Pokemon Black Part 14: Generation of War

Now that Team Plasma's out of the way, the routes leading to the entire east end of Unova are now unblocked, and you're free to explore any area in the game.

First, there's some more hidden stuff to find in the previous areas by using Surf and Strength. There's some nameless old guy looking for a legendary pokemon in a cave near Mistralton City. When you find him you get a bunch of unexpected backstory involving the origin of pokemon.

I see you're quite skillful for your age... Perhaps you could... hrm... It's a possibility, I suppose... Well? Will you lend your ears to this old man's ancient story?

It was long ago, when people and Pokémon lived in their own separate worlds... Through a war humans started, a forest in which Pokémon lived was engulfed in flames.

The Pokémon could not escape through the fire and smoke... There then appeared the legendary Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion! Terrakion used its characteristic strength to destroy the boulders blocking escape. Virizion made use of its swiftness to protect Pokémon from the sparks. And Cobalion guided the frightened Pokémon out of the forest.

Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion fought away the warring parties with overwhelming strength. The parties, frightful of the power the three showed, at last put an end to their war...

If people do not cease fighting, Pokémon can have no peace. The trio knew that people's deeds could cause the loss of many lives... To avoid contact with people, they went away to places unknown... Since then, the three have almost never been seen, and they thus turned to legend...

I have been searching for them for countless years on end... And at last, I have ascertained there to be one deep in this cave. But the legendary trio has no trust in humans. If a person draws near, they will bare their fangs and attack. They only know the world as it was so long ago, so it cannot be helped... They remain ignorant of the fact that our world has become one of people and Pokémon understanding and helping each other.

Perhaps if you could make them realize that people and Pokémon can live together in trust... Even they could choose to live with people if given a reason to reconsider them...

Who knew pokemon could be this deep? I feel like I'm reading Princess Mononoke... stuff about humans and intelligent forest creatures at war with each other...

Pokemon Black Part 13: Team Plasma's Deceit

So, there's about 3 cities left on the map that can't be accessed until beating the Elite 4... As I expected, there aren't many options for leveling up before this. The Pokemon League has always been the one part of the pokemon games that forces you to grind a lot. I'm not too big a fan of grinding, so I'm just gonna load up on potions and revives and take on the Elite 4 in one go!

Also there seems to be a lot of unfinished business still left at this stage in the game. Usually the bad guy team is beaten by around the 8th gym or so, but unlike the other games, the final climactic battle with Team Plasma's leader seems to take place after the Elite Four.

I have a feeling Reshiram will show himself at that time as well. I've already used my Master Ball on that Tornadus, because he takes after those cheapass dogs in gold/silver and runs away the second you see him. I've replaced Unfezant on my team with Tornadus.

Finally that egg that was found on the hidden island hatched into Larvesta, a fire/bug type.

... not very interesting, but check out its evolution, Volcarona.

When volcanic ash darkened the atmosphere, it is said that Volcarona's fire provided a replacement for the sun.

You mean this thing is hot enough to replace the freaking sun?! Sheesh talk about overpowered... If pokedex descriptions were really accurate this pokemon could melt the entire earth!

Wind Waker Part 9: Conducting the Earth's Melody

The 2nd half of Wind Waker involves just clearing two dungeons to restore power to the Master Sword, and finding all the pieces of the Triforce of Courage. Unlike Ocarina of Time, however, Wind Waker doesn't hold your hand so much during the 2nd half. The game actually requires you to explore on your own and figure stuff out. And unless you've been grinding for rupees, your not gonna have nearly enough to decipher all the triforce charts. It gives you an excuse to explore even more and complete sidequests for rupees which would otherwise be useless.

Talking to the King of Red Lions, only gives you a vague hint like "Perhaps the island inhabitants would know something about restoring the Master Sword's power." If this were Navi she'd tell you exactly which island to go to and which person would be able to help you. I suppose in this case the person who can help you restore the Master Sword is Medli, on Dragon Roost Island. The hint is whenever you're on the outside of the island you can hear Medli playing her harp up at the top.

Pokemon Black Part 12: Ocean Exploration

At the end of route 10 there's these 8 giant doorways that require each of the 8 gym pages to pass through. Past each gate is a room with a theme based on each gym.

I came across this pokemon a lot...

"Deino" lol sounds like such a rock star name...

I'm adding Deino to my team, he can replace my level 36 Stoutland who I haven't used in a while cuz I got bored of him, and dragon types are more interesting anyway.

