Episode 10: There's A Guy Called "Weedimp" In This One

Before I head to the Gym, I should go poke around Vermillion City and talk to the NPCs that I didn't check out when I first arrived. I should also point out that the music for Vermillion City is actually like, a more smooth chill redition of the Saffron City theme. Kind of odd, but I guess goes along with Viridian's music also being a rearrangement of a different track.

The replacement for the trade for DUX completes the starter trades with a Kindergard for a Jelleye. I did actually catch a Kindergard, but this is the one starter I don't need. Oh well. Outside in the middle of the town is the woman who comments about pollution. In the vanilla game, she says that they're careful because Grimer populates in polluted water, but here she still says something similar, saying that it attracts "slime monsters". Are there any Grimer-esque slimes in the game, I wonder? I suppose Slimogg is kind of close, but people actually like them.

A man in the Star Beast Center mentions that Needolf has a split evolution: It can evolve with either a Moon Stone or an item called the "Dark Soul". I was under the impression that the Souls were the equivalents of Fossils, but maybe they're actually a more important worldbuilding thing and they have a lot of different properties. Or maybe none of this matters.

In the Star Beast Fan Club, I grab the Bike Voucher after hearing how president hugs his "Kremate" every night, and how his "Gryphern" will fly him anywhere. Importantly though, one of the NPCs does give us a glimpse at a Starbie we very well may be adding to our team at some point.

Alright, time to take on Eleksi. Evidently she's a world famous singer, and she sets up the trash can puzzle as a security system in case her fans get too rowdy. There was a guy on the dock outside who said he called off work for a week to see her perform, but she was "on the fritz again", so maybe we'll learn the deal with that.

The first trainer is, hilariously a Rocket who's got the battle theme and everything. (I don't think I ever mentioned this, but yeah the Rockets all have the GSC Rocket battle theme). He says he's afraid that I'll tell "the boss" that he's shirking his duties in here, but I still don't even know if Giovanni is the boss or not, so I think you're safe for now, guy. He did have one of these things though.

It stood no chance against The Peeker's Wraps, but the Needolf that came in afterwards dodged 3 Wraps in a row and kicked The Peeker's ass. That's rough. Luckily Toby Kebel could come in and pick up the slack.

It seems like this gym's trainers don't actually use Electric type Beasts, since they're all just fans who are here to see the show. This trend continues with a Cue Ball, who says he wants Eleksi to autograph his head. I love the Cue Balls, they're probably my favorite trianer type. Mostly just because I think calling a bald person a "cue ball" is hilarious. 10/10 localization.

The big bald boy gets a chance to show us what the Fan Club President's favorite Starbie actually looks like, since he's got a Kremate on his team. I can't say I'd want to hug it while sleeping myself, but I'm not gonna hate. The man gave me a free bicycle, I'm in no place to judge his lifestyle behind his back.

Enough fucking around though. You want to see some real shit?

What can I even say about this thing. It's perfect. It's Grass/Steel though, and boy, this game sure loves its Steel types. It makes the Wrap strategy kind of inconvenient sometimes, to be honest. But we'll power through.

Our last opponent before the Gym Leader is a Gambler, who has...

Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here as me saying I don't love Rocky Dan just the way he is. I wouldn't trade him for the world. But Rollen? Rollen has captured my heart from the minute I opened this game for the first time. I'll miss you, buddy. (It clicked Meditate and then Selfdestruct, lol)

Now we just have to complete the best puzzle in Pokémon history before we can fight the boss. In case you didn't know, this puzzle is actually slightly bugged in RBY: The second switch could be in one of the adjacent trash cans like it's supposed to be, but it also always has a random chance of being in the top left can. The first time I found the first switch, I just dropped a save state to save time and tried all the adjacent cans. The switch was in none of them. Turns out, I got the glitch and it was in the corner. Pretty funny.

Anyways Eleksi is a robot.

The full quote here is: "You hear an odd whirring noise as Alexi turns towards you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. YOU ARE A: TRUE FAN. SHOCKING, FLASHY. THAT'S. ELESKI. NOW YOU WILL. DEFEAT. LET'S. LET'S. LET'S. You gotta hold onto your dream… If you wanna be a pop star!" Notice how the narration here isn't in parentheses, so anyone who's still holding onto that bet from earlier, keep waiting.

Her first Starbie out is the evolved form of Epilepsia, who you may remember as being X-Men Versus Street Fighter from earlier in the playthrough. In this battle, my decision to cut that wingnut from the team is reaffirmed. Take a look at this.

That's one Horn Attack from Zorotl versus one Thundershock from Convulsia. Not only did I outspeed and do over half, but even a STAB super-effective move from an evolved Starbie at almost the same level didn't even do half in return. Maybe this is just Zorotl being cracked rather than Convulsia jobbing, but either way, I want this little asshole out of my sight. Bring on the next Star Beast!

Probably the evolved form of Joltybara, and it did a shockingly bad job at dealing with Zorotl as well. Even while damaged, Zorotl was able to 1v1 another evolved Electric type. Now, it did go down to a Thunderbolt from Eleksi's final Beast, but I think that's still a pretty stellar performance from a Starbie I was kind of expecting to not accomplish much in this fight. And like, look at this thing.

Level 27, using a whole-ass Thunderbolt, and it seems like this is the final evolution of Zapodi so it's definitely got a monster BST. This thing fully one-shot Toby Kebel who I brought in next, so I needed to really come up with a plan. I wound up going into Rowsdower and, for the first time since it was on its moveset all the way back at the start of the game, I used Screech. I also got a Super Fang off before I died to a Night Shade, so this was perfectly softened up for The Peeker to come in. It lived a Thunderbolt, landed a Wrap, and then finished the job with a super-effective Mach Punch. Done deal.

After claiming the Magnet Badge and the TM for Thunderbolt(!!!), we get some more narration after Eleksi says she's going to DISPENSE an AUTOGRAPH. A blank piece of paper comes out of her mouth, and we decide to throw it away. Lucky, since this place is filled with trash cans. (And no, that narration was not in parentheses either.)

In Red and Blue, all of the TMs given out by Gym Leaders are not learned as level-up moves by anybody. I do already know this isn't true in Star Beasts, since we saw somebody with Psywave back in Mt. Moon (unless Psywave is no longer that gym's TM, which is also plausible). However, currently nobody else on my team can learn Thunderbolt anyways, it's not a guarantee that he'll get it by leveling up, and it's also just a substantial boost in firepower, so I decided to give Rowsdower Thunderbolt right from the jump. While I was in the business of giving Rowsdower upgrades, I did go and check to make sure the Moon Stone wasn't used to evolve him into Kurayami. Since it wasn't that much higer level than Rowsdower, I assume that this is some sort of special evolution like a Stone. And it isn't long before we're able to confirm this.

On my way out of town, I decided to swing by the Mart to pick up some healing items and balls, and realized I never talked to the NPCs in here. For one of them in particular, I'm very glad I did: She lets slip that Eleksi got her "special Beast" by using a Dark Soul on a Shochran. Something something The Final Sacrifice, something something Scholar of the First Sin.

Diglett's Cave has become "Cracture Chasm", and a gentleman outside the cave says there was a shockwave, and some things moved around inside. But you're here to see what a Cracture is, right? Well, here you go.

Cracture is yet another Steel type, and unsurprisingly has Dig. These made up most of the encounters I found in the chasm, but there was actually one other Beast I ran into.

Level 30! That's crazy! I probably wasn't going to use this thing on my team, but I decided to catch it anyways just for posterity, since it was such a high level. Maybe if there's a boss I'm struggling with I can bring this thing out of the box.

Inside, the layout was mostly the same, but there was one important extra area. I won't be able to do anything here right away, but once I have Surf and Strength I'll have to return and see what this is all about.

On the other side are the usual suspects: I grab the Flash HM from Cherry's Aide, an HP Up, and another Moon Stone. The Mr. Mime trade has been replaced by trade of a "Swiftile" for an "Owai". I don't know what either of those are yet, but I suppose I'll file that info away for later.

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