Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen May 12, 2025
Insert witty comment here.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #3 - Jaws of a Scorched Earth[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Tiki Village, huh? This place doesn't look half bad.
"Most cities after our village have strong gym leaders that represent a specific type of Pokemon. My favorite is Serena of Mystic Falls. She's beautiful and has psychic powers."
Serena, huh? I know this was made a year before X/Y, but I can't help but imagine a combination of the playable character and the psychic gym leader from that game after hearing this.
"You're a new trainer, right? You get a couple wins, and think you're a hot shot. Well, if you can't win any gym badges, you're weak."
Wow, aren't you a charmer? At least wait for me to actually fight and lose to a gym leader before you say that, prick.
Bah, let's go into the Pokemon Center already. The team must be roughshod after all of the fighting we did to get here.
"Thanks for helping us out. I would like you to have this Pokemon."
Oh damn, we actually get some respect and a reward for getting rid of the thugs? This is a good way to start things out.
Oooh, nice. A Munna is bound to come in handy, seeing as it's probably the only Psychic Pokemon we're going to get in a while.
I have no idea where I pulled out this name, but it still fits.
: ("You will not regret this.")
"It's a rare Pokemon, raise it with love and care. Well, I'll be going - good luck on your journey."
[The girl walks past Monica]
I can't say that wasn't a good surprise.
"Those bullying thugs seem to have calmed down, but they refused to leave. If I were a few years younger... I would teach them a lesson about respect."
Watch yourself, we have a karate grandpa over here.
Oh hey, there's two people behind the counter. We'll see why that is in a second.
Okay, what this woman says is going to be hilarious.
If you say Yes: "They're really bad Pokemon, someone should stop them!"
If you say No: "One controls the Wind, the other controls the Lightning, and their big bad leader controls the Earth!"
Like come on, have some dignity at the very least. I can see why Tornadus and Thundurus would be the assholes of the Kami trio due to them summoning thunderstorms and hurricanes just by being there, but Landorus is the one that's supposed to mediate between the three of them. Basically, he's the one who tells them to knock it off and clean up after their mess.
Anyway, let's go to the shop and rebuild our stock of Poke--
wait am i imagining the last item on that list
They've already got these little fuckers for sale?! We haven't even upgraded past the regular potions yet!
Aaaaand there goes all of my money.
: "Nice to meet you. I'm also just starting out on my adventure."
: "Cool! Let's have a fun battle. This'll be a warm up before I travel to Flamen City for the first time."
I do like that we encounter other people that have plans to do the same thing we do - aka. become the champion.
Anyway, the first Pokemon Karla has is Chikorita here. They're not dangerous at all, but they do have two moves in particular that makes this fight just a tad more frustrating: Light Screen and Reflect. Suddenly everything is doing half damage and I'm just sitting here going "ooh, you sneaky bastard".
If Karla was a more important NPC and had a developed team, I'd argue that she'd actually be hard to fight.
Sigurd shuts him down with an Aura Sphere, and with a crit to boot.
Karla's next Pokemon is Eevee... an interesting choice.
Iron Tail is a move that can lower the opponent's defense, but has the chance to whiff due to not having 100% accuracy. It's great when your opponent misses, but you'd... probably not have this move to begin with seeing as there's much better ones you could be using.
: ("Maybe this is a bit unfair.")
The last one up is Gothita, who has Shadow Tag as an ability. She would be somewhat threatening if Sigurd wasn't the one she got stuck with.
[Sigurd used Knock Off!]
: ("Too bad, so sad.")
Nothing interesting happens if you beat Karla - she wishes you good luck on your journey and that's about it.
: "Yeah. I thought Nurse Joys handle the Pokemon Center. And who's the guy in white?"
Nurse Joy: "Oh! That's Doctor Roy. You see, in the Core Region, Doctor Roy is in charge of the Pokemon Centers and Nurse Joys are their assistants. After a year, we travel to other regions to be in charge of our very own Pokemon Center."
: "Cool!"
^ Basically my thoughts. In all fairness, this is a nice idea.
Nurse Joy: "However, we can interest you in a Pokemon battle instead."
: "Pokemon battle?!"
I can understand this reaction. You go to Pokemon Centers to heal up your Pokemon - not risk turning them into bloody scraps on the ground.
"You must have two Pokemon to battle us."
: "Okay, then let's do this!"
