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!

Welcome back everyone! When we left off, Professor Rowan was instructing me to run directly towards the giant explosion over at Valor Lake. Great plan professor, send the kids in first. But before we head off to our death, there are a few places I remember passing that I couldn’t explore before. Now that I have strength and surf, it’s time to go check some of them out before I die.

First stop on the list is Oreburgh Gate. We passed through here way back on the first day, and at the time we just ran right through it. I remember there’s a whole subfloor to the cave that I’ve never explored and now seems like a good time to go check it out. There isn’t a whole lot to explore down here, but there were some cool ramps you could use to jump over rocks on your bike. There’s also some water you can surf across to reach a small area on the west side of the floor. Not much over here, but there was an Earth Plate which almost makes this worth the trip.

Next up, let’s check out the Ravaged Path on Route 204 north of Jubilife City. Again, this was a path we just ran through earlier. On the west side of the cave is water filled path you need to surf across to get to the rest of the cave. This one wasn’t very interesting. There was a water pulse TM as well as a luck incense, but I guess I wasn’t missing much before.

I guess it’s time to head back to Pastoria city and see if I can find that guy who has the HM05 Defog. I’m going to feel really stupid when I find out he’s right at the entrance and I just never talked to him… And he was right at the entrance, I just never talked to him. How did I not talk to him? He was immediately right of the entrance. I could have sworn I talked to him before. Oh well, I have it now, and I might as well hunt for some of the other Pokémon in here. Though the only new Pokémon of note I caught was a Marill. It was still worth the trip.

We’re getting closer to Valor Lake now, so how about going for a swim before the end. I couldn’t surf the last time I was out this way, I wonder if there is anything interesting hiding in the water. There were a few decent trainer battles, but otherwise not a lot of interest hiding out here in the water. The only other thing I can think of is to use the Vs Seeker in the restaurant to milk some quick cash out of the rich people before I go. Unfortunately, Professor Rowan as apparently psychic and yelled at me saying it wasn’t allowed. Nothing left to do now except see what’s going on at Valor Lake I guess.

It’s gone, just completely gone. The bomb was so massive that all the water was just completely blown out of the lake. The only things left are all the team galactic grunts and dozens of Magikarp. Everyone hates Magikarp and think they’re weak, but I think this is just more proof of how awesome they really are. There was a bomb that went off here that was so massive that it drained the lake and it was felt on the complete opposite side of the region. But here in the lake are a bunch of Magikarp alive and well, just slightly annoyed that they’re not in water anymore. They don’t even seem damaged in any way. That’s just so impressive how they can seem to survive virtually anything.

In the center of the lake is a cavern, which at one time apparently housed one of the 3 Legendary Pokémon of this region. Now, the only thing waiting for me is Galactic Commander Saturn. It would seem Team Galactic has already captured the Pokémon, and has plans to do the same back in Lake Verity outside my home town. But he won’t let me off without a fight, not that he posed much of a threat to me. One more Galactic Commander defeated and one step closer to bringing down this whole corrupt organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there’s no time to celebrate now, we need to fly back home and help dawn back at lake verity. This is where my whole adventure began, back when I first picked Piplup as my starter. Now it’s full of Galactic Grunts as well as Commander Mars. I’ve already beaten her back at the Valley Windworks, and she hasn’t improved much since then. Unfortunately, we seem to be too late and she’s already managed to capture the legendary Pokémon from this lake. I’ll have to rush over to the last lake and help out Barry. What happened to us each protecting one of the lakes? At this point it seems like I’m going to be doing all the work AGAIN!

Anyway, I quick fly back to Celestic City and into Mt Coronet to head up to the final lake. Upon entering the lower levels of Mt coronet, I seem to find myself lost in yet another thick fog. I know I went and got defog, but I haven’t taught it to anyone yet. It doesn’t seem to matter though as it’s a straight path from the entrance to the exit. Maybe some other time I’ll come back and check out what was hidden in that thick fog.

And here it is the snowy north of the Sinnoh region. I’ve been waiting for this since I first started. I just knew there had to be a snowy area somewhere in this region. As much fun as it is to be playing in the snow, it does cause battles to be a bit of a pain with all the hail falling after every turn. I was able to capture a Sneasel and a Snover on my journey though, so everything turned out better than expected. I even came across a cabin with an old lady in it…Though she mysteriously disappeared the next time I entered. I hope she’s ok.

