Part 14: Don't Let Gligar Bring You Down
Music: Olive Jungle
Going past the knocked down tree, we'll try going up first.
I want to scale this cliff, but these vines are too small and weak... What does it take to make plants grow? Sunlight, and what else?Good thing we have the top screen telling us the answer.
This dude sounds like he's trying to be an informative tour guide.
We soak the vine and it immediately grows. Because that's how biology works.
The Olive Jungle has the most fertile soil in the world apparently!
*When talked to* Those vines grew right before our eyes! But come to think of it, I'm no good at climbing vines...
Unlike this explorer, Circe is good at climbing vines. Good thing he doesn't, too, with that Grovyle ready and waiting.
...Come to think of it, how did he get here in the first place? You need to climb the vine near where we meet the Quads, after all.
Music: Wild Pokemon Capture
Grovyle will attack our Styler, so we need to bait it out. However, the hard part is that it's very fast. It jumps around (thankfully not randomly) and can just go offscreen if it wants.
In fact, it took me so long to capture it that the orange marks appear above its head. What does that mark signify, you ask?
Well, it's to show that the Pokemon is about to flee, of course!
...Yes, Pokemon can flee in this game.
Yikes. How long does it take before the flee markers appear? 30 seconds? A minute? 2? More?
For most of them, it's one minute. But there's some where fleeing is their main gimmick. As you might expect, they're tedious
Music: Capture Complete
Required Loops: 5
Possible EXP: 36/40/44/50
Thankfully, we can use Bug assists. Flicking is hard to do on an emulator, though.
Music: Olive Jungle
I love how this undergrowth is functionally the same as the shrubs in Lyra Forest but they made a (slightly) different model and description just for flavor.
It's the little touches that make this game good.
Unlike before, we CAN cut this now and see what's inside.
Another discovery!
Lombre has the same attack as Lotad (and Krabby and Corphish and probably others I'm forgetting).
The difference with those Pokemon is that it jumps. And that makes it ten times worse. Good thing it's a Water type, so Plusle trivializes it.
I love all the members of Lotad's family!
Required Loops: 6
Possible EXP: 23/29/35/43
Anyway, that's all on the upper path. Now we'll go to the other one.
Music: Go-Rock Squad!
Feel free to sharpen your skills until they finally settle down. I'll be on my way now. Good luck with that!Hah! Okay that's pretty damn funny.
I guess that's one way to make 'letting the grunt run away' interesting.
Music: Wild Pokemon Capture
So, Mankey and Primeape. Primeape can punch. Mankey can't.
They both can charge, though. And, as usual, it will charge toward our Styler. They do charge in a straight line, which means they're much easier to deal with.
Also, note the flee icon on the bottom left. This means that this encounter is actually on optional one, just like what the grunt said.
And, to make things even easier, both Mankey and Primeape will take some time to recharge after their charge.
Most Pokemon have cooldown after their attacks (which is how we can bait them in the first place), but these are the first with visible ones.
I don't need it right now, but this is a nice surprise
The energy bar only goes up to 15. Additional ones will be in different color.
Music: Capture Complete
Required Loops: 5
Possible EXP: 20/23/26/30
Required Loops: 10
Possible EXP: 40/46/52/60
Rock smash is level 1, boulder smash is level 2... does that mean that slab smash is level 3?
Whatever it is, it's still powerless against Strength rocks
I think it's obvious
Music: Go-Rock Squad!
This is back where we captured the Heracross.
Heheheh!Music: Olive Jungle
This is why we need to capture Grovyle (and consequently Lotad).
The sign neglects to mention the REAL dangerous part of climbing. But that'll come later. For now...
Music: Go-Rock Squad!
Huh? Politoed? What are you talking about? You're sure you got the right grunt? I hate to break it to you, but the grunt you're after hightailed it up this cliff already. But that's not what I care about. You're out to mess with the Go-Rock Squad, aren't you, now? Then, I'm going to have to mess with you and mess you up before you do any more messing around!Music: Go-Rock Squad Battle (Weak Grunt)
Beautifly scatters dust around.
Music: Capture Complete
Required Loops: 7
Possible EXP: 45/48/51/55
I didn't mention Paras because they're captured pretty much instantly with Fighting assist (they only need 2 loops each).
Music: Olive Jungle
*Facing the vines* Hey! You grunt up top! A pesky Ranger's trying to reach you! Don't get messed up! *flees*This Grunt needs to find different synonyms for "messed up."
So, the vines. There's Gligar here. It's by far THE most annoying Pokemon in the series. Yes, worse than all those ambush Corphish.
Gligar will charge on sight. If it hits Circe, she'll get the usual knockback. Except when she's climbing the vines. Then she gets knocked down ALL THE WAY down to the beginning.
At least it'll charge in a straight line so it's relatively easy to get out of the way. Most of the time. Still, fuck Gligar
What the fuck... why would a developer add something like that to the game?
"Challenge"
It has that same charging attack in battle too and they also need to be baited out, but at least we can maneuver the Styler more easily.
Required Loops: 5
Possible EXP: 35/39/43/49
And don't think we're done with Gligar yet. We'll have to deal with them multiple times later in this game. And they'll reappear in later game in the series, where they also cause actual damage.
Fuck Gligar
...Back to the mission, we finally managed to regain sight of the Politoed.
I'm sure you all can guess what Pokemon this is. And no, we can't get it right now.
There's nothing beside the flowers, an Electrike and a Grovyle here. So we'll just go into the ruins.
Circe proving that the Grimer in the sewers messed her sense of smell up too. I seem to recall that Gloom absolutely reek.
Video: Politoed
It's...a dead end? Isn't there supposed to be a challenge here? And what was the grunt thinking, running here instead of going back to the entrance?
Music: Go-Rock Squad!
I have to hand it to you--you're persistent. You came to take this Politoed back, didn't you? But too bad--it's mine now. So, what does that mean? It means it's your enemy!
Music: Go-Rock Squad Battle (Weak Grunt)
Politoed requires 7 loops. We'll have to work for each of those seven.
This is its only attack. So what's so hard about it, you ask?
It's a toad, so of course it jumps around. It constantly jumps slowly, so it's not THAT bad. Certainly not as bad as Machoke.
So our tactic is obvious, make a loop when it lands/finishes attacking.
Unlike other Pokemon, it can just decide to jump halfway across the screen without any warning.
I'm back leaning towards "I dont' think I want to play this" again.
And if it breaks our line, we'll have to start over again. And this is when I only need one more loop...
Luckily, it's water type. So that means Plusle will actually be useful in a boss fight for once!
In short: Don't try to fight Politoed legitimately. It's not worth it.
These captures look so frustrating. I'm not sure I could play this without getting really angry.
Like people in the thread have said: this game has many problems, but it's still a great game.
Music: Capture Complete
Required Loops: 7
Possible EXP: 68/77/86/98
Fighting assist from Primeape also works, but that still requires 4 loops.
Music: Olive Jungle
Huh? What just happened? I stole that Politoed by capturing it with my brand-new Styler! But why did it go away when the Ranger captured it? That's just wrong! It's totally unfair! I... I... Gaaaah! Don't ever forget this! *flees*
There's nothing more to do here. Guess we can't try the challenge and prove to that NPC that we're ballsy enough.
Music: Go-Rock Quads!
It looks like those Pokemon return to wherever they came from if a Ranger recaptures them. That's important to know. But why does that happen? Maybe because the Ranger connects with the Pokemon on an emotional level? Hahaha! How ridiculous is that? As if that would ever happen! Hahaha! Totally preposterous! *leaves*Music: Olive Jungle
Hello. I'm surprised you even bothered coming here after waiting outside the whole time.
Look, look! It's my Politoed! It suddenly appeared in front of me as if nothing'd happened. And then it...it... It leapt into my arms! I... I couldn't help it. My eyes filled up with tears... Snivel... Thank you... Thank you so very much...*At Politoed* I'm not letting my Politoed go ever again!Music: Mission Clear!
OK! My tears are dry! Let's head back to the Ranger Base with the biggest smiles ever!*They both leave*
These people need to invest in pokeballs to keep the Go-Rocks from stealing their pokemon.