I've noticed it before, but "Let's do this" is supposed to be the protagonist's opening line into battle. It's... alright, I guess. It gets the job done for this "anime-like" game, as other people have described it.
Ah, I see what you did there.
... I'm curious, how do you put custom trainer sprites into these games? That knowledge would be very useful for someone like me.
As for the actual fight, the medical duo don't have much going for them. It's almost like... their day job is fixing people up instead.
Shelmet is the only one that's a genuine pain due to Acid Armor, but Dragonbreath ignores that.
Trust is only one part of the equation, good sir. There's also type match-ups, stats, good movesets...
Hell, there's even some weirdos out there that deliberately make their Pokemon hate them just so they can use a move that would be situational at best.
I went back into the forest to grind and I managed to find a Cacnea of all things. This makes no sense if you know how cacti work, but it still adds more variety to the Pokemon you can catch.
Sigurd tries to learn Rock Slide, but I go against it. This might be a decision I regret in the future, if only for one fight.
While I was here, I picked a Karrablast of our own and called him Arthur. The best part about this is that, unlike the real games, he doesn't need to be traded to evolve into the badass known as Escavalier. Escavalier not only has a great knight-jouster design but hits like a tank and is built like one too.
: ("Aye, lass! I hope I get to bust some heads with you!")
Who came up with the line-of-sight names for the areas we go to? I want to meet them.
"Did you know the starter Pokemon trio of Fire, Water and Grass have all made their way to the Core Region?"
: "Whoa, cool!"
More rare Pokemon to catch and add to the crew? Sign me up.
... Wait, is this the same girl that we met back in our hometown? Is she stalking Monica?
Wow, we're really picking them up today aren't we? Gale will be our ace pilot for this adventure.
: ("... Hi.")
"Do you know that Cyndaquil have recently been appearing around here?"
: "Really?! I'm gonna catch one."
As tempting as it is to go and catch a Cyndaquil, I feel I'm going to hold off on getting one... Mostly because I don't have any good nicknames.
"I caught the last Larvesta in Lavaburn Forest! Well, I've been searching for an Abra around these parts for years. I'll do anything to have one! I'll even trade my Larvesta for it. So do you have one?"
Oh man, the game really wants me to go after all of the good Pokemon. I'll decline with this one too, seeing as... well, it's a traded Pokemon. I do things my way, boyo.
I don't know why this guy had such trouble trying to get Abra when they appear right outside of his doorstep. This is just to demonstrate how easy it is to get one.
... Uh, what? It's the male protagonist sprite and he's stuck in the bushes.
If you talk to him, the game indefinitely freezes... so that's hella creepy.
WHAT THE SHIT WHY IS THIS ABOMINATION HERE
... Believe it or not, I actually have a reasonable explanation for this. See, the Munna event in this Pokecenter must have set off hack detection (the same kind that punishes you for using a million gameshark codes at once) and created this vile creature as retaliation.
To elaborate: A Bad Egg never hatches and turns the Pokemon next to it into another Bad Egg, which is why I'm glad it didn't appear in any of the boxes where I normally keep Pokemon.
If you move the egg and log off the PC, it inexplicably restarts the Munna event in the Tiki Village Pokemon Center. That's right, you get another Munna along with a new Bad Egg each time.
I don't know what Dark Rising Girl and her friend did to the code to make this happen, but that's some freaky shit.
"Surprised I'm here, aren't you?"
: "Pete, what are you doing here?! Your dad will go bananas if he found out you're this far away from home."
I love how she brings attention to the fact that Pete's dad will lose his mind while our mom will just be like "meh, whatever" after we've traveled across the entire country.
: "I know, I know... I wanted to prove myself after seeing you leave on a journey."
: "So you're blaming me for this?"
: "No, no! It's not your fault. I'm the one who wanted this..."
: "But you're too young to take care of yourself."
"Me on the other hand? I'm 18 and I already make monster cash."
: "I know, already. Okay, so here's the deal. If you defeat me in a battle, I'll go home. If I win, I'll get to travel farther. Deal?!"
It's me or you, man.
"Deal!"
: "Alright! Let's do this!"
See why Monica needs to come up with a better one liner? Anybody can just steal it.
[Theme I would use for "boss" encounters: Difficult Fight]
Pete's packing a few new Pokemon, but so are we. In all fairness, I could have thrown Gale at the Taillow just to see the massacre happen... but Corin got to him first.
