LP Beach

Part 34: Afraid of no ghosts

Last time, we explored all of the relatively small Two Island. So, time to move on to Three Island, which looks a lot bigger on the map.

Before we do that though, let's see what celadonk had to say about the last episode.

About the set of battles in the Sweet Shop:

We had a lot of fun with the team themes here. Super Nerd Mel uses Pokemon that are melty/fluidlike/bloblike, like Magnezone, Swalot, Golem, and Hitmonlee. Fisher Ronan uses entirely non-Water type aquatic Pokemon: Kingler, Kingdra, Wailord, Gyarados, and Cloyster. There are other teams too. Each round has a random trainer out of 3 (except Lilith, who is always the third round). Psychic Byrd uses the legendary (former) birds, and Raichu/Wigglytuff/Clefable, three mons that I've always kinda seen as a trio. Their types are the same as the legendary birds' original types. Another remnant of the UB-to-fish change.

Also, not sure if you've noticed, but each of the Shrine Leaders has a different stat specialty. Athalia's is, of course, Attack. Stanford's is HP. His name comes from the fact that originally, all his Pokemon were gonna use status-inflicting moves. That didn't totally pan out, but you can see vestiges of it in Jirachi's Trick Beam.

The Shrine names aren't as closely related. Their main gimmick is that their names end in -ce.

I hadn't noticed the stat specialities, but I'll be on the lookout going forward.

----



Three Island - Fool's Gold OST

More slow paced music here.

Here in the pokemon center, someone talks about how people used to Surf between the islands, but that's not allowed anymore because of treacherous tides. Someone else mentions this island has a Berry Forest.



There are rumors of children being kidnapped in the Berry Forest. But those are nothing but tall tales.

Hm.






This guy says you shouldn't cross Bond Bridge alone because there's a "swamp monster" lurking there. The kid says her dad is always lying and won't let her go out to swim.




The lady outside mentions that Three Island is one of the more populated islands here, but still quite sleepy. Indoors, I'm informed that very few people know the Shrine Leader's name, but that the Shrine in Berry Forest may be filled with ghosts.




And in this house, someone wants a female Torchic for her Swablu. I would have to go back and capture another Torchic so I won't do this right now. I do appreciate that several of the islands have in-game trades so you can get the traded pokemon exp bonus if you want to level up faster.

The kid wants to train his Nincada to battle Magdalen. Well... I guess the Shrine leader's name is no longer a mystery. That was quick.




The Mart here sells type boosting held items for Normal, Fighting, Flying, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Poison and Steel. There's also someone who says I'll need a "flashlight" to explore Berry Forest. All right, I'll bring out Flash when I get there.




The final thing of note in town is this TM ball here. It contains TM60 Charbroil, the 80 power special Fire move that never misses. I decide to give it to Carlsbad to increase his type coverage, overwriting Solar Beam. Solar Beam on Carlsbad was useful in the area of harsh sunlight, but now Temeraire can just do a Heat Wave / Solar Beam combo.



Bond Bridge - Fool's Gold OST

Celadonk says in the comment to this OST vid that this fun little march is his favorite song in Fool's Gold.




Oh, for this one I actually need to keep Cut in my team. After looking at my options I decide to make a quick trip to the Move Deleter in Blackthorn to make Temeraire forget Strength and learn Cut instead. If at some point I need both I'll have to figure out something else, let's hope it's not required here.




New pokemon time!


Kirlia, the Toadstool Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Pokedex: Groups of KIRLIA congregate around rot and decay. Its spores can make people and POKÉMON dizzy.

I catch it easily.




I find a Pearl in the corner, then prepare to fight these Twins, Joy & Meg. They have a Delcatty and Exploud.




Next, I also find Ralts.


Ralts, the Fungus Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Pokedex: It sways gently from side to side. Many people like this POKÉMON for its calm and bashful demeanor.

As well as Nincada.





Nincada, the Nymph Pokémon
Type: Bug
Pokedex: It uses flashy colors to ward off any attackers, and then flees after it is stunned.

We've already seen its evolution Ninjask. Shedinja is also in this game but is unrelated to this species.




This trainer is Teacher Violet. She starts with Gardevoir.





Gardevoir, the Amanita Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Pokedex: They are often witnessed in groups dancing around dead organisms, spreading their spores.

Gardevoir evolves from female Kirlia while Gallade evolves from male ones. Gardevoir learns Quiver Dance when she evolves, and Petal Dance later on.
The trainer also has Kingler, Venusaur, and Camerupt.

Since I wanted to go back to town to heal anyway, I decided to get the male Kirlia I caught out of the box, take his Tinymushroom, and also give him a Rare Candy.





Gallade, the Gunslinger Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Pokedex: GALLADE has assigned itself as SEVII's unofficial peacekeeper, seeking justice for all POKÉMON.

Gallade learns Bullet Seed when he evolves. He has the same Grass/Poison typing as Gardevoir but is much more physical attack oriented, where Gardevoir is a special attacker. Also, while Gardevoir continues the line's mushroom theme, Gallade's pokedex description is quite different.




Surskit also can be found in the grass here.


Surskit, the Sucker Pokémon
Type: Bug/Poison
Pokedex: They are regarded as one of the biggest pests of the SEVII region. Their bites are incredibly itchy.

It's a mosquito. I hate it.

I catch the Surskit before it has a chance to show it off, but it learns a move called Blood Draw.

Movedex: Blood Draw
Type: Poison/Physical
Effect: 80 power / 100% accuracy. 1/2 of the damage dealt is restored to the user.




The sign reads:
Bond Bridge
Currently out of commission. Feel free to swim across, but beware of the swamp monster.

Swimming in a mosquito-infested jungle swamp? Lovely.

Let's fight the trainer, who tells me:
Argh, I was going to Berry Forest, but there's a monster in the water!!




This is Swimmer Tisha. She leads with Lickilicky, followed by Kantonian Venomoth, and finally Dragonite.

Speaking of Lickilicky, I never bothered evolving the Lickitung I caught back in Johto because we found a trainer with Lickilicky first.
It evolves using a Dawn Stone. But, if I evolve it with a Dawn Stone here in Sevii...





Seviian Lickilicky, the Inebriated Pokémon
Type: Water/Poison
Pokedex: The liquid it lies in is sweet, but has a distinct chemical texture. It has a hard time walking straight.




Movedex: Fruit Punch
Type: Grass/Physical
Effect: 75 power / 100% accuracy. Has a 10% chance to restore 1/4 of the user's maximum HP.

OF COURSE the pitcher pokemon is a bowl of punch instead if you evolve it on a tropical island. It is perfect.

Lickilicky and Seviian Lickilicky actually quite similar. They have the same stats and learn similar moves. The Seviian form is of course part Poison type, and other than Fruit Punch it also learns Venoshock. Regular Lickilicky learned Glass Shard and Aqua Tail instead.




Let's go surf in a lovely swamp, and hope we don't encounter any angry ogres.




It's no ogre but we do find a Zigzagoon.


Zigzagoon, the Otter Pokémon
Type: Water
Pokedex: Despite its cute appearance, it has very sharp teeth capable of crushing even the toughest shells.

It's a cute otter.




You can also find its evolution Linoone here. The easiest way to find it is by fishing with the Super Rod.


Linoone, the Bog Pokémon
Type: Water/Ground
Pokedex: The swamps this POKÉMON live in help to disguise it. It uses this natural camouflage to catch prey.

Finally, we actually need to find the swamp monster. I think the best way to do this is to surf around here with the Repel Trick.

Eventually I find it, a shiny Obstagoon.





Obstagoon, the Bog Pokémon
Type: Water/Ground
Pokedex: It is incredibly dangerous. If you are swimming and and see one in the water, get out as fast as you can.

As always, my pokedex image shows the normal palette. If you want a normal one you can either use a Water Stone on Linoone or catch one with a Super Rod.
It learns Night Slash when it evolves and it also knows Rest. Rest is not terrible, it makes it easier to catch the pokemon. It still takes quite a few balls.

Of course, this was one of the seven shinies for the quest on Navel Rock.

That reminds me - I completely forgot to look for the quest shiny on Two Island. You know, let's go do that right away before I forget.




It's actually in this area just before the waterfall up to the shrine. Can you see it?




Yep, that's quite hidden. There's no hint whatsoever that it's here (except that apparently the NPC can walk into that tree tile at random).




Going far enough up into the trees takes us into this tiny room with the shiny.




It's a shiny Cacturne. Its snow is... yellow. No comment.

I capture it in one go. That's three shinies done.

After that, I get a call from Bill saying I filled my ninth PC Box. And that's not counting the 14th box, where I store a bunch of pokemon I want to be able to switch in quickly such as HM users. Fool's Gold seems to have the same number of boxes as regular Crystal - 14 boxes with 20 pokemon each, for 280 pokemon total (and 6 in your party). With 475 different forms in this game total, that means it's unfortunately not possible to complete a Living Dex in a single save file.




Back to Three Island, the swamp isn't actually that large, we quickly make it to the other side.




Picknicker Nicki here has a Heracross, Girafarig, Cloyster and Gardevoir.



Perhaps that reek is your sweaty Pokemon's body odor...

Rude.




The last trainer here is a Schoolboy who leads with Raticate, followed by Gengar.
His third pokemon is Shedinja.





Shedinja, the Resilient Pokémon
Type: Bug/???
Pokedex: This hardy POKÉMON can survive in any environment. Many trainers find it frustrating in battle.

You may see in the pokedex sprite that it's been given a slightly brighter palette in the latest patch.
As I already said, Shedinja is completely unrelated to the Nincada line.

In this case, the ??? typing indicates that it is immune to Normal, Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying and Rock moves. The wiki says that "otherwise it has the same type interactions as standard Bug-type pokemon", but since bugs are weak only to Fire, Flying and Rock, and resist only Grass, Fighting, and Ground, that means in practice it takes neutral damage from everything else.
I guess this is the closest they could get to Wonder Guard in a game that doesn't have abilities yet.

It also has very low HP. The wiki says its base HP is 1. Without catching one, I don't know if it's hardcoded to actually have only 1 HP or if it has slightly more. Giving it just 1 base HP and slightly more actual HP would be much easier to code, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's what the devs did.

Anyway, I send out Temeraire and knock it out with a Dragon Pulse. Carlsbad defeats this guy's final Victreebel.

Before fighting this guy he said that his teachers told him to use diverse moves. After beating him:



Man, I knew my teachers were full of crap.

I'm pretty confident that this quote isn't copied from FRLG.
We enter the gatehouse.



It's quite dark in Berry Forest.
But it's full of strong Trainers, cool Pokemon, and useful Berries, so it's worth it to adventure through.

Alright, time to get Flash. I decide to temporarily teach it to Taigei the Wailord, for the very simple reason that she's still way too low of a level to be useful in battle, so this way she's can light up the forest, but I can also keep training her with the Exp. Share. I'll just give her a TM move later.




Here's what the forest looks like without Flash (those are the windows of the gatehouse).



Berry Forest - Fool's Gold OST

Time to light her up.
We're treated to yet another new song here .




They weren't kidding about rare berries. Right away we find the Nutpea Berry, that's the one that's used at the start of battle and raises Evasion.

The path to the South curves around for a bit until we're blocked by a one-way ledge that can only be crossed on the way back.




We find Masquerain here, Surskit's evolution.


Masquerain, the Mosquito Pokémon
Type: Bug/Poison
Pokedex: It will attempt to drain a foe of all its energy until it is nothing but a husk. It makes a low buzzing sound.

The two paths north lead to the same area, where we encounter a biker.



Outta my way, kid.
I'm off to take on the Shrine.

This is Paxton, and he has a Magmortar, Electivire, and Furret.
Wait a second. I'm not allowed to bike in the forest, why can he?

The tree here has another Nutpea Berry. I also find a Max Revive around the corner.




This trainer, Lass Kay, warns me about thieves before challenging me. She has Umbreon, Weezing, Slowking, Honchkrow and Sandslash.
She likes to use Destiny Bond and to switch out pokemon.

After I defeat her she admits she was the thief.

I need to go healing. You can't Fly out of the forest, but there's ledges to get back reasonably quickly.




This berry restores 90 HP. It's... decent at a point in the game where pokemon have over 200 max HP.




There's also some ponds in the forest. The trainer is Bug Catcher Lonnie, who has 5 Johto Venomoth and one Kanto Venomoth.
Before battling he says: "I like bugs!" After we defeat him, he says "I like bugs!" After battling, he says "I like bugs!". Do you think he likes bugs?




Anyway, he was blocking the way to a Max Elixer.




I Thundersoon Bird Keeper Fred here. He only has two pokemon, but he tells me afterwards that he used to have 3. The third one flew the coop, "that traitor".
Maybe you should learn how to care for your pokemon, man.

The tree here has a Chilan Berry which boosts Speed at the start of battle.




I find another wild pokemon I was looking for, Skiploom.


Seviian Skiploom, the Fruit Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: Although a fruit botanically, this POKÉMON's flesh has a distinct and desirable umami taste when cooked.

Mmm, I love to eat Grass Pokemon. It's the vegetarian alternative. I catch it.

I also battle Cooltrainer Jaggy, who has 6 pokemon.




One of them is an Alakazam. And that reminds me, I caught an additional Kadabra way back in the Jungle Maze in Johto for a specific reason.




Using a Moon Stone in Johto/Kanto evolves Kadabra into regular Alakazam. Using one here evolves it into Seviian Alakazam.


Seviian Alakazam, the Chaos Pokémon
Type: Dark/Dragon
Pokedex: An asteroid that was rumored to hit Earth was named "ALAKAZAM" after this embodiment of destruction.

Interesting, its colours are much closer to Kadabra compared to regular Alakazam.
Again, the two Alakazams are practically not that different, but this one is part Dragon-type.

While we're here, let's use a Rare Candy to evolve Skiploom.





Seviian Jumpluff, the Aubergine Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: The leaves on its body snap forward rapidly when provoked, deterring POKÉMON who try to feed upon it.



It learns Bullet Punch, a steel-type move, upon evolution. It can also learn Egg Bomb.
We haven't seen Seviian Hoppip yet, but I think I'll need to breed Jumpluff to see it. I'll do that later.




To reach the deepest part of the forest, we need to cross this water.




There's a side path that leads to TM59, Energy Ball, a Grass-type attack that may lower the enemy's special defense.




And another Chilan Berry tree here.




This is Pokemaniac Oswald. He has 3 Kanto/Johto pokemon and then Seviper.





Seviper, the Temptation Pokémon
Type: Dark/Grass
Pokedex: One of the oldest POKÉMON known. It loves to tempt people and POKÉMON alike into bad deeds.

It's a biblical reference. Seviper can be found at certain times of day here in Berry Forest, but only as a 5% encounter. This trainer saves me from having to search for it.

I've been pwned!



You seem cool.
When does the Sharpedo bacon?
...
...Never mind...

Apparently this is a reference to "When does the narwhal bacon?" an old way of recognizing redditors IRL, akin to SAs "Do you have stairs in your house?"




Made it to the Shrine of Radiance.
If each Shrine Leader's name is a reference to a specific stat, then what is this one? My guess would be "magic defense", aka special defense.



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

Welcome to the Shrine of Radiance...
Here, we focus on the natural beauty of the power of Pokemon.
I'll open up the gate for you.
Good luck on your trials.




The second floor here is quite dark. There's only one path to take, which stands out because it's animated.




I get jumped by someone... or something?!? in the dark.




Huh.

... Hahaha, they added the Lavender Town ghost as a trainer type.




It sends out a Dustox... at level ??. Lots of strange stuff going on here.


Dustox, the Moth Pokémon
Type: Bug/Dark
Pokedex: At night, its eyes and patterns make it seem much bigger than it is. It appears before imminent danger.

The other final form of Wurmple. It is fast and has a powerful Dark Pulse. Only Wednesday and Hrunting can survive a hit from that. By having them work together they manage to knock out this Dustox. I think it might be level 100.

The ghost has nothing to say after being defeated.




A few steps ahead, there's another ghost.




It has a... what?


Grumpig, the Broadcast Pokémon
Type: Electric/Psychic
Pokedex: It has such a good signal that it can receive broadcasts from other worlds, which it displays on its face.

Reminds me of Raticate, with that screen.

Wednesday and Carlsbad are best suited to knock out this pokemon, but even super effective special attacks do barely any damage to Grumpig. I think this proves my theory that this shrine is about Sp. Def.
Nobody else can survive a single hit from Grumpig.
For the flow of this LP... I think it's cheese time. Let me go find a PC.




On the way back through Berry Forest, it's now night time, so we can find new pokemon. Seviper, and also Mawile.


Mawile, the Fly Trap Pokémon
Type: Grass/Steel
Pokedex: Rumor has it that this POKÉMON was bioengineered to get rid of the pests found in the SEVII region.

It knows a Grass-type move called Snap Trap. A trapping move introduced in gen 8.




Meditite can be found here, as well.


