wildebeast

This is basically a grind-through of Pokemon Reborn. It'll start to get more and more apparent as I gain access to my usual means. Last time I had about eighteen fully EV-trained mons that I swapped with one another as necessary.

So basically you get Zangoose after Pulse Tangrowth. Zangoose is just good enough so I can understand that. As for the EV training, the floodgates for that opened up in Rejuvenation when I found a Fomantis down in the park. I wanted it in my party (as my poor man's Tsareena) but I didn't want to think about EVs, so I figured I might as well max out its EVs. This was pre-Venam. Got just enough patience to max out a single mon's EVs the traditional way kek Solid tech, thanks MVP. Compound Eyes + Frisk seems like a solid combo to speed up grinding for items. It's right up there with full Pick-Up squad, though the problem with Pick-Up squad is that different levels lead to different items past a certain point. As for Covet, I didn't know it permanently took held items. Does it work on trainers? Also, can you actually get Slakoth this early? That would be pretty rad. And yeah, I squick out on the weirdest things. I think wasps are the coolest, but they're significantly less cool if I see them in person because nah

CHAPTER 2: I CAN'T STOP RANTING -PLOT- It took a bit to get back into this since I play these games in large bursts over long periods of time. That's not condusive to this kind of presentation, so I'm trying to play more often. But anyway, let's get right to it. Today the goal is to murk Julia. First though, since it's raining... I've never been a fan of the elemental monkies, but something about their evolutions's designs pulls the right strings for my aesthetic sense. Simisage in particular, but I don't have access to that mon right now. I'm not sure where to get one at all. I'll cross that hump when I get there, and I might not get there. Not because I won't finish this LP, but because I might somewhere along the line decide Simisage looks ugly. I'm dancing on the fence. Before I head down to the gym, I decide to do a bit of grinding. My highest mon is level 17 while my lowest is 11. I want to get all of them up to at least level 14 or 15 since I'm pretty sure Julia's Elecrode is level 16. Early game I tend to grind in that one alleyway where you can find poochyena/trubbish/purrloin. Late game I tend to come back there with the EV-training items to get some mons up to 252 Speed/Attack. I won't bore you with the grinding though. Except I found a Zangoose with its butt sticking out of the bin. I've never seen that before, actually. Never used a Zangoose before. I've always preferred Seviper because I think snakes are cool, plus I love Seviper's colours. Still, I can get behind Zangoose. Of course it runs off though, right? It's probably another Teddiursa situation, so I start running around town to look for the thing. While I did so, some guy gave me field effect read-out 17. It's the factory, which I experienced when I teamed up with Fern. I'm not gonna devote two screenshots to both pages, and I don't want to look at the field effect manual, so I'll continue under the assumption that you (the reader) know what the factory field does. I have a question though, so feel free to answer if you know. The factory field becomes a short-circuit field if Fissure is used. Does Fissure have to hit for that to happen? Seriously, I'm curious. Anyway, back to Zangoose hunting. Regarding that, below I've included a somewhat crude rant. Eventually I give up looking for Zangoose, but not before posting a help request on the forums. It's not cheating if I tell them to confirm my thoughts instead of telling me where it is. Anyway, back to grinding. Instead of the alley, I decide to grind on a trainer in the Grand Hall. It clicked that I needed more pokeballs (because 40 isn't enough) and that I had no cash. I learned something during this whole shebang: I'd be a terrible gambler. So here's the deal: Tiger has Prankster, and it turns out Assist works with Prankster. I really love chance-based gimmicks. What a thrill. Bottom line, Tiger will probably keep Assist for the rest of the game. If he stays in the team, I mean. It will probably cost me many matches. The world better pray I don't get a mon with Metronome, oh my word. Anyway, I finish up grinding. My post-grind squad is below. It's time to solve the Julia problem. The gym puzzle isn't tough. I'd go as far as saying it isn't even a puzzle and, to be honest, I prefer it that way. From the outset I know what to do and how to do it, whereas in the later game I'm left with the "what" and figuring out the "how" comes later, when I cave and look up a guide. That option is off the table, unfortunately. Spoilers below regarding a pre-emptive puzzle rant/critique now that I'm on the topic. Anyway, here's the deal with Julia's gym. You maneuver the Voltorbs to the shutter doors and boom, problem solved. I know most people taking a negative view of this game remark "look at Julia killing these Voltorbs for her gym's gimmick" and to be honest, I can sort of get why. I doubt the Voltorbs are actually dying since Self-Destruct/Explosion cause a mon to faint, but Reborn