The next one up is a Scraggy who thinks Intimidate will save him from Arthur's rampage.
: ("I'm coming for you, laddie!")
[Arthur used X-Scissor!]
: ("Ouch... He sure didn't go down without a fight.")
In hindsight, another perfect match for Gale. What can I say, I'm trying to spice things up.
And then there's you. This is a horrible idea, never do it yourself because I'm a completely reckless daredevil.
Instead of being punished for throwing caution to the wind, Sathala somehow survives the assault and sucks him dry. Expect this to happen a lot from now on.
: ("How'd you like that?!")
Things are going great.
I don't even have to show what Sigurd does to this poor Drilbur.
: ("I am offering free slap naps.") [Cracks knuckles]
Jesus, dude, all we did was spar a little. I didn't steal your resol-- wait, technically I did. Oops.
: "Sorry Pete, but I have to do this for your sake."
: "It's okay, I'll challenge you when I'm ready. Just wait 'til I get stronger!"
: "Can't wait to battle you again!"
I like to imagine Pete is super pissed while Monica is smiling like nothing happened.
: "Well, I'll be off!"
That was a thing. Poor Pete got his ass whupped and by us of all people.
[A recording of Dan saying "Some more gorgeous sprite art" from Chapter 2 plays]
[Theme I would use for the Lavaburn Forest: Firetop Mountain]
Wait a second, something's not right here.
But seriously though, the Lavaburn Forest is literally a lava forest. I'll give them points for originality and for using a unique tileset.
... Where is this tileset from? It has to be from one of the Sevii Islands in the original game or something... Or it could be completly custom. If it's the latter, then major props to DRG.
"They're all itching for Pokemon battles."
Come to think of it, would it be right to call this the "Viridian Forest" of the Core Region? Only instead of grass and bugs, we have fire and brimstone... Damn.
There's so many good Pokemon around here! I can't just pick one!
(that, and I don't want to retread the Pokemon I already had in Snakewood)
Fun fact: The Vulpix around here have a chance of having DROUGHT as an ability. Something that would have made Jeanne a beast in Snakewood.
PUPPY!
You're gonna be called Cinder.
"This place has no more cool Pokemon."
You're kidding, right?
I hope you like the taste of trash, cause that's where you're going.
Gale finally gets to fight... and you see that nice little Poison symbol? Get used to it. She may as well dye her feathers purple from how often she'll get poisoned.
"Come on, let's battle them!"
: "It's freaking hot here! But I guess I can humor you with a fight. Let's do this!"
Monica tells him straight up "it's freaking hot". That tickles my funny bone for some reason.
Oh, this could be a problem.
: ("... I'll be back. Just watch me.")
Cinder has to pick up the slack.
: ("Haha! That was fun. Let's do it again!") [He chases after his own tail]
Since I couldn't deal with Gale being left behind, I decided to grind with her for a bit.
: ("... Thank you, Monica. Let's go kick some ass.")
There's a ton of items scattered around this place: Poke Balls, Potions, etc. It saves me more money at the store, so that's great.
Doug here doesn't really have anything new, but I do like the Bird Keeper sprite in FireRed.
Aww, that's cute. DRG changed the item balls on the overworld to be little present boxes. That's really neat.
Stranger danger.
STRANGER DANGER
RUN MONICA
Oh god not this thing again. Torkoal is a pain not because it's strong (although it is pretty damaging) but because it's a tank of a Pokemon. No matter the game, it always manages to survive through 80% of what I throw at it.
I mean, look at that. It took practically the entire team just to take him down.
You see this 207 exp? That is split between Corin, Sigurd and Gale - aka. this guy was worth a lot.
"I'm preparing myself for the long road back home."
: "Good luck on your way home."
Old man: "Thank you, trainer..."
I dunno why I threw that in, it was just cute.
"Me and my boyfriend used to have really fun times in there..."
: "Like what?"
: "Hehe..."
Monica, you poor, sweet summer child.
Upon leaving that checkpoint, we're immediately confronted by this dickweed.
"You are Blake's child..."
: "Who are you? Where's my father?"
???: "Your father is preparing to be sacrificed. He will not exist in this world any longer."
: "What are you talking about? You're not doing anything to him!"
???: "I refuse to take chances like I did 27 years ago with your father."
