#ponderous

The story thus far...

Megan (me) has been going through some kind of midlife crisis, but it's for the midlife of the Pokemon franchise. There's a long and convoluted gameplan that won't be explained here because parts of it are stupid. In this stupid part, I replayed Sapphire on an extra cartridge we had for reasons, MOSTLY to get a Latias, but also to refresh my memory on the events of 3rd gen. This was a relatively simple project, compared to the three separate playthroughs I just did for Leaf Green. I did not saddle myself with nickname theme gimmicks nor did I train any unevolved starters up to level 60. There was also no necromancy this time, and none of my Pokemon were burdened with the legacy of their forefathers. Pretty straightforward.

This post is to commemorate the brave and mighty Pokemon who fought for the championship in this playthrough, the

~~✨Second Sapphire Gijinka Journey✨~~

Becky Fern is our valiant starter. She thought she could solo the entire game, and that was almost true. She kicked her way across Hoenn, stopping only to cower from Brendan's Swampert and various Psychic-types. As the starter, she was forced into a 'big sister' role for every Pokemon I caught, and she hated it. She thought level grinding with the Exp. Share was a waste of time. But although she'll never admit it, she needed these losers. And she's proud of them.

Eryn Fern was the first Pokemon I caught after starting the journey with Becky. Shroomish are found in the Petalburg Woods, so Becky spent the first few routes and towns as the only Pokemon in my party. She was so mad when her 'only child' status was revoked. But I wanted a Breloom, they're neat!

So, Breloom's moveset options hinge on knowing Spore, and in order to learn it you have to leave a Shroomish unevolved until level 54. So Eryn spent the entire journey with an Everstone on, only to evolve right before the championship fight. The poor guy has no self confidence because he was stuck in baby mode for so long. But he's strong. And he's lucky; Dynamic Punch has 50% accuracy, but somehow in the Elite Four battles he managed to land his hits every single time.

When I first caught Shina Nera Fern, I thought it would be cool to train a Shedinja. Unfortunately, either I'm managing her wrong or Nera just isn't very good at battling. But Shina, the Ninjask, has been a great fighter. Shina and Nera both are big fans of Becky, they're sort of like Becky's cheerleaders. But Shina considers herself a friendly rival to Becky, and aspires to become stronger than her hero. She did it too; I entered the Elite Four with everyone at level 55 and Shina was the first to level to 56, making her officially stronger than Becky.

Ambience Fern was caught around the same time I got Shina, but I wasn't sure at first if she'd stay on the team. She's actually got decent stats and kept up with the rest of the team. Eventually I got her Ice Beam and that provided important coverage against Flying-types, which Becky, Eryn, and Shina are all weak to. I gave her Flamethrower in between attempts at the Elite Four, and I think that was the change that got us the win.

Ambi's appearance and personality was built around her Whismur form and she's kept a lot of those affectations. She's a shy little pastel-wearing princess, even if she's a giant shoutmonster who shoots three different types of mouth laser. She is soft and she cares about her friends a lot.

Ponderous Fern was added to the team because I encountered a Spoink and thought, "oh neat, a Spoink." He beat Becky in that fight before I could capture him! He's a prodigy and Becky hates him. He and Eryn are buddies, they get to sit together at the scorned-by-Becky table. He's normally soft-spoken and agreeable but he'll be rude and sarcastic to Becky, usually because she instigates it.

Spoinks really like pearls, which they somehow steal from Clamperls despite the 0% overlap between those species' habitats. Even after evolving, Ponder keeps a collection of pearls that he can use as amplifiers for his psychic power. Over the course of our journey we were given the Blue Orb, a key item that awakens Kyogre. Ponder claimed it and he won't give it back. It's his favorite orb. It's a key item so he can't hold it (I checked), but he won't let it go.

And finally, we have Hanna World, our world pillar. Now, every time I have to reset a cartridge I take every Pokemon out of it first, but you're required to have one Pokemon on the file. They get deleted when you make a new save file, so I commemorate them by catching a new version in the new file. The old file in this cart had an OT named Hanna, and I left behind a level 15 unnamed female Spinda. When I encountered a level 15 female Spinda in the new file, she gained the name Hanna. She's a clown, I guess.

Every 'world sacrifice' Pokemon gets a design theme that stands out from the others. Prometheus got a toga, Fujiko got a kimono, and Hanna is a clown. Or maybe, Spindas are just like this? She's dizzy and wobbly and giggly and says a lot of ominous shit. She's great in battle, although sadly her role in the Elite Four was mostly to stall while I healed someone else. She's always a sacrifice of some kind. Is it poetic? Maybe not.

Anyways they beat the game! Good job, kids!

After their victory, we went after my original goal, the Latias that only appears in postgame. I Master Balled her the moment we got her to show up. To give the team a little more challenge and adventure, we went after the Regis and Rayquaza. With some vital assistance from Inari, Mola, and Dayo we got all our legendaries, and this cartridge is concluded.

My next playthrough is Alpha Sapphire, which I'm playing for the first time. The idea is that with regular Sapphire fresh in my memory I'll get the most out of the remake's changes. I've already started gijinka designs for that run! When the game is completed, that cartridge is the promised land for a bunch of my champions from various 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen games. But before their world gets overrun by level 100 turtles from beyond reality, the locals need to tell their story. It's coming, I'm up to Mossdeep and my main obstacle is getting sidetracked by Super Training and berry farming.