Welcome back to the great snowy north of the Sinnoh region. When we left off, we had just finally made it to Snowpoint City. After passing through that blizzard, I felt it was a good time to rest and warm up. But we can’t rest for long. Not with Team Galactic capturing the Legendary Lake Guardian Pokémon, and Barry waiting for me to back him up at Lake Acuity.
Braving the snow once more, we head off to the Lake, only to be stopped at the entrance by a couple of grunts. I don’t know why I can’t just fight them and push my way through, that’s how every other problem is solved in this world, but I can’t. They did mention that they were tasked with stopping the gym leader from interfering, so I guess I need to go knock some sense into the gym leader first. Back to town we go then.
The Snowpoint Gym is actually pretty interesting. It’s kind of bowl shaped, and covered in ice with some large snowballs scattered around. Not only do you have to battle your way through the Junior Trainers, but you have to figure out how to hit the snowballs with enough speed to destroy them, thus opening up the path to the Gym Leader. It was actually a really fun puzzle of a gym.
Fighting against the Junior Trainers, I felt I might be under leveled soon, and I don’t want to face the Gym Leader like this. So with training in mind, we head back down through Route 217. I kind of ran through here before, so I think it would be worth the time to go explore and see what I might have missed. There were some decent trainers waiting for me, and I got some good experience, but the best thing I found was just lying there on the ground, HM08 Rock Climb. I’ve been wondering when I would finally find this, but I’m kind of surprised to see it just lying around in the snow. Thinking back, pretty much all of the HMs in this game have been just handed to me randomly. They weren’t integrated into the story in any way at all. If I weren’t the exploring type I could have easily walked right past this and never known. In fact I did walk right past it the first time. It’s disappointing and I wish at least SOME thought was put towards the story of how you get each of the HMs.
After some intense training in the snow, it’s time to face off against the gym leader Candice and her Ice Pokémon. I was really expecting her to put up a better fight. With all that training I did, it was a massacre as my Drifblim soloed her whole team. To add insult to injury, I managed a critical super effective one hit knock out to her strongest Pokémon Abomasnow. With Candice defeated, I’ve won my 7th badge, the Icicle Badge. Only one more badge to go. But first, we need to check out what’s going on at the lake.
The guards that were once blocking the way are now lazily standing to the side. Why couldn’t they have been this lazy earlier? By the lake, Barry is being mocked by Galactic Commander Jupiter after his apparent loss. I guess I was too late to help after all. She doesn’t even battle me as she walks away and heads back to Veilstone City HQ. So much hassle just to show up late to the party. But now Team Galactic has all 3 of the Lake Guardians, and have annoyed me my whole journey. I won’t let them get away with this. I’m going to march right down to their Headquarters and bring the whole building down. I won’t be happy until I’m wading through the ash and rubble where their base once stood.
It’s a quick flight thanks to Drifblim, and the grunts are already awaiting my arrival. Or so I thought. The grunt outside the headquarters is apparently the same one we fought earlier who tried to steal Dawn’s Pokédex. After our previous battle, they took his Clefairy away from him. Not only that, but it sounds like they had his buddy DEPORTED back to his own country. That’s harsh. After this sob story, he runs off, leaving behind a key to the Storage Area. I don’t know if he dropped it, or if he intentionally left it for me, but now I have my way into their base.
What is it with evil headquarters being a safety inspector’s worst nightmare? Several of the rooms have no doors or windows or any actual access to them from the outside. Instead the base is rigged with the latest in teleportation technology. I can’t help but wonder, if the power ever goes out, are people just trapped in those rooms until it’s fixed? Again, it’s a safety inspector’s worst nightmare. But that’s not really my concern as I rampage my way through the building. Galactic grunts and Scientists alike all fall before me as I storm my way through to their leader. They’re all so little threat to me I even take a nice nap in one of their own beds up on the 2nd Floor.
Nice and rested, I finally make my way to the 4th floor and face off against The Galactic Boss himself Cyrus. We’ve met before, but this is the first time I’ve been able to beat him down like I always wanted to. He didn’t stand even the slightest chance against me. And with that assault I’ve done it, I’ve brought down the whole organization. In victory, Cyrus hands me a master ball and sends me off to free the Lake Guardians.
What’s all this? Vats of green goo and the Lake Guardians hooked up to some weird machines? What could they have been doing down here? If I’m going to free them, it looks like I’ll have to fight Galactic Commander Saturn again. His team hasn’t leveled much since I beat him back at Lake Valor, and he goes down just as easily as the rest. Stepping aside, he lets me press the button to free the 3 Lake Guardians, and they teleport off. He also mentions something about having used them to create some kind of Red Chain which Cyrus will use to shackle something on the top of Mt Coronet.
He just doesn’t give up does he? Now I have to follow Cyrus up to the top of Mt Coronet. But that trek will have to wait till next time. Join me again as we put the finishing touches on the annihilation of team galactic.
Current Pokémon:
 |
 |
 |
| Drifblim | Empoleon | Cherrim |
| Level: 51 | Level: 50 | Level: 50 |
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 |
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| Rampardos | Pachirisu | Bibarel |
| Level: 50 | Level: 50 | Level: 47 |
Play Time: 46h 52m
Badges: 7
Pokédex Entries: 117
A Pokémon Journal entry wouldn’t be complete without another art gallery entry, and now that we’re in the apprentice lessons, things are starting to look even better.
The first lesson was a simple one as we drew a Voltorb. One of the simplest Pokémon designs ever, Voltorb introduced the lesson in adding shading details.
Using what we learned in the Voltorb lesson, we now have the fire monkey Chimchar. The shading really does bring a new level of detail to the pictures, doesn’t it?
Thanks for joining me, and I hope to see you all again next time!
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