Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen May 12, 2025
The journey continues...
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #14 (Part 2) - Phantom King[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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So, in order:
Huh. Drosera are commonly known as sundews, aka. one of the largest families of carnivorous plants as they have over 194 species under their name.
I'm shocked she even put that level of thought regarding an area name, given the other things we've seen so far. But I'll give credit where credit is due. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
WHOAH HOLY FUCK, HOW
Roserade, if I'm not mistaken, is the absolute rarest Pokemon in the Drosera Fields. I had to use Advance Map to check if it wasn't just me going insane, given how I didn't encounter a second one after this.
: ("You're a very unusual Lucario... Do you mean to fight me? I'm not one to be trifled with!")
: ("Actually, I'd rather not please -")
[The Roserade notices Bellamine beside Monica's shoulder]
: ("Miss Bellamine! What in the devil are you doing here?")
: ("Beatrice?! First Chloris, now you? What's going on here? How did you get here?")
: ("You see, we were looking for you for quite some time, but some awful creature wound up taking us here. Ace is the only other person I found - in fact, he should be coming right about now.")
: ("Yo, what's all this about? Who's the punk with the white hair?")
: ("All of your friends are so offensive.")
: ("Ah, don't mind them, Sigurd. They're just agitated.")
: ("Wait... Bellamine?! You're here too?! Do you have any idea what's going on?")
: ("We're wrapped up in another adventure. There's an evil entity known as Darugis that's corrupting the land and possessing everybody in sight. That's the short version, at least. This upstanding young woman is called Monica and the red Lucario is known as Sigurd. They've been an incredible help ever since I joined them, and are arguably the most powerful allies I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.")
: "Yeah! That's right! I'm the queen, baby! ... Hah, I'm just joking - I didn't want to go on this stupid adventure to begin with. I'm just doing my part. Nice to meet you."
: ("Explaining why I'm here would take us all day, so I'm just going to say hello. My name is Sigurd.")
: ("Charmed, I'm sure. My name is Beatrice and... well, I've already introduced Ace. Sorry about the hostility.") [She bows]
: ("Bellamine tried to kill me when we first met. You have nothing to worry about, heh.")
: ("So it's back to crazy for us, huh? Aw hell. I was getting bored anyway. I'd be glad to help Monica.")
: "Sweet. So you're all from the team of another trainer... It's going to be interesting when you meet my guys. But yeah, let's not waste any more time - me and Sigurd have a personal grudge against the monster that's behind all of this."
: ("And we'll be there to support you.")
I love it when the old generation and the new generation mesh together. It's a favorite trope of mine.
But onto the actual plot of the game. There's uh... another event from the vanilla games recycled for Dark Rising. Dray is upset that Darugis's forces have kidnapped Florina (not-May), with Monica asking why he's just standing here and complaining instead of going after her.
The reason is because he's an idiot. See, in the original event, it was about a father and how his daughter was taken to the Berry Forest (aka. the one with Hypno in it). The father clearly is not an accomplished trainer like you are supposed to be, so it makes sense why he asked your help.
Dray is just being an idiot about not saving his girlfriend. That, and to explain the situation to Monica despite wasting precious time doing so.
Plus this happened. Shit, that's not good. Although to be honest, how permanent do you expect this to be in a world where the creator hasn't completely grasped the concept of event hacking or had the decency to check over past areas to see if scripts don't repeat?
... Odd name for a city. It'd be strange if we don't play pinochle there, really.
If you're wondering why I'm skipping massive bits of text with barely any elaboration beyond the general gist of what's happening, I didn't make saves during these parts. I didn't know how much was going to be here, so I figured "nah it must not be that important".
How wrong I was. Then again, I would only really apologize if this were a good game - Dark Rising isn't really worth the effort sometimes, which is strange because I covered all the dialogue and extra parts in Snakewood without even blinking.
If we don't see this little guy in town, I'm going to be mad.
(I'm sorry, the name was too tempting)
Whoa, that's a lot of guys. Dray calls the goons "nothing but a fake Team Magma" and how his Emboar will "smoke" them, which is goddamn hilarious.
: "What, is everybody here stupid or something? Of course!"
I feel so sorry for this Weavile. The instant Aura Saber so much as tapped their body, they shattered into a million pieces.
It doesn't even have to be a hard jab or anything - I imagine Sigurd softly poking them on the forehead and they blow up complete with a cartoon sound effect.
It feels good being unstoppable.
You fight about four of them in a row complete with the boss. It's smart that they try to use their superior numbers to gang up on you, but they're so ineffective that they may as well run away screaming in terror at Sigurd and Monica's presence.
Uh. Nice outfit there, buddy. Not Tabitha here has what I assume to be a Master Ball on his belt, based on the coloring. That sort of shoots the "only two master balls in the world" explanation right in its foot, and it's kind of pathetic because he doesn't even have a legendary on his team.
Not that I'd want another one to fight, mind you...
In a normal Pokemon game, this would be slightly terrifying. But as it is, the real reason this screenshot exists is to show off that Gale got poisoned again. Hooray.
When you beat them up, they're like "WE STOLE FLORINA NA-NA-NA-NAH" and all leave at once. At least they're out of my sight.
Dray gives you this in preparation for the Chaos Path, which is said to be the most dangerous area in the entire Core Region.
