Pokemon Journal: An Adventure Begins!

Hello everyone who has decided to follow me on this adventure!! If you’ve read my last post, then you’ll already know that I have a long, though rather distant relationship with the Pokémon series. I’ve purchased every game in the main series, as well as a few spin-off titles, but I’ve never actually played any of them since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire on the GBA. In fact, I only first played Ruby to completion last year. For a series that shaped my gaming habits so much, I feel this is a great disservice. So, I’ve decided that this year I want to play all the main series games I’ve been neglecting. Well, at least 1 from each set since they’re the same basic game and story.

Since I’m playing these games legit on a DS / 3DS, I can’t really get the screenshots like I normally would for an article. I also don’t think an article would do the Pokémon series justice anyway. Instead, I plan to keep a journal of my adventures and update it maybe once a week. Not really sure yet, we’ll see how much I do in a week and adjust accordingly.

So let’s start this adventure with Pokémon Diamond! Originally released in North America on April 22, 2007, it kicked off Pokémon’s 4th generation, and made the transition over to the then new Nintendo DS. It introduced the northern Sinnoh region of the Pokémon world, which is roughly based on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. I’m actually kind of looking forward to some snowy areas and probably and ice cave at some point.

Turtwig	Chimchar	Piplup

So, now comes the most important decision of any Pokémon game, picking a starter. Should it be the grass turtle Turtwig? The fire monkey Chimchar? Or the little penguin Piplup? as much as I want to take all of them, I’ve got to choose Piplup. I’ve always wanted a pet penguin. They just seem like they would be so much fun.

After acquiring my starter Pokémon, it’s time to leave my tiny home town of Twinleaf Town and head over to Sandgem town to talk to Professor Rowan, this games Pokémon Expert. He gave me my Pokedex and entrusted me with the job of gathering data on all the Pokémon in the region. Clearly a task best suited to an unsupervised 10 year old boy.

I continued on my journey until I eventually reached Jubilife City, possibly the largest town I’ve encountered in a Pokémon game to NOT have a Pokémon Gym. What this town does have is the Pokémon Trainer’s School, the TV Station, the Pokétech Company, as well as the Global Trade Station. This city is just so full of life, it’s such a nice welcome into this new world of pokemon.

 

 

 

 

 

While exploring the town, I’m given a free Pokétech by the owner of the company. I love the idea of the Pokétech, just something simple and useful to put on the bottom screen while you’re playing mostly on the top screen. Apparently I can even get more apps for it after I beat some of the gyms.

Speaking of gyms, the first one is to the east in Oreburgh City. Unfortunately, there’s a cave between Jubilife and Oreburgh, which means there’s going to be a lot of Zubats. There’s ALWAYS so many Zubats in all the caves. They tricked me this time, now there are Zubats OUTSIDE the cave too!! Thankfully the cave itself, named Oreburgh Gate, isn’t very long. It’s only a few screens across and is a near perfectly straight path. There was even a hiker who gave me the HM Skill Rock Smash. So yeah, best cave ever.

As the name suggests, Oreburgh City is a mining community. There’s also a Mining Museum in town which reminds me of the Pewter Museum of Science from the first gym town of the first generation games. The first Gym leader isn’t around at first, I have to go find him digging in the mine before I can fight him.

While I was looking for him in the mine, I happened across an Onix that annoyed me so much. I love Onix, and I wanted to catch it, but even weakened down into the red, that stupid Onix took about 20 Pokeballs before I finally caught him. Every single one I owned at the time in fact. I would have been so upset if I wasted all those Pokeballs and didn’t even catch it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first gym leader, Roark, uses Rock type Pokémon, so my water type Piplup made quick work of him. I’m so glad I picked Piplup as my starter. Now that I have my first Gym badge, I’m officially on my way to becoming a Pokémon master!!!

So, that’s all for now. But soon, I will be the Sinnoh Pokémon Champion!!!

Current Pokémon Party:

Piplip	Onix	Abra
Level: 14	Level: 9	Level: 5
Bidoof
Level: 10

Play Time: 3 :17

Pokedex Entries: 18