[Gen 3] My first playthrough of Fire Red in Japanese

This is going to be a vanilla playthrough of Fire Red, but now with a language barrier. I have played Fire Red/Leaf Green for so long that I wanted to put my knowledge and memorization to the test without having to rely on reading. Already I spent about 20 minutes getting through naming the trainer, rival, and starter. I chose the female trainer and gave her the name ヒロイン (Heroine). I named my rival ダレス (Daleth/Daresu). As for my starter pokemon, Squirtle, I named it ダイブマン (Dive Man/Daibuman). Here it goes, my first thread ever, and a playthrough where I cannot read anything. Hope this goes well.

Did I mentioned this was on real hardware?

Day 2

I fought Brock and effortlessly won. Getting used to not being able to read anything. Decided to make this more interesting by catching as many pokemon as I can before each gym battle, like catching at least 20 pokemon before Misty, and 30 pokemon before Lt. Surge. That might get difficult the more I travel throughout the game, but I think I can manage. No new additions to the party as of late.



With the running shoes obtained, I now make my way towards Mt. Moon.

Day 3

I traveled through Mt. Moon and gathered all the pokemon available except Clefairy. I also spent like an hour searching for a female Nidoran in route 3 only to find out that in Fire Red it has a 2% encounter rate, so I gave up. That being said, I could get one as a trade later down the road. Normally I dislike using traded pokemon because I know they will disobey if I level them up too quickly. I found the hidden moon stone in Mt. Moon, and chose the Helix Fossil. Afterwards I proceeded to beat my rival, the nugget bridge, and most of the trainers. This is because my current party only consists of a single Wartortle. I then went inside the Cerulean gym where I wiped out everyone spamming bite because chomp chomp good against Starmie. Getting the 2nd badge was just as easy as getting the 1st badge.



Now with 2 badges I am going to do something interesting. My plans are to get to the Safari Zone as quickly as possible, with the least amount of trainer battles and gym battles. I plan to add Rhyhorn and Exeggcute to the party because never once have I used those two in any of my pokemon playthroughs.

I love this, that GBA color scheme is amazing! Do you plan on using strictly Pokemon you haven't used before?

That is the plan yes. I have never used a female nidoran, only male. Recently I learned it has access to moves like crunch and superpower which I know will be useful later down the road. I do not have a full team idea set, only a small document suggestion I made last month. So far I plan to have a team of the following: Rhydon, Exeggutor, Electrode, and Aerodactyl or Dragonite. If I do not get a Nidoqueen in time I'll settle for Marowak, another pokemon I have never used. Heavily debating if I should add a fire type knowing that fire types are not a necessity in Kanto.

Day 4

I skimmed past the SS Anne and proceeded to add a Diglett to my party. I thought about it over and as much as I want a Rhydon or Nidoqueen in my team, I realized that I have never used a Dugtrio in any playthrough. This diglett is going to be a mainstay, along with a Voltorb I caught right before entering Rock Tunnel. I have ultimately skipped Lt. Surge because I want to save that battle for when I have a more complete team. Going through Rock Tunnel I quickly noticed that I forgot to grab Flash, so what did I do? Brute force my way through the place... with a guide. In Gen 1 it is easier to see where you're going because you can see the walls of Rock Tunnel, but in Gen 3 you cannot see anything. Inside Rock Tunnel Dive Man finally evolved into a Blastoise, and he carried everyone to the finish line by himself. Diglett had a chance to shine in a few battles, like helping me catch an Onix and Machop to fill up the pokedex. Voltorb has yet to see any action. As soon as I exited Rock Tunnel I blazed through Lavender Town and arrived at Celadon City. It was there I grabbed the tea to access Saffron City with only 2 badges.



Now I have multiple options at my disposal. I made sure to battle the least amount of trainers so that way I can get mid game pokemon much earlier and raise them. However, if I want to reach the Safari Zone, my goal, I would have to go through Rocket Corner and then the Pokemon Tower. Two areas I always seem to forget about. I also have no plans to add Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan to the party because I've used them before, and this playthrough is for pokemon I have never used (minus the starter). I have thought about ditching my starter for something like a Poliwrath, Lapras, or Cloyster though. Not sure if that is something I will do once I gather a more complete team.

Day 5 & 6.

Alright. It has been 5 months and 3 days since the last post. In that time I have doubled my playtime and had lots of time to think about what I want my team to be like... except I have kept myself busy with more important matters at hand. Now about 6 hours later after I have reached Saffron with 2 badges, I immediately went looking for party members. The first thing I did was add Flareon to my team because I have never used Flareon in a serious playthrough before. I don't know if I've ever made this publicly known, but Flareon is single-handedly one of my favorite Eevee-lutions. I think its design is tied with Umbreon as the best, but Flareon is also the weakest of the eeveelutions due to its awkward stat distribution while being a pure fire-mon. 130 atk. stat is desirable, but having no physical/special split means I cannot take advantage of that stat unless I teach it return or double-edge. Although its special stat isn't bad. The problem with Flareon is its speed, and thankfully it knew Quick Attack when I got it. While I was debating on getting Arcanine, I knew Flareon would be a better choice because at least Flareon can learn Flamethrower naturally at level 52 (unlike Arcanine were it must learn it as Growlithe at a high level or spend nearly 90,000 money on coins for Flamethrower. No thanks bozo). Coming up with a nickname was also difficult. I wanted to go with Fire Man, a robot master from Mega Man 1, as my starter is named after Dive Man from Mega Man 4. The problem is that in japanese its name cannot fit. So at the moment it has no nickname.

The next party member is a pokemon that I actually dreaded adding to the team, because I know for a fact that I will not see the fruits of my labor until I beat the game... Zubat. In Fire Red, the player cannot obtain Crobat until the national dex is obtained. That absolutely sucks, but I am willing to deal with that because the zubat I caught literally had amazing physical and sp. atk. IVs along with speed. Also its nature is lonely, making Zubat a very strong. Because it is female I decided to name it Akashiya, as a reference to... on second thought I'm keeping that hidden. If you know you know. As of now I have both Flareon and Golbat in my party. One is a super strong mixed attacker with low speed, the other is a slightly less strong mixed attacker that always goes first. Perfect combination for my Blastoise that has high defenses. Getting my 3rd badge was easy as I had access to better grind spots. Also spent my only TM of Aerial Ace on Golbat because leveling up for wing attack was too much of a hassle. I can just trade myself another Aerial Ace TM later thanks to the cloning glitch in Emerald. As of now I'm working my way up to the poke flute. Needless to say I enjoy how my progress is going along.



Inner thoughts below:
Coming up with a diverse team in Fire Red without using pokemon I've used before is rather difficult, especially when I feel like I have used too many pokemon in previous playthroughs. I admit that I have this really huge problem with spending time scheming ideas of a perfect team, and then wasting time idling while thinking of what my team would be like. At some point I was thinking of adding Jynx to the party, an ice/psychic type that would definitely fit, but then I thought about adding Exeggutor, a grass/psychic type. See the problem? I can only fit 1 psychic type to the party, as I dislike like overlapping. Then I thought about adding a flying type to my party, like Golbat, only to realize that Golbat can't learn fly until gen 4. This sharp pain is unbearable. I was thinking of using one of the legendary bird mons like Zaptos, but I don't like having 2 flying types, and once I get a crobat I can finally learn fly. Coming up with an electric type to use is also difficult, because while I do want Electrode, the player can receive one through a trade at Cinnabar Island, or catch one at the power plant. Maybe I can soft reset until I get a good Electrode with stats I want?

Also the more I thought about Dugtrio in my party the more I realized that it would never be as good as something like Rhydon. I already gave aerial ace to my golbat, and Dugtrio, while a fast pokemon, just isn't going to cut it. I think I'm alright with a fast golbat. Not to mention if I add Electrode to my party that's 3 fast mons and still only 1 defense oriented mon. Plus Electrode has access to light screen and mirror coat, both of which I deem valuable for my team. So the end goal now is to obtain an Electrode, Exeguttor, and Rhydon to complete my team. My final team should look like Flareon, Golbat/Crobat, Blastoise, Electrode, Exeggutor, and Rhydon. No access to fly until I get that nation dex, but so be it. Kanto is well designed enough to not rely on flying around.



