The Let's Play Archive

Pokemon XD

by Crosspeice

Part 3: Arigato Agate

Part 3: Arigato Agate

Dr. Kaminko's Yard



Welcome back, ever get that feeling of deja vu?



CHOBIN is still the only assistant, so CHOBIN has to be the number-one assistant!



We'll be fighting Chobin a few more times in this game. Trust me, his team gets better.



Pretty standard battle. Since we're below the third bar, Teddiursa will now gain exp and EVs and all that good stuff. Calling it out of Reverse Mode reduces it by another good chunk, but it depends on the nature. Jolly is +Spd -SpAtk, which is pretty damn good! Too bad we're dropping her next update.



I went too fast last time to gif it, so here it is.



CHOBIN wishes you spoke up right away.

Today, JOVI is very busy. JOVI has an important job with JOVI's assistant, big brother.

Is that so. But you being here in person now, do have a look at DR. KAMINKO's inventions. You may say anything, but DR. KAMINKO's inventions are number one in the whole wide world! CHOBIN is full of admiration! The DOCTOR's inventions, which are quite fantastic, CHOBIN here has compiled and edited. The video can be viewed anytime on the monitor in the entrance. Stop by and look.




Their mmodus operandi... it feels similar to that incident five years ago. It may be CIPHER. But one can't conclusively say that. Before we get to thinking, your MACHINE PART needs to go. Quickly, deliver that MACHINE PART to the POKEMON HQ LAB.



Who are you?! How long have you been there?! I... I... I'm in the middle of highly important research. I'm quite busy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I ask that you refrain from disturbing me.



Oh, I don't know. What JOVI likes best is CHOBIN's googly glasses.

Th-these are strictly off-limits. CHOBIN cannot function without them. Extremely, absolutely not.

Aww! That's so boring.



Alright, enough with the detours, let's deliver the thingymawhosit.

Lily's Determination



I found some more MEMOS I wrote up with the DIRECTOR. I think you should have them, DAVID.




You're making me miss audio logs, doc. Ah well, let's give them a read.



The AURA READER's development made it possible to create a workable new SNAG MACHINE. We realized that we could integrate the AURA READER with the original SNAG MACHINE developed by CIPHER. The AURA READER can be made to sound a warning and prevent the SNAG MACHINE from working if a regular, non-SHADOW POKEMMON is targeted. The likelihood of the SNAG MACHINE being abused should be diminished. However, one must always be vigilant. It must be treated with caution!



Once captured, SHADOW POKEMON must have their hearts reopened in a process called purification so that they may return to their normal state. The best-known method of purification was to have the SHADOW POKEMON spend time with a TRAINER and allow their hearts to gradually reopen. However, because it required SHADOW POKEMON to be with the TRAINER, this method placed a limit on the number of POKEMON that could be treated. We needed a process for efficiently purifying many SHADOW POKEMON. Our studies led us to the idea of the PURIFY CHAMBER.



The PURIFY CHAMBER is a radical new concept that differs from the usual purification method of having SHADOW POKEMON be with a TRAINER constantly. It represents a new approach that places SHADOW POKEMON among regular POKEMON so that they become purified naturally. Much time is still needed to make this concept real. We need to acquire systems, collect data, and make adjustments. We eagerly look forward to seeing the PURIFY CHAMBER concept in operation.



We ran the errand like you wanted, Mommy. A bad guy tried to stop us, but a nice person helped us!

Oh, no! Really?! ...I'll get the details later. What about the MACHINE PART?



I should take this down to the PURIFY CHAMBER on the ground floor now.

Oh! JOVI will take it!

JOVI, are you sure? Don't drop it.

JOVI can do it!



Purification progresses if a SHADOW POKEMON spends time together with its TRAINER. Has the HEART GAUGE fallen to zero? No? Oh. But by the time the PURIFY CHAMBER is completed, the HEART GAUGE should be down to zero. If the HEART GAUGE has fallen to zero, that SHADOW POKEMON is ready to open its heart. But that alone isn't enough. To complete the process, the POKEMON needs to go through a purification ceremony. It's basically a ritual for it to return to its natural state.



Because of that, I think your SHADOW POKEMON should go through the purification ceremony using a different process. There is a village called AGATE. In the village is the RELIC STONE which has the power to restore SHADOW POKEMON to their natural state. It worries me to send you to such a far-off place by yourself, dear. But I also think it's something that only you can do. Well, dear? Will you go to AGATE VILLAGE? Thank you. You know, DAVID, I'm so proud of how you're becoming more and more dependable.



I will get in touch with him so that he knows you're coming, DAVID. I will do my best to get the PURIFY CHAMBER finished while you're gone. Please be careful, DAVID.



