Episode 7: I'm a Bad Person

It was at this point I went go reload the save state that I'd made so I could get The Peeker back... Only to realize that I either forgot to make one or it didn't save correctly or something. Either way, my last save was right outside Mt. Moon just after I'd evolved Rocky Dan, so I had to do all of Mt. Moon over again. I'm choosing to believe that The Peeker took getting traded away really personally and so wanted to annoy me. It's got video game creepypasta powers after all, save states are a domain under its control. I'm sorry buddy, it won't happen again.

Well, the trek back through Mt. Moon wasn't especially noteworthy, although I did get a lot more opportunities to use Rock Throw and see if it's accuracy has been changed at all: It doesn't seem like it, I was missing about half of the time. Pretty funny stuff. There is one last matter to attend to before we enter the city though: A TM on the ground, that will change the course of the playthrough.

I was just thinking: "Rocky Dan is pretty busted for this point in the game right now, but the problem is he's not quite busted enough." Getting a TM for an incredibly powerful Steel move assuades those fears that I was definitely having, and nobody else on my team can learn it anyways. I considered removing Rock Throw instead of Tackle since it was so inaccurate, but it's important to consider: Rock Throw missing all the time is kind of funny. So Rock Throw stays. Oh, and there was nothing new in the tall grass on this route, other than wild Bokongos which we hadn't had the chance to catch yet.

At least, here we are in Cerulean City. The music here is the Water Club theme from TCG GBC, which fits well but I do wish there was more original music and weirder choices, even if all of these tracks are great. I learn from some NPCs that Bill is in fact still Bill, and rather than a Pokémaniac they just call him a Collector. There's also an NPC that offers to trade a Spriggle for a Quincy: Having the other starters available as in-game trades is a cool way of doing it, I approve.

From the person who explains what the badges all do, we also get to see what each of the badges has been renamed to. In order, the new names are:
• ROCKINBADGE
• SURFINBADGE
• MAGNETBADGE
• PRIDEBADGE
• NEPUBADGE
• MARSHBADGE
• PYROBADGE
• SUMMITBADGE

After the first two I was really hoping they'd all be in the same "-'in" format, but oh well. Curiously the Marsh Badge looks to be unchanged. Is that gym's leader still going to be Sabrina? If so will this be lampshaded at all? This also poses the question of Team Rocket: The name of the last badge is different, is the boss still Giovanni? Stay tuned for the answers to all of these questions.

The real reason to care about the badge man is that he's got a Rare Candy hidden in his backyard. Don't worry, that's still here and accounted for.

Lawncrete here gives another name to a creature we haven't seen yet. Sounds to me like a Grass/Rock type, which would make the second one after Mosston, unless it's related. I guess it could also be Grass/Ground or something as well. In other news, an NPC that describes what Repels do says they keep away "bugs and weak Star Beasts".

Is the idea here that there's non-Star Beast animals and this is basiclaly just bug spray? I guess theoretically there's non-Star Beast dogs, judging by Bladeberus's description. Although I feel like that might just be a direct translation from Vast Fame's game? Maybe later dialogue will make this more clear.

One thing I don't ever expect to be clarified is this line in the bike shop: "I heard there's a bike out there that can write! Can you imagine that? A bicycle writing fanfiction?"

So, shoutouts to whichever of the developer's friends this is referencing.

Alright, enough screwing around. Varik is back in town and ready to rumble. And this time, his bird is a whole lot fatter.

This thing was kind of a major threat. XMVSF had a type advantage but its Thundershock would've been a 3 hit KO, and it was slower and got 2 shot. Mr Bungle tried to get some damage on the board, but didn't get very far either. Toby Kebel had to come in and show them how it's done. (Glared it and then clicked Wrap a bunch). After Tomaroc went down, his new Starbie was another new guy.

Rumpel, who I would bet 20 dollars evolves into Stiltzkin, only used Teleport and then died. So I supposed it's the Abra expy. The Beast that came in next kind of really annoyed me though.

Come on dude! That's my thing! You can't do my thing! He even used Wrap with it! It missed though, because he doesn't have the master's touch. He will never have the unbreakable bond that I have with The Peeker (except when the bond was broken for a little bit but shhhhh don't worry about it).

The nameless, swagless, pathetic Manhandla went down fairly easily, as did the still unevolved Quincy that came out as his final Starbie. Quincy had Comet Punch which is kind of fun, that move getting wider distribution in the game called "Star Beasts" makes sense. After his miserable defeat, Varik mentions that Bill "seems like a kook" and that he turned himself into a Beast, saying "something about Gene Splicing". Seems like an odd piece of dialogue to add here, is that foreshadowing some kind of new mechanic? We're not gonna find out if we spend more time lollygagging here. Go home Varik, and take your miserable hands with you. The golden splendor of Nugget Bridge stretches before me, and your silly hat is blocking my view of its glory. (The glory is that I get a nugget at the end.)

The trainers on Nugget Bridge were unremarkable: The Bug Catcher had a Slashopper which was kind of neat, but nothing cool otherwise. The music for this route starts with just percussion for a while, before its weirdly intense melody kicks in. I wouldn't mention this normally, but since I was entering into trainer battles so soon after I entered the route every time, I never actually heard the intense melody until I started talking to the Team Rocket guy at the end of the bridge, and it kicked in right as he started talking about Team Rocket. I initially mistook it for a dynamic music change to match the dialogue, but it wasn't, the song is just like that. Kind of funny.

Anywho, the Rocket had this thing.

All time ROM hack banger right here. If I saw this thing when I was 13 I'd think it was the coolest shit in the world. Now that I'm 22 I also think it's still like, maybe the fourth or fifth coolest shit in the world. It still ranks. This thing had Shadow Claw which was interesting, but wasn't a Ghost since it took neutral damage from Wrap. Another Dark type, probably.

The Nugget is great, but the really great item at the end of Nugget bridge is right here at the end:

Thunder Wave is absolutely massive for our team, probably even better than the Flash Cannon TM I was popping off about earlier. A whole lot of my team can learn it as well: Toby Kebel, XMVSF, Rowsdower, and Mr Bungle are all options. Out of these XMVSF and Toby probably don't need it since they already have Glare, but I'll have to think on Rowsdower versus Mr Bungle. Having Paralysis on the thing you're using Wrap with in the first place is hugely beneficial, but it would also let Rowsdower actually contribute to the team's game plan more than just being big damage.

This also feeds into another thing I've been thinking about: XMVSF has kind of been jobbing. Even its Confusions have not been hitting very hard, and its defenses are so low that it makes it hard for it to really make meaningful contributions in matches unless it's already got a type advantage against what's out. (And even then I got a Gen 1 miss with it against a fighting type earlier, lol). I haven't been using Rowsdower as much for a bit, since I was kind of thinking XMVSF might replace him on the team, but I think I'm taking him off the bench. Super Fang and that higher damage output sounds real good right now.

Speaking of Zapodi, the trek to Bill's house didn't have much to note, except for the fact that Rocky Dan's Flash Cannon is able to one-shot trainer's Zapodis even when it's supposedly not very effective. He's a monster, I love it.

Speaking of Steely Dan dealing huge damage, he learned Selfdestruct after a level up here. Only other thing of note before we get to Bill's house is the Seismic Toss TM, which I doubt we're ever going to need so I'll probably just sell it.

At Bill's house, the scenario is basically the same as in RBY, although hilariously he's initially relieved that someone "came back" before realizing we're not that person and going "Ahem" and going into his usual dialogue. Varik just left him here I guess, fun bit of extra character. The only other notable change to his dialogue that I noticed was that he says "I can't stand rich folks" rather than "I can't stand fancy do's". That might just be because "fancy do's" is a slightly odd phrasing (which is the reason I remember the line in the first place), but I like to think the devs just wanted to add dialogue of someone saying they hate rich people. Hell yeah.

Especially astute viewers may remember that there's something else we should be looking for here. And we don't have to look far to find it.

In the entranceway to the secret garden is this guy, who says his Tearwulf thinks i'm a "bad person". in the dialogue, Stella apparently just says they are without any of my own input, which is honesty that he appreciates. I would've said I was a bad person either way for the record.

Talking to the Tearwulf also gives us a look at its sprite:

We can go down these stairs to enter the garden itself, but we don't get very far before we're stopped by the cops. Apparently he isn't letting anyone through until "that creepy guy" is dealt with. I initially assumed he was talking about the weirdo with the werewolf, but since he's a cop he's actually probably talking about the Rocket who robbed the house.

This guy also has honestly one of my favorite little pieces of dialogue in the game so far. He says that he's not letting anyone through until the creepy guy is dealt with and "things go back to normal. Well, normal by Cerulean City standards, anyways." That's such a fun little bit to add that makes the world feel so much more lived in. If you live in Cerulean weird shit and crime just happens a lot, apparently. It gives you that sense of worldbuilding while still feeling so natural. What a nice piece of flavor text. Big fan.

Before I returned to take on the gym, I decided to take a look in the tall grass in Route 24, which I didn't do the first time I had the chance. There's nothing we hadn't seen before as far as I could tell, but it is the first opportunity to catch some Beasts that only trainers have had so far: Rumpel and Sackran. Rumpel does have Teleport in the grand Abra tradition, but that's not actually its only move: It's also got Metronome. That's a much more fun gimmick than Abra, this would be a fun Starbie to raise. I think I'll pass for now though. Sackran is unsurprisingly Dark, and also has Teleport although it's in addition to a more normal moveset. The connection to the Mario RPG Crooks deepens: Those guys ran away from battle a lot too. Intentional reference? Probably not it's a common trope for thief enemies in RPGs, but it's fun.

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