Meditite, the Cryptid Pokémon
Type: Psychic
Pokedex: They attack humans in the dead of night. Some think that it comes from another world.

I catch it.




Alright. So my plan was to use the strong physical attacker Groudon against this. But... Grumpig still outspeeds it and kills it with a single Psychic.




After considering my options, I decide to try something completely different.

I give Wednesday the Odd Honey, which turns Special moves Physical. Now I have a Physical Monsoon. The first hit doesn't do too much damage, but once the rain is going, two more Monsoons are enough to knock out Grumpig.

Since a Psychic from Grumpig still takes over half of Wednesday's health, I have to do one Monsoon, switch to another pokemon, heal Wednesday, switch Wednesday back in when the other pokemon faints, and so on. And hope Monsoon never misses. But I get it done.






There's a third Ghost, again with a single pokemon.




This time it's Tyranitar, who is only weak to Fairy. I could go and train up the Fairy-type Overqwil to deal with this, but hopefully that's not necessary.

It turns out this Tyranitar is really quite easy. Its Thrash is not that strong against my pokemon and keeps confusing it, so it just keeps hurting itself. I didn't even go heal after the last fight, I just decided to see how this one would go, and it was no trouble.




Pfft, we're past those scary ghosts now. Here's a regular trainer.

You look totally petrified!
Did you see one of our ghosts?




I didn't realize before, but in every shrine so far, the Trainees have had different sprites. The devs really put in a lot of work for Sevii.





Cradily, the Chalice Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Steel
Pokedex: Now that it's found the perfect cup to reside in, it is always filled to the brim with pure joy.

That Pokedex entry is clearly a followup to whatever Lileep is. We'll find it later.

This trainer is way simpler than the ghosts. I can go back to using normal strategies of just using super effective moves. She also has an Azurill and Spinda.



Hee hee...
You're so gullible.
There were never any ghosts!
It was me throwing my voice and chucking Pokeballs from over here the whole time!

Oh, so she has 6 pokemon total? I guess that makes sense.



Man, are kids from Johto easy to fool or what!

Oh come on, I bet you didn't see a Physical Monsoon coming.

I guess I better go heal one more time before I battle the Shrine Leader upstairs.
While I'm at the Pokemon Center, let's chuck a Rare Candy at the Meditite I caught.





Medicham, the Cryptid Pokémon
Type: Psychic
Pokedex: Usually found in groups of two or three. It appears at dusk and leaves nothing behind but a pungent stench.

Apparently it's a reference to the Flatwoods monster from West Virginia folklore. I'm not familiar with it.

Either way, time for the Shrine Leader of Three Island.



Ehehehe...
Magdalen, the wonderful witch of Berry Forest, is my name.
I've been around Pokemon for over seventy years, and I know their secrets better than anyone.
I'll show you what this old woman's got, you whippersnapper.



Shrine Leader Battle - Fool's Gold OST




She leads with Roserade.


Roserade, the Spore Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: The powder that comes out of its hands is so potent that it can knock out even an Indian elephant.

It makes me uncomfortable when pokedex entries reference real-life animals.

Magdalen's Roserade knows Scald, Giga Drain, Spite, and Spikes. I knock it out with Groudon.





Banette, the Sea Angel Pokémon
Type: Water/Flying
Pokedex: While swimming in the sea, it will offer help to any struggling POKÉMON and watch over them.

Banette knows Monsoon, Hurricane, Heal Bell, Energy Ball.

I have Wednesday use Thunder, hoping that Banette will set up a Monsoon for us. It doesn't, using Energy Ball instead, but Thunder hits and knocks it out anyway.

The Shrine Leader follows with Gardevoir, who knows Petal Dance, Energy Ball, Clear Smog, and Ominous Wind.
It doesn't even get a move off, because Groudon knocks it out with a single Fire Punch.

After that comes a Gorebyss, who knows Heat Wave, Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse, and Amnesia.

I'm noticing that Magdalen doesn't really have pokemon with huge special defense. Perhaps I was wrong after all?

Anyway, I get a little bit unlucky against Gorebyss, missing a few Monsoons, and it getting some crits off. Once I get its HP low, Magdalen uses a Full Restore. Eventually I switch to my own Temeraire so I can heal Wednesday, but at that point she switches out Gorebyss and brings in Dustox.




It knows Dark Pulse, Silver Wind, Toxic and Light Screen.

You realize Dustox won't fare much better, right Magdalen?

I knock out both Dustox and Gorebyss with Groudon.




Magdalen's final pokemon is Camerupt. It knows Hydro Pump, Scald, Flamethrower, and Hyper Beam. Wednesday finishes it with Thundersoon.




That was way way simpler than those ghosts, even though these were 6 level 100s. I think those pokemon used by the ghosts were boosted somehow.



I'll hex you for that, you scamp!
...Hahahaha!
I'm not a witch, silly kid!
You looked white as a ghost!
You should go and challenge our beautiful Totem Pokemon, sonny.

What's with this shrine and me getting pranked?
Let's go upstairs.




Come forth, the Totem of magic and wisdom... Rayquaza!



Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Rayquaza, the Wisdom Pokémon
Type: Grass/Dragon
Pokedex: It's made entirely of straw and stray flowers. It uses strategy to win battles rather than brute force.

It is the Scarecrow.
They made it look more straw-y in the new patch.

Rayquaza knows four moves: Nature Blast, Deep Thought, Dragon Pulse, and Magic Spell.

Dragon Pulse we've seen plenty, a hard hitting Dragon type move. Magic Spell is a powerful Psychic move that has a chance to raise all the user's stats. In the 1.3.2 patch, it was actually replaced by Brainstorm, a similarly strong Psychic special attack which has a chance to paralyze instead.

The other two moves are unique to Rayquaza.

Movedex: Nature Blast
Type: Grass/Special
Effect: 120 power / 95% accuracy. Has a 50% chance to lower the target's Special Defense by two stages.

Movedex: Deep Thought
Type: Dragon/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Maximizes the user's Special Attack.

Rayquaza also has a gigantic base special attack (250). This thing hits hard it you let it.
Its other base stats are much lower, so it's easy to outspeed Rayquaza and at least lower its HP to catch it.
The AI also doesn't realize there's no point to using Deep Thought more than once.

Okay, so I did get it wrong - this shrine is not about special defense but about special attack.




Of course, it has a legendarily low catch rate, but eventually I catch it.




I make it back to town, then bring my party back to normal, get rid of Flash at Blackthorn's move deleter and unequip the Odd Honey.




One more thing this episode - breed Seviian Jumpluff.





Seviian Hoppip, the Egg Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: A young plant POKÉMON that has taken on the appearance of a bird's egg to avoid being eaten.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 369/433 (85.22%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 401/475 (84.42%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 89/104 (85.58%)

Part 35: Heart of the Pokemon

Between updates, I did some chores.

First of all, I got eggs from both Dr. Pepper the Venusaur and a Parasect, the pokemon hiding in a cardboard box.
While hatching the eggs, I also got Kurt to make me another Friend Ball. And finally, I fetch a Magikarp, the Lamprey pokemon, out of my box.

After hatching the eggs, I take the Bulbasaur, Paras, and Magikarp to Sevii to level them up with the Exp. Share.
I do the daily battles in the Sweet Shop, because why not.

This time the first battle is against Gentleman Darcy. He uses Ariados, Solrock, Armaldo and Honchkrow.





Solrock, the Dissonant Pokémon
Type: Dark/Electric
Pokedex: The sound that this POKÉMON makes causes anxiety and dread. It forces sleeping people awake.




Bulbasaur evolves into Ivysaur like normal.

In round 2, we battle Blackbelt Chance. He uses Rapidash, who rudely Horn Drills Wednesday. He also has Sharpedo, Togekiss, Slowking and Gliscor.

The third battle is hardcoded to be against Nurse Lilith with her 6 Blissey.




Defeating her is enough to evolve Ivysaur.


Seviian Venusaur, the Tear Gas Pokémon
Type: Poison/Fire
Pokedex: It excretes gas that contains high amounts of capsaicin to induce uncontrollable crying.

Where regular Venusaur is the Habanero Pokemon, this one is all about pepper spray instead. It gets a Poison rather than Grass typing, and when it evolves, it not only learns Blaze Pepper like regular Venusaur, it also learns the Poison-type move Clear Smog.

Now, as you may guess, there's also Seviian forms of Charizard and Blastoise. Unless some trainer has them somewhere, the only way to get these is by finding the 1% encounter for the other Kanto starters, then evolving them here. Since I'm not gonna bother looking for 1% chances, here's their pokedex entries.


Seviian Charizard, the Overheat Pokémon
Type: Fire/Ghost
Pokedex: Unsuited to the SEVIIAN climate, it has been set alight in the sun. It is made of pure fire.

It loses its dark type in favour of Ghost, also learning Shadow Claw when it evolves.


Seviian Blastoise, the Skulking Pokémon
Type: Dark/Dragon
Pokedex: It lies in wait for a WINGULL to take a drink, then swiftly pulls it underwater, drowning it.

And Blastoise loses its Water typing in favour of Dark. It still learns Shell Shock when it evolves.


Moving on to the fourth battle, this time it's Cooltrainer Sue, who has Slaking, Metagross, Flygon, Salamence, Dragonite, and Tyranitar, which are all pseudo-legendaries. Slaking doesn't have its ability in this game.




Through switch training I get Magikarp to evolve into its Seviian form.


Seviian Gyarados, the School Pokémon
Type: Ground/Psychic
Pokedex: Composed of many MAGIKARP communing via telekinesis. The clear water of SEVII has sharpened their mind.

... that isn't any less horrifying than the Gyarados we saw in Johto.
It learns Confusion as an evolution move.

The fifth trainer is Bird Keeper Redd, with Honchkrow, Blastoise, Sandslash, Mewtwo, Lugia, and Ho-Oh.

And finally, we get to fight Trixie again.

This time, she starts with Rapidash. It is holding Leftovers.
Since I'm having bad luck with its Horn Drill, I decide to throw this fight rather than use up all my Revives.





Yesss!!
I'm the best!!
Hey, don't look so glum!
As a reward for getting this far, here's a few of my Candies.

I get 6 Rare Candies.

I give the Exp. Share to Paras and fight a few more wild battles to get it to level 24.





Seviian Parasect, the Delivery Pokémon
Type: Steel/Bug
Pokedex: It appears on unsuspecting trainers' doorsteps, blows up in their faces, and scurries away.

This explosive package pokemon learns Present when it evolves. Later on it learns other explosive moves such as Sludge Bomb and Explosion itself.

The next day, I pick up Kurt's Friend Ball and go catch a Zubat with it in the Slowpoke Well. I take it to Sevii and do another round of Sweet Shop fights to level it up a bunch.

This time, the second trainer I encounter is Pokemaniac Errol. He starts with Eevee. His second pokemon is Castform.





Castform, the Multitype Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: It can adapt to almost any environment. Scientists have been studying it for decades.

The Castform you see here takes neutral damage from all types.
However, Castform can change forms by using a type-enhancing item on it. This does not use up the item.




If you find a wild Castform, it has a 50% chance to hold the Figment, which is a new item that boosts ???-type moves, and can change it back into its neutral form.
Its level-up moveset is limited, learning only Tackle, Headbutt and Body Slam at low levels. But whenever you transform it, it learns a powerful move with the same type you give Castform, for example Fire Blast for Fire. It can also learn every TM in the game.

If you level it all the way up to 99 it can learn a signature move called Inner Power.

Movedex: Inner Power
Type: ???/Special
Effect: 200 power / 95% accuracy. Has the same attack type as the user's primary type.

200 power, always STAB, and high accuracy. This might just be the best move in the entire game. All of Castform's base stats are 70, which isn't the highest, but with a move like that, it'll do. I think you could sweep the entire game with a party of 6 Inner Power Castform, each of a different type.

He also has a Missingno., Aerodactyl, and Shedinja. This trainer's theme is that he only has ???-type pokemon.




Anyway, this battle is enough to evolve Zubat into Golbat.
Next, Nurse Lilith with her 6 Blissey give Golbat a bunch more levels, and more importantly in this case, the associated Friendship boost.





Seviian Crobat, the Mimicry Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Rock
Pokedex: It has covered itself with bricks and stones in order to blend into herds of wild METANG.

We haven't seen Metang yet, but you know Metagross is the Ziggurat Pokemon.
I like how many of the regional forms have pokedex entries that refer to the local climate or wildlife or whatever. It's very close to real-life diverging evolution.

It learns both Ancientpower and Mimic upon evolution.

My only goal for this Sweet Shop round was to evolve Crobat. So I decided to go through it not using any items and not really trying too hard.
This time, I got quite lucky and beat all of the rounds including Trixie. That's 12 more Rare Candies and a lot of experience. I had Wednesday in the lead so he's all the way up to 87 now.
And the Crobat, holding the Exp. Share, started around level 9 and is level 40 now. The Sweet Shop is a fantastic way to get levels quickly.

---

Before I forget, celadonk had some things to say.

First of all, he said that Lass Kay and Bird Keeper Fred's teams are references. I'll leave as an exercise to the reader to figure out what they're references too.
He also said that quite a few people didn't catch that the "Sharpedo bacon" reddit joke was meant to be ironic.

About the ghost battles:

It's funny you struggled with Grumpig but not Tyranitar. The Tyranitar is a really high level under the hood. Not like either are particularly hard but the Tyranitar is more often the one that gets people.

ApplesandOranges wrote:It feels like there are a lot of Grass Pokemon overall. Like just about every other Pokemon is at least part Grass.

This island is particularly grass-heavy. Grass is actually in the bottom half for most common types in Sevii.

Randalor wrote:I'm not sure how I feel about Gallade being a gunslinger, it just feels so out of place with the others.

It was a long time ago, but I think Gallade may have actually preceded Gardevoir. In any case, I really like the concept of a mushroom cowboy.

Chaosfeather wrote:That's rad, and while it immediately reminds me of the old Megami tensei Digital Devil Story book, it's probably referring to the actual asteroid irl.

The Pokedex entry is a reference to the asteroid, but the mon itself is based on the asteroid's namesake, Apophis/Apep from Egyptian mythology.

And last, Celadonk confirmed what I already thought: there's no AI to wild pokemon battles, including the Totem Pokemon. They just choose moves completely at random.


---

With that out of the way, let's continue to Four Island.





Four Island - Fool's Gold OST

The old lady to the right tells me:
See that house across the pond?
That's Lakeside Inn, an old, abandoned inn.
Nobody's been seen in there for as long as I can remember.

Alright, let's check that out in a bit.




Off the coast, there's a hidden Water Stone, as well as the pokemon Barboach.


Barboach, the Fur Trout Pokémon
Type: Water/Ice
Pokedex: It has grown fur to adapt to a colder environiment. The fur makes a natural breading when fried.

Its evolution Whiscash, which we already saw, can be found here as well.

In the Pokemon Center, someone says she wishes there was a day-care in Sevii, because sailing back to Johto is annoying.
To me as the player, it's not the sailing that's annoying, because that happens in a flash. It's the fact that the underground path from Cherrygrove to the port doesn't allow cycling so every time you want to go back to Sevii you have to walk it.

Someone else tells me there are rare ice pokemon in the cave. Okay, so this island has a cave.



Barboach are found only on this island.
People from other regions didn't believe it existed at first.
They thought it was just fur glued onto a Magikarp.

Googling "fur trout" leads to a wikipedia page that says it doesn't actually exist, but there's been tales about it since forever. Certain kinds of mold can make fish look furry.





Daphne's Pokemon can really take a hit!
The other Trainers here complain that they can't get any damage done.

Guessing this shrine focuses on defense.




In the Mart, we're told Lorelei grew up here. IIRC this is canon from FRLG. Another NPC says that the pokemon who live in Icefall Cave make the place cold.

Other than the regular items, the Mart here sells convenience held items: Amulet Coin, Brightpowder, Everstone, King's Rock, and the Scope Lens. And, for only $20000 you can actually buy a Lucky Egg here, the item that can rarely be found on wild Chansey and that increases the experience the holder gets. I did not expect to ever find that in a shop.

The person living next door moved here because the other islands were too hot for him, but this island is too cold. Uhh, maybe try a moderate climate?




In Lorelei's house, we find a Manectric, as well as Lorelei herself.

Lorelei says she's been researching how to get pokemon to relearn moves they have forgotten, but she "forgot how to do it". Damn, you almost got my hopes up.
Instead, she offers Move Deleter services. That's not bad - saves a trip to Johto if we ever need to forget a HM move.

That's all the houses in the main part of town.




Let's visit the abandoned inn.




Hmm, there's absolutely nothing in here. Oh well, let's move on.




To the south, there's this whirlpool.




I get Godiva out to get us past and to TM61 Power Gem, an 80 base power Rock special move.




And the only other place we can go on Four Island is the cave in the northeast.



