Part 71: Red End

Update 55: Red End

Goldenrod City



Welcome back, it's time for the final Crystal update cause there's not much left to do in this game. We have done a ridiculous amount, but it's all gotta end some day.



: Should I teach a new move? It will cost you 4000 coins. Okay?

Game Corner coins are easy to come across, let's do it!



After you beat the Champion, this guy will appear on Wednesday and Saturday and let you tutor some cool moves onto your Pokemon. If the elemental punches aren't doing you justice, then this guy is just what we need. Sure, I could've shown him off earlier, but we didn't really need him, my team doesn't exactly gel with these moves too well and the ones that do didn't really need them until now.



We're gonna give Kakarott one last boost of power and that'll do. Jeremiah could learn Ice Beam, but eh, I prefer my punching frog.

"a trainer."

: Wahahah! Farewell, kid!



You can only do this once until he comes back another day, so choose carefully.

Pallet Town



Didn't we complete a Pokedex or something? Let's see what we get for that!



: If you're in the area, I hope you come visit again.

Celadon City



Maybe we'll have better luck at Game Freak's HQ?

"POKéDEX!"

: Congratulations!

"DIPLOMA for you."

: You should go show it off.



: Oh, you completed your POKéDEX? Want me to print out your DIPLOMA?



Alright, cool. Why did I even bother? Anyway, we've run out of things to do, so it's onto the last thing!



Spending the last of my money on Revival Herbs! What else am I going to do with it? Now we've prepared for...

Mt. Silver



The final battle! This is not one to be taken lightly, this boy will fuck you up. Good thing there's lots of places to grind... oh, uh, well we should be fine!



It's been a while since we've gone over our team, but that's cause they haven't changed much. ...Kamina? is our heavy hitter and heavy defender. Just don't rely on him to do anything regarding the special side.



Mothra has good Special Attack but nothing to really use it with, so we just throw off boosted Sludge Bombs every now and then. Still, she's been pretty dependable, if not particularly notable.



Helios is a weird mishmash that is finally usable in firing off strong Psychic attacks. Took fucking long enough. But really, he's been a great help and being able to burn PP with Fly is always good against an annoying opponent.



Churchill has simply smashed through opponents with startling dependency. Seriously, I dunno how many opponents she's wrecked, but it's a lot. I love it. She's barely changed over the LP, but she doesn't need to do anything else.



Jeremiah has been a physical attacker, special attacker, status inflicter, the works. The backbone of the team and used in pretty much every catching attempt I've made and not a bad battler either. She's just grand.



Finally our starter Kakarott. While he ran out of steam towards the middle of the game, an evolution and elemental punch made him an excellent attacker and one of the most dependable members of the entire team. Shame this team will soon be retired, but it's been great fun.



Hello to you too, let's do this.

VS Former Champion Red VS Former Champion Red








First thing you might notice is, at its lowest, Red is 15 levels higher than the previous strongest trainer: Blue. And then we have Pikachu here at level 81, the highest in the series up to this point (I mean there had only been 4 games before its debut, but still...)



However since it's a Pikachu, if you just hit it with a STAB Earthquake, it'll just fall over, even with -2 Attack. You might be thinking, phew, that's the biggest threat out of the way.



Oh you would be wrong. Unless you have a specially defensive monster, or a Dark type, you'll be taking a lot of damage from this Espeon. And it's the lowest level out of all of them!



We need to deal with this thing toot sweet (or however you spell that).



Will it be enough?



It was, good dog! That's one big threat out of the way.



Ah goddammit here's the next big threat.



Poison maybe?



If you have a Ghost type, Snorlax can do sweet fuck all to you, but otherwise it hits hard with Body Slam and spreads paralysis around. Thankfully it's still slow enough that you'll still be faster, but it makes me hesitant to cure the status, cause it'll probably just inflict it again!



