Part 37: Trainer Tower and Trainer Hill
Part 32: Trainer Tower and Trainer Hill
Trainer Tower
Hi there, do you want to take a break from all this Frontier battling with some more battling? Great! Here's the Trainer Tower.
Okay, I'll get the clock started, so give it everything you have. On your marks... get set... go!
The Trainer Tower is actually pretty fun, having four different modes against some pretty neat trainers across eight floors. We're starting out in the Single challenge.
We'll be encountering a lot of different Pokemon and all of them we'll encounter are added to our Pokedex as seen! That's different to other battle facilities and will give us some weird gaps. Though like other facilities, opposing Pokemon will match our highest level, which is Aquamemnon from beating Lance.
It's gonna be a bit tough, but this isn't a deadly battle facility where you can get screwed over easily, the opponent only has two Pokemon after all, while we have all six.
Also we can just run down and heal our Pokemon. Yes, run, which is great! Though as we get higher up the Tower, it's just faster to heal your team up.
And you should (kinda) think about speed, since you are timed in this. However, so long as you don't take over an hour for a single challenge, you'll be perfectly fine, so don't sweat it too much.
And yeah, we really are adding new Pokemon to the dex. It's very weird why this is the case, but I'm not complaining.
There's even shiny Pokemon here! You'll face the same trainers every time in the Tower and there are some surprises. However shiny Pokemon weren't tracked in the dex at this point, so it's just a cool little thing. Hey, HEY, turn off that "catch trainer's Pokemon" cheat!
How the sky soars above this rooftop... the caress of the winds up here... it's all so perfect... The way you battled... it, too, was perfection... this is for you...
It's marvelous how you've come up here so quickly. The fact is, you've done it in record time... I'll have your record at the reception counter. What I would like to see is a better time out of you... I'm counting on you... Until then, farewell...
That's one mode down, now onto the Double challenge. At the end of every challenge, if you beat the record time, then you'll get a neat evolution item from Gen 2. You can find all these items elsewhere, but this gives you a second copy for them, which is very nice. You only get them once, though, so beating your time again is just for fun.
Oh now they list both trainer's dialogue, after I've spent minutes of my life getting the other text from the rom. Bah.
Oh hey it's the shiny of my favourite Pokemon, I NEED IT
It's pretty cool we can see all these Pokemon, but it is a bit of a tease since some of them were only available from Colosseum at this point, so if you didn't have a Gamecube, this place was just mocking you.
Still, I'm happy just to see Pokemon for my dex, let alone catch them. That's two challenges down. It's not particularly difficult.
The Knockout challenge has you face 3 trainers in a row. It would be tough if, you know, they actually had strong Pokemon and it wasn't their only mon. Still, more dex filling!
And the final shiny of the facility. Only the Mixed challenge doesn't have a shiny and it's not the only place to find trainers with shiny Pokemon: any Pokemon in the Battle Frontier has the standard chance of being shiny, including ones you can use in the Battle Factory. I didn't encounter one, just to let you know.
Man there's a lot of Johto Pokemon in here. While the challenges aren't hugely tough, the opponents do have proper sets and items, you just never fight more than two Pokemmon at a time, so it's not hugely difficult.
Getting a second Metal Coat is very nice. The Mixed challenge has new trainers, but has a, well, mix of each of the three other challenges.
Alright, that's it for the Trainer Tower. It's something cool to do after you finished everything else, but it doesn't have that much meat to it.
So I hope you're not surprised when I tell you it's e-Reader content! Well, it's actually content we technically got, even if the FRLG e-Reader stuff never left Japan. I'll be going into more detail in the Side Notes, but in the Japanese versions, the Trainer Tower only has 4 floors with some standard trainers that only use Kanto Pokemon, nothing very exciting. You have to use e-Reader cards to add in new trainers to increase the floors up to 8 to get stronger trainers in, but also those with Johto Pokemon, as well as many other shiny Pokemon, such as Mr. Mime and Dratini and numerous items from completing the challenge. It's very interesting stuff and thankfully, like with the Crystal Battle Tower, they made the area useful in the international versions and included some e-Reader content to play with, though of course what we got was only a fraction of what was actually released.