does break the one rule I'd prefer untouched: killing mons on screen. That's a personal gripe though. So you slam the guys barring you from getting to the Voltorbs and eventually you get to the last trainer. When you beat the guy (he has a Tynamo), he remarks that everyone is so violent and that there were switches which could open the shutter doors. This is another knock against Julia in my opinion. I don't mind explosions as funsies but this comes across like explosions as reprehensible "anarchy forevurrrr" funsies. I knew a kid in middle school who put cherry bombs into a toilet in the boy's washroom. We were both doing an in-school suspension (myself for kicking a kid's binder down the stairs), but even as a stupid hyperactive brat I remember thinking that other kid deserved an expulsion. Hyperbolic? Sure, but that's the vibe I get from Julia. Anyway, it's time to stomp Julia. Also, there's a rant in there. After the dentist finishes working Julia against the curb, I claim my Volt Badge (which allows the use of Cut, mons up to level 25 will obey) and TM57 Charge Beam. In the wake of slaying Julia, you head out and meet Victoria. Afterwards you're supposed to head east and meet with Florinia, who lets you into the Obsidia Ward. Apparently plants are coming to life and attacking people. Before I tackle that plot thread, I decide to make a pit stop to my local name rater. There are names to be rated. My rat misses a lot, so obviously he's blind on some level. There's only two names I was willing to roll with. My rat is too slick to be the Mad Dog so instead he's Big Boss. Anyway, here's the squad post-Julia. With that said and done, I go and talk to Florinia. -THE WILDEBEAST ZONE- Okay, so here's the deal. I don't like putting food on the counter because I don't know what could have been sitting there. I wash my hands whenever I touch unopened cans because canned food makes my skin crawl. Cereal makes me gag, but cereal in a bowl with milk (regardless of how long it's stewed) makes me gag harder. I used to like oatmeal, but hearing that it was a cereal grain made me hate the stuff. I have to wear rubber gloves when I do the dishes because watching water wash away grime fills me with disgust and a weird sort of existential dread. It's pretty humorous. I love my cat, but I pet him with my feet because I don't want to touch him with my hands. When I do touch him with my hands, I wash them immediately afterwards. Consequently, there are scenarios in which I may fill the bath with water and spend fifteen or so minutes scrubbing my feet when I've already showered and haven't touched my cat at all. If the meaning of my rambling is lost on you, don't worry, it's leading up to something. When I said I had some incredibly neurotic tendencies, I wasn't kidding. I was running around and ended up finding a Spinarak. I've always liked Bug-type mons, more on principle than actual efficacy. I know you can find Combee and Pineco via Heabutt, I know you can get Wurmple, Caterpie, and (I think) Weedle from the roof garden, and I did know you can find Spinarak at night. The original goal had been to find a mon to swap Luckens with since I can't see myself using a Pachirisu past Julia. I wanted Ekans but settled for Spinarak. Today I had some free time, so I sat down and started leveling this Spinarak (I named him Pierre) up. See, the intent had been to hit 20 and stop, but all of a sudden I realized I could do it while I killed time. So I start watching the new Precure, but I kept Reborn open on my computer and just kind of slaughtered wild mons. Blood for the blood god and all that jazz. By the time Pierre hit 25, he was already vaguely EV'd up. Attack and Speed Evs were close to 100 but not quite there. I figured that hey, I might as well finish the job, right? So I went and bought 73 Common Candies to do just that. I'm a big grinder. I like grinding because I like watching numbers go up, especially when that number is an increase in damage. I'm that guy who plays JRPGs with the intent of always being overleveled and always stomping the boss. Usually I level up, go "Oh, but I'm so close to the next level!" and repeat the process until I'm satisfied. That's just how my brain works. I love tedium, but I love optional tedium. Mandatory tedium is different. Anyway, Pierre has murked over a hundred Trubbish/Purrloin each, but he's basically cleared out the Poochyena population with nearly two hundred wins. During that process I found a wild Trubbish holding a Black Sludge so I caught it and slapped its item onto Pierre. I know, even more blood for the blood god. Once I maxed out Pierre's speed (which I lament in retrospect) I went to that fishing hole and fished up 50+ Goldeen for the last of Pierre's Attack EVs. Now, having spent a couple hours making Pierre into an early superbeast, I'm starting to wonder what other wild mons I can hunt for hold items. Black Sludge is really good this early, right? That and I know Meowth can have Quick Claw since I accidentally found one early into Rejuvenation. I did a bit of hunting for that but without Frisk it felt like too much of a hassle. Still, I'm pretty satisfied with my haul for the day. Next time: green greens.