Icefall Cave - Fool's Gold OST

I'll take Chrono Trigger inspired music any day. And the result works well in the Gameboy sound font.
We can find several new pokemon here. I'll go through them as we encounter them.
One of them is Shedinja, but only at a 1% encounter chance, so if you want to add it to your team you might need to search for a bit.




Electrike is the most common encounter here.


Electrike, the Arctic Pokémon
Type: Ice/Electric
Pokedex: It goes into hibernation during the summer. If you touch one while it sleeps, you will get a nasty shock.

The pokedex image shows the minor sprite touch-up done for the new version.

By the way, after removing Flash from Taigei, I decided to teach her Dig. Not a bad move in battle, but also very useful to get out of caves such as this one quickly.




...Oh. I see why they call it Icefall Cave.
I teach Taigei Waterfall over Liquidation and move on.




Guess we found the first trainer up here. Why is he swimming in freezing water?

Gasp... gasp...
The water here is far too cold to swim in!

Yeah that's what I said.

This is Swimmer Mymo, who has a Kingler, a locally caught Whiscash, and a Cloyster.




If you say so.




I believe that's a unique door sprite. Anyway, we can't reach that area from here, so we'll have to surf down the other waterfall.




Onto classic ice puzzles.




I step on the bottom-most tile and glide straight into a trainer. This is Skier Tina and she starts with a Sableye.





Sableye, the Melting Pokémon
Type: Ice
Pokedex: Travelers are often startled by SABLEYE lurking around dark caves. It moves in an unnatural jerky way.

This pure Ice type can be found here in Icefall Cave.

The trainer also has Omastar and Skarmory. She's easily defeated.






More trainers up there, but first we have to go down the ladder.




Which leads to another floor with ice puzzles and trainers. In fact, the trainer, Boarder Miles, complains that he's having trouble figuring out the puzzle.

I beat his Kantonian Typhlosion, Obstagoon, and Vaporeon.




A few steps later, I run into Kecleon. It looks like a friend.


Kecleon, the Gecko Pokémon
Type: Rock
Pokedex: This POKÉMON's hard skull protects it in battle. If this fails, it will drop its tail and run away.

Its most powerful attack is Head Smash, but that does cause recoil damage.




Got tricked again. This is Pokemaniac Wally, who uses Gliscor, then Aggron.
Arachnophobia warning.





Aggron, the Tarantula Pokémon
Type: Bug/Poison
Pokedex: This intimidating looking POKÉMON is not quick to fight but can easily crush threats with its strong jaws.

It learns the powerful Poison Fang when it evolves into Aggron.
Wally also has a Feraligatr.



Man, if I weren't here, you'd just go straight through the ice patch.

I make my way around the puzzle, picking up a Full Restore in the south-east.




Wally was right, we need to bump into him like this or the puzzle would be unsolvable.




Here's Skier Alexis. She use Kingler, Starmie, Cloyster, and Gyarados (regular, not Seviian).

After beating her she said the puzzles would be easier if she could see them from above. Well, I can, and this one still took me a minute to see the answer. It's interesting that several NPCs just see them as puzzles. Feels a bit fourth-wall breaking. Perhaps the Shrine Leader set them up?




Back up on the ground floor, we need Rock Smash to get an item. So I teach it to MeepMeep, use it, then teach him Earthquake again. The item is just an Ultra Ball. Not really worth the effort.

I fight the trainer, Cecil, on the bottom right. He has Mantine, Kingler, and Typhlosion. Afterwards he says he has a Mantine because it reminds him of his best friend. Guessing that's a reference to something.




The ice forces me to loop around.




Oh, now Strength is required too. It's not that bad with a Move Deleter right in town. But personally I think making HMs no longer required in modern pokemon games was a good idea.




Psychic Loren has Xatu, Magnezone, and Grumpig.




Taking the ladder down, there's one more ice puzzle.




This time, it takes us to the door we saw a while ago. Before I go through, I go heal. In the pokemon center, I feed a Rare Candy to the Electrike I caught.




You can just find Manectric in the Icefall Cave and it isn't even that rare. But I hadn't encountered it yet so, I'll get it through evolution instead.


Manectric, the Hailstorm Pokémon
Type: Ice/Electric
Pokedex: If you notice this POKÉMON howling at night, it is letting its pack know it is doing alright.

Another touched-up sprite in the pokedex. Manectric can learn Freeze Shock.

When I continue my playthrough it's night. That means that on my way back through Icefall Cave I can find the last pokemon here, who only appears during night and in the morning.





Spoink, the Signal Pokémon
Type: Electric
Pokedex: It can pick up radio waves by standing on its tail. These help power up its electric attacks.

Before it evolves into Grumpig, Spoink is just a pure Electric type. And its pokedex entry is definitely less horrifying than the official one, although that's not a hard target to beat.




The door takes us out of the cave.
A few steps north and we're stopped by... oh no.



Eris Encounter - Fool's Gold OST

...Hey, bro.
Are you here to battle me again?
Alrighty... I'm not gonna lose this time though.



Eris Battle - Fool's Gold OST

Like pokemon rivals have done since the dawn of time, Eris suddenly ambushes and challenges us to a battle. And unlike the Eris battle on Two Island this one doesn't seem to be optional.
I'm honestly not sure if I have what it takes or if I need to bring out the big guns again. Let's give it a try.

Carlsbad's super effective Shadow Ball procs the chance of lowering Salamence's Sp. Def., and a second Shadow Ball knocks it out.




MeepMeep, my fastest boy, outspeeds Dragonite and has a super effective Earthquake. Unfortunately it knocks out MeepMeep with a super effective Ice Beam.
I send out Taigei who isn't that strong yet at level 54, so that I have time to revive MeepMeep. To my surprise, Taigei survives an Ice Beam (barely). MeepMeep knocks out the Dragonite.




Swampert is next. Carlsbad outspeeds, but takes a few turns to knock out Swampert, who gets off a Toxic.




I send out Wednesday who is bulky enough to survive some hits from Electivire, so I can use a Full Restore on Carlsbad. Wednesday has enough time to get a Thundersoon off and finish Electivire.




It is The Beast.




Movedex: Alien Boost
Type: ???/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Boosts all the user's stats by two stages each.

Alien Boost is one of the signature moves of Deoxys, a Totem Pokemon we haven't yet encountered. Eris Sketched Deoxys? That should be illegal.
It's also an extremely powerful stat boosting move.

After this, Sirfetch'd starts using Wicked Blows and Earthquakes. Only Wednesday and MeepMeep can survive a hit if they get lucky, and their attacks do barely any damage. Yep, time to start throwing legendaries against Eris again.

Switching my party around is a bit annoying because I still need Waterfall, Surf and Strength to clear this cave.




Don't mess with me, Eris.




I get to see their Magmortar this time. Carlsbad's Psychic is very good against it.




A Courage'd up Brave Punch takes out Electivire in one.




I decide this fight is over and also knock out Eris' Swampert and Sirfetch'd with some more Brave Punches.




Yes, Eris. Again. As many times as it takes.



...
Man, I can't catch a break with you...
...
Well. I'm going to continue my training elsewhere.

And they walk off.




Looks like we made it. Since I don't want to cheese the entire game, I'm going to Fly back to the Pokemon Center and switch my party back, so I can try beating the Shrine without legendaries.




The shrine itself is on a small island.




Always check around the back. This is TM62, Iron Head. Now, for Steel STAB, Hrunting knows Iron Tail, a 100 power 75% accuracy move that has a 30% chance to lower the opponent's defense. Iron Head is only 80 power, but it is 100% accurate and has 30% chance to cause flinching, so I'll teach Hrunting this move.

Actually, all of the pokemon in my team can learn Iron Head. I could give it to Taigei as well, it is a strict upgrade to Heat Seeker (a 60 base power special Steel move that never misses).
However, since I believe this is the Defense shrine, it makes sense to keep Special Attack moves for now, even though I'll likely won't use Taigei yet.



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

...

There is a PC in here. Yep, it connects to Bill's PC. Wish I had known that before. I just backtracked to town for nothing.
I can swap my team here, as well as heal for free after any battle by just putting hurt pokemon in the PC and taking them back out.

Let's talk to the Shrine Guy.

Sup, dude.
Welcome to the Shrine of Endurance.
Our focus here's on going with the flow, even if it means takin' a few hits.
Lemme open the gate for you.
Good luck, bro.
I believe in you.

I'm noticing how many people in Sevii talk to me with gendered language. This guy says dude and bro, and so does Eris, who uses neutral pronouns themself. I'm Alice, do I look like a dudebro to you?
Oh well.




On the second floor, we're locked inside a small room again.



Sorry to let ya know, but you need to only have one Pokemon in your party before you can go on.
Don't worry, you'll be able to get your Pokemon back at the end.
Until then, you should use the PC downstairs to drop off some Pokemon.

Ohhh...

I was wondering why this Shrine, out of all of them, has a PC. That explains it.

Uhh, I guess I'll try Wednesday? He's the strongest.




I feel naked without my party of six.

The lady upstairs now says:
Yup, you're all good to go!
I'll open the gate for ya.




She opens the gate and disappears.
Just to check, I go downstairs and back up, and she's back with the gate closed. No cheating here.



How does it feel?
To only use one Pokemon?

Let's see how this goes.




New Trainee sprite. She has two pokemon.
She starts with a level 75 Wailmer. I have nothing super effective against Steel, but a Monsoon takes it out.




Her second pokemon is a fish. I could knock it out with a super effective Thunder but unfortunately the rain effect from Monsoon didn't trigger because it knocked out Wailmer directly.
Still, Thundersoon beats it.

Even with the upper hand, I've still lost...



You've seen those trainers with only two or three Pokemon, right?
I wonder why some people would do that.

I might have an answer to that.

After this battle I test if I can heal Wednesday by putting him in the PC for a minute and taking him back out. This works, and the beaten trainer stays beaten. Good.




The second Trainee, Brava, has 3 pokemon.

She starts with Normal/Poison Leafeon who uses Lead Splash against me. It doesn't do too much damage, but I have two Monsoons miss in a row.
I reset and Thundersoon Leafeon.
Yanmega is next, and it is weak to Electric so another Thunder is all it takes. Her third pokemon is the Rock-type Kecleon, so I use a Surf and knock it out.




Don't you forget it.

You have a truly amazing relationship with your Pokemon. I admire that.




Uhhhh...

It appears that me saving in here and resetting the game has locked me in. Good thing I have all my healing items with me. If I can't win against the next trainer, the only way out would be to actually game over and lose half my money. This has got to be a bug, right?



I'm the toughest of the three Trainees.
Let's see if your single Pokemon can get past me!

Trainee Laila also has three pokemon.

She starts with the Steel/Electric Nidoking. A Monsoon knocks it out. Rhyperior is next. I have two more Monsoons miss.
I'm now out of PP for Monsoon. If this becomes a problem I could use one of those Ethers I've been hoarding all game, I guess.
Anyway, I just knock it out with Surf instead.

Her last pokemon is Machamp. I don't want to use low-accuracy Thunders if I can avoid it, so I try Surf instead.
Machamp only uses Liquidation against Wednesday, which doesn't hurt much, so after a few Surfs I knock it out without trouble.



All three of us...
Bested by one single Pokemon...




We get our full team for the Shrine Leader battle.
I check if it's possible to escape now by going up the stairs and back down to the second floor, but the way out stays tightly locked.

However, things are different now: I'm locked in with a free heal and a chance to switch in legendaries if necessary.

The only real problem at this point would be if I needed to go buy items.



'Sup.
I'm Daphne.
...So you wanna battle?
I'm down, dude.



Shrine Leader Battle - Fool's Gold OST

Oh, Daphne is a guy I guess.
_{Edit: celadonk informed be Daphne is not a guy.}




We start with Wailord. It knows Iron Head, Hydro Pump, Iron Defense, and Toxic.
It uses Iron Defense and then Daphne wastes two Full Restores on it, while Carlsbad keeps almost destroying it with Charbroils.
Once Daphne runs out of Full Restores, Carlsbad knocks it out easily.




Cradily knows Iron Head, Liquidation, Confuse Ray, and Power Gem. I get a Charbroil off, but then it uses Confuse Ray.

MeepMeep's Earthquake, despite being physical, does decent damage and knocks it out. I could put the Odd Honey on MeepMeep to make this even easier.






Probopass, the Opus Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Normal
Pokedex: The pages of its book detail its past lives. It seems to love writing as much as it does reading.

As a Ghost/Normal, its only weakness is Dark. Probopass can learn a move called Rune Beam. It's not unique to it, since Unown can learn it too, as well as a couple of pokemon we haven't seen yet.

Movedex: Rune Beam
Type: Rock/Special
Effect: 110 power / 70% accuracy. Has a 30% chance to raise the user's Special Attack by one stage. Made by Doduodrio.

Daphne's Probopass knows Fire Blast, Hyper Voice, Disable, and Ominous Wind.

Since I have no Dark moves, I go for tried and true Thundersoon instead.




The Rock-type Kecleon knows AncientPower, Substitute, Slash, and Earthquake. It dies to a single Surf.




Aggron is next, it has Poison Fang, Double-Edge, Protect, and Bug Bite. Since Monsoon is still set up, I just Thunder it. It barely survives that, but the recoil from Double-Edge knocks it out.




And Daphne's final pokemon is Torkoal, with Gunk Shot, Curse, Flame Wheel, and Ominous Wind. It is defeated by a single Surf.

Okay, that was just extremely easy. These pokemon have no resistance to special attacks whatsoever. Didn't even need to pull out the healing items.




'Grats, man.
I think you can go take on the Totem upstairs.
...Seeya.

I go downstairs to heal at the PC. At this point, the way back out actually opens up, so if necessary I could leave and go buy balls for the Totem Pokemon. But I'm all good.




Let's go see which Wizard of Oz character we'll meet next.

Come forth, the Totem of passion and perserverance... Kyogre!



Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Kyogre, the Cardiac Pokémon
Type: Water/Steel
Pokedex: Its body pulsates steadily. It's kind to all it meets and can cause two people to fall in love.

Ah, the Tin Man.
Notably, Kyogre has both high defense AND high special defense.
It knows Heart Attack, Heart Shield, Hydro Pump and Reverberate, a Normal type move that hits 2-5 times.

Movedex: Heart Attack
Type: Steel/Special
Effect: 120 power / 95% accuracy. Has a 40% chance to lower the target's Attack and Special Attack by two stages each.

Movedex: Heart Shield
Type: Steel/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Maximizes the user's Defense and Special Defense.

Since it doesn't have very high attacking stats, most of my pokemon can survive a few of its attacks. I don't have too much trouble catching it, especially after I remember to bring Spinda out to hypnotize it.




That's 4 out of 7, over halfway done.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 380/433 (87.76%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 418/475 (88.00%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 94/104 (90.38%)

Part 36: Lost Dreams, Mansions, and Caves

Let's get started with celadonk's commentary.

He had a few things to say about the trainers I encountered in the Sweet Shop:
Gentlemen Darcy used all black-colored pokemon. They enjoyed desiging pokemon like this.

Blackbelt Chance uses all pokemon with OHKO moves.

Cooltrainer Sue with Slaking, Metagross, Flygon, Salamence, Dragonite, and Tyranitar uses all pseudo-legendaries. Celadonk clarified that technically Flygon and Slaking aren't pseudos (which I knew) but since there are only four pseudos in the game, this was a good way to fill out the team.

Finally, outside of the sweet shop I fought Cecil. Celadonk said this was a contest winner's submission so he doesn't know if it's a reference to something.

Carbon dioxide wrote:Movedex: Inner Power
Type: ???/Special
Effect: 200 power / 95% accuracy. Has the same attack type as the user's primary type.

200 power, always STAB, and high accuracy. This might just be the best move in the entire game.

The part that I forgot on the docs is that it requires a turn to recharge, like Hyper Beam.

Ah, still strong but not completely OP then.

About the Shrine battles: I mentioned that Eris was optional on Two Island while they're blocking your path here. Apparently, you can't battle the Two Island shrine without beating Eris there as well, so both fights are required. Here's the Shrine Guy's alternative dialogue:

Sorry, bud. We're doing some light renovation upstairs, so we can't let any challengers in at the moment.
We're almost done, though, so you can do a bit of training in the grass outside.
We'll probably be finished after you do that.

Celadonk confirmed that Daphne specializes in both defense and special defense, as we saw in Kyogre's stats. I guess my pokemon are just so good they don't care about special defense .

Finally, I made a mistake. Daphne is not a guy, but a butch-looking woman. Nobody in the game ever refers to her with pronouns so I had nothing but the sprite to go off of. My apologies for that.


----

You didn't think there was nothing at all in that abandoned inn, did you?

Completely randomly, when you walk in, a scene might happen. I had to go in and out quite a few times before it triggered.



Welcome...
...
...Kekeke...
We've had a reservation for you.
We've held it a long time.



Alice lay down on the bed as if bidden there...






I fall asleep and find myself here, up in the clouds.
This area is called the Dream World.
The music that plays here is the Pokemon Lullaby from the Pokegear Radio.

