Part 4: Matching Up

Part 4: Matching Up

Rustboro City



We're healed and stocked up, so let's see just what that was.



Help me! I was robbed by TEAM AQUA! I have to get the DEVON GOODS back! If I don't... I'm going to be in serious trouble. That shady character, I think he took off towards the tunnel over there.

Route 116



Ooh, handy. Let's go catch a criminal.




BUG POKEMON evolve quickly. So they get strong quickly, too.

For some reason, sometimes the level up text disappears before you get the stat update. Bit annoying, but whatever.



Oh hey, he's followed us to this game as well!



Though since Rattata isn't in the Hoenn Dex he has a Machop instead. This also isn't a reference, since he has a different name in Japanese to Johto Joey and I don't think the meme had caught on by this point. However, Youngster Joey in the Dreamyard in BW is a reference to OG Joey, as he has the same Japanese name in Gorō.




We could've come here before fighting the Gym, but as you know, we didn't need to. Might be useful if you're a Torchic user.



Another example of a Multi Battle, though the trainers are set up so we could have either Hiker. To make sure the trainers all face towards you, you should run into their line of sight.



See, this time the level text showed up.



Want to stay here and keep me company?

It's no big deal if there's no tunnel. To a HIKER, mountains are roads!




I can hear that guy up there grinding his teeth. Wonder what's up?



I was digging the tunnel without any tools when some goon ordered me out! That tunnel's filled with POKEMON that react badly to loud noises. They could cause an uproar. That's why we stopped using heavy equipment for tunneling... I'm worried that the goon will do something stupid and startle the POKEMON into an uproar.



The scoundrel made off with my darling PEEKO! Wrrooooooaaaar! PEEKO!

Rusturf Tunnel



This guy seems to be making a lot of mess. We should do something about it.



Oh hey, it's a new Pokemon! Let's catch it.



Goddammit Ranmaru.





Aww it's so small and timid and so huggable and lovable and, uh, ahem, Whismur isn't too amazing, but being a mixed attacker helps and hinders it. Its special movepool is ridiculously impressive and is able to make use of it throughout the entire game, but a lot of these moves are TMs and would it be the best recipient of those? It also won't get STAB. It will get a great Normal move in Hyper Voice, but it'll be super late, though Return will always be an option. It's mediocre defensive stats are boosted by its pretty great HP stat, though it is super super slow. Still, for an early option, it ain't half bad.

Soundproof prevents the user from being damaged by sound-based moves, of which there are a few, including Growl, Roar, Snore and (until Gen 5) Heal Bell. It's mostly useful in blocking Uproar or Hyper Voice and even Sing and Supersonic. Due to being unaffected by Uproar, it can still fall asleep during an uproar.



Nice. Uproar has 50BP, 10PP and 100% accuracy and deals damage over 2-5 turns. During this time, no other move can be chosen and all Pokemon, except for those with Soundproof, cannot be put to Sleep. If a Pokemon is put to sleep, they are woken up before they make their move and any Pokemon that were asleep will wake up at the end of the turn. Uproar will still continue even if used against a Ghost-type, or is blocked by a move, but will not initially start if that happens.



That hostage POKEMON turned out to be worthless! And to think I made a getaway... in this tunnel to nowhere! Hey! You! So you want to battle me!

VS Team Aqua Grunt



Ooh that's some nice fog. Anyway, this won't be a tough a battle as it was in Petalburg Woods.



It's called STAB, baby!

Rusturf Tunnel



The BOSS told me this would be a slick-and-easy job to pull. All I had to do was steal some package from DEVON. Tch! You want it back that badly, take it!




PEEKO owes her life to you! They call me MR. BRINEY. And, you are? ... Ah, so you are YUKI! I sincerely thank you! Now, if there's anything that troubles you, don't hesitate to tell me! You can usually find me in my cottage by the sea near PETALBURG WOODS. Come, PEEKO, we should make our way home.

Pihyoh!



It's definitely a dead end, so let's head back to Rustboro.

Route 116



If you do come here before beating Roxanne, then you won't be able to go to the top of this route. So let's see what there is, I'm thinking it's a couple of Double Battles.

"you helpless!"


Ah shoot, in these cases I just have to hope I remember who levelled up. Though it wouldn't surprise you to learn it was Nobunaga.



Shit move, shit AI.



Battling both at once does mean a lot of money at the end.



You're ruined my hairdo, too! I'll have to call my stylist now!

My life of luxury affords me all that I could possibly desire. However, when it comes to POKEMON, my wealth has no meaning.



You still tried to cheat the system with a Full Restore. Sorry, but, guillotine.




I should reiterate that having all these random Multi Battles is cool as hell and their absence in the remakes is disappointing.