Mess with Monica and you get the business end of a Dragonbreath.
"I will send you to the underworld right now before you grow too powerful. Prepare to lose..."
: "Better get ready. Let's do this!"
Who says "I will send you to the underworld" when they're trying to kill you? This isn't a 4Kids dub, dude.
[Theme I would use for V: Evil Invitation]
... Wow, so threatening with the pink vest there, palette swap Cyrus. The name isn't much better. Despite this, you should probably watch out for him.
The first mon up is Murkrow, who is probably your first real wake-up call for this point in the game. What is it with Murkrow being insanely powerful for an unevolved mon?
It took Corin's Dragonbreath to paralyze him and Arthur's X-Scissor to take him down, which is impressive considering we don't have an electric Pokemon to take down this beast.
Next up is a Golett who shouldn't be much trouble as long as you have a decently powerful Pokemon.
: ("Wait. Your appearance... Your power...")
: ("Could it be possible that you, of all people, have returned...?")
: ("I don't know what you're talking about.")
: ("You are as valuable to us as him. Why bother resisting?")
: ("Get away from me.")
: ("What a shame.")
: ("... Your 'master' only wants me gone. Nothing's changed.")
With all of that drama out of the way, V's final Pokemon is this Misdreavus that likes to use Toxic and confuse you. It's pretty vile, all things considered.
Gale, on the other hand, brute-forces her way through everything and smacks him around like he owed her rent money.
: ("Suck on that.")
"Maybe you're not a threat after all."
: "What?! I just defeated you!"
: "Muahahahaha! I pity you... I didn't use my full power on you. You're not as strong as your father."
Translation: He's salty that he lost and doesn't want to admit it.
: "My name is V... Run along, child. You'll not get any answers from me."
[Fade to black transition]
"He's gone!"
How do they keep doing that? They must know flash step or something.
This looks very familiar... Too familiar.
[Theme I would use for Flamen City: Smoky Field]
Oh boy, Flamen City. This is going to be a riot, I can tell.
Some relief, thank god.
The man here tries to "scam" you by giving you Magikarp, which is actually a very good idea for this part of the game. I don't take it because I trust Corin.
"Gym leaders are much stronger than any basic trainer you'll bump into on the road. But I heard the Elite Four are even stronger."
*PTSD flashbacks to the Snakewood Elite Four*
Oh damn, this could actually be important.
... Aura? Well, aside from me having to pull out the "stranger danger" alarm, our mystery lady has a Riolu too.
You can't go through this cave because Monica will instantly get overwhelmed by the heat, so that just leaves the question of what the hell is even in there.
I tried to leave the city only to get stopped by this guy who tells me to fight the gym leader. I'll definitely go after her, but not right now.
(Fiery and Flamen town... I know the real Pokemon games do it too, but even they have a bit more subtlety than that. Or not. I dunno.)
Oh wow we can already evolve Cinder!
Anyway, that's the end of the chapter. Next time on Pokemon Dark Rising, we go to fight Fiery and hope she doesn't give us third degree burns. See you then.
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Team setup:
(Corin, level 20,
,
/
) - "There's so many strange things happening around here... I guess I'll take my mind off of it by thinking about our first real Gym Leader battle! I'm pumped, are you?"
(Sigurd, level 20,
,
/
) - "Yeah! I wonder what we're going to deal with."
(Sathala, level 13,
,
) - "Well, it's a Fire type gym, so you can count me out. Have fun with that, guys."
(Gale, level 16,
,
/
) - "It's not easy getting poisoned so often, you know."
(Arthur, level 17,
,
) - "Oi! Sathala! You're just trying to find an excuse not to fight!"
(Cinder, level 14,
,
) - [Runs outside of the Pokecenter chasing a Butterfree]
Back up team:
(Lumis, level 7,
,
) - "What was with the conversation that Sigurd and V's Golett had? Just what connection does Sigurd have to Darugis...? Not only that, why is nobody addressing this?"
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #3 - Jaws of a Scorched Earth[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:
Tiki Village, huh? This place doesn't look half bad.
"Most cities after our village have strong gym leaders that represent a specific type of Pokemon. My favorite is Serena of Mystic Falls. She's beautiful and has psychic powers."
Serena, huh? I know this was made a year before X/Y, but I can't help but imagine a combination of the playable character and the psychic gym leader from that game after hearing this.