Alright, let's head off to familiar territory! I was just kidding about the just kidding about the just kidding, there are no permenant team members in this game, in fact, we could ignore Jovi for the rest of the game if we wanted. Maybe I'll do that...




Before that, though, you can fight this trainer as soon as you can visit Agate.



Her Pokemon are as weak as the rest of the trainers we fought our first time here, so I have no idea why they did this. Anyway, Teddiursa dropped under two bars, so learns her final move. Since all Shadow Pokemon have two Shadow moves minimum, going under one bar does nothing in this game, aside from making Reverse Mode more common. Neat.



Live your dreams fish.



I thought you were just a kid, but you're not half bad. I'm sure you're going to become one decent TRAINER down the road. Let's battle again sometime.

Agate Village



Hey we didn't get distracted much, so here we are, back again. This place hasn't changed at all.



So let's go around and pilfer stuff, starting with this cave!



Aww yeah, early game items!




Now this is some good shit, this is a mix of tutor moves from both FRLG and Emerald, so it's definitely worth coming back to this lady on occasion when she adds more moves to the list. Already there's two nice moves in Thunder Wave and Seismic Toss and later there's gonna be some real good ones we can't ignore.



Hopefully battling these guys is gonna be alright, since they're five years older than when we last saw them.



Teddiursa really liked getting into Reverse Mode, so I don't think I'll show all the times she went into it. It was a lot.



Like the previous game, you can rematch most trainers in the game, but like the previous game, I won't really bother.



We don't have the Cologne Case yet, so we can't buy Scents, but while they're still kinda useless, their friendship increase might be useful later on.



Before we visit Eagun's, prizes!



She's referring to the Poochyena, I realized when making screenshots.



The fact that she used it in battle was pretty cute.



I could show more of these battles off, but our opponent's movesets are so bad, I don't want to. Teddiursa now has an empty gauge at least!




Bullet Seed wasn't in the last game, but it, along with a few more TMs, are in this one! I didn't miss it.



Ooh neat, we get a little notification when a Pokemon becomes ready for purification.



Alas, while we will have a Pickup mon in this game, since why not, it uses the Emerald pool of level instead of the flat chance pool of RS. Oh well.



Are you perhaps DAVID? Ah, just as I thought! You are DAVID! We've been expecting you! We got word about you from LILY, you see. We understand that you want to purify SHADOW POKEMON. The instant my husband heard from LILY, why, you should have seen his excitement and enthusiasm. Shouting "This calls for my services!" or some such, he went off running to who knows where. He hasn't come back since.



Oh, hello, dear. Our guest, DAVID, has just arrived.

Oh, so you're DAVID! We've been waiting! I'm EAGUN! I've heard everything that LILY had to say. As you know, to purify a SHADOW POKEMON, it must open its heart to the TRAINER. While there are several approaches, battles are the best, no doubt at all! The place to do that here is the RELIC FOREST, which is home to the RELIC STONE. I will go ahead and wait for you there!



In his day, he was hailed as the greatest TRAINER. But that's a long time ago. The cave to the RELIC FOREST is down the slope beside the POKEMON CENTER. Good luck purifying your SHADOW POKEMON!



We've still got half of this village to explore, so let's get going.



The Day Care is (or, uh, will be) almost exactly the same as last game, except they no longer accept Shadow Pokemon. That's fine, considering I never used it, but if you didn't hack like me, it at least gave you a seventh slot to purify in the postgame.



We can give our Pokemon nicknames much earlier in this game, though we can only do Eevee at the moment. However, we'll be nicknaming Jolteon, not Eevee, so when we evolve him, he'll get a nickname.



Every time we re-enter Agate Village we can get a berry, same as before. And, same as before, it's the only way to get berries in the Orre region, unless you trade with other games in the postgame. I will probably forget to do this, but it's whatever, I never used any berries last game.



Lots of boxes lying around. PP restoring items are good, since I still don't keep track of that due to the move selection being in the bottom left corner and the PP being just out of my focus in the bottom right corner.



My older brother trained here before, and he became very skilled. I hate losing to him! But when it gets right down to it, the tougher you become. So how about we battle? Yeah, that's what I want to hear! Here goes!



You're just trying to make me feel bad beating up weak babies. Too bad I'm beyond caring about such trivial things.



And since all you do is just use Charm, it's annoying, sure, but it's not something that stops me.




Phew, it'd been an update since we last saw a Pokemon Center, I was getting worried!



And to get a lot tougher... it takes battles! Right? Yahoo! Much obliged, pal!



...this easiness is a bit excessive for the early game.



Well at least it's entries to the Strategy Memo.



What's down this secret path this time?



You're on! I'm feeling frustrated over getting lost, so I'll take it out on you!



