnight, and Inu-Sakuya is beaten by Thief. Yeah, there's an Inu-Sakuya
in this game. Meiling's last puppet is Genji. It felt good to one-shot that with Thief's Thunderbolt. She complains about failing as a gatekeeper.
Shouldn't the gatekeeper be at the... gate? Also, this means Rumia is, for some reason, the first line of defense. Unless we count that random burglar that doesn't even know why he's there. He wasn't interesting enough to mention though.
- Koakuma is next.
She has ExKoakuma and ExGengetu, beaten by Thief. ExMugetu, ExNazrin, and ExIchirin all beaten by DarkKnight. Her final puppet, ExChiyuri, is beaten by Keroline. Moving right along then.
- Naturally, "Super Geek" Patchouli
follows. Her first puppet is Hakurei for some reason, a Psychic/Fighting puppet. EPatchouli follows, as well as ExKoakuma, FPatchouli, ExMeira, and ExRikako. They're all beaten by DyZenGar, the ghost that shadow balls psychics! That line so doesn't sync up with the one I'm trying to reference...
- Sakuya
is next and randomly leads with an ExRan. Rightio. DyZenGar takes her out after she manages to beat Keroline. Then next is... Neko-Chen? Good thing I came prepared! One Blade Flash and... Oh you have got to be kidding me.
Luckily Neko-Chen used Rock Slide, which DyZenGar withstands and answers back with a second Blade Flash. I don't get why Sakuya didn't use a Full Restore but whatever. ExMurasa randomly follows, falls to a Shadow Ball. EA-Letty goes down in two Brick Breaks. A-Yukari, the most defensive puppet you can obtain, goes down in two Shadow Balls from DyZenGar. Last puppet is LwSakuya, who Thief takes out. Was there a theme to this team, though? Cause if there is, I don't get it.
Before facing the next two trainers, I decide it's time to stop screwing around. I need a certain puppet, and all my puppets are lacking held items. So I make a quick trip back to the pokecenter to remedy that.
Head back into the gym after making my preparations and battle the next EoSD character, Remilia. She claims to be the gym master,
but remember that sign we saw before? Yeah, we already know she isn't. Even get the gym battle theme for the battle with her. I think Remilia as a gym leader would make sense myself. I mean, as you'll see in the next battle, the gym leader doesn't really stick to a type for this gym aside from maybe dark. On top of that, it's Remilia's mansion. So why not just have Remilia be the gym leader?
- Remilia
leads with F-Rumia. I lead with Thief. Thief beats Rumia with Master Spark. Next is LwSakuya and I keep Thief in despite the special attack drop. With Sakuya's 4x weakness to fire-type attacks, she still goes down in one hit. LwMeiling is next, and I decide to give Korea a shot just for kicks. The result leaves me wondering about the reliability of Merriland's damage calculator, but Korea wins out in the end regardless by whittling Meiling down with Strength. F-Remilia is next and DyZenGar takes her out. Then FPatchouli and ExKoakuma end off Remilia's team, both of whom are beaten in one blow from DarkKnight.
After beating her, Remilia owns up. She also says her sister has been Insane lately. Insane. Get it? Like the hack? HAHAHAHAHAHA shut up Drakuaza. First off, Flandre is insane always, not just lately. Second, enough with the goddamn title dropping. And it's clearly that since Insane gets a capital "I" everytime. Third, insane is pretty useless as an adjective. It's another of those words that gets thrown around so much that the meaning becomes devolved. Besides that, these days we actually have a rather specific condition for Flandre. She's emotionally unstable. A term I would NOT use to describe this hack. Terms I would use to describe this hack include "bloated" and "lazy".
Anyway, we fight Flandre now. Like every other boss I've been facing lately, she chews concrete.
In spite of all the "insane" talk, Flandre's dialogue actually sounds pretty... normal and in-character. Well, grammar issues aside. Though I'm chalking those up to Drakuaza. He seems to have a penchant for Randomly Capitalizing words. Though, being given something as a "token of appreciation" does sound odd coming from Flandre. Eh, whatever. At least she's not making me go into some random dungeon where I'm forced to use an otherwise useless HM before she'll reluctantly hand over the badge.
I'm not talking much about the battle here, but that's because there's not much to be said. The only one of Flandre's puppets that doesn't go down in one hit is the one that got a lucky Halo Band (Focus Band) activation and hung on with 1 hp. If this was a fourth gen hack, though, I imagine many of her puppets would have Focus Sashes which would kinda screw over my strategy. A lot.
I do want to talk about one puppet though. Namely, S-Flandre. This would mark the first super overpowered puppet to be used by a major boss. S-Flandre appears in many hacks, always overpowered. Even in Aqua+Yui she's basically a normal-form Deoxys, which makes the already easy in-game battles even easier to win. In one hack, I think 1.53, S-Flandre appears much like she does in this hack and only at level 100 on a certain island.
In this hack, S-Flandre's base stat total hits 1215. That's 200 points higher than the H-Kirisame we randomly ran into a while back. Her offensive stats are both capped at 255 base. Speed hits a blazing 230 base. Even her hp is high at a base 205, and base defenses 135 each. Fortunately, Neko-Chen still packs more than enough power to bring her down with a super effective Earthquake. The Flandre-killing legacy of the Chens lives on! I'm not counting that loss against F-Flandre. F-Flandre cheated.
Well, that's that. Another badge obtained. Six down, two to go. I had more to say, but I think I've said enough.
Instead, have something from this hack
that's actually kinda neat.
No item duplication, sadly.
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