Welcome back everyone. When we last checked in, we had just cleared out team plasma from their base in Castelia City, Collected our 3rd badge, and defeated Bianca in another friendly rivalry match. Now we’re heading out to Route 4 and pressing forward on our adventure. Sadly, nothing very exciting has happened since last time, but I’ll update you on my progress anyway.

I’ll admit I was a bit surprised when I first walked out onto Route 4. I wasn’t expecting to be walking out into a desert. Especially since Castelia City is a thriving sea port. Of course, since it’s a desert, every battle has the annoying sandstorm weather condition. Thankfully there’s a small building set up where you can rest and heal your Pokémon whenever you want. So it wasn’t that bad.

Cheren		Pidove
		Level: 20
Pansage	Pignite	Liepard
Level: 20	Level: 22	Level: 20

Of course, we can’t enter a new area without SOMETHING happening. In this case, it’s another friendly rivalry battle with Cheren. Since we both got our insect badges, he wants to see how strong he is compared to me. Obviously, Cheren is no match for my amazing team and I end up wiping him out without much effort. Really Cheren, just give it up already.

Now that that’s over with, it’s time to get back to our adventure. But in truth I didn’t stay here on Route 4 very long. Not because I didn’t like it here, but because of the Pokémon I managed to catch. The first encounter I had here was with a Darumaka and I just had to have it. I’ve wanted one of these guys ever since they were first introduced. I just love the concept of a Pokémon based on the Daruma dolls. For those of you who might not be familiar with the custom, Daruma Dolls are a Japanese good luck / encouragement tradition. When you buy a Daruma doll, both of its eyes are white. You then make a wish / set a goal for yourself and color in one of its eyes. Then you set it somewhere visible so it is a constant reminder of your goal. As soon as you’ve actually fulfill your goal, you fill in the other eye to give your Daruma his sight. Finally, on New Year’s you will burn the Daruma doll as part of the New Year’s festival and as a symbol of letting go of the burdens of the past. This is most likely where Darumaka got its fire type from. I know somewhere I have a Daruma doll from when I last visited Japan. Sadly I’ve forgotten what the goal was I got him for, so my poor Daruma will forever be blind in one eye.

Pansage	Pansear	Panpour

Anyway, my new Darumaka is a bit under leveled compared to the rest of my party, so we need to get him up to speed before we really press forward. Because he’s a fire type, I figured it would probably be easier to train back in the pinwheel forest than it would be to train here on Route 4. Also we can give another go to catching all 3 of the Elemental Monkeys. Kind of two birds with one stone. It took a little while, but I managed to accomplish both goals at almost the same time. Darumaka is leveled up to match the rest of the party, and I finally have all 3 of the Elemental Monkeys. They’ll stay in the computer for now, but I at least have them.

Now that everyone is back up to the same level, it’s time to actually travel through Route 4. That’s not very hard to do, it’s essentially a straight line from one end to the other. However, there are a decent number of trainers here, so we might as well challenge them now and get some good experience. Some of the trainers have also mentioned a Desert Resort as well as an ancient ruin off to the west. I have a feeling I’ll be forced to go there later anyway, so I’m going to ignore it for now. In addition to Darumaka, there are also a few other Pokémon I’ve always thought had interesting designs. Like Sandile which is a ground type crocodile Pokémon. I just think it’s interesting since crocodiles are typically thought of as water animals. Then there’s Scraggy which looks like a little kid holding up his pants which are clearly too big for him. So after beating up all the trainers, and catching the various wild Pokémon, it’s time to finally leave Route 4 and go to the next town.

As soon as we enter Nimbasa City, we witness Team Plasma causing more trouble yet again. This time it looks like the daycare man from back on Route 3 has come to visit Nimbasa for some reason, and team plasma figured a day care would be an easy target to steal a lot of Pokémon from. Naturally the day care man rushes to me for aid and I’m forced to beat up team plasma for him. These grunts were so weak they were hardly worth the time. Curiously they escaped into the Amusement Park after I beat them. I’d love to chase them but I think I should check out the rest of the town first.