... Question? Who called it the Chaos Path and why is it the most dangerous path in the Core Region? There's not even anything that's explicitly hair-raising that happens on this route to begin with, so as far as I know it's another edgelord thing.
Pinnocle City has the absolute lamest mart I've ever seen in a Pokemon game - it's even worse than the first one you get to to go, which sells revives.
Is this supposed to be a way to say that Pinnocle is a "humble" town by having it sell so little things? I've already lost track on what to make of this game.
That's all she says, by the way. It's sort of an incorrect response, seeing as this strange 19-year old you don't know just walked into your house like she owned the damn place.
That is one scary-ass Slowbro. Like you walk up to it expecting it to be nice and calm but all of a sudden it goes "NOVELLA TOWN" with a demonic reverb to its voice.
You see this cave? It leads you all the way back to Dark Rising Headquarters in a way that defies logic. It's a one-way exit too, so make sure you save-state beforehand.
"The Haunted Forest? There's a bunch of scary ghost Pokemon!"
Sounds like fun, actually. I'm a sucker for spooky places. (My disappointment regarding Salem is still active, by the way.)
"You're one of the top upcoming trainers our region has. Maybe, someday, we can have a battle together?"
: "Sure."
Yeah, the "everybody is possessed by Darugis" thing? DRG completely forgot about it. But at least Monica has a fan.
The bag itself doesn't give you anything because despite all of the stuff we've done so far, actually stealing from someone else isn't cool...
But apparently the bag is sentient given how it turns around to face you. (It was facing right before I interacted with it.)
0
THE MOST DANGEROUS PATH OF THE CORE REGION, GUYS
The only way this place is dangerous is if you don't exercise. The real reason any of the places in the Core Region are labeled dangerous is for shock value tourism, seeing as no place we've been to so far has been exceptionally hazardous to anybody we've met.
There's this one Hiker that's like "YOU CAN'T BE ON CHAOS PATH - YOU'RE JUST A KID" despite the fact that there's a couple of twins behind him. Ooops.
Are you trying to be reverse-Jesus? That's a hell of an undertaking, miss.
... A bit risque for this otherwise "tries to be g-rated" rom hack, eh?
Hi, Tornadus and Thundurus. Yeah, they're just chilling there. They don't say anything if you go over to them, but I assume they have the same bugged code as the other overworld legendaries.
Besides, they look like they're having a good time. I don't think it would be right to bother them.
This is way too serene for what's supposed to be a haunted forest...
Okay, new canon - the haunted forest isn't scary at all. The spirits in this place aren't even dangerous - they're tricksters, but not malicious. That said, have this as the theme of the place: [Secret of the Forest]
For some reason, the Cut trees are blue here. It's a strange color and it stands out compared to everything else, but I like it for some reason.
Hello, Cofa'grigus. Your sprite looks squished, but at the same time you don't look half bad. Too bad you're not what I'm going to catch here.
: ("Wow, that's super cheesy.")
: "Oh come on. Who made this sign? What, do they think we're five?"
: ("To be fair, Monica, the spirits here don't seem to be bad. They're more scared of us than anything else... Barring that one Cofa'grigus, they all hide when we get close.")
: "... Huh. Okay, I sort of feel bad if that's the case."
(By the way, you're not required to speak to Florina. You can skip her without a second thought and go straight into the "cave" ahead.)
We go to rescue her, but Florina warns us about something.
[Subuta.2]
That being this level 90 Chandelure. I think this is the highest leveled wild Pokemon I've ever seen in my life, which is insane given how Chandelure are up there as some of the most blistering Special Attackers in the entire Pokemon franchise. Even Sigurd isn't as strong as her. (130 versus 145!)
: ("Oi! You're the group that's been terrorizing our forest! It doesn't help that those weird people keep coming around here...")
: ("Excuse me?")
: ("Yeah, you heard me! I'm sick of seeing everybody afraid. That's why I'm going to burn your dumb ass right here!")
: ("Of course.") [Sigurd braces himself]
: "Okay, this is going too far! We're not the bad guys. Sure, Sigurd's scary but... we're not here to hurt you. We just came here to rescue my accomplice."
: ("What?! How am I supposed to know that you're not just making that up?")
: ("I haven't touched any of your friends, for one. We even ran away from Cofa'grigus when I could have fought back and seriously wounded him.")
: ("Oh. Well... Uh... I'm really sorry about how I acted, then.")
: ("It's fine, really. Everybody I meet is like that and I can't really blame them.")
: "Hey... we're traveling the region to stop this one asshole known as Darugis. He plans on destroying the world, based on what I've heard people say about him. Plus, who knows how long it would be until he targets this forest..."
: ("You're serious? Oh man, this could be really bad...")
[The Chandelure goes quiet]
: ("Listen. I love everybody here from the bottom of my heart and I don't want anything to happen to them. So I guess we're partners now.")
: "Oh snap. You do realize this is going to be a dangerous journey, right? I can't guarantee if... any of us come back, really."
: ("Hey, I'm a daredevil! This is the kind of stuff I live for... Besides, I'd rather go out with a bang. I'd prefer that instead of lying around and waiting for Armageddon to come.")
: "Nice. So what's your name?"
: ("Just call me Candelabra. Or Candy. Whichever sounds nicer.")
: "Well, at least you're straightforward with your names. Welcome aboard, buddy."
