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So Pokemon Prism is a ROM hack of Pokemon Crystal. It's been in development for 8 years and the main story was finished however the post-game is incomplete. The original developers finished on December 21st, 2016 however before they could release it Nintendo slapped'em with a cease and desist order. So they did just that. Somehow the game was leaked though and dedicated fans began continuing their work, patching it and working on the post-game. It's not difficult to find a copy. You can play it using a Gameboy Color emulator (I use Visual Boy Advance) and I also hear it's possible to play it on 3DS as well though I don't know how. I just started playing this a couple hours ago and I'll be doing both a review and a "CoS Plays Pokemon Prism" at the same time. I've only gotten the first badge so I'm not far (and I'm not starting over, lol.)

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Okay! So it does the traditional "Welcome to the world of pokemon!" bit. After that though, you get to choose your character. And no I don't mean you get to choose your gender then you pick a name and begin. For both male and female there are 6 different character models to choose from! In my opinion the two best character models are as follows: Male - Lance The Dragon Trainer! Female - Clair The Blackthorn City Gym Leader!

I of course chose the one that looks like Lance. Then you get to choose skin tone and the color of your clothes! I went with the first for both so my character is tan and wearing blue. After spazzing out over the detailed character creation I named my character Prism because I usually name my characters after whatever version I'm playing. Next you choose set the date and time. I set it for when I started playing, 5PM today.

Now our adventure begins! For the record this game starts in a region called Naljo. Prism starts out camping with his mom who as usual dotes over Prism because her husband is off doing who knows what.
Is it me or are fathers in the pokemon games notoriously uninvolved in their child's lives?
So Prism and his mom are sitting around a roaring campfire. There was only one way to go so I went south but before I could leave the campsite but before Prism's mom would allow that she asked that Prism pick up some firewood while I was out. Not too long after I left there was a landslide that blocked me off from the campsite. Okay, that's different. I like it. Heading south I found a miner who let me ride a mine cart out of there. After what sounded like a ride so intense his soul fled his body (or at least his lunch) I wound up in Acqua Mine without a pokemon. I walked forward for a minute or two before I came across a Larvitar holding a pokeball. The little guy seemed lonely so I grabbed the pokeball and took him along. Now I have a level 5 Larvitar with the Guts ability.
I think it's cool that pokemon get abilities in a game whose graphics are the same as Crystal version! And Larvitar as a starter? Hell yeah!
He only had scratch and leer but that's no problem. He's a rock/ground type. He's got good defense and naturally is a great choice for physical attacks. Now we start running into wild pokemon. Nothing to be concerned about though. Everything I ran into only had normal attacks so Larvitar had the upper hand. Not long after finding my new Larvitar I saw a 2nd Larvitar also sitting around doing nothing, but when I saw it it fled into a small hole in the wall. I also noticed a boulder nearby but I was unable to move it.
By the way, the first thing I noticed in the mine was that when I pressed the A button at a wall or rock it said I needed a MINING PICK to MINE! Holy shit you can mine in this!
So now I had to send in my own Larvitar to chase after it. That's right you could walk around as your pokemon! So Larvitar encountered a few road blocks (dirt) and just ate them mofos! Pressing forward the other Larvitar was found and it talked! Since it was my own Larvitar talking to it instead of my human, the language was understood! Turns out it's just shy and wants me to stay away. Okay, I'm not one to be rude but I was just a little bit insulted, lol. As a reward he gave my Larvitar some Soft Soil (which he's now holding.) I also found a button to press so I did just that.

Larvitar headed back and now I noticed that the boulder was gone. I hope that button didn't detonate some dynamite or something. I was pretty close to that boulder! Anyways there was a hole now which I dived right into. I promptly found my way outside and into Caper City. According to the sign there, the place is buried in snow year round. As a result, the path out of there was blocked by snow and was being cleared, but wasn't clear yet.

With no way out I stopped at the pokemon center and looked around town. I found the pokemon professor for this place. The lab of Professor Ilk (weird name...) is where I discovered that my nice new Larvitar was actually his. Well he's just irresponsible and I wasn't planning on giving him back. But of course he let me keep it anyways. Then in true pokemon professor style, sent me on an errand. I had to go check on his brother north of town on route 69. On the way there (short path by the way) I ran into a cop that got a call about something going down at Professor Ilk's brother's house. He didn't want to leave his post so he asked me to go in his place. And because he didn't want to have to look for me if I got lost (pretty lazy cop there...) he gave me a town map. So I went east and after a couple trainer fights I arrived at the home of Professor Ilk's brother. Apparently somebody was trying to steal his Bagon. He wasn't too happy about the cops sending me instead either but that changed when I told him his brother sent me.

So I confronted the thief and fought him (and his new Bagon.) Hit'em with leer twice and even though I got hit with it once myself, the battle was over after about 3 or 4 hits. The thief, who apparently has become my rival, used an escape rope and got outta there with his unconscious Bagon. Well, at least I won, right? Professor Ilk's brother didn't seem too pissed about having his Bagon stolen. He was more concerned with the thief's name, which I got to choose. So I called him Silver since Gold was already mentioned in the beginning of this game.
By the way, I get the impression that Gold is Prism's father. Just a hunch.
I headed back to Professor Ilk in Caper City and he let me keep Larvitar. Even gave me a pokedex so I could do more of his work for him, lol. The east side of town had an icy exit that was blocked by some annoying kid, but now that I'm back in town he was gone. Continuing east I fought a few trainers (whose pokemon were curiously helpless against Larvitar. Nothing but normal, electric and flying types all the way to the next town. East and then north, I found myself in Oxalis City, the location of the first gym. Before I tackled the gym, I healed at the pokemon center, stocked up on potions and found a house on the north side of town with 2 underground passages.
The gameplay in there reminded me of the older Zelda games. This was rather refreshing actually.
One path took me to a dead end with an item (I think it was 2 repels. That or a potion. The other took me to a group of trainers. I'd heard from someone in town that a guy here gave away free pokemon. The first 3 or 4 were pretty easy for Larvitar. The 2nd to last however was nigh impossible to beat with Larvitar because he had a Snorunt that kept using Powder Snow. I got lucky with a critical hit using mud slap though. It lowered Snorunt's accuracy and made'em miss on the second turn. After that I just used scratch to finish him off. The final trainer, the one giving out pokemon, was too tough for Larvitar right now. I got trounced by his fighting type pokemon. Makuhita was actually kinda easy. He either used Reversal or pound 90% of the time instead of using karate chop. So I could just lower his accuracy with mud slap a couple times then start using leer to prepare for the final hit, with scratch. His next pokemon however was just too damn tough. Machop just kept using karate chop and in two hits Larvitar was down. So I loaded a save state from just before I fought him and decided to get my first gym badge instead, thinking the extra XP would really help.

