We choose our Trainer and give her the name
Espaniola (I forgot that the letter
ñ was available on the keyboard, she was supposed to be
Española, but it is what it is. Right away we're thrown into
Galarian Youtube where we see Rose giving his intro speech (he retains his English name here, not everyone gets to be this lucky). We
slowly transition into an exhibition match between
Lionel and
Roy. The crowd gets excited at the sight of one very big Charizard, as everyone should because we
absolutely love Gen I and will never,
ever, get tired of seeing it in the spotlight.
Ahem.
Title screen show up, and we're promptly thrown into our new journey.
While the English games have ditched the Town/City bit from all locations in Galar, it seems the Spanish games are still sticking with the respective denomination (
Pueblo/
Ciudad). In any case, we cut to Espaniola sitting in her house with her head stuck on her phone (tsk, kids these days). Our
rival neighbor friend best friend forever
Paul walks inside to greet her, telling her to go to his house in order to receive a gift from Chapion Lionel himself. She quickly approaches a sleeping Munchlax to disturb its peace before grabbing her hat and bag.
Espaniola does a bit of posing and then heads outside.
Outside her home Espaniola meets with Paul again, who immediately questions her choice of bag.
Espaniola will remember this, and her vengeance will be legendary. A nearby Wooloo desperately yearns for its freedom and the duo watch it bang its entire body against a fence for a bit, before Paul remarks that
Bosque Oniria is full of dangerous Pokémon. He then implies that the size of our bag won't let us catch up with him in time as he runs off to his home.
One of these days, Paul, one of these days...
Espaniola begins to plot her revenge against Paul, and takes a leisurely stroll towards her target's house.
Lots of windows, Striking here would expose her actions to numerous witnesses, no doubt. She will have to wait. As Espaniola walks inside Paul's house, the latter asks if his brother has arrived yet. We're told that Lionel is going to arrive at the station in
Pueblo Par. Paul expresses his concern by stating that Lionel is bad with directions. Espaniola has no idea how he managed to find his way to the Pokémon League in the first place. Paul decides to make his way to Pueblo Par, and we follow along. "
Arreando que es gerundio", he says, forcibly pulling Espaniola around until they reach the next town.
Lionel strikes a pose of his own as a crowd cheers for him. Wow, he's such a cool and unbeatable guy with a Charizard who has never been beat before. Did i mention he owns a Charizard? Because, as it turns out, the unbeatable champion who has yet to be beat owns an equally unbeatable Charizard. He's such a cool and unbeatable guy. I want to be like him when I grow up, unbeatable and with a Charizard. Who also happens to be unbeatable. Just like the unbeatable champion's unbeatable Charizard.
... I'll stop now.
Lionel notices Paul in the crowd and approaches us. We make a note or seven of how unbeatable he is before Paul dashes back home. Lionel tells us that champions are made, not born, and we cut back to their house in Pueblo Yarda. Paul reminds Lionel to keep his promise of gifting us some Pokémon, and we're promptly shown a selection of three starter Pokémon. One cutscene, later, we're told to choose one of the pequeñajos. Espaniola obtains her first partner, Wonejo, the male Scorbunny (nicknames on this run are also in Spanish, this one is a translation of 'Wabbit'). Paul takes Grookey and Sobble joins Lionel. One more cutscene plays as the gang takes a break.
Cut back to Paul's house, and he has now declared Espaniola as his rival. Lionel suggests the two test their mettle with a Pokémon battle. Espaniola declines, as she doesn't think she likes either of these two people. Of course, the game won't allow her to run away and she's pulled back into the story rails. Lionel reminds Espaniola to save her progress, whatever that means, and Paul wastes no time to brag about how he's totally going to win their first battle.
He lost.
As Espaniola establishes herself as
la caña, Lionel restores her party's health. She's asked to accept Paul's offer of becoming rivals. And she probably doesn't have a choice on the matter. Since Paul wants to take on the Gym Challenge right away, Lionel suggests the two first get a Pokédex. Paul then suggests they make their way to the nearby Pokémon Lab. As Espaniola makes her way back home to escape from his story rails, she and Paul hear a loud bang. The Wooloo that was trying to force their way into freedom has succeded, so the pair heads into Bosque Oniria to retrieve it with no regards to their own safety.
As was mentioned before, the challenge doesn't properly begin until we get some Poké Balls. As a result, the first encounter of Slumbering Weald isn't tallied yet, so the only thing Espaniola can do is grind some exp. and walk along the woods. Two forced encounters go by and Paul heals her Pokémon. Listo, Calisto. Espaniola keeps going forward. Paul is beyond worried for the poor Wooloo and runs ahead. He was never seen again.
Or so she'd like to think, but Espaniola knows getting rid of him won't be so simple.