She gives you an Iapapa Berry (restores HP at critical but may confuse) because her coding is literally Lostelle from the original game. Honestly, out of everything that you could have replaced Hypno with, it had to be Chandelure.
That is a-okay with me, given how Chandelure is one of my absolute favorite ghost Pokemon.
Oh, and to top it off? The game teleports you all the way back to the place where Dray is, meaning you have to walk all the way back to the Haunted Forest just to continue with what you were doing. God damn it.
If you talk to Dray, he says that you don't need the useless Meteorite anymore due to the Emerald being close by. He also gives you a Moon Stone, which I assume was the reward for doing this quest in the original game. It wouldn't surprise me.
Light's Factory is the Power Plant from the original game. What does he even do in here that's supposed to be significant?
At the very least, we steal all of this phat lewt from under his nose and give them to the team as a reward for sitting through this game's plot.
Aside from that, this place isn't that interesting.
: "Yeah. One final battle."
Light: "Then I will use all of my power against you. DARK EVOLUTION!!"
That's appropriately cheesy. This is the last we'll ever see of him in this game, and thank god for it.
Swept like a goddamn chimney sweep. If you expected anything less, then I don't know what to say.
But yeah, let's get to the good stuff.
... It evolved into something even worse-looking. Like damn, that sprite is not good at all.
Blazard may look ugly, but its stats have taken a giant increase in the time that's passed:
120 / 110 / 125 / 110 / 125 / 105
On top of having Wonder Guard like before. You'd think this would be a really hard fight without Sigurd, but I tested it - Corin and Wave can both beat this thing without even trying, which has to be hilarious seeing as one isn't even a pseudo-legendary or insanely broken. Just a regular water weasel.
With Sigurd, it's just a slaughterhouse. I mean, come on. Using him is practically a war crime at this point, despite having 60 less BST than Blazard. (and a whole 300+ less than the final boss! But we'll get to that trainwreck in a moment.)
Oh, to make things better? The sprite for Blazard isn't the first one they used. This is the better one they chose, as this was the original:
Sweet banana-eating Jesus. You can't get any worse than that.
You can't take my sick moves, boy.
Whoopee. She's too lazy to even change it to what it's supposed to be (the Emerald) because at this point she just stopped caring.
How did this win an award for anything again? There's such a blatant lack of love and attention put into this that it's like... Hammer Brother Demo 3 from the Super Mario World guys gets ridiculed and berated for its horrendous design yet when Pokemon does it, it gets a free pass? That's really bullshit.
Either way, Light's silence satisfies me. We can leave now.
This is where the original Chapter 14 would have started up again, had I not done all of that stuff with Light's Factory and V-Rebirth.
... I know water routes have crazy levels in the normal games, but this is just sad.
Poseidon's Cave is where I assume Kyogre is located. I am not going to bother to check because I want to get this game over with.
Anyway, we swim back to Millennium City. What surprises are in store for us here?
... You know, aside from those two idiots just standing there without any scripts.
An ungulate is a hoofed mammal, so he's trying to sell us a Ponyta. Why this incredibly shady man is standing in front of the gym is beyond me.
"What if all of the dead Pokemon in the spirit tower rise up from their graves and attack us? I don't know how to swim, so I'm like, totally trapped!"
Yeah that's sort of my nightmare t-- wait. This sounds oddly familiar.
It's a conspiracy!!
For those of you who aren't in the know, Snakewood is the first let's play I've ever done. To see Dark Rising mention it in any capacity (let alone directly reference it) is proof that this was fated to be.
Not only that, this makes the inclusion of the Snakewood LP Pokemon (Bellamine, Beatrice, Ace, etc.) make perfect sense, which is really sad because I didn't expect that when I started. I guess Bellamine told Monica about the stuff that's happened since she's come along...? Man, this is getting surreal.
Anyway, not-Pokemon Tower. This makes it about three places that have spooky themes attached to them. Too bad they're all executed poorly.
I... yes. It's Edward Nygma. He's the clerk of this graveyard tower.
Goddamn it, Noah. He's literally only fighting us because he replaces Gary here. He doesn't even have a good reason to be a dick this time.
Basically the same fight as last time but with level 90s instead. I'd be terrified if I cared.
Just go home, Noah. You're not even a good rival.
I'M ACTING
At this point, Monica doesn't even care. She just likes that they're honest.
[Monica slaps it against her forehead]
: "Is it working? Am I safe now?"
: ("Unfortunately not. We still have to keep going...")
*war flashbacks to snakewood since we're already here*
... Why hello, Rayquaza. What brings you here?
Oh wait. No, don't tell me this is also a Snakewood reference. (Context: In Snakewood, there was a part where Rayquaza was shot and killed offscreen unceremoniously by some random idiots somehow. Is this his ghost? Because if it is, then I swear to god that's stupid.)
We don't capture him, though. The legendary army can just follow behind Monica.
This is bound to be interesting. I think this is the first (and only) character that isn't a glorified palette swap, actually.
Monica asks him if he's the gym leader of this place, to which he says:
Atem. As in... Pharaoh Atem from Yu-Gi-Oh.
HOLD ON, IT GETS BETTER
He says that Giratina took him from his own world and put him into the Pokemon world, which is hilarious because that makes no sense whatsoever and only exists to justify a stupid crossover thing that should have never been to begin with.