Speaking of, I have no phone signal here but I can listen to the radio.
I also have no way to leave at this point.

Touching the crystal warps me to another spot.




In this... grass we can find wild pokemon.





Taillow, the Pterosaur Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Pokedex: They can be found in or around volcanoes. They often travel in pairs, teaming up to find food.




The smiley clouds remind me of Mario.





Chingling, the Cherub Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Ghost
Pokedex: CHINGLING send messages between regions for their trainers, even through the harshest of weather.

Unevolved Chingling is a quite weak pokemon that learns only a small set of moves. I catch it for the Pokedex.




I move through a lot of clouds.




I also encounter the third and last wild pokemon here.


Snorunt, the Volatile Pokémon
Type: Dark/Flying
Pokedex: This POKÉMON seems eager to be your friend. It's very skilled at multi-tasking.

I catch it before it has a chance to use Perish Song.




There's a path up onto higher clouds.




Leading to a crystal that spawns a shiny Chimecho.





Chimecho, the Guardian Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Ghost
Pokedex: It guards sacred areas fiercely. It can tell who has good intentions by looking into their soul.

Chimecho has a much more decent moveset than Chingling. It is a friendship evolution, by the way.

I catch it, giving us another special shiny for the shiny quest.




As soon as the battle ends, I find myself stepping out of the abandoned inn again. That was weird.




I'll use Rare Candies to evolve my new catches.


Swellow, the Fire Demon Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Pokedex: This POKÉMON is often mistaken for a demon due to its unnerving cry and striking appearance.





Glalie, the Aftermath Pokémon
Type: Dark
Pokedex: You've failed to raise SNORUNT properly. Considered by many to be the ugliest POKÉMON.

I think I've seen uglier ones.

Snorunt evolves at level 42. It evolves into Glalie if its friendship is under 245, or into Froslass otherwise.
245 is quite high - all other friendship evolutions trigger at 220 friendship.

Glalie learns Frustration as an evolution move.

I'll see if I can get Froslass later. The easiest way would probably be to breed a Snorunt and level it up a whole lot in the Sweet Shop. But perhaps we can just find a trainer who already has one.

---



Five Island - Fool's Gold OST

Five Island is one of the larger islands on the Sevii map, with routes going both north and south from the town.




The island's slogan. No, there's nothing following "Where Time Goes".

The kid says the meadow is a great place to play, but their mom says it's not safe because of a creepy old house there.
We get more information in the Pokemon Center... apparently it is a manor that was owned by a "high-profile family", but they fled recently.

There's also a lady who wants to know the strongest pokemon I've caught so far. I don't get the option to show her anything, instead she just responds with "you don't want to tell me?" Little bit strange for NPC dialogue but oh well.



Evander is always working on his experiments with his son. He's a really smart guy, but I have to wonder about his parenting skills.

Evander.... this island's Shrine speciality isn't evasion, is it? That is one of the more annoying parts of pokemon battles.
Another person in the Mart tells me about a cave up north where people get lost, but there's treasure to be found there.

This mart has more type-boosting held items: Mystic Water, Miracle Seed, Charcoal, Nevermeltice, Magnet, Twistedspoon, Dragon Fang, and Blackglasses.




This fisherman is complaining that there are more people visiting the island and that there's less fish to catch because of that.
And in a house in town there's a lady saying that her husband told her she doesn't need to buy anything for dinner before he went fishing. Well, uh, you may have to go hungry tonight, I think.




By surfing or fishing you can find Shuppet.


Shuppet, the Clione Pokémon
Type: Water/Bug
Pokedex: It gracefully floats through the ocean, observing all life. They are one of Earth's most gentle creatures.

It evolves into Banette which we've seen before.
It is possible to surf north here but I'll explore that later.




Further to the right and across some beach, there's a grassy area.

Cycling into the grass, I encouter a Slaking and notice it starts raining immediately. This may be a good place for Thunder.




We haven't seen Shroomish, the pre-evolution of Breloom, yet.


Shroomish, the Joey Pokémon
Type: Normal
Pokedex: It makes up for its lack of arms with its powerful legs. It will try to fight foes much larger than it.

It looks slightly less angry in the new sprite.
Breloom can be encountered here as well.




As well as Slakoth.


Slakoth, the Pygmy Pokémon
Type: Normal/Grass
Pokedex: An agile POKÉMON with a prehensile tail. It hangs from tree branches and begs tourists for food.

At level 28, it has a 50% chance of evolving into Vigoroth, and 50% to evolve into Slaking.



Past the grass, I find the first trainer of this island.

Oceans spanning beyond my sight...
And a million stars way above them at night...




I'm going to abuse this rain as much as I can.

It's unfortunate the gen 2 engine can't show rain on the overworld, it's only an in-battle effect.

Anyway, this trainer wasn't too hard and didn't have any new pokemon so let's move on.




Beyond him is the end of the road. We need to Surf from here. There's two ways to go. I'll go left first.




Oh, we need Whirlpool.




The only thing on this side is this big building.



Rocket Manor - Fool's Gold OST

Huh, I thought we were done with Team Rocket.
This place is abandoned, so wild pokemon moved in.





Whismur, the Grimace Pokémon
Type: Dark
Pokedex: It can open its mouth from any side of its body. It shrieks loudly to ward off attackers.




This is also the only place to find Castform but only at a 1% chance.

Anyway, this entrance lobby is huge. You can see the long stairs to the upper floor on the left, some doors to the right opposite the actual entrance, and there is another door at the end of this corridor. And there seems to be a hole up there on the second floor. The right side of the lobby mirrors this left side.




Let's pick a door at random.




A library?




I encounter Lileep here.


Lileep, the Porcelain Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Rock
Pokedex: It its perpetually trying to find the perfect host, and will be unhappy until one is found.

Lileep evolves into the Ghost/Steel Cradily once it finds a chalice it is happy with, or whenever it reaches level 40.




Downstairs, we find these tiles that automatically move you until you hit a grey square, just like in the old Rocket base under the Celadon Game Corner. Yep, Rockets have been here, alright.





Nosepass, the Novella Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Normal
Pokedex: An avid reader, it becomes aggressive if interrupted. Some say that they were scholars when they were alive.

Evolves into Probopass, of course.

Unlike the ice-slide puzzles, wild encounters still trigger while you're being moved around by the arrow tiles.




This place is a bit of a maze. The right arrow just turns you around and delivers you back where you started.
In the screenshot I'm being moved left, it's just that the animation from the arrow tiles spins me right round baby, like a record baby.

After trying some more arrows, I encounter the rather horrifying-looking Loudred.





Loudred, the Gaping Pokémon
Type: Dark
Pokedex: If you look into mouth, all you can see is a pitch black void. Nobody knows what is inside.

It evolves from Whismur, of course, and learns Lick upon evolution. It further evolves into the Hellmouth Pokemon Exploud, which we've already seen.




...Stop messing with Mewtwo, guys.




So the way this area seems to work is most arrows just turn you around and lead you back to the start. There's only one correct path that lets you progress towards the left.

And you can't see the whole map at once so it's a bit of a guessing game.




Wait... did I just pass something important? Looks like I have to come from the bottom.
On the way there I find an X Accuracy. I guess that makes sense if the Shrine is about evasion.



The password is...
GOLDEEN NEED LOG.

That's a palindrome, that is. Anyway, I have no idea what I need that password for but it's useful to have I guess.
That's all for the library, so let's move on.

To stay symmetric, let's try the rear door on the other side.




OOPS SORRY IT WASN'T LOCKED

Aah!!
Give a man some privacy, why don't you?!

He challenges me to a battle.




...Did your mother give you that name?

He uses Persian, Sableye, and Johto Alakazam.




What?

What, you're looking for a password?
I got nothing.

I wasn't, but I already found it. Was I supposed to go into the main doors first to learn about the password quest?

Anyway, he walks out after that.




I find TM64 Wicked Blow in the bathroom bin. That's a quite powerful Dark-type move, and I'm kinda lacking Dark coverage on my team.
MeepMeep doesn't really need both Fly and Brave Bird, so I overwrite Brave Bird with it.




Yuck.



The sink clearly hasn't been used in a while. That robber didn't wash his hands...

I mean I wonder if this place even has running water still.




Okay okay let's actually try the main doors this time.




Is that guy standing on the table?
I can't get on and it won't let me interact from this side.




Here in the dining room, we can find Corphish and its evolution Crawdaunt.


Corphish, the Delicacy Pokémon
Type: Ghost
Pokedex: The wealthy feast upon this delectable POKÉMON. Its smell can make people salivate from a mile away.

I mean, it looks tasty but are you sure you want to eat a ghost?




This table is very long, with 8 seats per side, and that's not counting the empty spaces between them.




Another bird at the end, on the table. Okay, we have to go upstairs now.




Aha, I guess this is where we want to go.




Geronimo.



Hey, kid.
I'll toss you back up from where you fell for a couple of coins.




No...?

Cheap kids...




I go talk to the Murkrow but it jumps down the table. Dammit.
And even though we have the strongest knees in the world from jumping ledges all game, we can't jump off the table.




So this guy is the only way to get out. At least he only charges $50, which isn't much in pokedollars.

I go back down and get to the Murkrow, who tells me the second password: EXECUTE EXEGGCUTE. Why would anyone do that?

Hold on, I have to go test something for science.






Not enough money?!
...Ah, screw it.
Since I'm a nice guy, I'll chuck you up for free.

That's about what I expected to happen, but still nice to see the custom dialogue.

I reload my save, undoing my visit to Mom. Haven't visited her in years... anyway

There's two passwords left to find and two unlocked doors on the upper floor, so let's go, starting with the eastern one.



(silence)

What is this?




A poster of Blue. Neat.



It's HUH?!?'s private diary.
......
Which entry will you read?




This must be HUH?!?'s, aka Silver's room. It's known he's actually Giovanni's son.

Looks like a real pokemon fan with those dolls and posters. Where did it go so wrong, dude?
Let's peek in his diary, I guess.

Entry 1:
......
December 31, 1997
Got this stupid thing for Christmas.
I'm supposed to use it to channel my emotions or something?
Man, this feels dumb. I guess it's better than trying to talk to my parents about anything.
They've been gone all day. They didn't even want to spend New Year's Eve with me this year.
They had to go on another "business trip", whatever that's supposed to mean.
......

Oof, that's rough.
I hope that everyone reading this is doing okay this holiday season, even if your relation with your family isn't great or some loved ones are no longer around.

The game asks me if I want to continue reading the next entry.

......
September 12, 1998
My parents are hardly around at all these days.
When they are, they're miserable.
Especially Dad. I know we're supposed to push our Pokemon to work as hard as they can,
but I'm beginning to feel bad for his... No, they're just Pokemon. They aren't people.
I should have more respect for my father. Still, I don't think I could do the work he does.
I don't like when the others tell me I'm gonna be just like him.
......

Entry 3:
......
October 11, 1998
Just watched one of my father's grunts mug a little girl and take her Pokemon.
He watched too.
She didn't stand a chance, and there's no way a low-level Meowth is worth that much!
I tried to get him to drop it, but he wouldn't listen.
He just called me weak and told me to man up.
Mom wasn't any help either, she just told me to follow the boss's orders.
......

Entry 4:
......
December 24, 1998
It's my birthday today, and of course Dad and Mom don't have time for me.
Not like it's anything new at this point.
I know they're super busy and all, but it'd be nice if they even half pretended to want me around.
It's almost like they want to forget that I exist at this point.
They've given up on trying to "train" me to be an upstanding, respectful member of a criminal organization, and now they just ignore me.
I have to fend for myself nowadays.
......

Entry 5:
......
February 27, 1999
Three years ago today, my father killed a mother Pokemon just trying to protect her baby.
I haven't seen him in a while.
The last time I did, he said he wanted nothing to do with me.
And now Mom brings this up like it's nothing.
No regret or remorse at all!
I can't believe she still wants to move Team Rocket back to the mainland.
She's planning on taking over the radio signals to call for Dad.
Speaking of which, I'm going to find him on my own and confront him-- for real this time.
......

The "mother Pokemon" must be the Marowak whose ghost you have to fight in the gen 1 games. Feb 27th, 1996 was the release date for Pokemon Red/Green in Japan.
Also, I guess one of the Rocket Executives in the Radio Tower is supposed to be Giovanni's wife and Silver's mom?

Let's read the final entry.

......
November 21, 1999
I'm running away.
I'm heading towards New Bark Town,
where Prof. Elm's lab is.
There should be some valuable Pokemon there.
......

November 21st, 1999 is the original release date of Pokemon Gold and Silver in Japan.
I don't understand why he didn't try taking a random pokemon from here along to Johto. They're all level 70 or above!
Maybe he was afraid they wouldn't obey him.

That's the end, but there's some text scribbled on the back cover...
PASSWORD--
YES, NAH, CHANSEY


Another palindrome, and the third password.




This is the room on the other side of the upstairs hall.
This is not a trash can puzzle, is it?

There is a locked door at the top, so I go check a trash can at random.




It's just a regular Loudred, but it is up at level 90.

I check the same trash can again and another L90 Loudred jumps out. This bin is an endless source of pokemon.

I check another bin and it also spawns a L90 Loudred. Since they barely give experience and they're hard to run away from I decide to not deal with these fights, instead I save so I can reset until I find the right one.




After resetting, the very first trash can I try has the switch and opens the door. I get curious and reset a few more times and I notice that EVERY can now contains the switch. The game reset must have done something to the RNG here? Either way, I'll take it.




That's not a palindrome at all.

I go back to the locked doors in the lobby after this... and it won't accept my passwords. Hm, either something got bugged when I reloaded my save mid-mission, or I accidentally reloaded it to a point before I spoke to one of the Murkrow. Either way, I go talk to all three Murkrow again and check HUH?!?'s diary again, and this time it does work.




So what do we get?




Oh, it's HUH?!? himself.

Alice!?
What are you doing here?!
Get out of my house!!



Champion & Red's Theme - Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal OST

The Champion's theme? What are we getting ourselves into?

He starts with a level 95 Sneasler. Wednesday knocks it out with a couple Dragonbreaths.
A level 95 Magnezone is next. Hrunting knocks it out with some X-Scissors. It knows Future Sight and I've noticed that when pokemon know that move, the AI likes to use it multiple turns in a row even though you can only line up one Future Sight at a time.




MeepMeep uses Earthquake against Victreebel.

HUH?!?'s Typhlosion is at level 100. It has a strong Blizzard, but Hrunting knocks it out with Iron Head.

As his fifth pokemon, he sends out his L95 Crobat, another pokemon who wastes its own turns with Future Sight. I use this time to heal up.
I knock out Crobat with some Surfs from Wednesday.
Wednesday also knocks out HUH?!?'s final pokemon, Alakazam at level 95.



So I suppose you figured out, huh.
Yeah, it's true.
Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket?
He's my dad.
I can't stand him.
Or any of Team Rocket.
They're all cowards and scumbags.
My dad ran from Kanto with his tail between his legs ever since he got beat by that kid from Pallet Town.
I've been trying to track him down ever since.
I expected to find him here, but all I found were you and a bunch of robbers.
People say that he's still around the mainland, but those are just rumors...
......
...I guess I should give you my thanks.
For kicking Team Rocket into the dirt, for good.
So, uh.
...Take this.




Now THAT is friggin worth it.

HUH?!? walks out and we can get a good look at the master bedroom.




That's a bit kitschy.

---



Memorial Pillar - Fool's Gold OST

Going to the right from the Rocket Manor, we get to the Memorial Pillar area, with another neat new background song.



I'm the eldest of the Bird Brothers.
The best thing about birds...
It has to be the beak.

This guy sends out three birds (all Pelipper) at me, in an area of constant rain, while I have Thunder. I think you can guess how this went down.




The grass here mostly has the same pokemon as on the main part of Five Island. However, if you're playing the newer 1.3.2 version, this is where you could find Seviian Chikorita.
As always, the following pokedex entries don't count for my pokedex count since they're not in my version of the game.


Seviian Chikorita, the Alien Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: One day, a CHIKORITA from JOHTO was abducted mysteriously. When it came back, it wasn't the same.

This is the 'standard' ???-type, the one that takes neutral damage from all types. Chikorita learns a rather random collection of moves. At high levels it learns Mystery Beam and Mystery Slam, the ???-type special and physical attacks.


Seviian Bayleef, the Alien Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: Does nothing but run aimlessly and occasionally vomit strange fluids. Nevertheless, it seems happy.


Seviian Meganium, the Alien Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: Science cannot explain this POKÉMON. Its shape and size are different each time it is observed.


That next trainer is the middle bird brother, he likes wings. I like Thunder.
He uses three Swellow.




And the youngest brother likes down. He uses Blaziken, who are part Ground, so they're immune to Thunder. I use Surf instead.





We reach another beach at the end.



Surfing around and back north, behind one of the Bird Keepers I find a Dire Hit.




The next small island has a beach where we can land if we surf around it on the east side.

When I step foot on land, the Surf music ends like normal, then the first note of the Memorial Pillar music plays, and then it fades into silence. Since this is still the Memorial Pillar area, I think they did some custom programming to silence the music on this island in particular.




Well, here's the pillar.
... There's nothing here, not even a sign explaining what the pillar is for.

Scouring the Fool's Gold Discord, I found mention of a very very very well hidden secret here. I don't know what it is, so I went right to the source.

My uncle, who works as a janitor at the Fool's Gold headquarters. He said it's actually very straightforward to unlock this secret:

So, first you beat the Elite Four 100 times with a level 255 Nidoking.
Then, if you show this Nidoking to the Gamefreak developers in Celadon City, one of them will give you the key to the truck at the S.S. Anne.
Take the truck and drive it all the way to the Fool's Gold devs hideout in the west of Johto.
Celadonk will notice it and after some cutscenes, he will let you into the server room. If you plug in your cartridge into a machine there, you will receive a shiny Pikablu, who is a Pokegod.
If you get the Pikablu to max friendship, at level 69 it will learn Explosion as a field move.
Take the Pikablu to Memorial Pillar and blow it up with Explosion. Then the secret will unlock.

tbh, this seems way too much work for me. I want to finish this LP before the sun burns out. I'll leave this secret be.

_{In actual truth, there appears to be some sort of secret here, but nobody is willing to give any hints on how to find it. There are some reddit posts floating around with various passwords for this game, which may have something to do with it, but according to celadonk several of these posts are just plain incorrect. It reminds me a whole lot about 90s playground rumours about Mew under the truck and pokegods and all that.
Either way, even if I knew for sure what the secret was, I don't think this LP needs to reveal every last mystery in this game. Let's move on.}

Since I didn't believe there's truly nothing else here, I did go round with the Itemfinder and found a hidden Star Piece on the beach. That's something.

---




That's everything done on the south side of Five Island. Let's go north.






Looks like this area requires Whirlpool, too. It's quite large with lots of ways to go. A true maze.




Let's start beating the trainers, I suppose.

This is Swimmer Celina... and she says she's trying to paint. In the water???
Well, we still have the constant rain effect so I can keep Thundering everyone. She has both types of Weezing.

After I beat her she says it's hard to focus on threading water and meditating. Was she painting in her mind? I don't get it.

Okay, from the starting area I can reach only this trainer in the east, and three whirlpools total. Let me start with the westernmost one.




Beyond it is a Swimmer with only a level 99 Smeargle.

There is another Whirlpool, and beyond that is a fork in the road. I can either continue further north past another whirlpool, or double back south.
Going south first, I encounter Swimmer Rayna, with a Leafeon, Persian, and Azumarill.




This path loops back to the second whirlpool in the starting area. I also see grass out there.




Back on the other fork, I fight Swimmer Tobias. He has Tentacruel, Blastoise and Arbok. There's not that much to say about these fights, they're all quite easy at this point in the game. Taigei, who is still holding the Exp. Share, grows to level 60 now.

The main thing I notice is that many of the trainers here in the Water Labyrinth have rather non-sequitur trainer dialogue.

Skipping my exploration of some dead ends, next I meet Swimmer Destin, who has Machamp, Obstagoon, and Azumarill.




I actually find the next Shrine here. On the land here, we get the Memorial Pillar theme again. Makes sense, since there's not all that much land in the water Labyrinth so you barely get to hear the theme here.




I won't enter the Shrine just yet, but there's a trainer just outside waiting to be defeated by me.

This is beauty Jacki who has Oddish, Gloom, Bellossom, and Vileplume.
After beating her, I fly back to town, so I can go explore the east path from the start of the labyrinth.




I take the north path first, which leads to the grassy island in the center.




In the grass here, we can find Bagon and Shelgon.





Bagon, the Mist Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Dragon
Pokedex: It constantly produces fog involuntarily. It is able to see through its mist with its big glowing eyes.

I catch the Bagon.

The trainer is Pokefan Alize, who has just a Bagon at level 50. No threat at all.




Back in town I go ahead and evolve Bagon into Shelgon.


Shelgon, the Fog Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Dragon
Pokedex: It is cloaked in fog to hide from predators. It isn't often seen even if it wishes to be.

Of course, it can evolve further into Salamence, the Lonely Pokemon which we've already encountered.

Going south from the split now, I can meander further west, beyond the Shrine.
I pass through a lot of Whirlpools that just lead to dead ends.




But eventually I make it to a cave entrance.




Around the back is TM63 Liquidation, a water attack that may lower defense.




In the small cave we find a man and a ladder.



Don't go down that ladder!!
My brother went down there ten years ago, and he hasn't been seen since!!
If you're going down, I beg you to reconsider, but do know that the colors are very bright there, so if you're sensitive to that, then be warned.



Lost Cave - Fool's Gold OST

Very neon.

As soon as I set a step, the ladder disappears. Oh no, we're stuck here.

There's several wild pokemon here, such as Zangoose. I made sure to enter during the morning because that's when Swablu is most common here.





Swablu, the Omen Pokémon
Type: Poison/Flying
Pokedex: This POKÉMON tends to flock in places with disease. There has been an influx of them recently.




So, as you may have guessed, there's a Zelda "Lost Woods" kinda deal going on here. If you take the wrong direction it sends you back to the start.




This is a Brightpowder, a held item that lowers the opponent's accuracy.
So how are you supposed to get through this place? Well, you can just bruteforce it, every new room looks slightly different so you can keep track of where you've been.

But also, the layout and room connections are identical to the Lost Cave in Fire Red/Leaf Green so if you really get stuck you could go find a guide for that.




The tricky part is that sometimes you have to go back out the door you came in through to progress.

I also find a Max Revive in another room, as well as a Rare Candy.
Every time I find an item, trying to backtrack takes me back to the first room, though.




You can tell the rooms apart by the rocks that are in each room. But the rocks are NOT in the same places where you'd find them in FRLG.




Once Alice finds the floating grin without a cat, she knows she's done.



I am the Grim Reaper of Lost Cave...
I take the souls of the poor travelers who venture down here.
Feel my wrath!




And we start a battle with a shiny Altaria. This is, of course, the shiny for the quest.


Altaria, the Doctor Pokémon
Type: Poison/Ghost
Pokedex: Some have claimed to see this POKÉMON while very ill. It tries to help by giving them flowers.

It is modeled after a plague doctor. It learns Ominous Wind when it evolves from Swablu. It also inherits a lot of Flying-type moves Swablu could learn.

I stuff this "grim reaper" in my PC box. This brings me to 300 unique pokemon caught, by the way. I could've had more but I've not been trying too hard catching low catch-rate pokemon in Sevii, if they don't have unseen evolutions.




This makes the ladder reappear in the starting room. I leave the cave.
I was hoping we could somehow save the guy's brother but apparently not.

With that I've done everything on Five Island except the Shrine itself.




So let's go tackle the Shrine of Balance.



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

Aha! Welcome to our fine Shrine!
I shall open the gate for you.

Now! Go ahead and take on the trials upstairs!

We don't have the convenience of a PC this time. Let's go see what's the gimmick for today.




Looks normal enough.

Heeheehee!!
We've got some wacky tricks to show you!




What're you planning, mate?

The Nutpea Berry increases evasion.

Buster sends out 3 Ditto, all with a Nutpea Berry. I have them transform into Temeraire, so that Temeraire or Wednesday's dragon attacks can take them out easily.




No, you copied me.

I guess I was the impos...
I'm legally not allowed to finish that sentence.

Sus.




This is Trainee Flip. He has 2 Wobbuffet, again with Nutpea Berries.
This gimmick is no problem, since if the evasion increase causes me to miss, Wobbuffet can't counter anything either. The battle takes a few turns longer but there's never any danger.

You saw right through it.

Wobbuffet is the best!! Any attack you throw at it, it throws right back!



I've got all sorts of moves up my sleeve!

Trainee Ollie starts with the Normal-type Gengar. It uses Thunderbolt and Energy Ball.
Next he sends out a Sirfetch'd with Ice Beam and Earthquake. He has a Shedinja who I knock out before it can act, and finally a Victreebel with Spike Cannon.

All those moves, and you still pushed through!

Not a whole lot of Pokemon learn such a wide variety of move types.
That's what makes my Pokemon so fun!

That's a great idea but it doesn't work if I knock all of them out before they can do anything.

Time for the Leader.



Ah! My dear lab Rattata!
I need to run a few field tests, and as the leader of this Shrine, I challenge you to a battle of skill to get my data.
What say you?



Shrine Leader Battle - Fool's Gold OST

GREAT SCOTT!




We start with Spinda. It knows Confuse Ray, Poison Jab, Hypnosis, and Giga Drain.
Spinda turns out to be easy. Hrunting's Iron Head takes its health down by about a third, and caused Spinda to flinch. Apparently Spinda gets a bit confused by the many resistances of Steel and only uses Confuse Ray and Hypnosis. Every time Confuse Ray hits, I switch out to MeepMeep who can hurt it for about 90% of its health, and then back to Hrunting when MeepMeep gets confused.

The end result is that Evander ends up wasting all of his Full Restores on Spinda without doing a single point of damage to me.




Sableye knows Heat Wave, Ice Punch, Confuse Ray, and Liquefy. Since it likes to use Confuse Ray a lot I end up switching my pokemon around a bit. I want to say Carlsbad knocked it out but that's not true - Sableye knocks itself out by using Liquefy at low health. That's the status move that increases Speed and Sp. Def by 2 stages in exchange for a quarter of its health.

After Sableye, Evander (I keep wanting to type Lysandre but that's someone else) sends out Medicham, with Recover, Psychic, Night Slash, and Light Screen.
An X-Scissor from Hrunting and a Shadow Ball from Carlsbad knocks it out.




Masquerain can use Dual Lancer, Quiver Dance, Blood Draw, and Aerial Ace. I bring in Wednesday for this part because my other pokemon are getting low on health.




Evander's fifth pokemon is Flygon, with Dragon Pulse, Energy Ball, Potion Brew, and Psypunch.

Potion Brew increases Flygon's stats significantly and I'm having some trouble winning the damage race. But eventually, Wednesday knocks it out.

Evander's final pokemon is Milotic.





Milotic, the Tessen Pokémon
Type: Fighting
Pokedex: Its exaggerated movements and facial expressions confuse and stun its opponents in combat.

Feebas evolves into Milotic if you level it up with high friendship. It loses its Water-typing in the process, but learns Milotic's signature move Tessenjutsu.

Movedex: Tessenjutsu
Type: Fighting/Physical
Effect: 90 power / 95% accuracy. Boosts the user's Defense by one stage.

Apparently, Tessenjutsu is the martial art of the Japanese war fan.

Evander's Milotic knows Tessenjutsu, Swagger, Scale Slash, and Tri Beam.

Movedex: Tri Beam
Type: ???/Special
Effect: 90 power / 100% accuracy. Will be either Electric, Fire, or Ice randomly each use.

Tri Beam is the Special version of Tri Punch which we saw on Honchkrow. However, no pokemon learns Tri Beam naturally. You need to teach it using a TM we haven't found yet.

I heal up Wednesday and Thundersoon Milotic.



Fantastic results!
This will be very valuable for my research!

I have my work cut out for me!
Good luck on your future endeavours!
Now, according to these results...

According to these results, Evander wasn't all that easy, however he didn't use any evasion increasing tricks like I was fearing. Some trainers downstairs did, but that was about it.

Let's go check out the Totem Pokemon.



Come forth, the Totem of mystery and stability... Deoxys!



Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Deoxys, the Alien Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: It was swept to Earth in a strange cosmic storm. It can disappear in a flash with just a tap of its feet.

Deoxys takes neutral damage from all types. Also, Deoxys' stats are perfectly balanced out.

So, which Wizard of Oz character is this?

Well... who is the only person in the world of Oz who is not originally from that world? That's right, Deoxys is Dorothy.

It knows Alien Wave, Alien Boost, Mystery Slam, and Dust Devil.
Mystery Slam is the ???-type move we've seen before, and Dust Devil is a 100 power Ground type attack.

Alien Boost is one of Deoxys' signature moves, it boosts all of its stats by 2 stages. We saw it on Eris' Sirfetch'd last time. We haven't seen its other signature move yet.

Movedex: Alien Wave
Type: ???/Special
Effect: 120 power / 95% accuracy. Its attack type is random each use.

In my attempts to catch Deoxys, it used Alien Wave a bunch of times. Every time, afterwards it says "The attack was ???-type". I wonder if this move is bugged in the version I'm playing.




Got it.

Another island done, just two left to go.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 400/433 (92.38%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 438/475 (92.21%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 97/104 (93.27%)

Part 37: The Two Towers

Let's start with celadonk's comments as always.

Carbon dioxide wrote:There's also a lady who wants to know the strongest pokemon I've caught so far. I don't get the option to show her anything, instead she just responds with "you don't want to tell me?" Little bit strange for NPC dialogue but oh well.

I think this was some sort of mechanic with a prize in FRLG. I couldn't get it to work without putting in a fair amount of effort so this felt like a fine and kind of funny solution

Carbon dioxide wrote:Oceans spanning beyond my sight...
And a million stars way above them at night...

This one is an ICP lyric lol. I think the rest of his dialogue is as well

Carbon dioxide wrote:Unlike the ice-slide puzzles, wild encounters still trigger while you're being moved around by the arrow tiles.

This small little note was the source of a lot of headaches for me. The "default behavior" is for the player to just stop moving upon encountering a wild Pokemon, which obviously would ruin the puzzle. I spent a really long time trying to get it to a satisfactory place.

Burglar Ugly is another move contest winner. I have no idea what his name or any of his dialogue means

Carbon dioxide wrote:
Not enough money?!
...Ah, screw it.
Since I'm a nice guy, I'll chuck you up for free.

You might be the first person to have tried this

Carbon dioxide wrote:Feb 27th, 1996 was the release date for Pokemon Red/Green in Japan.

All of the dates in the diary have some significance in Gen 1/2, whether it be release dates, or birthdays from the manga

Carbon dioxide wrote:_{In actual truth, there appears to be some sort of secret here, but nobody is willing to give any hints on how to find it.}

I think it's less that nobody is willing (well, aside from me, of course), and more that very few people actually know. I think I only know of 3 or 4 people who have found this particular secret

Carbon dioxide wrote:So how are you supposed to get through this place? Well, you can just bruteforce it, every new room looks slightly different so you can keep track of where you've been.

There is a trick (and the trick is the same as that in FRLG, actually)-- go the direction that the hour hand would point to if it were pointing towards the number of rocks in the room. Each room has either 3, 6, 9, or 12 rocks

---

Today, let's visit Six Island in the south.



Six Island - Fool's Gold OST

In the Pokemon Center, someone is talking about pokemon changing forms if you use items on them. This dialogue may have been copied from FRLG, but here it's probably about Castform.
Another guy talks about how he's looking for something hidden in Pattern Bush. That sounds like a hint for the isle's shiny to me.




The NPC outside tells me that the sky is nice this far from civilization.



South of here is the Shrine of Exuberance.
North of here is...
Also the Shrine of Exuberance.
There are two of them, but you can only take on one.
What's the difference?
...Beats me.

Huh. Weird. I guess I'll save & reset to check both shrines and show you the difference.



The shrine leader on Six Island, Raphael, is a complete weirdo.
He doesn't talk to anyone and is always grumpy.

The Mart here sells an unusual set of Held Items. Berserk Gene, Cleanse Tag, Focus Band, Leftovers, Quick Claw and Smoke Ball.




There's an Amulet Coin in this suspicious spot.

Finally, in the house a man suggests to explore Six Island before jumping into any shrines. I was planning to do that anyway, but good advice.




The only way out of town is through this gatehouse.



Eris Encounter - Fool's Gold OST

Where Eris does the rival thing again, of suddenly popping up and stopping me in my tracks.

...Alice.
I won't lose.
Let's go.

Not much to say, do you?



Eris Battle - Fool's Gold OST

Wednesday knocks out Salamence with a couple Dragonbreaths, but does get hit by Toxic.




I send out Carlsbad to defeat Eris' Swampert using Energy Ball. Carlsbad now outspeeds Swampert, and Swampert uses Thunder without Monsoon, missing each time.




Hrunting can do reasonable damage against Electivire using X-Scissor, but Electivire has Tri Punch. If it randomizes to Fire-type, Hrunting is toast.
So instead I heal Wednesday's poison, let Hrunting get knocked out, and switch to Wednesday to set up Thundersoon. A single Monsoon knocks out Electivire.




Metagross is easily defeated with a Surf or two.




And MeepMeep defeats Magmortar with Fly.




As always, no idea what to expect from The Beast.

It starts with attacking MeepMeep with Vacuum Dive, a move that's unique to this island's Totem Pokemon.

Movedex: Vacuum Dive
Type: Flying/Physical
Effect: 120 power / 95% accuracy. Always hits first.

Luckily, it missed.

Sirfetch'd still knows Alien Boost, as well as Wicked Blow and Brave Punch.
It is quite strong, but with some effort I manage to let Wednesday knock it out.

This is good news, I'm getting to levels where Eris isn't as much as a challenge anymore.




Well, don't just stand there.
You beat me.
...Again.
...You can get out of my sight now.

And they walk off.
I think Eris might be getting upset with me.

The guard of the gatehouse repeats that the island has two shrines and that we can take on only one. He says we can explore the entire island, though.



Water Path - Fool's Gold OST

New area, new song.




To explore anything we need to beat this trainer first.

Buzz off! I'm practicing in secret.

This is Guitarist Eddy. He has a Grumpig, Electivire, and Solrock.




I think here is the split in the road. I feel like going south first.




This trainer says she's studying magic in her free time.



Magic is totally real!! Don't make fun of me...

To be fair, her pokemon did have the move Magic Spell.




There are a bunch new pokemon here. The first we encounter is Skitty, who evolves into Delcatty if you give it a Thunderstone.


Skitty, the Agile Pokémon
Type: Electric
Pokedex: Always full of energy, it can be seen running around in circles to keep itself entertained.




I beat this Hiker who is wondering where the mountains are at. He has a Vigoroth and both types of Dugtrio.

At level 50, Kantonian Dugtrio learns a move called Heat Ray. Nidoking can learn it as well, but upon evolution instead. Forgot to mention this when we first encountered them.

Movedex: Heat Ray
Type: Fire/Special
Effect: 130 power / 100% accuracy. Requires one turn of waiting to execute. Burns the target. Made by Quent.

Cooltrainer Hasan to the south says his parents want him to become a famous trainer.



I hate Pokemon battling so much. I really want to be an artist. But my parents don't think that's a real job...

Dude, go do what you love.




After this, when I go back to heal, I encounter Wurmple in the grass.


Wurmple, the Larva Pokémon
Type: Bug/Normal
Pokedex: This quick little BUG-type is very hardworking. It sheds its soot-like fur frequently.

It learns barely any moves, but at level 10 it evolves randomly into either Silcoon or Cascoon.

I catch it and give it a Rare Candy so I can get one of the evolutions without further effort.





Cascoon, the Soot Pokémon
Type: Bug/Normal
Pokedex: Its fluffy body cushions it from attacks. It likes to hide in corners of houses to keep warm.

It learns Defense Curl when it evolves. And it can evolve further into Dustox, who we've already seen.




Oh, before I forget, there's water encounters on the Water Path too.





Carvanha, the Horn Whale Pokémon
Type: Water/Ice
Pokedex: It is raised to be as ruthless as possible. It leaps at and bites anything it sees.

Carvanha evolves into Sharpedo.




Beyond the trainers, I make it into Ruin Valley, which has the same OST as the Water Path.




I beat this guy who has 5 pokemon. He's angry at being given the night shift.




We encounter Volbeat in the wild grass.


Volbeat, the Fountain Pokémon
Type: Rock/Water
Pokedex: The water that flows out of its body is said to have healing properties.

What a strange design.




From here, the area opens up a bit. I'll go south first.




Conveniently, there's a Rest Stop right here. That'll save me some backtracking.
There's also grass on top of the rocky terrain.




Other than that, it's a dead end from this side. North we go!




Over here, there's some trainers that could easily be avoided by going behind them, but you know that's not how we roll.




Cooltrainer Fern leads with Beedrill.

That reminds me, Beedrill learns a signature move at level 50 which I also missed before.

Movedex: Assimilate
Type: Dark/Status
Effect: Cannot miss. The target is transformed into the user.

It seems to be some kind of reverse Transform, where Beedrill forces your pokemon to transform into a Beedrill as well.
I don't know what use that would have but it's a unique idea.

The Cooltrainer talks about another island region far away but doesn't remember the name. Uhh... Alola?

I run into more wild Wurmple and Cascoon as well as Plusle here.






The Gentleman uses Persian and Metagross. He suggests that I stop and think about the mysteries of the universe once a day.




And now they're throwing all the HM puzzles at me at once.




The path behind the Cut tree leads to TM65, Ominous Wind.




The Strength path leads to this trainer. I see a shrine but can't reach it from this side.

The trainer tells me the Pattern Bush forest holds a deep secret.

After beating him I run into Metang.





Metang, the Capstone Pokémon
Type: Rock
Pokedex: When resting, it will bury itself into the ground until only the top of its head is visible.

It evolves further into Metagross and when it evolves from Beldum, it learns Sand Tomb.
Speaking of, I need to catch this one so I can breed a Beldum, we haven't seen it yet.




The path past the trainer leads around the back of the shrine.




The next trainer uses a level 100 Azumarill against me. I pop the bubble.








I know everything there's to know about Abilities, Natures, and Mega Evolution.

... Well if you based your team around that, you're gonna have a bad time, since none of those things are in this game.
After I defeat him he just tells me the Sevii shrines are old.




Beyond this trainer is the ledge back to the rest stop, as well as the path to the southern Shrine of Exuberance.





...This is the South Shrine of Six Island...
You won't be able to access the North Shrine if you go further...
Is this okay?

> No

...Alright.
Remember, you have to choose one.

I'm not gonna do a shrine just yet, but I want to surf around here for a new pokemon.




After fleeing from a bunch Carvanha, I run into Duskull here.


Duskull, the Seaman Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fighting
Pokedex: If you're lucky enough to find a DUSKULL wandering the beach, it will lead you to buried treasure.

Yarr.

It's important I catch it in a Friend Ball. Fortunately, it's not too hard to catch.




Finally, let's take the path that doesn't require a HM. This guy only has a L97 Politoed. MeepMeep takes care of it with a few Earthquakes.




This leads to the item ball we saw before. It contains a Full Restore.

Alright, this is all we can do in the south for now. I took a break at this point to come back at night.




During the break I breed Beldum, who takes an age and a half to hatch.


Beldum, the Obelisk Pokémon
Type: Rock
Pokedex: It may have been created by ancient people, or modeled itself after their architecture.

In this first form, it only learns Take Down and AncientPower naturally.

I then take Duskull back into Ruin Valley and give it a Rare Candy.





Dusclops, the First Mate Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fighting
Pokedex: DUSCLOPS takes immense pride in being the right-hand man of its trainer, lending a hand when it can.

It evolves starting at level 37 and learns Metal Claw as an evolution move.

Giving it 4 more Candies in the area it was caught in is enough to let a Friend Ball pokemon reach the threshold for a Friendship-evolution.





Dusknoir, the Admiral Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fighting
Pokedex: Rumors say that DUSKNOIR carries the spirits of captains that have died on their sinking ships.

Note that I needed to do this at night. Dusclops evolves into Dusknoir by friendship, but only at night.




Movedex: Plunder
Type: Fighting/Physical
Effect: 70 power / 100% accuracy. Steals the target's item. Made by cuboid consumer.

A fighting-type Thief with higher attack power, this is Dusknoir's signature move.




Finally, in the Ruin Valley at night, we can encounter Lunatone.


Lunatone, the Lullaby Pokémon
Type: Dark/Electric
Pokedex: Often prescribed by doctors for insomnia. It emits a relaxing tone which helps induce deep sleep.

In a way the opposite to Solrock, who is also Dark/Electric but is the Dissonant Pokemon.




Going north from town, we need to beat two Swimmers first. The first one has Lanturn, Milotic, and Mismagius, the second one a Wailord.




After that, we reach land. On this side, it's called the Green Path.

This guy says all Sevii pokemon are cute, then sends out Sceptile, Blaziken, and Swampert, showing he has the same good taste as we do.




Wild pokemon here are similar to the rest of the island, but there are some different ones we may encounter.

This trainer, who apparently has an appointment at the Mossdeep Space Center (isn't that far away from here), blocks the path.

I beat him, then first check past the Cut tree.
It leads only to a Max Elixer.




By the way, I temporarily gave the Exp. Share to Temeraire since Taigei had finally bypassed her in levels, and Temeraire was still in the low 60s.
I notice Temeraire is leveling up way faster and will soon become much more usable. I guess Taigei is in a slow experience group, meaning I unfortunately haven't had any chance of using her other than fodder since we got her several updates ago. Oh well, she makes for a good HM user.




The trainer has heard that Raphael is the hardest leader, so she saved him for last. Beyond her is this building.



Pattern Bush - Fool's Gold OST

There's no indoors area, instead we appear directly in the Pattern Bush.




It's quite the forested area, where you can't use Fly.




I pick up the Nugget, then after running from some Wurmple, I encounter a Silcoon.


Silcoon, the Pointy Pokémon
Type: Bug/Normal
Pokedex: It hurls itself at enemies to inflict damage. If it's lucky, it will get stuck to them.

Of course Silcoon further evolves into Beautifly.

Exploring the maze, I pick up a Full Restore, then battle a trainer who is guarding a dead end.




Here I find Seedot.


Seedot, the Bomb Pokémon
Type: Fire/Steel
Pokedex: The hissing sound it makes isn't it being unfriendly... ...it is the top of its head getting ready to explode.

Since all it learns before evolving is Bide, Defense Curl, and Explosion, it can be a bit tricky to catch before it knocks itself out.




When I'm back in town I decide to evolve it right away. Starting at level 14, Seedot evolves into Nuzleaf.


Nuzleaf, the Bomb Pokémon
Type: Fire/Steel
Pokedex: Its head is full of gunpowder and can be detached from its body to be thrown at opponents.

It learns Quick Attack upon evolution and has access to more level-up moves as well now.




After a quick trip to One Island to buy a Fire Stone, I can evolve it further into Shiftry.


Shiftry, the Grenadier Pokémon
Type: Fire/Steel
Pokedex: While waiting for its head to regenerate after exploding, it still seems to be able to see.

Similar to Johto Overqwil, it can learn the USUM move Mind Blown.

Back in the Pattern Bush, I keep exploring and battling trainers on the way. Not that much to say about them, they all use familiar pokemon by now.




And just as I say that, I run into this Bug Catcher who has an Aron.


Aron, the Sling Pokémon
Type: Bug
Pokedex: ARON can be seen in every crevice you can find, hidden away from predators and avoiding trainers.

Aron can be found here in Pattern Bush in the morning, and evolves via Lairon into the big spider Aggron we've already seen.




In fact, this trainer has a Lairon as well. Convenient, that's another evolutionary line ticked off.


Lairon, the Spider Pokémon
Type: Bug
Pokedex: It feels more confident exploring the outside world. It is still a nervous POKÉMON, though.




I pick up a Max Revive in the dead end and try to be a bit methodical as to not miss anything in here.




Behind this Cut tree in the south of the area we find TM66, Shock Wave. An electric attack that can never miss. I also see a building that is likely the exit, but it's unreachable from here.



By the way, "appeal" is a weird word, if you think about it.
Like, is it like an orange peel?
Or like a ringing bell?

Uhhh...




With that question we've beaten all the trainers and made it to the exit.




This is another part of Green Path.

One more trainer and then a Rest Stop? Seems good.
The trainer says he memorized all his pokemon's Base Stats. That's crazy.






To continue past here we need Whirlpool once more.
I defeat the Swimmer's Milotic, Tentacruel and Crobat.




This takes me to another Whirlpool and a fast stream of water I can't access from this side.
It's hard to see without the animation but it's moving up.

Progress is further to the north. But how to get back, to the other side of the stream?

Well, you might remember the trainer on the south side of the island talking about a "deep secret" in Pattern Bush. This is a rather cryptic hint that you need to use Dig in there.




It brings us out to a different area of Green Path (from which we can't re-enter Pattern Bush).
I wouldn't have found this by myself. Well, maybe if I tried to Dig out of here to go heal at the Pokemon Center. But cryptic hints like that go right over my head.




There's a pokemon on the pier here.




The blue-eyed black Wurmple is the Shiny version, and yep. This is this island's quest shiny. Just a Wurmple. It uses String Shot and Tackle.




We're just to the east of the Rest Stop we saw, and the stream takes us right back to where we were.

That means this hidden shiny location isn't just for the shiny quest, it also acts like a convenient shortcut. I can just fly back to town any time now, set one step into Pattern Bush and then Dig to get to the end. I also don't need Whirlpool anymore.




Going further north, we reach Outcast Island.




This first island is a rather small affair, just a patch of grass and a trainer.





Illumise, the Marble Pokémon
Type: Rock/Grass
Pokedex: This POKÉMON is so still, nobody knew it was alive for hundreds of years. Plants grow on it as a result.

I do run into Illumise here.




The next island is guarded by a trainer, although you can avoid her if you want to. She says that using Surf instead of swimming is cheating.



Back in Galar where I'm from, we don't have HMs so I can't Surf like you.




I find Minun in the next patch of grass, the last new pokemon I needed to find here.


Minun, the Tragic Pokémon
Type: Dark
Pokedex: It melts down at any inconvenience. It will sometimes do this in battle to make a foe pity it.

Kind of the opposite of the Comic Pokemon Plusle, who can be found at the south end of Six Island.



I'm so close to the Shrine.
Just a little bit further.




And past this guy is indeed the North Shrine.

So, we have to choose either South or North.

I'll do this: I'll fly back to town, save, make a backup copy of my save file, then go do the South Shrine. Once that's done I'll reset progress and go do the North Shrine. That'll allow me to completely cover all the content on this island.

---



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

Back in the South Shrine, we tell the Shrine Guy we want to tackle this shrine.

...Good choice.
I'll let you in.
...Good luck.

Aight. I double checked and this indeed locks you out of the North Shrine.

What gimmick do we get this time?


This Shrine has a twist on battling.
You'll have to take out your opponents fast.
Every turn, your Pokemon will lose a chunk of HP.
Good luck.

Oof. That sounds actually tricky.
I'm not too worried because it appears the devs generally designed the opponents so that they're doable despite the gimmicks.




Once he's done talking, he opens the gate, we walk through automatically, and then it closes behind us. Unlike the shrine where you could use only one pokemon, here it's very clear they don't want you to go out and heal in between.



Are you ready for our devious challenge?




You recognize that sprite? Because I do. This is the Super Nerd sprite from Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green.




It looks like the HP drop is implemented similar to an overworld weather effect.

Wednesday loses a full quarter of its HP each turn. That, combined with damage from Ambipom and the flinching chance of its Zen Headbutt makes this battle dangerous immediately.
And no, of course the opponents do NOT lose HP each turn. That would make this trivial.
The HP loss seems to be rounded down, which means that if your pokemon's HP cannot evenly be divided by 4, it can just barely survive into a fifth turn.

I decide to reset a bit until I find the moves that knock out these pokemon the quickest. The trainee also has a Perrserker and Crobat.
Unfortunately, you can't avoid damage completely because the HP-lowering effect triggers even on the turns where you knock out an opponent pokemon.




Want to know how we can do this?
It's a secret!
Hahaha!



How're you holding up?
It's tough, huh?

Trainee Grimwald has Ludicolo, Ariados, and also a Perrserker.

They're no problem for Wednesday.



...By the way, you can't tell the League about our battle twist here.
They surely won't be happy with us.

...You guys are running an illegal operation here?



Hehehehe...
So you've made it this far!
Even in the face of overwhelming odds, you push on.
I like that!

You're the second person in here who said something about even and odds.

Trainee Zeph is the only one with four pokemon. That means, if I use only Wednesday, it'll lose three quarters of its health at the very least.

Wednesday barely fails to knock out Weavile with a Dragonbreath.

Ampharos dies to a Surf.




And so does Perrserker. At this point Wednesday's HP gets dangerously low, so I switch out to Temeraire to beat the final Noctowl.




There's a secret to this battling style.
Did you figure it out?

Uh, no? Some way to avoid the HP loss?




Unfortunately, beating the three trainers does not unlock the way out. We have no choice but to continue to the Shrine Leader with what we have.



Kkkkk...
I'm Raphael.
I'm not a patient man, so let's just get this over with...

If you hadn't guessed yet, this Shrine's featured stat is Speed. You have to beat the pokemon fast, and Raphael is probably a pun on 'rapid'.



Shrine Leader Battle - Fool's Gold OST

He's also a bit two-faced.




Raphael leads with Ninjask, who knows Refract, Signal Beam, Flashbang, and Psychic. A Monsoon knocks it out.




As usual, the Shrine gimmick does not apply on the shrine leader fight.

Second is Plusle, with Agility, Baton Pass, Energy Ball, and Giga Impact. It doesn't go for Agility - Baton Pass and I am able to set up Thundersoon against it.




Delcatty and Wednesday manage to paralyze each other. Good time for a Full Restore.

Delcatty knows Spark, Heal Bell, ExtremeSpeed, and Iron Tail.




The batman pokemon is next, it knows Bulk Up, Psypunch, Night Slash, and Drain Punch.




Manectric's moveset is Freeze Shock, Thunder Fang, Glare, and Swift.




And Swellow is Raphael's last pokemon, with Flame Wheel, AncientPower, Dragon Claw, and Will-o-Wisp. I knock it out with a simple Surf.