Pokemon Black Part 11: Last Time on Dragon Stone Z...

Team Plasma's leader said that in order to beat him, I'll have to get the Light Stone and revive the other legendary dragon pokemon, Reshiram. Now I'm at Relic Castle, the desert area from route 4, looking for this Light Stone.

There are these weird statues outside the Relic Castle, but when you give them a RageCandyBar they attack you, these statues are actually the pokemon Darmanitan in its Zen Mode.

Pokemon Black Part 10: N-ter Zekrom

The 7th gym is surprisingly immediately accessible as soon as you get to it! No forced story sequence involving the gym leader here, just a good old straight-to-the-point gym battle. It also has a fun slippery ice maze.

This gym leader, Byrcen, was also pretty easy. I used Excadrill and took out his first 2 pokemon easily in one hit with Earthquake, then his Cryogonal, which avoids earthquake, was taken out in a few hits with Rock Smash.

Pokemon Black Part 9: Turtle Power

So Mistralton Gym is an airport... with cannons... that you shoot yourself out of to get to the higher levels... What kinda crazy gym is this? You gotta be a freaking stunt devil to get through this.

Tirtouga just single-handedly plowed through all these trainers. This thing is a smug little beast.

One cannon just smacked me straight into a wall...

One more cannon and... BOOM! Landed right in front of the gym leader! Like literally a foot away from her, she didn't even flinch... I guess those "pilot eyes" of hers saw me coming and knew exactly where I was gonna land?

Wind Waker Part 8: Stalking a Theif

The last post was all about an incredibly terrifying love quest involving a pig-faced girl who's in love with a moblin, and her psycho father who has a strange hatred for postmen.

Next is the story of Mila, a much more sane character who has a very interesting and involved sidequest.

This was another character who Ganon kidnapped as a possible Princess Zelda candidate. Surely enough, this girl couldn't have been Zelda, as Zelda would never be as snobby and cold as a girl like Mila. What's interesting about her though, is the way her personality becomes entirely different after the circumstances of her rescue.

Pokemon Black Part 8: Existentialist Tower

A guy named Cedric Juniper shows up and comments on my pokedex (currently 70 caught)... oh so this guy is professor Juniper's dad? He upgrades my pokedex...

There's an airport in this town, which is only for Cargo... apparently Unova is very far from Kanto and Sinnoh, so much that you need to fly to get there.

If trainers want to fly, they can go with a pokemon that knows the move fly.

... uh, Unfezant, you can carry me across 5000 miles in half a day, right?

Skyla: I'd be happy to have you challenge the gym, but there's something I need you to take care of first.

... surprise surprise. Are there any gym leaders in this world that aren't so lazy they have to get all of their challengers to do them favours?

Wind Waker Part 7: Fairies of Fortune

Link has completed his quest to save Aryll, but at the same time he is just starting a much bigger quest. A quest that goes back hundreds of years to recover the power of the gods spoken of in ancient legends and...

... or, you know, basically that. You can interpret the story to be as serious or as simple as you want it to be. Basically it's about a kid going on a wacky cartoon adventure with pigs and swords and princesses and a magic wish-granting triangle.

Pokemon Black part 7: Magnets how do they work

Clay won't give me his TM until I meet him at a cave in route 6. It's pretty obvious where the game wants me to go now.

Bianca catches up to me just as I go onto route 6, wants another battle. Easy as usual, except for one thing.

Her Musharna is tanked on defense at this point, it actually took me a while to take down. Plus it kept using hypnosis and confusing me with psybeam. I had so much trouble with it, and it was only level 26! Bianca is becoming a real pain in the ass to fight.

Pokemon Black part 6: Drill down to Victory

Holy crap, there's literally an ice cream pokemon. No seriously. I'm not joking. An ice cream pokemon named Vanillite.

It's an... Ice cream... Pokemon... just... how can they come up with such a bad design? lol it's almost like they're parodying themselves now. Or maybe they've made so many pokemon at this point they ran out of animals/plants to use and have to start making food pokemon.

XD this jittery electric cat thing is awesome. *twitch* *twitch*

it looks like it'll freak out and pounce on you if you drop a feather.

