Maybe I should Stop Wearing Shorts
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((This is being resubmitted due to a mistake made earlier. A new installment should be coming shortly after.))
Everyone voted Nimbleaf....So Nimbleaf it is! His name is Sail, and his Fat is, in fact, quite Thick.
All the same, I'll be linking the two◊ losers'◊ Pokédex data, as I will for all of the Constellation mods' new mons.
Our rival, named Kareem, does what every rival is wont to do, next.
Despite his somewhat intense looking battle sprite◊ he's a mostly friendly kind of guy, with happy go lucky, friendly kind of battle music.
Even the incidental theme that plays when he's in the area sounds... heroic, actually. Not particularly happy go lucky.
All the same, we defeat him, and our Nimbleaf Sail hits level 6. Afterwards, we explore calm, peaceful Route 501 for a bit, a surprisingly wide open, snowy field with a modest selection of Pokémon. Canonical mons Tailow
◊, a Normal/Flying bird with the decent, if not great, final form of Swellow; and Pineco
◊, a pure Bug type defensive irritant prone to Protecting themselves with shields that waste your turn and Self Destructing in firey explosions, can be encountered here (and are favored by the Lasses and Youngsters in the area). These particular creatures leap from the tall grass to a to a new beat alongside just one of many, many newcomers, namely Glachild◊.
I mentioned it in the inaugural entry, but Glachild, despite appearing as early in the game as they do and sporting the Ice type, normally a notoriously weak attribute, can carry its weight for most of the game. It learns a diverse array of moves, including two new Ice techniques with unusual properties, and has a well balanced stat spread that favors special attacks. Of course, as a child, still, there's more to this squat creature than we've seen so far....
It's also the only new mon to be had until after the first badge. Kinda dropped the ball there, guys.
Rather than a tutorial or fetch quest for Professor Holly, the requisite 5 starter Pokeball set is instead entirely optional, and is handed to you by a woman in a house on Route 501. The single man in every Pokémon region absolutely fascinated with the miracles of technology is also a slim guy loitering outside her home. Innovation!
We engage with a few of the very◊ poorly◊ dressed◊ local kids, gathering experience for our ever growing posse to a slightly re-arranged Altair and Sirius battle tune. One young man whines about his frozen Pocket Balls◊, but otherwise, the journey on through Route 502 and its guard house is uneventful. 3 kids are hanging out upstairs and are just as cold as they well should be, but don't seem to be doing much just yet.
The eastern exit from the gatehouse has one last trainer keeping us from our next destination, and a final patch of grass containing none other than the elusive egg-themed creature Togepi
◊. Sadly, the Fairy type hadn't been invented at the time of this mod's release, so it remains a rather underwhelming pure Normal type, and its evolutions, while respectable with proper abuse of their rare and very powerful ability, Serene Grace, just aren't as good as they could be.
We linger to capture one of the would-be Fairies anyway, and move on to the town hosting our first gym, Junopsis City! With the scent of tenderness on the nose,◊ we explore town and eventually meet a man kind enough to entrust us with a Nugget, to return a favor we provided back in Altair or Sirius. A girl loitering in front of the gym lets us know she's not moving until we go handle the Winstrate siblings back in the gatehouse on Route 502.
That name might be familiar to fans of the original Ruby and Sapphire. And if it's not... no worries. It doesn't really seem to mean much in this context, anyway.
This Lass may well be the first person to send you to a Pokemon Center against your will.
All three kids have fairly low leveled Pokémon, but, for whatever reason, the Youngster uses a different sprite◊ than all previously encountered youngsters, as does his older sister. For her, I can see why the effort was made. Her team is kind of nuts for this point in the game.
Leading with a Nidoran female
◊, who can hit a Nimbleaf's Poison weakness with Poison Sting, Disable your most appropriate move to challenge it with... Disable, and Double Kick a Fighting type weak Glachild or Togepi, it's surprisingly well rounded and capable for this point in the game.
Her following mon, a Houndour
◊, puts in its share of work, too. Dark Roar, a brand new attack, is a Special based Dark typed equivalent to Quick Attack, one of a handful of moves that can be used to always precede an attacking opponent, gives it a powerful-at-this-point option to whittle down your Hit Points, and unlike Ember, it can't be mitigated or resisted with abilities or type matchups just yet.
She has a Tailow that I'm sure is troublesome too, but my Glachild killed it in one blow and I can't remember what it does otherwise. Ah well. Let's assume it spams Double Team. That would suck.
Last up is her own Nimbleaf, with a bullsh*t impossible moveset at the level you fight it. Most notable is Glide, a middle-of-the-road strong Flying type physical attack. It has a slew of other useful techniques, too, but once again my Glachild bodied it too quickly to refresh my memory. Sorry!
Each kid has each and every one of their Pokémon equipped with an Oran Berry, which is more than enough to get each of the creatures close to full Hit Points again should you fail to fell them in one hit. It's a surprising little challenge for so early in the game, but it's nothing compared to what's waiting for us the next couple of screens over. With the Winstrate siblings defeated, there's nowhere to go but Junopsis Gym!