"You're a new trainer, right? You get a couple wins, and think you're a hot shot. Well, if you can't win any gym badges, you're weak."
Wow, aren't you a charmer? At least wait for me to actually fight and lose to a gym leader before you say that, prick.
Bah, let's go into the Pokemon Center already. The team must be roughshod after all of the fighting we did to get here.
"Thanks for helping us out. I would like you to have this Pokemon."
Oh damn, we actually get some respect and a reward for getting rid of the thugs? This is a good way to start things out.
Oooh, nice. A Munna is bound to come in handy, seeing as it's probably the only Psychic Pokemon we're going to get in a while.
I have no idea where I pulled out this name, but it still fits.
"It's a rare Pokemon, raise it with love and care. Well, I'll be going - good luck on your journey."
[The girl walks past Monica]
I can't say that wasn't a good surprise.
"Those bullying thugs seem to have calmed down, but they refused to leave. If I were a few years younger... I would teach them a lesson about respect."
Watch yourself, we have a karate grandpa over here.
Oh hey, there's two people behind the counter. We'll see why that is in a second.
Okay, what this woman says is going to be hilarious.
If you say Yes: "They're really bad Pokemon, someone should stop them!"
If you say No: "One controls the Wind, the other controls the Lightning, and their big bad leader controls the Earth!"
Like come on, have some dignity at the very least. I can see why Tornadus and Thundurus would be the assholes of the Kami trio due to them summoning thunderstorms and hurricanes just by being there, but Landorus is the one that's supposed to mediate between the three of them. Basically, he's the one who tells them to knock it off and clean up after their mess.
Anyway, let's go to the shop and rebuild our stock of Poke--
wait am i imagining the last item on that list
They've already got these little fuckers for sale?! We haven't even upgraded past the regular potions yet!
Aaaaand there goes all of my money.
I do like that we encounter other people that have plans to do the same thing we do - aka. become the champion.
Anyway, the first Pokemon Karla has is Chikorita here. They're not dangerous at all, but they do have two moves in particular that makes this fight just a tad more frustrating: Light Screen and Reflect. Suddenly everything is doing half damage and I'm just sitting here going "ooh, you sneaky bastard".
If Karla was a more important NPC and had a developed team, I'd argue that she'd actually be hard to fight.
Sigurd shuts him down with an Aura Sphere, and with a crit to boot.
Karla's next Pokemon is Eevee... an interesting choice.
Iron Tail is a move that can lower the opponent's defense, but has the chance to whiff due to not having 100% accuracy. It's great when your opponent misses, but you'd... probably not have this move to begin with seeing as there's much better ones you could be using.
The last one up is Gothita, who has Shadow Tag as an ability. She would be somewhat threatening if Sigurd wasn't the one she got stuck with.
[Sigurd used Knock Off!]
Nothing interesting happens if you beat Karla - she wishes you good luck on your journey and that's about it.
Nurse Joy: "Oh! That's Doctor Roy. You see, in the Core Region, Doctor Roy is in charge of the Pokemon Centers and Nurse Joys are their assistants. After a year, we travel to other regions to be in charge of our very own Pokemon Center."
^ Basically my thoughts. In all fairness, this is a nice idea.
Nurse Joy: "However, we can interest you in a Pokemon battle instead."
I can understand this reaction. You go to Pokemon Centers to heal up your Pokemon - not risk turning them into bloody scraps on the ground.
"You must have two Pokemon to battle us."
I've noticed it before, but "Let's do this" is supposed to be the protagonist's opening line into battle. It's... alright, I guess. It gets the job done for this "anime-like" game, as other people have described it.
Ah, I see what you did there.
... I'm curious, how do you put custom trainer sprites into these games? That knowledge would be very useful for someone like me.
As for the actual fight, the medical duo don't have much going for them. It's almost like... their day job is fixing people up instead.
Shelmet is the only one that's a genuine pain due to Acid Armor, but Dragonbreath ignores that.
Trust is only one part of the equation, good sir. There's also type match-ups, stats, good movesets...
Hell, there's even some weirdos out there that deliberately make their Pokemon hate them just so they can use a move that would be situational at best.
I went back into the forest to grind and I managed to find a Cacnea of all things. This makes no sense if you know how cacti work, but it still adds more variety to the Pokemon you can catch.
Sigurd tries to learn Rock Slide, but I go against it. This might be a decision I regret in the future, if only for one fight.
