Grandia - Map

As I said, my next location were the Lama Mountains, where coincidentally,  I believe I got another mana egg or two, unless I remember it incorrectly. The area was a bit lengthy and It took me even longer to get through it due to not playing through all of it in one go, but eventually, I got to the other side, to Gumbo Village, which has one of the funniest parts in the story.

Grandia - Party

Wind is the first element for Sue, but it probably won’t be the only one.

As we walk in, everyone runs away from Justin and Feena, thinking they’re a couple. For some reason, that’s a big no-no in Gumbo Village. Eventually, we get to the mayor and Justin volunteers both Feena and himself to be “the heroic couple” of legends because hey, it’s fun and the villagers seem to like the idea. Soon after, it turns out that the thing that makes the couple heroic is that they’re going to be sacrificed to the dragon living at the local volcano. The dragon is somehow stopping the volcano from working properly, causing the usually nice and warm Gumbo Village to get called. Since a couple needs to be sacrificed for some unexplained reason, everyone denies even liking anyone else, which is why the villagers are acting crazy.

Grandia - Catapult

You know it’s a big catapult when you have time for a talk in the air.

Anyway, Justin and Feena sort of find this out when it’s already too late, and they get catapulted into the volcano. This got me into the next area, where I soon regrouped with Sue and Gadwin and then spent the next hour or two, or three, exploring it and getting all the items. Again, it would and should have been faster, but I’ve played it sporadically and in short bursts, so I was forced to keep retracing my steps. Eventually, I got some nice accessories, one of which gives me an extra swing with my regular attack and eventually got to the boss. The dragon was easy to deal with and before I knew it, I was back at Gumbo Village.

Grandia - Dragon

The dragon was an easy fight, just like all of the others.

Justin and Feena had a nice moment and then it was time to go to the next area – The Twin Towers. The Twin Towers are ancient ruins located beyond the nearby mountains. Since the mountains were poisonous (I’m guessing the volcano has something to do with that, I had to go by boat. As soon as I got there, it was obvious the Garyle forces where already there. I explored the outer area and managed to get into the inner area thanks to Justin saying they’re local guides hired by the army.

Eventually, I got to the central chamber, where Justin and Gadwin had a clash with Mullen (and failed), before Leen, Feena, Mullen and Justin managed to somehow activate a teleporter pad and got transfered underground into the ruins. Justin got paired with Leen, while Feena was stuck with Mullen. For the most part, the underground area was simple and I would have gone past it by now, if it weren’t for a serious problem.

Grandia - Mullen

Mullen seems sort of decent here.

The game freezes at the end of the Twin Towers. This, in all likelihood,  has something to do with it being a eboot conversion of the regular PlayStation game, but I tried all I could think off with no luck. I’m stuck at the moment where Justin and Leen activate one of those communication crystals. Liete says “Welcome” and is just about to say “he who carries the spirit stone” when everything just stops. I tried pausing my game (PSP Go) and reloading that state, but it didn’t help. I tried changing my ISO driver – nothing.

Grandia - Twin Towers Freeze

The game freezes a few seconds after this.

 

I’m afraid there will be no more Grandia on the PSP for me. All is not lost, though. I did some research and I think it’s possible to transfer a PSP save to a PC emulator, so I’ll try to load up ePSXe in a couple of days and finish the game that way. For now, I have to pick another game to play on the PSP. I think I might go for something that isn’t a JRPG this time, but I can’t make any promises. That is my favorite console genre, after all.

 

Pokemon Crystal - 8 Badges

As promised, my next goal in Pokemon Crystal was Blackthorn City and the local dragon type gym. The way the story goes is that the gym actually belongs to Lance, the cool NPC I helped deal with Team Rocket, but while he’s away, his younger sister Clair is running it. It also turns out she’s kind of bratty, since she “couldn’t believe I beat her” and made me jump through hoops to get the badge. I actually had to go clear an extra dungeon before I finally had eight badges.

Pokemon Crystal - Clair

Clair was mostly a pushover, thanks to Noctowl and Heracross.

Clair was easy to beat, by the way, even though she used dragon Pokemon. Her three Dragonairs weren’t able to touch me damage-wise  and her Kingdra soon fell to Heracross and Noctowl. I couldn’t use most of my Pokemon, though, since the dragon type is highly resistant to most common types.