POKEMON that possess cuteness and power, that's ideal, I think.

I'll have to redo some courses at the TRAINER'S SCHOOL. If I don't, ROXANNE will be steamed.




Good haul at the end of this. Chesto Berries restores Sleep and is one half of the RestoChesto set. Pinap Berries do, uh, nothing. There are unfortunately a fair few berries like that.

Rustboro City



You really are a great TRAINER! I know! As my thanks, I'll give you another GREAT BALL!



Our PRESIDENT's OFFICE is on this floor. Anyway, I can't tell you how much I'm grateful for what you've done. Um... by the way, the parcel you got back for us... could I get you to deliver that to the SHIPYARD in SLATEPORT? It would be awful if those robbers tried to take it again. Uh... hehehe, so, uh, could I count on you to do that for me? Oh, that's right. Could you wait here a second?



Our PRESIDENT would like to have a word with you. Please come with me.




You saved our staff not just once, but twice! I have a favor to ask of an amazing person like you. I understand that you're delivering a package to SLATEPORT's SHIPYARD. Well, on the way, could you stop off in DEWFORD TOWN? I was hoping that you'd deliver a LETTER to STEVEN in DEWFORD.



So, I'd never be so cheap as to ask a favor for nothing in return. That's why I want you to have this!



It's a POKEMON NAVIGATOR, or POKENAV for short. It's an indispensable tool for any TRAINER on an adventure. It has a map of the HOENN region. You can check the locations of DEWFORD and SLATEPORT easily! By the way, I've heard that sinister criminals--MAGMA and AQUA, I believe--have been making trouble far and wide. I think it would be best if you rested up before you go on your way.

Do do do do dooooooooo



If you visit the SHIPYARD in SLATEPORT, you should go see CAPT.STERN.



The Pokenav is a cool tool, but you don't really have to use it for anything.



The map is neat, letting you zoom in and see important buildings, though I already know every detail about Hoenn, so I don't need it.



We also have the ability to check a Pokemon's Condition, something that won't become necessary to do for like 30 updates. You can search all your Pokemon for their Condition.



This floor smells of nerd.

"POKEMON..."

But it's not going well.

Hey, your idea will bear fruit for a bit. But now it's fuckin dead.



Good to remember for later.



And that was Devon Corp., a cool place, but nothing too interesting for now.



And it turned out great! YUKI, may I see that POKENAV? The one our PRESIDENT gave you? ... There you go, YUKI! I added a new feature named MATCH CALL to your POKENAV. Using the MATCH CALL feature, you can chat with people who have been registered in your POKENAV. YUKI, our PRESIDENT STONE should be registered in your POKENAV. Test it out. Please give our PRESIDENT a call.



The Match Call is a pretty neat feature that's basically the Pokegear's phone numbers, if not particularly special. Compared to the Trainer Eyes in RS that registered 69 (heh) trainers that you could rematch whenever, there are now 84 people you can register, with some just being regular people, like President Stone.



Other people will be registered, so try calling them up, too! Good! Good! You seem to be quite happy! Hm... how could I know that? It's because I'm looking down at you from my office window! Wahahaha! See you again!



So you can call anyone that you've registered and then can even call you. Though since it's the same as the HGSS system where you can keep as many numbers you want, it does mean as we go through our journey we'll be called up by all kinds of randos.

May Encounter



You had a MATCH CALL feature put in your POKENAV! Let's register each other so we can contact one another anytime!



I guess he's on his way home to his cottage by the sea. How's your POKEDEX coming along, YUKI? Mine's looking pretty decent! So... how about a little battle? You just became a TRAINER, YUKI. I'm not going to lose!

VS Rival May



We have this nice little optional battle only in Emerald, so let's get some more experience!




Ranmaru is able to hold himself pretty well, even if he is pretty one note.



Now you might think I'm crazy here, but we should be fine.



See, nothing to worry about. If it were any other starter then yeah I'd be in trouble since they wouldn't have fuckin Absorb. But we'll be able to outdamage it no problem.



Especially when it decides to just Leer endlessly. Good job team.

Rustboro City



YUKI, you just moved here so you might not know this, but MR.BRINEY was once a revered seafarer.

So that optional battle can be a bit weird. See, May has a second Pokemon that's the same type as your starter, since she had Wingull as we chose Mudkip, and then later add the other one that's not the type of their starter. In RS they had a Wailer, Numel or Shroomish depending, but in Emerald they can have Wingull, Lotad or Slugma. See this is strange because in this battle, May with have a Torkoal for... some reason, while Brendan will correctly have a Slugma. May will even swap out the Torkoal for a Slugma in later battles and she will always have a Slugma if you didn't choose Torchic. It's also weird cause in ORAS, they will have a Slugma instead of a Numel for whatever reason, not sure why they decided that would be something they'd keep from Emerald.

Route 116



Now, unlike the Trainer Eyes in RS, we have to manually go back and talk to all the trainers we've beaten so far so we can register them in the Pokenav. This works out since there's a few Pokemon on Route 116 we need to catch. I tried to find them when we were here the first time, but only Poochyena showed up until I went to Rusturf Tunnel, then Poochyena and Whismur only appear. Yeah it was weird.



Will we be able to catch this Abra???



No we don't. As annoying as always, I see.



Well shit. Let's have better luck catching other Pokemon, we'll get Abra at another time. Inner Focus prevents the Pokemon from flinching. It's cool, though nothing impressive, since flinching is pretty uncommon.



Alright, we'll be using this Nincada to find some hold items later down the line.





Mud Slap is pretty useful move to catch stuff with. So Skitty is pretty bad, even though it's absolutely adorable. It has a large special movepool but no stats to make use of them and its level up movepool is barren at best. None of its stats will ever go above 70 and it really can't do anything with the tools its given. Your TMs are better used on something else and it's even hard justifying using the one Moon Stone that you get in this game on it. Maybe just pass, even if it's super adorable.

Cute Charm has a 30% chance of infatuating the opponent when hit with a contact move, so long as it's the opposite gender of the Pokemon. It will never activate on genderless Pokemon. When first in the party, there is a 66.7% chance the encountered Pokemon will be forced to be the opposite gender of the Pokemon, if it can be that gender. This makes it much easier to find Pokemon of a certain gender ratio, though gender based evolution doesn't exist yet. It does make pairing for breeding easier, at least.



If you find a Skitty legit, congrats, it's a 2% encounter, so it's still ridiculously rare. Now there are Swarms in this game, but they're a pretty rare occurrence and it only applies to Skitty, Seedot and Nuzleaf, which isn't a huge deal since you can trade for one of them. In RS, only Surskit and Skitty swarm, however by record mixing (something I'll talk about later, probably), you can make any swarm you've seen occur in the other person's game, even if the swarm wouldn't occur in that game, such as Surskit in Emerald and Seedot in Sapphire. It's not particularly useful, but it's something!

Rusturf Tunnel



If RUSTBORO and VERDANTURF were joined by this tunnel, I could visit her every day... but this... what am I to do?

Man, that sounds pretty rough, if there's anything I could do, then I would be happy to he-



HEY THERE, you're a bit lost.



Since I can't obtain all the starters like in Yellow, or clone them like in Crystal, I've just gotta hack them in and catch them in this game. A bit annoying since they have low catch rates, but it's something that must be done.




Alright, that's everyone registered here, so off we go back to Petalburg Woods.



Now we chop the trees and tear out their delicious item filled insides.



Maybe I shouldn't... okay, sure, I will register you!



Trainers we've fought before will only have the register Pokenav dialogue, nothing more.



Guillotine.

Petalburg Woods




With the only trainer in Petalburg Woods registered, let's go to the right side and see what cool stuff is there.



Oh hey, what are the chances???



Alright, we'll evolve them when May gets to that stage. Hah.



You must be a TRAINER. You should try using this item.

"GRASS-type moves become stronger."

Besides MIRACLE SEED, I think there are other convenient items for POKEMON to hold.



A 10% boost to Grass is alright... if we had any Grass types, or even Grass moves. Oh well.



Well that was fun, let's continue on.




Having a DAD is super cool, so let's go see him.

Pokemon Gym



Across the sea in DEWFORD TOWN is a GYM LEADER named BRAWLY. You should challenge him.



That's every trainer we've fought that we can register. Bar one. But don't worry about it.



Well, I should register, too! That way, I'd be able to examine your POKEDEX even while you're out in the field.



Birch can be found on Route 101, Route 103, or in his lab. He definitely moves around a lot.




There we go, we've registered everyone we can. Now it seems like the next step is to head across the sea.



Hm? You're YUKI! You saved my darling PEEKO! We owe so much to you! What's that? You want to sail with me? Hmhm... you have a LETTER bound for DEWFORD and a package for SLATEPORT, then? Quite the busy life you must lead! But, certainly, what you're asking is no problem at all. You've come to the right man! We'll set sail for DEWFORD. DEWFORD it is, then! Anchors aweigh! PEEKO, we're setting sail, my darling!

Across the Sea



Smell ya later land!



Where are you now? It sounds windy wherever you are. I just heard from DEVON's MR. STONE about your POKENAV, so I decided to give you a call. It sounds like you're doing fine, so that's fine with me. You take care now.



DAD NORMAN



We've reached Dewford, which we will be exploring next time.