Didn't have my voltorb with my in this photo because I boxed it while looking for an abra. This was before thinking of using Exeggutor.

Day 7.

I am now in full swing of playing this game. A lot. As soon as I exited the Celadon Mart I went into the Rocket Corner to get my hands on the silph scope. Getting through the entire Rocket Corner was pretty easy, and I made sure to level up my team to the best I could. Giovanni was also easy because I had a Blastoise. Any other fodder that I had to go through to reach Giovanni was taken care of by my newly acquired Flareon and Golbat. By the time I left the Rocket Corner I decided to do something most people would find redundant. I decided to go through Rock Tunnel, again. That's right. Again. In my previous venture I blitz through the cave because I wanted to reach Saffron with 2 badges. That meant skipping through optional trainers, items, and most importantly, experience. With this I took the time to level up my voltorb. Voltorb grew up rather quickly, and I relied on Sonic Boom to get rid of geodudes and Onixes. Against Zubats I would one shot them. No to mention, thanks to pick up, I got my hands on TM 10 Hidden Power. Not just once, but twice. And I doubt people would believe or care, but Voltorb's IVs managed to be perfect for Hidden Power Ice. That meant it could go toe-to-toe with Onix and Geodude in Rock Tunnel. After reaching level 25 I went into the Pokemon Tower. My Rival was not a problem, and the more I kept climbing the tower the more experience Voltorb received, and finally it evolved.



The first time I've used a Voltorb in my party and already I think this was the best decision I've made. More importantly, in the pokemon tower I caught my next team mate that made me change my mind on the fly. A cubone with serious nature, great phys. atk. IVs, and the thick club. As soon as I took note of everything that was it. Bye-bye Rhydon of my dreams, I want a Marowak. The thick club itself was alone to interest me, but those IVs are what changed my mind. As soon as I left the Pokemon Tower I got straight to grinding. Taught Cubone Brick Break and dig to deal with the trainers on route 8. About an hour passed by before it evolved into my newly obtained Marowak.



So this is where I am now. I have Erika to challenge, but at the same time I could reach Fuchsia early for my final team mate, exeggcute. I thought about it hard enough, and decided that I should get my hands on the leftovers first. So this is where this playthrough comes to a pause. I am about to capture snorlax and get my hands on 2 leftovers. Also I went back to the top of the Pokemon Tower to get the Soothe Bell, because later down the road I want to teach Flareon return.



Inner thoughts down below:

Perhaps the one thing that bothers me a lot is the fact I cannot get a Crobat.



Thankfully someone on the PC Discord (because I use that more now) recommended that I equip an everstone. Thank you batzubatzu, you made me realize the everstone is not useless.

I was thinking of getting one of the 3 legendary birds, specifically Articuno, because I lack a pokemon that can learn fly. Golbat is a flying type, but it cannot learn fly until I get a crobat. That is annoying to deal with, and I did complain about this before. Only now I'm beginning to realize how big of a deal it is because I'm nearing Fuchsia, and later Cinnabar. Although I won't have to worry about that too much if I keep using a level 8 sparrow in my PC box. Overall, I'm really enjoying this playthrough, and I can't wait to beat Erika and later obtain my Exeggcute.

Day 8.

2 gyms in one go. After catching the Snorlax (both of them) I immediately spent some time grinding. At the start of the cycling road there are 6 bikers that can be easily rematched. Just save, use the VS Seeker, and reset if less than 4 bikers want to rematch. With that I quickly gained easy levels. So much that I manged to blitz through Erika's gym.