Kkk... That was a waste of time...
Well, you can go upstairs now.

Unlike the Four Island Shrine, the way back out does not open after beating the leader.
So I thought you were actually screwed out of catching the Totem Pokemon here if you didn't bring enough balls, but that is not entirely the case.




It is possible to Fly away from the rooftop and go buy stuff.
However, as it turns out this resets the battles in the Shrine. Next time you go in you have to do them again. I don't know if that's just the second floor battles or the Raphael battle as well, but it's a bit of a nasty surprise. I guess you could abuse this to grind some levels if you really want to.

I said it before, but I don't like mechanics where you're temporarily locked out of retreating and restocking. It makes it too easy to get into a kind of soft lock state. And that effect of Flying out resetting the battles feels very unintentional. I like a lot of the stuff in Sevii, but these no-retreat mechanics in several of the Shrines are a rather bad design to me.

Anyway, let's call the Totem.



Come forth, the Totem of virtue and swiftness... Latios!



Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Latios, the Shimmering Pokémon
Type: Ice/Flying
Pokedex: It gives guidance to others whenever it can and helps those in need. The twin brother of LATIAS.

Minor sprite redesign in the 1.3.2 version. Latios has a huge Speed stat, and unlike most other Totem pokemon, who are genderless, Latios is guaranteed male.

Latios knows Vacuum Dive, Aerodynamic, Blizzard and Brainstorm. In the 1.3.2 version, he knows Magic Spell rather than Brainstorm.

Eris's Sirfetch'd had Vacuum Dive, so Aerodynamic is the only new move.

Movedex: Aerodynamic
Type: Normal/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Maximizes the user's Speed.

Latios is based on Glinda, the Good Witch of the South.

Being face to face to Latios, I hear a voice in my head... 'you're not supposed to be here'. The world starts warping around me...

---




And past this guy is indeed the North Shrine.

So, we have to choose either South or North.

You know what, now that I'm here I don't feel like going all the way back. Somehow I have a bad feeling about the South Shrine too.
Let's keep things simple and just do the North Shrine. I'm sorry I can't show off the South Shrine as well, but that's life.



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

I tell the Shrine Guy that I indeed want to do the North Shrine of Exuberance.




The second floor is actually identical to the one in the South Shrine, with the same trainers, same pokemon, and same HP losing gimmick.




After quickly getting through the battles, I meet Raphael on the third floor. He has a red face on this side, where it was blue on the south.




In battle he is mostly the same. The only difference is that he has a Minun instead of a Plusle.
The Minun knows Nasty Plot, Baton Pass, Energy Ball, and Wicked Blow.

His other five pokemon are identical to the South battle.




After beating this version of Raphael, let's go see the Totem Pokemon.

Come forth, the Totem of vice and swiftness... Latias!



Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Latias, the Wicked Pokémon
Type: Electric/Flying
Pokedex: A vengeful POKÉMON that actively impedes the progress of others. The twin sister of LATIOS.

Minor sprite redesign in the 1.3.2 version. Latias has a huge Speed stat, and unlike most other Totem pokemon, who are genderless, Latias is guaranteed female.

Latias knows Vacuum Dive, Aerodynamic, Thunder, and Dark Pulse. She's based on the Wicked Witch of the West.






Another island completed. Nice work everyone.

It's not possible to get both Latios and Latias at this point in the game, but since Fool's Gold allows you to complete the pokedex without trading, there will be a way later.

Next time, we will finish the loop back to Seven Island, and see if we can complete our unfinished business there this time round.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 421/433 (97.23%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 459/475 (96.63%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 102/104 (98.08%)

Part 38: Seven Island Redux

Let's start with celadonk's commentary, as always.

Carbon dioxide wrote:Well, you might remember the trainer on the south side of the island talking about a "deep secret" in Pattern Bush. This is a rather cryptic hint that you need to use Dig in there.

So this is not actually the intended solution, but it works the same way. There's a trainer or two who mentions Escape Ropes-- using one in Pattern Bush leads you to the same spot

Carbon dioxide wrote:

There's a secret to this battling style.
Did you figure it out?

Uh, no? Some way to avoid the HP loss?

You were actually fairly close to figuring it out when you said "It looks like the HP drop is implemented similar to an overworld weather effect"

Yep, as it turns out just using setting up any other weather would've stopped the HP drain effect.

Blaze Dragon wrote:Is Skitty meant to be based on Kotora, the scraped electric tiger Pokémon? If so, that's a very nice reference to what could have been.

It is not, it's a leopard

---

Before we go to Seven Island we have a few minor errands to finish.

First of all, we haven't seen Snorunt's other evolution, Froslass, yet. I think I'm going to have to get it myself.
Since it needs to be at very high friendship, and it's a bit annoying to get to the Dream World, I decided to breed my Glalie, then make sure it hatches inside the Sweet Shop. This sets Two Island/Sweet Shop as its met location, which means that any level-up in there counts for double friendship.

I hatch the egg, give the new Snorunt my Exp. Share, then go fight the Sweet Shop trainers.

As you have seen, the Sweet Shop trainers are randomly picked from a small pool of options. I'm looking for one trainer in particular.
In this round of battles, I meet a new trainer for the first battle, Hiker Gordie who uses Raichu, Rhyperior, Ludicolo, and Kantonian Muk. Battles 2-4 are the same as always (but Snorunt is growing nicely).

For the fifth battle, I meat Sage Phoenix, the trainer I need.




He starts of with a Vaporeon. After defeating it, he sends out Raikou.





Raikou, the Sabertooth Pokémon
Type: Dark/Steel
Pokedex: It uses its sharp and painful tails to grab its prey, and then sinks its huge fangs into it.

Next he sends out Flareon and Jolteon.

Raikou and Jolteon are in fact the only pokemon who can learn the move Iron Fangs.

Movedex: Iron Fangs
Type: Steel/Physical
Effect: 100 power / 95% accuracy. Has a 60% chance to lower the target's Defense by one stage.




After that, he sends out Suicune, who we fought during the Eusine sidequest. Suicune shares a typing with Vaporeon, as well as the move Neptune Wind.




And his last pokemon is Entei.


Entei, the Gryphon Pokémon
Type: Flying/Dragon
Pokedex: It is a master of the sky and the land. Statues of ENTEI are built near castles to scare intruders.

Entei has a typing and the move Relevation in common with Flareon.

Right. That took a little while, but that's actually the Johto Pokedex fully seen.
I'm glad there's a trainer here with the legendary roamers, it makes it much easier to see them. And if you want to catch them, after this you can track their location using the pokedex map feature, so that's been made less annoying too.

---

By the time I beat the Confiseuse, my Snorunt is at level 41. It evolves starting at level 42, and it'll evolve into Froslass only if its friendship is high enough.
Let's see if my trick worked of hatching it right here. If not, according to my calculations it'd need about 6 more levels until it has the required friendship, so even that isn't too bad.




Ah, perfect. Got it in one.


Froslass, the Gratitude Pokémon
Type: Flying
Pokedex: Many older people spend time praying alongside this serene POKÉMON, reminiscing on their youth.

Snorunt is Dark/Flying. Glalie is pure Dark and learns Frustration upon evolution. And Froslass is pure Flying, learning Return upon evolution.

---



Seven Island - Fool's Gold OST

Welcome back to Seven Island! Feels like it's been a while. We have a completely new team now and are a lot stronger.

Directly to the north on a small island is the final shrine, the Shrine of Ascension. It doesn't quite end on -ce like the others but it still has ce in the name, so I guess that counts.
We can go there now, but I want to explore the large area to the south first. Last time I was here, I explored just a bit but got blocked by trainers that were still quite hard at that point in the game.




We made some headway into Canyon Entrance. Let's continue where we stopped last we were here.




The first undefeated trainer has a level 95 Metagross, level 95 Girafarig, and a level 100 Spoink. Not as easy as random trainers on the other islands, but quite doable at this point in the game.

The next trainer is searching for ruins at the end of the canyon. I go ahead and defeat her Vileplume, Azumarill, Banette, and Butterfree.



They say that the secret to finding Legendary Pokemon lies at Tanoby Ruins.
But I haven't seen it myself yet.

Intriguing.




Right past her we reach a nice little Rest Stop.




Ah, and a gate into a new area.



Sevault Canyon is a training ground for some of the toughest trainers of Sevii.
Be careful of the sandstorms that rage there, though.

Thanks for the warnings.



Sevault Canyon - Fool's Gold OST

We step into Sevault Canyon. This song starts a bit slow, but after a few seconds it really gets going.



Hey kid, what are you doing out here?

This is Officer Leon, he uses Sudowoodo, Dodrio and Mawile.
There's a constant Sandstorm here but it's no problem. MeepMeep, Hrunting and Taigei are all immune.

After I defeat him, Leon complains about a cheese pizza he ate.






The path south is fenced off, so we're forced to go north and across the higher ground.




That rock to the right is non-interactable, but we have to fight the trainer.
She has a level 90 Swampert and Sceptile, level 95 Kantonian Muk, and Hariyama at only 85.




More fenced off bits, I can only go southwest.




Another trainer around the bend. I defeat his birds.



You see them every so often, trainers with awesome Pokemon who have no idea what to do with them.
Before training Pokemon, trainers themselves need to grow up.




I encounter an Orb in the sandy grass.


Gulpin, the War Cry Pokémon
Type: Ground
Pokedex: This tiny POKÉMON wards off enemies with a fierce cry. When that fails, it will burrow into the sand.

I'm pretty sure this pokedex entry is based on this viral little froggy.



Gulpin evolves into the Sand Dune Swalot, who we've encountered before.




We curve around again onto higher land with trainers.



Training by oneself is certainly not a bad thing.
But it's also not bad to aim for the top with a partner.
Even Bruno...
He trained with a fellow by the name of Brawly before.

This NPC doesn't even challenge us, he only tells us about Bruno and Brawly.




And the Bird Keeper to the south, Perry, only has a single Delibird at level 54. Another reference or contest winner or somesuch, I guess.



I can't seem to decipher it, even with my advanced intellect.

He seems to be talking about something he found in the ruins further ahead.




We're starting to see even regular trainers with level 100s now.




Beyond this Gentleman trainer I find a house.




Reminds me of Celadon Mansion's interior.



oh, hey.
i'll get straight to the point.
you wanna tussle?

> No

c'mon, bro.
fight me a little.
it'll be funny.

She speaks all lowercase and there's a PC here. I'm not sure what's going on but I don't trust it. Let me heal up and save.



There's an art piece in progress on the screen.

Alright, after saving, I talk to her again and say Yes.

awesome!
prepare thyself, fool.




Ohhh. I was wondering about that. There's 6 names on the game's title screen but there were only 5 developers in the house beyond Cianwood.




She starts with a shiny Sableye. I guess we're gonna get the full shiny treatment again?




Shiny Torkoal is next. It still has a crippling weakness to Ground.




Wednesday can take on shiny Absol.




Here's what shiny Spinda looks like, followed by shiny Cradily.




And finally, shiny Lairon is red.

Developer Rachel wasn't really any more difficult than the trainers on the route here, not that much too worry about.




Yeah, you gave me a whole game to practice.



seems i've still got a lot to learn.

I talk to her again.

what are you still doing here?
go on, shoo!

No gifts?

Having a PC nearby is handy though.




By the time I step outside it has gotten dark, and the night colours of this area are very striking.




At night, you can find Budew here.


Budew, the Surprise Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: It is a common tradition for parents to gift a box containing a BUDEW to kids on the 5th birthday.

It can only learn Leech Seed, Water Gun, Selfdestruct and Present naturally while it's unevolved.

I catch Budew with a Friend Ball.

Then I go into Rachel's house, bring it into my party, and give it a few Rare Candies while it's still in the area where I caught it. Before long, I trigger its friendship evolution.





Roselia, the Squirting Pokémon
Type: Grass
Pokedex: Gangs of ROSELIA like to show up to large parties and shoot water at unsuspecting party-goers.

It learns Bullet Seed upon evolution. Using a Moon Stone, you can evolve it further into Roserade, the Spore Pokemon who "can knock out an Indian Elephant".




Not very far beyond this we reach the end of the Canyon.




Across this very short stretch of water, we reach the Tanoby Ruins.



Tanoby Ruins - Fool's Gold - OST




Luckily, we immediately run into Seviian Staryu. With a 9% encounter rate (and only at night), this is the rarest new encounter we still have to find here.


Seviian Staryu, the Drone Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Dark
Pokedex: Whether this POKÉMON has thoughts or emotions is unknown; all it does is randomly fire lasers.

Seviian Staryu only knows three moves, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower.
I think it's some kind of ancient automated defense mechanism for these ruins?

It's easy to catch, especially because there's no Sandstorm in the ruins area.

I sail back to Rachel real quick to get a Moon Stone out of my PC and use that on the caught Staryu.





Seviian Starmie, the Drone Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Dark
Pokedex: A POKÉMON with one goal: to eliminate all life. It is unrelenting in its pursuit of destruction.

Uhhh... shit I'm not sure if I should've evolved that.

It learns Hyper Beam upon evolution. It still can't learn any other moves in any way.

Back in Tanoby Ruins, I encounter Baltoy.





Baltoy, the Balance Pokémon
Type: Steel/Normal
Pokedex: It is able to maintain perfect balance doing anything, be it battle or meditation.

It evolves into the wrecking ball pokemon Claydol.




I'm not sure where to go.




Most paths are dead ends but not all of them.




At some point you need Cut to continue.




And Rock Smash, it seems. The area behind the rocks seems to lead to progress, so I decide to check out the rest of the paths first.




Somewhere in the southeast I find a TM. It is TM68, Poison Jab.




I now continue past the smashable rocks, just to see I need Whirlpool. Looks like this optional endgame dungeon comes with a full HM check. Eh, as long as the game does that only once, it's fine.




Would you have expected anything else than a waterfall?




But, we finally made it to... whatever place we were going to.




A completely silent cave.



Hmm...
I'm an expert on ancient ruins, but the inscriptions here elude me.
If only I knew all the letters...
...Hey, you must've come here for a reason.
You're a Ruin Maniac too!
If you figure anything out, let me know, and I'll compensate you.





The text is in an unreadable but familiar script...

...Oh. Do I need all 26 Unown? Darn, I thought I was almost done catching in this game.

---

Okay, before I do that let me deal with some other matters.




There's a pokemon standing here now, right at the start of the Canyon Entrance area.




It is a wild, shiny Absol. It seems that fighting Developer Rachel and defeating her own shiny Absol was the trigger for this one to appear.
Well, it's an easy catch and that should be the last of the Shiny Quest.




So, on my way back to the ruins in Johto, let's drop by the Navel Rock Shrine and see what we get.



Whoa! Holy moly!!
You really did it!
Gonna be honest, I was just sending you on a wild goose chase.
I had no idea the rumored Shiny Pokemon of Sevii were legit.
Well, since you went through the trouble...



Password - Fool's Gold OST

And we get a new password for our trouble. This is not the same as the Autumn Patch file which replaces ALL pokemon in Johto with Sevii ones, this one seems to only change event and trade pokemon.
Well, this is not that useful to me, I had hoped to get a rare pokemon from this guy. But I'll let it be a gift to everyone who followed by LP all the way to here and is thinking of starting a playthrough of their own.




And while we're here on Navel Rock, there's actually one more thing.

See the port area here?




Turns out there's someone just out of sight to the left. Somehow I missed her every time I went through here.



I'm a fisher, but all I can fish up is shields...
If you happen to have a sword, I'd love to trade.

Not the clearest hint, but she's looking for Shellder.




So after some consideration wondering if I should catch a new Shellder just for her, I decided to go find Landingstrip in my PC boxes and trade him away. (For some reason the Gen 2 trade screen doesn't bother showing Pokemon nicknames).

He never got strong enough to evolve into Cloyster because y'all voted in new pokemon all the way back before part 8, and he's been boxed ever since. Better he gets another life with a trainer who truly cares, you know.




Anyway, she trades us Pippi the Shellder for Landingstrip.


Seviian Shellder, the Cockle Pokémon
Type: Fighting/Steel
Pokedex: An exceptionally tough POKÉMON. A popular PALDEAN food dish involves steamed SHELLDER.

This trade is the only place in the entire game to get Seviian Shellder.

We level Pippi up a bit to 25.





Seviian Cloyster, the Aegis Pokémon
Type: Fighting/Steel
Pokedex: To ward off predators, it evolved a distinct pattern on its shell resembling the head of a TANGROWTH.

Tangrowth is the Gorgon Pokemon. In line with its Pokedex entry, Seviian Cloyster learns Glare upon evolution.

Alright, time for a trip to Johto.








One completed Unowndex later...




Back in the Tanoby Ruins, the man's dialogue hasn't changed.

If we check the inscriptions now, though...