While I was here, I picked a Karrablast of our own and called him Arthur. The best part about this is that, unlike the real games, he doesn't need to be traded to evolve into the badass known as Escavalier. Escavalier not only has a great knight-jouster design but hits like a tank and is built like one too.
Who came up with the line-of-sight names for the areas we go to? I want to meet them.
"Did you know the starter Pokemon trio of Fire, Water and Grass have all made their way to the Core Region?"
More rare Pokemon to catch and add to the crew? Sign me up.
... Wait, is this the same girl that we met back in our hometown? Is she stalking Monica?
Wow, we're really picking them up today aren't we? Gale will be our ace pilot for this adventure.
"Do you know that Cyndaquil have recently been appearing around here?"
As tempting as it is to go and catch a Cyndaquil, I feel I'm going to hold off on getting one... Mostly because I don't have any good nicknames.
"I caught the last Larvesta in Lavaburn Forest! Well, I've been searching for an Abra around these parts for years. I'll do anything to have one! I'll even trade my Larvesta for it. So do you have one?"
Oh man, the game really wants me to go after all of the good Pokemon. I'll decline with this one too, seeing as... well, it's a traded Pokemon. I do things my way, boyo.
I don't know why this guy had such trouble trying to get Abra when they appear right outside of his doorstep. This is just to demonstrate how easy it is to get one.
... Uh, what? It's the male protagonist sprite and he's stuck in the bushes.
If you talk to him, the game indefinitely freezes... so that's hella creepy.
WHAT THE SHIT WHY IS THIS ABOMINATION HERE
... Believe it or not, I actually have a reasonable explanation for this. See, the Munna event in this Pokecenter must have set off hack detection (the same kind that punishes you for using a million gameshark codes at once) and created this vile creature as retaliation.
To elaborate: A Bad Egg never hatches and turns the Pokemon next to it into another Bad Egg, which is why I'm glad it didn't appear in any of the boxes where I normally keep Pokemon.
If you move the egg and log off the PC, it inexplicably restarts the Munna event in the Tiki Village Pokemon Center. That's right, you get another Munna along with a new Bad Egg each time.
I don't know what Dark Rising Girl and her friend did to the code to make this happen, but that's some freaky shit.
"Surprised I'm here, aren't you?"
I love how she brings attention to the fact that Pete's dad will lose his mind while our mom will just be like "meh, whatever" after we've traveled across the entire country.
"Me on the other hand? I'm 18 and I already make monster cash."
It's me or you, man.
"Deal!"
See why Monica needs to come up with a better one liner? Anybody can just steal it.
[Theme I would use for "boss" encounters: Difficult Fight]
Pete's packing a few new Pokemon, but so are we. In all fairness, I could have thrown Gale at the Taillow just to see the massacre happen... but Corin got to him first.
The next one up is a Scraggy who thinks Intimidate will save him from Arthur's rampage.
[Arthur used X-Scissor!]
In hindsight, another perfect match for Gale. What can I say, I'm trying to spice things up.
And then there's you. This is a horrible idea, never do it yourself because I'm a completely reckless daredevil.
Instead of being punished for throwing caution to the wind, Sathala somehow survives the assault and sucks him dry. Expect this to happen a lot from now on.
Things are going great.
I don't even have to show what Sigurd does to this poor Drilbur.
Jesus, dude, all we did was spar a little. I didn't steal your resol-- wait, technically I did. Oops.
I like to imagine Pete is super pissed while Monica is smiling like nothing happened.
That was a thing. Poor Pete got his ass whupped and by us of all people.
[A recording of Dan saying "Some more gorgeous sprite art" from Chapter 2 plays]
[Theme I would use for the Lavaburn Forest: Firetop Mountain]
Wait a second, something's not right here.
But seriously though, the Lavaburn Forest is literally a lava forest. I'll give them points for originality and for using a unique tileset.
... Where is this tileset from? It has to be from one of the Sevii Islands in the original game or something... Or it could be completly custom. If it's the latter, then major props to DRG.
"They're all itching for Pokemon battles."
Come to think of it, would it be right to call this the "Viridian Forest" of the Core Region? Only instead of grass and bugs, we have fire and brimstone... Damn.
There's so many good Pokemon around here! I can't just pick one!