Rawr back at you, big guy. Atem explains that he wants Monica to weaken Giratina so he can catch it, but really? Why do we have to do this for him? Oh whatever.
So... the Shadow Ball TM? *shot*
But no seriously. He doesn't actually give us a special ball to catch Giratina with.
To top things off, Giratina is in their Origin Form despite not having the Griseous Orb. Hey, she hasn't actually given a crap about Pokemon conventions for a long time so why should I even work up the energy to get mad?
That said, Giratina's mine now. Too bad so sad, Atem.
Catching a Pokemon that you're not meant to throws up this screen. See, Firered and Leafgreen have a thing where it throws up a nonsense entry so the game doesn't crash when you catch a limbo mon like Giratina here.
Yes, that's right - you aren't supposed to catch Giratina at all. You're supposed to beat him up so the game can progress, but since I didn't do that...
Yeah. We're calling our brand new dracolich Sheol, based after the Hebrew equivalent of Hell. I can be edgy too, okay?
The fun thing about Sheol is that he has no starting moves aside from Shadow Claw and some other thing, as if to say "yeah we weren't prepared for this".
To make matters worse, actually catching Giratina makes the event repeat. By that, I mean you can keep catching an infinite amount of them as long as you have Pokeballs in your bag.
What was with Dark Rising Girl's fascination with repeating events in this game? First the Siegfried duplicating event in chapter 8, then the Big Pearl incident... Like damn.
To make the event pass by, you have to beat up Giratina. An easy task for Sigurd, but I'm still in awe that we got a Giratina when we shouldn't have. This is like a big plot event too, which makes it go from "stupid" to "what is wrong with you" territory.
Anyway, let's go meet Atem at the gym.
The shady horse trader isn't there anymore, thank god.
It's basically Blaine's gym from the original game with different questions. Oh, and ghost-themed.
Remember when this was supposed to be a "serious" story?
The answer is no, by the way, despite this being a matter of opinion more than anything else.
Don't you mean Tombstoner? If you're going to meme, at least do it right.
He even says "Duel on" because he's from Yu-gi-oh, you see--
Enough chit-chat. Restrain the specimen.
Holy Hombones. He doesn't even look like a human being, let alone Pharaoh Atem.
This has got to be some of the worst spritework I've ever seen, without a doubt. (The Blazard thing from earlier is technically worse, though)
That said, he had a team of ghost types because Shadow Realm and etc. Oh, and a Cofa'grigus because he's a Pharaoh. Yawn.
What the fuck? Sheol, you're supposed to be on my team! They're even a level lower than when you encounter them, so what the hell did Atem do to the poor guy?
I guess multiple Giratinas exist in the world because of what I did.
That's nice and all, but I really don't care. Just give me the goods and I'll dash.
Oh, and he's also Blaine because the original gym leader gave out Fire Blast too. Of course.
The guys are here because the police are after us. Oh no, whatever shall we do?
The funny thing is that answering no to this doesn't cause a "But Thou Must" situation. If you choose No, you can find Sydney sitting in the Pokecenter waiting for you... and even when you say yes there, the event doesn't work properly because DRG didn't expect this to happen.
My exact reaction to all of this.
It repeats the event from the first time we were here, complete with an invisible Sydney. That, and the Headquarters are completely fine.
What is this game, man?
If you give the "Emerald" to the guys, they can reactivate PC usage for you. That's legitimately good and all, but keep in mind that I finished this game without doing that, so... yeah, I'm a little peeved.
Right now I'm going to go tie up some loose ends before we can challenge the final stretch of the game.
I beat the Ice gym leader from a while back, seeing as he was one of the badges I didn't have. Also: Ha ha, level 50. You poor sap.
His gym isn't even ice based due to being Erika's. (A
using gym leader, of all things)
Bringing up the map here will reveal the real location of the Twist Woodlands, aka. in the middle of nowhere like I expected.
Florina explains how Adrian (the tall, dark, and scary man from chapter 12), the Omni League Champion, is currently Darugis's vessel (not a surprise, given how the man stands out like a sore thumb) and that Monica suspected that from the beginning.
I'm just glad to know she's not a complete idiot to ignore the scary eight foot tall man.
The gym is connected to Darugis's lair, but Blitz (the trainer they mentioned in the beginning of the game) is blocking the path. Let's deal with that, shall we?
DRG tells us that Blitz uses Dragon pokemon and that we should as well. This would be really neat if the story was... oh, I don't know, actually well-written? I'm sorry to repeat some of the things I've said, but damn is it hard to come up with material when the game is this banal.
Every fight in this gym in a nutshell.
He calls himself "the greatest Pokemon trainer" even though he's going to lose to a 19 year old. Pride before a fall, I suppose.
I'm just imagining what a Mega Dragonite would be like. Maybe they'll make it resemble its pre-evolutions more.
Corin is The Best Garchomp around. Don't you forget it.
... I'll allow this double KO. Wave was the one who lasted longer anyway, so she wins by default.
Also wow, I just realized - all of Blitz's Pokemon were based off of the starters and their final evolutions. That's neat, I guess.
Is this unedited dialogue? 99% chance that it is. Anyway, Blitz here says that we can challenge the Omni League with this final badge despite that not even being the league for this place.
Yeah, he's definitely taking Giovanni's spot... as it literally says "takes the TM from Giovanni". Things just get really weird after a while, okay?
