Episode 22: Lucian Goes To Rehab

Having handily just obtained a Flying type from our Soul revival, I grabbed it out of the PC and taught it Fly to head back to Viridian City. While I was teaching TMs though, I decided to check in on Fire Blast: Once again all but one member of our team can learn it. (Zorotl can't, naturally. So I won't be able to waste it on a Water Beast.) I decided I'd teach it to The Peeker over Super Fang: The Wrap strategy means we more often need a finishing move rather than something that can deal damage up front, and I think having another type's worth of coverage is going to be more important than whatever value Super Fang will add.

With that out of the way, it's time to see who this mystery Gym Leader is after all.

Even Speako, the most wise person I know, doesn't know who Viridian's Gym Leader is. If even Speako cannot help us, we may be truly doomed. But I will give it my all in any case.

Among the trainers of the gym are two new Beasts and one new Trainer class, confirmed the Rangers take the place of Cooltrainers here. Most of the dialogue seems disappointingly similar to the original game, although there is also a police officer who says he's investigating the gym. Sounds like the leader is in fact Lucian based on that, but maybe it's just some other unrelated criminal! Who knows!

Our two new Beasts are both final evolved forms of Beasts we'd seen previously, which makes sense for this late in the game. I'd be a bit surprised if we saw any that were completely new at this stage.

Anyways yeah it's totally Lucian.

"This is quite fortuitous for me, actually. I had planned to hunt you down and make an example of you, but you chose to come to me instead." It's gonna be so embarassing for you when I completely kick your ass on my own terms my dude. It sure seems like he's taking his losses pretty hard, judging by his first Beast out.

I'm not sure what the accuracy is on Hyper Voice in this game, but Drunkongo missed one on the only chance it got to attack, and Zorotl took it down with two neutral Surfs. Disappointly, none of the rest of his team are new Beasts either: After Drunkongo was Mosston, who went down to two Tubi Flash Cannons and only had a mediocre Rock Slide to offer in return. Cracture, who I guess doesn't have an evolution, was in next, and Tubi stayed in to take it down with two Strengths. Its move of choice here was Drill Peck, which is kind of funny but is also a pretty awful choice of move for this matchup. Embalmak likewise went down with no trouble to a pair of Super-effecive Flash Cannons, and we were left with Lucian's ace.

Hilariously, it seems like Predatox doesn't have any moves that can hit Tubi. It showed both Sludge Bomb and Poison Fang, and if it had a move that could do anything I would've thought it would use it here. Then again, we've seen the AI select ineffective moves several times in this playthrough, so I'm not sure. In any case, giving a boss Beast a moveset of only Poison attacks in a game with this many Steel types is a pretty hilarious decision, although probably not one that should stay in the game, lol.

After a brief moment of disbelief, Lucian takes his defeat shockingly gracefully, saying that we've shown him his "time in this region is over." Could it be? Hinting at a Star Beasts 2? Probably not, but wouldn't that be just the funniest thing in the world. Either way, he's gone, hopefully to rehab if that Drunkongo was any indication.

The SummitBadge is now ours, as is a TM for Fissure that I have 0 intention of ever using. In any case, it's time we set a course for Victory Road, but not before saying hello to Varik one last time. (Well, other than the last last time.)

I led with Rowsdower since knew he would be leading with Gryphern. A Thunderbolt wasn't quite enough to knock the bird down, but Rowsdower was able to tank a Flamethrower quite well. Up next is another of a Beast we just saw for the first time earlier today.

Sculpitar, this guy's first stage was Rock/Ground, but now that it has wings I speculated that it might now be something like Rock/Flying. With that in mind, I went for a speculative Thunderbolt, which did not work. So it's at least still Ground, also evidenced by it hitting Rowsdower with an Earthquake that obviously took him down.

Zorotl cleaned up Marbitar with a Surf, and Harlefinn came out next. My best guess as to this thing's type was Water/Poison, since it used Poison Fang whenever I fought it so I went for a Psychic: Turns out, it's Water/Dark, and Zorotl gets Lovely Kissed to sleep for that mistake. Bad day for me making the wrong call on immunities, I guess. I went into Tubi, who two shot it with Strength, but did get paralyzed by a Dragonbreath which makes me less likely to want to leave it in.

I went out to Rocky Dan for Beourgeist for Earthquake purposes, and learned that it still hasn't gotten a better Fire move than Ember. While that is pretty funny, it was quick to shut me up by giving Rocky Dan a Burn that stopped Earthquake from being a one-hit-KO. I was able to take it down in two hits, but Rocky Dan's HP was quite low and it was going to die to the burn on the next turn anyways.

Level 50 Majivich was Varik's next to last Beast, and I decided to just sac Rocky Dan here, clicking Explosion on the off chance it missed a move or something. It actually went for Confuse Ray, so my Explosion was successful and even one-shot it through the burn.

Finally, Floratress is here to make a valiant last stand. I decided to give The Peeker a shot, especially since we've got that exciting new Fire Blast now. I got a Thunder Wave off easily, and it showed me Counter. I'm not too worrid about that, The Peeker's only Normal/Fighting move is Wrap, which I'm fairly confident it's impossible to Counter. (But Counter in RBY is wack so who knows maybe there's a shenanigan.) Unfortunately, after only a handful of Wraps I miss one and it gets off a Brick Break, putting The Peeker to 4 HP. Backed into a corner, I go for a Fire Blast. It barely lives but a (not-very-effective, apparently) Crunch is able to clean up after it goes for another Counter on the Fire Blast turn.

Victory Road is now all that stands between us and the end of the game. It's been a hell of a ride, and I can't wait to see how it all ends.

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