With that out of the way, I could finally go to the Pokemon League, but before I did that, I decided to go to the Tin Tower, since it was unlocked now that I beat Team Rocket. In there, after some trainer battles, I encountered Suicine, but I wasn’t able to catch it and instead ended up defeating it. I don’t think I’ll work on getting all the legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Crystal, since the only legendaries that truly feel legendary to me are the three birds of the first generation and maybe Lugia.

Pokemon Crystal - Kanto

The entrance to the Kanto region is right next to the main character’s house.

To finally get to the league, I had to go to the Kanto region first, and the road towards it was right next to my house in New Bark Town. Soon enough, I got to the Victory Road. Compared to Yellow, the place was basically a hallway, which I welcome with open arms. I never liked long twisting passages in my dungeons. Give me optional areas, but let me know they’re optional areas.

Eventually, I got to the league and the training started. I took some time to get my entire team to around 45, which was simply with most of my Pokemon.  Pikachu handled the rock types of Victory Road with Iron Tail, Kingler used Surf, Bayleef dominated with Razor Leaf and even Noctowl started kicking ass once it learned Confusion. Heracross and Phanpy had some difficulties, but nothing Exp. Share couldn’t handle.

Pokemon Crystal - The Team

Level 46 is probably the low end of the recommended level group.

My team was trained and I was ready. Or not!

Apparently, level 45 with my team composition was nowhere near enough to beat the Elite Four of Pokemon Crystal. I didn’t even get to see all of them.

Will, the first of the four used Psychic Pokemon, so I had to train up Pikachu to at least one-hit knockout some of them, but even so, Exeggutor and Jynx would usually ruin my team.  Eventually, I got through it and after a few attempts, I was able to beat Will on a regular basis, but that didn’t help.

Pokemon Crystal - Pokemon League

The Pokemon League building quickly turned into a respawn area.

Koga, the gym leader of Pokemon Yellow and a user of Bug Pokemon sounded easy, but I apparently have insanely bad luck with poison, so he would usually finish me off before I could get to Bruno, user of Rock and Fighting types. I actually didn’t get past Bruno yet. The Elite Four really are the Elite Four in Pokemon Crystal, apparently.

Next up, training. Lot’s and lot’s of training.

 

 

Pokemon Crystal - Lance

This time in Pokemon Crystal, as promised, I went straight towards Lake of Rage. Of course, I couldn’t fly there yet, so instead, I flew to Ecruteak City and went east, over Route 42, towards Mahogany Town. There was a Gym there, but I couldn’t challenge it until I dealt with the situation at the Lake of Rage.

To this day, the red Gyarados is the only “shiny” Pokemon I ever caught (and probably ever will), so I caught it again, just for fun. Of course, I won’t be using it, but it’s something I don’t mind keeping in one of my boxes.

Pokemon Crystal - The Maze

The forest maze had some useful items.

The lake itself, I’ve managed to clear relatively quickly, but thanks to fast-forwarding everything, I missed the part where Lance tells me where to go next, so I spent some time wandering around the area, exploring the forest maze to the northwest and finding a hidden hut with a TM. Eventually, I figured out I needed to go back to Mahogany Town.

In a house there, Lance uncovered an underground passage to a Team Rocket base, so I spent the next twenty-or-so minutes fighting Rattatas and various other weak Pokemon. Eventually, I got through it and got back out, finally unlocking the Mahogany Gym.

Pokemon Crystal - Rocket Executive

This time, Team Rocket was more of a company than a crime organization.

The gym type was Ice, so Pikachu really kicked some ass. Overall, I can’t say I had any trouble with clearing it. I got my seventh badge and was ready to go to the next city. To get to Blackthorn City, I had to go through an ice cave filled with sliding and boulder puzzles. Luckily, the random encounters weren’t too frequent, so I managed to solve the puzzles and get through in a relatively short amount of time.

Pokemon Crystal - Ice Path

The Ice Path was actually fun to get through.