The gym leader, Josiah, was a fire type user. Perfect for Larvitar! Also, apparently Josiah had a reputation for being a moron, lol. That's just amusing. The trainers leading up to him were easy. Along the way Larvitar learned Rock Throw at level 10 and before that, Sandstorm. Made it so much easier. By the time I got out of that gym Larvitar was level 13. I got my first badge and got the TM for Will-O-Wisp.

After that I went back to the underground to challenge that last trainer again. This time I gave Larvitar an oran berry. It made all the difference! He made short work of Makuhita and took almost no damage in the process thanks to Makuhita's reliance on Reversal. Before I defeated it though I used Sandstorm in preparation for his last pokemon. The challenge once again came from Machop. With help from the sandstorm, reduced accuracy by mud slap and a critical hit that saved me at the last second I managed to win with just 2HP remaining. As a reward for winning he gave me a level 10 Cyndaquil.

So I licked my wounds at the pokemon center and proceeded north. The tall grass just outside town netted me a Vulpix, Mareep and a Marill. Not bad if I do say so myself. The variety is going to help. The trainers up here in addition to the one that gave me Cyndaquil were enough to get Larvitar to level 15. After catching those I found a cave just ahead.

My party so far

So I enter the cave and blocking my path is Silver, my rival.

As always, my rival is a d-bag

He seemed to be talking on the phone. I can't even begin to guess who it was, but as soon as he notices me standing right next to him he hangs up and starts berating me. Something about me being in his way (other way around actually, lol) then in not so many words he calls me stupid.

So we fight!

He was a bit of a challenge this time. First he sent out a Paras. The only thing that makes his Paras a challenge is the ability Effect Spore which considering Larvitar's a physical pokemon means I had to do a lot of damage quickly. Rock throw took'em down in one hit. Next he sent out a Sneasel. It's ice attack, icy wind, made it dangerous to Larvitar. Fortunately he survived the first attack and one-shotted it with Rock Throw. Larvitar took a lot of damage from that but I was confident he'd do well against his last pokemon, Bagon. Bite managed to do considerable damage, but after hitting him with mud slap twice, he was barely a threat. I finished him off with scratch.

And he's still a d-bag...

So after he was defeated he mentioned looking for pokemon that suit his purposes. Sounds like he's up to something which is a first for rivals even in ROM hacks. Usually they just wanna be the very best (like no one ever was...) even if that means stealing to get their starter pokemon. So he left and I started wandering around the cave (finally!) but as luck would have it the way out is blocked. There's someone that says he's been trapped in the cave for a while now (the way I came in is still open though...) and needs 5 more sticks of dynamite to clear the way. Somehow he knows that there's 5 more sticks laying around on the bottom floor of this cave. He'd get them himself but according to him they're being guarded by "colorful freaks" as he put it. Is this the game's crime syndicate? Only one way to find out.

I traveled down to the bottom floor. It seems to be a 3 floor cave. At the same time, the place is a freakin' maze. On the bottom floor it was pretty dark. I didn't have the Flash HM yet but as luck would have it there was a light generator on the wall and with an electric pokemon or move I could juice it up! So Mareep turned on the lights for me. Wandering aimlessly I found someone guarding an item. So I went for the item and I shit you not, I had to battle a Power Ranger!

The name is rather curious actually

He was pretty weak though. These individuals seem to like using Eevee. The rest of their pokemon varied and I think the color of their outfits may be a factor in what type of pokemon they use. I forgot to take a screenshot of the Yellow one but he had an Elekid and I think a Shinx in addition to Eevee. I have a feeling later on I'll see them again and their Eevees will have evolved.

The other Rangers...

From what they told me, they're superheroes (go figure...) and there's also a Red one that is their leader. And they said they were hunting me. Also a red one? It...couldn't be!? I'm just being paranoid right? He would never do that. Back to the task at hand though. After wandering for a bit I collected all 5 sticks of dynamite and made my way back to the trapped man. The battle with that last Power Ranger got my Larvitar to evolve to into Pupitar! The trapped man needed something to light the fuse and as luck would have it, my Cyndaquil has ember! So we lit the fuse and he ran much further away than I did...at first, lol. Barely escaping an explosive death, the path was clear and I could continue forward. A couple empty rooms later I found myself in Spurge City. It was a large city much like Goldenrod City in the Johto region.

I went straight for the pokemon center first. Afterwards I began exploring. I found the large pokemart (not a department store according to the sign) but it was still a large building. It had only one floor but it was a wide area. I bought some Moo Moo Milk, Awakening, Great Balls, Ice Heals and Burn Heals. After that I found the Spurge City Casino! Some shady-looking guy sold me a Coin Case for $1000. I bought 50 coins and decided to play it safe. Playing video poker I turned my 50 coins into around 250 coins. With a little more than I started out, I decided to try a riskier game. The card game, a classic in pokemon gambling, lol. It didn't go over as well as I'd hoped. I barely broke even...

A couple hours later I managed to make enough coins to get me a Kangaskhan and Porygon from the exchange counter for 1000 coins. It was worth it though. Kangaskhan is level 20 and has the Scrappy ability! Porygon is level 25 and has the Download ability! I'd caught a Sneasel and a Bronzor in the cave but I decided to deposit Bronzor in favor of my new Kangaskhan & Porygon. Back to exploring the city though, I found a pokemon orphanage. The owner gave me an Orphanage Card. You can leave pokemon there and for doing so you receive points on your Orphanage Card. How many points you get is apparently determined by multiple factors. One person outside the orphanage said they adopted a pokemon and it had bruises all over it's body. Wow, that got dark...

There's also an apartment building. Some of the apartments are locked. One person even lost their keys and is now locked out of their apartment. I got a TM on the top floor. I also found the city's gym at the north end of the city but the gym leader isn't there. Until he come back there's someone blocking the door so I'll be heading elsewhere for now. I heard there's a nearby town that sells mining picks so I'll try to find that place. At the northern exit of the city there was a few trainers. One of them had an Abra and a Kadabra, both of which only know teleport so they're perfect for leveling up literally any pokemon you have because those 2 are just fodder, lol. Also at the northern exit I ran into the Red Ranger!

He sounds a bit depressed if you ask me...

I'm pretty confident about my outfit color theory. Palette Red had a Growlithe. Although he also had a Goldeen so there's still room for error. And of course he had an Eevee like the others. My suspicions about his true identity seem more rational every time I run into these guys. After I defeated him he said he used to be one of the greatest trainers in the world. You know what I'm getting at here, right? And of course you believe me don't you?