As she ventures further into the mist, another cutscene plays, and to the surprise of the duo, a Pokémon appears within the mist and challenges Espaniola to a battle. However, her Pokémon is unable to do any damage. This mysterious Pokémon turns the mist progressively more dense until both trainers pass out. They were never heard of again.
For a few moments, anyway. To their surprise, Lionel managed to find the duo and the missing Wooloo, despite being terrible with directions, a fact Paul reminds him of. Lionel is not amused, but Paul remarks that everything turned out okay in the end, and Espaniola contains the urge to punch him in the face as the gang makes their way back to Pueblo Yarda. Espaniola is told to inform mother dearest that she's leaving home and never coming back, so she does just that.
Espaniola obtains a total of five Poké Balls, which is more than enough to obtain her first new friend. She opts for a random encounter and finds a Blipbug shortly after stepping into the tall grass. One Tackle and one Poké Ball later, and Mhoni the female Blipbug joins the team (this one is named after a mexican astrologist, who I'm not a huge fan of, but it was one of the first names that came to mind).
With her newest team member in tow, Espaniola makes way for the nearby Pokémon Lab. Lionel joins her as they enter inside and meet Professor Magnolia's grandaughter, Sonia (both keep their names intact, it seems). She makes a note of Espaniola's fantastic
SmartRotom (to be honest I prefer this name to Rotom Phone in the English games) and grants her the Pokédex. Espaniola is told to visit Professor Magnolia on Route 2 to thank her for the dex, and so, she exits the lab. Before heading into Route 2, however, she's kidnapped by resident story rail Paul, who forces her inside the Pokémon Center before dashing off.
Rude. The distressed Espaniola then heads to the nearby shop to
buy herself a new getup. As she gets ready to leave town, she is once again stopped by Paul who eagerly explains the gym challenge before disappearing again.
It's almost like he's intentionally slowing her down.
Espaniola is yet again stopped by Paul, who now wants to tell her all about catching Pokémon, but he's stopped by Lionel who apparently wants to fight over the spot of resident tutorial NPC. That is, until he realizes Espaniola already caught something, so he hands her some more Poké Balls and scurries away. Once we finally regain control, Espaniola approaches the tall grass. She spots a Rookidee in the overworld and attempts to approach, but is caught midway by a random encounter that... is also a Rookidee.
Ortiz Pulido, the male Rookidee, thus joins her roster (named after a mexican ornitologist of considerable renown). After engaging a few Trainers in battle, Mhoni the Blipbug is nearly lost to a random Tackle crit (thanks
Chica Carolina, very cool). Eventually, Espaniola makes it to Professor Magnolia before suffering any casualties. The Professor laments to Lionel how she has yet to uncover all the mysteries of Dynamaxing before noticing Espaniola and Paul. The latter asks the Professor to convince Lionel of endorsing both young trainers for the Gym Challenge. Lionel decides to endorse the pair under the condition they show him an exciting battle.
And they do just that. Lionel tells Paul that he can't always win every battle. And, to be fair, he's fought two battles so far and lost both of them.
But who's counting? Lionel congrats both trainers on the battle they displayed and grants them his endorsement. Afterwards, a pair of Wishing Stars fall near the duo. Paul takes one for himself, and grants Espaniola the other.
He shall be spared for another day as a display of her gratitude. Lionel states that wishing stars tend to fall near people who strongly wish for something, and it seems Paul
fits the bill. Since she is the expert in regards to the Dynamax phenomenon, the duo then give their wishing stars to Professor Magnolia and decide to call it a day.
Al día siguiente...
Espaniola and Paul visit Professor Magnolia as she asks about the mysterious Pokémon the duo encountered at Bosque Oniria. She's curious about what happened after the battle Espaniola had with the creature, but Paul can't seem to remember a thing. The two are then granted the Maximuñequera and they promptly make their way to the station in Pueblo Par.
Paul stops Espaniola on her way no less than three times before criticizing her for barely catching any Pokémon in her journey thus far. Espaniola now regrets sparing him the day prior. As the duo heads inside the train station, they're given a few words of encouragement from their respective mothers as well as a Kit de Acampada. Espaniola then rides a train to Ciudad Pistón.
Unfortunately, a rowdy bunch of Wooloo forces the train to stop at the Punto de Encuentro. The pair disembarks as Paul remarks this is the perfect opportunity to build a team with the Pokémon of the Área Silvestre. After exiting from the station, Paul lets Espaniola know where Ciudad Pistón is located, and Sonia meets up with the pair after her grandmother questioned what her grandaughter was doing with her life. Paul quickly dashes off into the Área Silvestre and Sonia gives Espaniola the Caja de Pokémon[/assit] to access her PC boxes on the go. Espaniola is then granted access to what the Área Silvestre has to offer.
But that's a story for another update. I'll see you in the next one!
INTRO
RULES
OUTRO
CONTENTS