Once I was out, I got to the city, but I couldn’t tackle the gym yet. I had to unlock it by completely defeating Team Rocket. To do that, I went to the Radio Tower at Goldenrod City. Before that, however, It was time to catch my final team member – Phanpy. He appeared at Route 46 in the morning, so it took me a while to find one. Even worse, he has a tendency to run away from battles, so I had to waste a couple of Ultra Balls before I could finally catch it. I spent some time leveling it, before I finally went to Goldenrod City.

Pokemon Crystal - Phanpy

Pretty soon, the old canceling annoyance started.

Ash’s Donphan – Move List

  • Tackle
  • Rollout
  • Take Down
  • Defense Curl
  • Earthquake
  • Hidden Power
  • Hyper Beam

Phanpy won’t be evolving to Donphan in this game, but I plan to use the stronger moves anyway, since I have no idea which moves he used in his unevolved form. The move list isn’t very interesting anyway, so I’m not sure how much I’ll like this one. Still, the plan is to keep everyone in the same level range, so that’s what I’ll be doing.

Pokemon Crystal - Egg Hatched

I finally got around to bringing Togepi to the Professor – I got an Everstone for Bayleef.

The Tower was a huge area I had to visit twice to completely clear. First, I had to go to the top of the unlocked area to get a key to another dungeon at the Goldenrod Underground. Clearing that dungeon then got me a Key Card which unlocked the second area of the Radio Tower. Once that final area was cleared and the new Team Rocket boss was defeated,  the Team Rocket side quest was finally over.

Next up, Blackthorn Gym.

After Ecruteak, Pokemon Crystal starts to twist around for a bit. I got to the next city, which was Olivine, but the gym leader was gone to the top of the Olivine lighthouse, where a Pokemon was sick. In order to have her battle me, I had to go to the next city, Cianwood, and get some medicine for the Pokemon. This is where a problem appeared.

You see, Cianwood is the island City/Gym of Pokemon Crystal. I had the Surf HM as well as the badge needed to use it, but I didn’t have a water Pokemon. I decided to bring back Kingler from Yellow, pretty much the same way as I did with Pikachu. I caught a Krabby with the Good Rod I got at Olivine City, saved my game and loaded up Pikasav.

I reduced Krabby’s level to 5, taught him all the moves Kingler knew and copied Kingler’s stat values. Once that was over and I loaded up my game, I spent about twenty minutes leveling my new/old Kingler until it caught up in levels with the rest of my party, meaning I got him up to around  level 31. I guess I’m gonna have a full team in Pokemon Crystal after all.

Pokemon Crystal - Shuckie

I also got a free Pokemon at Olivine. To the box!

I surfed all the way to Cianwood, got the medicine and cleared the gym while I was there. This one was full of fighting type Pokemon, with Chuck, the leader, having a dual water/fighting type in the form of Polywag (or Polywhirl or whatever, I keep forgetting the name of that one). I’m still leveling all of my Pokemon equally, though this was a bit tough here, with my Noctowl being hit pretty hard due to being half-normal type. Still, even Noctowl managed to defeat a Pokemon or two, so everyone remained within a level of each other.

Pokemon Crystal - Bayleef

Chikorita evolved and I’m still forced to keep cancelling it’s evolution.

Oh, did I mention I caught a Noctowl? Well, I caught a Noctowl! It’s a pretty awesome Pokemon, and while attempting to catch it, I realized Route 37 was an amazing place to train at night, with some very easy Pokemon as well as some very high-exp Pokemon to fight against. Noctowl is pretty cool, what with being able to learn Psychic moves and all.

Ash’s Noctowl – List of Available Moves

  • Peck
  • Hypnosis
  • Foresight
  • Tackle
  • Confusion
  • Sky Attack
  • Air Slash
  • Extrasensory

Sadly, due to game constraints, I won’t be able to learn a lot of these moves. Fly will probably be the only flying move I’ll teach it and it’s going to need to learn Flash as well, since there’s no way I’m wasting Pikachu’s move slot on that one. Outside of that, I might teach it Confusion or even Extrasensory if I get to that point.

By the way, let’s not forget Kingler

Ash’s Kingler – List of Available Moves

  • Harden
  • ViceGrip
  • Leer
  • Stomp
  • Watergun
  • Bubble
  • Crabhammer
  • Hyper Beam

Kingler is going to get hurt by the HM requirements even more than Noctowl, what with someone having to learn Surf, Whirpool and eventually Waterfall. I believe there’s a move deleter in this game, but I’m not sure if I’m able to get rid of any HM moves early enough in the game to matter. I do really want him to learn Crabhammer, though, simply for it being Kingler’s signature move.

