During all of this nonsense at Veilstone, I noticed that my larger pokemon were becoming unruly. So I figured I better book it to the next Gym - in Pastoria CIty - before the whole team levelled up beyond my control.
The southern path to Pastoria is terribly long. Initially, it's just the regular forest - rather hilariously patrolled by policemen whom you can battle - but it turns into a messy swamp as you approach Pastoria. Somewhere in the middle is the Pokemon Mansion, where some rich guy supposedly has a statue garden in the back. I saw nothing. But I did catch a Pikachu.
Speaking of statues, what is up with that generic monster statue that you see everywhere? It's been around since Pokemon Red/Blue and I've never understood what it is intended to represent. It seems to most resemble a Kangaskhan, but that is hardly a world-renowned pokemon worthy to venerate every single Gym and other assorted important structures. You would think that by now, the Gyms would have statues of the various pokemon most associated with their city and trainers... like an Onix in Oreburgh. Not some never-before-seen nondescript "monster" statue.
One thing I wanted to mention last time: I am sick to death of Pokemon's box storage system. We need to move past the concept of keeping extra pokemon stuck in some central location that you can only tap by running to a building with a PC inside of it. I don't think we should be able to have instant access to our entire collection inside of a battle, but we really should be feeling completely used as the game makes us run back and forth to hustle guys out of PC storage.
I advocate keeping the six-pokemon party system, and when you enter a battle, you're stuck with those six. But anywhere else, you should have complete access to every dude you've ever caught. It would be better for online trading and team-forming, better for quest NPCs who want you to show them specific types... just better gameplay all around. The game is plenty long enough without having to regularly hike back to a Pokemon Center and suffer through the box's sucky control scheme that was written for a Game Boy's buttons. Wouldn't that have been a nice philosophical upgrade for the DS series debut?
Anyway, after slogging through the marshlands, I stomped directly into the Gym and cleaned out all the subordinate trainers. Then I saved up and tackled Crasher Wake. It's a fair miracle that I got through, because this is my worst Gym battle ever. Several times I considered bailing, but I thought I might as well play it out. As you can see, my missteps and poor choices made the battle longer than YouTube's ten minute limit.
Part One
Part Two
I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't really have to sweat a Gym Leader match until the fifth or sixth Gym, so getting pasted by three and four was kind of a bummer. DidI just have a lousy assortment of types for those two Gyms?
I had no business winning that battle against Wake... but, hey, I'll take it. Now I can get back to screwing around. I see there's a Safari Zone in this town...
During all of this nonsense at Veilstone, I noticed that my larger pokemon were becoming unruly. So I figured I better book it to the next Gym - in Pastoria CIty - before the whole team levelled up beyond my control.
