Well, I'd say it's about time I got back to this.
For some reason the game decided that the highlight of the last Gary battle was his Abra. Then again, the synopsis feature does have a rather skewed idea of what constitutes a noteworthy event.
Anyway, my next stop is Vermilion City, which is south from Cerulean. The ath to get there is pretty bizarre, requiring me to go through a house that was recently robbed and loop around to avoid a tree that's in my way. The house itself is a mess, with a hole in the wall that I'll have to go through. Apparently someone from Team Rocket stole a TM for Dig.
Luckily, the guy is right out back. His team consists of a Machop
and a Drowzee, both at level 17. Kinda underwhelming, all things considered, but it is good experience for NATUREMAN! (I'm going to seriously regret naming him that by the end of this, aren't I?)
After going down, the Rocket hands over TM28, which is and has always been Dig. The guy he stole it from even lets me keep it! Dig is an interesting move because it takes two turns to use. On the first turn, you can't take damage from anything except for a very small number of moves. It's pretty handy ingame, but competitively you're just asking for the other guy to switch to something that resists it. I immediately use it on Alessandro, removing Double Team—I've got plans for this move, which will become apparent soon enough.
Continuing south, I reach Route 5. There's not too much of note here, but there is one new Pokemon to catch.
- Meowth: A Normal-type Pokemon. Meowth's mainly about ridiculously high Speed. Its other stats really aren't anything to write home about, but it still has a couple tricks up its sleeve. It's also got quite a bit of popularity due to the anime. I nickname mine Lasagna because I used to really like Garfield (before I realized that it's mostly the same tired jokes every day). She's got a Docile nature (doesn't affect stats at all), which is oddly fitting considering that nickname. Her Ability is Pickup, which gives her a chance of obtaining an item after every battle (whether or not she actually participates) if she isn't holding anything. Her moves are Scratch, Growl, and Bite. Bite's relatively strong and can cause the target to flinch (which makes them lose their turn), but it has one unfortunate flaw in this generation: it's Dark-type, and before the Physical/Special split in Gen 4 all Dark-type moves were considered Special. This is despite there being no offensive Dark-type attacks that could be considered even remotely Special until after the split.
There's one other thing of note on Route 5: the Pokemon Day Care. This facility will raise your Pokemon for you, though you can't choose what moves they'll overwrite when they learn new moves and they won't evolve. This one has two issues, though:
- It can only raise one Pokemon, which prevents you from using one rather nifty feature that other Day Cares in the series have.
- It's right at the end of a series of cliffs, with the entrance positioned a single tile up from the last one. Seriously, who approved that?
Anyway, Route 5 leads to Safron City, but we can't go there just yet because the road's closed. Instead we'll have to take the underground tunnel to Route 6. The tunnel's entrance has a little girl who wants a male Nidoran in exchange for her female Nidoran, but I'll deal with that later. For now, I just head down the tunnel to the other side.
Route 6 has a lot of tall grass and trainers, but it also lacks anything we haven't seen before. The trainers aren't especially strong, either. One of them has a level 16 Weedle. I mean, seriously? A level 16 Weedle? It isn't even his only one, either. He's got two of the blasted things, along with one Caterpie, all of which are good for little more than getting NATUREMAN! some experience. They all led with String Shot, even. At least the other trainers have decent teams in comparison. There was even a Bug Catcher with a Butterfree. Still, though. Level 16 Weedle.
Fighting on Route 6 got NATUREMAN! a couple of new moves. At level 14 he learned PoisonPowder, which...poisons the target. At level 16 he learned the more useful Stun Spore, which paralyzes the target instead.
Anyway, our next destination is...
Vermilion City -The Port of Exquisite Sunsets-
Vermilion City has a few points of interest. The first major one is the Fishing Guru, who hands out Old Rods to anyone who likes fishing. As you might expect, fishing gets you Pokemon...unfortunately, the Old Rod will only ever catch Magikarp, and I've already got one of those.