Back to the Game

To get back to the game, I got the medicine, beat the gym, went back to Olivine to cure the Olivine lighthouse Pokemon and then promptly beat the gym leader here. The gym didn’t have any trainers, so it was quick and easy. All she had were some steel Pokemon, which Kingler easily took care off with Surf. I have Fly now!

Pokemon Crystal - Map

Having a proper map makes the game infinitely better than Yellow.

Next up, Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage.  I’m gonna catch myself a shiny Gyarados.

Pokemon Crystal - Rival

Last time in Pokemon Crystal, my way forward was blocked by a Sudowoodo. The game made it very obvious I need to get a watering can from a flower shop in Ecruteak City. I guess that’s how the game introduces me to the berry growing feature at the same time, but I’m not really interested in that part since, thanks to fast forward, there’s no way I’ll keep playing this game for days. I needed the gym badge to get the can to, so the whole Sudowoodo thing also served as a type of checkpoint, stopping me from moving on before I do everything that needs doing in Goldenrod City. Since I had the badge, spoke to the girl next to Sudowoodo and found out about the water thing, I got the can faster than it took me to write all of this.

Pokemon Crystal - Rival

My Croatian/Slavic readers might chuckle at this one.

I got past Sudowoodo and caught it for my collection (just as I did with all the legendaries in Pokemon Yellow) and moved on past Routes 36 and 37, to Ecruteak City. The Ecruteak Gym was ghost type, so none of my Pokemon were especially useful, but all of them were able to do decent damage to the enemy Pokemon. I ended up using all three of my Pokemon equally, with Pikachu taking the final battle against Morty. I got the badge and a TM, so I was no ready for the next gym. Before that, though, I can finally evolve my Chikorita, so that’s what I’m going to do next.

There’s one more thing I also need to do. I need to go back to Route 37, or move on to Route 38 and catch a Noctowl. I believe Ash caught it earlier in the anime, but Route 37 was the earliest I could get one in the game. I think it only appears at night, though, since I haven’t encountered one yet. In any case, Noctowl will be a critical part of my team, since I’ll be learning Fly relatively soon. After that, there’s only Phanpy left, really. I could possibly get Larvitar, but not permanently, and I don’t think there’s even a way to catch one before completing the game.

Pokemon Crystal - Morty

Morty was relatively easy, but Chikorita is yet to shine.

So, it turns out, if I did my research right, there’s only five Pokemon, including Pikachu, that I can get in Pokemon Crystal if I follow Ash’s story as closely as possible. With trade or cheats, I can get all of them, but the annoying part is, ash get’s all three of the starters as well as an excellent bug type before he gets to the first two gyms, so I think that would really take the fun out of the game. This is why I decided on only picking one starter. I keep saying this, but it’s quickly becoming obvious the game and the anime aren’t very related. It’s the same world, but it doesn’t even follow the exact same rules. I mean, Pikachu beat Onyx.

 

Pokemon Crystal - Togepi

The next couple of gyms in Pokemon Crystal really went by quickly. It’s not that the span between them is much shorter than in other games. My team just wasn’t able to grow, thanks to the game being inconsistent with the anime. I expected this, though. As I said, the only game in the Pokemon franchise which remains remotely true to the anime was Pokemon Yellow.

I was advancing Pikachu and Chikorita side by side, switching to the other one as soon as the first one went a level ahead. I think I’ll try doing this with my entire team in time. It really makes things simpler and more relaxed and enjoyable.

Pokemon Crystal - Cancelling Evolution

I really need to get an everstone, one way or another.

Soon after the Violet City gym, I was forced to start cancelling Chikorita’s evolution, since she only evolves much later in the story. Luckily, my old partner, Pikachu, doesn’t have this issue. I’m seriously thinking about cheating my way into owning a couple of everstones, simply to make it less annoying.

Pokemon Crystal - Puzzle

I solved the puzzle, but I’m not interested in Unknown.