The only thing that somewhat sucks is that Flareon is stuck with Fire Spin until level 52, and its best move is quick attack. Luckily, my Electrode has Hidden Power Ice, and that made short work of Erika's team. On top of holding the Amulet Coin, I garnered double the money. With this new found badge and money I decided to spend it on coins to get one of the following TMs: Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, or Flamethrower. I thought about it real hard, and decided to go with Thunderbolt because Ice Beam won't be useful until the Elite Four, and Flamethrower can be achieved at a high enough level. Thunderbolt, however, cannot be learned by Electrode via level up (that surprises me), so Thunderbolt it is.

Once I arrived at Fuchsia City I immediately headed for the Safari Zone. My next target was to get an exeggcute for me next party member. First exeggcute I encountered had 3 rocks thrown at it making it easier to catch... except I failed. I threw like 6 safari balls at it, and it managed to run away. 3 rocks and 6 safari balls down the drain. I would continue to look for an exeggcute for another 30 minutes before I finally found one. Even then I did not use the 1st one I caught because its nature and IVs were not to my liking. Thankfully it did not take more than 20 minutes to find another one, this time having better IVs across the board. With that, I now have a total of 6 pokemon at my disposable and my team is completed. Before I left the Safari Zone I picked up HM Surf and began grinding that exeggcute. With my team now at level 40 I enter the Fuchsia Gym.

Koga was easier than Erika if you could believe it. Any psychic types in the gym (when the theme should be poison) fell to either my Blastoise or Flareon using Bite. Koga himself lost to my Flareon and my new addition Exeggutor the executioner. It one shot his last pokemon with Psychic. Now with that out of the way I have officially obtained 5 badges out of 8.



Now all that's left is simple. Go to Cinnabar early to get my fossil mons, adding 2 more pokedex entries. Level grind a bit with the trainers on the way to the Seafoam Islands. Hit the Fighting Dojo to show off my moves. And of course, drive out the Rockets from Saffron. This is only getting easier.

Day 9.

On my way to Cinnabar Island I cleared out Seafoam Islands and all its trainers. Attempted to catch Articuno and while I succeeded, it didn't have the nature I wanted, and crap IVs. So I reset, and proceeded to exit while grabbing all the items and catching all the pokemon I could. With that out of the way, I also awakened my fossil mons, and reset to get my desired stats. Now with that done it is time to enter the Silph co. building, and honestly it was quite easy. I'm not sure what the grand opinion is on Silph co., but to me this is one of the best dungeons in all of Pokemon. I love the dungeon designs of gens 1 because when it comes to RPGs, conquering dungeons becomes second nature. It is like you crave the idea of going inside a palace, cave, or area and search every nook and cranny there. Silph co. to me fills these RPG needs and I am quite sad I won't be coming back here after I finish it. After fighting about 4 trainers I realized that I had not completed the Fighting Dojo, so I got that out of the way rather easily. Thanks in part that I now have an exeggutor, the Fighting Dojo was a wash.



After defeating the black belt I made the decision to choose Hitmonchan. I will not use this pokemon for this playthrough, but the reason why I chose it over the vastly superior Hitmonlee was because the Hitmonchan I have in my ENG Fire Red doesn't see to have the best stats. Mild natured isn't terrible with the lack of a Physical Special Split, but I wanted one that prioritized speed. Once I made my decision I headed back to Silph Co. and continued my exploration. One thing I love about this place is how there are so many items, both visible and hidden. By now I have memorized where I should go, but I went to each floor, fought each trainer, and nabbed each item. Went down to floor 3, took the warp tile second to the west, and fought my rival, Rival Fival. He went down easy. A team of Blastoise, Golbat, Flareon, Marowak, Electrode, and Exeggutor took out his team with ease. Giovanni also went down easily, and for my reward I now own a master ball. Maybe this could better help me catch the legendary birds, or maybe I'll just waste it on roaming Entei. Then again, 0 IVs across the board might not be interesting, so I could waste it on Mewtwo. Or I could just clone master balls in Emerald...

