The Uncharted

Here it is, the Planned All Along Halloween Special! Of course, gotta end Poké-Month in a great way, so yes it is a Pokémon story. Call it a fanfic if you wish. I hope you'll enjoy it, and if you don't, well... Everybody has the right to have an opinion. So... Have a good read!

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Ah, it feels good to be back in Kanto! My home region, at last! I spent the past four years traveling from Johto to Kalos. I caught as many species as I could, spent a long while trying to figure out how to evolve some kinds of Pokémon… Damn Milotic, you got me searching for a LONG time! But yeah, I’m finally back home. All I have left to do now is to find the remaining hundred Pokémon species I still have to catch. That includes the Legendary Pokémon.

…Oh wait, I had forgotten. Oak made sure you would just need to have the Legendary one in sight and scan it with the Pokédex to have every bit of info about it. The adventure against the different Teams taught the scientific community of all six regions a few things. As an example, capturing the Legendary Pokémon could lead to some serious trouble, especially since some of them have the duty to protect an aspect of our universe, and capturing them would sometimes be dangerous for the world. To make a long story short, capturing a Legendary is now forbidden, and if any of them is found in the PC, it is released instantly.

Well, anyway… the reason for my return to Kanto is that there’s been weird sightings around. Oak keeps thinking it’s a roaming Pokémon from a region we barely heard of yet. So, he decided to call back to Kanto some trainers who had collected more than half of all the Pokémon of the six regions. He also hoped to be in contact with trainers who had defeated the Elite 4 of each region. But of course, not many Kanto trainers achieved that yet…

I just left Oak’s lab. He told me what he knew of the strange occurrence. Some Trainers who encountered the new Pokémon only felt weird. There’s those who claim they were lucky enough to have an object in their bag increase in number. And the others… they can’t tell what happened. Oh, not like it’s a secret or anything, they would tell us. They just can’t. Somehow, encountering that Pokémon totally messed them up. They’re in a coma, in Pokémon Centers. As if they had fainted. Saved in extremis by their own Pokémon from an unknown fate. They’re really close to death, but they’re out of trouble. The nurses are trying to find something to cure the ones who were found that way.

Still, really makes you wonder what happened to them…

Pokédex - Extended Fanon Edition

If there's one thing about Pokémon that is pretty weird... it's the Pokédex. This little device, created at first by Professor Oak, records the appearance a Pokémon when you see it without catching it, and then records all its information when you catch it. Wait, how does that make sense? I mean, if that information appears on the Pokédex, it's because it was somewhere in the machine in the first place, right? And when you think about it, the machine makes little sense; it will record facts about the Pokémon that you technically couldn't see when you met it. Take, as an example, the claims that Raichu can knock out an Indian elephant. The Pokédex knows that, yet we've never seen a Raichu do that in the game! Which means that the information was written in the machine following Oak's research, and it was not written on the spot when you found the Pokémon! ....

I'm getting too logical about this machine. You know what? Each Pokémon has a different Pokédex entry for every game in the main series. There's about twenty descriptions for the first Gen's Pokémon, and so on and so forth. Yet, we never get real facts that sound like the Pokémon are animals.

The Extended Fanon Edition solves this problem. hat is this? Written by the community behind TVTropes, the Extended Fanon Edition is basically a collection of almost scientific descriptions of the Pokémon families. Seeing as most contributors are nerds (and, let'd admit it, I am, and many of you are too), they can come up with lots and lots of descriptions that make it sound like we're talking about real animals here. The articles are written taking into account many Pokédex entries (and the Pokédex entries that make no sense are not used), as well as what we know of that species based on in-game encounters with said Pokémon, as well as other details we know about that species thanks to the anime and manga.

These pages are a very entertaining read, as long as you don't mind the scientific terms used to describe the Pokémon. The pages may contain a physical description of the Pokémon, a section about their notable biology, their habitat, their diet, the hazards they might cause, th courting and childrearing (yeah, they even touch THAT aspect...), the social structure and their interactions with human culture.

There aren't just articles for Pokémon, either. There are entries on Pokémon Types, on the Berries, on many geographical locations of the regions, on a few abilities, on the human society of Pokémon (such as the Most Wanted List), on the meta elements and on two other weird things.