I stopped by the Ruins of Alph and solved a puzzle there, but all that got me was the option to fight and capture Unknowns, which I’m not sure Ash ever encountered in the anime. It’s an interesting side quest, but not for me or this challenge. Pretty soon, I was in Azalea Town, beating the second gym. This one was bug based, so I used Pikachu again.

After that, I finally got to Ilex Forest, where Ash catches a Noctowl in the anime. There are only Hoothoots in the game here, though, so Noctowl will have to wait. I did get one very important thing, however – Headbutt. As soon as I got it, I backtracked to the area before Violet City and used it on some trees there. After a couple of tries, I encountered and caught my Heracross. My team is now 50% larger!

List of moves Heracross uses in the anime

  • Tackle
  • Horn Attack
  • Endure
  • Leer
  • Take Down
  • Fury Attack
  • Megahorn
  • Sleep Talk
  • Focus Punch
  • Hyper Beam

I spent some time helping Heracross catch up in experience and then moved on towards Goldenrod, passing through Ilex Forest and leaving my newly hatched Togepi at the Day Care Center along the way. The owner gave me another egg to carry with me, though.

Pokemon Crystal - Heracross

Rival battles are always worth it.

Goldenrod City was the big city of the game. It had a bike shop, a flower shop, a gym and a department store, a game corner as well as an underground area full of trainers. Most of it didn’t interest me, but I spent some time at the underground area to train and to at least pick up the coin case, even if I won’t use it.

Pokemon Crystal - Whitney

You actually need to talk to Whitney twice to get the badge. Evil!

The gym was normal based, so this time, all three of my Pokemon were able to contribute. The only difficulty I had with the place was with the gym leader’s last Pokemon, a Milktank. That thing is basically an overpowered Chansey. Well, I’m not sure if it’s overpowered, but it’s at least as powerful and annoying as Chansey was.  By the way, is it just me, or the gym types in Crystal a bit “different” compared to the other games?

I moved on north of Goldenrod but soon found a Sudowoodo was blocking my way. A nearby NPC said it hates water, so I’m guessing I’ll need to go to the flower shop. More on that later, though. This is where my session ended.

 

Pokemon Crystal - Pikachu

You won’t believe it, but it actually happened. I actually got around to actually playing Pokemon Crystal. Let’s get some things out of the way first.

Pokemon Crystal Looks Awesome!

Well, no it doesn’t;not really. Compared to Pokemon Yellow, though, it might as well be a next-gen game. It really says something about the programmers achievement when you go back to an ancient sequel of an ancient game and it manages to impress you with technological advancements.

Pokemon Crystal - Pokedex

I’m loving the new Pokedex!

Pokemon Crystal is not Pokemon Yellow

The further I go with this challenge, the harder it will probably get to actually, properly, follow the anime.  Pokemon Yellow was the only obvious choice, since the game was basically made to follow the anime. From that point on, the game protagonist had very little to do with Ash.

That being said, I’ll continue to do everything I can, within reason, to follow the TV show as closely as possible.

Pokemon Crystal - Chikorita

A grass type was very unsuitable for the early game.

The Road to the Violet City Gym

As I already said, I couldn’t really transfer my Pokemon to the Crystal in any reasonable time period, so I opted for a sort of worthy alternative. I “transferred” my Pikachu and added Pokedex entries to all the other Pokemon I caught. If i need any of them during the game, I’ll add them individually.

Now, in the anime, Ash obtains all three of the starters, but there was no way for me to do that in Pokemon Crystal or any of the other two Generation II games without cheats, so I decided to just pick Chikorita, since that was the first of the starters Ash obtained. This means I started the game with Chikorita and Pikachu. Pikachu started at level 2, to simulate the apparent reduction in strength he often goes through in each new region, but thanks to his attribute experience (similar to Effort Values of the later games), he quickly outgrew Chikorita by a large margin.

Rule Expansion!

