Pokemon Platinum Part #25

Part 25: Victory Lap

Part 25: Victory Lap

Alright, it's time for the Pokemon Lea-

What the... you went and got all eight Badges of Sinnoh! Aww, you... that's wicked! I envy you! But don't think you've won! Because I'm going to be the toughest Trainer ever! You watch me! Before I was dreaming. I just wanted to be like my dad. Now, things are different. I thought about what being a Trainer involves. I thought about what Pokemon are. We're going to get tougher one step at a time! I'm not going to challenge you to a battle now. I hate to say it, but I know you're tougher than me. But not a whole lot tougher. Just a little. Our difference is about a yard? Nah, not even an inch. ...what I'm trying to say is that I will catch up to you in no time. If you don't hurry to the Pokemon League, I'll leave you in my wake!

Seeing how you two get along made me happy somehow. It must be wonderful having a friend like that. A person that you can share anything and everything with. A person you can compete with without fighting. ...um, it made me feel sort of warm seeing you two. It may seem odd, but I'd like you to have this as my thanks. This isn't much, but...

If you use it, you can get to the Pokemon League. ...um... I... I don't know how I should say this, but good luck. ...I came from very far away because I wanted to get stronger. On the way, I met all sorts of people with their Pokemon... they all looked like they were having fun. I felt happy seeing it.

Mt. Coronet

So as I was saying, it's time to go around the region for the final clean up. That means going back to Mt. Coronet, but since we did a fair few things as we came across them, there's not much left to do.

Hmm, I wonder what these can be used for?

Everything seems back to normal, so on we go.

Don't forget about this little hideaway, we can move past that motionless grunt.

And up ahead is a Strength boulder that spits us back at the middle entrance. Good segue into...

Gah! A damn ambush!

There aren't many Dragon types in this dex, but we've still gotta see them.

Neat, we can evolve a Roselia, regardless if I want to or not.

I came out here by myself from a town of Dragon Tamers. I can teach the strongest of all Dragon-type moves to the tough Pokemon of Sinnoh.

When all Dragon types reach max happiness, they can learn Draco Meteor here, very useful move, would recommend.

Also there's some cascades here, there's not too many, thankfully, since it's a bit of a pain remembering which areas have them. Sure, I remember what every route looks like since I've played these games way too many times, but I'm never completely confident I've remembered everything.

Alright, the item back here better be bloody well worth it!

Ah, Mantyke. A Pokemon we could've caught before the final badge. Yup.

Oh! How impressive! You've conquered all the Gyms, have you? For a Trainer like you, I have just the thing!

Here's one thing you'll definitely get, since the other decorations either involve Contests, the Underground, garbage postgame battle facilities, or Wi-Fi (F).

And that's all the waterfalls. Yeah, bit shit, but there's still plenty of the game left to go.

So one of the last things left to do is catch the rest of the Unown. The last one? U.

Well this is the real reward, I say, with over 800 Rare Candy in my bag for evolutions.

And then the last two Unown, whatever. This is just a bonus for catching 26, there's nothing for getting all of them.

Ah, I was wondering where these two were!

Since we have every Unown, we can get every seal, since there's also ?! seals. Just re-enter as many times as you want to get 10 of your lead Unown's seal. But, hmm, there's still a few seals missing...

Of course, how could I forget about the very cursed group of EVENT SEALS that were also NEVER RELEASED. Well, maybe they were just dummy ones they didn't fancy using, but they work just fine.

The Liquid, Blast and Sparkle seals are super basic and aren't very interesting, so you're not missing out. But woah, are we finally ready to give seals to our Pokemon???

You guys picked a pretty good variety, but there's some we didn't use, so the Line seals are pretty, well, that.

And then the musical notes and letter seals are all pretty cool, but we'll see how our team now looks as we go through...

Surfing

A water route! Dun dun dunnnnnnn

Thankfully this one is pretty short, but they pack a fair few trainers in it.