After leaving Silph Co. I entered the Saffron Gym. Knowing that I have 2 pokemon with bite, a dark type move, I knew this gym would be a breeze. Unlike Silph Co. though, I'm not a fan of this gym. Relying on warp tiles to get across can be confusing, especially when I want to fight each of the trainers for EXP and money. I know getting to Sabrina just requires going diagonally from when you warp to the first room, and then you enter the bottom left of the top left room to reach her; but man does it get confusing if you miss it. Took me like 20 minutes figuring out if I did beat each trainer. I ended up getting impatient that I did not even heal my party by the time I faced her. Although, I came prepared. I used Flareon twice spamming bite and quick attack. I used Electrode once because it's holding the amulet coin, and for Sabrina's ace, Alakazam, I brought out Marowak. In 1 hit from boomerang her Alakazam was defeated, and I now have obtained the 6th badge.



With the money I gathered I decided to spend 90,000 money on coins to get TM Ice Beam for my Blastoise. Now all that's left is raise Flareon to level 52 for Flamethrower, Electrode to level 59 for Magic Coat, and I'm all set. Also as of now I have achieved getting at least 66 pokemon. Still want to catch as many pokemon as I can to match my badge amount multiplied by 10. Next up: Cinnabar Island. Again. While I already made my way to Cinnabar I did not clear out the Pokemon Mansion. That is next on the chopping block, as well as the 3 Islands side quest after I defeat Blaine.

Day 10.

I cannot believe that I forgot how cool the Pokemon Mansion really is. Normally I roll my eyes at this dungeon and think it's rather boring. Koffing everywhere, ratatta/raticate everywhere, and barely any growlithe/vulpix here. Yet when I went into this dungeon that's not what I remembered. The first thing that came to mind was the genius environmental storytelling of the mansion. The Mew statues with switches, the books lying around telling of the lore behind Mew, the burglars and scientists dropping some lore and hints, plus the fact that Blaine probably worked in the mansion reminded me that this place is actually cool. Pokemon Mansion was rather easy to blitz through, and I managed to catch a growlithe with Intimidate and a decent nature + IVs. Once I nabbed the key and explored every corner and rock for items I made my way into Blaine's gym. Then I remembered the main aspect of this gym I will not be able to enjoy... the language barrier...



Yeah. I can't read Japanese. That is the main reason why I started this playthrough. To play the game without relying on text but my knowledge of the game. Needless to say I got half the questions wrong inside the gym, but the ones I got right were because they had a number in the question or it was the 1st question. Like I know for a fact the first question asks the player Does Caterpie evolve into Butterfree, and the answer is an obvious yes. But some of the questions without numbers I got wrong and was forced to battle the trainers. Not like I go out of my way to challenge them anyways, but I thought that was funny. This was the first time I ever got the questions wrong in my entire 15 years of playing Pokemon. Aside from that, Blaine was rather easy. I got my Marowak and Blastoise to take care of anything Blaine threw at me, plus I had a Flareon that could absorb all fire based attacks. This time around I got rid of Quick Attack at long last in favor of Return. By now my Flareon has held onto that Soothe Bell for so long its friendship should be maxed out, and with its attack stat being 157 at the time it could one shot anything. Obtaining my 7th badge was nothing.



After defeating Blaine I then accepted the miniature sidequest of exploring One, Two, and Three Island. Not much happened as it is rather easy and not too exciting to mention. Although not that I did complete it I want to try and see if I can catch the Bird Trio before I fight Giovanni. Or maybe I'll just fight Giovanni. I do not know what to do yet.

Day 11

I have caught all 3 legendary birds. Not fun. Well, starting out it was not bad. Zaptos was actually the easiest to catch, but on the way to the Power Plant I had to go back and forth when catching pokemon to fill up my pokedex. My plan was to show up with 5 pokemon and then catch the legendary in question so that I can easily check the nature and IVs. On my way to Zaptos I caught 2 Electabuzz's, one of them had amazing stats that I am going to keep. The other I released. Electabuzz was going to me one of my options for a team mate, but you do get it too late, after Koga, so I did not get one. My plan was to use Marowak with false swipe, and then use sleep powder. On my first attempt Zaptos was not a pushover. Its drill peck was definitely hard to get around, and my only pokemon with reflect happened to be my sleep user, Exeggutor. After about 30 turns of using reflect, spamming sleep powder, and healing, I finally caught Zaptos. I was impressed by Zaptos' stats and I liked it having Rash as a nature. This is because I like Drill Peck.