Running through the snow, I eventually came to the acuity lakefront, but first a stop over at Snowpoint city to heal up my Pokémon. We’re down to the last of the 3 lakes, but it seems that’s going to have to wait until next time, it’s just too warm and cozy inside this Pokémon center to step back outside into the cold.

So thank you for following me this far, and I’ll see you again next time when we go help Barry out of another crisis.

Current Pokémon:

Pachirisu	Cherrim	Drifblim
Level: 42	Level: 43	Level: 45
Empoleon	Rampardos	Bibarel
Level: 43	Level: 45	Level: 40

Play Time: 36h 43m

Badges: 6

Pokédex Entries: 116

It’s time once again for my Pokémon art gallery. Today, we’re finishing up on the novice lessons.

First up, we have the fire lizard starter Charmander. I love Charmander’s design, and on my first playthrough it was hard for me not to pick him. But I’ve never regretted my decision to go with Squirtle instead.

Next up, we have the Pokémon series mascot Pikachu. I don’t think he really needs much more introduction than that. You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last 20 years to not recognize that face.

 

So there we have it, the final lessons of the novice art courses. Starting next time we’re at the apprentice level for some more detailed work. Come around again next time to see more art or more likely to see if we can finally take down team galactic. See you then.

We left off with the instructions to go check out the library, but before that we really need to train some more. All my Pokémon are a bit under leveled right now. I headed back into the Hearthome City Gym, but apparently none of the Junior Trainers will fight me now that I’ve already beaten Fantina the Gym Leader. So I’m going to head back to Celestic Town and check out Route 211 to the west. There weren’t a lot of trainers, and before long we were right back into Mt Coronet. I couldn’t explore much because I can’t use strength outside of battle yet, so I guess I’ll have to go to the library like I was told.

A quick flight back to Jubilife City and just a short surf from there over to Canalave City. Almost as soon as I enter the town, my rival Barry challenges me again to a match. Once again he barely poses any threat at all. After taunting me to challenge the gym, I went to the library like I was told, but nothing special seemed to happen. There were a few books on the 3rd floor that told some interesting myths and legends of the Sinnoh area, but nothing spectacular. Maybe it’s just not time yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to train, and I heard people talking about the Gym Trainers using the nearby Iron Island to train, so I’m going to go do the same thing. There isn’t much actually ON the island, instead it contains an abandoned mine which many trainers use as a training ground. the mine is full of trainers as well as a few Pokémon which give pretty good experience, my favorite of which being Steelix. He was introduced back in Gen 2, and I always wanted one, but because of the need to trade evolve him I never managed to get one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About half way through the mine I happily came upon a trainer named Riley. Along with his Lucario, he made training so much easier. He joins me in my training, turning ever fight into a double battle, as well as healing my Pokémon after every encounter. With his help I was able to train my Pokémon easily twice as fast as I would have without him. I do feel kind of bad that I had to knock out his Lucario when I wanted to catch a Steelix. He would have killed it if I didn’t. Thankfully he didn’t hold it against me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the deepest part of the mine were a couple of team galactic grunts. I have no idea what they could possibly be doing down here, but together with Riley we kicked their asses. After our fight it would seem even they didn’t know why they were down here in the mine either, and they quickly left. In gratitude Riley gave me a Riolu egg he was carrying with him and left my party. Looks like my training is over, but I’ve done enough, I got everyone up to level 40. I wasn’t expecting the Riolu, but I’m happy to have him. Having my own Lucario would be great, but starting at level 1 would take quite a while to become useful. So it looks like she’ll be going into the computer box for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With my team nice and leveled up, it’s time to challenge the Canalave Gym. I’m a little confused with the theme of this Gym though. It claims to be a steel type gym, but nearly everyone has an Onix, a rock type. Some also have Steelix which is good, but then one trainer has only a single Azumarill, a water type. What are they even doing in the steel gym with a pure water type? The layout was also pretty unusual with multiple lifts forming a somewhat complex multi level maze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I finally make it to the leader Byron, he drops the fact that he’s actually Roark’s father. I think that’s the first time that I’ve fought family members in two different gyms before. He might be better than his son, but after all that training, my Empoleon was able to solo his entire team without much trouble. This earns me my 6th badge, the Mine Badge, and finally allows me to use strength outside of battle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for me outside is Barry again, and he has some big news for me apparently. He brings me to the library, and there on the 3rd floor are Dawn and Professor Rowan. They tell me about a legend of Pokémon living in the lakes around Sinnoh. Between Dawn, Barry, and myself we each have to investigate one of the lakes. I of course get tasked with Lake Valor all the way across the country. That means I finally get to see what kind of sick experiments are going on over there. Our conversation is cut short however as a large earthquake hits and we all leave the building to investigate.