Now I thought that Snorlax had lower Special Defense than Defense, since Amnesia was there to patch up its lower stat. No, I'm completely wrong, it only has a base 65 Defense stat compared to a 110 Special Defense stat. I've never been one to learn the specific numbers of things...



Helios can't even survive a hit from this thing...



However, one saving grace is that when you do hit it on the physical side, you do a fair amount of damage and this will just make it easier to deal with.



Ah goddammit. Churchill is one of two Pokemon on the team slow enough to become slower than Snorlax after paralysis. Since it barely survives one Body Slam, I either have to heal the paralysis, or just let it die.



So why revive Jeremiah? Well my plan was to weaken Snorlax enough, then put it to sleep before it could go for Rest. Then switch to a physical heavy hitter (like ...Kamina?) and take it out.



Immediately my plan fails cause it goes for Rest when it's not really in much danger of being knocked out.



In order to lower its health back to where it was, we need to lower its Defense again. But don't think it's useless when it's asleep, it will Snore sometimes. Not all the time though.



It won't Snore on turns it'll wake up on, so watch out.



Alright Churchill, get the Defense drops!



Maaaaaaaaaaaaan



It's alright, we can do this. One more shot!



Alright fine, don't make my life easier.



...Kamina? can make that, right?



Goddammit!



GODDAMMIT



I'm taking a gamble by not healing and going for an attack. But all I need to do is hit my attack and Snorlax goes down.



Nooooooooooooo



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



Christ almighty...



At least Snorlax can't do much damage to me, but goddamn this thing will not die. If I'd just got another Defense drop, it would've fainted ten screenshots ago.



Thankfully it seals its fate.



FUCK OFF



Ah goddammit it's another threat. Save me Kakarott!



Okay good, it only has Grass type moves.



And I can 2HKO it, whaaaaaaat?



It can also 2HKO me... good thing I'm faster!



But getting rid of one problem brings us to our fourth one. Cause Pikachu wasn't a problem.



Let's hit it from the lower special side.



Oh shit it's faster! (That's honestly not very surprising)



At least Jeremiah can take hits from it all day long.



Since we've got a breather, we can heal up our team cause we're hanging in the balance right now.



Oh wow, we're not paralysing with our Body Slams, WHAT A SURPRISE.



Alright Mothra, you can take this turtle.



This should do loads.



Err, maybe Mothra don't gots this.



But Mothra hangs in there to get off one last attack.



Alright, can we finally take this thing down now?



I think we'll need two more Strengths to take it down, but we've can only take one more attack.



So it's all our nothing, let's go!



Okay, just one more time and we've got this!



Damn. Well if ...Kamina? is slower than a paralyzed Blastoise, then we actually lose.



But we're good. That's another threat down!



Oh shit it's the next threat! At least this one is the last one.



Thankfully I survived, otherwise, again, I would've lost.



But this should do massive damage.



Well admittedly I wasn't expecting it to OHKO, but I would've revived Kakarott next turn and had him take down Charizard. Still, we win!



Always the quiet one.




And he disappears into the night. BUT, we're not ready to see the credits just yet!



Welcome to Pokemon Gold! Kinda... I've been wanting to show this off for a long time, but we're gonna have one more climactic battle to end off the Crystal LP.

VS Former Protagonist Satoshi VS Former Protagonist Satoshi



I wanna give a big thanks to SystemLogoff for coming to me a loooooong time ago with this idea of a Gold hack featuring the team I used in the Yellow LP. Seriously, they first messaged me in April. 2016. I've been looking forward to this for a while.



I copied over the team as they are just before we faced Red, but you may have noticed Ikue is a higher level than Red's Pikchu.



You may also notice that Ikue has Iron Tail. Pikachu sure as hell didn't! I came up with these movesets for SystemLogoff to put into the hack based on what's the best coverage available to our Gen 1 team in Gen 2, as well as any improvements to their old moveset, with some exceptions. I did however change a few things when SystemLogoff sent me the final version, cause I actually came up with a couple of moveset changes after the fact. Hehe.



It is still a Pikachu however, so it goes down in one shot. Its moveset was Thunderbolt, Iron Tail, Quick Attack and Thunder Wave, holding a Light Ball. Oh yeah, they've all got items and thankfully Light Ball doesn't double Attack in this game, or ...Kamina? would've been one shot. I wanted to put Return in its moveset, but Iron Tail made it a threat and the rest of the moves were from its Yellow moveset. You'll be seeing this theme a lot.



Next up is our defensive boney friend. ...Kamina? will be useful for later, but for now let's send out Jeremiah. Ikue is the only opponent that has a higher level than its non-hack counterpart. I'm not that much of a masochist.



Hmm, I would've liked more damage, but that should be fine.



Huh, that's a lot of damage. Makes sense though, its a strong STAB move.



Again, pretty good, but it's not what we're looking for.



Still, we should survive this and be able to KO it next turn, hopefully?



Well SOMEONE has a Thick Club to double their Attack.



Man Giga Drain is a pretty shitty move...



Okay, let's end this now, we can't lose to the first actual threat.



Of course Churchill is slower! I don't know why I thought otherwise. Ever.



But at least it dies to recoil, that's one threat dealt with. mr skeltal had Earthquake, Submission, Strength and Substitute, holding a Thick Club. Because I hate myself.



Oh good here's another threat.

"activated!"


You feeling lucky, punk? Wukong is a lot faster than mr skeltal and has +2 Attack also. But it'll also do a lot of damage if it hits itself in confusion. Berserk Gene's confusion is special too, it never wears out naturally. Well, it runs out after 255 turns, but don't rely on that. Like at all.



...will a Revive actually work on Kakarott after that?



Still, if it's locked in on Thrash, then ...Kamina? can take a hit and we can use that opportunity to stall it out and see if it hits itself. See, useful!



Wow that's a lot of confusion damage... that also means it's no longer locked in on Thrash. SHIT



I think we could all see that coming. Helios is here to finish the job!



Holy shit that plan actually worked. Uh, I mean, of course I knew that was going to happen! Wukong had Cross Chop, Thrash, Rock Slide and Focus Energy, holding the Berserk Gene.



Oh yeah, Aquamemnon evolved, didn't it? How the hell am I supposed to break through this thing? I've got no Dragon moves!



Still, it's not about hitting it really hard, it's surviving any of its attacks and Jeremiah is perfect for the job. Farewell Helios.



Uh, or not? That means we can revive someone else, woohoo!



And another Pokemon! Goddamn we might actually have a shot of this.



Well that was nice while it lasted.



So why exactly am I going to Mothra?



Well firstly, she can survive an attack (thank god).



Secondly, she can land a Stun Spore and make this threat a bit more manageable.



Thirdly, she can land two attacks cause I'm a lucky little shit that shouldn't have gotten this far.



I think that crit mattered.



Alright, now onto delicious X item abuse while Jeremiah shrugs off hits. Otherwise we'll be here forever trying to take down this goddamn wall and I don't wanna do that. I was tempted to use X Attack against Red's Snorlax, but then I was focused on lowering its Defense and forgot I had the items in my Bag.



+2 should be enough, so let's heal and go on the offensive.



Okay maybe +2 isn't enough. Still, we can go higher.



Oh goddammit, I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.



...it's time to stop.



I'm not even gonna bother healing that, it'll just happen again, I just know it.



Okay, maybe if I'd just used Ice Punch every turn instead of getting to +3 I would've beaten it by now, but WE'LL NEVER KNOW AND NEVER TALK ABOUT IT



Shit. Alright Churchill looks like this is your kill.



I'm just glad you're faster now... Aquamemnon had Surf, Blizzard, Dragonbreath and Swift, holding a Scope Lens. I'm surprised it didn't crit more often, lucky me.



Oh goddammit it's the next threat.



Save me ...Kamina?



Oh wait I lived, save me Kakarott.



Neat, who has two thumbs and asked for Steel coverage like a dumbass? <-- <-- this guy.



This Rock Slide better do a shit ton, like that Steel Wing just did.



Nice



Might as well heal someone up instead of just not being able to attack.



Seal the deal Kakarott.



Oh GODDAMMIT



Wait, I can actually do something about that. Yay for priority! Tri Ace had Drill Peck (which I'm surprised it never went for), Tri Attack, Fly and Steel Wing, holding a Quick Claw, just to ensure it always went first. I really wanted to put Hyper Beam on there, but without Fly how is Satoshi gonna get home?



And here's the final threat. Like Kakarott usually does, he needs to retreat for most of the arc and recover.



Helios can become tribute and have his energy drained like in that one episode with the robots. She was called Wheelo something? Ah whatever, I don't watch crap.



That's pretty good damage, 3HKO?



Sorry, I meant 5HKO, because fuck me apparently.



I don't think Helios can 1v1 this boy. (Fun fact: while I did forget to specify to SystemLogoff what gender Satoshi's Pokemon would be (they would match the ones we traded over from Yellow), I dunno if you can actually do that in a hack! Besides, having them all be male, means they probably have max Attack DVs, which is what I want anyway)



Like really can't.



Phew, at least I'll survive... if you ignore all the after turn effects.



Like that one! However, by dying this way, we don't give Vegeta Leech Seed recovery. Strategy!



Now Kakarott can take down Vegeta... if he's faster. If I don't guess correctly, then I just lose. I, in fact, do not outspeed, if Vegeta is the same as Red's Venusaur stat-wise. That one did outspeed Kakarott, who is identical to the Crystal Kakarott. Good job past me, even though you forgot about the Red fight when you did this.



So we need Kakarott to get another offscreen power up and send someone else to whittle Vegeta down some more.



Don't get fully paralyzed... don't get fully paralyzed... don't get fully paralyzed...



Oh thank god I love you so much Mothra. You keep me fucking sane.



Is that healing pod done yet? We're running out of options!



Just taking an episode to power up.



And to make a back up plan.



Kakarott appears right at the end and steals the kill, making little contribution to the battle overall. Typical One Piece, am I right?



And we somehow won. Vegeta had Giga Drain, Body Slam, Toxic and Leech Seed, holding Leftovers. Seriously, why did I come up with these terrifying sets?

Credits



Okay, now we roll the credits. That's the end of Pokemon Crystal! Seriously, we're done, beating Red unlocks nothing, we have done basically everything in the game... and technically more!



While I'm not done with the LP overall, I am at least going to start working on my next LP while I get the rest of the HGSS updates out. There's not much left to go, so it won't be too long.



Overall, this LP was a blast. It was long, god it was long (in comparison to my usual LP length), but I enjoyed making the updates, exploring a generation I hadn't actually looked into much and completing a Pokedex all over again.



While it did start to feel a bit samey around the seventh badge, I still like Gen 2 a lot, it's actually pretty crazy how much these games improve from Gen 1.



But of course this game absolutely has its problems, from its awful, AWFUL Pokemon distribution, to low level curve, to its very cheeky cutting down on Kanto. Still, it's a classic and if you can ignore those faults, it's still a good Pokemon game. I am glad the LP is nearly over though, I've been wanting to move on for a while. That is a general problem I have involving all of my LPs however



Thanks to everyone who read/watched/posted, you kept me going through my more lazier and less motivated moments over the past year and I'm really happy with the update schedule I had, with a few breaks here and there. You're all really rad and I hope you join me in my next LP. Until then, I'm hoping to keep improving, keep changing things up for the better and keeping making cool SSLPs for y'all, cause I find them really fun! Is that weird? I think it's weird. Anyway, uh, we're done here and I'm bad at ending LPs, farewell MARINA... now, bugger off! (Until the next HGSS update).