My party as of 2:48AM EST

So after I defeated the Red Ranger the guard in the building bribed me with HM01 (Cut) so I wouldn't tell anyone that he decided to do nothing when Red Ranger and I started fighting. Sure I'll take that deal, lol. Anyways, just outside the building I'd arrived in Heath Village. As usual I did some exploring and found that the entire village is run by one family. They don't even have a pokemon center though! They have an inn that I can heal at...for a price. Whatever, I needed it anyways. Mareep was on the verge of death after our last battle. The inn also had the local shop and as luck would have it, they sold Mining Picks! I bought a couple for a fair price. Next I went into a building just south of the town's entrance. It seemed off to me because it had a door on the south end that seemed to be blocked by trees, but looks can be deceiving. The girl in the building told me about the region's lore. Apparently the region was once protected by "the Guardians" who legend tells is now sleeping.

I went out of the southern door and found myself in a large forest. Proceeding down the path I found the guy that always gives you advice about how to beat the gym leaders. No way! This is the gym and the gym leader has his own fucking forest! Well at least I know this is a grass gym now. There's even wild pokemon running around here.

Kinda neat for a gym

This place was perfect for training Cyndaquil so I put him at the front of my party and marched forward. The wild pokemon were about the same level as the trainer's pokemon here. Usually levels 12 to 14. Cyndaquil made short work of them. I found a building at the eastern edge of the forest. And it went underground. There was a cave with a man and lava pit. I talked to the man and apparently THERE'S SMELTING IN THIS GAME! I don't have the stuff needed just yet but I look forward to this. I tried out my mining here as well. The walls and rocks yielded evolution stones, Gold Dust, Ore, Coal and Heart Scales. My mining is now level 5 as well.

Now that I'm done in that building, I proceeded to search for the gym leader. Cyndaquil evolved into Quilava too! By the time I reached the gym leader, Rinji, Quilava was level 18.

Rinji's pokemon were noticeably stronger. They ranged from level 19 to 21. His first pokemon, Lombre, was a bit of a challenge for Quilava. Since he's a grass and water type ember was only regularly effective but it only used water gun once for some reason. So he got out of that round okay. The others, Bulbasaur and Vileplume, went down too quick and with the battle over Quilava reached level 21. I also managed to catch a couple pokemon in this gym (that's new) so I'd say this place was very nice. I really like what they did at this gym.

And with that I got the Nature Badge. I also got a TM for Razor Leaf. And now pokemon up to level 40 will obey me. With that place outta the way I doubled back to the fork in the road north of Spurge City and checked if the gym leader had come back. Unfortunately the gym leader was still gone so I headed north again but turned east this time. The trip to the next city was uneventful. I fought some random trainers, nothing special. Although I did come across attacks from pokemon games that came after generation 2! The developers for this thing made 2D animations for attacks all the way up to generation 7! I encountered aqua jet and psycho cut! They looked expertly made, as if made by Nintendo themselves. Sure they used pre-existing graphics (from generation 2) in order to do it but they looked amazing! I especially liked the animation for psycho cut.

Now I'd arrived in Laurel City. It looked pretty green around there but thankfully they had a pokemon center. I healed up and began exploring the place. I got the TM for Sleep Talk. I found the gym here as well. According to the guy at the entrance, the gym leader here was a real brat. Pretty whiney too. He also said pokemon were going missing around here. Among them was the gym leader's Totodile and she wasn't happy about that at all. Anyways, he didn't tell me what kinda pokemon this place uses so I just dove right into the first battle. Turns out this gym uses fairy pokemon. Fairy type pokemon in a game whose graphics are equal to that of Gold, Silver and Crystal is pretty awesome. One can assume that several (if not all) of the pokemon up to generation 7 are in this game. I even fought a Mawile! I also saw the move draining kiss (a fairy type move!) in action. Once again I'm impressed at the developers ingenuity.

I'd encountered a new attack here as well called Power Ballad. I assume it's a Sound type attack of course. Beyond that I don't know anything about it other than that it's a damage dealing move. It was a little rough at first trying to determine which pokemon are Sound type. Jigglypuff and Wigglypuff I believe are Sound and Fairy types. After the last trainer before the gym leader my Larvitar evolved into Pupitar! Mareep had evolved into Flaffy! Sure enough I made it to the gym leader. She was pretty rude. First thing she did was yell at me, "What gives you the right to just barge in here!?" In my defense, it is an official gym, lol. She went on to say that unless I'd found her Totodile she wouldn't battle me. Then of course she felt it necessary to finish with "Go find my Totodile! NOW!" She has me in a tight spot though since I kinda need the gym badge, lol.

Rumor has it that the pokemon went missing south of town in Laurel Forest. I fought my way there and found a Clefairy blocking my path. It wouldn't let me pass but it let my Pupitar go by. Just like at the beginnig of the game I could move my starter pokemon around as if it were me. It would have helped to have Cut but teaching it to Pupitar would be a waste so I took the long way. I found a Butterfree that tagged along with me to search for it's baby. As you can imagine her baby is a Caterpie. It wasn't far away actually. They gave me something called a Curo Shard (whatever the hell that is) as a reward. Going east I found a Pikachu that wanted me to find a burnt berry for it as a snack. I'm not sure when I'll find one but I'm keeping an eye out for it. To the north I found a Charmander whose way home was blocked by rising tide. So I had to look around for a way to get him home. The northwest of this place had a large rock I could take with me. So I went back to Charmander to see if I could block the flow of the river but one wasn't enough. I found another large rock and went back to Charmander. This time it was enough to create a small dam. The water subsided and Charmander ran home. I followed to a cave where he and his parents (2 Charizards) were arguing about how to raise their child. Wow, this game is pretty relatable isn't it? Turns out the father blocked the way home on purpose so Charmander would swim across but...that would kill him wouldn't it? Anyways he was pretty upset that his son didn't learn how to swim. He was grateful for my helping him though. As a reward he cleared a path to a tunnel some humans had built in the cave. I went inside and after a series of buttons I found another Curo Shard. As I continued to wander I discovered a beach with a few pokemon just chillin'. There was also a berry tree with an oran berry and something out of place next to it.

Beer's on Wartortle...

There was a Surskit here that was trapped on this beach by the abnormally strong current. The Xatu seemed to be a local just hangin' out. He told me what the Curo Shards are for. Apparently if you can get 3 of them they can be used to make you focus better. Something the local pokemon here do. However some humans came along and started digging up all the Curo Shards for themselves. Wartortle was in a foul mood because it's his beach and everyone else is trespassing. He straight up attacked me for it too. So Pupitar made quick work of him. He settled down afterwards (kinda) and went back to grumbling about the trespassers, heh. He also mentioned that some humans put a strange machine on his beach. I pressed a button on it and changed the tide of the water. It trapped me on the beach but opened the path to an item stranded in the water. It was a 3rd Curo Shard. So I pressed the button again and left the beach.

