#anyway ive literally been trying to figure out solid designs for these characters since i mad ethem in like. high school

[matoitech]

quick redesigns for some old ocs today, i still plan on playing around w their designs more, especially gadgets cuz im not very committed to the markings, but im happy with the general directions so <3 

bonus of their new designs vs old designs under the cut cuz the comparison is fun

while not the OLDEST designs bcuz gadget started out as a gray wolf, the left is still from years ago, and theyre characters who always had very basic designs since they werent major ocs and i just didnt mess w them much or have a lot of ideas for them. maybe drawn when i was in high school or something? regardless fun for me to see

i only realized i had old art of them moved over from my last laptop onto this one after i had drawn the new dirk design and was pleased to see that my memory of ‘i think he was plain red and yellow? or something?’ was correct

[nuzblog]

November 25th, 2017

The second generation of Pokemon is my least favorite. It is the generation with the most lackluster Pokemon designs, an absolutely borked level curve, garbage Pokemon distribution, and a whole mess of other design issues. But then... all of those criticisms are based on my experience with SoulSilver. Perhaps things will be different playing the originals? I do think they made some pretty important improvements over generation 1, fixing a lot of those games' issues. Hard to say at this point.

Now, before I discuss my entry into the world of Johto, I think it is worth discussing rules. Since my last attempt at Blue ended successfully, I think I'm going to keep the same general ruleset for a bit longer. The only real question the new mechanics in the game brings up is that of eggs - do hatched Pokemon count as acquired where they are acquired as eggs, where they are hatched, or what?

For this, I think I'm going to use the logic that I can't exactly breed a Pokemon I don't already have, and say that, with the exception of gift eggs such as the Togepi one in this game, eggs are essentially free. If I ever want to spend a chunk of time while nuzlocking to breed for better natures, abilities, egg moves or IVs... then I'm freely allowed to do so. That's the simplest thing, I think.

It's also worth mentioning what does and doesn't count as an important battle for this game. At the moment, I'm only counting the battles against the rival and against gym leaders - I can heal after either, and I must match party size for both.

Oh, and then there's the matter of Pokemon Boxes. In Gen 1, a Pokemon would be identical when retrieved from the box as it was when it was put in. In Gen 2 and onwards, Pokemon Boxes heal the Pokemon put into them... which is no good for a restricted-healing challenge, right? I think my solution here is that, while Pokemon can be put INTO the box whenever, they can only be removed from the box under one of two circumstances - either on the other end of a battle that I had to restrict my party for (in which case, the boxed Pokemon needs to be at full health when boxed), or when healing at a Pokemon Center. Which, yes, means my box usage is limited too. That's the only way I could think to keep it fair.

Now that that's out of the way... I started playing Pokemon Silver at 2 AM, on the 25th.

NITE

After speaking to Oak, setting the time, naming myself Sheen, and getting the game started, I make my die roll for my starter. In this generation, I find all 3 starters pretty lackluster, but Chikorita is a cutie that stays cute, and Totodile has a solid charm to it, so I would be happiest with either of those. Naturally, then, I get the worst possible result - Cyndaquil, a Pokemon that I find completely unimpressive, and that others around me have a tendency to call far worse things. So, maybe not optimal in terms of me loving it. That's fine.

At this point, I took a short break to figure out my nickname scheme for this one. I think attaching a guessing game to this one is pretty silly, because it's not really a puzzle of any kind. If you already know about the thing, it's obvious, and if you don't, then it's impossible without Googling. Also literally only one person has ever indicated any interest in this guessing game for name scheme thing, so like... I don't feel bad about forgoing it for this playthrough. The theme for this run of Silver is that I'm using the titles of songs by Neil Cicierega, who is my favorite human being. His musical projects include Lemon Demon, for his original music; Deporitaz, his far older, mostly instrumental stuff; his mashup albums in the Mouth series; one-song wonder Sunshine and Grapes; and his internet filmmaking prowess often extends to music as well, with some oddities being exclusive to videos on his Youtube channel. If you're unfamiliar with his work, I encourage you strongly to get familiar.

I name my Cyndaquil "IndieCindy", for the song Indie Cindy and the Lo-Fi Lullabies, off the album Dinosaurchestra. You can listen to that song here. I'll try to link the songs when I mention the name of the Pokemon named for them.