There’s actually quite a bit to explore in this City. After running into Bianca, we decide to check out the Pokémon musical together. This is a mini game where you get to dress up your Pokémon and have them perform in a musical. Basically this replaces the Contests from the previous games. This was such a weird experience that I honestly didn’t know what I was looking at. I’m not sure if I’ll do this again. Anyway, after we leave the musical, Bianca is confronted by her father who is insisting she return home. At first, it looked like this was going to be the end of her adventure, but then the gym leader, Elesa, shows up and talks him out of it. She manages to convince him that she’ll be fine and not to worry so much about her. I wish random strangers would have talked MY parents into letting me run away from home at 10 years old…

There are also two sports stadiums in this City. Depending on the day of the week, each stadium has different sports playing in them. However, no matter what sport is being played, you have the opportunity to walk down to the field and have battles with some of the athletes. When I played, the one stadium was playing baseball while the other was playing tennis. This would probably be a good place for some regular trainer matches if I come back each day.

Probably the most interesting feature in this town is the Battle Subway. Here you can have long strings of matches against trainers while riding on the subway. These matches are designed to be all about your skills as a trainer. You are only allowed to take 3 Pokémon with you, and they are all set to level 50 so you can’t have any level advantage. You also aren’t allowed to use any items, so it really is all about your skills as a trainer. If you can manage to beat all the trainers on the subway you’ll be rewarded points which can be exchanged for items later. I tried this, but I only managed to make it through 4 battles before I lost. I’ll have to really plan out my party better if I want to try this again.

All that’s left in this town is the Amusement Park. Not only have team plasma escaped into here, but by the process of elimination it must also be where the gym is. We have a lot ahead of us, but that’s going to have to wait for next time. Look forward to our trip to the Amusement Park next time.

Current Team:

Munna	Herdier	Palpitoad
Level: 25	Level: 26	Level: 27
Servine	Swoobat	Darumaka
Level: 27	Level: 29	Level: 30

Play Time: 17h 58m

Badges: 3

Pokédex Entries: 45

It’s time again for some Pokémon art. This time we’re switching to using pastels

For the first pastel picture we’re drawing a Vulpix. I love Vulpix, he’s just so cute. Then of course he’s gorgeous when he evolves into a nine tales. This picture however I’ll admit I wasn’t very happy with. I know it was the first time using pastels, but I’m just not happy with the lack of detail in this picture. Also it was the first time it instructed me to go without any pre-drawn guide lines, not even reference shapes, so I feel like my proportions might have been a little off.

Welcome back to Unova! When we last checked in, Team Plasma had stolen the Dragon Skull from the Nacrene City Museum. Together with Burgh, Cheren, and Bianca we all set out to find them and return the Skull to its rightful place in the museum. Unfortunately for everyone else involved, I was being lazy and called it quits for the day. So now that Team Plasma has had some time to escape, let’s see how far they managed to get.

Obviously, Team Plasma has escaped through the Pinwheel Forest and is heading towards the next town, so Burgh and I head after them. However I was a bit disappointed when we made it to the forest. I was fully expecting Burgh to stay with me and we’d fight double battles for the whole duration of the forest, similar to what happened several times back in Pokémon Diamond. Instead, Burgh offered to take the direct route to the exit and block it while I took the long way on my own to try to weed out Team Plasma.

So I’m now forced to trek through the twisting path of the Pinwheel Forest on my own. Along with all the normal trainers in the forest, there are also a few Team Plasma grunts waiting to slow me down. Apparently they too took the long way through the forest, and one of them is carrying they Dragon Skull. But why? When given the option of a straight paved path out of the forest and to the next city, or an overgrown twisting maze full of monsters, why would they have picked the twisting maze? What level of stupidity do they possess that would make them feel that was the better escape route?

It takes some time, but we eventually make it through the whole forest, and there is one last Team Plasma grunt to fight. After defeating this final grunt, Gorm of the seven sages shows up. He at first seems displeased with the grunt’s defeat, but quickly reveals it’s not important. It turns out the Dragon Skull isn’t what they were looking for after all. So it really doesn’t matter that they had to return it to me. He is however annoyed with my interference in their plans. Before he can act, Burgh and Lenora show up and Gorm decides to retreat for now, admitting he would rather not start a fight with a pair of gym leaders. So everyone is happy now, Lenora get her Dragon Skull Back, Burgh is ready to head back to his own gym, and I get to follow after him and try to take him on.

As we head out of the forest, I can’t help but be impressed with the journey over the Skyarrow Bridge to Castelia City. It really shows off the new dynamic camera angles the game uses. All the previous games have been purely tile based with a fixed camera. Starting with this generation the world is actually built as 3d models. Not only does this look a lot better, but it allows for some great shots with new dramatic camera angles. Whether it be spirally behind you as the climb the ramp to the bridge, or the way the camera tilts and dives as you’re crossing the bridge, it is a great addition to the Pokémon series and I want to see more of it.