At the north end of this place I found a Charizard blocking my way. It seemed pretty ornery so I placed the 3 Curo Shards on it and he regained his senses. Turns out his mind was being controlled. He didn't seem to mind that though. He was more pissed about having stood in one spot for hours on end doing absolutely nothing. At least he's got his priorities straight. This place was taking it's toll on Pupitar. There were many Trapinch in the area and their Arena Trap ability forced me to fight every single one of them. He was down to 31 HP and I had no access to healing items. I came to a small building with 2 scientists in it. They were in the process of creating a mind control device using Curo Shards. Looks like it still has a few glitches though. Anyways I managed to beat the scientists easily. I bet if I'd lost Pupitar would have been another test subject in their experiment. I found Totodile though! He actually didn't want to go back to his trainer because she was annoying. After I told him about the mind control device he changed his mind pretty fast. So we hightailed it outta there and the gym leader scooped him up pretty fast once they got out of the forest. She introduced herself as Brooklyn and at long last she'd be waiting at the gym to fight me. So I returned to town, stopped at the pokemon center and went to the gym.

Her Wigglytuff had pretty good defenses but because she's a Sound type pokemon, scratch was super effective and this sped things up. Yes, Pupitar still has scratch. Anyways, after her next pokemon I fought the only real challenge Pupitar was facing, Totodile. Fortunately dig got a nice power boost from the stab bonus and the Soft Sand he was holding. He barely survived but he survived nonetheless.

She gave me the Charm Badge (or "hunk of metal" as she put it) as well as the TM for Charm. She went on about how she was going to put some makeup on Totodile and find a nice dress (poor guy.) So I left the gym but the real prize was yet to come.

Well I suppose he'd have went with literally anyone else.

Totodile came barreling out of the gym and decided to join me. I deposited Marill in the PC and withdrew my new Totodile, then taught him ice punch. The southern exit of Laurel Forest though had been blocked off by some kid who refused to move. Get this though! I found a shrine in Laurel City called Magikarp Shrine. The place was a maze but when I made my way to the bottom floor I found a man that actually worshipped Magikarp! His ancestors had also prayed to Magikarp, lol. He said Gyarados was mere blasphemy...

Whatever you say crazy dude...

He got tired of arguing and said he could transform me into a Magikarp. He challanged me to complete his test, navigating the fast currents of the cave's waters as a Magikarp. If I did he would make sure the kid blocking the exit in Laurel Forest would move. Damn they've backed me into a corner again! Okay so I went for it.

After a tough maze of currents and whirlpools I eventually made it all the way through. Boy was it confusing.

It was supposed to teach me that Magikarp isn't weak but I still think it's weak, lol. Anyways I went to the newly opened path in Laurel Forest. There was a few bug catchers but that's all. The path took me to Torenia City, a place that was still kinda being built. They even have the Magnet Train which can travel to the Rijo region, Johto region and Kanto region. Without a Magnet Pass though, Johto and Kanto are off limits. I could go to the Rijo region right now but I'm not even done here in the Naljo region. This city has something very interesting. A giant Pachisi board. For a small fee you can buy 25 rolls and navigate this admittedly deadly board game. Some spaces move you forward or backward up to 6 spaces. Some give you $500. Some take away $500. Some give you healing items. Some have wild pokemon that you have to fight if you land on their space. I caught a Torkoal, Lombre and Weepinbell here. I made it pretty far thanks to a teleport space that took me near the end. A space that healed my party really saved me too. Near the end though, a cluster of skull spaces (game over) and movement spaces just wouldn't let me pass. I needed to roll a six to get by but it wasn't in the cards. I was forced onto a skull and lost. Oh well, I'm satisfied with my new pokemon. They were all level 25+. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Let the games begin!

After that I found the gym tucked away in the southeastern corner of the city. There was nobody there except the gym leader and apparently he's been feeling depressed for a while now. He hadn't accepted any challengers for 3 years and unless he's inspired he won't battle me. Well great, now what am I supposed to do? I only had one HM (Cut) and the new paths were blocked off by water. I didn't have Surf. I went south of town anyways hoping I'd find something helpful. The gatehouse guard told me something interesting. He said the Palette Patrol had passed through. What luck! I must be on the right track. There was a house by the water for CRAFTING rings. They're hold items as far as I can tell. One of the people there gave me a Soot Sack which I believe is originally from generation 3! Of course now I find myself at a dead end with no clue about where I'm supposed to go next.

My party as of 12:12AM EST
To Be Continued...

I've barely scratched the surface of this game so I'm gonna go ahead and continue the rest of this thing in a new post, lol. Also I hadn't noticed at first but the guy at Magikarp Cavern appears to be walking on water. O_O

PART 2

So I explored everywhere I'd been previously. I remembered that Mound Cave had a mine cart which could take me to areas of Calthrite Cave and Firelight Cavern that I'd not been to yet. However without surf or rock smash I couldn't go anywhere in either place. So there was only one place left to check, the Rijon region. So I took the Magnet Train to Botan City in the Rijon region. The place was quarantined so I couldn't leave the city unless I was taking the train back to Torenia City in the Naljo region. Exploring the place I heard rumors that ghosts to the north were playing pranks on people. So I went into a gatehouse to the north. The guard there warned me to go at my own risk. Ignoring his warning completely, I entered the Haunted Forest. There were tombstones all over the place. Curiously, I noticed a red tombstone and checked it out. It made a high-pitched "ding" noise. Nothing happened though so I continued forward. There were trainers here with ghost pokemon, Ghastly, Haunter, Shuppet and Duskull all around level 21. The wild pokemon here are also ghosts, Ghastly and Shuppet only though. I caught one of each of them. At the same time I encountered a new attack, Void Sphere. I assume it's a dark attack however beyond dealing damage I don't know what it does. I also encountered another new attack, Laughing Gas. It's a damage-dealing gas attack that lowers both Attack and Special Attack. My Porygon leveled up and learned Power Ballad! It's a Sound type attack deals damage and raises Attack. Not bad I guess. Quilava did a decent job against Ghastly & Haunter since Fire is strong against Gas. A few trainers later I discovered that the color-coated graves were some kind of code. A woman locked outside her family's rundown mansion said her grandmother always told her the order of the colors in a rainbow were important. Red, grey, blue, brown and teal. So I checked out the graves in that order and a hand ripped through the ground, giving me a key to the mansion.