The next point of interest is a girl who wants to trade a Spearow for her [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Farfetch'd Farfetch'd]]. This is the only Farfetch'd in the game, so I go for it, sending Flint away. CH'DING, as he's called, has an Adamant nature (Attack up, Special Attack down) and overall good stats for his level. His Ability is Keen Eye, and his only move is Peck. He's also holding a Sitck, a useful item that raises Farfetch'd's critical rate. Sounds great, right? Well...the truth is that Farfetch'd doesn't evolve and its stats will gradually become outclassed by most everything. [[http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species:_Farfetch'd Its Japanese name has a rather interesting double meaning]] that does a good job of explaining why it isn't exactly the windfall it initially appears to be.
The next place to go is the Pokemon Fan Club, where the Chairman wants someone to listen to him ramble about how great his Rapidash is. I'm not going to make jokes about his speech because they've all been made before (and they weren't funny to begin with), but he does hand out a Bike Voucher for listening to him. Heading back to Cerulean City, I can exchange it for a free bike! That'll make travel more convenient!
The Pokemon Center has one more useful item for me. A lady near the counter hands out the Vs. Seeker, which I really think should still be in the modern games. What it does is it lets you challenge any trainers in the area to rematches. They might not respond, but they usually will. Having this thing makes level grinding significantly easier, to say the least.
I also meet a man who's getting his Machop to break ground for a building. The only reason I mention this is because three years later he still won't be done.
Anyway, the next place to go in Vermilion is the S.S. Anne, which is home to an item that I'll need to progress. She's also home to plenty of trainers to challenge. During the course of my battles here, Aria turns down the chance to learn Minimize at level 21 (it just raises evasion), and NATUREMAN! replaces PoisonPowder with Sleep Powder at level 18 (you can probably guess what that does).
Once NATUREMAN! hits level 21, he evolves. As a Gloom, he's basically just a bigger, badder Oddish. To evolve further he'll need a stone, which I'll be able to get ahold of later.
One more thing worth mentioning is that one opponent used Roar to force me to switch out a bunch, which got CH'CING a level and access to Sand-Attack. Not that I'm ever going to use it, of course, but at least it's there.
Word is that the captain can teach Pokemon how to use Cut, and I need that move. The only thing to do, then, is head to the captain's cabin. On my way there, Gary shows up bragging about how he already has 40 Pokedex entries registered. He then challenges me to a battle.
Gary really doesn't have much going for him this time around. I didn't even bother to save before fighting him because I'm so confident that I'll win. Anyway, he starts out with Pidgeotto, who goes down easily. Next up is his Rattata, which has evolved into a Raticate—Furnace roasts it easily. Up next is Wartortle, whose use of Bite elevates Gary to the level of "petty annoyance", but NATUREMAN! still takes him down. Lastly, he sends out his Abra, which is now a Kadabra. It uses some tricky moves and has very high Special Attack to fuel its Psychic-type attacks, but it's cursed with utterly pitiful Defense, which allowed Aria to take it down with no trouble at all.
Gary then proceeds to wonder why everyone respects the "seasick old man" who people say is a Cut master. He doesn't say anything bad about the move itself, though. Indeed, getting it will basically open up almost the entire game to me, though I'll be doing things in the intended order for this run.
The Captain is seasick, but a quick massage leaves him feeling significantly better. In return for it, he hands over HM01, which allows me to teach Cut to my Pokemon! Cut is rather weak in battle, but out of battle it can cut down small trees. This skill allows me to reach every single location on the Kanto mainland. Naturally, I teach it to CH'DING. He'll never be part of the main team, but this way he'll still be useful.
Getting Cut was also the trigger for the S.S. Anne to set sail once I left, so anything I might have missed there is now gone for good. Luckily, I didn't miss anything.
Next time, we'll challenge the Vermilion Gym.
New Pokedex entries:
Meowth: Scratch Cat Pokemon
"All it does is sleep during the daytime. At night, it patrols its territory with its eyes aglow."
Farfetch'd: Wild Duck Pokemon
"It always walks about with a plant stalk clamped in its beak. The stalk is used for building its nest."
Gloom: Weed Pokemon
"Its pistils exude an incredibly foul odor. The horrid stench can cause fainting at a distance of 1.25 miles."