All I can say is, have a good read! And if you think you have the talent to add to this Fanon Edition Pokédex, go ahead, the instructions are written on top of the page.

Have fun!

Is The Pokémon World A Good Place To Live In?

So, um... After the big review of Pokémon FireRed, I realized... wow, a lot happens in the Pokémon games. And even then, guess what? The Gen 1 games - and Gen 1 remakes - are still those with the simplest plot. The problem with the Pokémon games in general is less that there's a simple plot based around collecting eight badges and defeating a criminal organization; No, it's the gigantic amounts of railroading that is used to make sure you HAVE to follow the normal path. Everything seems to get in your way, from trees that grow in the wrong places, to ponds of water that you cannot cross - because your hero never learns to swim! - and, of course, that's when the Pokémon don't also join in on the fun. Remember the bridge-blocking Snorlax? Reember the Sudowoodo who conveniently decided you couldn't pass in a narrow forest unless you defeated it or caught it?

And that's not counting the criminal organizations, the thieving rivals, and all the Trainers who will not give you a break even if you need one. The Routes are all "dangerous", the Gym Leaders range from noble and nice to crazy or short-tempered. Some horribly powerful Pokémon cause trouble, sometimes unwillingly. Hell, some of those horribly powerful Pokémon are COMMON in some places! Really, all this begs the question: Is the Pokémon World a good place to live in?

Pokémon Rumble

(Sorry for posting this so late today; I had a lot of university homework and other real-life stuff to do that were, I have to admit, more important for my future as a whole than it would be to post this review. Anyway, here it is.)

Poké-Month is almost over, and we're getting closer to Halloween! As you noticed, I'm now in full Halloween mode, with a horror film review once in a while. However, the most horrifying thing ever isn't horror movies; it's endless repetitions.

Okay, just joking. But endless repetitions is a major problem in some games. Repeating the same thing, often the same tedious – or boring – task multiple times, is sometimes a factor on whether you'll replay a game or not. Likewise, a story aspect that gets repeated endlessly becomes boring after a while. Don't you just wish Peach would FINALLY put some protection around her castle to prevent Bowser from getting in or kidnapping her? Aren't you tired that Wile E. Coyote never, ever catches the Road Runner? Have Homer's stupid acts become annoying at best, insulting at worst, now that there's over 500 episodes of The Simpsons? Repetition is a problem that can hit anything that has run for a long time and whose formula has changed never enough to become interesting again. However, cases like this are much rarer inside a single game than it is as a problem that hits the franchise as a whole.

Today's game is this. The same concept gets repeated not once, not twice, not thrice, but a total of nine times. Each time with different critters. And yes, I know I'm talking about Pokémon, the series that has followed a similar formula in its main series ever since the first games. But Pokémon Rumble is not a main series game; it's a minigame spread out into a large game. Enter with me into the wonderful “world” of Pokémon Rumble and see if it should really be sold 1500 Wii Points.

Pokémon FireRed (Part 3)

Part 1 can be read here.
Part 2 can be read here.

Hello again for the third and final part of this review of Pokémon FireRed! Last time, it ended as the protagonist had passed the eight gates and was now at the Victory Road. Well, let's enter this cave!

I hate this place. It's fun, but I still hate it.

So, here goes the final traveling challenge in the game, with lots of Trainers, lots of puzzles, and lots of... trouble. Most Trainers in here have full teams, or almost full teams, with many good Pokémon. You'll also have lots and lots of stones to push around. This place is unnerving, because you can't seem to know when it's gonna end. It seems like you'll be stuck in this cave for a while. However, if you went this far in the game, you're determinate to win, and that means you'll go through this challenge anyway.

When you step out of Victory Road, you finally see the Indigo Plateau. Wow, this place feels like the Heaven of Trainers all around the world. ...Or, well, of Trainers all around Kanto. Inside this building, it's just as beautiful. Everything is handed to you: A Pokémon Center and a Shop with the game's strongest items, and even some infos on the Elite 4 even before you go fight them. Ready? Time to go through the door...