(that, and I don't want to retread the Pokemon I already had in Snakewood)
Fun fact: The Vulpix around here have a chance of having DROUGHT as an ability. Something that would have made Jeanne a beast in Snakewood.
PUPPY!
You're gonna be called Cinder.
"This place has no more cool Pokemon."
You're kidding, right?
I hope you like the taste of trash, cause that's where you're going.
Gale finally gets to fight... and you see that nice little Poison symbol? Get used to it. She may as well dye her feathers purple from how often she'll get poisoned.
"Come on, let's battle them!"
Monica tells him straight up "it's freaking hot". That tickles my funny bone for some reason.
Oh, this could be a problem.
Cinder has to pick up the slack.
Since I couldn't deal with Gale being left behind, I decided to grind with her for a bit.
There's a ton of items scattered around this place: Poke Balls, Potions, etc. It saves me more money at the store, so that's great.
Doug here doesn't really have anything new, but I do like the Bird Keeper sprite in FireRed.
Aww, that's cute. DRG changed the item balls on the overworld to be little present boxes. That's really neat.
Stranger danger.
STRANGER DANGER
RUN MONICA
Oh god not this thing again. Torkoal is a pain not because it's strong (although it is pretty damaging) but because it's a tank of a Pokemon. No matter the game, it always manages to survive through 80% of what I throw at it.
I mean, look at that. It took practically the entire team just to take him down.
You see this 207 exp? That is split between Corin, Sigurd and Gale - aka. this guy was worth a lot.
"I'm preparing myself for the long road back home."
Old man: "Thank you, trainer..."
I dunno why I threw that in, it was just cute.
"Me and my boyfriend used to have really fun times in there..."
Monica, you poor, sweet summer child.
Upon leaving that checkpoint, we're immediately confronted by this dickweed.
"You are Blake's child..."
???: "Your father is preparing to be sacrificed. He will not exist in this world any longer."
???: "I refuse to take chances like I did 27 years ago with your father."
Mess with Monica and you get the business end of a Dragonbreath.
"I will send you to the underworld right now before you grow too powerful. Prepare to lose..."
Who says "I will send you to the underworld" when they're trying to kill you? This isn't a 4Kids dub, dude.
[Theme I would use for V: Evil Invitation]
... Wow, so threatening with the pink vest there, palette swap Cyrus. The name isn't much better. Despite this, you should probably watch out for him.
The first mon up is Murkrow, who is probably your first real wake-up call for this point in the game. What is it with Murkrow being insanely powerful for an unevolved mon?
It took Corin's Dragonbreath to paralyze him and Arthur's X-Scissor to take him down, which is impressive considering we don't have an electric Pokemon to take down this beast.
Next up is a Golett who shouldn't be much trouble as long as you have a decently powerful Pokemon.
With all of that drama out of the way, V's final Pokemon is this Misdreavus that likes to use Toxic and confuse you. It's pretty vile, all things considered.
Gale, on the other hand, brute-forces her way through everything and smacks him around like he owed her rent money.
"Maybe you're not a threat after all."
Translation: He's salty that he lost and doesn't want to admit it.
[Fade to black transition]
"He's gone!"
How do they keep doing that? They must know flash step or something.
This looks very familiar... Too familiar.
[Theme I would use for Flamen City: Smoky Field]
Oh boy, Flamen City. This is going to be a riot, I can tell.
Some relief, thank god.
The man here tries to "scam" you by giving you Magikarp, which is actually a very good idea for this part of the game. I don't take it because I trust Corin.
"Gym leaders are much stronger than any basic trainer you'll bump into on the road. But I heard the Elite Four are even stronger."
*PTSD flashbacks to the Snakewood Elite Four*
Oh damn, this could actually be important.
... Aura? Well, aside from me having to pull out the "stranger danger" alarm, our mystery lady has a Riolu too.
You can't go through this cave because Monica will instantly get overwhelmed by the heat, so that just leaves the question of what the hell is even in there.
I tried to leave the city only to get stopped by this guy who tells me to fight the gym leader. I'll definitely go after her, but not right now.
(Fiery and Flamen town... I know the real Pokemon games do it too, but even they have a bit more subtlety than that. Or not. I dunno.)
Oh wow we can already evolve Cinder!
Anyway, that's the end of the chapter. Next time on Pokemon Dark Rising, we go to fight Fiery and hope she doesn't give us third degree burns. See you then.
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Team setup:
Back up team: