Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen May 12, 2025
You know... sometimes I'm reminded of why I wanted to stop after the first game, but damn it I have a let's play to do.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #4 - Stone Cold[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Last time on Dark Rising 2, we made it to a conveniently placed Pokecenter next to a boiling magma cave. Great start.
I meant what I said earlier about the team constantly shifting just to show everyone off.
Good thing too, because there's like a million trainers on this route and 90% of them are unavoidable. Don't you just love padding?
It'd be really anticlimactic if we could say no, so I guess we have to.
Smeargle is an interesting Pokemon. They have stats that would make even Baby Pokemon point and laugh and are fragile to the point where any strong hit could kill them outright. Their primary use, though? They could copy any move in the entire game for keeps thanks to Sketch. Yes, this even applies to something like... oh, Dialga's Roar of Time. Yes, really. (Barring some exceptions)
The thing is that Smeargles are great for status effects and setting up, so the key to using them properly is hoping you don't get taunted or phased out with like roar or something... not like that means much here considering it's Gen 3.
: "Okay, so...?"
[The girl flies into a rage and attacks Monica]
I will take no other explanation for why this confrontation happens.
Good lord, did the Loser Club come out just to bother me? At the very least you can sneak past them if you're really careful but these guys are getting in the way of progress.
"To watch Robot Chicken. Maybe that's the reason why I lost? Hmm..."
Okay that's it, you referenced Robot Chicken in a Pokemon rom hack. We made it, boys.
Gemstone River, huh? Just what will this place have in store for us?
I don't understand the people who want to stay hidden but instead run up to you, shout and get into very conspicuous Pokemon battles that everyone can see and hear.
Good god, this is enough power to burn down the entire country.
I approve.
Oh goodie. Maybe we can seduce the demon king and stop his assault on the world with this.
Nugget bridge trainers again, but this time from the other side. I dunno, I find it really disingenuous when a rom hack does the exact same things as the original game but only slightly switched around. You'd expect far more effort and creativity, especially for a passion project... but nope.
The worst part is that when you take a look at extremely well crafted rom hacks like Metroid X Fusion, Pokemon Life Version and so on... it really does make Dark Rising look weaker than it already is.
I'll save the rant for another day because right now we have Water types to fry. It must suck being a monotype trainer in this world - if your opponent has your advantage then you're screwed.
: ("Back me up if things go sour, alright?")
: ("Gotcha, pal! Zzzzt!")
At the very least Mr. Fisherman tries to spice things up by throwing a Ground type here and there, but even then...
Ambes learned Grass Knot at one point and demolishes the thing.
: ("Ooof. Thanks for the save, uh... what'zzz your name again?")
: ("Ambes. Glad to meet you, Quote.")
: ("Oooh, you managed to catch my name before I could even say it myself. You're pretty sharp, bud. I think we'll make a great team if we stick together, bzzt.")
Mr. Fisherman still got some hits in despite my type advantage, so you know this guy means business.
Oh really? Guess I should take the kid gloves off myself then.
I mean, yep.
Signe is supposed to be the mage compared to her brother as reflected by her moveset above. Void Bomb is a 125 power
move that hits both opponents in a double battle, which is simply just whoof. This is what happens when you push me into cheating, folks.
Funny story, I was originally going to make Void Bomb inflict sleep instead of flinching to keep with the Darkrai theme... but instead of causing damage, it only put the opponent to to sleep. Since that involves messing around with a ton of code and it was such a small thing in the grand scheme of things, I decided to leave it at flinching.
On one hand, we're at a type disadvantage. On the other, we have a literal flaming goddess fox and a chandelier with enough magic power to rival the legends themselves. Hmmmm.
The expected result.
Oh damn that's right, I gave Candelabra Leaf Blade for some reason. You see, I still didn't know there was a working Physical/Special split even by this point in the game, so I just gave Candy whatever strong grass move for coverage even though Chandelures have awful physical stats.
Clumsy me.
But at least Beatrice picks up the slack.
"You should be proud. Take this!"
He hands us TM03, but things don't stop there.
Fisherman: "I bet you're exhausted and want to rest to Gemstone City, am I right? Well... YOU GOTTA BEAT ME! Yeah, that's right, you're not done. We have a reputation to maintain, we can't just let any trainer brag about beating us. You ready?"
: "Yeah... I guess..."
If there's anything I don't like about Dark Rising (quite a bit, but I'll save that tangent for the end), the primary one is that the (intentional) humor is pretty weak. Monica's reaction sells to me that this is one of those "if you bring up the problem, it's suddenly not as annoying" scenarios.
She's as annoyed as the audience would probably be, but at the same time that doesn't really fix or make the scene less annoying. I hate it when content creators do that kind of thing.
As for the fight itself, this would normally be an intimidating team if it weren't for the fact we have a psychic super Lucario on our side.
Two different 4x weaknesses that both end in the same way. I love these two, okay?
Oh my lord. It's like the claw part of Clawitzer is immaculate while the actual shrimp is a compressed JPEG.
Candelabra ends it with her magical fireproof leaf blades.
"I give you permission to pass!"
: ("This isn't something worth bragging about...")
You see what I mean? This entire sequence felt more like an obstacle than anything fun, to be honest.
Anyway, we're in the next town already. Its inhabitants include the mysterious Tomato Fletchling.
Then May shows up all of a sudden and comes to battle us.
She has a damn good sprite, especially for the standards of this hack... which makes me wonder where DRG and crew pilfered it from.
This Venusaur was still a real hassle to take down even with the sun in place... like damn.
Meanwhile, Candy melts a Glaceon into a puddle while Beatrice drains a Blastoise of their life. In hindsight, we should be really glad this series doesn't get graphic with Pokemon battling otherwise it'd wind up being really gnarly and not kid friendly.
REALLY. A LEVEL 50 BLAZIKEN ALREADY.
Why do you do this to me, game?
If I didn't have Signe, this would have been absolutely miserable. You guys have to keep in mind that this is still only Chapter 4 yet we're facing what would be a champion's team in the normal games right the fuck out of nowhere. It really does make me wonder what kind of person was meant to play this game or what the hell Dark Rising Girl was going for with such an obtuse difficulty curve.
Thank god Snorlax doesn't have Pulverizing Pancake in this game otherwise the end result would be a nuclear explosion of lard, blood and tears.
I don't quite like your tone.
I'll just stop you there. The girls don't talk about anything significant, just that May is a famous coordinator and that Monica's mom is a big fan.
I'll just cut to the point where May gives us the Fame Checker... an item that would be a novelty even in the real games. May doesn't even show up later or have an impact on the plot, so in reality we had to fight a level 50 Blaziken for no goddamn reason.
You could omit this entire scene and the game wouldn't change in the slightest.
Given how this is obviously the rock town, this guy must be the Gym Leader. Gen 6 had a Rock gym leader too, but at least they had the decency to not just call him Granite.
The fun part is that the police bar you from going anywhere else, so guess where we're going?
What the hell kind of scuffle happened in here? Sure, this is the second time this destroyed house scene has appeared in the series so far, but you people have all of the crazy parties without me.
Sydney tells us that Noah's off somewhere else while Zyiah is here to snatch back her Noivern.
"Instead of focusing on becoming a master thief, you should be more focused on training your Pokemon. You're an embarrassment to them and yourself. You're one of the weakest trainers I've ever seen."
Okay, Granite is pretty badass for a character we'll meet once and never see again.
: "Ugh... you bastard. Whatever, I still got what I came here for. A fossil of an ancient Pokemon! I bet once I learn how to revive this baby, they'll be no stopping me."
[Granite shakes his head in disappointment]
Granite: "I feel sorry for your Pokemon. Surrender peacefully, now!"
He's pretty sharp. I like him.
"Gotcha back, Noivern."
: "No! It's mine now!"
Woman, can you not? You're surrounded by like three people who are all justified in either beating you up or sending your ass to the slammer. Don't push it.
Monica motions that Jalice should let herself get put into police custody, but guess what Granite says?
Granite: "No."
Sydney and Zyiah respond accordingly: "What?!"
Like what the hell, dude. You were doing really well before that.
Sigh. He rationalizes that Jalice is really childish and that jail wouldn't really do much to change her. So instead, he's willing to let her learn life lessons the hard way. Admirable, but if she winds up stealing more Pokemon it'll be on your head.
He looks over to Monica and challenges her to a gym battle, so hell yeah you know I'm there.
[Everyone leaves but Monica]
That could have gone better, but oh well.
... You didn't even change the text.
A little bit of playtesting wouldn't kill you, even if it means your game doesn't come out as fast.
Oh thank the lord for a Mart. We've been starved for one ever since Chapter 2.
A cool thing about this place is that they sell evolutionary stones... cause you know, Gemstone City. I do find it weird how Moon Stones are sold for nothing despite the fact they're an evolutionary item too... it wouldn't be very hard to change it either, unless I'm supposed to assume they're having a special sale.
: "..."
[Monica uppercuts the man into space]
The lamer the joke, the more backlash it has.
Oh snap, there was this too. This lady is willing to give away a precious little Eevee, so you know I'm gonna take that offer.
: ("Oh well, I guess this had to happen eventually...")
: ("Hi, my name is Johnny! You don't mind taking care of me... right?")
: "... I'm not even going to ask what happened that requires you to be handed off to a perfect stranger, but welcome aboard anyway."
"Both the son and daughter have no memory of what has happened... Ruko."
Huh. Remember the dad in chapter 2 who told us to leave him and his family alone? It turns out that's a reoccurring plot element that'll serve as foreshadowing later on for a major plot element. Good on DRG.
"Most of the Pokemon have been scientifically revived from their fossil state and now roam the mines endlessly. If you do choose to enter the mines, be very careful. All of them will attack you."
: "Alright."
