http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Semi daily fourhman.com newspost. en-us joe@fourhman.com 2007-09-30T17:31:55-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/09/manaphy-day-at-1.html Unlike last year's Mew Day, this Pokemon Event was a piece of cake. As hoped, the whole affair was run by WiFi download. Although most people showed up expecting a line, so they didn't know where to go. The largest clusters formed around this instructional sign and over by the RZone checkout (where they were handing out the $5 coupons.) Follow the Mystery Gift instructions and bammo, everybody gets a Manaphy. Then we all run right home and breed a Phione. 1562@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-09-30T17:31:55-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/09/who-cares-if-yo.html Since beating the League, I've been doing a lot of critter collecting. Bringing old favorites over via Pal Park, slowly working through the little post-game sidequests and the weird new evolutions (Tangela evolves now? Tangela?) More on that later. My sister has been continuing with her game as well and tonight we exchanged the final few types required so that we could both complete the Sinnoh Pokedex. Then I hustled back to the Game Designer at that hotel to collect my prize for finding all 150... 1556@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-09-22T23:36:56-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/09/when-tackling-t.html I decided that I wanted everybody right around level 60 before going after the League Championship, so I've been doing a lot of mindless training... initially up around Snowpeak and more recently just west of Sunyshore. Then I stocked up on Revives and HP healers. Although I bought a ton of Super Potions, I also picked up lots of those drinks cans you get at the top floor of the shopping mall. They're a better value. I haven't necessarily been looking forward to this, which is why it took me so long to work up to actually sitting down and doing. I mean, the battle junk is the least interesting part of the game for me (well, second least since Nintendo bungled the Super Contest thing.) I'm more into catching all of the different types and uncovering all of the games little secrets. Which is why I bought both Prima strategy guides and kept them by my side as I prepared for the Elite Four. I'm just going to waste time starting and restarting to get this done. I wanted to walk in at a very fat level, have a good idea of what I could do to maximize my team's type advantages, and barrel through all five matches without saving inbetween. 1531@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-09-01T22:48:02-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/08/sandblasting-ba.html I get these email surveys from Nintendo quite a bit, and I always make a point to fill them out. You don't get anything for it, other than your chance to bake them over bad games. Like Pokemon Battle Revolution. Here's some screens of the survey (I skipped the dull(er) questions, like Are You Male Or Female) along with some additional commentary. Sigh. 1518@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-08-15T21:16:22-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/08/suxie.html I know I'm getting close to tackling the Elite Four, but my team isn't ready. Out of the eight or so that I'm considering placing on the team, half of them are only in the high 40s, which just will not do. So lately I've been doing some training, mostly up in the snowy region where it's an easy 600-1200 XP no matter what stupid critter jumps you. I also focused on catching those three legendary floating alien cat things, which cost me a lot of money and a lot of time. I needed 30+ balls to capture Uxie, mostly wasted Ultra Balls although it was a Dusk Ball that did the job. Same story with Azelf. Those two idiots at least have the decency to stay where you find them. The third one, Mesprit, vanishes as soon as you activate him, and you have to track him down using one of the Poketch's map screens. It's awful. You can see his current location, but if you Fly there, he moves. If you take too long to walk there, he moves. If you cross into a city, he moves. I headquartered myself in Jubilife and walked in and out of town until he flitted within a short walk. (I did like how the background music changed when you start a battle with Mesprit.) 1494@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-08-09T23:37:09-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/07/the-truth-about.html What's up with finding a Pokemon Center that you can't Fly to? I'm speaking, of course, about the Center that you find north of Route 223, the waterway that connects Sunyshore with Victory Road. Surfing is always a drag, since you're prone to getting jumped by Tentacools and such, so after finishing the route and healing up, I flew back to Sunyshore to buy some Repels and Potions... and then realized that I could not Fly back. Nonsense. So I used one of those Repels on my surf back. I also was pretty liberal with the Repels inside Victory Road, which, again, ought to be called Victory Big-Ass Cave. This edition seemed less obnoxously twisty than in previous games, but I'm sure the Repels made it more bearable. And once you clear it, THEN you find a spot you can Fly to, so you'll never have to do the Route 223/Victory Road trek ever again. 1478@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-07-03T01:09:22-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/06/another-gym-ano.html OK, since it's been so long since my last Pearl update, I've pretty much forgotten everything I did. So this entry is all about stuff I did, like, in the last hour. I popped a male Chimchar (level 1) into the GTS and asked for a female Turtwig. Then plan being to breed Turtwigs, duh. After a few days, somebody in North Carolina completed the trade. This is my first trade within the continental US. I have seen put another young male Chimchar out there in hopes of scoring a female Pinplup. I love that you can buy Poke Ball seals in Sunyshore. I buy ten of each type that is available. I'm guessing the seal store has different stock depending on the day you visit. I read somewhere that you can achieve Prof. Rowan's "completed pokedex" goal simply by battling every NPC trainer in the game. Did the previous games do that? In contrast, I'm assuming that the Gamefreak Designer's "completed pokedex" mission means you have to have actually touched all 150 pokemon. But as you'll recall with Pokemon Sapphire, the reward is sure to be crappy. 1456@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-06-05T17:02:40-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/save-the-magika.html The GTS has paid off again for me... this time with a Finnion and a Murkrow. Both from Japan. I think I have seven different Japanese cities marked on my GTS globe, stretching all the way across the nation. My new catches this week: a Sneasel, a Cleffa and a Clefairy. I just recently realized that the second countergirl in the Pokemarts (the one on the left) sells the special function Poke Balls, so I have been checking out her wares in the various cities. Those Clefs that I caught were both snagged with Dusk Balls, the one that offers an improved chance at a capture when used at night or inside a cave. I'm working on evolving a Buneary, because I saw that its evolved form is some hot bunny chick thing. Even if it's male, as mine is? I have investigated two of the three lakes... I found it hilarious to see all the about-to-die Magikarp flopping around in the drained bed of Lake Valor. You should be able to pick them up and chuck them around, Link-and-Cucco style. 1399@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-20T20:13:28-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/would-you-lie-a.html One of the hidden secrets of Pokemon is finding the special types that can learn multiple HMs. In Sapphire, I used Tropius and Golduck. A recent thread on Kotaku pointed out that Bibarel (the evolved form of Bidoof) is one of the HM mules in Pearl/Diamond. So I rustled one out of storage and promptly taught him Surf, Cut, Rock Smash and Strength. Now I don't have to worry about keeping Empoleon (for Surf) or Torterra (for Cut) or Golem (Rock Smash) around whenever I want to go for an extended exploring trek. My beloved Staraptor is still running my Fly and Defog. (Will that be my nickname for my Staraptor: "Beloved"?) I think I have about four Chimchar eggs in various stages of Egg Watch. I paired my female Monferno up with my male Empoleon and boy did they "find eggs." Within minutes, another egg would show up. I wish there was another way to hatch eggs aside from having to cart them around. I'm considering filling my party with eggs and then just do laps around Hearthome until they all hatch. 1360@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-15T23:30:06-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/partys-over.html Seems like the Japanese pokemon black market has dried up. I've tried several weaksauce deposits with no finished trades. I guess it didn't take long for every kid in Japan to assemble an English language set. To make matters worse, nobody has realistic requests available to browse... they'll give you a Glameow or a Murkrow, but they expect a Deoxys or a Palkia in return. It's crazy. The only reasonable trade is for the starters, so I'm getting into the Chimchar breeding business. Chimchar itself might pale in comparison to cutesy Piplup, but the monkey evolutions are far superior to those ugly uber-penguins. Have you seen Empoleon? Holy crap, it's worse-looking than any given ten Digimon. Where's the nickname changer? I've finally got some reasons to name my guys, plus I traded for a Gible with a silly name and I want to change it back. To Gible. Which isn't silly at all. 1358@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-13T00:05:14-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/harried-rushed.html 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. 1327@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-07T23:45:16-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/spell-something.html Ten hours just not seem like a lot of time when you're playing Pokemon. Unless you're entering Super Contests and losing, which is a gigantic waste of time. I did some multiplayer poffin-twirling and found it equally as annoying, but at least you get more poffins out of it. You made two level 8 Bitter Poffins! Hoo-freakin-yay! With the Hearthome Gym Leader ignoring all callers, I went east and followed the path to Veilstone City as urged by Wedge. The route takes you through Solaceon Town (and Sinnoh gets it's own unpronounceable city name, just like Pacifidlog in Hoenn!) Solaceon Town is noted for two key locations, the daycare center and the ruins. The ruins are rather shabby, but they do serve to hold Pearl's collection of Unown. I have already captured about a third of them, and, although the out-of-the-way locale of the ruins makes me think that the Unown will have absolutely nothing to with the game's plot, they do provide an explanation of the Ball Capsule menu item that has gone unmentioned since the first time you turn on a Pokemon Center PC. 1324@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-06T16:02:49-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/05/boy-do-i-hate-m.html So I've made it to Hearthome City, where a traveller from Hoenn dragged me to the Contest Hall building. I really enjoyed the Contests from Ruby/Sapphire, so I'm happy to see them return WITH A VENGEANCE. I never saw much online chatter about the contests, but they were a surprisingly detailed addition to the series. The whole concept seems intended to soften the battle-heavy image of the franchise, even though the whole thing is eminently skippable. The original idea was that every attack move also doubled as a beauty pageant move, which meant that Gamefreak had to come up with alternate data for every single attack in the game, whether you actually entered the Contest Hall or not. So not only do you have to obsess about the four attack moves you grant to each pokemon, but you also need to consider their usefulness in pageants. Wow. 1320@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-05-02T21:05:51-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/04/the-kindness-of-1.html To date, every trade I've asked for has come through, and always by a player in Tokyo or Osaka or somewhere in Japan. I've traded out Bidoofs and Zubats and Geodudes for a Turtwig, Piplup, Psyduck, Cranidos and a level 51 Skuntank. I am currently offering a level 3 Bidoof for a Chansey, which is my most aggressive request yet. All of this online trading means that I've been walking back and forth between the GTS and Eterna City quite a bit. I can't wait for the Fly HM. An old man gave me passage to the underground world, which is basically the Secret Bases from Ruby/Sapphire relegated to a Pac-Man maze. I think this is local-WiFi only (sucks), but you can check out other players' bases and play a weird little version of capture-the-flag... as well as set booby traps to keep others from taking your flag. Since the underground section takes place on the touchscreen (nice!), you can tap the walls to search for hidden gems, which opens up an odd little puzzle game. Unearth the gems and you can buy more decorations for your base. Interesting stuff - not as cool if this is truly local only - but can you even battle down there? 1317@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-04-29T22:00:22-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2007/04/now-thats-servi.html While Wedge took off for Eterna City, I pushed north towards the small town with all the flowers... after breaking up a rumble with Team Galactic, Pearl's edition of Team Rocket. (Nothing seems to sound as iconic as "Rocket" though, does it?) This is the fight with the "massive damage" meme in it. I planted some berries, my Starly and Shinx evolved, I rescued a scientist that Galactic was holding against his will, received more TMs that I will never use, blah blah blah. What's truly important is that I already received a Piplup. After clearing out the windmill place, I walked back to Jubilife to check on things at the Global Trade Station. I wanted to see if you can have more than one pokemon registered to trade at a time (you can't.) But when I logged in to the GTS, I was greeted by a newborn level one Piplup, straight from Shizuoka, Japan! Check this out: 1315@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Pokemon Pearl Journal 2007-04-25T23:31:10-05:00