So I entered the mansion (or what was left of it) and looked around. This place had wild Sableye so I caught one. One of the trainers here had a Spiritomb! Admittedly, Spiritomb looks pretty damn good in 2D. I found 2 chests in different rooms on the second floor that had a key a piece in them. The second floor had a central bedroom which the keys opened. Inside I saw 2 beds and a Gengar. I thought to myself "Cool, I'm gonna get to catch a Gengar!" Boy was I wrong though. I talked to the Gengar and it decided to hypnotize me so it could eat my dreams. I ended up in Dimentia, the dream dimension. It was a pretty colorful place. I saw a bird pokemon that called me mom for some reason. Then I found a person who told me that if I wanted to wake up I had to have a life-changing epiphany. He directed me to a place where I could have one such epiphany. It looked like a town where the laws of physics didn't exist. I walked through walls and signs. Some empty spaces were impassable. id away in the southwest corner though was one of those Palette Patrol guys, the Blue Ranger. Well, it only looked like him. He explained that my subconscious created him just minutes ago. He said I had the power to change the Naljo region for the better. Well, he said it in more words than that, but that's what he said nonetheless. Then Gengar ate Blue Ranger, lol. Next thing I know I wake up in one of the beds where Gengar was and he was pretty full. Now what though? I was unsure what to do next. The town was still quarantined so I left and took the train back to Torenia City.

Good news though, turns out Gengar had been feeding on the gym leader's dreams for the last 3 years and my dream filling him up meant he was free to dream again. So he was happy now and ready to battle.

Okay so let's do this! I wasn't sure what kinda pokemon this guy used so I put Pupitar up front and hoped for the best. Turns out he uses dark pokemon. He started out with Houndour, which was good news for Pupitar. He made short work of him. The same went for the Sneasel he sent out. His last pokemon, Umbreon, was another story. It was level 30. It was fast and it hit hard. If not for dig Pupitar wouldn't have survived. Although he almost didn't.

That was actually a tough battle. So I got the Midnight Badge and the TM for Dark Pulse as a reward.
Now that I've defeated Edison I went south of Torenia City, back to Route 77 hoping to continue the journey but it seems there's someone blocking my path. He gave me HM02 (Fly) and told me to talk to Professor Ilk about some strange earthquakes. I'd heard rumors of an underground city down there too. That probably has something to do with it. I went to the pokemon center in Torenia City to deposit Porygon and withdraw a Pidgey I'd caught early on so I could teach it Fly. Now I fly back to Caper City and talk to Professor Ilk. He decides to help out and so I can continue forward. I flew back to Torenia City again and went south. There was a pokemon center here so after I fought the trainers in the area I healed up and entered The Milos Catacombs. As soon as I entered I was ambushed by my rival, Silver, and judging by his poor attitude he's feeling rather confident.

His Paras and Bagon had evolved this time. He also had a Scyther and a Sneasel. Quilava handled three of them with ease. Pupitar however took care of Shelgon. Moving on, I came across some more unexpected guests.

They kept talking about how I was a threat to their plans and their leader said to "take care of me." Earlier in the game the Yellow Ranger said the Green Ranger was her boyfriend but in this conversation the Green one didn't even know Yellow was a woman, lol. So they moved forward and ignored me completely. Chasing after them I found myself in another "side scroller" area (I love these!) that also had a puzzle. There was a switch nearby and a sign with instructions, "Colored switches will change if blocks of the same color appear or not." I won't go into details (it took a bit of time to get through) but I did find a few signs with latin on them that read: "Sic parvis magna" (Greatness from small things,) "Fac fortia et patere" (Do brave deeds and endure,) "Invictus maneo" (I remain unvanquished,) "Non progredi est regredi" (To not go forward is to go backward,) and "Semper fortis" (Always powerful or Always courageous.) I imagine they were referring to me and the journey but I'm not 100% on that. As I was making my way through I had to fight the Yellow, Pink and Blue Rangers. I also got my hands on the Old Rod finally! It only took 4 badges...

That wasn't it though. I had to go through another switch puzzle and this time I had to fight the Black and Green Ranges. I also found Jumping Shoes which allow me to jump over small gaps. After I got to the end of the cave I was arrested. >_>

The cop gave me the option of going undercover to infiltrate The Palette Patrol. He had a suit and everything for me. Apparently one of them was in the area and I had to bring him in. I found myself in Phacelia Town and with my life of crime beginning here, traveled east in search of my new partner in crime.

I look stupid...

I fought a couple trainers who couldn't help but mention my spandex-clad appearance. However I found one of the Patrollers, the Black Ranger. Now how can I get him to the cops?

He won't can't fall for this...

So he tags along and I head back towards Phacelia Town. Just as I arrive at the cave that would take me there...

Okay so he really is that dumb...

With that done, I was allowed to get out of that ridiculous suit as a free man. I was given HM05 (Rock Smash) as well! Now let's see what Phacelia Town has to offer! The Move Deleter is here! I'm sure I'll need him eventually. In one of the houses on the east side I was given TM20 (Endure.) Now to take on the gym here. I'd heard that the gym leader, Andre, had opened his gym in a cave. I'll admit he's probably the first gym leader to do that willingly. This place uses fighting type pokemon. Pupitar was greatly outmatched in this place. Then again so was my entire party. I thought Porygon's Conversion 2 would render him invulnerable to their attacks since it turned him into a ghost type but I was mistaken. I left to train for a while. I captured a Sableye with the Keen Eye ability (as opposed to Stall) and raised him to level 30. Being a ghost and dark type he seemed a great choice for this gym. When they weren't crushing me with Double Kick, Cross Chop and Seismic Toss, they were using Pursuit to counter Porygon's type change. So Sableye has a natural defense against this gym. I also trained my Pidgey to level 30 (he'd evolved into Pidgeotto.) I got Porygon up to level 30 as well. He had Psybeam and so I hoped he'd survive long enough to use it if necessary. When I got to the gym leader Pupitar was at level 37.

So Andre was still pretty tough. His Gallade and Lucario were easy to beat. It's Machoke and Machamp that proved a difficult challenge. Sableye's Confuse Ray made it possible to defeat Machoke. While he tried to attack with Pursuit, Spite ate at its PP, leaving him no way to damage Sableye. There wasn't enough of Spite leftover to do the same to Machamp so I had to rely on Confuse Ray, Feint Attack and the confusion causing him to hurt himself. It was touch-and-go for a bit but Sableye pulled it off. I got the Muscle Badge and TM01 (Dynamic Punch) as a reward. I could now use Rock Smash out of battle. Sableye was lacking in damage-dealing moves so I got rid of Pain Split in favor of Rock Smash.

With my 5th badge new areas were open to me. Now I can explore Firelight Cavern! First though I went east to Route 80. Earlier in the game I was told to find The Messenger on Route 80 so here I am. There was a house with a sign that said "Naljo Prophet." He wasn't there though! There was an Aggron though and it decided to tag along for some reason so I deposited Flaffy. I had a level 25 Lombre stashed away and decided to deposit Porygon in favor of him. My party needed a water pokemon. So I flew to Spurge City and entered Mound Cave where I took the mine car to Firelight Cavern. Proceeding forward with Lombre leading the party seemed a good way to train him. The trainers used fire pokemon and the wild pokemon there were a good alternative. I found some guy blocking my path and as it turns out that Aggron was his. He was grateful for my bringing it to him and said there were people here trying to awaken one of Naljo's Guardians. People dressed in traditional Naljo garb. Hmm, I wonder what that looks like? Surely I've never seen it before. Anyways I keep going and who do I find? The Pink Ranger! You've got to be kidding. That's traditional Naljo garb!? Anyways, as I moved forward I battled the Blue and Red Rangers as well. Their Eevees had evolved at long last. Sylveon for Pink, Vaporeon for Blue and Flareon for Red. Where did the Yellow and Green ones go? Each time I defeated them, they ran forward so I of course chased after them which led me to...

I guess things didn't go according to plan.

Although I defeated them, I hadn't been able to prevent them from waking up this new legendary pokemon, Varaneous, embodiment of fire, war and destruction. That doesn't mean they won though. The Red Ranger had intended to capture Varaneous when he woke up, believing it would be weak enough just as it reawakened. He also thought that being a descendant of the first natives of Naljo would allow him to control it, but he was wrong. In it's rage, Varaneous attacked the Palette Patrol, injuring them. For some reason though it didn't attack me.

Wait...WHAT!?

So right after Varaneous ran off to who knows where, Nobu (the Naljo Prophet) arrives with the police, just in time to arrest The Palette Patrol. I was almost arrested with them but luckily Nobu made it clear that I don't like wearing spandex traditional Naljo garb. Then he tells me I look like someone he saw on TV. Like Lance, The Dragon Master. And then my character says that Lance is his dad—WHAT!? My suspicions were honestly leaning towards your character in Gold, Silver and Crystal. Lance though!? Holy shit that's awesome! Apparently Lance is also a direct descendant of the first Messenger to The Guardians which makes Prism (our protagonist) a direct descendant as well.Knowing this now I assume my character is from Johto even though his lineage is here in the Naljo region. So we head back to Nobu's house on Route 80 and he fills me in on the details of the region's Guardians. There's 3 more out there and now Varaneous is bent on finding and waking them. He tells me his friend at Acania Dock's lighthouse might know where Varaneous is.

So I head to the north. Last time I tried to get there though, the bridge was out and I still don't have Surf (nor the required badge to use it.) The construction worker there wouldn't build the bridge unless there was a good reason (how about so people can cross...) So I told him about Varaneous and the region-destroying wrath it and the other Guardians would bring if I couldn't get to Acania Dock. I guess that was motivation enough for him, lol. However he needed 20 brick pieces to build it. Luckily I'd bought 50 early on in the game. He built the bridge and I moved forward. There was also a damp rock on the bridge so I took that along.

Now I'm in Acania Dock, a town built over water. Before heading to the lighthouse I explored the town. One person gave me TM44 (Rest.) The pokemart here offered a QR Reader for 10 gold tokens. I'd found gold tokens hidden in odd places along the way but wasn't ready to spend any of them yet. I also observed signs throughout the region that had QR codes on them. This had baffled me because I wasn't sure how I was going to read them. It all makes sense now though! I got the QR Reader and stashed my remaining gold tokens in the PC. Next I backtracked to all the QR codes I'd encountered before and read them. They directed me to key items whose use I don't know for sure just yet. I could only get to one of them right now though, the Sapphire Egg. So I have that now.

Returning to Acania Dock I entered the lighthouse and went to the top floor. This friend of Nobu's told me that he saw Varaneous heading to Saxafrage Island. He also gave me HM03 (Surf) so I could get there. Cool! First though, I'd need to defeat this town's gym leader in order to use Surf. The people in town complained a lot about the gym. They said toxic gases came from it and poisoned the air. So I assumed this gym specialized in gas type pokemon.

My assumption turned out to be right. Gas pokemon are weak to fire so the idea was to use Quilava. For some of the pokemon they used here, that worked out. Venomoth and Ariados in particular fell quickly to Quilava's Ember attack. Unfortunately it was the best fire attack he had which was still a weak attack in the long run. The other pokemon were dangerous though. Koffing, Weezing and Torkoal. I expected Koffing and Weezing to have Selfdestruct so I planned ahead. As I had anticipated, it was their opening move. They seemed intent on taking out as many of my pokemon as possible rather than try to win the battle. This is unusual behavior for gym goons. So when I was given the chance to change my pokemon at the same time as they did I sent out Pupitar. Not because he has high defense, but because they'd be forced to use their most powerful attack. So after they sent out their Koffing or Weezing I switched out Pupitar for Sableye. Just as I anticipated, their opening move was Selfdestruct or Explosion. It couldn't hurt him but their pokemon would still faint. Torkoal on the other hand I wasn't prepared for. I sent out Lombre because I'd taught him Surf. Before I attacked though, it occurred to me that in this game many of what I thought was still true in this game (based on the knowledge I had from the official pokemon games) may not be true in this game. I thought Torkoal might be a fire and gas type so I changed to Sableye with the intention of using Confuse Ray. To my surprise it used Selfdestruct! And as luck would have it the result was the same. Before I reached the gym leader, Pupitar had evolved into Tyranitar! So here I am now facing off against Ayaka, the Acania Dock gym leader.

Ayaka seemed rather unmotivated. Maybe even depressed. The gym's trainers made the lack of energy in this place pretty apparent. I moved Tyranitar to the front of my party this time. Things didn't go very well with Quilava given the attempts to annihilate my pokemon rather than defeat them so I decided Tyranitar's high offense and defense would make him a good choice against any Koffing, Weezing or Torkoal he might have. Plus I could still switch to Sableye. He started out with Haunter, a ghost and gas type pokemon. Fortunately Tyranitar had Bite, a dark attack that was good against ghosts so Haunter was taken down in one hit. His next pokemon was a Torkoal but this time I was confident that even if he did use Selfdestruct, Tyranitar would survive. As a precaution though, I used Dig because it would get me out of the way and it was strong against fire pokemon. To my surprise Torkoal instead used Fire Spin. I still took'em down in one hit with Dig though. He sent out Weezing next and I didn't have any pokemon with a psychic attack on me so I stuck with Tyranitar. I used Bite anyways because it had a chance to make Weezing flinch. It didn't but it still did heavy damage. Weezing used a new attack on me, Mustard Gas. It wasn't very effective though so I finished it off. At last Ayaka was down to his final pokemon, Drapion. That's not a gas pokemon as far as I know so I used Rock Throw and took it down in one hit.

With the leader defeated I got the Haze Badge and TM92 (Mustard Gas!) Cool! I could also now use Surf outside of battle which opened new paths to me across the entire region. I could traverse Clathrite Tunnel and access the remaining routes. So I flew to Phacelia town and proceeded south. There were a couple trainers but nothin I couldn't handle. The trainers are getting stronger now though. They're pokemon are ranging from level 38 to 42. I better train harder. I found myself looking at a cave entrance on either side of me. The cave on the right was guarded and I needed an ID to pass. So I took the left entrance. This took me to Naljo Ruins. It was a complex place. The floor crumbled away in several spots. Sometimes it was necessary to let the floor crumble and fall down so I could go back up to it and use the Jumping Shoes to cross. Some areas had two weak spots in the floor next to each other so you couldn't jump the gap. There were switches to press and I found a gas mask which allowed me to traverse the upper floors. I encountered a trap too that shot a poisonous arrow! Luckily it only hit the wall and not me. I also caught a wild Solrock here! I found some jewels laying around but I wasn't sure what to do with them. I did find the Yellow and Green Power Rangers though! So they may not out to awaken ancient pokemon but they do have an interest in making money. Which means they're here to steal old artifacts from the ruins so I gotta fight them anyways, heh. They're still pushovers though.

Now there's this chest in the same room as Green Ranger (or Andy as the Red Ranger let slip while berating him). It's locked but has 4 holes in it. So I assume in addition to the blue and white jewels I found there are 2 more that together will open it. So I wandered the ruins for a long while. It took some time but I found the white jewel and the brown jewel. The brown jewel had what appeared to be 2 other items with it. They were actually pokemon. One was a Metang which I caught and the other was a Golbat. With all 4 jewels I returned to the chest and opened it to get the Prism Jewel. Unsure what to do next I returned to the ruin's entrance. I noticed there seemed to be a lot more to this room than I'd first realized. There was a big area on the west side that I'd missed completely. I found a man who, in exchange for my Prism Jewel, gave me a Fake ID. How very...convenient. There was also an exit on this side of the room. It took me to a new area of Clathrite tunnel but I couldn't go there because it was too cold. So I leave the ruins and go to the other cave...

I swear I'm innocent!

So I showed my ID to the guard outside the cave on the east side and he let me through. Okay this is really gonna work? Cool! Just when I thought I was in the clear a second guard stops me as soon as I exit the cave. Looks like he knows a fake ID when he sees one. It's a minor crime though right? I mean, I'll just have to pay a fine or something won't I? Apparently they take it pretty seriously and decided to hold me for a while. So I have my own cell. At least I don't have a cellmate. I also still have my pokemon! I thought for sure they'd be confiscated. So there's a gap on the west side of my cell and a sign to the north. It read "Don't jump over the pit and try to escape. Remember, you're in here forever." So naturally I did the exact opposite. The path lead to me through a tunnel straight to the warden's house! Good thing he wasn't there.

Now that I'm out of my cell I can (carefully) roam the island. If they see me I'm sure they'll throw me back in my cell. Look who else I found! It's the Blue Ranger. Looks like he escaped as well. Apparently the Red Ranger did too. The Pink one was sent to a different prison. He decided to give me a Cage Key that he found in the warden's house while escaping. So I returned to my cell and opened it. Now I can explore the inside of the prison. I found more keys, some given by inmates I battled, others just laying around here and there. The west side lead to a room with numerous pools. The east side lead to the prison's gym which thankfully had Nurse Joy! Now I have a place to heal my pokemon here. I battled an inmate here whom had given me a Cage Key afterwards. I also battled my arresting officer! Along the way I found a Furry Coat. It was a key item so I was unsure where I'd be needing it.

Proceeding upstairs I found guards everywhere! I had to evade them as I traversed this floor. The east side lead to the prison's cafeteria. I found burgers, fries and a soda. The west side however lead to what appears to be the prison's source of electricity, 3 electric pokemon. An Electabuzz, a Raichu and a Flaffy. They were level 30 so I captured them all. Plus Electabuzz and Raichu were new additions to my pokedex. Afterwards I found a door at the north end of this room. The wires seemed to connect to this door, probably locking it until the pokemon were gone. Inside was a Cage Key. The southeast corner of the second floor had a set of stairs to the roof. I was immediately accosted by 2 guards when I got up there. And so we battled. According to the other inmates, the basement was where the prison's unruly pokemon were kept. Sounds like a good place to get some strong pokemon. So I entered the basement and unlocked the door. Lucky for me I saved some Cage Keys. There was a level 45 Machoke, 2 level 45 Hariyama, a level 50 Metagross and a level 50 Bronzong! I captured all of them. I caught both Hariyama with the hopes that one would have its hidden ability. Surprise surprise, I also found my d-bag rival.

Turns out his ruthless battling method got him arrested. Serves him right. He was pretty easy as usual. After the battle he gave me HM04 (Strength) saying it could help me escape. I can't imagine why he'd want to help me though. I taught it to my Metang. Now I can move the boulders blocking my way to the rest of this island! I also heard from one of the officers that this island had a gym. So there's a gym leader running his gym out of pokemon's version of Alcatraz?! That's kinda brutal, lol. I went straight to it!

Turns out this gym specializes in sound type pokemon. There's not a lot of those so they also use electric pokemon. This makes sense given what I'd heard about the gym leader. The gym leader, Cadence, use to have her own band but they bombed so they opened a gym instead, lol.

Tyranitar and Quilava were my best options here. Tyranitar's ground attack worked well for the electric pokemon and Quilava's normal attack worked well enough for the sound pokemon. Quilava actually handled the bulk of this battle! Loudred, Exploud and Magnezone were easy targets for him. Wigglytuff's defenses were too strong though so I used Tyranitar, the powerhouse of my party. So I now have the Raucous Badge! Finally able to leave the island, I make my prison break by taking the tunnel on the northeast side to route 80 where I surfed my way to freedom! I checked back at Spurge City to see if the gym leader had returned but still nothing. The only place left to go was Phlox Town. That meant going through Clathrite Tunnel. I remembered that when I was in Naljo Ruins I found another entrance to Clathrite Tunnel but it was too cold for me to travel. This has got to be where I need it! So I returned there and sure enough I could now traverse the coldest depths of Clathrite Tunnel!