I’m quite impressed when I finally get to Castelia City as well. This is probably the most heavily populated city I’ve seen in a Pokémon game to date. The town is quite massive, with several important buildings. A few restaurants, an ice cream stand, the Battle Company, the Game Freak Building, and even the Passerby Analytic HQ where you can poll people with street pass. The streets are also overflowing with people. Sure they’re just generic pedestrians, but it still gives a lot of life to the city. Eventually I find the Castelia City Gym, and it would seem Cheren beat me here and has already claimed the gym badge.

I would love to battle the gym as well, but Burgh follows Cheren out and makes an unpleasant announcement. Apparently he just got word that Team Plasma is causing trouble here in town and he heads out to find them. We make our way to one of the ports to find Bianca with another girl, Iris. It appears Team Plasma has actually stolen one of Bianca’s Pokémon, so of course we have to find them and get it back.

One of the Team Plasma Grunts was stupid, and returned to the scene of the crime. They were however smart enough to run away as soon as they saw us all gathered there. Unfortunately this led us straight to their hideout, which just happened to be directly across the street from the Gym. After forcing our way inside, we find ourselves face to face once again with Gorm, as well as another of the sages, Bronius, and none other than Ghetsis himself. Bronius admits to intentionally setting up the base across from the gym, thinking it would be a funny joke in the end. He was however surprised to be found out so quickly. I was fully prepared for a tough battle here, but Ghetsis proved to be a very reasonable person. He told us all virtually his entire plan, something about reuniting the hero with the legendary dragon. After that he very calmly told the grunts to return Bianca’s stolen Pokémon and then they all left town, never to return.

Now that that is taken care of, everyone is happy again and I can finally take on the Castelia City Gym. The layout is actually quite interesting, though I’m not sure it would actually work in real life. The whole gym is set up to resemble a honeycomb, complete with sheets of honey stretched out between several gaps. These honey walls might look solid, but you can actually force your way through them with some effort. There are also several switches around the gym that need to be pressed in order to lower gates around the gym which impede your progress. After all the previous battles, none of the Jr Trainers were able to put up much resistance, and I quickly made my way to Burgh.

Burgh		Insect Badge
Whirlipede	Dwebble	Leavanny
Level: 21	Level: 21	Level: 23

Since Burgh is a bug type trainer, my Swoobat ended up being my go-to Pokémon for most of this battle. yes it is half psychic, which are weak to bugs, but that wasn’t much of an issue because the flying type attacks were super effective and took out Burgh’s Whirlipede in just one hit. Burge switched to his Dwebble which was also one hit killed by my Palpitoad thanks to Dwebble half rock typing causing it to be weak to water. Burgh’s final Pokémon, Leavanny, was the easiest yet. Since Leavanny is a dual bug / grass type Pokémon, it has a 4x weakness to flying type attacks. So you better believe my Swoobat was able to one hit kill that as well. Amazingly I was able to defeat Burgh without taking any damage at all, and with that I earned my 3rd gym badge, the Insect Badge.

Bianca		Dewott
		Level: 20
Herdier	Pansear	Munna
Level: 18	Level: 18	Level: 18

As soon as we leave the gym, we get a call from Bianca looking for a friendly battle. Apparently Iris has been trying to teach her to become a better trainer and she wants to show off what she has learned. We meet up inside the gateway between Castelia City and Route 4. After receiving permission to battle here, Bianca shows off the efforts of her training. She’s still fairly weak, especially after we just fought Burgh, but she’s getting better. It’s only a friendly battle after all, so she’s not too upset when we beat her.

After all this excitement, we can finally move forward with our adventures, but that’s going to have to wait for another time. So join me again next time as we head out to Route 4 and see what more trouble Team Plasma can possibly cause.

Current Team:

Swoobat	Servine	Liepard
Level: 27	Level: 25	Level: 25
Palpitoad	Munna	Herdier
Level: 25	Level: 25	Level: 25

Play Time: 14h 30m

Badges: 3

Pokédex Entries: 35

It’s been a while, but i finally got a few drawings done this time for another Pokémon art gallery.

First up is the Legendary Pokémon Lugia! The Guardian of the sea, this Pokémon is the only thing that can calm the 3 Legendary Birds, as seen in the first Pokémon movie. Personally I’ve always thought his wings looked weird. They’re just so finger-like.

