Let's Play Pokemon Dark Rising! Chapter 6

[Rainbow Chara X]

So... I have to admit. It normally took a few days to upload an episode even on the old toaster computer. The absolute worst I've ever slipped up has been about 15 days or so and that used to be a rare thing. However, I've counted - it takes about 8-10 days to upload a new chapter now and I apologize for that.

Honestly, I don't like playing through Dark Rising and I can't force myself to even half enjoy it... so I guess we're doing things my way.

[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #6 - Fight or Die[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:

Last time on Dark Rising, Sathala managed to sweep through an entire Drizzle-Swift Swim by herself despite being eight levels lower than everybody there. I am so proud of her for that.

Unfortunately, I think that's the most fun we'll have in a long time.

"But there have been reports of aggressive wild Pokemon and a well known breeder by the name of Brock attacking people of late, so you better be careful."

: "No way... Brock? I'll go check it out."

I would have let Brock slide because he's an actual character in the games, but the breeder stuff is all from the anime. I still don't understand these decisions and I probably won't even when the game is actually finished.

Wow, Brock sure took this place apart... and left a ton of animal footprints everywhere.

"The world's most known Pokemon breeder and doctor did this to our home. I used to respect that man, but now I want to use my Mankey's Close Combat on him!"

: "I'll figure things out."

If someone came into my house and did the exact same thing Brock did, I'd want to beat the piss out of them too.

Poor guy was going about his day and all of a sudden a plot dump destroys most of his house.

Excuse me miss, what is a "belive"? I know she means Brock but I can't not make fun of this.

Well, speak of the devil. What wacky circumstances are we going to get ourselves into now?

[Demon King Odio]

: "BEGONE YOU FOOLISH CH-- Oh, it's just you, Monica."

: "So you possessed Brock too. You really are a monster like everybody says."

: "You flatter me. Anyway, the power of Entei will be mine soon enough... So I may as well tarnish Brock's reputation while I'm at it. It's not like he can do anything about it."

: "But I can."

This is significantly different than what is in the actual game because I cannot take Darugis seriously when he acts like a screaming idiot.

[Megalomania... again]

I don't know what it is, but I like Brock's sprite here. Sure it's just his head lazily copy-pasted on to another sprite but I still think it looks nice.

The fight with him is a Double Battle for some reason, but I'm not complaining. More experience is a good thing.

Gale wrecks the Ludicolo with Aerial Ace while Lumis puts the Crobat to sleep and swallows his dreams. That's terrifying and badass all in one.

Arguably the toughest Pokemon Brock has is his level 32 Steelix. It's a vast upgrade from Onix, but at the same time... If you brought a Drought Ninetales (which, in retrospect, is hilariously overpowered and something I should have taken advantage of), he's brown bread.

Thankfully, the RNG is on my side and Steelix gets confused from Wave's Water Pulse.

: ("Wait, Headbutt? I don't think I--")

[Steelix used Dig!]

: [Shrill, deep gasp] ("I can't feel my ribs..!")

Damn, Wave got turned into a punching bag.

Poor girl didn't deserve that. Honestly, I thought Steelix would aim for Corin... so oops.

Sigurd revenge kills in response.

Anyway, the Blissey there is completely inconsequential. All our big hitters have to do is poke her and she dies, so I let Sigurd have that one too.

... Why did I give Sigurd Needle Arm??

This isn't completely insane considering how he gets a wicked special attack stat when he evolves, but still. I don't think I want to obsolete Sathala just yet.

Brock's team seems to follow what I remember from the anime.

... Also, again: Woman, you ain't slick. That Swampert is very legal. It's so legal it evolved 12 levels before it actually should be able to.

Christ, that was close. I kept forgetting that Sigurd is weak to Fighting types thanks to being part Dark, so Lumis laughs off the next Drain Punch thrown for him.

Brock is easy peasy if you've prepared. Then again, given how this game works, you'll probably never be prepared for what's ahead unless you grind your heart out.

... Is what he actually says. Personally, that's stupid.

[Darugis's shadow clings to Brock's body]

: ("... Oh well. I'm not done with Brock quite yet, but I believe this is where we part ways again.")

: "What?! Don't you dare get --"

[Darugis vanishes along with Brock]

: "... He got away again!"

: ("It's frustrating, I know. But I wouldn't worry about it... He'll be back soon. In the meantime, I feel we should practice our skills a bit.")

: ("I have a terrible feeling for what's ahead, so we need to be ready.")

: "Alright. You're the boss, Sigurd."

Grinding sessions are now a necessity. It is not something I can just gloss over, unfortunately.