Trainer Hill
The Trainer Hill is very similar, but don't expect this to be a walk in the park like the Trainer Tower.
"TRAINERS!" Is this your first visit here? Before you enter, please save your game. Let's see... the TRAINERS here now are... there appear to be TRAINERS gathered in every room.
Like with the Tower, there are four modes to challenge, as well as items for getting certain times, as there's multiple to win now. However, every battle in this place can be a double battle (which we will of course do) and there's only four floors. You also have to save your first time here and I'm not sure why. Carry over from the Japanese version?
On your marks... get set... go!
Immediately this is different, as there's some kind of gimmick to each floor, as well as two trainers along the way. Like with the Tower, the Hill for the international versions is the same every time, so you can practise if you were weird.
Oh yeah, the trainers in this place use 6 Pokemon and they've got proper sets and items and everything. I hope you weren't planning on getting any cool prizes here, you will not be fast enough unless you have a very good team.
Yeah, this isn't going to be particularly quick... Because of the puzzles on each floor, it's now not worth going back for free healing, you better have brought some items. You're gonna need them.
You'll even see some Secret Base decorations here, as well as some unique tiles you won't find anywhere else, such as the grey polished floor. Look at all this content you'll never see because we never got the fifth e-Reader set for Emerald.
Not every trainer has a stupidly hard team, there are plenty of gimmicks abound, since the international versions just use random content from the e-Reader cards. We'll be seeing some crazy stuff in this place. Unlike the Tower though, we won't be adding these mons to our dex.
What the fuck is this nonsense? My eyes are bleeding just looking at this shit. Since you can scan cards to add to the Japanese Trainer Hill, the default only had two floors with four trainers in it. Since two trainers must always inhabit a floor, there are four more default trainers you can encounter if you scan an odd number of cards in. While you won't find any shiny Pokemon, you will find some really weird sets, pretty tough trainers overall and Pokemon from all three regions, it's a cool challenge.
Ohhhhhhh, that's naaaaaaasty.
Oh yeah, I did all this before I fought Steven, so Nobunaga isn't making all opponents stronger. It was a little tricky, but let's get our reward!
Wait! Don't say it! I know why you came all the way here by yourself! You wanted to see me, the owner of the TRAINER HILL, because... you want to form a tag team with me! Wa-hoo! ...uh? That's not it? Anyway, I watched you on your way up. Marvelous battling! Bravo, indeed! For a marvelous someone like you, I have the most marvelous gift!
Th-Thanks...
That is so delightful. I'll have the Time Board at the reception updated! Perhaps it would please me more if you arrived zippier next time. Then, I should be pleased to form a tag team with you! Until we meet again, amigo!
Oh I hope you weren't expecting to get anything good in this place... you'll never be fast enough. I got the worst reward for being so slow, but there's some real prizes that you can get if you are much, much faster.
There's some cool TMs that you can get more of so long as I cut my time... IN HALF??? Yeah, even though my team is pretty strong and I didn't dawdle too much, I was nowhere near any kind of good prize. It's a bit nuts, since getting another one of these TMs would be real nice. This was different in the Japanese version, where the prize wasn't attached to the last card you scanned like in FRLG, but the TM you received depended on how many cards you scanned. No time necessary, as that was an optional card you could scan for some added difficulty that didn't result in anything. The TMs you could get were Toxic, Sunny Day, Giga Drain, Earthquake, Sludge Bomb, Torment and Skill Swap, depending on the order scanned, with different cards resulting in a different TM reward.
The back of various e-Reader cards also had the floor plan, which would appear if they were scanned as an odd-numbered card, such as this awful room.
Some trainers have some pretty wacky sets or gimmicks, such as a team that only knows Present, among other things.