Now, this isn't very straightforward to decode, since the Fool's Gold Unown don't really look much like the Latin alphabet at all. _{And I forgot to screenshot the second page.}

BRING THE JAWS OF HELL TO THE DESERT





BRING THE BLOBFISH TO THE LAKE





BRING THE TARANTULA TO THE CRATER

The first one is talking about Exploud. Desert... desert... the first place I'm thinking of is the route between Laceleaf and Tumbleweed Town.

Okay, let's go see what happens.




I evolve the Loudred I found earlier.




And over on Route 50 I find a mysterious entrance.




A room, with a strange pattern that you may recognize. Let's talk to the crystal.



Regi Battle - Fool's Gold OST

This was quite, quite the involved puzzle. Catching all the Unown, going back to the ruins, decrypting the hint, understanding what it means.
And there's actually no real way to skip it. If I understand celadonk's comments in the romhack Discord correctly, the pokemon required to find the Regis are randomized per playthrough, with about 200 different combinations. You could try bruteforcing it, of course, but just solving the puzzle as intended is probably faster.

Uh, anyway, let's see who we're fighting.


Regirock, the Brimstone Pokémon
Type: Rock/Fire
Pokedex: Up close, it has a very unpleasant odor. It is sometimes associated with demonic forces.

It is level 100, and comes with Rune Beam, Fire Blast, Stone Edge, and Iron Defense.
I catch it in an Ultra Ball after a while.

Alright, next one. The lake obviously refers to the Lake of Rage, and the blobfish has to be Walrein.




Oh... that's quite the hill that popped up in the lake.




Ready? Go!





Regice, the Dissolve Pokémon
Type: Ice/Water
Pokedex: It is closely tied to the sea and the earth. It is the easiest to summon out of its siblings.

It knows Rune Beam, Hydro Pump, Blizzard, and Refract.
I catch it.

And for the last hint, well, we will need Aggron. Unfortunately I never caught it because we saw all three pokemon of its evolutionary line in trainer battles first. Luckily, Aron can easily be caught in Pattern Bush in the morning, and then we just have to evolve it a couple times.





As for the "crater", well my first thought was Cinnabar Island. But that's not right. Where we have to go is... the crater in the center of Mt. Moon.




It's created by a meteorite, but a crater is a crater.





Registeel, the Amalgam Pokémon
Type: Steel/Poison
Pokedex: Anything that gets stuck in its legs dissolves into bubbles. Its whole body is liquid, despite its looks.

Let's go show the Regis to the guy in the Tanoby ruins.



My word! Those Pokemon in your party...
I've never seen anything like it!
...
...So the slab on the left says to bring a fire-type Pokemon to the desert, huh...
...And then bring a water-type Pokemon to the Lake of Rage...
...And finally, bring a poison-type Pokemon to Mount Moon.
Fascinating!

I don't know if this text is randomized together with the inscriptions, or if these statements are true for all possible pokemon the inscriptions may ask for.



You have my utmost thanks for your discovery.
Please, take this.



Password - Fool's Gold OST

...Huh. That would make for an interesting playthrough.

By the way, I'm guessing that if you don't bring all three Regis at once you don't get the password, but I didn't check.

---

Welp, that's all optional content done. This update took a lot longer than I anticipated, so I will cut it here.

Next time, we will challenge the Seventh Shrine!

If any of you have any lingering questions about Fool's Gold development, this is probably a good time to ask celadonk, since I think that the next part of the LP will be the last.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 431/433 (99.54%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 473/475 (99.58%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 103/104 (99.04%)

what was the most annoying later gen thing to implement?

Part 39: The Final Shrine

We got a question from Polydeuces on the LP Beach, who asked celadonk:

Polydeuces wrote:what was the most annoying later gen thing to implement?

Honestly, probably just the sheer number of later gen moves. Almost all of them have custom move animations, and a lot of them have custom effects not in Gen 2. All of that is a huge pain in the butt to work with. Fool's Gold doesn't really have a lot of "later gen features" so to speak-- a lot of that is intentional, I do want a lot of the game to kind of feel like Gen 2 (with liberties taken where I feel like it, of course)

Fair enough. I didn't really show off any move animations since I don't have an easy process to make gifs, but I certainly noticed them.

---



It is time for the Seven Island Shrine of Ascension.



Shrine - Fool's Gold OST

Welcome to the final shrine of Sevii!
I'll need to check your Endorsement to make sure you're ready here.
... ...
Right on! You've completed all the other Shrines.
I'll go ahead and let you in.

He opens the gate.



This is it...
...the very end.
Good luck, Alice!




silence

That's a bit creepy. Normally the second floor just has the Shrine theme playing.




There are no Shrine trainers? Are we going directly to the leader?




Third floor. Where is the leader?




The stairs to the roof are open. Let's go there then, I guess.



......
It ain't fair.
No, it ain't fair, I say.

There is still no music playing.



I've worked my ass off to become the best trainer.
I've spend hundreds of hours building my perfect team, breeding my Pokemon for the best IVs, cultivating EVs by battling specific Pokemon, and formulating the best movesets for my perfectly engineered team.



......
...And what do you do?



You've breezed through a region populated by the strongest Pokemon trainers in the world without putting in a fraction of that effort.
It ain't fair.
...Well, I'm tired of losing.
I'm determined to humiliate you so much that you never want to see a Pokemon again.



Get ready to eat the fucking dirt.

Here is our final boss. Yep, it's Eris.

My understanding from some older dev commentary in the Discord is that Eris was specifically designed to be the antithesis of what Fool's Gold stands for. They're the kind of person that cares about perfect IVs and EVs and other hidden stats, while Fool's Gold is a game all about going on a fun adventure with your Pokemon friends, where every single Pokemon is feasible for a run, and you should base your team on what designs you like rather than who is the "perfect" Pokemon. As such, the player is expected to start hating Eris over time.

I disliked them so far for another reason: being an unfeasibly strong roadblock, requiring me to pull out legendaries to beat them in a reasonable time.
And I'm legit not sure if I can win this battle with my regular team. You'll see why in a second. I'll bring out a team of legendary level 100s if I have to.

I could feed MeepMeep and the others Rare Candies until they all hit level 100 and that would make the upcoming battle more doable with my current team. But it's easier to use legendaries and I'm ready to finish this LP project.

So, let's stop talking and get to it.



Eris Final Battle - Fool's Gold OST

Woah woah woah that is NOT what I expected for a final boss battle theme.
I like how you can hear bits and pieces of the regular Eris theme in there.




Level 105. Eris is just outright cheating now.

Salamence knows Iron Head, Hydro Pump, Iron Defense, and Toxic.




Since I happened to have Temeraire in the lead, I start with a Dragon Pulse while Salamence uses Iron Defense. It does decent damage.




Salamence misses with Toxic and another Dragon Pulse finishes it off.




A level 105 Metagross is next. It knows Stone Edge, ScorchnSands, Psychic, and Toxic.




Stone Edge misses and Monsoon just barely fails to knock it out. Getting lucky with enemy misses so far.
This may work in my favour. Since Monsoon didn't knock out it set up rain.




Metagross manages to get Toxic off, and Wednesday knocks it out with a Surf.




Crap. Eris' Swampert knows Monsoon, Thunder, ThunderPunch, and Toxic.




In the first turn I heal the poison, and Eris uses Thunder, knocking Wednesday down to about half health, and paralyzing him.
In the next turn I get extremely lucky with the enemy's Thunder range, and Wednesday survives and Thunders Swampert in return.




I switch to Carlsbad. Swampert still has a Thunder lined up which Carlsbad can tank. Unfortunately, the super effective Energy Ball does less damage than I'd hoped.
The rain ends, but Swampert still manages to hit a Thunder and knock out Carlsbad.




MeepMeep finishes Swampert with his Earthquake.




Next, we get an Electivire at level 115. It knows Dark Pulse, Hyper Voice, Drain Punch, and Tri Punch.




Electivire outspeeds and hits hard with Tri Punch. Hrunting's X-Scissor does okay damage but not enough.




I decide to Full Restore Wednesday, sacrificing Hrunting in the process.
Wednesday sets up Monsoon, and the Dark Pulse doesn't hit him too hard.




Another Dark Pulse, and a Thunder from Wednesday, and Electivire goes down as well.




Eris' fifth pokemon is a level 115 Magmortar. It knows Gunk Shot, Aura Sphere, Fire Punch, and Toxic.




I start out with a Fly while Magmortar Toxics MeepMeep.




Oof, that Gunk Shot put MeepMeep in red health.




I Full Restored MeepMeep. Magmortar used another Gunk Shot, which regular-poisoned MeepMeep. But an Earthquake next turn knocks it out.
I am not entirely sure what happened here, because in this turn, MeepMeep outsped Magmortar, but there were also turns where it was the other way around. Perhaps they have a speed tie?




Eris' final pokemon is of course, the Beast. Now at level 120.
Sirfetch'd knows Vacuum Dive, Alien Boost, Brave Punch, and Wicked Blow.

My plan was to send out Taigei to take a hit while I use a Cosmic Ash. This is the battle I kept those for.
... Turns out you cannot use Cosmic Ash inside battle. Shit.




So I heal Wednesday instead, send him out. He takes a critical Brave Punch like a champ and does very decent damage with Monsoon.




I heal, and Sirfetch'd hits with another Brave Punch. On the next turn it uses Alien Boost to raise all stats, and I Thunder.




One more Brave Punch and Thunder exchange.




...Yeah of course they do.

To summarize what happened next is Wednesday and Sirfetch'd kept exchanging punches. I healed when necessary. But when Sirfetch'd got low on health again, Eris had another Full Restore ready. And after that, Sirfetch'd did several Alien Boosts, getting its stats to a point where Wednesday's damage got really low while getting hit hard every turn.

I was very very close to winning, but not quite.




One reset later, let's not mess around.

I'm not going through this battle in detail, because with Groudon in the party it's not all that hard. I gave it a Brightpowder so that the opponent is more likely to miss too.







H...
How did this happen?!



I deserved to be the very best!!
I even gave myself the upper hand, And I STILL lost!

Deserved? What do you mean, deserved?


......
...No, that's not right.
I...
I cheated.
I leveled my Pokemon past what should be possible.
I deserved to lose.

I mean, to be fair, Eris, I save-scummed quite a bit in Sevii. Finishing this LP before I was at risk of burn out was more important to me than "not cheating", if you consider save-scumming cheating.



Sevii Main Theme - Fool's Gold OST

Ah, there it is. The "Sevii Main Theme" has been teasing me from the OST Youtube playlist ever since I stepped foot in Sevii. We don't hear it in-game until this moment.
It feels nice and appropriate.

I should point out I took so many screenshots of talking to Eris because they walk around, turn, look to the side, all that. A whole lof of emotions hidden in little movements.

...Alice.
I... I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you, just because I knew you were better than myself.
You have something that... I will never be able to have...

It's okay, mate.

---

The music ends.



...Man, look at me.
I'm starting to cry.
Sniff...



I'm not stopping here, no.
Alice... I may never be as good as you, but I'm still going to work hard to be the best that I can.
But for now...
I hope you can forgive me for everything.
You are the rightful champion of the Shrine Challenge.



Wait!!
You still need to confront the Totem of Seven Island!
Alice...
You got this, dude!!
Go ahead and show that Totem who's boss!

And Eris leaves.



...The words on the monolith are in a language you don't understand.
......
From the back of your head, a melody plays.



Whistle the melody?

> Yes

Alice whistles the melody.



Arceus Battle - Fool's Gold OST


Arceus, the Aether Pokémon
Type: ???
Pokedex: The god of the SEVII region. Its corporeal form is merely one of many vessels for its true power.

Arceus's typing is special: it RESISTS damage from all types, even under inverse type conditions.
It knows Tri Beam, Recover, Hyper Voice, and Earth Power.

And I think we're done with the Wizard of Oz theme. This is just straight up a god.

Eris asked us to show it who's boss. I think I'll go a step further.




I'll show it who's master.








It's done.



Alice!
You've completed Sevii's Shrine Challenge!
Huge congrats!
Few people have ever gotten as far as you have.
You should head to Navel Rock to be formally inducted into Sevii's Hall of Fame.
Before you go, I have one quick thing for you...



Password - Fool's Gold OST

So many password options for new playthroughs.

Anyway... um, who was the original Shrine Leader of Seven Island before Eris just popped up? Or were they Shrine Leader all along? I'm slightly confused about this.




Well, let's not worry about that and go to Navel Rock.





...!!
You... you got the Ascension Emblem!!
Alice...
Come with me, please.






We automatically follow the guy.



The last time I was here was years ago...
When I was a young man, I started this Shrine Challenge in the hopes of finding the strongest trainers in the entire world.
In the thirty years, only three trainers have completed it.
The last one was Green, from Kanto, who you've met.
This machine will certify you as the fourth person ever to get this far.

Alice, allow me to formally induct you as a Champion of the Shrine Challenge!










Prof. Oak's Rating:
Wow! You've hit 300! Your Pokedex is looking great!

Sorry, Groudon, I like you, but you were just a temporary team member. I switched you out before going to Navel Rock.

... Actually I could've gone and switched in a team of level 5 Unown and register those. Heh.




And we get the third, and final, credits viewing.




Oh, my Ditto is still sitting in the daycare. I wonder how strong it's gotten.










I just want to echo a lot of the words here. I wouldn't have done this LP without the support of all of you, my readers. Thank you so much for commenting, lurking, just enjoying this project. It was though at times but loads of fun.

And also, of course, a big thank you to all the developers of Pokemon Fool's Gold, but especially celadonk who went out of his way to give context and answer our questions in this LP.

---

Before we end it, there's a few things left to do.




After the credits, the game drops us off in New Bark Town. I decide to talk to Mom, and she gives me two TMs. These are Tri Punch and Tri Beam, the physical and special attacks that randomly switch types between Electric, Fire, or Ice type each time you use them.




This is on top of Mt. Ember. After you beat the Sevii Shrine Challenge, Latias/Latios (whichever you didn't get as the Six Island Totem) will start appearing in different places. You need to talk to it on each of the seven islands. This will make it fly off to the next island. Eventually you'll get to battle it. This is required to get 100% Pokedex completion. I won't be doing it.

---

Speaking of Pokedex completion, if you've been keeping count, you know there's still 1 move and 1 pokemon I haven't shown.
Let's start with the move.

Movedex: Act of God
Type: ???/Special
Effect: 100% accuracy. A one-hit KO move.

A one-hit KO move with 100% accuracy? That seems OP. Well, it is. The trick is that not a single pokemon in the game can learn this move. The only way to normally trigger it is randomly when you use Metronome. It really invokes the idea of a god striking down your opponent with a lighting bolt or something.

The last pokemon... this one is trickier.

This is a pokemon game. So, of course there is one unobtainable mythical.

Well, it is not truly unobtainable, of course. The devs wouldn't do that.

Remember that little empty pond on top of a waterfall on the new route just east of Goldenrod City?

Part 18 wrote:

... It... leads absolutely nowhere. What the fuck.
I pull out the Itemfinder but it finds nothing at all either.

Route 52 was already disappointing the first time we went through and this doesn't make it any better.

This place actually has a use but only if you start a new game with a certain password. I will get back to this much, much later.

Yeah, that one.

If you use a password, the mythical will appear here.

How do you get this password?
Well, if I understand right, all you have to do is, uh...




Crash the game. This can be done by booting the game on a monochrome Gameboy.


Dhelmise, the Mythical Pokémon
Type: Dragon
Pokedex: ... This isn't supposed to be here.

So, to actually collect this you'd have to start a new game with the password, and then play all the way up until you can use Waterfall out of battle.

You CAN add Dhelmise to your pokedex in a playthrough with another password, but only by trading it in from another copy of the game.

But, since it's not really intended and it's such a bother, Dhelmise is not required for in-game Pokedex completion, if you want to go get the Diploma.

Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 433/433 (100%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 475/475 (100%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 104/104 (100%)

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So, some final thoughts about this romhack:

I said it throughout the LP but I really like it. It's neat how at the start you could almost believe you're playing an original gen 2 game, but then as you go on, things get more and more customized.

I really love the custom soundtrack, and how it's mixed in with familiar songs. Whenever I had to go back from Sevii to Johto, I saw the original towns, heard the original music and part of me was surprised every time that that exists in the same game that has the entire brand new Sevii region.

There were a few things I complained about - some of the pokemon designs were a miss, but what you can you expect with over 400 new mons? There were also a few places where the humour fell a bit flat, notably the developer house. At that point I was afraid that if all Sevii was like that, it wouldn't be fun to continue the LP anymore. Instead, Sevii had a completely new plot, new interesting characters, and it was generally fun to explore.

I also think it's great that this game is specifically designed to be fun for basically all skill levels. It's not a hardmode hack, which definitely have their place, but you wouldn't find me letsplaying one of those anytime soon. And several times throughout this playthrough I've been astonished by the sheer amount of new content and the fantastic attention to detail the developers put in.

And that is all I have to say.

But I'd like to ask everyone to please give this video a watch. Let's not forget all of the friends we made.



~~~ Fin ~~~