It wasn’t really relevant to the last episode, but Porom and Edward have evolved.
Porom goes from nidoran to nidorina and Edward has blasted through all three stages of his development — and ended up a beautiful butterfree.
From Ecruteak, we have two options:
East to Route 42 and Mt. Mortar…
Or west along Route 38.
One of them’s not much of an option, though. Route 42 would take us to Mahogany Town–
Only it requires passing through the Mt. Mortar cave, which is pitch black inside.
I’d maybe be willing to bumble around in the dark, if not for that guy just telling us it’s like a maze in here. No thanks.
So it’s back to Route 38 — toward Olivine City.
There’s a few battles to be had, including a run-in with literally the dumbest Pokemon ever designed.
The grass, on the other hand, gives us a potential electric-type replacement for Maria.
Don’t get too hype, though; this one’s another missed opportunity. The magnemite isn’t interested in being caught.
Oh well, I guess.
Next up is Moomoo Farm, where the road hangs a left and becomes to the north/south Route 39. They seem to be having some hardships on the ol’ homestead —
She needs lots of berries to get better.
Sorry, kid. A miltank killed everyone I ever loved.
I don’t really feel like doing this fetch quest right now, so we’re going to be PokeRacist for the moment and let the poor kid’s miltank croak. Such is life on the PokeFrontier.
There’s more trainers to battle and levels to be gained as we mosey on down Route 39, and at the bottom of the hill, we see if our Pokemon-catching luck has improved.
That’s when this happens:
This rodent seems… familiar.
…Edge? It’s you! Hey buddy!
EAAGGHH!
The wild Edge attacks, and it takes a bit of doing to subdue him. We have to resort to using ultra balls. That’s my Edge — defiant to the last.
You calmer now?
Uh… yeah. Sorry about that. I’ve been Bear Gryllsing it out here for a week.
You’ve got the mange to prove it.
Besides, why shouldn’t I knock you on your ass? You left me for dead, you scumbag.
Let’s just let bygones be bygones and get back to the business of me becoming Pokemon champion at the cost of all of your lives.
As long as I get my revenge on Whitney if we ever rematch her.
With our old buddy back in the party, we finish the journey to Olivine.
But before we can make it into the center of town, Garland shows his ugly mug.
You again?
I know — your favorite wimp-who-is-a-thousand-times-better-at-Pokemon-than-you.
He doesn’t even bother trying to battle us this time. Just gloats about Olivine’s gym leader being away from the gym, since that will delay our quest for the championship.
Apparently she’s up in the town’s lighthouse, caring for a sick Pokemon that acts as the light at the top. Garland finds this all very disagreeable: Why don’t we let the weak die? Geez!
A Pokemon that can’t battle is worthless!
Wow. I can’t believe how subtly-written and relatable you are as a villain! This is like the Citizen Kane of videogames.
I think we hurt his feelings.
Since we’re passing by, we stop at the empty gym just to check it out.
Steel-type. That’s one of the new ones. And I have literally no idea how to combat it.
Like in the ghost-type gym before, the tip-meister inside doesn’t have any leads for us here. He just directs us to the lighthouse.
Great.
Next door is a nice fisherman, though, who takes a liking to us and gives us our second fishing rod.
The “good” rod! That should mean a few new Pokemon to our collection, when we get around to it.
And then there’s… this house…
“Whenever I get in trouble, Daddy always scares me.”
Just out of morbid curiosity, we follow up with her father, who tells us about his belief that bad kids should be abandoned on the islands to fend for themselves. You know, as punishment for being naughty.
Damn, Pokemon. That’s a lot darker than I expected this game to get.
Maybe it’s time to go fishing… to wash the ick off.
Over at the docks in town, we catch a shiny new tentacool.
When I say catch, though, I mean, like… on the fishing hook. When it comes to catching it in a Pokeball, well…
Nice one, Galuf.
aaaaaa…?
There’s another miss. Though we do manage to make up for it with a different tentacool:
This is Rinoa (because she… wore blue a lot? I’m running out of FF girls to name these after), who we catch all the way back at New Bark Town.
We stop by virtually every town on our fishing journey. And in addition to Rinoa, there’s Leila the corsola (from Cherrygrove)…
…and Minwu the poliwag (from Ecruteak).
After which we return to our regularly scheduled PokeVenture. Into the Olivine Lighthouse we go.
Sorry — “Glitter Lighthouse.”
It’s six floors of winding corridors, battling all the way.
The opposition is incredibly varied, which keeps us on our toes. There’s noctowls, growlithes, pidgeys, poliwags, and plenty of others. The trainers are coming out of the woodwork — but why? I think they all came to see if they could challenge Gym Leader Jasmine, but then why are they still here?
She won’t battle with anyone, so they’re all just camped out in the halls of the lighthouse for no reason? And I thought I had no life.
In any case, Jasmine explains the whole situation once we reach her. The Pokemon here is too sick to do its job, so Jasmine is caring for it. But there’s not much she can do; what she really needs is some special medicine from Cianwood…
Across the sea.
I know enough about Pokemon to know I need Surf to get there. But where in the heck do I even start looking for it?