Crackshoot: Move BP is halved, but all attacks crit.

Is encountering zangoose a teddiursa situation, where you chase it around the area until you fight it? I'd like an answer without being told where it is.

You're lucky! Shiny Slurpuff actually looks super nifty compared to most others shinies.

Sorry. And yeah, being raw about the game was the intent. I know a lot of people who rib on Reborn and accentuate its negatives, but I also know a lot of people who think it has no flaws and that everything is the pinnacle of storytelling and gameplay. I personally would rate it a high 7 or a low 8 out of 10 as of where I've played up to beforehand. It's a very fun game, and I like enough of the characters, but I think some ways in which the story and gameplay are presented cause it to suffer. I also believe that in some cases the cult following surrounding Reborn harms the game as much as it enriches it. It's easy to find knee-jerk reactions to criticism whenever someone posts the next big LP of this game. While many of those LPs are incredibly negative, it's important to see past the negativity to where legitimate criticism is brought up. I was relieved in another thread, when (I think) one of the Devs mentioned they go through those negative LPs and take notes. I forget who it was. As for disliking the player character's role in the story, that's also true. This aspect feels more subjective however, as the "player character who doesn't matter" trope rubs me personally the wrong way. Obviously the character matters to some degree, but more often than not they're the first line of defense when it comes to stomping the villain present at that moment in time. It gives me White Knight Chronicles vibes, and I really don't like those vibes. Unfortunately that's one of few ways to progress a plot when your protagonist is the silent one in a heavily character-driven narrative. It's a little frustrating. The Fern spoiler is a little more out there than I expected, but at the same time, it does explain why the narrative starts to spit on him as you get further and further into the game. I'll leave it at that since I'm not sure how big those spoilers actually are. Will keep them in mind as I play through the game though.

You're drawing conclusions based on your own experiences, and the only thing you know about my family is that some of them are smarmy and rude. You have no context, no context of value in regards to this situation, yet act like the little snippet I gave you is enough to classify them as people. If you're willing to project, put yourself in my shoes and try to understand how ignorant and prejudiced you sound right now. You're not some all-seeing eye, you're part of the society you claim is going to hell. I do like your point of view, and I'll keep it in the back of my head when I continue through the game. Often when I play I miss some dialogue, so I can see myself turning around on some points you mentioned. Fern is a jerk, this is undeniable no matter how much I like him at this point. This might paint some of his actions in a new light.

This is a viewpoint I can understand, but I still stand by the idea that the writer(s) double down on pushing Fern as a terrible person during the incident of Corey, and that prior to this, he remains likable enough if your blood can take that sort of person. Except I'm playing a video game. Why would I project my negative personal experiences onto a game I am trying to enjoy? Obviously if I were in that situation I wouldn't be happy with it, but the thing is, I'm not not that situation right now. I can look at this through the lens of a person playing a game and go "Ha, look at this jerk, I love him." People do that in video games. There's a reason rival characters and villains find a soft spot in the general public's heart. Okay, don't do that. Tacking "no offense" onto something doesn't make it not smarmy and rude, especially when the intent is clear.