FUCKIN BUBBLES, uh anyway, here's a cool fish. As triple nice as these stats are, they really don't offer much. It's pretty speedy and has some interesting Bug tech like Silver Wind and U-turn, but it has very little to use for most of the game, Surf saves it sure, but until you get Ice Beam, the best you've got is Ominous Wind and Air Cutter from tutors? Silver Wind TM? It's pretty depressing, especially since it barely does anything even after getting those moves. You can use it, sure, you can use anything you want, but it'll be super upsetting.

Losing won't make me quit. I mean, this is my dream! The Pokemon League isn't going anywhere, either.

Yeah this route is only for showing off the seals. Admittedly, you probably won't see these again, but man they fit each member real nice and really perks me up during recording, so thanks everyone. Huevo enters through the confetti and stars!

I mean, I get it, yeah, but do you have to mention it every game, horny Japanese men???

It emerges from the darkness to fight or whatever, but he loves us really. Mantine is a special monster brought down by its weaknesses, but it gets some good coverage, Psybeam and Signal Beam from relearner and then the standard Water TMs, along with Ice Beam, because why should Ice types be useful? It also has a wide array of physical moves, but not with 40 Atk. Still, it's able to live at least one Electric move, which is more than Gyarados can claim, I should know... but aside from being somewhat easy to get, it's nothing too amazing, special Flying STAB is a while away yet.

I mean, it's not ten solid routes of water, but I still don't like them.

Through the falling leaves, Etrian emerges. Also yeah, want a level 50 Pelipper, Tentacruel or Mantyke? Right here, nice and easy.

Double battles are now a little entry chaotic, we'll see Radium's in focus later, but you can see how cool it works out.

What is the sea like in places like the Kanto and Hoenn regions?

Deep breathing after battle, too! Breathe in... and out!

But you can be sure that there will be bigger challenges in front of you. Go! Go as far as you can! You alone can broaden your horizons.

Like how I should battle next, and what's for dinner tomorrow, and...

The order you place the seals determines when they'll come out, so you can get these "clouds" to form and then drop lightning, it's real cool!

Let's break up this water monotony.

The way I battle now, well, I can only look at the Pokemon League! You, go on! You go to the Pokemon League for me, too!

Isn't this fun? Look at all the fun we're having on this island.

Alright, back to trainers.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as if I don't like mountain men. But, you know, my most favorite kind of guy looks great with Pokemon!

Neat, the only way to get these otherwise is through the News Press, which I've completely ignored, oh well. Remember, it works on any kind of water encounter, since there's no diving encounters for a fair while.

Since Skulletor did real well in the Electric Gym, he was skipped over.

Through the fire and flames he makes his starry entrance!

I shouldn't be worried about what bikini to wear. The first thing to do is consider what Pokemon I should be using!

Took a little while to show up, but this is the earliest you can get Mantyke. Thankfully it's real easy to evolve, so if you want to use a level 51 Mantine, now's the best time.

Sure loads of trainers still have Gyarados, but now it's getting so high in level it's getting some rubbish moves, so that's nice.

Alright, let's never go to this route ever again.

Victory Road the fourth. Johto excepting, I think these are rad dungeons that really test you, so let's head in!

Victory Road

So there's two things that come to a head in this place. Firstly, this is the HM region, so of course we'll be using a lot of them. Secondly, we still need to see every Pokemon, so guess where a lot of the big and strong evolutions to a lot of stuff is? Boy my typing hands can't wait...

Wait, that's illegal. We were cheated out of one, which is a shame, cause when you have a friend, Gengar is a monster now that it can get special STAB on BOTH sides. I mean, do I really need to go over what's so great about it? A mon that's been OU for practically the entire series? Losing the elemental punches is a bit of a pain, but I think it'll be just fine. Imagine if you faced this monster early in a game with a low level curve and mediocre mons? YIKES!

We're in the Endgame people, so I'm knocking out these strong threats as soon as they pop up, I like not running out of Revives, cause my mons faint a lot. Gardevoir is pretty unchanged, it hit hard with Psychic attacks before, with not a lot of coverage available to it, but now it's got Shadow Ball and gets some real nice additions like Focus Blast, Energy Ball and Charge Beam. Man, and Ranmaru was already a monster...

