Pokemon Journal: The Final Stretch!

Welcome back everyone! When we left off, Team Galactic had finally been defeated, and all of the legendary Pokémon are in my possession. But with only 7 of the 8 gym badges, my journey isn’t over yet. We’re heading into the final stretch now as we go after our final gym badge and make our way towards the Elite Four.

So far we’ve explored nearly every area of the region except for the eastern shore. If you’ll remember back, there seemed to have been some kind of blackout and they were denying entry to travelers. Thankfully, the issue has been resolved, and Route 222 is once again open to the public. There are quite a few tough trainers along this route making it a good place to train for the upcoming battle. Other than the trainers, it’s a rather straight forward route leading into Sunyshore City.

Upon entering the city, a man with a red afro immediately approaches you. He introduces himself as Flint, a member of the Sinnoh Elite Four and informs you that Volkner, the local gym leader, has been rather depressed lately. Apparently there haven’t been many strong trainers to pass through his gym lately, and he grows bored with constantly fighting weaklings. Flint recognizes your talent, and thinks you might just be the person to snap Volkner out of his slump.

You can find Volkner high up in the lighthouse looking through the binoculars at the Pokémon League building. Volkner boasts that he is the strongest of the Sinnoh Gym Leaders, and that none of the trainers to challenge him have caused him to even break a sweat. Maybe it’s time for him to give up being a Gym Leader and try challenging the Elite Four himself. He too recognizes your talent and decides to return to his gym and await your challenge. While we’re up here, let’s take a look out at the Pokémon League building ourselves. It’s quite an impressive building. It’s hard to imagine we’ll be heading there soon. But before that, we need to go face Volkner for our final Gym Badge.

Well it’s no wonder there was a blackout. Just look at all the wasted electricity in this gym. With all the giant gears and random arcing electricity, I’m surprised the town was able to reopen at all. Interior design choices aside, this was quite the enjoyable gym. All the trainers were rather challenging, with Pokémon near to level to my own. Then the puzzle of rotating and navigating the gears on the floor was an entertaining, though not very challenging puzzle. There were of course a few oddities with the Junior Trainers. Most everyone was using electric types, but there was one trainer that had a Kadabra, a psychic type. That wasn’t the worst though, one Junior Trainer actually send out a Bibarel, a normal / water type. Why would you bring a water type to an electric gym? Maybe he was using him as an HM slave the same way I am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I make my way to Volkner himself, and we’re in for a challenge. Knowing that Volkner has been looking for a thrilling battle, I thought it might be fun to fight him on his own terms and face him with an electric type of my own, Pachirisu. The match started pretty evenly, my Pachirisu couldn’t do much damage to his Raichu, but we prevailed. And then things started to get weird when he sent out an Octillery. I thought the Bibarel was bad, but an Octillery? I guess the whole electric theme went out the window. Whatever, you have to adapt on the fly to be the best. My team is well balanced and even Volkner’s shifting types can’t stop us. In the end we are victorious, and are awarded with our final badge, the Beacon Badge.

Now that we have all 8 badges, the only challenge left to us is the Elite Four themselves. As we saw from the lighthouse, we’ll have to travel north and climb a waterfall to reach them. Problem is I still haven’t found the HM to learn waterfall. However, this problem is quickly remedied as I try to leave town. Right on the edge of the water is Jasmine, one of the Gym Leaders from the Johto region apparently here on vacation. She notices that I have all 8 badges, and knowing I would need the waterfall skill to reach the elite four, she gives it to me. Thank you Jasmine. Pokémon League here I come.

Before we can actually step foot in the Pokémon league, we’ll have to cross through ocean route 223. It’s a fairly straight forward route, but it’s full of trainers and the simple fact of being an ocean route means constant random encounters. However, I do love the fact that I can finally encounter a Mantyke here. In real life, I’ve always loved rays. They just look so cool compared to other sea creatures. It was a bit of a struggle, but I managed to catch one while passing through this route.

This brings us to the final stretch, Victory Road. This maze like cavern in the only entrance to the Pokémon League, and it is teaming with not only the strongest wild Pokémon in the region, but also the strongest trainers. Every trainer you encounter has, in theory, also managed to collect all 8 gym badges and are doing their own final preparations before facing the Elite Four. This is the hardest stretch of the game, and I burned through way more potions than I had hoped to. But it is all worth it when I’m finally standing in front of the Pokémon League building, the end goal of my whole journey.

The elite four are not to be taken lightly. They are the four strongest trainers in the region, and you have to face them one after the other without healing in between. Well, without returning to a Pokémon center to heal. You’re always free to use potions between battles. Anyway, I’m not ready to face them just yet. Now that I’ve made it through to the other side of Victory Road, I can always heal at the Pokémon Center inside the Pokémon League building. So for now, I’m going to do some final preparation of my own.

Next time should be the conclusion of this journey as I face off against the Elite Four and claim the title of League Champion. So if you’ve been following me this far, I hope you’ll see it through to the end with me.

Current Pokémon:

Empoleon	Rampardos	Drifblim
Level 57	Level 55	Level 55
Cherrim	Pachirisu	Bibarel
Level 55	Level 55	Level 53

Play time: 55h 34m

Badges: 8

Pokédex Entries: 143

Once again it’s time to showcase some of my Pokémon Artwork!

First up we have Snivy, the grass type starter of the Unova region from Pokémon Black and White. We’re still continuing the lessons for colored pencil work, this time focus on curved hatching work. I think it came out better this time than it did with Fletchling. I’m getting more used to blending the colors myself with the colored pencils.

To finish off the pencil drawing lessons we have an Eevee. The base form of all the Eeveelutions, I’ve always liked Eevee as Eevee. Why does everyone want him to change? Anyway, this lesson focused on the short hatching to give texture to the fur. I think I might need more practice with this type in the future.

So there you have it, we’re right on the verge of completing this journey and becoming the Sinnoh Pokémon League Champion! I’ll hope you’ll join me next time for the celebrations! Thanks for reading!