Now on my way to Mt. Ember. I planned accordingly to explore the area, fight all trainers, and nab all the items and then come back for Moltres. I actually forgot to do this during my first visit to One Island, so I used my main team for this. Also caught some pokemon lying around like Ponyta. Now at the time of making my way to Mt. Ember again, I have trips. Triple 7s.



Moltres was noticeably easier. I did not restock on my great/ultra balls but I did make sure to strategize. Marowak using false swipe, Electrode for Light Screen, and then Exeggutor for sleep. I did however run into some problems. Exeggutor did bite the dust at one point so I had to bring out Blastoise to take a few hits from Moltres. After getting Exeggutor back on its feet I landed sleep powder, and for once I threw a great ball. I do not know why I did, but that one great ball out of about 15 ultra balls caught Moltres. I checked its nature and IVs, and I'm keeping it. Another good 1st attempt, albeit difficult. Moltres is lonely natured, and I do not think that is bad. Sure it won't survive rock slide at all, but I was never expecting it to.



Articuno made me want to give up and go straight to Giovanni. I hated Articuno. I ended up using a max ether for sleep powder, wasted 40 ultra balls and 13 great balls until I caught it. This was just frustrating because ice beam OHKO's Exeggutor without light screen. I had to revive Exeggutor twice and be very careful with how I spent my turns. Once Articuno's PP for Ice Beam ran out it was a matter of putting it to sleep and spamming ultra balls. Like I just mentioned, 40 ultra balls were spent, and no avail. Then 13 more great balls were spent until I caught Articuno. It has sassy nature, which isn't that bad but I really do not want to reset to try again. This was already my 3rd attempt at Articuno because before this I had caught it twice before with 2 terrible natures and IVs.



Now with 81 pokemon registered in my pokedex I make my way to the Viridian Gym. The final badge is waiting for me.

Day 12

I made my way north of Cinnabar Island, fought all the trainers on the way, and walked to Viridian City. I have now come full circle in my journey. Without hesitation I walked into the 8th gym leader with a team of the follow pokemon that will stay with me for the pokemon league: Blastoise (Dive Man), Flareon (Heat Man), Electrode (Elec Man), Golbat (Akashiya), Exeggutor (Minoriko), and Marowak (Nemuno). My entire team going in was from levels 48 - 50 and I was more than ready. I made sure to fight every trainer like always and got to rack up lots of EXP and money because this will be one of the last places to get good enough EXP for what's up ahead. When I made my way over to Giovanni I knew I was going to win. None of his pokemon posed a threat to my team, and before I knew it I had already won. I obtained my Earth Badge, TM for Earthquake, and the Macho Brace that is left by him if you speak to him again.



What I find most intriguing about Giovanni is that this is one of the last times he is ever seen. I know there's the Celebi event in Heart Gold where you have a battle with him, and in Ultra Sun/Moon there's an event that takes place. It is a bit cool that Giovanni never gets criminally charged. He just hides in the shadows out of fear from being styled on by a 10 year old, no less. Now that I have all 8 badges I make my way to the final area: The Indigo League. But surprise! My Rival, Daleth, challenges me... and it's a wash. All my pokemon beat up his team. No losses. Now the real challenge begins. The Victory Road. Normally I roll my eyes at the victory road because I am not a fan. Kanto's victory road used to be my least favorite because of the strength puzzles, but since this is like my 6th playthrough of Kanto it was not too bad. Just time consuming. I made sure to level up everyone to level 52 because I know for a fact that you are expected to grind for a while. The recommended level for the elite four in Kanto is level 60, but you can do it with level 50 pokemon. It's just... an uphill battle. Kanto has one of the worst level curves by the late game imo, with Johto being the worst one. Thankfully, this is Fire Red. So I do have the VS seeker, but it does not work inside caves. May I ask why? Pushing through Victory Road was not hard, and by the time I made it through it had been about 30 minutes.