Yet again, I don't think we're gonna get a good reward. Especially when I get distracted by tiles that ~SPARKLE~
Especially this bullshit that burns a whole bunch of time. OH WELL.
This is a nasty room, just gotta remember which tile you can hop down to will let you proceed.
"from using EXPLOSION!"
what the hell is going on
This isn't Gamefreak doing this, the localizers specifically put these two separate e-Reader trainers next to each other to make... this. It's wonderful, whoever decided to have fun with this area deserves a gold medal, I love these facilities.
And the final floor?
...
OKLRNG... Okay, lookin' good right now.
Maybe the next challenge will be quick.
...never mind.
Oh goody, a sun team. Thanks localization guy.
I think our team has become pretty good at double battles, so we'll be fine.
Legendaries? You betcha.
This is gonna be a long one...
Oh come on! You're actively fucking with me now.
And then there's a Smeargle with a load of common moves JUST to Imprison them. Why can't the Battle Frontier be this hilarious instead of severely unfun shit.
When I was recording this place, I didn't know how much I would include. This is the challenge that convinced me it needed a whole update to itself.
Running over these tiles plays a certain tune. Which one? This one!
You tryin to punch a ghost?
Starting off strong I see.
Okay this is a LITTLE excessive.
But did you know Wargreymon is a monster killer?
Okay, so we're all Great Balls so far, but maybe this next challenge will be a piece of cake.
It is not going to be a piece of cake.
Not a bad start, aside from being one shot by Mega Kick.
It's not long before we're getting a bit beat up.
However, this is just a bit too tough for our team, even though we got pretty close. By this point I was running low on healing items and I thought it wasn't worth it just for a Great Ball and nothing else. This is a tough challenge, but I think I know six Pokemon that are perfectly suited for this.
Oh hey it's the submissions I'll be using for the Arena later. It wouldn't be fair if every other Frontier Pokemon were used in two facilities and they didn't, so they'll help us clear the final Trainer Hill challenge! It's a mini facility, so I'll show off all the cool battles on these four floors.
RNGesus will be useful when something doesn't one shot it. Still, with DonkeyKong deleting a Pokemon every two turns, Nana can easily pick up the slack. I'll go over everyone properly when we do the Battle Arena, so this is a little taster.
Even our strong EV trained Pokemon are struggling against these tough cookies, but there's still three mons left on our side!
Slowly but surely we can chip everyone down.
Alright, Emerl, our opponent's attacks have out a real dent in us, but I think you've got this.
Alright, ONE down.
Second battle starts well, since I'm using a CB Slaking and a Salamence, so it'd be weird if it didn't.
Ooh, that's a cool strategy. Too bad Machamp will faint from that.
Though because of how I knocked the various Pokemon out, now the AI is protecting itself from getting burned. They're out of sync!
Alright, let's clean up.
More music! It's this one. You'd have to be a real nerd to recognise it, since it only plays some basic notes.
Donkey delete.
Oh yeah, since RNGesus can't be touched, time for it to absolutely destroy everything.
It lasted longer than I expected.
Haha, this mixed Breloom has bamboozled you!
That time depresses me. Let's ~SPARKLE~ up to the final challenge.
How many of you have seen this?
Hmm, at least it's not a dangerous Pokemon using Earthquake.
Well I wasn't expecting that. Neither did the AI's partner.
The RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away.
See, that Leech Seed was super useful, now we can tear through the rest of the team.
You really need to time your Perish Song use. Not that the battle lasted that long anyway.
Phew, that was a tough one, but overall this was great fun. It's a shame we didn't get the e-Reader over here to at least customize these areas, cause what little we did get was huge fun to go through. Definitely try this place out if you haven't already... though I have spoiled the main reason for coming here: it's batshit crazy fun!
To end this update, we'll be evolving the last ten Pokemon we can. There's six more Pokemon left after this, but we'll deal with them later. For now, we shall return yet again to the Battle Frontier for two more facilities. Huh? What do you mean next update has nearly 500 images to sort though? Well fuck.