Part 49: Victory Road

Hello everyone and welcome back. You might notice that we've got a Magnezone following us now.



After the unmitigated disaster that was the Nyx battle, I spent about 3 off-camera hours grinding up replacements for four different teammates. Dracolich, NATHAN, Gateau, and Beeisel have all been retired into the Hall of Heroes. In their place we respectively have Flamenco, Generator, Cirno, and Snorflax.



Cirno, I should add, is a new addition to the team. Noel is still retired, though not for lack of trying on my part. I wanted to do what everyone told me way back after the third badge and use Debug Mode to put Moonblast on him. The method I had used to test it in the past, a Cheat Engine script, no longer works for reasons I can only guess at. So instead I had to go grab another Delta Misdreavus from the game corner and train her up.



I'll show off the new team in detail in the next update. Victory Road, despite how long and tedious it is, is still just another route at the end of the day.



These two guys don't care how we got the last badge, and let us past with no questions asked.





Nexa Border is a short liminal route.







Most of it is made up of water.



Nexa Town is the last stop before Victory Road. It's so small that I don't even need to show a map because you're looking at fully half of the town in this screenshot.

the Elite Four...





This is the last move tutor we'll find before the postgame. He teaches fighting-type moves.



He knows a lot of really nice moves! I'm extremely happy with Drain Punch on Centaurion or I'd take advantage of this. If I'd thought about it at the time, I'd have taught someone either Fire Punch or Blaze Kick. The current team has an unfortunate dearth of fire moves.







Vesryn needed to cut back on the opulence.



London.

By the way there's a theme in this update. See if you can guess what it is.







We'll be using this.







Nexa Town is seriously two houses and a pokecenter.

promise you, it is a nightmare.



This is still just the preamble to Victory Road. It doesn't start until we enter the cave up ahead.









It's just a linear gauntlet of trainers.



Here we go!





The exit is pretty much straight ahead, but we have to take the long, long way around.







Keep thinking about what Victory Road's theme could be.













No use in playing dumb about it anymore. Every trainer on Victory Road is an asshole. They all say variants on "You can't do it." "Just give up now you failure." "Hey everyone look at this abject failure." As far as gimmicks go, the joke gets run into the ground before we get out of the volcanic section, and then it continues for two more maps.



This is pretty funny, though.



Down to the lower level...



We can't pick up that TM for a little bit. Just keep it in mind.















I'm keeping quiet about these trainers because there's not much to say, and nobody really wants to read annoyed eye-rolling, but in text form.









We're back on the first map, over in the bottom left corner.

things you've accomplished thus far.





This feels like he's quoting song lyrics.





Nice.



Shortly after picking that up, I used a Max Repel. Suddenly Victory Road is a lot less onerous to travel through.





Hell yeah!

feel?





they'd be the tired ones.





Trying really hard to not say anything, but the constant negativity is annoying me.



We're nearly done with the volcanic section.



Straight up from the ladder is a door.













Delta Petilil and Delta Lilligant are Water/Fire type. Its abilities are Storm Drain (Draws in all Water-type moves to boost its Sp. Atk stat), Flash Fire (Powers up the Pokemon's Fire-type moves if it's hit by one), and Regenerator (Hidden; Restores a little HP when withdrawn from battle).

It very, very nearly was going to be the 6th member of the team, but I eventually decided against it.



you!





At least there's some nice trainers here.



go.





Like I said, it's full of assholes.





































That lady wasn't lying. There's two different sliding ice puzzles.



I just followed the instructions on the wiki because fuck that noise.









This endless "you're worthless" is such a jarring tonal shift from the entire fucking rest of the game. It actually feels like a gimmick from Reborn got imported into this game.



At least we finally have this.





This is the harder sliding ice puzzle. I don't know why the developers felt the need to include it. Even better, sometime in the postgame, Kyurem can be found in this cave. Nothing like having to trek through this shithole multiple times.







At least we're more than halfway done.



your commitments, right?





It's almost like they wanted to recreate the idea of Hell Week. Except it's just three straight routes full of jackasses with none of the support that comes when you reach the final leg.



Regice is behind that wall.







You know the magikarp-only fisherman in every game? Well this guy is what they turn into. He has three Gyarados.





No puzzle here, just gotta slide across.





There's a shitload of trainers on this route, but the end is in sight!







My friend you are out of place on Victory Road. Please don't let them corrupt you too!



Virizion can be found on top of that rock climb wall in the background.











What is it with old men in this game and hanging out in the mountains in their socks?







Everyone on this route is astounded that we're beating them apparently.









Because challenging the Elite Four isn't a zero-sum thing. Any number of people can do it.











I seriously don't get it. Why do they think endless negativity will stop anyone?



Nothing was stopping him from reaching the Pokemon League. He was the last trainer on Victory Road.



At least we're done with it. What a godawful gimimck for an area.









Hahahahaaaaa no.







Roar or Haze are both really good ideas. You can probably guess why. If not, you'll find out next time!



a challenge.

all, I'll give you a special prize.

It's a red Gardevoir. If you use it in a battle, its colors permanently revert to normal.





like a pushover!



The old man there will let us tackle the Elite Four. We'll do that...

NEXT TIME: The Elite Four