Welcome back to the final chapter of our journey through the Sinnoh region of the Pokémon world. When we left off, we were doing our final preparations before challenging the Elite Four to become the Pokémon Champion. So with everyone at a high enough level, and plenty of items, it’s time to fulfill our ultimate goal. Let’s Go!

Of course, there’s one last hurdle before the Elite Four. Before I can walk through the doors, Barry comes rushing in wanting one finally match before challenging the Elite Four himself. If he can’t beat me, then he has no chance against the Elite Four. The same can be said about me if I can’t beat him. Barry has done quite a bit of training since the last time we saw him, and his team is very well rounded. As strong as he has become, I’m still stronger and I’ll be the one to finally face the Elite Four.

Barry provided a nice warm up, but now it’s time to face the ultimate challenge. The first member of the Elite Four is Aaron, who specializes in Bug Type Pokémon. Maybe ultimate challenge was a bit of an exaggeration. I didn’t know bug type Pokémon trainers could ever really be taken seriously as a threat. I’m just thinking of all the bug catchers at the beginning of the game that provided nothing more than easy experience for my starting Pokémon. Thanks to my Empoleon’s Drill Peck attack, she was able to sweep Aaron’s whole team on her own. Only Aaron’s Drapion gave us any trouble at all. We’re off to a good start.

Next up we have Bertha, who specializes in Ground Type Pokémon. Once again we have an ideal matchup for my Empoleon. She did start off by sending out her Quagsire, who put up a good defense again Empoleon since it’s also part water type. In the end however, Empoleon was once again able to sweet her entire party on her own. Two down, two to go. We’re making good progress.

Now we get to face off against Flint, the Elite Four member we met back in Sunyshore City. Flint specializes in Fire types, making it seem like the whole Elite Four was specially catered to people who picked Piplup as their starter. Unfortunately for Flint, the Sinnoh region is severely lacking in fire type Pokémon, causing his party to be rather random. Empoleon still took out most of his party, but this time Drifblim got in on some of the action as well. Amazing, I made it to the third member before I even had to switch Pokémon. Flint did however put up a decent challenge. His fire types might be weak to Empoleon’s water attacks, but their speed allowed them to get in some good hits before I managed to knock them out.

This brings us to the final member of the Elite Four, Lucian. And as the final member, Lucian is the strongest of all of them, specializing in Psychic Type Pokémon. My Drifblim is just perfect for this match, but even with Drifblim’s type advantage Lucian is no pushover. His Pokémon are all near to level to my own, so even the super effective moves can’t 1-Hit-KO any of them. His Bronzong in particular was very difficult to take down with its high level and even higher defense. It took quite some effort, but we finally managed to defeat Lucian and in doing so defeated all of the Elite Four!

Our journey doesn’t end here however, as there is one last challenger to be faced, the current Pokémon League Champion. Wouldn’t you know it, this region’s champion is none other than Cynthia, the same Cynthia that has been helping throughout our adventures. This was actually quite a shock to me. I’ve never known any members of the Elite Four or the League Champion to actually take any actions against the horrible activities going on in the region. Cynthia puts up an amazing challenge, and this was the most exciting battle I’ve had this entire journey. All her Pokémon are equal or higher level than my own, making me an underdog right from the start. As the Champion, she also doesn’t specialize in any particular type, and instead has filled her party with some incredibly strong Pokémon. Honestly, all I can really say about this battle is that I’m thankful I’m allowed as many items as I can afford or I never would have won. The biggest challenges were her Lucario and her Garchomp. Lucario tore though a few members of my team before I managed to bring him down, and it was tough trying to recover them in the middle of battle. Garchomp on the other hand was a beast I wasn’t ready for. At level 66, she out leveled anyone in my party. Then her combination Dragon/Ground typing left me without any kind of type advantage. Every member of my party took a swing at her, but in the end it was Cherrim’s Leech Seed attack that finally did her in. I might not have been able to match her power, but I was able to stall and keep alive until her health finally sapped away and she could take no more.

With that, Cynthia is defeated and I am crowned the new Pokémon League Champion of the Sinnoh Region. Professor Rowan comes to congratulate me and helps to enter my information into the Hall of Fame. It was a long hard journey, but my dreams of being the Pokémon Champion have finally been realized. I even managed to save the world and bring down a criminal organization along the way. Not bad for a 10 year old if I don’t say so myself. So thank you everyone for joining me on this journey.

Current Pokémon:

Empoleon	Drifblim	Pachirisu
Level 63	Level 61	Level 60
Rampardos	Cherrim	Bibarel
Level 60	Level 60	Level 60

Play Time: 62h 54m

Badges: 8

Pokédex Entries: 150

Of course, my Pokémon adventures don’t end here. I may be the Sinnoh Region Champion, but there are other regions out there just waiting to be explored. I’m going to take a short break, but be on the lookout for my next adventure to the Unova Region with Pokémon Black & White. Thank you for following me this far, and I hope to see you in Unova!

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!

Welcome back to the destruction of Team Galactic. When we left off, every member in their headquarters has been defeated, and the 3 Lake Guardians have been freed. Unfortunately, their leader Cyrus has run off to Mt Coronet with some sort of Red Chain. All as part of his master plan apparently. It’s up to us to chase him down and stomp out any last hints of hope he has left in his life. So let’s get to it!

The climb up the mountain is long and hard. There are plenty of galactic grunts in the caves the slow you down. Not to mention the constant random Pokémon attacks. When I finally climbed out of the caves onto the snow covered plateau just to find I was only halfway there, I thought I would never make it. But I can’t give up now. I need to make it to the very peak and crush Cyrus once and for all.

Hidden at the summit of the mountain is the Spear Pillar. It is here that Cyrus uses the Red Chain to summon Dialga, The ancient deity of time into our dimension. Cyrus plans to use Dialga’s Roar of Time to destroy everything and start a new galaxy where he is the ruler. Before anything can be done to stop him, I’ll have to fight my way though his commanders Mars and Jupiter. Thankfully Barry has shown up just in time, and we battle side by side to save the world.

Together, we may have won the fight, but they stalled us for too long. Dialga is already starting to create a new galaxy. His Roar of time is causing ripped distortions to travel all across the region. Against such amazing power, there isn’t really anything we can do. It looks like Cyrus may have actually won. We’re all going to die now.

But just then, the 3 Lake Guardians show up to calm the mighty Pokémon. They also manage to destroy the Red Chain Cyrus had created. It would seem the immediate danger to the world is gone, but we aren’t finished here Cyrus has to pay for what he did. He brings out his strongest party this time, and for once it was an exciting battle. In the end, victory was mine, but as Cyrus leaves, he still seems to hold out that he will achieve his goals one day. We’ll have to see to it that never happens.

Team Galactic may have left the mountain, but there is still a very angry and very powerful Pokémon up here on Spear Pillar with me. If I’m going to stop it from destroying the world, and prevent Cyrus from ever using him again, I’ll have to capture him myself. My team’s move set isn’t really designed around capture, more towards high damage, so I don’t have any status moves are weak attacks to make this capture easier. I always have the Master Ball to fall back on, but I’d rather save that for the roaming Pokémon. Pachirisu is going to have to save the day this time, and he completely pulls through for me, even withstanding a direct hit from Dialga’s Roar of Time. Using his electric attacks, we managed to paralyze Dialga, and then carefully whittle his health down to the red with our weaker attacks. It may have just been luck, but it only took 5 Ultra Balls before I was able to claim Dialga as my own.

Known as “The Being of Willpower.” It sleeps at the bottom of a lake to keep the world in balance.

Upon catching Dialga, Dawn and Professor Rowan show up to congratulate me. The world is saved, but still there is the fear that it might happen again. If we want to protect the world, we’ll have to protect the lake guardians ourselves. After the climb back down the mountain, I head straight for Valor Lake, Starting my quest for the guardians in the same place Team Galactic did. Here I find Azelf hiding in the cave at the center of the lake. After fighting with Dialga, this capture was much simpler. A few rounds of weak attacks and Azelf was down to the red. Then with a single Ultra ball I captured the first of the 3 Lake Guardians.

Known as “The Being of Emotion.” It taught humans the nobility of sorrow, pain, and joy.

Heading then to Lake Verity, I tried to capture the Lake Guardian Mesprit. Unfortunately for me, Mesprit didn’t want to stay still like Azelf did. Instead, it fled and became a roaming Pokémon teleporting all over the region. I chased him down the best I could, eventually catching up to him on Route 205. I have no intention of chasing it down again, so with the aid of the master ball I acquired from Cyrus, I have captured the second of the Lake Guardians.

Known as “The Being of Knowledge.” It is said that it can wipe out the memory of those who see its eyes.

This leaves only one final lake to visit, Lake Acuity in the frozen north. Here, I encountered the final Lake Guardian Uxie, who thankfully stayed to battle properly. Unfortunately for me, I had the hardest time capturing it. Uxie’s defenses seemed very high, even compared to Dialga, and I never did manage to paralyze it. After finally bringing it down to the red, I managed to capture it after 3 Ultra Balls. And with that I am now the proud owner of all three of the Lake Guardians as well as the Ancient Deity of Time. I didn’t have to blow up a lake to do it. I didn’t have to create an entire organization to help me. It didn’t even take me that long, only like an hour. There’s only one thing left to do, and that is to head back to the Galactic Headquarters and GLOAT!!!

See how easy that was Team Galactic? It was so easy that a 10 year old did it on alone and in just over an hour. After this well deserved shaming, it would seem Team Galactic has finally learned their lesson. From the sounds of it, Cyrus has run off and no one knows where he went. This leaves Commander Saturn in charge of all of Team Galactic. He doesn’t seem quite as stupid or arrogant as Cyrus, and he seems to have learned a lot from their previous failures. Namely that destroying the world to make it better is probably not a good plan. In what looks like an effort to rebrand themselves, they’ve even stopped referring to this building as the Team Galactic Headquarters. According to the receptionist, it is now the Galactic Veilstone Building.

The day is saved, Team Galactic is more or less disbanded, and I have all of the legendary Pokémon safely stored inside my computer box. It was a good day’s work, and now its time to kick back and relax at the casinos here in Veilstone. Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you all next time when we go after our 8th and final gym badge.

Current Pokémon:

Empoleon	Drifblim	Cherrim
Level: 51	Level: 52	Level: 50
Rampardos	Pachirisu	Bibarel
Level: 50	Level: 50	Level: 50

Play Time: 49h 14m

Badges: 7

Pokédex Entries: 128

Once again, it’s time for a Pokémon art gallery, and I really think I’m starting to get good at drawing Pokémon.

Finishing up the lessons on shadowing we have a wonderful Pumpkaboo. I haven’t played X and Y long enough to actually see one of these, but I love the concept of them. Just the fact that they come in different sizes like pumpkins makes them really interesting. Plus I really just love all the ghost types.

Starting up the next lesson, we switch styles to colored pencils and learn to do some hatching for shading. I’ve never liked hatching because it looks so random. Over all I think the picture came out pretty good, but I can’t help but be insecure when I actually focus on the hatching shadows.

So there you have it, another journal entry done and it doesn’t seem like many left. With only 1 badge left to get, I hope you’ll stick with me through to the end. Thank you, and I’ll see you next time.

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
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!