Go see what that is. I’ll stay here until you return.

 

Outside we learn that it wasn’t an earthquake at all, it was some kind of explosion over at Lake Valor. The same Lake Valor I was just sent to investigate. Not a single word was said to stop me either. Do I even need to mention that I am NOWHERE NEAR THE LAKE! It’s on the complete other side of the country. I’d to travel past at least 4 cities and pass through a mountain to get to the lake miles and miles away from where I am now. And it just had an explosion so big we mistook it for an earthquake. The best course of action is obviously to send the 10 year old to investigate this literal Earth shakingly huge explosion.

Before another word of protest can be said, Barry runs off on his own to investigate what happened. I’ll have to run after him to my doom as well, but I want to live for at least one more week, so I’m going to stop here for now. Come back next week when we go running head first into certain death!

Current Pokémon:

Empoleon	Cherrim	Drifblim
Level: 42	Level: 40	Level: 40
Pachirisu	Rampardos	Bibarel
Level: 40	Level: 42	Level: 40

Play Time: 32h 20m

Badges: 6

Pokédex Entries: 104

Now time to explore another entry from the Pokémon Art Academy.

First up is #001 Bulbasaur. The first starter of the first game and national Pokédex #001, this grass type starter is perfect for beginners. I’m not sure why people seem to dislike picking him as a starter. Personally, whenever I have all three starters in my party, I end up actually sending Bulbasaur and his evolutions into battle more often than the other two.

Next we have a bit of an oddity with Victini. Introduced in Pokémon Black and White, I was actually very upset to find out I had missed the event needed to acquire him. I didn’t even hear about it until it was already over. That’s not why he’s an oddity though, I think he’s interesting for being the only Pokémon to have an entry # of 000 in its regional Pokédex.

So, another week down. Join me again next time as we run off to our death!

Welcome back! When we left off, we were having a nice stay at Hotel Grand Lake. Turns out this is a decent place for some trainer battles. There are lots of pretentious rich people with lots of money when you beat them. Seriously, I can’t stand these high society people. There was one couple having a date and when I overheard the following conversation. Rich Boy “Are you enjoying the food? My father is the head chef here so order whatever you want.” Rich Girl “Oh yes, it’s so wonderful! (I don’t have the heart to tell him, but my father OWNS the hotel).” If I ever become rich, I hope I never become that self-absorbed.

After pocketing my winnings, it’s time to get back onto my adventure and head off to Pastoria City. As soon as I enter the town, there’s another Team Galactic Grunt standing around like he’s ready to cause some trouble. From what I overheard of his talking to himself, it sounds like he’s about to plant a bomb somewhere. But he doesn’t pay me much attention because I only have 3 badges. I’ll have to keep an eye on him, but for now, it doesn’t seem like there’s much else I can do about him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I should probably head off to face the gym leader, but Pastoria City is also home to the Great Marsh! If you don’t know, the great marsh is similar to the Safari Zones from the older games. You pay to enter and have an opportunity to catch some rare Pokémon. The catch is that you can’t fight them, you can only throw special Pokeballs at them, food to keep their attention, or mud to make them easier to catch. I also heard a rumor that someone in the Great Marsh will give you the HM05 Defog. So I thought it would be worth it to take a little time off to hunt around for a while. I never did find the guy who gives the HM05 Defog, I thought I talked to everyone, but I must have missed him. I’m going to feel really stupid when I find out he’s right at the entrance or something. What I did find and manage to catch were a Carnivine and a Croagunk, along with a few other Pokémon. Not a bad haul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time to challenge the Pastoria Gym and face off against the gym leader, Wake. Oh, I’m sorry, Crasher Wake. He dresses in what looks like a luchador mask and a wrestling outfit. So naturally, he’s a water type user. Hey, it he’s having fun dressing like a masked wrestler, than let him. The Pastoria gym in general was pretty easy. Between Pachirisu and Cherrim, no one stood a chance. The layout of the gym was a little confusing though. There are buttons scattered around that raise or lower the water level in the gym. This would in turn raise or lower floating platforms as well as allowing you to walk across previously sunken platforms. You’ll have to do this to navigate the gym’s mini maze and eventually face Crasher Wake himself. After an entertaining battle, Crasher Wake was defeated and awarded me with the Fen Badge as proof of my victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I have 4 badges, we should probably check up on that Team Galactic Grunt on the edge of town. It’s a good thing too. He again mentions having a bomb, and now runs off towards Valor Lakefront. Something bad is going to happen and we have to stop him. Unfortunately, as soon as the grunt runs through the town gate, our rival Barry decided to confront us again. Why now? This is quite possibly the worst possible time for a battle with you, that guy is running away with a bomb. There’s no avoiding it, we’ll just have to end this quickly so I can catch up to that grunt. After that last gym, Barry didn’t stand a chance. To just add to his annoyingly bad timing, after his defeat, he even mentions the grunt that got away and encourages me to chase after him. THANKS! That’s what I was trying to do in the first place. The chase is on as the grunt runs past the Hotel and on his way to the Lake. I caught up to him a few times and he just went on about something big going on at the lake. He doesn’t want to fight, and instead just keeps running away from me. That is until he becomes too tired to run anymore and finally challenges me. He is pathetically weak and is forced to limp away in defeat afterwards. He must have gone into the lakefront, because I can’t find him anyway. And of course I still can’t enter the lakefront because of their experiments.

I’m not the only one disappointed by the blockade to the Valor lakefront. Another trainer named Cynthia is trying to get in and seems concerned about the experiments too. She notices me and remembers me from when we met before. Sadly I can’t say I share the same memory. When did I meet her before? It must have been right at the beginning of my adventure when I had too many new things going on to remember everyone. Anyway, after our brief conversation, she gave me some secret potion to cure the group of Psyducks blocking the path back on route 210, and then she heads off on her own adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I know where my next destination is. I could backtrack that whole way, but I think it would be better to push forward through Route 212. This has the added benefit of letting me pass through Hearthome city again. Maybe NOW Fantina will actually challenge me. Anyway, Route 212 seems a bit dangerous. It’s constantly raining and the mud is so deep you’ll occasionally sink up to your neck. Thankfully there are warning signs telling you to “Struggle and Squirm” until you free yourself. Thank you Nintendo for giving advice that would kill you in real life. The latter half of the route is also home to the Pokémon Mansion. There isn’t much to do in the Mansion, but it does have a private garden in back which is a good place to catch a Pikachu or a Pichu if you want one.

Back in Hearthome City and still no, Fantina will not battle me. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?! So it looks like we keep going to heal those Psyducks. They seem pretty happy to be cured and run off. Immediately after, Cynthia shows up again to thank me for curing the Psyducks, and then asks another favor. If you were coming this way anyway, why couldn’t you cure them? Whatever, what’s your new request? Turns out she wants me to deliver an old charm to her grandmother in the next town. Again, that seems like something she should do, but sure, I’ll do it. It’s where I was heading anyways now that they Psyducks are gone. But why was I so stupid? Why didn’t I spend more time trying to get the HM05 Defog? This path is almost a complete white out from all the fog. I can barely see a thing. I’m lost and this is certainly where I’m going to die. I thought it would just be a minor annoyance like the rain is, but this is REALLY annoying. By some unknown magical forces, I managed to make it to the next town and I don’t plan to EVER go down that route again. I don’t care what might be hidden in that fog, I don’t care.

