The HeartGold Chronicles #3: Goldenrod

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Jack

The difficult thing about writing brief, frequent journal entries about a Pokémon game is that Pokémon is very compulsive (which scuppers the ‘frequent’ part) and a single session can last a long time (which scuppers the ‘brief’ part).

So apologies for the massive jump in time.

Three Gyms later, my team has been filled out, but is by no means final:

Quilava (aka Ashley), lvl. 16 – Ashley is yet to have a real shining moment in battle, but otherwise she’s coming along nicely. Since evolving into Quilava, her battle sprite now sports a wicked-looking fire mohawk.
Butterfree (aka Lowfat), lvl. 18 – I have never, in my history of playing Pokémon, trained one of the Bug-types available near the start of the game. But after ten years, you have to try to keep things interesting. Surprisingly, Lowfat has proved very effective, especially in catching Pokémon, (two words. Sleep. Powder). But as an early Bug-type, she’s unfortunately doomed to hit her ceiling of usefulness before Victory Road.
Onix (aka Rocky), lvl. 18 – Rocky’s absolutely massive Defense stat came in handy during the Goldenrod Gym battle. While Whitney’s Miltank kept spamming Rollout to little effect, I was able to Screech that insufferable cow’s Defense into oblivion. His attacks frequently prove inaccurate, however, and his ability – Sturdy – is useless this early in the game (at least in this generation, it’s much improved in Black/White). As one of two Rock types in my party, he’s still on probation.
Geodude (aka Dwayne), lvl. 19 – Dwayne’s crowning achievement was the Azalea Gym battle. When Ashley went down early to Scyther, Dwayne stepped in, only to be faced with Metapod. Metapod’s Tackles proved near-ineffectual, allowing Dwayne to vastly increase his Speed and Defense with Rock Polish and Defense Curl. When Scyther re-emerged, Dwayne quickly took revenge for Ashley. Dwayne is the more likely of the two Rock types to remain in the party, as he is also equipped with a Ground-type move, plus the HM Rock Smash. But Onix’s evolution remains inticing…
Flaffy (aka Barbara), lvl 16. – currently my only answer to Water types, Flaffy is badly in need of some more attacks; her Thunder Wave is pointless thanks to her Static ability which paralyzes opponents on contact, and ThunderShock will only take us so far. Nothing remarkable has come of this one yet.
Kadabra (aka Tetsuo), lvl 16. – caught in the wild as an Abra (thanks to the help of Lowfat), Tetsuo’s place in the party is still up in the air. With ridiculously high Special Attack comes laughable Defense, he currently only knows Teleport and Confusion and he was relegated to a sacrificial role in the Goldenrod Gym battle. I’ve had mixed results from Psychic Pokémon in the past, and with the next Gym specialising in Ghost-types, he won’t be of any real use for a while yet.

Auditions for a Water-type are still open as we head out onto Route 35…

The HeartGold Chronicles #2: Nic

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Jack

An old man gave me his running shoes. I’m wondering if he thought I was homeless.

After casually inviting myself into the home of everyone in town, I head north to finish Elm’s errand. I arrive at the house of Mr. Pokémon, who gives me a “Mystery Egg” to take back to Elm. Will it end up boiled, fried or scrambled? NOBODY KNOWS.

A familiar face is also there; Professor Oak! He gives me a Pokédex…so apparently he’s just handing them out to anyone who has a Pokémon now. One wonders how the Pokédex project gets its funding if they’re all given away for free. They seem like expensive pieces of kit.

Upon leaving Mr. Pokémon’s house, I receive a call from Elm. Trouble at the old lab! I sprint back, only to run into a red-haired trainer. He effectively calls me a sh*thead and battles me with his Pokémon, a Totodile. That’s funny, Professor Elm had a Totodile at his lab! I’ll have to tell him about that.

We whip out our Tackles and eventually Totodile is overwhelmed. The trainer runs off, but not before I learn his name…that is to say, my avatar learns his name but I remain unenlightened. Y u no share? I am controlling your every move, in case you hadn’t noticed!

I arrive at the lab and am immediately interrogated by the police. There’s been a break-in! A Totodile has gone missing! Oh hey, Professor Elm, that reminds me, I battled this kid with a Totodile, just like the one…

Oh.

The officer interrogating me asks for the name of the trainer, and I’m presented with a name entry screen. This raises several questions.

Did my player character forget my rival’s name already?
Does my player character know the true name of my rival and is now trying to throw the police of his trail by giving him a different name?
Did my player character decide he didn’t like my rival’s original name and wants to give him a better one?

I acquiesce to their little game and give the suspect a name. What else to call him on this journey but N-I-C-H-O-L-A-no more space. Damnit. Nicholas sounds so much more threatening than Nic.

No offense, but I don’t see the great Pokémon trainer “Nic” striking fear into the hearts of all. But I guess that makes it all the more amusing.

In all seriousness, it’s nice to have a rival who acts like a dick after three games (White, White 2 and Platinum) where the rival is just a competitive best friend/pussy.

In any case, I now have a cause: take this cracker down.

…

Hehe, Nic ‘nicked’ a Totodile!

The HeartGold Chronicles #1: Ashley

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Jack

I love Pokémon. It’s my favourite video game franchise.

It would take too much time to explain why (and I shan’t dwell on the irony of being primarily a PlayStation fan when my favourite game is only available on a Nintendo console). All I’ll say is that it appeals to my love for RPGs, turn-based strategy, creature design and even my nature as a person. It remains the sole reason I own a DS.

I sank at least 100 collective hours, most likely more, into Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow on various Game Boys that I borrowed from friends. When I finally got a DS to play White, I sank three times that many hours into it. And I’ve lost several more to Sapphire, Platinum and White 2.

But I missed Gold and Silver – the supposed peak of the series – completely.

That changes today. Not only that, but I’m bringing a friend along for the ride.

Continue reading →

The long, troubled and ongoing history of All-Star Guide #8.

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Jack

Several months ago: I decide to make a special All-Star Guide for April Fool’s featuring Crash Bandicoot. I plan to start production of All-Star Guide #8 early and work on both videos simultaneously, with a scheduled release of April 2nd for ASG #8.

During ASG #7 production: Version 1.09 of PlayStation All-Stars is revealed. Priority shifts to making what would eventually become the All-Star Addendum. Pre-production of the April Fool’s Guide begins (planning, determining footage required etc.).

March 20th: Version 1.09 goes live, production begins for both the All-Star Addendum and the April Fool’s Guide. Target date for ASA, March 26th. Original ETA for ASG #8 looking increasingly unlikely.

March 29th: All-Star Addendum goes live, slightly behind schedule. Pre-production for ASG #8 begins (practicing with character, script notes etc.). Target date is now April 8th…but then my manager asks me to do some overtime on April 7th, aka Editing Day.

April 1st: April Fool’s Guide goes live, on schedule. Pleased as punch with the final product, which includes aforementioned target date of April 8th for ASG #8, against my better judgement. Script for ASG #8 is nearing completion.

Sometime between April 2nd and 4th: Script completed.

April 5th: Back in the real world, new flatmate begins moving in. Family is also present to oversee several deliveries for pending bathroom renovation. With these distractions, plus my extra shift on the coming Sunday, I have no choice but to change ETA to ‘as soon as possible’.

April 8th: ASG #8 is a no-show. New capture device arrives in the post.

April 9th: Work on ASG #8 has effectively been stalled. Script remains the only evidence of progress. Apology video goes live.

April 10th-12th: Narration is finally recorded and edited (without incident, unlike the last two ASGs). Begin testing new capture device, with eventual success.

April 15th: More family visits. Work begins on bathroom renovation, distracting me severely. Suddenly overcome with ‘feels’, mainly of anxiety and lack of self-esteem. News of the Boston Bombings do not help. In short, numerous missed opportunities to begin recording footage.

April 17th: Begin editing ASG #8 in a bid to regain enthusiasm. It seems to work. Finally attempt to record footage but am interrupted by the newfound chaos around me. Once again, feeling like a crappy human being.

April 19th: Family returns home after a week-long visit. Essentially nothing accomplished during that time.

April 21st: Plumbers are finished for the week, the coast is finally clear to record. All required footage successfully recorded with new capture device. Let the record show that it was necessary for me to capture the footage from my new laptop, due to the capture software’s system requirements. The plan is to transfer the footage via external HDD to my old laptop, which runs my current video editor more sufficiently than my new one (thanks, Windows 8).

About two hours ago: An exasperating development; the old laptop cannot handle the footage recorded from the new capture device (most likely due to its far superior quality), causing the video editor to freeze frequently and play back the footage at roughly three frames per second. Decide to transfer the files back to the new laptop and run the video editor on there. The footage plays back perfectly and the editor appears to run smoothly…and then I discover that – either by fault of the footage or the editor’s slight incompatibility with Windows 8 – the essential ‘trimming’ feature of the editor is completely unusable, crashing the editor completely.

Now: Production of ASG #8 has been postponed indefinitely. Two choices are apparent: 1) acquire a new video editor. 2) Record every single piece of footage again with my old capture device, so that I can edit it efficiently with my current editor.

Tl;dr:

ASG #8 shouldn’t be taking this long.

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Jack

Current status: narration has been recorded and edited. Gameplay footage still to record and obviously putting it all together still to do.

This…unnecessarily long production time is due to several things. The plumbers taking apart my bathroom as I write this is the most immediate one. Constant family visits to supervise that process is another. I’m also getting to grips with my new capture device for the gameplay footage and searching for a new program within my budget to edit with (because f*** you, Roxio VideoWave).

But perhaps the most overriding reason of all is me. I’m being a crappy person right now. Since I made the decision to leave university, I’ve felt indecisive, unmotivated and unenthusiastic about my life in general. But lately I’ve felt this anxiety towards…well, doing anything that requires effort, really. That’s part of the reason things have slowed down on this site, as of late.

I won’t bore/disturb you by diving into my psyche here but understand that the ASGs are not the source of my anxiety. Not at all. Yeah, making them is a chore but seeing the end product honestly makes it all worth it. And no-one ever made something they’re proud of without putting some elbow grease into it, right?

I’ll get over this hump eventually. All I can offer you right now are my humblest apologies. Until next time…