You have to talk to him to conclude his text, as Darugis possesses him here:
: ("Okay, that's enough. Monica, I'm going to possess every Gym Leader out there and make them fight you. If you're ready, just step through this... open hole thing that somehow leads into my castle. Just be prepared...")
Blitz shakes off his possession for a little bit and warns Monica about a "Draco Village" and "Draco Stones". Yes, this is really a thing we need to be doing when we're right at the foot of the bad guy's lair.
[Blitz disappears in the following fade to black transition]
Well alright. What lies ahead?
[Theme I would use for the Malice Path: Chaos Angel Map]
... Silly name aside, this is where shit gets real. Or it would be if this weren't all we had for this massive double chapter.
Next time on Pokemon Dark Rising, we enter the final stretch and complete everything before entering the Core League. See you then.
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Team setup:
(Bellamine, level 83, has Sand Cloak,
,
) - "Ugh! What tremendous evil energy. This practically eclipses what we've dealt with in the past..."
(Corin, level 96, has Dragon Fang,
,
/
) - "You said it, miss Bellamine. Although it makes me really worried that this is even worse than what you've described."
(Sigurd, level 100,
,
/
) - "We're right there, Siegfried. The end is right there. Are you ready?"
(Siegfried, level 95,
,
/
) - "Of course. As long as we're together, nothing can break us apart. We'll even save big sis, too!"
(Gale, level 92,
,
/
) - "... I can't stop shaking. Is this normal?"
(Arthur, level 91,
,
/
) - "Well, we're only going to face the lord of darkness. Any normal person would get jello knees at this point, so you're not alone."
(Wave, level 93,
,
) - "I'm not scared, though. Seeing Sigurd and Siegfried as determined as they are is awe-inspiring... so come on, y'all. We can do it."
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Back up team:
(Candelabra, level 90,
,
/
) - "Nice to meet you guys. So you're all helping Monica too?"
(Hel, level 76,
,
/
) - "Why yes, dearie. She's quite the leader for a girl her age... Admirable, to say the least."
(Lumis, level 72,
,
) - "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Candelabra. In fact, all of you should make yourself comfortable - any new member is a friend of ours."
(Ignell, level 80,
,
/
) - "I think it's a wonderful thing that you're doing this to help the others where you come from. They must look up to you back at home."
(Sathala, level 73,
,
) - "This is cool and all... But is anybody going to address the ten foot tall demon dragon sitting in the corner over there?"
(Vera, level 76,
,
) - "He, uh... looks like he's having fun."
(Chloris, level 70,
,
/
) - "Oh hey, guys! So you're here too?"
(Ace, level 65,
,
/
) - "Hey, Chloris. As much as I miss the guys, Monica's team is really neat. I think I could get used to staying here with them, actually."
(Beatrice, level 75,
,
/
) - "Why yes, Ace. Candelabra looks like a ton of fun... And everybody is so nice. Maybe we could get Jack to meet Monica after all of this is done."
(Cinder, level 40,
,
) -[Bouncing around the new team with an excited grin]
(Sheol, level 98,
,
/
) -"Lali-ho."
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Spoiler:
So, in order:
- The Dark Thugs have finally shown their Team Rocket roots
- You can break the game by catching an infinite amount of legendaries assuming you don't beat them or run away from them
- V came back to life with the most dangerous power-up of all - a slicked hairdo
- Dark Rising Girl didn't even try to hide her hand in making the game as Tarea is her avatar
- Darugis possessed all of the police in the Core Region, leaving us on the run
- I have an itch to throw this game into the Recycle Bin and never look back
Huh. Drosera are commonly known as sundews, aka. one of the largest families of carnivorous plants as they have over 194 species under their name.
I'm shocked she even put that level of thought regarding an area name, given the other things we've seen so far. But I'll give credit where credit is due. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
WHOAH HOLY FUCK, HOW
Roserade, if I'm not mistaken, is the absolute rarest Pokemon in the Drosera Fields. I had to use Advance Map to check if it wasn't just me going insane, given how I didn't encounter a second one after this.
[The Roserade notices Bellamine beside Monica's shoulder]
I love it when the old generation and the new generation mesh together. It's a favorite trope of mine.
But onto the actual plot of the game. There's uh... another event from the vanilla games recycled for Dark Rising. Dray is upset that Darugis's forces have kidnapped Florina (not-May), with Monica asking why he's just standing here and complaining instead of going after her.
The reason is because he's an idiot. See, in the original event, it was about a father and how his daughter was taken to the Berry Forest (aka. the one with Hypno in it). The father clearly is not an accomplished trainer like you are supposed to be, so it makes sense why he asked your help.
Dray is just being an idiot about not saving his girlfriend. That, and to explain the situation to Monica despite wasting precious time doing so.
Plus this happened. Shit, that's not good. Although to be honest, how permanent do you expect this to be in a world where the creator hasn't completely grasped the concept of event hacking or had the decency to check over past areas to see if scripts don't repeat?
... Odd name for a city. It'd be strange if we don't play pinochle there, really.
If you're wondering why I'm skipping massive bits of text with barely any elaboration beyond the general gist of what's happening, I didn't make saves during these parts. I didn't know how much was going to be here, so I figured "nah it must not be that important".
How wrong I was. Then again, I would only really apologize if this were a good game - Dark Rising isn't really worth the effort sometimes, which is strange because I covered all the dialogue and extra parts in Snakewood without even blinking.
If we don't see this little guy in town, I'm going to be mad.
(I'm sorry, the name was too tempting)
Whoa, that's a lot of guys. Dray calls the goons "nothing but a fake Team Magma" and how his Emboar will "smoke" them, which is goddamn hilarious.
I feel so sorry for this Weavile. The instant Aura Saber so much as tapped their body, they shattered into a million pieces.
It doesn't even have to be a hard jab or anything - I imagine Sigurd softly poking them on the forehead and they blow up complete with a cartoon sound effect.
It feels good being unstoppable.
You fight about four of them in a row complete with the boss. It's smart that they try to use their superior numbers to gang up on you, but they're so ineffective that they may as well run away screaming in terror at Sigurd and Monica's presence.
Uh. Nice outfit there, buddy. Not Tabitha here has what I assume to be a Master Ball on his belt, based on the coloring. That sort of shoots the "only two master balls in the world" explanation right in its foot, and it's kind of pathetic because he doesn't even have a legendary on his team.
Not that I'd want another one to fight, mind you...
In a normal Pokemon game, this would be slightly terrifying. But as it is, the real reason this screenshot exists is to show off that Gale got poisoned again. Hooray.
When you beat them up, they're like "WE STOLE FLORINA NA-NA-NA-NAH" and all leave at once. At least they're out of my sight.
Dray gives you this in preparation for the Chaos Path, which is said to be the most dangerous area in the entire Core Region.
... Question? Who called it the Chaos Path and why is it the most dangerous path in the Core Region? There's not even anything that's explicitly hair-raising that happens on this route to begin with, so as far as I know it's another edgelord thing.
Pinnocle City has the absolute lamest mart I've ever seen in a Pokemon game - it's even worse than the first one you get to to go, which sells revives.
Is this supposed to be a way to say that Pinnocle is a "humble" town by having it sell so little things? I've already lost track on what to make of this game.
That's all she says, by the way. It's sort of an incorrect response, seeing as this strange 19-year old you don't know just walked into your house like she owned the damn place.
That is one scary-ass Slowbro. Like you walk up to it expecting it to be nice and calm but all of a sudden it goes "NOVELLA TOWN" with a demonic reverb to its voice.
You see this cave? It leads you all the way back to Dark Rising Headquarters in a way that defies logic. It's a one-way exit too, so make sure you save-state beforehand.
"The Haunted Forest? There's a bunch of scary ghost Pokemon!"
Sounds like fun, actually. I'm a sucker for spooky places. (My disappointment regarding Salem is still active, by the way.)
"You're one of the top upcoming trainers our region has. Maybe, someday, we can have a battle together?"
Yeah, the "everybody is possessed by Darugis" thing? DRG completely forgot about it. But at least Monica has a fan.
The bag itself doesn't give you anything because despite all of the stuff we've done so far, actually stealing from someone else isn't cool...
But apparently the bag is sentient given how it turns around to face you. (It was facing right before I interacted with it.)
THE MOST DANGEROUS PATH OF THE CORE REGION, GUYS
The only way this place is dangerous is if you don't exercise. The real reason any of the places in the Core Region are labeled dangerous is for shock value tourism, seeing as no place we've been to so far has been exceptionally hazardous to anybody we've met.
There's this one Hiker that's like "YOU CAN'T BE ON CHAOS PATH - YOU'RE JUST A KID" despite the fact that there's a couple of twins behind him. Ooops.
Are you trying to be reverse-Jesus? That's a hell of an undertaking, miss.
... A bit risque for this otherwise "tries to be g-rated" rom hack, eh?
Hi, Tornadus and Thundurus. Yeah, they're just chilling there. They don't say anything if you go over to them, but I assume they have the same bugged code as the other overworld legendaries.
Besides, they look like they're having a good time. I don't think it would be right to bother them.
This is way too serene for what's supposed to be a haunted forest...
Okay, new canon - the haunted forest isn't scary at all. The spirits in this place aren't even dangerous - they're tricksters, but not malicious. That said, have this as the theme of the place: [Secret of the Forest]
For some reason, the Cut trees are blue here. It's a strange color and it stands out compared to everything else, but I like it for some reason.
Hello, Cofa'grigus. Your sprite looks squished, but at the same time you don't look half bad. Too bad you're not what I'm going to catch here.
(By the way, you're not required to speak to Florina. You can skip her without a second thought and go straight into the "cave" ahead.)
We go to rescue her, but Florina warns us about something.
[Subuta.2]
That being this level 90 Chandelure. I think this is the highest leveled wild Pokemon I've ever seen in my life, which is insane given how Chandelure are up there as some of the most blistering Special Attackers in the entire Pokemon franchise. Even Sigurd isn't as strong as her. (130 versus 145!)
[The Chandelure goes quiet]
She gives you an Iapapa Berry (restores HP at critical but may confuse) because her coding is literally Lostelle from the original game. Honestly, out of everything that you could have replaced Hypno with, it had to be Chandelure.
That is a-okay with me, given how Chandelure is one of my absolute favorite ghost Pokemon.
Oh, and to top it off? The game teleports you all the way back to the place where Dray is, meaning you have to walk all the way back to the Haunted Forest just to continue with what you were doing. God damn it.
If you talk to Dray, he says that you don't need the useless Meteorite anymore due to the Emerald being close by. He also gives you a Moon Stone, which I assume was the reward for doing this quest in the original game. It wouldn't surprise me.
Light's Factory is the Power Plant from the original game. What does he even do in here that's supposed to be significant?
At the very least, we steal all of this phat lewt from under his nose and give them to the team as a reward for sitting through this game's plot.
Aside from that, this place isn't that interesting.
Light: "Then I will use all of my power against you. DARK EVOLUTION!!"
That's appropriately cheesy. This is the last we'll ever see of him in this game, and thank god for it.
Swept like a goddamn chimney sweep. If you expected anything less, then I don't know what to say.
But yeah, let's get to the good stuff.
... It evolved into something even worse-looking. Like damn, that sprite is not good at all.
Blazard may look ugly, but its stats have taken a giant increase in the time that's passed:
120 / 110 / 125 / 110 / 125 / 105
On top of having Wonder Guard like before. You'd think this would be a really hard fight without Sigurd, but I tested it - Corin and Wave can both beat this thing without even trying, which has to be hilarious seeing as one isn't even a pseudo-legendary or insanely broken. Just a regular water weasel.
With Sigurd, it's just a slaughterhouse. I mean, come on. Using him is practically a war crime at this point, despite having 60 less BST than Blazard. (and a whole 300+ less than the final boss! But we'll get to that trainwreck in a moment.)
Oh, to make things better? The sprite for Blazard isn't the first one they used. This is the better one they chose, as this was the original:
Sweet banana-eating Jesus. You can't get any worse than that.
You can't take my sick moves, boy.
Whoopee. She's too lazy to even change it to what it's supposed to be (the Emerald) because at this point she just stopped caring.
How did this win an award for anything again? There's such a blatant lack of love and attention put into this that it's like... Hammer Brother Demo 3 from the Super Mario World guys gets ridiculed and berated for its horrendous design yet when Pokemon does it, it gets a free pass? That's really bullshit.
Either way, Light's silence satisfies me. We can leave now.
This is where the original Chapter 14 would have started up again, had I not done all of that stuff with Light's Factory and V-Rebirth.
... I know water routes have crazy levels in the normal games, but this is just sad.
Poseidon's Cave is where I assume Kyogre is located. I am not going to bother to check because I want to get this game over with.
Anyway, we swim back to Millennium City. What surprises are in store for us here?
... You know, aside from those two idiots just standing there without any scripts.
An ungulate is a hoofed mammal, so he's trying to sell us a Ponyta. Why this incredibly shady man is standing in front of the gym is beyond me.
"What if all of the dead Pokemon in the spirit tower rise up from their graves and attack us? I don't know how to swim, so I'm like, totally trapped!"
Yeah that's sort of my nightmare t-- wait. This sounds oddly familiar.
For those of you who aren't in the know, Snakewood is the first let's play I've ever done. To see Dark Rising mention it in any capacity (let alone directly reference it) is proof that this was fated to be.
Not only that, this makes the inclusion of the Snakewood LP Pokemon (Bellamine, Beatrice, Ace, etc.) make perfect sense, which is really sad because I didn't expect that when I started. I guess Bellamine told Monica about the stuff that's happened since she's come along...? Man, this is getting surreal.
Anyway, not-Pokemon Tower. This makes it about three places that have spooky themes attached to them. Too bad they're all executed poorly.
I... yes. It's Edward Nygma. He's the clerk of this graveyard tower.
Goddamn it, Noah. He's literally only fighting us because he replaces Gary here. He doesn't even have a good reason to be a dick this time.
Basically the same fight as last time but with level 90s instead. I'd be terrified if I cared.
Just go home, Noah. You're not even a good rival.
I'M ACTING
At this point, Monica doesn't even care. She just likes that they're honest.
[Monica slaps it against her forehead]
*war flashbacks to snakewood since we're already here*
... Why hello, Rayquaza. What brings you here?
Oh wait. No, don't tell me this is also a Snakewood reference. (Context: In Snakewood, there was a part where Rayquaza was shot and killed offscreen unceremoniously by some random idiots somehow. Is this his ghost? Because if it is, then I swear to god that's stupid.)
We don't capture him, though. The legendary army can just follow behind Monica.
This is bound to be interesting. I think this is the first (and only) character that isn't a glorified palette swap, actually.
Monica asks him if he's the gym leader of this place, to which he says:
Atem. As in... Pharaoh Atem from Yu-Gi-Oh.
HOLD ON, IT GETS BETTER
He says that Giratina took him from his own world and put him into the Pokemon world, which is hilarious because that makes no sense whatsoever and only exists to justify a stupid crossover thing that should have never been to begin with.
Rawr back at you, big guy. Atem explains that he wants Monica to weaken Giratina so he can catch it, but really? Why do we have to do this for him? Oh whatever.
So... the Shadow Ball TM? *shot*
But no seriously. He doesn't actually give us a special ball to catch Giratina with.
To top things off, Giratina is in their Origin Form despite not having the Griseous Orb. Hey, she hasn't actually given a crap about Pokemon conventions for a long time so why should I even work up the energy to get mad?
That said, Giratina's mine now. Too bad so sad, Atem.
Catching a Pokemon that you're not meant to throws up this screen. See, Firered and Leafgreen have a thing where it throws up a nonsense entry so the game doesn't crash when you catch a limbo mon like Giratina here.
Yes, that's right - you aren't supposed to catch Giratina at all. You're supposed to beat him up so the game can progress, but since I didn't do that...
Yeah. We're calling our brand new dracolich Sheol, based after the Hebrew equivalent of Hell. I can be edgy too, okay?
The fun thing about Sheol is that he has no starting moves aside from Shadow Claw and some other thing, as if to say "yeah we weren't prepared for this".
To make matters worse, actually catching Giratina makes the event repeat. By that, I mean you can keep catching an infinite amount of them as long as you have Pokeballs in your bag.
What was with Dark Rising Girl's fascination with repeating events in this game? First the Siegfried duplicating event in chapter 8, then the Big Pearl incident... Like damn.
To make the event pass by, you have to beat up Giratina. An easy task for Sigurd, but I'm still in awe that we got a Giratina when we shouldn't have. This is like a big plot event too, which makes it go from "stupid" to "what is wrong with you" territory.
Anyway, let's go meet Atem at the gym.
The shady horse trader isn't there anymore, thank god.
It's basically Blaine's gym from the original game with different questions. Oh, and ghost-themed.
Remember when this was supposed to be a "serious" story?
The answer is no, by the way, despite this being a matter of opinion more than anything else.
Don't you mean Tombstoner? If you're going to meme, at least do it right.
He even says "Duel on" because he's from Yu-gi-oh, you see--
Enough chit-chat. Restrain the specimen.
Holy Hombones. He doesn't even look like a human being, let alone Pharaoh Atem.
This has got to be some of the worst spritework I've ever seen, without a doubt. (The Blazard thing from earlier is technically worse, though)
That said, he had a team of ghost types because Shadow Realm and etc. Oh, and a Cofa'grigus because he's a Pharaoh. Yawn.
What the fuck? Sheol, you're supposed to be on my team! They're even a level lower than when you encounter them, so what the hell did Atem do to the poor guy?
I guess multiple Giratinas exist in the world because of what I did.
That's nice and all, but I really don't care. Just give me the goods and I'll dash.
Oh, and he's also Blaine because the original gym leader gave out Fire Blast too. Of course.
The guys are here because the police are after us. Oh no, whatever shall we do?
The funny thing is that answering no to this doesn't cause a "But Thou Must" situation. If you choose No, you can find Sydney sitting in the Pokecenter waiting for you... and even when you say yes there, the event doesn't work properly because DRG didn't expect this to happen.
My exact reaction to all of this.
It repeats the event from the first time we were here, complete with an invisible Sydney. That, and the Headquarters are completely fine.
What is this game, man?
If you give the "Emerald" to the guys, they can reactivate PC usage for you. That's legitimately good and all, but keep in mind that I finished this game without doing that, so... yeah, I'm a little peeved.
Right now I'm going to go tie up some loose ends before we can challenge the final stretch of the game.
I beat the Ice gym leader from a while back, seeing as he was one of the badges I didn't have. Also: Ha ha, level 50. You poor sap.
His gym isn't even ice based due to being Erika's. (A
Bringing up the map here will reveal the real location of the Twist Woodlands, aka. in the middle of nowhere like I expected.
Florina explains how Adrian (the tall, dark, and scary man from chapter 12), the Omni League Champion, is currently Darugis's vessel (not a surprise, given how the man stands out like a sore thumb) and that Monica suspected that from the beginning.
I'm just glad to know she's not a complete idiot to ignore the scary eight foot tall man.
The gym is connected to Darugis's lair, but Blitz (the trainer they mentioned in the beginning of the game) is blocking the path. Let's deal with that, shall we?
DRG tells us that Blitz uses Dragon pokemon and that we should as well. This would be really neat if the story was... oh, I don't know, actually well-written? I'm sorry to repeat some of the things I've said, but damn is it hard to come up with material when the game is this banal.
Every fight in this gym in a nutshell.
He calls himself "the greatest Pokemon trainer" even though he's going to lose to a 19 year old. Pride before a fall, I suppose.
I'm just imagining what a Mega Dragonite would be like. Maybe they'll make it resemble its pre-evolutions more.
Corin is The Best Garchomp around. Don't you forget it.
... I'll allow this double KO. Wave was the one who lasted longer anyway, so she wins by default.
Also wow, I just realized - all of Blitz's Pokemon were based off of the starters and their final evolutions. That's neat, I guess.
Is this unedited dialogue? 99% chance that it is. Anyway, Blitz here says that we can challenge the Omni League with this final badge despite that not even being the league for this place.
Yeah, he's definitely taking Giovanni's spot... as it literally says "takes the TM from Giovanni". Things just get really weird after a while, okay?
You have to talk to him to conclude his text, as Darugis possesses him here:
Blitz shakes off his possession for a little bit and warns Monica about a "Draco Village" and "Draco Stones". Yes, this is really a thing we need to be doing when we're right at the foot of the bad guy's lair.
[Blitz disappears in the following fade to black transition]
Well alright. What lies ahead?
[Theme I would use for the Malice Path: Chaos Angel Map]
... Silly name aside, this is where shit gets real. Or it would be if this weren't all we had for this massive double chapter.
Next time on Pokemon Dark Rising, we enter the final stretch and complete everything before entering the Core League. See you then.
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Team setup:
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Back up team: