the-book-in-the-mirror

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part V: A bit more of earthquake plot, Ranger town, fourth gym and big city gangs

More Twitter archiving. I'll be honest, I'm not too satisfied with this later-half of Gaia twitter liveblogging and there's not much I can do to improve it considering the lack of screenshots, but I think it still has its value.

Just to give a clearer timeframe of how much I dragged my feet with this game: the stuff in this part was originally posted June 2022, while the update before this was October 2021.

[Previous Post]

[Original Twitter Thread]

Alright. this update might be a little shallow cause I played this stuff and screenshotted it but since I wasn't feeling too well I didn't comment at the time and took a break from the game. But I think I can still do a satisfactory short rundown:

Before I get back, a short summary of Pokemon Gaia: it's a FRLG romhack which aims to reproduce the feeling of official games rather than trying to do something "darker"/"maturer". Difficulty is slightly harder than an official game at some points.

It's a straightforward pokemon adventure to beat gyms, the league and some ecofascist villains. It features a whole new region, a pokedex up to gen 6 mons, XY mechanics (fairy type + mega evos) and some QoL updates (ex. skipping backtracking at certain plot points).

Last time I posted I had finished the third gym and did a short training session since gyms started getting a little rough. After that, I arrived on Valoon Town and immediately a tremor was felt, which prompts the local Rangers to investigate it.

You go to the area north, to a place called Nemesis Cave, and find another of those big painted ancient walls. The plot is still moving pretty slowly at this point.

The best part of this area gameplay-wise though is that it got a ton of Durants and is really fucking good to train. There is my Excadrill (...still crying over that calm nature) and a good level bump to Charmeleon.

Back to Valoon Town, some of the things the place offers:

- a blue shard move tutor; - a ranger base; - a bug catching contest where you can win even mega stones!!

And then there's the bug type gym. I'll be honest with y'all, I don't remember much how this fight went but I'm guessing Mega Beedrill as rough enough I had to resort to paralyzing. 😬 Mega evos should probably be expected in every gym too.

To get to the next town you need to cross a marsh and OOOOHHH LOOK AT THIS LUCKY EGG

There was a rival fight which I also don't remember well lol sorry. But maybe the lack of screenshots indicates this wasn't too hard. Feel sorry for the guy though. (The building above is a Battle Marsh - more on it later.)

Past the marsh, you get into Telmurk City where you have to deal with a small subplot involving a gang which threatens warehouse employees and whatnot. After beating them you get the Fly HM.

And this is where I'm at. This is the current team. Now that I have Fly I'll probably do some backtracking before exploring Telmurk and moving with the plot.

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part IV: ecofascists on the snow, third gym and mega evolutions (reposted from Twitter)

I am finally back after *checks notes* almost six months. Sorry, life is still sorting itself out. The prospect of organizing all those screenshots on Photoshop so I could "cheat" tumblr's picture limit wasn't exciting for a while either, but I have sorted most of that already. But enough of that!

[Previous Post]

[Original Twitter thread]

After I beat Chatot Girl, the next step is an ice path to the next town where the villain team is doing their thing. The big rock on the 2nd screenshot is likely where you evolve Glaceon.

I regret to inform you the villains in this game are ecofascists

After fighting a few grunts and finding an Itemfinder (bless!) you finally get to fight a team admin, after they say something about catching Regice...

...and it's not too hard of a fight but other than the lv. 24 Noctowl and lv. 26 Amaura she also has a lv. 24 Froslass (forgot to screenshot - yah I'm still getting the hang of this) so I had to use a few super potions.

Again, this game isn't as difficult as, say, Vega Minus but it can be a little tough at times. Next town is a snowy place with some shop that sells neat stuff like lava cookies and fresh water, some plot hints and holy shit a Choice Scarf this early in the game??

There's a fire gym to do now but before that I take a look at the path to Mt. Ignis (where's the temple you're supposed to visit) and I get a Sneasel. Oh and Swellow evolved back in the cave which is a very needed improvement

Soooo I thought I'd need to go through the gym first but it's locked. Anyway, one last detour before I move the plot: this town is where you get the cable car that goes back to the starting town. After you go down, a worker has a Stealth Rock TM for you

South of the starting town there's that area full of totems where [on the beginning of the game] you talk to the old lady who asks for her book back. There are two grass areas you need rock smash to access and they have a bunch of psychic-type mons - Natu, Elgyem, Chimecho etc.

I even managed to find a Sigilyph, whose dex entry was clearly updated for this game specifically. Not sure there are other cases of Pokemon Gaia exclusive entries, but unless it's very blatant like this I probably won't be able to catch them lol.

(for clarification: this was a bit vague when I originally posted it, but after exploring the rock smash areas, I went to the temple to the north of the region to progress the plot.)

I really like how this stuff looks. and yeah, cult-ish group is trying to imitate the old civilization so I wonder how they compare in their goals

This fire gym curiously has ice puzzles. Also the leader's most levelled mon is a lv. 28 Camerupt but the biggest hassle is this Magmar with Thunderpunch. Almost blew Prinplup away

And another neat thing about this game is how occasionally you're offered an option to skip manual backtracking. The map is neatly-designed enough that backtracking isn't that big of a deal but this is still nice.

Alright here are some updates from last night that I forgot to post cause it was a bit. whew

So, when you get to the island you must go through a tower to get the Mega Ring - the final opponent has a mega evolution, though not a particularly tough one

So it's a difficult match but not too unreasonable. My problem is what comes right after.

Once you leave the tower you're locked in a plot sequence where the cultists want to grab Regirock and you have to fight two grunts + one admin in sequence. I wasn't a fan.

Both grunts have Noctowl and Diggersby that aren't too much of a hassle but can still leave a bit of a mark, but the admin had stuff like... mons all lv. 30-32, including a Tyrantrum, Aerodactyl and a Diggersby with Swords Dance + Quick Attack. Really.

Frankly I thought this was a bit overdone. Like you can access the pokemart to replenish items and the pokemon center before the match, but it took a while to crack the right strategy for this.

The good part is that you're rewarded with a kanto mon w/ a mega stone.

According to the pokemon list from the wikia, the Kanto starter varies according to the starter you picked - in my case, Charmeleon for Piplup starter. It also comes with its species' hidden ability. Guess I'll scrap my plan to grab a Chandelure for a while

Anyway after that I decided to grind a bit for a few levels (honestly, this kinda contradicts what people were saying about this game being closer to a offiial pokemon experience) and explored some Surf bits (at least the map is still easy to navigate).

Oh and the Marowak above? comes right off the bat with Thick Club. and Thunderpunch. Could be pretty damn useful but I'm determined to keep pushing with Drilbur and eventually Excadrill.

YES BABY LET'S GO LET'S BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THIS GAME

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part III: Museum mayhem + the second gym (reposted from Twitter)

[Previous post]

[Original Twitter thread]

Tumblr... 😩 this post *finally* finishes the first Twitter thread. I should have pulled photoshop way earlier.

So new town [Aerous City] has:

- A cafe where you can have a battle (not sure if it's a daily event)

- Some guy selling the amulet coin for 5k bucks (I would rather find it for free as other game but alright)

- A good joke

Also you can give some guy a harbor mail and he'll thank you with the shock wave TM - pretty damn useful early game if you ask me.

One last thing before progressing: there's a house where you can have "inverted" battles where the type matchups are completely reversed. meaning you can use water against water/grass for 4x weakness, electric as super effective on ground etc.

But it's time to move the plot I guess?

Fishy!

So in the end there wasn't much plot stuff but it's a bit refreshing that you don't get to battle admin/bosses of the villain team straight away. oh and I guess these guys have some restore-the-glory-days-of-the-past kind of deal.

After that you finally get to enter an art gallery where you'll battle... a bunch of smeargles with gimmicky movesets. really. It's a grand total of 10 smeargles and ngl, it wasn't particularly hard but got tiresome quick. you get an egg by the end.

alright babes here are some updates

Plot's still slow, you gotta reach some temple now. the gyms almost feel like an afterthought here, since you don't need badges to use HMs. So I evolved Prinplup, Mareep and the artist's egg was an Eevee.

I had to slow down a bit though cause a lot of my team is underevolved and a few opponents are getting rough. on the way to the next town there was a guy with an Absol...

...and when you get in town, you rival asks for a battle and he has a Grotle with curse that kicked my ass the first time - I only have a flying physical attacker to deal with it, you see. I regret not actually spending some time looking for a Litwick now.

A few cool things in the [Nestpine] town:

- You gain access to move deleter right before the second gym;

- Rayquaza is the first legendary mentioned in this game despite Regigigas being the one in the title screen;

- There's a guy that changes your mons balls to nest balls.

The gym is this town is a flying-type with a cute gimmick: you need to press the button on the ground to play the chatot tiles sequence you have to reproduce to open a path.

And there is kirlia. god please be less useless.

AND HOLY SHIT FINALLY

lol the chatot hair

And yeah, her main mon is a lv. 23 chatot so this match isn't anything special.

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary plays Pokemon Gaia - Part II: the first gym + the tablet chase (reposted from Twitter)

[Previous post]

[Original Twitter Thread]

Had to break the original thread in two parts cause tumblr doesn't love me. 😩)

First gym is a fairy type gym with a maze-like structure. spinarak should shine a bit (heh) before I replace them with another neat buddy I found.