Now that we’re in Celestic Town, we should go find Cynthia’s grandmother and give her the old charm. I think I found her, but she only mentions a weird man in a space suit by the ruins. Wait, weird man in a space suit? OH COME ON! Team Galactic is causing trouble here too. What is wrong with these people? Anyway, I beat the snot out of yet another grunt, forcing him to run away in shame. The old woman then does introduce herself as Cynthia’s Grandmother, and tells me to check out the ruins. She also gave me the HM03 Surf and tells me I need to beat Fantina before I can use it. FINALLY! That must mean I can fight her now. Inside the ruin, there’s some nice carvings of the legendary Pokémon, but otherwise not much of interest. Outside however is that same mysterious guy I met back in Mt Coronet. He introduces himself as Cyrus, and tells me to inform him if I find something with the power to help him create a new world. What a Psycho. I can’t wait to challenge him and bring down his whole Team Galactic organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more trip back to Hearthome and I can finally face Fantina. Her gym is set up very strange. There is an elevator ride to a platform with a very easy question and 3 doors representing the different answers. Behind the correct door is another elevator to another question and repeat a few times until finally I make it to Fantina. I’m guessing behind the wrong doors were junior trainers, but the questions were so easy I made it to her without having to fight any of them. That’s actually kind of a problem, I’m a bit under leveled to fight her and the junior trainers really would have helped. Fantina uses ghost type Pokémon, and she was a few levels higher than me, so this one was a pretty big struggle. Credit really has to go to Cherrim and her Leach Seed attack. I might not have been able to get many hits in, I was too busy healing and just trying to stay alive. But with leach seed, her Pokémon just slowly died while I stalled for time. She admits defeat and hands me the Relic Badge, my 5th badge. Took long enough before she would fight me, I’m actually really happy now.

Outside Cynthia is waiting for me, I think she’s stalking me now. She tells me I should probably head over to Canalave City and Visit the Canalave Library. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for there, but it’ll have to wait for next time.

Current Pokemon:

Cranidos	Cherrim	Prinplup
Level: 29	Level: 32	Level: 30
Pachirisu	Drifblim	Bibarel
Level: 31	Level:30	Level: 35

Play Time: 25h 16m

Badges: 5

Pokedex Entries: 91

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my Pokemon Art Gallery!

First up is my happy little Pachirisu. I really love this guy, and he’s just so damn cute. This one was obviously done with the tracing lines still on.

Next we have an Inkay. It’s weird, I always thought it was a water type because it’s clearly based off a squid. But no, it’s a Dark / Psychic type. Kind of cool how I learned something new about the pokemon from the art game. This one was actually done with a new technique in the game using reference shapes instead of straight up tracing.

And last, tremble in fear from the awesome might of Ditto, Destroyer of Worlds!!!

Thank for joining me on my adventures! I hope you’ll be back next time when we go to the library. Doesn’t that sound like a fun adventure? The library?

After a week as a berry farmer, I’m excited to get back on the road and continue my Pokémon adventure. I’m not really sure which town I’m supposed to go to next, and I can see on the map there’s a fork in the road coming up, let’s see what happens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dilemma was solved for me pretty quickly when I finally got to the fork. The path north is blocked by a group of Psyducks. I’m not sure why I can’t just battle and capture the Psyducks, but apparently these are special road block Psyducks. So it looks like we’ll be heading east, but not before checking out this little cafe at the crossroads. They apparently only serve milk, and I was warned that some of the customers might get a little rowdy and challenge me to a Pokémon duel. Fair enough, everyone is always challenging everyone to a Pokémon duel. What I wasn’t expecting was for the WAITRESS to also challenge me. What kind of service is that?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading east from the café onto Route 215, I really wish I had brought my umbrella. It seems like it’s always raining on this route. Curiously I encountered a lot of Ponyta and Geodude on this route. Shouldn’t they both be practically dead from the rain? Unless they weren’t attacking me, they were trying to beg me for help. My god, I’m a monster! Just have to push on, there’s no way they were looking for help, they were attacking me, it was self defense.

Pushing away my possible moral dilemma, I finally reach Veilstone City. Speaking of moral dilemmas, Veilstone happens to be home of the Gaming Corner and all of those slot machines. You’ve got to love pushing gambling into a kid’s game. I wasn’t actually planning to play much, I’ve never been very good in the game corners, but I got a lucky streak going. These slot machines are a lot nicer than the old ones. Somehow I activated a Clefairy bonus round which just kept going and going. I started with the 60 coins I think it was that random people gave me, and by the end I had 1742! Still not enough to buy anything good, but that’s enough for now, I should quit while I’m ahead.