From here, I start the trek to Mr. Pokemon's house. What kind of name is that for a character? Mr. Pokemon? Like, really? Also, you know how in Gen 1, there is a single short route that is designed to be navigated in two directions between the professor's lab and the macguffin that lets you start actually playing the game proper, Pokeballs and all? In Gen 2, there's a fairly lengthy route with Cut trees and ledges that don't actually make the return trip any better, and then a city, and then a route North that is bisected (but half of it is cut off with a Pokemon Battle, which is tbh a pretty smart way of restricting your path compared to most Pokemon games) and lengthy and again, clearly not designed with a hasty return in mind. Oh, and there's a red herring path off of that first route.

Anyway, I make the trek. Maybe it's supposed to feel like a burden of an errand? If that's the case, then mission accomplished, but it still sucks not being able to train anything other than IndieCindy the entire time. By the by, I didn't realize that they started the starter off with a berry attached! I actually think that's pretty cool. I mean, the "Pokemon are holding items" mechanic is new to this game, so adding a held berry to the starter Pokemon is actually pretty clever. It does also keep me from having to use the Pokemon Center in Cherrygrove. I do purchase some Potions there though. And, I get the Map for my PokeGear.

The walk to Mr. Pokemon's house is generally uneventful. I pick berries (Hey! It's BERRY!), I fight stuff. I get the Mystery Egg and Pokedex, I walk back. But first I fight my rival!!!! Now, in Gen 1, the first rival fight was scripted immediately after both you and your rival get your starter. As such, the playing ground is equal - both combatants are at the same level, and both essentially have just one normal type attack of equal power and one status move. In this game, however, the first battle is on the other side of two full routes worth of encounters. I was around level 8, but if I really wanted to, I could have been grinding even higher. I had Smokescreen and a solid stat advance. In other words, I got a head start. Meanwhile, my rival had just stolen his Pokemon, and for that matter, while mine came with a berry and I had since equipped a fresh berry to it, his lacked the berry. So, it was an easy battle. I'm not sure if this was a good or bad design decision. Future games have gone back and forth on this change - Gen 3 also has plenty of grinding time before fighting your level 5 rival, but Black and White have you fight both your friends before even leaving your house. I think it's just different, and not better or worse necessarily. Which, is fine.

Anyway I beat ???'s Totodile, and move on to Professor Elm's lab. Interestingly, this is my infinite healing spot for this game, because Sheen's mother apparently doesn't love him. I mean, all she does is take a cut of his money to spend on the stuff she wants, and doesn't even heal him. Messed up! I, of course, make sure my mother doesn't get shit. I have enough issues about my money being co-opted by my family already, I don't need it to be happening in the virtual world too.

I get to name my rival, and his name is Luster. Since I'm playing Pokemon Silver, I think Sheen and Luster are reasonable names for the characters. I also get 5 Pokeballs, and NOW the game is open to me!

I caught a Rattata on Route 29, named it Jaws... and promptly fell asleep.

DAY

I woke up and started playing again around 4:30 PM, because I'm working overnights so my sleep schedule is now the weirdest. On the way to Cherrygrove, I stopped at Route 46, and caught a Geodude, whose name is Rock Star. Now THAT's useful. After all, the first gym is flying type. I could have got an Onix in an in-game trade in Violet City, but that means forgoing Togepi. Not that I really am interested in using Togepi... but just getting a wild rocky boy is really more optimal. I heal my new teammates at Elm's lab, and start grinding Rock Star and IndieCindy a bit. Mostly, this is so that it will be night-time in-game, and the Hoothoot I want will be available on Route 30.

NITE

Surely enough, once I do pass enough time, I do see that Hoothoot, who I catch and, after careful consideration, I name Drinky-Bird, before realizing that T.I.M.E. would have been WAY better. The Name Rater is in Goldenrod, so I can fix this pretty soon, I guess. I box Jaws away, and move on with the game. Going towards Violet, I get Youngster Joey's digits, so that I can get obnoxious phone calls about his failed attempts to catch Hoothoots ever 20 minutes or so. Hooray.

On Route 31, we get our first brush with the duplicate clause as I first encounter a Rattata before finding a Bellsprout. Now, I LOVE Bellsprout, so this would rule... if I didn't JUST use a Bellsprout in Blue. Now, I know Nuzlockes are all about working with what you get, but I just... I would find that so boring. I loved Penthes, I can't just tarnish his memory like that. I catch the Bellsprout, name it Stickly, and box it.

In Dark Cave (which has awesome music, by the way. One of the best songs in the series, just about, I'd say), I catch...!! A Zubat! Amazing! I call it King Bob and box it too, when I arrive in Violet City. I also heal when I do, since I was running low on PP. After a touch of grinding, to get a STAB move (Ember, Rock Throw and Peck) onto everyone, I head into Sprout Tower. My encounter there, a Gastly, sadly goes down because getting moves that could actually touch the ghosts also increased my power too high to not oneshot them. Oh well. First wild Pokemon murdered instead of caught. It happens!

I ascend the tower, getting as much XP as I can out of it, and also the Flash HM, which is... basically useless. Hooray? Encountering Luster but not fighting him here was pretty cool. I then fight the gym trainers, before briefly diverting over the the Ruins of Alph to catch an Unown, mostly for funsies.

It's J. I name it Worddis, and try to figure out its Hidden Power type. First, I test it on another Unown, which is Psychic type. It does neutral damage, ruling out Psychic, Fighting, Dark, Ghost or Bug type Hidden Power. I head into Sprout Tower, and try it on a Gastly, where it also does neutral damage, ruling out Normal, Poison, Grass, and Ground. I head to the route, testing it on a Hoothoot, and AGAIN the damage is neutral, ruling out Electric, Ice or Rock. I then enter the Dark Cave, and try it on a Geodude... and it's STILL neutral, ruling out almost every other type EXCEPT for Dragon. So... Dragon Hidden Power. Absolutely useless. Thanks for nothing, Worddis. Welcome to the box.

I heal again in Violet City, since I had one leftover from my battle against Luster, and I battle Falkner and his weird ass level 9 Pidgeotto.

As you might expect given the fact that my Geodude must be at least level 11 to know Rock Throw, making it higher leveled AND being super effective and STAB... it's basically a joke. IndieCindy returns to my party, and I grab the Egg from Elm's Aide while I'm there, counting as my Pokemon for Violet City.

Route 32 grants me a Wooper, which... rules! I haven't used a Wooper, but its typing is great (4x Grass weakness is a fine trade for an Electric-immune Water type!) Its name is Rainwater. I grind it up a bit, teach it Mud Slap, and make the trek back to Elm's lab to heal again before I stop playing for the 25th, so I can catch Farfetch'd in Pokemon Go and also go to work.

NOVEMBER 26th, 2017

When I get home from work around 5:40, I keep playing, because I'm a disaster. Berries respawned, so I grab a few, although I don't go too far out of my way for them. I keep heading down Route 32, reaching Union Cave. I find pretty quickly that the cave's only new Pokemon for me is Onix, which would have made that in-game trade even uselesser. I heal using Route 32's Pokemon Center before venturing further into the cave, which I guess counts as Johto's first dungeon? It's so short and easy with Rainwater. I do end up finding the Onix while going through, and I name it My Trains. I consider using it instead of Rock Star, for that eventual Steel typing... but I decide to keep Rock Star for now.

On the other side of the cave, on Route 33, I catch an Ekans, who I name Goosebumps. Can I just say how pleasing Ekans' sprite in this game is? Maybe it's because I just had to spend a whole game that is, quite frankly, ugly as sin, but something about the direction of this Ekans sprite is just... so nice. Noticing this, I recalled the long-abandoned endeavor of the "Pokemon Sprite Guy" to review the sprites of every Pokemon to determine the best. He ended up choosing Ruby/Sapphire's, but somethng about how this Ekans is facing away from the direction most sprites face is really pleasant to me.

As I'm walking to Azalea Town, my egg hatches, and I have a Togepi! I name it Cookie, and keep it, My Trains and Goosebumps boxed. I speak to Kurt, and enter the Slowpoke Well, catching my Slowpoke first. Luckily, I get a female one. Why luckily? Well, so I can name it Amnesia. I box it too, though. I have a perfectly servicable Water type.

IndieCindy evolved beating the rockets in the well! I heal once I'm done, and head in to fight Bugsy...

Who is also a total pushover. Cindy's got Fire, Drinky's got Flying and Star has Rock. Bug is weak to ALL of these, and Bugsy's ace, Scyther, is DOUBLE weak to Rock.

I didn't realize this game had the Twins trainer class in it, though. Weird, given its lack of double battles! Might they have intended to include doubles in this game but not had the time or cart space? Anyway, seeing two trainers send out one Pokemon each, one after another, definitely reminded me of the encounter I had in Pokemon Sun where I was definitely expecting to be fighting all 5 Team Skull Grunts at once in a Horde Battle a la the Aqua/Magma Grunts in ORAS... but since Gen 7 hates every type of battle that is newer than Gen 3, it's just a single encounter with 5 Pokemon.

That's where I stopped playing, and it's been a few days as I put off writing this. But now it's written! ... Of course, I can't quite post it until my blog looks nice, and this literally took me all day, and I have a headache and I just want to play more, but I can't until I get my Pokemon Silver blog theme looking choice. Blugh.