Now here I stand, in quite a pickle. Weighing my options so to speak. I can fight the elite four with my team barely at level 52, or I can grind a bit more to make everyone level 55. That way once I reach the champ some of my pokemon would be at level 58. Or I can take the easy way out and do my best until I lose. But so far I have not lost a single battle. I know about the grind spots in Cycling Road and south of Fuchsia, so these are some options. I do not know if I will be able to post an update any time soon as I am going on a trip this Thursday and I do not know when I will be back. Not taking my game boy with me because it will just be a hassle and I do not want to lose it during my trip.

I want to thank like the 3 people who have visited my thread also. It's not much, but I do enjoy making these.

Day 13

So this is long overdue... for the 2 people that will read this. I totally blanked when I returned home from my event. I should mention that I finished the game the night before I left on my trip, but I came down with a fever throughout the entire trip. I continued to recover after I got home and thankfully it did not dampen the experience, but besides that I have finished the game at long last. I also took the gamble of fighting the Elite Four with a team of level 52s. The first battle against Lorelei was nothing special or noteworthy. Electrode wiped everything, however, against her Jynx and Lapras there was trouble. Lapras is tanky, and without light screen Electrode would have fainted. For Jynx I used Flareon, and after it missed lovely kiss Flareon landed 1 hit from flamethrower... only to not OHKO. After a bit of back and forth from lovely kiss, Flareon would take the win and Lorelei is down for the count.

Bruno is next, and he was easy. He always is, and there was no trouble. Nothing important. Golbat and Exeggutor were the MVPs of this match.

Agatha was perhaps the most interesting fight, purely on accident. For this fight Golbat was the MVP against the gengars, however, Golbat did not last. I was thinking of using Exeggutor more, which did work against Arbok, but that one match weakened it so much. Blastoise had to step up to the plate, and he was underleveled. And yet, here's where the interesting part happens. Blastoise got poisoned.



Against Agatha's golbat and haunter Blastoise couldn't be put to sleep. That was such an easy clutch at the end, and I fully thought I was going to lose until I realized this in the middle of the match. Because of this I managed to win and that means I can move on to Lance.

Lance was not as difficult because Blastoise has Ice Beam and Surf, but that meant Blastoise only got to fight Aerodactyl and Dragonite. Against the 2 Dragonairs Blastoise was tired out, and I relied on the one pokemon that now had a chance to shine: Marowak. With just a few boomerangs both Dragonairs were defeated. Electrode got a chance to shine once again facing Lance's Gyarados. Now with all members of the Elite Four defeated I am labeled the Champion... OR SO I THOUGHT.



My rival, Daleth, remained. He just took the title of Champion for himself, and he's not letting it go so easily. All my pokemon got to have a chance at fighting, and man... it was spectacular. Electrode took down his pidgeot and gyarados. Blastoise took down his Rhydon. Golbat took down Venusaur. Marowak took down Arcanine. But that Alakazam... that damned Alakazam did not want to lose. He took out all my remaining pokemon, and everyone was weakened at the time. I paralyzed Alakazam with Electrode, but I forgot it had synchronize. For 4 turns Electrode couldn't move and it lost. Then my rival used a full restore on Alakazam. Anyone else that got close to defeating Alakazam my rival only used a full restore. In total he used 5. I had to sacrifice Flareon to use a max revive on Marowak. It landed the final hit of boomerang to finally take down Alakazam, but that took forever. A surprise frustration at the very end was enough to almost make me give up.



With that I managed to defeat Fire Red in Japanese. There is still the post game content but I don't think that's important enough to warrant an entry in the travel journals. Thanks to everyone who viewed this thread. It is my first and still my only thread as of late, and I think this is special to me.



Total playtime below:



And after such a long and journey I also received the greatest reward this game could give me:



I finally got a Crobat.