Pocket Monsters, Dear Readers! - Let's Play Pokémon Platinum

Girl named Bulma, Chimchar named Goku.


...what? It fits gamespite tradition *and* the character design.

So far it looks like a Girl named Dusk and a Turtwig named Geonardo are winning!

Yep, all those changes are nice, especially because my computer is ancient, and the emulator frequently dips down to around 90% speed, so every little bit helps.

I knew I was forgetting something! I don't have my DS with me, so I can't check, but I think the character limit is either 8 or 10.

I actually expected a lot more Ocelot (and Percy) suggestions for the Boy and Rival. And man, I didn't know there was a Platinum LP on SA. But I only check their LP Archive, so I guess maybe the author didn't want it on there or something? I did plan of using some of the SA smilies though, because they're just too good not to.

Human character: 7
Pokemon names: 10

I don't care about the charcater but YOU WILL USE TURTWIG

I've been trying to get people to use the Grass starter for ages - a proud tradition I'll never break!

(Unless the grass starter is magikarp-who-can't-evolve-levels of shitty that is)

EDIT: That challenge sounds pretty awesome actually! I always catch five (maybe a sixth for HMs) and call it a day.

How many pokeymens does that amount to? And are you forbidden to catch legendaries if they're at the end of a dungeon?

Best thing about Turtwig is that he makes an awesome pillow. The Turtwig and Piplup in my avatar I use as pillows. Really comfortable.

The Something Awful Platinum LP is currently in progress.

They didn't actually name the male trainer Ocelot since they went with the girl, but there were a ton of jokes/doodles/GIFs to that effect so the novelty is depleted.

I thought the Grass starter in D/P/Pl was the most accessible way to play? I would've gone with Chimchar, initially, but I was convinced to use Turtwig when I was told the first Gym was Rock, which resists Fire but is weak to Grass. Since it was my first Pokemon game, I went with the suggestion and found that it was a friendly introduction to the game.

Embarrasingly enough, I've never played this generation of games. I'll probably play them somewhen.

I'll throw in another vote for both of these, then. Geonardo is an inspired name anyway.

The starter should have been a Piplup though.

A Piplup named Cirno.

From a team balance perspective, Chimchar should really be the starter of choice because Sinnoh is completely lacking in any decent Fire-types.

That said, Turtwig is probably the best starter, and I regret not choosing Turtwig for my playthrough of Diamond.

Psh, fire types are overrated anyways.

Not so in Platinum, where the Houndoom, Magmortar, and Flareon lines have all been added to the Sinnoh Pokedex.

I thought having barely any fire pokemon and only a couple that are worth a dman was a pokemon tradition.

Yeah, come closer, stand next to Babieca and say that again.

Yeah, Platinum's actually good on fire types compared to Diamond/Pearl, where if you didn't choose Chimchar as your starter it was Ponyta or bust 'til the postgame. I'm usually not that big on using fire types save for Magmortar these days, and that's largely in part due to their lacking TM and HM support.

And of the damndest things, while Fire gets screwed the Water side has Octillery, which while having crappy Speed and not-so-good defenses, has pretty good Attack and Special Attack and has great type coverage available when you delve into TMs/Move Tutors/Egg Moves, including tons of shit a plain Water shouldn't have! The attacks vary in quality, but about the only stuff Octillery can't use is Dragon, Ghost, and Fighting moves.

Reaching the party limit doesn't stop you from catching more, but it's only one per area, like one pokemon from route 201, one from 202, etc. When it comes to caves though, it seems more like a judgement call. I'd say that all the different floors still count as the same cave, so yea, most Legendaries would be off limits. Not like I'd use them anyway, since the last legendary I really liked was Mewtwo.

But since the interest in that challenge seems limited, I'm thinking I might just not bother with it.

Well once the plus side, since Ocelot won't be the name I won't have to comb youtube for all the cutscenes with Ocelot in them to refresh my memory to make jokes beyond "Six Pokeballs. More than enough to catch anything that moves."

God, that was frustrating as hell in Diamond. I went with Turtwig in my first playthrough, and I avoided checking serebii since I wanted to be surprised by the new pokemon I saw, and I kept waiting to find a fire type besides Ponyta.

For those of you who want to see what we'll be able to catch, you can check out the Platinum Sinnohdex at serebii. But we can't catch Murkrow, Misdreavus, Glameow and Stunky, and their evolutions. We also might not be able to get the trade evolutions, but I think I can transfer the save file to my R4, and do the trade that way.

Ooh, if you go that route do you think you could accept traded Pokémon and eggs from the audience and use them the LP?

That would be pretty awesome. Here's hoping it works out!

Oh, that's a good idea, I'll try and test it out tomorrow.

Hey Knight. Even if you don't do the NuzLocke challenge, know that you have convinced me to do it. I'm going to be playing Emerald.

Ooh, ooh, I've got a wacky little egg for you if you're interested.

I'd like to say that it's just the emulator's 3D being wonky, but it's not just that, the floaty tentacle monster's model is pretty bad looking on the actual cart.

A disembodied voice echoes: "Hello there! It's so very nice to meet you! Welcome to the wooooorld of tomorrow world of Pokemon!


I don't care who you are, Professor Oak is still the only Pokemon Professor to me!


"Here, have a Poke Ball.Touch the Button in the middle of the Poke Ball if you'd please."


Make them fight to the death for our own personal glory!


Bad eyesight must be a requirement to be a Pokemon Professor. But then again Japan loves androgyny, so I guess it's better to ask and be sure.


Yep.


Dusk!


Damn right it's a fine name! And he's not my friend by choice, but he is the only other kid in town, so it's not like I've got a lot of options.


Yep, that's the spaz's name.



Sorry to start with such a lackluster update, but I lost track of time over the weekend and I wanted to get something up before the weekend was over. I also tried to use the save file in my R4, and it didn't work. I think I'll need to find some kind of save converter, since the emulator's save file was 86kb and the ones on my R4 are 512kb.

Giratina's glowing red and yellow silhouette is designed to intentionally hide many of its physical aspects and give it an otherworldly feel, like Dialga in Diamond and Palkia in Pearl. The DS has its limits, but it's still a pretty faithful 3D rendition of Giratina's Origin Forme, all things considered. And Dusk won the vote? Heh, awesome. =D

This website converts save files.

Platinum's pretty good in getting legendaries whilst Nuzlocking: you can get Giratina (the only Pokémon in the Distortion World), Dialga (amazingly, the first wild Pokémon to appear on Spear Pillar, even though not until the postgame), and Uxie and Azelf (the only wild Pokémon to appear in their respective caves). Ones you're likely to miss include Mesprit and Cresselia (theoretically possible, but you'll need a lot of luck and a lot of grinding to try to manipulate them into routes you haven't found wild Pokémon on yet), and Heatran (seriously, you'd need to cheat quite seriously to get that one). For non-legendary Pokémon only found in one location (sort-of like Snorlax in the original game), you'll almost certainly miss Rotom (at the end of a mansion full of wild Pokémon), and although you could contrive getting Spiritomb, it probably has the most annoying unlock in Pokémon history. (Yes, more annoying than having to set up the Safari Zone just right and waiting 100 days (HGSS, for several Pokémon), walking thousands of steps in Real Life with a pedometer to make sure you don't cheat (HGSS again), or doing an entire playthrough of an entirely different game (Manaphy, in the 4th gen games). The annoyance level of Spiritomb's unlock is revealed by the fact that the game gives an incredibly good clue as to what it is, yet you're unlikely to be able to figure it out even given the clue, and not even if you guess what it is; and if someone tells you what it is, your reaction is "screw that"; I won't spoil the "surprise" here.) Thus, you might want to play Nuzlocke if only to stop people trying to force you to get Spiritomb. (If you're at all good at Pokémon, playing Nuzlocke basically just forces you to grind more and fear critical hits, by the way; it doesn't make the game massively more difficult, just more likely to lose to bad luck.)

Actually, if you choose not to play Nuzlocke (and you might as well not), I have a request for you; I recommend playing on the higher difficulty (go into "Options" and change the battle style to "Set"). That removes an artificial advantage you have over the AI, making the play a lot more interesting and tactical. (Besides, "Set"-style play is forced in all "official" matches, both the Battle Frontier matches in-game, and between humans out-of-game, so you should probably get used to it.)

Who let you in here?


You were telling me about your harebrained scheme to get some Pokemon from Professor Rowan before your ADD kicked in. Did you hide your ritalin under your tongue again?


Psh, with how impatient you are, you always think I'm late.


Alright, first things first; I gotta fix the options and pick a better frame!


God mom, you don't need to be so over-protective, I walk to Jubilife City all the time.


It figures, he says he'll wait for me outside, and he's not even there. I guess I'll check to see if he's at his house...


Ow! Watch where you're going!


Well at least you remembered before we left town this time.


You're the one who's late this time! I've been ready to go and you still hadn't packed!


Why does everything always have to be a race with you?


Ugh, not you too! Why is everyone so paranoid about the tall grass? It's not like we live in a dangerous area. Those little beavers and birds aren't anything to be afraid of.


Yea, that's him. The dude lives in Sandgem Town, and he's coming from Verity Lake, so he's probably on his way back from there. Duh.

Professor Rowan then worries about whether we love Pokemon and if it's right to set us down the path of being a Pokemon trainer by giving us Pokemon. Then he changes his mind and thinks that we're reckless and foolish kids to enter tall grass without Pokemon, and would be bad trainers. Surprisingly, Tezuka owns up and takes the blame for it, which impresses Professor Rowan, and he decides to give us Pokemon after all. Then this other kid shows up.


Wow Tezuka, I can't believe your scheme actually worked!

Woo! I think that's the first time my suggestion's made it into an LP. Prof. Rowan is a dick.

You do realize that by actually saying that you negate any sort of class you might have appeared to have, right?


Awww! It's a cute little grass turtle!


Ha. You're more clever than I thought.

Professor Rowan then tells us to take good care of our new Pokemon, and heads back to Sandgem Town.


You're going down, Tezuka.


God, he is such a spaz. Go Turtwig! Use Tackle!


Told ya so.


Later Tezuka. Turtwig could probably use a rest too, so I guess I'll head home for the day.

Awesome, thanks. I'll give that a test soon, and with some luck, I'll be able to use reader submitted Pokemon!

Yea, I decided to just forgo the Nuzlocke run, and I'm kinda glad I did. I'm actually just before the cave to Oreburgh right now, and if I had been doing a Nuzlocke run, I would have 3 Bidoofs on my team right now.

Between the text heavy beginning and my wife monopolizing the computer to write fanfiction, progress has been kind of slow. Although in her defense it's not like I tried that hard to take over, because Monster Hunter Tri is so addicting. I'm still sticking to one update on the weekends, but hopefully we'll be able to cover more ground in game soon.

...wait, hold on. So they changed the entire intro for Platinum? No more stealing other people's pokeballs? Aww.

Yep, and I actually cut out a part of it, where Tezuka explains his plan to get through the tall grass to Sandgem Town (it's basically "run fast and they won't be able to get you") because Dusk is reluctant to head into the grass, and that didn't fit with the personality I was giving her.