Somehow through this minimal experience, Eevee is getting levels.



I came to have a look at the RELIC STONE, but they won't let me in. And now I can't find my way out of here. I'm about to cry from frustration!



It's just an empty cave, so I dunno what you're talking about mister.



Ah, battles to reduce the heart gauge. This could be a good opportunity to use Poochyena and Ledyba, but these battles are pretty boring, so using my two strongest Pokemon is what I'll do instead. Play that funky music, white boy!

Trainer Battle




To open up the closed heart of a SHADOW POKEMON, entering it in battles is effective. That's why you should make SHADOW POKEMON battle whenever possible. I hope your SHADOW POKEMON get purified soon!



This will be your tutorial for how to purify stuff. It's like a beginner Elite Four and Champion! Seriously.




Wasn't that a good battle? I learned something from it, too. Oh, yes. You know how a SHADOW POKEMON sometimes begins behaving strangely in battle? If that happens, calling out to that SHADOW POKEMON is supposed to help.




Well the Pokemon are getting more interesting, if nothing else.



My, you are impressive. That POKEMON should soon open its heart to you. Oh, yes. I should tell you this useful bit of information. I hear that if a POKEMON has a closed heart, it's good to keep it with you. Rather than keeping it in the PC Storage System, you should keep it with you at all times.



Alright, we're good any status that comes our way! Except for Freeze, but we'll have Full Heals by that point anyway.



The legendary TRAINER! EAGUN beat me! But only him! I'm CRON! Now, now! For the sake of your SHADOW POKEMON, we shall have a hot battle! Bring it on!



Ooh, that's interesting. I wonder what the rest of his Pokemon have?



Oh. Nothing much. Well they're still under level 10, so it's to be expected. A lot of them probably don't even have STAB.




It's a case to hold the SCENTS for giving COLOGNE MASSAGES to POKEMON. I'm told a scented COLOGNE MASSAGE helps ease open the hearts of POKEMON. Rub down your POKEMON gently when you use that COLOGNE CASE.

Relic Forest



Now I shall be your opponent. And here's my partner. The one POKEMON that I caught as my first... and that has stayed with me ever since. Go, PIKACHU! Off we go to our first battle in five years! Let's keep things tight!



This seems like a really bad idea! How the hell are we supposed to beat something this strong???



Oh wait, it's his only Pokemon... and it's really low level. Weird.



And to defeat my PIKACHU... that takes real skill! Now, let's see how your SHADOW POKEMON is doing. Ah, this POKEMON is on the verge of opening its heart to you! You've done a good job looking after it. Now you should use the power of the RELIC STONE to finally open that SHADOW POKEMON's heart completely.



Wow, towards the end of the third update is when we can purify Shadow Pokemon for the first time, instead of in the sixth update for Colosseum. That's pretty nice, though it feels like we've barely done anything so far. At least that's gonna change pretty soon.




Let's get our final two moves, one great, one shit (why is Refresh on nearly everything?) and get all of this lovely exp.



Like before, it'll level up one by one and then evolve, so you might miss an important move at evolution, but it's not a massive deal like before, as we'll see soon.



We get the ribbon from the last game and we'll give this teddy a nickname later, since I need to do some recording before I stop for thread submissions!



lol whoops, sometimes a certain texture won't load. It's pretty rare, I'm surprised it didn't happen while I was recording Colosseum, but hopefully this is the only time we see it.

Agate Village



You see, he was a frequent visitor to AGATE up to several years ago. He was conducting extensive research into the RELIC STONE, you see. He said that it was for completing an entirely new purifying system that his friend thought up. I wonder where the kidnappers have made off with PROF. KRAME. It must be worrisome for you, too.

About that abduction, dear... didn't you need to mention what VANDER saw?

Hm? Ah, yes! That's right! I needed to tell you about VANDER. We have a friend by the name of VANDER who lives on MT. BATTLE, which is a place of training for TRAINERS. VANDER claims to have seen sinister characters out in the desert, where few people dare to tread.



You should speak with VANDER in person for details. MT. BATTLE is to the northeast of this village. VANDER is an AREA LEADER on MT. BATTLE, so you should have no trouble finding him.

For someone so young, you've already shown yourself to be admirable. You have the air of someone who is about to accomplish great things. Oh, dear, I'm sorry. The instincts of an old woman like me aren't anything you could trust.



His second ever pen pal. Hohoho.



Teddiursa just got a nice boost, so she'll be more useful until we get our second team member. Which will eventually happen, I promise. Maybe we might encounter some Shadow Pokemon next update? Seems unlikely, but hey, you never know.



Next time, we're finally out of tutorial mode and the gloves come off. Well, one glove comes off. Don't wanna have too much difficulty now!