This is where it gets clearer this is not one of those mind-boggling difficult romhacks. He has a Clefairy, a Ralts and Jigglypuff is his highest leveled mon. Spinarak got ko'd but it wasn't all that hard

Oh great the leader is a Kid With Issues and I still gotta chase him to get the badge 😭

Before I find the brat, a few changes on the team - always loved playing Ampharos and Gardevoir so I had to get those. Clefairy takes a backseat too. The less said about the Ralts' nature, the better though.

Nevermind, just found this one and honestly, better skill and nature so I'll take her.

Kinda feel bad for the kid.

Anyway, you get the badge once you bring him to his grandparents so you can't forget to talk to him again on the gym to get the TM.

By the way, "charming cry" is actually "disarming voice" - probably changed due to character limit.

I'm back at it! thought of spending some time looking for a specific mon in the forest but according to the pokemon location list I'll have an easier time finding them on another place so this is the team for now.

I forgot to post it last night but you know those FRLG eye-catches? Gaia has a few personalized ones.

So now we have to find one of professor's acquaintances to keep the plot moving

Oh yeah, another neat detail on this game: all areas are named so there are no numbered routes

Oh and this game has hidden grotos! I'm not sure if that clefairy encounter earlier would count as one though.

Some of the pokemon available on this area - forgot to screenshot but there are skiddo and starly too - I love the staraptor line but I'll keep taillow for a little longer. love the diversity available tbh.

...first thread finishes on the next post.

[the-book-in-the-mirror]

Mary Plays Pokemon Gaia - Part I: the beginning [Reposted from Twitter]

Hi! I'm @miyamoris and this is my blog for essays, let's plays and other more thought-out posts and conversations. To kick off the blogging, I'm bringing my Pokemon Gaia playthrough, styled after forums screenshot let's plays. (I'm not a video person. Sorry!)

I started this playthrough two years ago - it's hardly a long game but took me a while to finish it for... reasons. The first posts are reproductions from the original Twitter threads that I'd rather archive somewhere more reliable. The only thing I'll change is formatting so they flow better as blog posts. It's very likely the posterior updates will look different in style - instead of posting as I play like I did before, I have already finished the game and took a bunch of screenshots to organize while memory is still fresh. This is the first time I post let's plays on tumblr so I'm still discovering what works better.

For those who doesn't know, Pokemon Gaia is a Pokemon FireRed romhack created by Spherical Ice. Right now it's completed up to the Elite Four and thecomplete game with post-game and all is currently being overhauled as a Emerald hack. This hack is pretty popular for getting the exact feel of an official pokemon game plus some impressive technical achievements like perfectly reproducing the Mega Evolution system from gen VI into a 3rd gen rom.

Without more delays, let's begin. Enjoy!

[Original Thread]

let's goooo

-> #maryplaysgaia for my organizing and your muting convenience

Right off the bat, I already like the player sprite - it's visibly drawing from the FRLG sprite but it's well-done.

The Orbtus region map - the game seems to revolve strongly around archaeology (the professor in the intro says he's an archaeologist (typed it right on the first try!)) so it's unsurprising to find a lot of caves and ruins there.

Running shoes before even getting a starter! lovely game!!

I won't do a whole let's play-like thread summarizing every game bit but I'll try to keep threading the most notable game moments and whatever observation I have.

REALLY LOVELY GAME though tbh I am not sure if we even have gyms in this region

So for now an iffy lady asked back a book I got from the library, there's a lot involving earthquakes and instead of getting a mon in a lab, you meet the professor in a library.

Okay this is funny

The starters are 4th gen starters - this game has up to 6th gen mons and mechanics (updated type chart, physical/special split etc.)

Empoleon is easily my fave among those so I'm grabbing piplup. they tell you their nature right once you chose them too.

- there's no rival battle for now, it seems

- you don't see the exact pokemon IVs but they give you an idea how well the mon is faring there

...and yeah I ended up picking another piplup cause those E's were grating me. look, it only took five minutes.

Rival battles you (another neat sprite) after you talk to the professor and get a bunch of stuff and instructions. which is cool to me, cause I just got a neat taillow.😎

NOT CALM NATURE COME ON

Okay so there's the professor asking teens to help him investigate fucking earthquakes and a subquest about a missing weedle and I just got into this special room with a clefairy boss??

Girlboss team!

YOOOOOO

Ariados isn't too good but I could do a few things with this one in the early game.

Early game team: done ✅though I expect a few of these to stick around beyond that.

I just realized I've been writing this thread for nearly two hours and it's lacking a better overview of the game so:

- You're travelling through a region where an ancient civilization was supposedly wiped by earthquakes

- There are tremors happening again now so you're working with this region's ProfessorTM to investigate it. Your rival is very the May/Brandon 3rd gen type of rival (assistant that is pretty chill)

(Thread content will continue on the next post. Apparently tumblr does not want me to post more than 30 images. Ah well!)