Wind Waker Part 6: The Two Kings

Link has collected the 3 pearls, completed the test of courage prepared by the ancient gods, traveled to the bottom of the sea and obtained the mystic blade with the power to repel evil. All this so he could save his sister from her imprisonment at the Forsaken Fortress. Now that Link is equipped with the Master Sword, he'll be able stand up to the evil king Ganondorf who resides in the fortress.

But first, Link has a much more important task to take care of, and that is getting the power of the wind god Cyclos!

If you get caught in one of these cyclones before you have the bow, Cyclos warps you to a random location on the sea, likely making you lose a few minutes of sailing to get to your next destination.

Cyclos: Foolish creature who does not fear the gods! To the end of the sea with you! Let the winds of Cyclos's wrath blow you away!!!

Fortunately Link's talking boat seems to know everything everything there is to know about the sea gods, and he gives you some helpful advice.

King of Red Lions:It would seem that the wind god Cyclos bears some ill will toward humans. Ah, but if only we could find a way to harness the power of those cyclones... Then it might be possible for us to travel across the ocean instantaneously. You do not yet have an item that can pierce distant targets! If you did, you might be able to obtain such a power. Keep that in mind!

Now that Link has the bow it's time to harness the power of the wind and avoid any more long sailing trips!

Wind Waker Part 5: Ancient Ruins Under the Ocean

Here's where the main plot of Wind Waker finally starts to reveal itself. The mystery surrounding the legend of Hyrule lies at the Tower of the Gods. But first Link must complete the trials inside the tower. This dungeon that was built not by the gods of the Great Sea, but by the gods of the ancient world of Hyrule. It's the final test of courage that determines whether someone is capable of wielding the power to repel evil, the Master Sword.

It's a pretty decent dungeon, although for a test of courage there's not really that much here to test your courage. It's more like a test of moving statues onto switches...

It's one of the classic Zelda gimmicks, switches that you need to put something on to keep them active. So it's fitting for a dungeon that's all about going back to the ancient world of classic Zelda games. It's a really neat contrast with the earlier dungeons in this game, which all had new and innovative gameplay designs that were never done before in a Zelda game.

The first floor of the tower has a bunch of variations on the "keep the switch pressed" puzzles. Moving boxes ontop of switches, to get to a statue, to move that statue to another place to put it on another switch, etc... (lol I don't know if I could've described that any worse)

Wind Waker part 4: Link returns home

After rescuing Makar and getting the Farore's Pearl, the King of Red Lions tells where to find the final pearl. First there was Valoo, the gaurdian spirit of sky, holding Din's Pearl, then the Great Deku Tree, gaurdian spirit of Earth, holding Farore's Pearl. Next is Jabun, gaurdian spirit of water, holding Nayru's Pearl. He tells Link Jabun can be found at Greatfish Island... but once you get there it's been destroyed...

The Rito postman comes by and tells us what happened here. The pirates are also looking for the 3 pearls, and they came here looking for Jabun while Ganon's monsters came after them and destroyed the island. Could he already be regaining his power? Jabun fled to Outset Island. Link has a worried face, as he realizes his home is now in danger. The pirates immediately went off to Outset but couldn't break the entrance to where Jabun was hiding, they are now at Windfall Island. There's also a rainstorm now just to add to the mood...

The pirates must know something about getting to Jabun, so Link heads back to Windfall Island to find them. I found Tingle's Island. There's a big totem pole and at the top are some white coloured Tingles spinning the structure around for some reason. So I can't do anything with my triforce charts until I rescue Tingle from Windfall Island. Ontop of that I also need to find the Great Fairy to increase my fortune... but I'll worry about that later. This one guy says he just got caught in a cyclone and next thing he knew, he was wearing that outfit... so cyclones turn you into Tingle now? Holy crap that's insane.

Pokemon Black part 5: where I accomplish very little

Went to the subway one more time and went to Anville town. Is there gonna be a hilarious cartoon gag coming up?
On the weekends, a lot of people come here to watch the trains... whoa does that mean it'll be more crowded here on the weekend? I'll have to remember that...

I'll head to Black City... and there's the Marvelous Bridge along the way, that should be cool

"They said the Marvelous Bridge is being checked!"

...Well check it later, dammit! I wanna see a marvelous bridge!

Route 16 branches off in a few directions. Not much here though except trainers and some items.

Caught a Gothita... is it just me or does this pokemon look oddly creepy.

Pokedex: "Fixation pokemon. Their ribbonlike feelers increase their psychic power. They are always staring at something."

"They are always staring at something."