When I started Pokemon Crystal, I decided to try to expand on the rules a bit. From now on, I’ll aim to also only use moves Ash’s Pokemon have used in the anime. I probably won’t be able to follow this absolutely, but I’ll do my best to make it as close as possible. Of course, I’m limited to four moves per Pokemon, so I’ll have to pick which four I’ll be using:

Chikorita’s Moves in the Anime

  • Razor Leaf
  • Vine Whip
  • Tackle
  • Sweet Scent
  • Body Slam
  • Headbutt

Pikachu will be sort of an exception, since his repertoire constantly changes throughout the series, so I’m having a hard time finding his move set for the Johto region. I’ll mostly use his signature moves, which means Slam and Light Screen need to go away as soon as possible.

Pokemon Crystal - Pikachu

Thunder vs Flying? No problem!

I was supposed to catch Heracross right away at route 29, but the only way to encounter it was by using Headbutt on trees in mountain regions. Route 29 is a mountain region, but I won’t get Headbutt until Illex forest, so Heracross will have to wait. The other two Pokemon Ash obtains before the gym in Violet City are the starters, so Chikorita and Pikachu ended up being my Violet team and will probably remain the only members of the team for a while.

Speaking of the gym, it was a flying type gym, meaning that, just like in the anime, Chikorita wasn’t at all suited for it. On the other hand, Pikachu had absolutely no issues with defeating the two trainers and the gym leader.

The first badge is mine! I got an egg from one of Professor Elm’s aides at the Pokemon Center and was ready for my next gym. The egg will hatch into a Togepi, by the way.

Pokemon Yellow - Random

Since I missed a bunch of things in my Pokemon Yellow playthrough, I decided to do some research on Pokemon Crystal and the Johto part of the anime series, so I could develop a sort of plan about what I’ll be doing. I’m still going to make a bunch of mistakes, probably even more than before, but at least I’ll feel a bit better about it.

The first thing I did was to see which episodes the major game events happen in and which Pokemon Ash obtains.  This is what I’ve figured out:

Pokemon Yellow - Kabuto

No new screenshots, so here’s some from Yellow

List of Pokemon Ash Obtains in the Johto Region

  • Heracross
  • Chikorita – evolves in Johto
  • Totodile
  • Cyndaquil – doesn’t evolve in Johto
  • Noctowl – caught already evolved
  • Beedril – given to a friend right away
  • Phanpy – doesn’t evolve in Johto
  • Larvitar – not really caught, leaves soon

The list isn’t exactly huge, that’s the first problem. The second problem is that there’s no version of the game which “follows the anime more closely” as Pokemon Yellow was in the first generation. Sadly, this means that I can only pick one out of the three starters. Overall, other than my Pikachu, by the end of the game, I’ll be using Heracross, Bayleef, Noctowl and Phanpy.  It’s not exactly a huge team, but it can work. I might have to catch an HM slave, though.

Pokemon Yellow - Aerodactyl

I got both Kabuto and Aerodactyl, for the collection.

In the anime, Ash obtains Heracross, Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil before the first gym. Chikorita evolves into Bayleef after the fourth gym and kicks major ass in the fifth gym. Both Phanpy and Larvitar hatch from an egg, but I think I’ll be catching them around the time when they’re supposed to be hatched, since eggs are too unpredictable.

I’ll pick Chikorita as my starter, simply because that was the first starter Ash got. If I ever get a chance to catch the other two in later games, I’ll do it. As for Heracross, I’m supposed to catch him at the first route, Route 29, but I need Headbutt to encounter him, so I’ll get back to it after Ilex Forest.

Other than that, I’ll also need a navigation route.

Pokemon Crystal – Quick Walkthrough

  • New Bark Town (Get starter)
  • Route 29 into Cherrygrove City
  • Routes 30, 31 into Violet City (Gym)
  • Ruins of Alph into Route 32 into Azalea Town (Gym)
  • Ilex Forest (get Headbutt)
  • Back to route 31 and catch a Heracross (needs to be a mountain tree)
  • Back to Ilex Forest, Day Care Center, Goldenrod City (Gym)
  • Catch and release Beedril (Headbutt in a forest)
  • After gym, find Sudowoodo and go back to flower shop for the watering can.
  • Get rid of Sudowoodo (catch?)
  • Routes 36 and 37, catch Noctowl
  • Ecruteak City (Gym)
  • Routes 38 and 39, evolve Bayleef
  • into Olivine City (Gym)
  • Routes 40 and 41 into Cyanwood City (Gym)
  • Mt. Mortar, Lake of Rage (shiny Gyarados), Mahogany Town(Gym)
  • Ice Path into Blackthorn City (Gym)
  • Routes 45 and 46, catch a Phanpy, keep it for later

After this, it’s straight for the League. Once that’s over, I can go to Mt. Silver and possibly catch a Larvitar. Ash technically never caught one, but he did use it.

 

 

Grandia - The End of the World

Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to play on my PSP too much, so Grandia was played very little since the last time I wrote about it. I did advance the game a bit, but not too much. However, I also got through a pretty big game event.

Most of my time in the game was spent going back and forth through the forest around the village of Luc. The forest was extremely disorienting and I never got the time to finish it in one sitting, so I kept forgetting where I was and where I needed to go when I got back to the game. Since enemies reset if you leave the area completely, and this happened several times, I ended up basically repeating most of the forest more than once. Eventually, though, I got through it and finally reached the End of the World.

Now, this is a huge wall, with many floors, but it wasn’t really to complex. There was a short break half way to the top, where the group had a nice talk, but eventually, they got to the top realized Justin’s guess was true – it wasn’t really the end of the world. There was plenty to see beyond. Then Sue promptly got picked up by a machine and got thrown off the edge to the jungle bellow. Justin and Feena got thrown soon after.

Grandia - The End of the World

Guess what happens five seconds later?

On the other side, I got control over Justin and Feena and needed to find Sue. The area was pretty big and divided into three or four smaller areas, so I spent a long time exploring, making sure to find all the important stuff. About half way through, I got to a house shaped like a wish, with some soup cooking in a cauldron outside. Sue’s shoe was nearby, so the two jumped to conclusions. Once a large man approached and said “he ate it all”, Justin attacked. The big man was Gadwin, Knight of Dight and a brand new and extremely cool playable character. Of course, he just ate soup and didn’t do anything bad to Sue. She was resting inside his house. Now at this point, the game decided to show me how strong Gadwin really is, so Justin isn’t able to do any damage at all to him. I don’t even get a zero, the hit’s just seem to be deflected. This drags on for about a minute, at which point Gadwin uses his Dragon King Slice and Justin get’s hit for 9999 damage. This is sort of important for later, so if you’re regularly reading this, try to remember it.

Grandia - Gadwin

Remember, kids. Gadwin is really strong.

Soon enough, I had all four characters under my control and I could continue exploring the jungle, on my way to Dight Village. Exploring the place thoroughly was well worth it, since the jungle contained two fresh mana eggs, as well as some other less important items. Eventually, I got to the village, where our next quest was about to begin.

Rain was about to start pouring, which normally wouldn’t be an issue, except this was poisonous, deadly rain. In order to stop the rain from doing the damage, two heroes needed to go to Typhoon Tower and retrieve a special spear from it. Gadwin would, naturally, be the first one, so Justin volunteered to be the other one. This got us to our next dungeon, but before I went there, I decided to use those mana eggs. Gadwin already knew two elements – fire and earth. Additionally, his other two elements were disabled, so he wasn’t able to learn them. Because of this and the fact that I’m 99% sure I didn’t miss any of the mana eggs yet, I decided to finally spend one and teach Sue an element – wind.

After I bought the spell and spent most of my money on fresh gear, I went to the tower. The outside area was simple to navigate through, but also extremely large, so it took me a while to explore all of it. When I got inside, it was suddenly the other way around. The inside of the tower was small, but I had to constantly go back and forth, hitting various switches and opening new passages. Eventually, I got to the top floor, where I had to fight the king of the enemies I fought throughout the area – some strange bird people. Of course, he turned into a multi-headed dragon before I fought him, just to make it a bit more interesting.

Grandia - Typhoon

The tower falls, but everyone is safe.

I defeated the boss and entered the chamber behind the throne room, where Gadwin revealed the catch with the quest. There are two doors. One of them leads to the spear, while the other kills whoever goes through. This is why two heroes are needed – so that one can continue if the other one falls. Gadwin decided to go first, but he’s to big so he can’t fit through the door (remember, this is mostly a kid’s game). This means Justin needs to do it, so he asks Feena to choose for him. Feena picks the door of the Stars (I’m not sure if this is the same in every game) and Justin goes through. It’s the right choice, so he takes the spear, but the tower ends up collapsing on top of him anyway. Luckily, his spirit stone transports him to safety and the village is safe.

Grandia - Spell Store

To spend, or to save. Tough choice.

Next target? The ruins far to the south. Right now, I’m in the village of Dight, trying to decide if I should spend the two mana eggs I have (I got another one at the tower) on Sue, or If I should save them for later. I’m pretty sure Liete and some random thief character are my final two characters, and I’m pretty sure that Liete starts with all the elements already learned, but I’m not sure about the other guy, and I’m not sure how many eggs I can still get before the game ends. I’ll probably spend them, but I might change my mind before my next chance to play the game.

Pokemon Crystal - Title

Over the last few days, I’ve been doing some googling on how to somehow transfer my Pokemon team from Pokemon Yellow to Pokemon Crystal, which is my choice for the second generation game I’ll be playing. I’ve found a couple of possibilities and with plenty of pros and cons for each. Pikasav seemed like the most promising one. It allows editing of first and second generation save games. You can edit individual Pokemon, your team, and PC boxes, stats and can even export a Pokemon and import it into another save.

It has a serious problem, though. It can only import Pokemon into another save of the same generation, possibly even only to the exact same game. I’m sure of the former, but I haven’t tried the latter, so I can’t say for sure. In any case, I could not export my Pokemon from Pokemon Yellow and import them to Pokemon Crystal. I did some more research and for a moment, even considered switching to the DS releases HeartGold and SoulSilver, but I ended up deciding against it because it would only make the eventual switch to Ruby/Sapphire even harder. I also tried looking for other tools that might be able to do it, but apparently, the generation II games have some weird save format which hasn’t been completely cracked yet.

Pokemon Crystal - Title

I couldn’t even make any screenshots, due to the emulator locking up, so here’s the title.

My next option was to manually add a Pokemon to my crystal save by creating a fresh one and then copying the IV and EV values, experience and moves. For a few moments, I actually thought this would work, but it created a whole new set of issues. Each time I would add a Pokemon or an item, my game would freeze upon selecting that Pokemon or item. Clearly,  this wasn’t an option. I did progress a bit, though. I realized I can easily changed my Pokedex data, so I at least managed to add the data from Pokemon Yellow to my Pokedex in Pokemon Crystal.

I then tried playing until I got my starter, saving my game and then editing that starter. I created a copy of it, then changed its species and sprite to my Pikachu and modify its attributes to their proper values form Yellow. This showed promise because my game didn’t freeze this time and I could use my Pikachu fine. All of its data was there to, compared to the previous attempt, where its name and some other information seemed to be corrupted. It didn’t last long, though. After I fought a battle, I realized this wouldn’t work either, because after each battle, I would have several instances of “??? is evolving” and a corrupted sprite being shown on the screen.

Pokemon Crystal - Oak

And here’s professor Oak, in all of his colorized majesty.

For my last try, I resorted to gameshark. I added a couple of pokeballs to my inventory and went to route 29. I then enabled a cheat to make all the random battles against a wild Pikachu and caught one. I saved my game, opened up the save in Pikasav and edited the new Pikachu’s IV’s and stat experience (the EV equivalent of the first two generations) to the values from my Pikachu in Yellow. I decided to leave it at level 2, simply because it feels like in the anime, Pikachu somehow gets weaker in each new region, having to regain and surpass its strength. Thanks to stat experience, this might actually work here to. I also added its old moves and modified them according to my usage of PP Ups in Pokemon Yellow.

This was the first thing I did that worked without causing any issues in the game. It did present an issue for me, though. I would now have to enable a cheat and catch each Pokemon I had in Yellow, then save my game, exit the emulator, open it in Pikasav and modify the values. I decided not to waste my time on this, since in the end, this challenge is about making the game fun for me. Instead, I’ll just modify my Pokedex to add the data from my first game and then add any Pokemon on an individual basis, depending on if and when I need them. Honestly, though, I don’t think I’ll need anything other than my Pikachu.

Pokemon Crystal - Starting Room

The change in graphics really is dramatic. And they say the game changes very little…

In any case, I had my starter and I had my Pikachu. I was ready to start Pokemon Crystal