I see it now! You will battle the Elite Four of the Pokemon League!

Firstly, why is this still a TM, secondly WHY IS IT HERE?!

The wings of freedom... I know I'll find them if I can win my way through the Pokemon League...

You can already tell this is gonna be a bit of a maze. I like it, but that's because I know exactly where I'm going.

Ooh, a UFO sighting, I believe. Considering how easy it is to get, we obtained Magnemite a fair while back, this thing is a monster, get used to me saying that a lot, power creep yo. Just insane SpAtk and real good Def to maybe survive an Earthquake. Well, maybe not, but it's appreciated! Discharge and Flash Cannon are the only things it really gets, aside from Signal Beam, but it's kinda all it needs, so rise up and remember to get Tri Attack as a Magneton.

Also there's a big pink blob, but thankfully it only took about 10 seconds to drop that HP. You know what this big blob does, especially since special attackers are more specialised, so it can straight up wall a lot of Pokemon. It even has passable SpAtk so you can use it fine enough, but it'll need those strong elemental TMs that could go to something that doesn't have 1 point higher than Lumineon. Okay, low blow, but if you like spending an extra hour watching HP go down, this is a great choice.

Once you emerge from Victory Road, the Pokemon League lies directly ahead... but many Trainers fail to ever find their way on Victory Road...

Alright, first section done, onto Strength puzzles with some smashable rocks, because fuck you. There's also a few new Pokemon to catch in this area, so that's nice to break up all the battling.

XTREME!!! xtreme.

Alright, onto more nonsense.

Here's big pig, while you have to tutor Ancientpower, it's still very worth it, with two great offensive STABs and an early Earthquake, you'll be laughing. Though, since Icicle Crash doesn't exist yet you've got, uh, Ice Fang or Avalanche. Hm. Did you know this line has Double Hit? I learn so many things doing these. Anyway, your other best options are Rock Slide, Iron Head and Superpower, though keeping Ice Shard from earlier will help that real shame of a Spd. Everything is cut to service that Atk and boy does that carry it a lot.

Also important to remember that we've seen a few mons in advance due to our team, but they're all here and available, it's actually pretty cool. I can understand why they never did it again though.

One day, people will run to the other side of the road when I walk by 'em. It's a goal of mine I'm working on.

"the Pokemon League's Elite Four!"

The pink pixie is pretty meh, its stats are all pretty similar, it's just carried by its massive fucking movepool. It can use basically anything you want, what do you want from me? Well it can get Meteor Mash from Clefairy, so that's cool I guess. Otherwise there's not much to say until it gets completely rebranded into a monster. Or just have fun with Metronome or whatever.

It doesn't appear as if anyone could even try to stand against your might. The Elite Four should just surrender.

Alright, we're coming back for that I guess.

Cool whip, baby. Not all the new evolutions are knock outs, but this one is carried by an insane movepool and the stats to just about make use of them. Again, whether it deserves them is up to you, but you can get it kinda early and it works out. Don't get too excited, Power Whip is only available around now and like Wring Out, it's pretty nice and saves on other options. The main note is STAB Explosion, but it's special now, so no using Swords Dance, but otherwise it's perfectly usable and gets whatever you fancy, so go nuts, because they had to be to approve this design... ah just kidding, I love my dumb round baby evolution.

Rather than navigating Victory Road, I have a much better time putting young Trainers like you to the test.

We'll just reset the boulders and find a good chunk of the floor still left, sizeable side areas are always a good time.

The XTREME never ends.

That will make me better all around.

I want to improve my doubles technique as much as I can. That will improve me as a Trainer.

A pain, but not a huge problem, Pop can only be so fragile.

Your mastery over several Pokemon at once... you're a remarkable Trainer!

Depending on the combinations, every kind of Pokemon can excel. At least, that's what I think.

...haha... ahahahahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Alright, we're done with the top floor, so at least this place isn't as crazy as previous ones. Not needing Flash also helps immensely.