The place was a maze of ice, skiers and wild ice pokemon. It took some time to find my way through but I did eventually slide my way to route 84. After more trainers I did at last arrive in Phlox Town, a quiet mountain town covered in snow year round. It had a Bingo Hall. What happens is you get a card and each space lists an in-game achievement such as winning a certain amount of battles or collecting a certain amount of pokemon. When you reach that goal you can stamp its respective space. I haven't completed the first card yet but I'm close. There's also a locked laboratory. Very suspicious! First I finished exploring town though. There was a house whose owner had saved an amnesiac in Acqua Mine and he simply wouldn't shut up about it, lol. He had the newspaper write an article about it so he could frame and hang it in his house. You can actually read it. He said the man still doesn't remember who he is so he roams the mine in an attempt to regain his memory. There was of course another entrance to Acqua Mine here in town.

I entered the mine in search of this mysterious man who'd lost his memory. As I searched I found a base of some sort. A cop sleeping on the job battled me for trespassing but when I defeated him he gave me a key to the lab in town. I guess I know where I'm headed next.

So I exited the mine and unlocked the lab. It was a maze of teleporters and switches guarded by scientists whose names were numbers. This is familiar! I've now located the base of the organization the Palette Patrol was working for! The Green and Yellow Rangers were here and still working for these scientists. Quilava evolved into Typhlosion too! I also used a Water Stone to evolve Lombre into Ludicolo. As I made my way towards the end I discovered locked up pokemon whom were being experimented on. I also discovered that my way forward was blocked. As I released each pokemon they would open a new way forward. Once they'd cleared the way for me, I made it to the top floor of Algernon Laboratories. It was here that I found Scientist 01. He said he was one of 2 scientists whom had accidentally created Mewtwo, years ago! He was genetically altering pokemon in an effort to make them stronger. However his motives were cheap. He simply wanted to sell people his gene therapy services so the world would have to pay him to ensure they could avoid falling behind in the world of pokemon battling. I was hoping he'd created some monstrous pokemon (again.) So I defeated him and as soon as I did, Professor Ilk and a cop arrived to take him in. The company was screwed that's for sure. It wasn't just any cop accompanying Professor Ilk though! It was the gym leader of Spurge City! He also knew about my escape from prison. But he decided to give me a full pardon so I guess I'm no longer a fugitive, lol.

With the Spurge City gym leader finally back, I went straight there to get the last badge for the Naljo region. First I deposited pidgeotto and withdrew the shiny Rhydon I caught earlier. I also deposited Metang and withdrew that level 50 Metagross I caught at Saxifrage Island. Upon entering the gym I noticed it was rather small and lacking in gym goons. So I guess it's time to fight the gym leader. He had something else in mind though. I fell down a trap door into an underground tunnel. He said he had a test for me. So he took away my pokemon! I had to find them all before I could challenge him. I started west and found another tunnel. At the bottom was Ludicolo. There was another of my pokemon nearby but it was sealed away behind a red wall. The switch to open it didn't work. So I exited the tunnel from the ladder near the switch and had to battle a trainer to get to it. It wasn't just any trainer though. It was one of the previous gym leaders! As I searched for my pokemon, I found the path guarded by past gym leaders all stronger than when I first encountered them! They all had level 50+ pokemon. This was by far my toughest challenge yet. After some close calls and lucky shots, I found all of my pokemon and made it to the gym leader, Bruce.

Bruce used steel pokemon. Typhlosion did great against most of them. I did have to send in Tyranitar for the extra muscle though. To be honest the gym leaders I fought just to get to Bruce were more difficult, albeit only because I was lacking some of my pokemon during specific battles. Now I could finally challenge the Rijon League. I flew to Acania Dock and surfed east towards the Rijon Border. A teleporter took me to Route 67. I noticed a path to my east however which according to the signs would lead to Seneca Cavern. After making my way through Seneca Cavern I found a path further east to a place called Mt. Ember. So I explored it and found something great...

Lucky day! To make it even better I captured Moltres with a Shiny Ball! So now I had a shiny Moltres! I decided to name it Lazarus, heh. Resuming my journey to the Rijon League, I went through more caves which held more surprises...

Once again I encountered one of the legendary birds, Articuno. And like Moltres I captured it with a Shiny Ball so I now had a shiny Articuno as well! I named this one Wintreath. Continuing on I make way outside again. As I walk closer to the Rijon League I find a pokemon center. Further ahead I encounter a familiar face. It's my rival, Silver and he says he's changed. He says the example I set and his bried life as a fugitive made him appreciate his pokemon. And because of it he said he's stronger.

He still wasn't tough. Getting him out of the way I finally arrived at the Rijon League!

I deposited Sableye and withdrew Lazarus. I taught him fly too because I still needed something for flying. Anyways, Lazarus had an awesome move called Boil. It was a fire attack that was supereffective against water pokemon! Pretty cool! So I proceeded to the first of the Elite Four...

Yuki used ice pokemon. They were easy targets for Typhlosion so it was a quick battle. The next member of the Elite Four seemed an unlikely choice.

Sora uses flying pokemon. I'm not sure there's ever been an Elite Four member that specializes in flying pokemon. Rhydon made quick work of them though. It was pretty easy. And that's probably why there's never been an Elite Four member that specializes in flying pokemon.

Next up is Daichi. He specializes in ground pokemon. Ludicolo did well here. Flygon made it a bit difficult though. I had to resort to brute force to take it down.

The last of the Elite Four was a wildcard. Although he started out with Fearow, he did not continue using similar pokemon. Instead he used a random assortment of pokemon, very similar to myself. He was definitely tougher than the others but inevitably I did win. He seemed to be comparing me to someone else. I assume he was referring to Lance. Anyways, it was time to challenge the reigning champion, but who the hell is it?

Oh come on, really? It's his dad? That's so cliche. Well, Lance was extremely difficult to defeat. His dragon pokemon did not make it easy. Some of my pokemon got away with just taking one on the chin, but others barely survived. They used a lot of dragon-type moves and this is why Metagross made it possible for me to win. The real trouble arose with his final pokemon, Garchomp. At level 63 it's dragon/ground typing meant I had no super-effective attacks at my disposal. I switched to Ludicolo first and used Leech Seed. He used Dragon Claw so I switched to Tyranitar, who took the next attack and didn't take much damage. With Leech Seed healing him a little every turn and Crunch weakening his defenses, I was able to bring'em down. Finally I'd won! But Prism didn't want to head over to the Hall of Fame just yet. He had something else in mind...

So he went back to his mom who for some reason was still at the campsite after all this time and told her about his adventure. Now he's ready to go to the Hall of Fame.

My all-star line-up.


For now...