Besides, I didn’t come here to gamble, I came here to get my next gym badge and that’s what I’m going to do. This one is going to be the easiest one yet, a fighting gym. Fighting types are weak against flying types, and nearly useless against ghost types. SO FEAR MY FLYING GHOST POKEMON DRIFLOON!!! BWAHAHAHA!!! Ahem, sorry about that. In all seriousness though, it was pretty easy with my Drifloon and even easier when it evolved into Drifblim. Really the hardest challenge was the sliding wall puzzles needed to get to the gym leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the Gym Leader Maylene wasn’t much challenge. She sure put up a good fight, but my Drifblim was just too much for her. That’s just one more Gym down, and one more badge for me, the Cobble Badge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Sooner do I leave the gym do I bump into Dawn. Apparently Team Galactic is causing even more trouble. Dawn dropped her Pokédex and some Team Galactic grunt picked it up and won’t give it back. We need to go teach them another lesson. Not just for Dawn, but because I heard a rumor the HM02 Fly is stored in the warehouse they’re using, and I NEED IT!!! So together, Dawn and I kick some sense into a few Team Galactic grunts at the front door. Dawn is happy because she got her Pokédex back, so she left. That means I’m going to have to storm this whole place by myself. I’m going to rush in there and beat up every member inside until they give up the HM02. Or not, it’s right inside the door with no one to fight. The only person inside was a grunt who politely asked me to leave because I’m not a member. Fair enough, I got what I came for. You gentlemen can carry on with whatever it is you’re planning.

That just means I need to press on again to the next town. It looks like we’ll be heading south along Route 214 until we get to Lake Valor. Then there’s another fork in the road. Sounds like fun, except when I got to the lake, it was blocked off. I guess someone is doing an experiment in the lake. Ok, so I’ll press on to the fork and another road block. The path East is closed off because of a black out. Really? The town has a black out so they send someone to push people away? That must be one hell of a black out.

That only leaves the path south open to me, which leads directly into the Hotel Grand Lake on the Valor Lakefront. It’s a nice enough little resort, with lots of paths that seem to require the rock climb ability which I don’t currently have. I’ll have to come back here later. In the meantime, I think I’ll just rest here for a bit before heading on to the next town and the next badge.

So, thanks for following me this far. Join me again next week when we head off to Pastoria City for the 4th Gym Badge.

Current Pokémon:

Prinplup	Pachirisu	Cranidos
Level: 30	Level: 29	Level: 26
Drifblim	Cherrim	Bibarel
Level: 30	Level: 27	Level: 25

Play Time: 20h 36m

Badges: 3

Pokédex Entries: 73

And now to showcase my art for this week. First up…

Here we have the cute little Togepi. Drawn with tracing lines of course.

Then we have the shadowy Gengar. Drawn free hard. I think maybe i made him too skiny, but still not too bad.

Once again, thanks for following me this far. I hope to see you back again next week!!

We made it to Solaceon Town last time, and that’s exactly where I still am now. I know I’m supposed to be pressing forward to become a Pokémon Master. But I finally found a Leppa berry, and I just had to grow a bunch of them now.

If you don’t know, the berries in the game mostly act as natural alternatives to most of the items. There are berries that heal burns, freeze, confusion, berries that restore health etc. But the Leppa Berry is special. It restores PP for the different attacks. There are items in the game that do that, like the ether, but you can’t buy them in stores. You can only find them randomly out in the world. So the Leppa berry is the only reliable source to restore a Pokémon’s PP. Normally it’s not an issue, just head over to a Pokémon center. But in the long caves or especially end game against the elite four, they are a wonderful thing to have.

So yeah, that’s pretty much all I did last week. But I managed to grow 80 Leppa berries, so THIS week I’ll be back on my path to becoming a Pokémon champion!

Current Pokémon:

Prinplup	Pachirisu	Cranidos
Level: 28	Level: 25	Level: 25
Drifloon	Cherrim	Bibarel
Level: 25	Level: 25	Level: 25

 

Play time: 17h 52m

Badges: 2

Pokédex Entries: 65

While I didn’t actually PLAY much of the game this week, I did start up another hobby at the same time. Back in school I loved to draw, but it’s been so long that I’ve practically forgotten how. So I started playing Pokémon Art Academy too. Starting this week, at the end of each Pokémon journal I’ll attach a couple of my better drawings from the week. We’ll see how much I can improve over the course of my adventures.

Here we have a Fennekin drawn with the tracer lines still on

And here’s a Torchic done freehand

(don’t make fun of me, it’s been years since I last actually drew anything)

Anyway, let’s see how much I can improve. Thanks for following me and I hope you’ll come again next week!