Next we have the Pokémon Series mascot Pikachu! This drawing was the final challenge for the apprentice level lessons. As such it puts together all the lessons learned so far for what is easily the best drawing I’ve done yet.

Welcome back everyone! When we last went exploring in Unova, we managed to stop Team Plasma from roughing up an innocent little Munna. Then almost immediately after that we had to stop them again from stealing a random little girl’s Pokémon. We then traveled west to Nacrene city in hopes of gaining our second gym badge. Unfortunately, we were still very under leveled to even consider facing the gym. So off we went for some intense level grinding.

Most of the level grinding took place in the outer area of the Pinwheel Forest. I would have loved to train in the inner area of the forest, but Team Plasma is busy making a human barricade just inside the entrance. I’m not sure what they’re planning, but they’re mumbling stuff to themselves and it doesn’t sound pleasant.

There were quite a few good Pokémon in this area, but I only chose one to add to my party, Tympole. These little tadpoles always put up quite a good fight, and the dual water / ground typing in their later evolutions makes them a great addition to the team. Of course the Fighting type Timburr would be a better addition to the team for the upcoming gym, but I simply don’t like to use fighting type.

Throh	Sawk

Speaking of fighting types, I also managed to catch a Sawk while I was level grinding. These guys were really rare, and I got lucky to catch one. I’d love to catch a Throh as well to complete the set, but they are extremely rare in the Black version. They can only be found in rustling grass, and even then with only a 5% encounter rate. I found quite a few Audino for some good experience, but never managed to found a Throh.

N	Pidove
	Level: 13
Timburr	Tympole
Level: 13	Level: 13

Now that I’ve gotten everyone up to a decent level, I think I’m comfortable heading back into town to face the gym. Before I can actually go inside however, I’m greeted by a familiar face, N. He challenges me to another Pokémon battle, and after all that training he was barely a threat at all. He does however make the first mention of the game’s legendary Pokémon Zekrom, so I’m expecting big things from him.

Inside the Nacrene Gym, it turns out it’s actually the town’s museum and library as well. After the damage we did back in my bedroom at the start of the game, I can’t imagine this would be a good idea, but to each their own I guess. The gym does have an interesting gimmick, you have to read the books to find clues to finding the gym leader. Turns out she was hiding in a secret room under one of the book cases.

Herdier	Lenora	Watchog
Level: 18		Level: 20

The Jr Trainers in the gym didn’t present much of a challenge, but I’ll admit I got lucky when I beat the Gym Leader Lenora. Or rather I should say she got lucky while fighting me. Her Herdier put up a good fight, but went down without defeating any of my team. Her Watchog on the other hand nearly defeated my entire party. The problem was that she had it use Hypnosis so often I couldn’t get any attacks in. Even after several sand attacks, it’s amazing how an attack with only 60% accuracy could hit me every time she used it. I finally managed to put it to sleep with Munna’s yawn, but it was still a struggle to defeat her. In the end, I only had 1 Pokémon left when I defeated her. But a win is a win, and that means I now have my second badge, the Basic Badge.

There’s no time to celebrate though, it would seem Team Plasma has stormed the museum upstairs and is causing trouble. We rush to stop them, but they manage to steal the skull from a dragon skeleton right before our eyes. We chase after them but they seem to simply disappear once they get outside.

By chance, we have a few guests at the gym entrance as soon as we head outside. First is Burgh, the gym leader of the next town over come to visit. He’s soon joined by my friends Cheren and Bianca. After a few quick introductions, we agree to split up into groups to search for Team Plasma. Bianca also gives me the Dowsing Machine as a gift from Fennel. I’m very happy to have this because now I can find hidden items on the ground.

Anyway, we need to get the Dragon Skull back from Team Plasma, so Cheren and Bianca head east back towards Route 3 while Burgh and I head west towards the Pinwheel Forest. I know it’s important to Lenora to get the skull back, but that’s going to have to wait till next time, because this feels like a good stopping point for me. So thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time when we once again try to teach some manners to Team Plasma.

Current Team:

Servine	Munna	Herdier
Level: 22	Level: 20	Level: 20
Liepard	Tympole	Woobat
Level: 20	Level: 20	Level: 20

Play Time: 9h 30m

Badges: 2

Pokédex Entries: 25

I know you’re all going to be heartbroken to hear this, but no art work this time. However I’m taking a bit of a break from the other articles right now to focus on this one for a while, so look forward to the next installments.