To apologize for the Steelix car crash incident, Wave finally gets her time in the evolution limelight.

: ("Heh. Y'all had me worried there. I won't disappoint you this time.")

Gale gets Steel Wing... just because, I guess. I know the text prompt is blocking the screen, but we're about eight levels higher than before. It sounds like a lot of time was wasted on grinding but I have a trick to make it go by faster.

Basically, I have a specific set of codes that can summon clones of Sigurd due to him occupying the Bulbasaur slot. He has a base experience yield of 255, so each time someone kills him they get max experience. I hand-waved this as "training with Sigurd" just so it could make sense in the context of the story, but trust me - it's incredibly valuable for what I'm doing.

Anyway, remember how I brought up the Omega Boss theme for this area? Now that we're sufficiently leveled up, I feel confident enough to go down here.

There's... a kid down here accompanied by two signs. Let's see what he has to say.

"I thought I told everyone upstairs I'll be done in a minute."

: "Urm... I'm sorry, I guess. Who are you and why are you down here?"

Question Mark Kid: "My name's Max and I'm from the Hoenn region. My dad's a gym leader there. I'm here because I'm looking for clues to find the evil organization that hurt my mom."

... Oh. Max? As in that one bratty kid nobody liked from the Gen 3 anime?

: "What evil organizations?"


Now... alright. I'm not going to transcribe the rest of this dialogue because it goes on forever, so I may as well cut the fat:

Max: "There's an evil organization that wants to take over the world. I trained for months to be able to defeat them."

"Something like a movie."

Max challenges us because we look new, so Monica busts an artery and throws out the entire team.

Max has a very strange skin color, as if he's too pale to be human.

That said, Vampire Max here is rocking some high level Pokemon. How the kid with no experience in battling even accomplishes this I'll never know.


Max doesn't even get Pokemon in the show, if my information is correct.

Gale tears his Leafeon apart because Max is ultimately a pushover despite the over-inflated levels.

At the very least they used the updated Nosepass sprite instead of the really wonky Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald one.

... Too bad Sigurd immediately makes his face concave.

You have to be joking. This poor Ralts is way overdue to be a Gardevoir, so what the hell are you doing?

Sure, you give him something to boost his Psychic powers... but why not just evolve him then?

Whatever. Sigurd, kick his ass.

: ("Of course.")

[Sigurd used Knock Off!]

Ralts is one of those Pokemon that you can't make intimidating no matter how high their level gets.

The last one is this Dwebble that Wave dips into a pool of water. It only took one Water Pulse.

Boy, you haven't even started. Using the Rare Candy code isn't enough to get you through the game.

"You wouldn't stand a chance against my sis."

I severely doubt that. In-Game Monica mentions something about hidden items being down here, but I can't be assed to look for them.

You get nothing for defeating Max, by the way. He doesn't even talk to you unless you approach him.

"Wait, it says something about a team reforming."

Long story short, this note explains how every villainous team from the real games is reforming to become the evil empire that Darugis is planning on using to take over the world or some shit. Honestly, this would be a much cooler and more promising concept if the story wasn't... average at best.

Some more grinding offscreen and Corin learns Dragon Claw. A very nice substitute for Dragon Breath if I can say so.

Oh hey, he finally makes an appearance after being gone since Tiki Village.

: "Noah?"

: "Brock got away from me... Good job on defeating him! You've really gotten stronger from last time."

: "Yeah, no kidding..."

: "I know, let's have a ba-- Wait a second. What's with the red Riolu you have there?"

:"Excuse me?"

: "Monica, get away from him! I was told to kill this monster on sight!"

: ("How did I know it would come to this?")

: "Back off, Noah! He's a good kid!"

: "I can't take that chance."

[Current OST: Difficult Fight]

The real reason for the fight is nowhere near that intense, but still. Why are we fighting Noah again? This is immediately after the Brock-Darugis fight, so what the hell's with the timing?

Anyway, Noah's Rufflet is actually pretty tough as he has Aerial Ace and all of that good stuff. To make matters worse, he can use Bulk Up which lets him hit harder and boost his defense... so that's fun to deal with.

He... anticipated the Hypnosis. That's pretty smart, but at the same time I can just apply another one. It's not that hard.

: ("Heh heh heh... Such delicious dreams. The ones with positive emotions are the most delectable.)

What kind of team have I assembled?

Shelgon is a pain. They're essentially a hard counter to your Dragon starter, complete with Dragon Fang and a better attack than Dragon Breath.

: ("This one was very bitter. He was very disturbed about... Arceus? Interesting... We should look into this a bit more.")

You know, I seriously have to wonder what was going through Dark Rising Girl's head when she was setting the levels for this game. The difference between Noah and Darugis-Brock is staggering, and the need to grind so you can keep up is a horrible idea.

That said, Wave obliterates the Charmeleon in no time flat.

: ("Don't mess with the crew.")

Oh, I don't even need to show off what happens here. Poor bastard.

: ("Okay, this one was just plain disgusting. I'd... rather not disclose what he was thinking about.")

Yes, but do you know how many fake Sigurds I had to kill how much time I had to spend training with Sigurd to reach this level?

: "... Hmm. I guess you're not so bad after all."

"But something got into him. Me and Ash tried to stop Brock, but he got away."

: "Ash is here?!"

: "Yeah, he's at the Atlantic Cape having a date with Pikachu."

In-Game Monica is like "heheh" like she finds that funny. Ours, though?

: "... Whoa, TMI. I know people have their preferences but christ."

: "... I was just kidding. He's investigating some ruckus in Atlantic Cave."

: "Ah, cool. Thanks, Noah."

[Noah leaves but turns around to face us]

Neat. He gives us the VS Seeker to see if we can find our dad, but it's not really good for much unless you want to fight against previous trainers. None of the rematches are even edited so there's no reason to it.

: "Catch you later!"

[Noah leaves for real now]

Cool. Let's go up and -

Oh my god, it's the Nugget Bridge from the original game. How is the Core Region its own region if it's literally just Kanto with a paint job?

Let me guess, the Omni Region is a refurbished Johto with nominal differences. (if this is actually what it is, then fuckin' christ)

: "Nope."

: "Tear him a new one, Gale."

: ("With pleasure.")

"Beated?"

... Oh. What the hell did Noah do to this poor man?

: "You're funny."

: "I'm nineteen, you ass."

The same can be said for all of you.

I'm surprised these guys want to keep fighting Monica after they see how dangerous we are.

Oh hey, In-Game Monica said nope too. That's hilarious.

'Kay, cool.


To be fair, these Golbats are a damn sight better to look at than Snakewood's. I still have nightmares.

You're the strongest of a group of cannon fodder. I bet you feel pretty proud of yourself.

Wait, something actually good?!

I was not prepared for this.

She's beautiful

: ("Excellent timing. I'll make quick work of whatever's out there... just for you.")

Oh no, it's the Pretentious Pink Vest Man!

: "CONGRATULATIONS! You have defeated five of my Grunts! Therefore I want you to have this."

The fuck?

: "What the--? An Ultra Ball? Why are you giving this to me?"

That's a very good question.

: "Because your father gave me something as well. It's called a lifelong suffering in the pits of evil!"

You can't say hell? Come on, man.

: "My father wouldn't let another person suffer. You must be under Darugis's spell."

: ("Funnily enough, he's not. Despite that, he's still valuable entertainment. Have fun, Sigurd.")

: "What?!"

: ("Wait, what do you mean by--")

[Sigurd collapses to the ground and gasps for breath. Monica runs over to him]

:"Sigurd!"

: ("How about you humor me and play with a handicap? It won't last long given your strength, but a few minutes is all this idiot needs to fight you.")

: "You play really dirty, you know that?!"

V is stronger than last time, but he's a far cry easier than what you had to deal with to get here. Misdreavus likes to debuff you with status effects and so on, which makes them the most problematic of the team to fight.

GOD DAMN, WAVE!

This is after the big training session too, so the fact she's still standing is a testament to how she doesn't want to become the punching bag again.

... This would have been incredibly useful a few minutes ago. I love my luck.

Oh, this is going to be cathartic.

[Murkrow tried to attack Gale!]

: ("Oh, you're done? Then allow me.")

[Gale used Take Down!]

There was no contest.

(Look at Sigurd's health)

: ("So you've returned, Master Sigurd. You seem more confident.")

: ("That's because I've told them everything and they still accepted me. I think your chances of winning me over have slimmed into the negatives.")

: ("Is that so? What a pity. You could have been more useful to Master Darugis alive had you cooperated.")

: ("Bring it on. I may be suffering a bit right now, but it doesn't take much to get rid of something like you!")

[One fight later]

Damn, the reduced health nearly killed Sigurd.

Believe it or not, this was not intentional on my behalf. See, I was editing around stats for Sigurd so it would be easier for the team to kill the experience pinata clones of him... and I inadvertently reduced his health to half. Yep, a mistake on my part and I still make a story element out of it.

Basically, V goes "yeah your dad was a dick" and Monica's like "THAT DOESN'T HELP". We're not missing much if I don't transcribe this.

Yep. I want to know the secret flash step technique that the villains use just so I don't have to walk everywhere.

... Hah. It'd be cute if someone could even use this. Then again, Attract is situational at best.

"You're awesome!"

Well, I don't like to toot my own horn...

Oh wait, yes I do. Check this out:

Fun fact: When you beat this dude, he immediately takes back the "you're awesome" compliment... I guess we were too spicy for him.

DRAGON DANCE?!

Okay, seriously. I'd love to see someone make movesets out of the crap I give Sigurd for his level-ups. It'd certainly be interesting.

If you can be bested by a

or

type that anybody can just pick up on the side of the road, then you're not even 5% prepared to fight Ash. (as much as I hate to admit that)

"I got to talk to Ash!"

There's so many people around here that want to see/fight Ash for some reason. Sure, he's the champ, but at the same time the only thing he really has going for him is that he's the protagonist of the anime series. (Even then, a large amount of people don't even like him due to the objectively boneheaded decisions he makes...)

Anyway, Ash Fangirl #10 here has a Wartortle and a Quilava. Not that they're notable in any respect, but I like to bring up brand new Pokemon from time to time.

"That's why you were so rough!"

: "Dude, I don't even care about that. You were in the way and battled me for some reason."

Yep, pretty much.

: "Ah, cool. Good for you."

I can't stop thinking about the possibilities with Drought Ninetales now. That or stealing Fiery's style and creating a Drought team.

Honest to god, I like Emolga a bit more than Pikachu. Not to diss on my boy Ambes (Snakewood Let's Play team member for the uninformed) but I think Emolga is cuter and more creative looking.

I'm taking this line a bit out of context, but this is how Monica feels about the Ash Fanclub.

... Hell, the actual context is that this dude went "Go, my awesome Pokemon team!" and it was so unsubtle that even In-Game Monica was unimpressed.

[One fight later]

: "No..."

Wow, that's both hilarious and depressing. Dream killer over here!

Sure. What do you got for me, son?

Secret Power was here, so that's some more money if we desperately needed it.

[Initiates a battle]

Wow, all I did was walk up to where I need to go and you attack me. The paparazzi that follows Ash around is vicious.

Sigurd and Gale kick some more ass and ignore the camera trying to steal their souls.

I think this is Dark Rising Girl projecting her thoughts about Ash more than anything else.

Speaking of which, there's the man himself and his ridiculously overpowered Pikachu.

"Oh, you must be Monica, right?"

: "How did you know?"

Ash: "Oh, I'm sorry. My name's Ash. Noah told me a lot about you."

I would put a portrait of Ash here, but I'm not going to dig through the game files to see his trainer sprite.

: "Really?"

Ash: "Yeah, I'm off to save Brock. I saw him run through this cave a while ago..."

: "Brock? We just fought him."

Ash: "Hmm, I see..."

Oh, hey! He gives us a gift.

... An S.S Ticket. Given how Ash suddenly has a ton of connections due to being the champion, I can understand why he has this... but still. How did Ash become the champion in the first place?

Ash: "Well I'm off now. See you later, Monica."

If I had to make a translation of what he's saying, this would by my best bet:

("Let's go before we embarrass them.")

I remember Ash's Pikachu being an asshole, so...

If I'm not mistaken, this is different art than before. Still very nice looking, though.

What did we even accomplish this episode aside from running around and beating up everyone we saw? Oh, and meeting Ash? Bah, whatever.

Next time on Pokemon Dark Rising, we do much of the same but with actual plot progression attached to it. See you then.

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Team setup:

(Corin, level 31,

,

/

) - "I'd like to see that little punk Pikachu say that again! What's his problem, anyway?!"

(Sigurd, level 35,

,

/

) - "I don't know, but there was definitely something off about him."

(Sathala, level 25,

,

) - "That's a bit of an understatement, haha. But man, Gale was friggin' amazing! She knocked the stuffing out of those guys!"

(Gale, level 34,

,

/

) - "I'm glad to hear that. It takes guts to do that kind of thing, you know?"

(Lumis, level 32,

,

) - "Indeed. I must say... I'm not quite looking forward to what's up ahead but I'm glad we have Monica to guide us."

(Wave, level 33,

,

) - "So that Ash fella was a hot shot? He didn't really look like one. I bet Monica could beat him up no problem."

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Back up team:

(Arthur, level 22,

,

) - "Huh. Everybody's training with Sigurd and they didn't bring me. Okay, I guess I'll just wait my turn."

(Vera, level 27,

,

) - "I'm still reeling at how strong our opponents are becoming. It's insane how easily they do it!"

(Cinder, level 18,

,

) - "Everybody looks so cool when they evolve... I wanna do that too!"