I don't think I put it right. I described Cain's tendency to steal the show as him always solving the problem, and you're right, that's not true. It would be more apt to state that in scenarios in which he is primed to save the day, he does so without fail and without upset. When Cain's faults are being utilized for the narrative, it's rarely resultant in any dire consequences for the story. Cain exists to progress his own story before the actual story. He's written like a viewpoint protagonist but he's not the protagonist. I said it before, but I like Cain. I said in my first post he was a Mary Sue of circumstance. While he does have his faults, it feels like there are numerous points at which the story conforms to paint him in a better light. Light spoilers below. I'm sorry about your circumstances, but I think we come from different directions on this. I was bullied through elementary school and middle school, though half way through middle school I hit cool kid territory somehow. Back in high school a few people tried to start stuff with me, and those that did must've ended up coming away with a better impression of me or something, because they never came back. I should state in advance that my problem solving mechanic did not involve violence or self-defense because I've never had to throw a punch in my life. Anyway, Fern comes across less like a bully at this point and more like a boisterous brat. He throws a fit then when you first meet then, in the presence of Julia and Florinia, goes "Hey, maybe we got off on the wrong foot, ha ha ha." I can half imagine him glancing from side to side, making sure his sister is watching him pretending to not be a brat. Then there's the scene later when, for reasons, you are trapped in a cage. The fact that he walks up, snickers, and walks off is hilarious. His early game gimmick is great and I love it. Contrast this against late game Fern, where the character is now written as a "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST I'M GONNA JOIN THE WINNING SIDE YOU GUYS SUCK" punching bag meant to induce positive reinforcement when you beat him. From the Corey incident to the present, that's not Fern, that's a caricature of Fern written by someone who really wants you to hate him. They forsook writing a character in favor of writing a target to pull the trigger on. Forgive my saying this, but I feel like comparing early game Fern to mid/late game Fern and stating that's the natural progression is you being both hyperbolic and prejudiced. I have younger family who pull that same "I'm the cool guy, you're the loser" shtick and they're great.

CHAPTER 1: BEASLY SELLS -THE WILDEBEAST ZONE- Pictured: "Oh hey." Before I start, I should mention that I'm using "Set" instead of "Shift." This isn't because I'm confident in my ability to slam the opposition, but because I believe that Shift is unfair. The game's AI is already limited, after all. So the first thing I did was cleanup as many event mons as I knew: Budew, Whismur, Panpour, Gulpin, Espurr, Igglypuff, Kricketot (which gave an early introduction to Shelly), and Teddiursa. I didn't get any of the weather-locked Pokemon like Surskit, Blitzle, Tynamo, or Pansear. Excluding Pachirisu and Zigzagoon (the latter I cannot get), to my knowledge I've collected all event mons in this section of the game. Please correct me if I missed anything important. I also collected a mish-mash of items. Less because I remembered where they were, and more because I'm prone to mashing the interact key against every tile that looks conspicuous. I've listed my spoils below. Again, please correct me if I've missed anything important. This is the squad after said cleanup. -PLOT- Pictured: a rare sunny day in this slimehole city After Overload and Luckens stomp the tar out of two scammers' Pokemon, it's time to advance the plot. I'm always confused on whether to hit up Fern or Julia's gym first, so this time I checked out the gym. Locked, but a note from Florinia points us towards a factory. That's my cue to go beat up Fern, so let's go and do that. Fern is standing around outside on the northwestern end of the ward. When you talk to him he states that they (Florinia and Julia, I assume) told him to meet at the old factory. He realizes they might have meant the other factory, but before he can leave, he notices us staring directly at him from the front. Fern: "Hey, what are you looking at? Got a problem? I hope not. You don't know who you're messing with. Name's Fern. I'm the cool cat, and the top dog. Got it? Cuz I don't think you do. Get ready for a lesson in class!" Pictured: "Okay." Fern (Post-battle): "Hah! Way to get lucky." Fern dismissively says he doesn't have time for this, stating he has people waiting for him. Funny considering he instigated the fight. He runs off, leaving me to complain about future events. So here's the deal with Fern. At this point in the game he's a jerk, but he's at least a likable jerk. I have a big soft spot for characters who talk a big game even when they lose. Had this been my first go through, I'd have nothing to complain about. It is not, so I have a lot of things to complain about. Namely that Fern gets the Cain treatment, but in reverse. Most situations in which Cain is involved are written for him to steal the show. He is pushed too hard as this do-no-wrong nice guy who's always there to save the day. Then there's Fern. Later, Fern is pushed as the opposite of Cain: the ultimate jerk that everyone is supposed to hate. The thing is, it's clear that whoever wrote Reborn decided at some point we didn't hate Fern enough, and doubled down on making him unlikable. This isn't uncommon in writing. The mistake came when Fern turned from an actual character to the embodiment of everything the writer didn't like, a target for people who know "that one guy on the internet" to piss on. I'm informed that characters in Reborn are based on real-life individuals, and that Fern was exactly as obnoxious in real life as he got later in the game. Perhaps that's true, but that doesn't excuse the poor writing used to instill within me the negativity he perhaps instilled within the writer. It's like, come on! If you're going to write a slimebag, at least do it well. There is no slow transition from "Fern is a likable jerk" to "Fern is a terrible human being." It was one thing, then it was the other. Buy hey, I'll vent more on this when we get to those points. With Fern thoroughly stomped, I hop over to the Pokemon Center to give Gusto the medal he deserves. Afterwards, I stop by Julia's gym to trigger the next story flag. Julia asks if I'm here to challenge her gym, then says it'll have to wait. There are terrorists to stop, and Julia suggests I come with. You can't not help, so I head over. Pictured: the correct factory One day later, I decide to polish off the rest of the game before the first gym. Beating this section seems like a good place to stop this entry. Reborn is a long game, and I won't get anywhere if I don't post in sizeable chunks. That, and the more story content I get through, the more off-screen grinding I can pull when I need something tedious to pass the time. So we talk to Julia, who blasts the factory open. Fern and Florinia show up, and Fern at least comes across as a likably smarmy. Contrary to what Julia would have you believe, Flobot sounds way cooler than Rini. Treasure the day someone gives you a sick nickname because for every good nickname, there's a dozen low-effort nicknames. But yeah, it's time to murk some losers. At this point we learn the terrorists are called "Team Meteor." I think this is the first time the name is used, but I might be wrong. We get in there and the water present is super toxic. It's being dumped into the Azurine Lake, and if I had to wager a guess, I'd say that's why the lake looks like an overblown toilet. We split into two groups, Julia and Florinia, Fern and me. It's time to break some kneecaps. Team Meteor has a lot of Rock and Steel-type mons, and in these weird team double battle situations, your team gets healed every battle. This is an ideal time to let the King in the Ring loose, because that's my stupid gimmick. All of my Pokemon fight for Wildebeast so I get to pretend I'm versed in fighting as sports, and that I'm not a wallflower hobbyist on the subject matter. This oughta be fun. Pictured: a bright young upstart eyes the competition from his corner My King and Fern's Budew stomp the competition like grapes, and it doesn't take long for King to hit level 16. He moves up in the world. With King evolved I decide to swap in another mon to sponge up experience. Luckens is my lowest level mon at level 10, so I choose her. Funnily enough, Bide is wasted since the AI is intent on attacking Budew, who is 4 levels higher for some reason. Oh well. I get over it, use Bide again after Budew faints, and the AI decides to attack Fern's level 11 Lotad. These losers don't want to attack my stupid lightning rat. I mean it's fine. Better than the alternative, but nothing is more satisfying than Bide popping when your mon is in the red. Big damage is good damage. That's one of my favorite parts of early Pokemon, mostly because I ditch Bide fairly early into the game. I personally don't find it useful in later portions, where enemies are liable to pulp you in one or two hits. Or maybe I'm just bad. Another failed Bide later, I resign myself to using Quick Attack for piddly piss damage. We eventually meet back up with Julia and Florinia, who are looking for a way to get past some shutter doors. Florinia gets to hacking while Julia sends me and Fern to go find explosives. The gravy train never stops, because everyone between here and there gets slammed. Luckens learns Spark for her trouble. Julia gets her bombs and prepares to blow up the door! Florinia hacks the gate instead. Inside we run into who I think is Team Meteor's boss plus the two grunts (Aster and Eclipse) who show up to impede you throughout the game. Turns out Florinia didn't actually hack the gate, they let us in, yadda yadda the typical villain statement of "I was trying to slow you down." They cleared all mission critical data off their computers, though I'm not sure why they'd take the risk to put it on there in the first place. Aster and Eclipse step up to bat while Julia and Florinia deal with the bossman. This is sort of a boss fight, but I don't really treat it as one. Sometimes it stomps me, other times I slip through it like butter. I'm spitballing my team at this point, so I'm expecting the former to occur this time. With that done and over with, I get to see Julia's Electrode and Florinia's Cradily against one Seviper. Why that Seviper hasn't had its spine snapped like an L-Shaped ruler, I couldn't tell you. With his goons down, big bossman realizes he can handle two trainers, but not four. The screen flashes black and the boss is gone. What that transition meant is incredibly unclear. Did the bossman walk past us? Did we let him past us? Did he throw a smoke bomb down, sneak between an Electrode and Cradily, then escape to freedom? Does he have a mon with teleport? The world may never know. I'm nitpicking. Julia blows the place up and we get vomited out onto the streets. Florinia asks if I observed those sick field effects and yes, I did! So here's the thing. I skimmed the field effects manual once, namely when I was trying to slay that one mirror field, but I'm otherwise in the dark about how each one works. Instead of using the dinky little file that comes in the Reborn folder, I'm gonna collect information on field effects in-game. So Julia disappears and I'm left to my own devices. I'll cut here for today. Below is my team as of writing. Nothing much has changed, so I won't outline new moves that I mentioned in this post. Next time: easy puzzles, guile

Sorry, no offense intended. I display affection for my cat through insults, like calling him a "stupid baby" or a "stupid old man," usually followed up with a high-pitched whine. I didn't call it roadkill to be demeaning, but rather as a term of endearment. Please no.

DISCLAIMER: I am not good at video games, writing, or puzzles. I have to confess: I've never gotten very far into Reborn, and the farthest I've gotten was the point just after getting Surf. The biggest reason for this, more than anything else, is because my brain does not handle puzzles very well. At a certain chess puzzle, I could feel the gears churning in my head. While a large portion of me (I'd say about ninety percent) believes this is because many of Reborn's later puzzles are outlandish and stupid, a much smaller portion acknowledges that maybe, just maybe, I'm a bit stupid. And I hate puzzles. Anyway, I'm going to be playing Reborn, and this time I'll be doing it without any guides. This will not be a play-by-play, but rather small snippets of the run's highlights. In addition to that, this is my soapbox for pointing out aspects of the game that I like, but also aspects that I don't. This includes (but isn't limited to) the narrative, characters, gameplay mechanics, and more. I'll try my best to be constructive because I do like this game. It's very fun and, as I've stated elsewhere, I think it's a very ambitious project. By the way, I'm not good at Pokemon. I played Pokemon Rejuvenation recently, and a screenshot of my team's ace (who has Fissure, by the way) should tell you what type of Pokemon I like to use. Pictured: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Anyway, let's get on with it. -PLOT- When you first start the game, you're greeted by Ame, manager of the Reborn League, who asks your gender and name. Despite my being a man, I usually play female characters. This is mostly because when I play games, I don't put myself in the player character's shoes. I'll usually pick the cutest option because that's what I'd rather be looking at for the next chunk of my life. That's why I'm going with this. Shortly after picking a player avatar, the plot rolls in and the train blows up. You're briefly introduced to Julia, a green-haired cheerleader who really likes explosions. I've nothing against the "explosions as funsies" trope, but something about Julia irks me. Rather than not liking the character, I feel like she takes away from the scene. The game presents a tone-setting event that suggests I should take it seriously, and within seconds, introduces Julia as a way to shatter the tension of what happened. Granted, this is the only way I can think of to segue from an explosion to the adventurous process of selecting a starter. After some back and forth about the explosion, Ame runs off and Julia asks if you're here to take on the Reborn league. Neither answer changes anything, I think, so I picked "Yes." After that, Julia sends you off to Grand Hall, where you meet Victoria for the first time. I've got a few qualms with this character, but I'll save those for when we get there. Victoria says something about the "Reborn System" and we're off to select the best pony. Victoria always picks Tepig, the dinkiest looking starter. I usually dump my starter immediately after catching it, but this time I guess I should use it. That means savescumming until I get what I want, just like I did in Sun/Moon. Pictured: "Now you wrestle for WILDEBEAST." I've never used Piplup, but Empoleon has always been one of my favorite starter designs. Victoria goes to pick her starter and Cain strolls up looking for a fight. I sort of like Cain. I like his cheesy and embarrassing singing/trashy weaboo gimmick, I like how flamboyant his design is, and I like almost every Poison mon. I dislike how Cain is used in the story, and how most scenarios in which he is involved are written for him to steal the show. Cain is sort of like Marie from P4G. I like a lot about him on paper, but the fact that he is such a creator's pet makes me unhappy. He is a Mary Sue of circumstance. More on that later, when I've got actual scenes to complain about. At this point he's generally likable. Anyway, Cain hits on us and we slam his Nidoran. Or not. He curbstomps King into the red until his Nidoran starts missing every attack. Hustle too good. Victoria steps up to bat too, but Tepig beats King, who doesn't learn a Water move until later. Tepig is bulky and the Piplup line has high Sp.Atk and middling to poor Atk. Victoria wipes the blood off Tepig's tiny piglet feet before Ame gives us both a PokeDex and PokeGear. Also some sick running shoes that break the frame rate in speed-up mode. Victoria gives us five Poke Balls and with that, the hand holding is done. Well, minus one scene where a Torkoal roasts a man alive. It's another tone-setter. Harmless, but I feel like it didn't need to be there. Reborn's biggest issue is that it ping-pongs the tone between grimdark and cheesy, and that makes it hard to stay invested in what's going on. But hey, I'm gonna do it. -THE WILDEBEAST ZONE- I've decided to separate this not-LP into two segments: Plot, where I talk about the story, and this, where I bat cleanup and get incredibly neurotic about a video game for children. After losing 500 neo-shekels to a guy who isn't going to sell me Magikarp, I'm left with a balance of 2640 neo-shekels. I immediately spend all of it on Poke Balls. I don't have enough to get more than 13, so there's no point buying them in increments of 10 for bonus Premier Balls. At that point I've got 18 Poke Balls and 1 Premier Ball. The first thing I do is catch as many Meowth/Rattata as I can. Meowth so I can scum the game out with a Pick-Up mon and Rattata because, for some reason, I'm determined to carry a Rattata through this game. It's gonna be a damn good Rattata, even if I have to catch a bunch of them. Pictured: a damn good Rattata I also considered raising a Patrat because Watchhog looks like LordGenome, but we'll see where that goes. It went, by the way. The Meowth hunting, however, did not. I got a bunch, but all of them had Unnerve. They're useless. After circling around the center to prove my rat is the strongest, I check out which of two mons is getting heckled by a bunch of guys with nothing better to do. It's Pachirisu. Pictured: one man's poor naming sense I've always had a soft spot for the Electric-type roadkill that gets introduced every generation. Plusle and Minun represented an all-time low, and Togedemaru is an all-time high. That stupid ball of spikes is the best. Pachirisu would probably be my next favorite after Togedemaru, half because I like its white-blue colour scheme and half because it's cute. After a trip to Nurse Joy (my rat died) it's time to do event mon cleanup. I don't plan to get too in-depth outside of important battles and the story. Below is the squad prior to big cleanup. It's an early-game mess. Next time: Cain is Dante, Fern is Vergil. (A bit late, but I've never done something like this before. Criticism might help if something terrible catches your eye.)

I believe those ribbon sprites come with Pokemon Essentials, but I might be wrong.