Ah, No Guard, I love it so. When you have a friend, Machamp is an absolute beast, able to pummel you with Cross Chop, Dynamicpunch, Stone Edge and, well, Fire Blast and Focus Blast, I guess. Unless you've got Foresight, you'll need some TMs to hit other things, and while everything can hit you back, I don't really see that as a problem. Hurricane ain't around yet, so it's time to go all out, hell yeah!

Ahah, just when you thought you wouldn't need Surf! This is Sinnoh, motherfucker, you need to learn 3 HMs just to cross the street!

Now sure, Rock Slide is better from a single player perspective, but oh where's the fun in that?

Alright, the big physical Ghost type is here, why is the best STAB move it gets Shadow Punch? Aw man. Well, the rest of the amazing movepool makes up for that, relearn the punches, get all the physical TMs, since I'm sure no one else is using them and then go kinda wild. The really low HP is such a shame, it drags the impressive defensive stats down so it's as if they weren't really there. Also Shadow Sneak means you're not slow as hell. You'll have to rely on your coverage, since Shadow Punch is something at least, but boy did it draw the short straw.

See, all these free Heart Scales means I don't need to bother with the press, not like they do anything useful anyway.

How do you expect to counter that?

There was an attempt.

The combination of you and your awesome Pokemon... it's the ultimate tag team!

Yup, the way you battle is fantastic! You should try to take the Elite Four right now--not later!

How many aces must I leave in my wake???

Dodging a Hammer Arm, because I get rewarded for my insistence on using a Pokemon until it's gained a level.

If you don't give up, you can reach your goal. That perseverance is what's important to Trainers. That's in my book, too.

Oh yeah here's another HM you need. That makes 5?

Oh hey, I thought there was a middle stage we were missing. If you hold out for one level past evolution, you get an early Dragon Rush, which is alright I guess, Dragon Claw is much more dependable. Anyway, it chewed everything up as a Gible, it's wrecking fools as Gabite since its physical movepool is pretty damn great, but by this point it's falling behind and probably didn't appreciate the ice hell earlier. For dragging it around for most of the game, its evolution better be worth it, maybe one of the best Pokemon in the game, almost broken, even? Does this mean someone will use it against us to complete our dex? N-Nah... that seems a bit mean...

How should I teach the most powerful of the Dragon-type moves...?

Alright, another floor done, we're nearly outta here! One more thing...

Do we still have to breed Azurill? Mehhhhhhh.

It's called body heat from exertion, this place is a hell of a workout.

Rude. For something you trade twice, it's pretty damn great, it has to be! While there's no Conversion Z for a little while yet, getting Psybeam, Signal Beam, Discharge, Tri Attack and Hyper Beam in that order from level up is still impressive. And yeah, STAB Nasty Plot boosted Hyper Beam, that'll ruin your fucking day. That's not even getting into all the other crazy special moves it gets, it's worth hanging onto them for this, though Porygon2 has its charms. Its other stats aren't even that bad, so this is a very fun mon to use if you can stomach socialising with someone TWICE.

OH FUCK

Overgrown, but stats in all the right places, being a pretty great mixed attacker that can take a few physical hits. Not getting Grass STAB sucks, since both physical and special options are basically postgame, real annoying when they keep doing that. It does get better special options, with Shock Wave, Sludge Bomb, Focus Blast and Ancientpower, but it has physical options in Brick Break, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Poison Jab and I guess Wring Out and Sleep Powder and stuff. It's fun to experiment, since Tangela is usually not the first pick, but it can definitely do some work if you put the time in.

Neither Pokemon nor people live forever. But it is the very frailty of life that allows us to shine!

Oh hey, the earliest you can get Weavile in DP. The fuck?

Man, I hope you're not thinking this game is nearly over, because OH BOY it isn't.

Bouncing around a bit, but we're going everywhere but the exit!

Oh, wow, this is a 5% encounter on all floors, but we can get outta here no prob-

Every. Fucking. Time.

When two roads diverge, you must choose the path less traveled...

And there's the exit, I can understand you not liking this dungeon at all, but I think it's designed really well and definitely feels like the culmination of everything you've done throughout the game.