I love how Monica has just been warned to not enter a mine full of prehistoric animals that will attack on sight and she just shrugs it off like it's just another walk in the park. Then again, compared to what we've already faced, it practically is just another walk in the park for us.
Well, we'll just have to save that for later.
: "What's going on? Where's Florina and everyone else?"
: "They went on ahead. Yo, Monica... I got bad news for you. Something's not right with Noah. I know you two are tight, so you're the best person for this mission."
Oh god, is Noah actually turning evil? Wasn't that one of the things I predicted back in the first Dark Rising?
: "Mission? What's wrong with him?"
: "I don't know, that's the problem! He was headed towards a place called Misty Trees, said to be shrouded in a dark mist. You have to be the one to see what's up with him. The rest of the team are headed straight for Hollowsville. Florina detected high amounts of negative energy coming from that city."
Hollowsville and Misty Trees, huh? Can't wait to go visit Not-Lavender Town.
: "We're taking the shortcut. You, on the other hand, should be searching Misty Trees for Noah. He said something about awakening his chosen power, whatever that means."
("Mine is Bonding, Light's is Creation, but...")
But wait, I thought Light's power was bestowed upon him by Darugis. In hindsight, that makes the whole Conarp/Blazard fiasco even more amazing because Light made that thing from scratch and it still wound up being terrible.
(Context: Light was a person that was raised to protect Arceus all his life but rebelled because he's a manchild that only believes he should ally himself with the strongest. Conarp, on the other hand, is a
/
fakemon that has Wonder Guard and a truly amazingly awful sprite)
Dray tells us about the tree behind him and gives us...
Cut, of course. He disappears afterward, leaving us to cut down the tree whenever we want.
Oh well, we might as well go fight Granite.
There's a sandstorm inside of the gym?! How does that work? Does he just have fans blowing wind everywhere in here? Also, this is what, like the second time Brock's gym has been re-used?
Wave hi to Dark Rising Girl, everyone. I say that because Tarea is literally her self-insert avatar that she tried to integrate into the plot back in the first game. I'm still reeling from that by the way.
Oooh nice, who's the lucky guy/gal?
... Then again, if a wedding ring looked like that, I'd hesitate to put it on anybody's finger.
Generic taunt followed up by generic beatdown.
Maybe you could have lasted longer if you had something tougher than a Rhydon.
He taunts us about his strength while Monica's just like "yeah okay whatever what makes you better than the ones we've faced in the past" - which only re-affirms my statement that Monica is a savage.
If you didn't expect Granite to be a black-vested Marshal from the Unova Elite Four, then I'm slightly disappointed.
RUDE CRUDE DUDES ALERT
His team is very blistering and powerful even with our matched levels. Sure, I could always unleash the Lucario duo, but I need to train up the other guys on my team in case Sigurd and Signe aren't enough.
His first mon is a Rhyperior that is decidedly more durable than the Rhydon from before, but it still goes out in a snap thanks to a generous dose of Sleep Powder and Giga Drain.
His next Pokemon, on the other hand, is a Relicanth that spams hazards like Stealth Rock...
Alright, real talk? I hate Stealth Rocks in the real games. They're the main reason why I keep a hazard ward and the only reason I really use them myself is because I might as well take advantage of it too.
In Dark Rising, though, they're simply Spikes with a Rock typing so... yeah, they're hilariously inept at doing anything because the caster might get knocked out before then.
Relicanth managed to survive getting blasted by a four times weakness despite being the same level as Beatrice, so that's hella impressive.
It could only help him for so long.
This was a tricky one. Arthur had to use Swords Dance while trying to survive Armaldo's onslaught, as they could easily 2 hit KO him. So I resorted to putting him to sleep while Arthur smashed him with Iron Head.
Signe, on the other hand, decides not to mess around and goes straight into dicing up the rest of Granite's team with Aura Saber. I actually sort of feel bad for that Tyranitar, although Cradily can rot in the deepest pits of the ocean for its stalling ways.
Barbaracle is a Gen 6 Pokemon that I like for how outlandishly stupid its design is and how blistering it can be if you can get a Shell Smash off. In here, though, it gets destroyed by...
Wait. Did it really just survive on a sliver of health despite a four times weakness? FUUUU--
Thankfully, Beatrice managed to survive his onslaught by a small margin and won us the match.
Yeah, no kidding. He gives us the Fossilbadge, by the way.
He also hands us the Stealth Rock TM, but I think I'll pass, thank you.
Now since that's out of the way, let's get moving.
Hey, Iris is actually being useful! I knew I brought her along for a reason.
We're switching up the team again to bring Sigurd along. This is actually the first time he's been in the team since the end of Dark Rising 1, so let's make things special by going to...
This place. Beating up a bunch of living fossils wouldn't hurt.
Oh dear, I think we're moving too fast for my liking.
... Nah just kidding, he actually gives it to his wife-to-be instead. He hands Monica something nice for her troubles, though:
Yep, we get Strength. This is how I assume we get Heatran, but I think I'll pass on that too.
I just now discovered the Helix meme. Now I can finally praise him.
MONICA'S SPEAKING IN TONGUES
l̴̗̹̞͖̰̑̀͊ͅa͂͗ͫͮ̎͋̄ͩ̿͏҉̹̟̜̙̲̺͕̺ ̭̪̤͎͍̖̣͈̦̅̚ļ̴͉̗̞͙̜̭̩̳ͣͩ̇̇̓̏̉ͅi̶̮̯ͭͯ͌̂̊̓̚͠ ͊̀͏̷̬͚̝͇̤̰̠ͅl̻̙͓͍͑ͤ͛͒̈͑͡͡ư͖͇͇͚͙̗͚͕ͮ̇͐̀͗̾̚͜ ̧̛̗͕̼̖̒̊̈́̎̒̑̉l̺͎̳̞͚̻ͦ̈ͦͨ͑̔̆̂͘e̳͇̝̬͕͂ͦ̏͢ͅ ̸̧͇̼̮͔̪͌̏̚l̴͇͈̺̎̄ͮ̊ͨ̍͂̿́͘ǫ̥̪͈̥ͩ̇͆͠
I mean yes. Steven's here because he's infatuated with rocks, but Monica recognizes him and figures that they should fight to train for the road ahead. Good idea, but...
Boy, are we gonna regret it in a second.
Steven is the champion of Hoenn and has all of the power to back it up, unfortunately.
Yep! No, really, your reward for talking to Steven is to fight LEVEL 65 AND ABOVE ENEMIES.
Just... christ, could it kill you to balance the difficulty a little bit? Sure, he may be the champion, but there's such a thing as "holding back". Hell, let me tell you why this "sudden superboss" thing is such a problem.
In the real Emerald, Steven is a superboss with a team of level 70s... but he was very much the exception rather than the rule. Not only that, you had to scour the deepest parts of Meteor Falls after you beat the game to even attempt to fight him, so just having him appear in an easily accessible area during the main story ruins the entire purpose of such a fight.
Casual reminder that DRG may not have any idea what she's doing here.
But hey, at least Sigurd is so mind-numbingly overpowered that he can somehow salvage a victory for us despite being 20 levels below his opponents. Good shit.
It gets really ridiculous when you take into account that Dark Rising Girl beefs up the effort values of every enemy Pokemon to 255. Normally, when you invest 252 EVs into a stat, it increases that stat by 63 points. That's a lot, especially when you take the level mountain range into consideration.
Then we have to deal with the legendaries with fake base stats just because Dark Rising Girl wanted to create a higher form of challenge... At the end of the day, that's not challenge, that's just being a sadist with too much power on your hands.
Thank god, too. I'm pretty sure if I tried to do this without Sigurd, I'd be drowning my sorrows in soda.
"This place feels like home to me."
Oh, that wacky Steven. Seriously though, don't come near me ever again.
"Creepy..."
Try me, kid. One of my favorite Pokemon is a Chandelure - have you seen what those things do to people?
There was a bug catcher just above this guy that gets ruined by Jeanne and Beatrice's wombo combo.
: "I think the person you're looking for is far more guilty looking than me."
Poor Vespiquen never stood a chance. Shame too, because she's otherwise a really cool Pokemon.
Wait, what do you mean your purse was stolen? It's hanging from your arm, you pillock!
Thankfully, we get a Max Potion to compensate for whatever the hell it was we just went through.
A storm, huh? We just gotta set that creepy mood in otherwise it just wouldn't be right.
You know, at the very least I can't immediately recognize these areas. Sure, it'll kick in eventually, but props to them for actually doing different map designs instead of rehashing the original game's.
OH that is a good sprite. It's like a clump of feathers that just barely resemble Talonflame.
"But they're so low leveled it's not even funny."
Don't even get me started on levels or I'll shove you in the freezer.
This Burn Heal would have been useful for Monica's opponents not too long ago.
Well shit, that freezer remark came into play when I didn't expect it to.
There was a dude around here who had a Rotom-Frost as one of his Pokemon and that's cool. [Is shot by the pun police]
Also, the return of the Supreme Saltlord. He always seems to show up when we get close to Lavender Town-esque places.
At the least this place has the decency to throw another Pokecenter at us instead of just making us go from point A to point B with no break in between.
Killer B or Killer Queen? (I am obsessed with Jojo, please don't fault me for it.)
Booooo, I say. You couldn't even change the sign to say something else?
Ooooh, how terrifying. I don't think that'll be enough to scare us away, though.
If there were a Pokemon in the entire series that I legit hate, Stunfisk is one of them. It's useless and has a dumb flat face.
Alright, let me have it. What does this place look like?
Ah. Custom tilesets! Cool.
Next time on Dark Rising 2, we're gonna brave this spooky forest and hope we don't get possessed by ghosts!
See you then.
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Team setup:
(Corin, level 42,
,
/
) - "Ghosts, huh? I'm more scared of Sigurd's powers than I am of any ghost, really."
(Sigurd, level 50,
,
/
) - [Winces] "I can't tell if that's a compliment or not."
(Jeanne, level 39,
,
) - "My new drought powers are serving us very well. It turns our opponents into instant barbecues~"
(Wave, level 44,
,
) - "... Not gonna lie I do get spooked rather easily."
(Bellamine, level 42,
,
) - "Say, Beatrice. Doesn't this whole scenario remind you of the time when we had to go hunt zombies with Jack?"
(Beatrice, level 43,
,
/
) - "Huh? Oh yes, miss Bellamine - the good old days. Although... calling them 'good' would be a massive stretch." [She giggles]
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Back-up Team:
(Signe, level 51,
,
/
) - "At the very least we take turns." [Signe stretches]
(Siegfried, level 42,
,
/
) - "You're doing great, guys! I'm rooting for you!" [Siegfried hops up and down with pompoms]
(Arthur, level 43,
,
/
) - "Hollowsville sounds very... pleasant. I wonder what we'll find?"
(Gale, level 36,
,
/
) - "I don't really expect it to be good."
(Quote, level 34,
,
/
) - "Oh hey! Ghosts? Zzzounds like my kinda jam!"
(Ambes, level 36,
,
) - "Oh yeah, that's right... you're a ghost-type, Quote. I have a bit of a personal question for you- what kind of Pokemon were you like when you were alive?"
(Johnny, level 25,
,
) - "Wow, so many cool Pokemon. Our trainer is really strong, too!"
(Ignell, level 22,
,
/
) - "Why hello, Johnny! Welcome to the team, lad!"
(Candelabra, level 37,
,
/
) - "Hee hee hee... This is gonna be fun. Maybe I should uh... contribute to the spookfest."
(Iris, level 6,
,
) - "... I don't like the way she said that."
(Lucera, level 5,
,
) - "Oh my goodness, Siegfried is so adorable. I'm tempted to cheer with him."
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #4 - Stone Cold[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:
Last time on Dark Rising 2, we made it to a conveniently placed Pokecenter next to a boiling magma cave. Great start.
I meant what I said earlier about the team constantly shifting just to show everyone off.
Good thing too, because there's like a million trainers on this route and 90% of them are unavoidable. Don't you just love padding?
It'd be really anticlimactic if we could say no, so I guess we have to.
Smeargle is an interesting Pokemon. They have stats that would make even Baby Pokemon point and laugh and are fragile to the point where any strong hit could kill them outright. Their primary use, though? They could copy any move in the entire game for keeps thanks to Sketch. Yes, this even applies to something like... oh, Dialga's Roar of Time. Yes, really. (Barring some exceptions)
The thing is that Smeargles are great for status effects and setting up, so the key to using them properly is hoping you don't get taunted or phased out with like roar or something... not like that means much here considering it's Gen 3.
[The girl flies into a rage and attacks Monica]
I will take no other explanation for why this confrontation happens.
Good lord, did the Loser Club come out just to bother me? At the very least you can sneak past them if you're really careful but these guys are getting in the way of progress.
"To watch Robot Chicken. Maybe that's the reason why I lost? Hmm..."
Okay that's it, you referenced Robot Chicken in a Pokemon rom hack. We made it, boys.
Gemstone River, huh? Just what will this place have in store for us?
I don't understand the people who want to stay hidden but instead run up to you, shout and get into very conspicuous Pokemon battles that everyone can see and hear.
Good god, this is enough power to burn down the entire country.
I approve.
Oh goodie. Maybe we can seduce the demon king and stop his assault on the world with this.
Nugget bridge trainers again, but this time from the other side. I dunno, I find it really disingenuous when a rom hack does the exact same things as the original game but only slightly switched around. You'd expect far more effort and creativity, especially for a passion project... but nope.
The worst part is that when you take a look at extremely well crafted rom hacks like Metroid X Fusion, Pokemon Life Version and so on... it really does make Dark Rising look weaker than it already is.
I'll save the rant for another day because right now we have Water types to fry. It must suck being a monotype trainer in this world - if your opponent has your advantage then you're screwed.
At the very least Mr. Fisherman tries to spice things up by throwing a Ground type here and there, but even then...
Ambes learned Grass Knot at one point and demolishes the thing.
Mr. Fisherman still got some hits in despite my type advantage, so you know this guy means business.
Oh really? Guess I should take the kid gloves off myself then.
I mean, yep.
Signe is supposed to be the mage compared to her brother as reflected by her moveset above. Void Bomb is a 125 power
Funny story, I was originally going to make Void Bomb inflict sleep instead of flinching to keep with the Darkrai theme... but instead of causing damage, it only put the opponent to to sleep. Since that involves messing around with a ton of code and it was such a small thing in the grand scheme of things, I decided to leave it at flinching.
On one hand, we're at a type disadvantage. On the other, we have a literal flaming goddess fox and a chandelier with enough magic power to rival the legends themselves. Hmmmm.
The expected result.
Oh damn that's right, I gave Candelabra Leaf Blade for some reason. You see, I still didn't know there was a working Physical/Special split even by this point in the game, so I just gave Candy whatever strong grass move for coverage even though Chandelures have awful physical stats.
Clumsy me.
But at least Beatrice picks up the slack.
"You should be proud. Take this!"
He hands us TM03, but things don't stop there.
Fisherman: "I bet you're exhausted and want to rest to Gemstone City, am I right? Well... YOU GOTTA BEAT ME! Yeah, that's right, you're not done. We have a reputation to maintain, we can't just let any trainer brag about beating us. You ready?"
If there's anything I don't like about Dark Rising (quite a bit, but I'll save that tangent for the end), the primary one is that the (intentional) humor is pretty weak. Monica's reaction sells to me that this is one of those "if you bring up the problem, it's suddenly not as annoying" scenarios.
She's as annoyed as the audience would probably be, but at the same time that doesn't really fix or make the scene less annoying. I hate it when content creators do that kind of thing.
As for the fight itself, this would normally be an intimidating team if it weren't for the fact we have a psychic super Lucario on our side.
Two different 4x weaknesses that both end in the same way. I love these two, okay?
Oh my lord. It's like the claw part of Clawitzer is immaculate while the actual shrimp is a compressed JPEG.
Candelabra ends it with her magical fireproof leaf blades.
"I give you permission to pass!"
You see what I mean? This entire sequence felt more like an obstacle than anything fun, to be honest.
Anyway, we're in the next town already. Its inhabitants include the mysterious Tomato Fletchling.
Then May shows up all of a sudden and comes to battle us.
She has a damn good sprite, especially for the standards of this hack... which makes me wonder where DRG and crew pilfered it from.
This Venusaur was still a real hassle to take down even with the sun in place... like damn.
Meanwhile, Candy melts a Glaceon into a puddle while Beatrice drains a Blastoise of their life. In hindsight, we should be really glad this series doesn't get graphic with Pokemon battling otherwise it'd wind up being really gnarly and not kid friendly.
REALLY. A LEVEL 50 BLAZIKEN ALREADY.
Why do you do this to me, game?
If I didn't have Signe, this would have been absolutely miserable. You guys have to keep in mind that this is still only Chapter 4 yet we're facing what would be a champion's team in the normal games right the fuck out of nowhere. It really does make me wonder what kind of person was meant to play this game or what the hell Dark Rising Girl was going for with such an obtuse difficulty curve.
Thank god Snorlax doesn't have Pulverizing Pancake in this game otherwise the end result would be a nuclear explosion of lard, blood and tears.
I don't quite like your tone.
I'll just stop you there. The girls don't talk about anything significant, just that May is a famous coordinator and that Monica's mom is a big fan.
I'll just cut to the point where May gives us the Fame Checker... an item that would be a novelty even in the real games. May doesn't even show up later or have an impact on the plot, so in reality we had to fight a level 50 Blaziken for no goddamn reason.
You could omit this entire scene and the game wouldn't change in the slightest.
Given how this is obviously the rock town, this guy must be the Gym Leader. Gen 6 had a Rock gym leader too, but at least they had the decency to not just call him Granite.
The fun part is that the police bar you from going anywhere else, so guess where we're going?
What the hell kind of scuffle happened in here? Sure, this is the second time this destroyed house scene has appeared in the series so far, but you people have all of the crazy parties without me.
Sydney tells us that Noah's off somewhere else while Zyiah is here to snatch back her Noivern.
"Instead of focusing on becoming a master thief, you should be more focused on training your Pokemon. You're an embarrassment to them and yourself. You're one of the weakest trainers I've ever seen."
Okay, Granite is pretty badass for a character we'll meet once and never see again.
[Granite shakes his head in disappointment]
Granite: "I feel sorry for your Pokemon. Surrender peacefully, now!"
He's pretty sharp. I like him.
"Gotcha back, Noivern."
Woman, can you not? You're surrounded by like three people who are all justified in either beating you up or sending your ass to the slammer. Don't push it.
Monica motions that Jalice should let herself get put into police custody, but guess what Granite says?
Granite: "No."
Sydney and Zyiah respond accordingly: "What?!"
Like what the hell, dude. You were doing really well before that.
Sigh. He rationalizes that Jalice is really childish and that jail wouldn't really do much to change her. So instead, he's willing to let her learn life lessons the hard way. Admirable, but if she winds up stealing more Pokemon it'll be on your head.
He looks over to Monica and challenges her to a gym battle, so hell yeah you know I'm there.
[Everyone leaves but Monica]
That could have gone better, but oh well.
... You didn't even change the text.
A little bit of playtesting wouldn't kill you, even if it means your game doesn't come out as fast.
Oh thank the lord for a Mart. We've been starved for one ever since Chapter 2.
A cool thing about this place is that they sell evolutionary stones... cause you know, Gemstone City. I do find it weird how Moon Stones are sold for nothing despite the fact they're an evolutionary item too... it wouldn't be very hard to change it either, unless I'm supposed to assume they're having a special sale.
[Monica uppercuts the man into space]
The lamer the joke, the more backlash it has.
Oh snap, there was this too. This lady is willing to give away a precious little Eevee, so you know I'm gonna take that offer.
"Both the son and daughter have no memory of what has happened... Ruko."
Huh. Remember the dad in chapter 2 who told us to leave him and his family alone? It turns out that's a reoccurring plot element that'll serve as foreshadowing later on for a major plot element. Good on DRG.
"Most of the Pokemon have been scientifically revived from their fossil state and now roam the mines endlessly. If you do choose to enter the mines, be very careful. All of them will attack you."
I love how Monica has just been warned to not enter a mine full of prehistoric animals that will attack on sight and she just shrugs it off like it's just another walk in the park. Then again, compared to what we've already faced, it practically is just another walk in the park for us.
Well, we'll just have to save that for later.
Oh god, is Noah actually turning evil? Wasn't that one of the things I predicted back in the first Dark Rising?
Hollowsville and Misty Trees, huh? Can't wait to go visit Not-Lavender Town.
("Mine is Bonding, Light's is Creation, but...")
But wait, I thought Light's power was bestowed upon him by Darugis. In hindsight, that makes the whole Conarp/Blazard fiasco even more amazing because Light made that thing from scratch and it still wound up being terrible.
(Context: Light was a person that was raised to protect Arceus all his life but rebelled because he's a manchild that only believes he should ally himself with the strongest. Conarp, on the other hand, is a
Dray tells us about the tree behind him and gives us...
Cut, of course. He disappears afterward, leaving us to cut down the tree whenever we want.
Oh well, we might as well go fight Granite.
There's a sandstorm inside of the gym?! How does that work? Does he just have fans blowing wind everywhere in here? Also, this is what, like the second time Brock's gym has been re-used?
Wave hi to Dark Rising Girl, everyone. I say that because Tarea is literally her self-insert avatar that she tried to integrate into the plot back in the first game. I'm still reeling from that by the way.
Oooh nice, who's the lucky guy/gal?
... Then again, if a wedding ring looked like that, I'd hesitate to put it on anybody's finger.
Generic taunt followed up by generic beatdown.
Maybe you could have lasted longer if you had something tougher than a Rhydon.
He taunts us about his strength while Monica's just like "yeah okay whatever what makes you better than the ones we've faced in the past" - which only re-affirms my statement that Monica is a savage.
If you didn't expect Granite to be a black-vested Marshal from the Unova Elite Four, then I'm slightly disappointed.
His team is very blistering and powerful even with our matched levels. Sure, I could always unleash the Lucario duo, but I need to train up the other guys on my team in case Sigurd and Signe aren't enough.
His first mon is a Rhyperior that is decidedly more durable than the Rhydon from before, but it still goes out in a snap thanks to a generous dose of Sleep Powder and Giga Drain.
His next Pokemon, on the other hand, is a Relicanth that spams hazards like Stealth Rock...
Alright, real talk? I hate Stealth Rocks in the real games. They're the main reason why I keep a hazard ward and the only reason I really use them myself is because I might as well take advantage of it too.
In Dark Rising, though, they're simply Spikes with a Rock typing so... yeah, they're hilariously inept at doing anything because the caster might get knocked out before then.
Relicanth managed to survive getting blasted by a four times weakness despite being the same level as Beatrice, so that's hella impressive.
It could only help him for so long.
This was a tricky one. Arthur had to use Swords Dance while trying to survive Armaldo's onslaught, as they could easily 2 hit KO him. So I resorted to putting him to sleep while Arthur smashed him with Iron Head.
Signe, on the other hand, decides not to mess around and goes straight into dicing up the rest of Granite's team with Aura Saber. I actually sort of feel bad for that Tyranitar, although Cradily can rot in the deepest pits of the ocean for its stalling ways.
Barbaracle is a Gen 6 Pokemon that I like for how outlandishly stupid its design is and how blistering it can be if you can get a Shell Smash off. In here, though, it gets destroyed by...
Wait. Did it really just survive on a sliver of health despite a four times weakness? FUUUU--
Thankfully, Beatrice managed to survive his onslaught by a small margin and won us the match.
Yeah, no kidding. He gives us the Fossilbadge, by the way.
He also hands us the Stealth Rock TM, but I think I'll pass, thank you.
Now since that's out of the way, let's get moving.
Hey, Iris is actually being useful! I knew I brought her along for a reason.
We're switching up the team again to bring Sigurd along. This is actually the first time he's been in the team since the end of Dark Rising 1, so let's make things special by going to...
This place. Beating up a bunch of living fossils wouldn't hurt.
Oh dear, I think we're moving too fast for my liking.
... Nah just kidding, he actually gives it to his wife-to-be instead. He hands Monica something nice for her troubles, though:
Yep, we get Strength. This is how I assume we get Heatran, but I think I'll pass on that too.
I just now discovered the Helix meme. Now I can finally praise him.
MONICA'S SPEAKING IN TONGUES
l̴̗̹̞͖̰̑̀͊ͅa͂͗ͫͮ̎͋̄ͩ̿͏҉̹̟̜̙̲̺͕̺ ̭̪̤͎͍̖̣͈̦̅̚ļ̴͉̗̞͙̜̭̩̳ͣͩ̇̇̓̏̉ͅi̶̮̯ͭͯ͌̂̊̓̚͠ ͊̀͏̷̬͚̝͇̤̰̠ͅl̻̙͓͍͑ͤ͛͒̈͑͡͡ư͖͇͇͚͙̗͚͕ͮ̇͐̀͗̾̚͜ ̧̛̗͕̼̖̒̊̈́̎̒̑̉l̺͎̳̞͚̻ͦ̈ͦͨ͑̔̆̂͘e̳͇̝̬͕͂ͦ̏͢ͅ ̸̧͇̼̮͔̪͌̏̚l̴͇͈̺̎̄ͮ̊ͨ̍͂̿́͘ǫ̥̪͈̥ͩ̇͆͠
I mean yes. Steven's here because he's infatuated with rocks, but Monica recognizes him and figures that they should fight to train for the road ahead. Good idea, but...
Boy, are we gonna regret it in a second.
Steven is the champion of Hoenn and has all of the power to back it up, unfortunately.
Yep! No, really, your reward for talking to Steven is to fight LEVEL 65 AND ABOVE ENEMIES.
Just... christ, could it kill you to balance the difficulty a little bit? Sure, he may be the champion, but there's such a thing as "holding back". Hell, let me tell you why this "sudden superboss" thing is such a problem.
In the real Emerald, Steven is a superboss with a team of level 70s... but he was very much the exception rather than the rule. Not only that, you had to scour the deepest parts of Meteor Falls after you beat the game to even attempt to fight him, so just having him appear in an easily accessible area during the main story ruins the entire purpose of such a fight.
Casual reminder that DRG may not have any idea what she's doing here.
But hey, at least Sigurd is so mind-numbingly overpowered that he can somehow salvage a victory for us despite being 20 levels below his opponents. Good shit.
It gets really ridiculous when you take into account that Dark Rising Girl beefs up the effort values of every enemy Pokemon to 255. Normally, when you invest 252 EVs into a stat, it increases that stat by 63 points. That's a lot, especially when you take the level mountain range into consideration.
Then we have to deal with the legendaries with fake base stats just because Dark Rising Girl wanted to create a higher form of challenge... At the end of the day, that's not challenge, that's just being a sadist with too much power on your hands.
Thank god, too. I'm pretty sure if I tried to do this without Sigurd, I'd be drowning my sorrows in soda.
"This place feels like home to me."
Oh, that wacky Steven. Seriously though, don't come near me ever again.
"Creepy..."
Try me, kid. One of my favorite Pokemon is a Chandelure - have you seen what those things do to people?
There was a bug catcher just above this guy that gets ruined by Jeanne and Beatrice's wombo combo.
Poor Vespiquen never stood a chance. Shame too, because she's otherwise a really cool Pokemon.
Wait, what do you mean your purse was stolen? It's hanging from your arm, you pillock!
Thankfully, we get a Max Potion to compensate for whatever the hell it was we just went through.
A storm, huh? We just gotta set that creepy mood in otherwise it just wouldn't be right.
You know, at the very least I can't immediately recognize these areas. Sure, it'll kick in eventually, but props to them for actually doing different map designs instead of rehashing the original game's.
OH that is a good sprite. It's like a clump of feathers that just barely resemble Talonflame.
"But they're so low leveled it's not even funny."
Don't even get me started on levels or I'll shove you in the freezer.
This Burn Heal would have been useful for Monica's opponents not too long ago.
Well shit, that freezer remark came into play when I didn't expect it to.
There was a dude around here who had a Rotom-Frost as one of his Pokemon and that's cool. [Is shot by the pun police]
Also, the return of the Supreme Saltlord. He always seems to show up when we get close to Lavender Town-esque places.
At the least this place has the decency to throw another Pokecenter at us instead of just making us go from point A to point B with no break in between.
Killer B or Killer Queen? (I am obsessed with Jojo, please don't fault me for it.)
Booooo, I say. You couldn't even change the sign to say something else?
Ooooh, how terrifying. I don't think that'll be enough to scare us away, though.
If there were a Pokemon in the entire series that I legit hate, Stunfisk is one of them. It's useless and has a dumb flat face.
Alright, let me have it. What does this place look like?
Ah. Custom tilesets! Cool.
Next time on Dark Rising 2, we're gonna brave this spooky forest and hope we don't get possessed by ghosts!
See you then.
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Team setup:
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Back-up Team: