V – Victory Road

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Victory Road, on the path to victory! Although since it’s a cave most of the time, the road part is open to some interpretation 😛

Victory Road is one of the last parts of the games, and will only open up to you as a trainer after you have defeated the eight gym leaders of an area. Once you pass through into the cave, you will find a bunch of tough trainers to beat, and of course, a whole bunch of wild Pokemon that will jump out at you for experience and catching. Also depending on precisely which game you are playing, your rival might show up for one final battle, depends if they’re the champion or not, which changes between the games. It tend to be a bit of a long journey, and you have to rely on the items in your bag, so it’s actually rather good preparation for the Elite Four, which is what you will encounter at the end of Victory Road.

The Elite Four are much like Gym Leaders. There are four of them, they tend to have a theme type of their Pokemon team, and they are very, very tough to beat. You have to have all eight badges, so these guys are even tougher than the gym leaders, and you will face them one after another with no chance to go back to a Pokemon centre in between, so you better have a lot of medicine items on you. Oh, and the Elite Four will use healing items as well, it’s super annoying.

Kanto and Johto are unusual in that they share their Victory Road and Elite Four between the two regions, although it doesn’t matter if you have the eight Kanto gyms badges or the eight Johto badges, as long as you have eight badges out of the region, you can go challenge them. Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos all have their own Pokemon Leagues.

Taking the last Elite Four (eee, new Elite Four in Sun/Moon!) from Kalos as our example you had:

• Malva, Fire Type
• Siebold, Water Type
• Wikstrom, Steel Type
• Drasna, Dragon Type

They were some very cool fights, with epic rooms themed around the type in question. The dragon room for instance has a huge stone dragon with wings embedded into the walls, and the wings unfurl as you come into the room. Very over the top cool.

And then, once you get passed these trainers, you can go take on the Champion. Fun fact, the champion is the only trainer (apart from your rival, sometimes, in some games) who will have a team of six Pokemon? Even the Elite Four trainers have four or five.

In Kalos the Champion is Diantha, who is not only an actress, but also a very powerful trainer. I liked her, mainly because she trades you a Ralts which is holding the mega stone for Gardevoire, which as you should know is my absolute favourite Pokemon.

 

Pokemon of the Day

V is for Vivillon

Vivillon is a butterfly like Pokemon, thought to be related to Butterfree, with an elliptical shaped body in different shades of grey, and segmented wings that come in a variety of patterns. It has back legs and hands (but no arms) and two long antenna coming out of it’s head.  It is capable of many dust and powder attacks, and has been know to calm the fighting spirit of many Pokemon.

Had a bit of trouble choosing today’s Pokemon. Not because there are a lack of Pokemon, but because most of the Pokemon I would have chosen have already been covered in some form or another by others letters. Vulpix was covered under N – Ninetails. Venasaur was covered under I – Ivysaur. Vaporeon was another choice, except that I’ve already done Eevee, Espeon and Umbreon from the Eeveelutions. So the Pokemon I chose today isn’t a favourite per say, but it is really cool for a particular reason.

The picture you see above is the most common form of Vivillon (for someone like me who lives in the UK), the Meadow pattern. However, Vivillon is highly reflective of the environment that it lives in, and thus the pattern on the wings will change depending on where the Pokemon catcher in question lives in the real world. In total there are twenty known patterns of Vivillon wings, isn’t that cool? It’s a tiny catch them all within a much larger catch them all? So whilst Vivillon isn’t a Pokemon that I would save a spot for on my team most of the time, I do like trying to catch and trade as many different patterns as I can.

U – Undaunted

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Playing around with letters a bit today, as U was slightly awkward. U is for Undaunted, Undaunted is the third main expansion of the Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold series of Pokemon Trading Cards, and that brings us to the actual topic today – The Pokemon Trading Card Game. Success!

Often abbreviated to Pokemon TCG, it’s a tabletop game that involves collecting, trading, and then playing cards against opponents, mostly 1 versus 1, much the same as you would in a Pokemon battle. All your favourite Pokemon are in there, and the rules are somewhat derived out of the rules of the games and anime, but obviously, as a card game, it has it’s own set of rules and mechanics, and is very, very different to the video games.

I’ll admit, I never really played much of the card game. I collected the cards, and somewhere around here I still have my original Team Rocket folder with most of my cards in them (my brother stole some of my shiny cards and then lot them, the fiend) so I’m more talking about the game today in an abstract, it exists and there are still loads of people who play it because they release new expansions for it fairly regularly. My local gaming store has a very active card game community, and they do indeed have players of Pokemon. Quite a lot, if I remember the last time I spotted games happening.

So, with card games, you have your cards and you build a deck with 60 cards in it. There are energy cards, which will be one of the Pokemon types, Pokemon cards, and then trainer/items cards. The aim to to get your Pokemon out, evolve them up (potentially, depends on the Pokemon), power them up, and then hit your opponent and make all their Pokemon faint. You win when your opponent runs out of cards in their deck, take all six prize cards (ah ha! I remembered a thing, there are six prize cards you place to one side at the start of the game, and you get one when you knock out an opponents Pokemon), or when your opponent can’t field any more Pokemon. It’s probably more complicated than that, with rules for how you get Pokemon out, evolving them, attaching energy to power moves, but like I said, I haven’t played in forever, I was always more of a collector.

 

Pokemon of the Day

U is for Umbreon

Counterpart to Espeon, Umbreon is the Dark evolution of Eevee, who will evolve after attaining high friendship with Eevee and levelling up during the night. Or it can be exposed to a Moon Shard. It is a black furred mammalian Pokemon, with four legs and a bushy tail, but has yellow bands and circles around various parts of its legs, tail and ears. These markings will glow at night, along with its eyes, and will strike fear into anyone nearby. It hides in the darkness, setting ambushes for people and Pokemon, and will glow as it attacks. In the wild this Pokemon is very rare, and is much more commonly found in Urban areas under the care of people.

As I said with Espeon, Umbreon is one half of my favourite eeveelutions, and at the moment, it just about edges Espeon out, although that can definitely change depending on how I feel at given times. It’s Dark type, likes biting and attacking people, and is generally a bit sneaky. I love its demeanour, its connection to the moon, and how it looks. Definitely has a place on team, when I can get it to evolve that is, it’s a little tricky with the moon and sun timings.

 

T – Types

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Types. We’ve been mentioning them all month, it’s kind of hard not to when talking about Pokemon. But what is a type? A type is a class for Pokemon and their moves. Each type has three properties: types is is super effective against, types is is not very effective against, and types it is completely ineffective agaisnt.

Currently there are 18 types, and occasionally new ones are added with new generations (Generation 1 started with 15 types). Since Pokemon can either by single or dual type there are 324 different combinations, with 171 of those being unique (Dark-Flying and Flying-Dark are not unique, but are technically different). As of Generation 6, 133 of these combinations have been used for Pokemon.

Pokemon can have one or two types, but each move that a Pokemon uses will only have one type. There are no Psychic-Fire moves, although flavour text can give it attributes from two types. A Pokemon however does know four moves, and there is nothing saying that those moves need to have a common type between them. Of course, Pokemon will often learn moves that do share a type with it, because it doesn’t make much logical sense for a ground Pokemon to know an electric move.

So what these 18 types?

• Normal
• Fire
• Water
• Grass
• Electric
• Psychic
• Fighting
• Flying
• Poison
• Ground
• Rock
• Bug
• Ghost
• Ice
• Dragon
• Dark
• Steel
• Fairy

As mentioned in the Gyms post from earlier in the month, most Gym Leaders and Elite Four trainers are deigned with a type theme. Trainers like yourselves however, are free to choose what Pokemon you have in your team. Most people have a mix of types, because you are going to encounter lots of different types and it can help to type advantage the fights.

Ah, that phrase again, type advantage. What does that mean? It means that certain types are strong agaisnt other types, and will deal double damage. There is also the inverse, ineffective types, where half damage is dealt. And sometimes, there is even type match ups where one type cannot damage another type.

For example, take the starter Pokemon. You will have a fire type, a water type and grass type, and they make up a type advantage circle. Fire is strong agaisnt Grass, Grass is strong agaisnt Water, and Water is strong agaisnt Fire. It makes an amount of logical sense when you think about what the types are based off. But, there is a lovely table which summarises the information for you:

It’s not all that complicated: Find your Pokemon type on the left hand side, find the Pokemon type you are attacking on the top, and then look for the little box. Green is good, white is normal, red is bad, and black won’t work.

Personally I go for a mix. There are too many types to get all of them in a team, even if all your Pokemon double type, but you can get a good spread, and of course, you can have Pokemon in storage waiting for that battle you need them on. I might favour certain types, psychic and fire and dark spring to mind, but I don’t have a one type team. Thinking about White 2, which I am currently playing, I have a Grass type, Fighting Type, and Fire type, which is seeing me comfortably through most fights.

 

Pokemon of the Day

T is for Talonflame

Talonflame is an avian Pokemon that closely resembles a falcon, with red-orange plumage, a grey underbelly and black flecks. When battling, Talon flame will dive at its foes, up to speeds of 310 miles per hour, and will use this speed to attack with a devsating kick from its claws. As a fire type Pokemon, embers will sometimes shower down from its feathers as it soars through the sky.

Talonflame is a relatively new Pokemon, being Generation 6, so it’s only been in the X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games. It’s a final evolution Pokemon, and it’s basic form, Fletchling, reminded me of Pidgey, since it was a tiny bird Pokemon that you catch really early on in the game. However, for whatever reason, maybe because it reminded me of a friends (Tiny Robin Pokemon) or because I like fire types and a Fire/Flying type was a good addition to my team, I caught one, added it to my team, and then it kind of stayed there for the entire game, levelling up alongside my starter. And it was great, Talonflame was one of my favourites from the last game, and was quite good in numerous fights. That, and it looks like a falcon, which is awesome.

S – Starters

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Starter Pokemon! We’ve mentioned them loads, because, let’s face it, as soon as you start the game you need your starter Pokemon to start your journey with, because without a starter Pokemon, there is no start! And yes, that was a mild exercise in how many times I can get the word start into a sentence 😛

Starter Pokemon will always follow the same format (ignoring Pokemon Yellow, that was a special case to follow after the anime) – there will be three of them, they have a three Pokemon evolution chain, and there will be one Water type, one Fire Type and one Grass type, making a very nice type advantage circle.

In each generation, there are a new three Pokemon, and generally, most of the time, this Pokemon will stay with you throughout your Pokemon journey. I can’t think of a single time when I didn’t keep my starter on my team all the way through the game, although I know that some people do swap them out for others.

Generation 1 – Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle

Generation 2 – Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile

Generation 3 – Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip

Generation 4 – Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup

Generation 5 – Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott

Generation 6 – Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie

 

As has been mentioned in previous posts, you normally get your starter Pokemon from the Professor of the region, right at the start of your journey, usually at the same time as your Pokedex. As soon as you get your first Pokemon, your rival then also picks their first Pokemon, the strong type against the one you chose, and you have a little battle.

In the anime, Ash starts of his Pokemon journey on a bad foot, and is late. So the three Pokemon that should have been there weren’t for him, all that Professor Oak had left was a Pikachu, which was a little grumpy, and didn’t like going inside its Pokeball. Of course, their relationship gets better, and Ash and Pikachu become fast friends.

One thing that is very different from the anime to the games, is that in the anime Ash almost always comes across the other starter Pokemon, and either he, or someone else travelling with him, will end up with the starters in their teams, at least for a little while. In the games, the starter Pokemon are exceedingly rare, and you can almost never catch them in the wild. In later games, you can get hold of the earlier starters, but even then, it’s hard, or you only get one of the three. The only guaranteed way to get all of them is to do some trading with other trainers, usually after breeding some eggs.

Considering your only get to make it once, choosing your starter Pokemon can be a very tricky choice!

 

 

Pokemon of the Day

S is for Swablu

Swablu is a flying Pokemon with a round, blue body, a wings that resemble fluffy white clouds. It does not appear to have a discernible neck, so it can appear like the Pokemon is nothing but a head with wings and attena, although it does have a tail and clawed feet attached to the round body. This Pokemon does not like dirty surroundings and will clean up with its cottony wings, and with then use freshwater springs and streams to wash in when it becomes dirty from cleaning. They live in large flocks in forested areas, but can be seen in towns as well, especially around the spring. It is a very friendly Pokemon, and will often perch on the head, resembling a fluffy hat.

Swablu is adorable, but mainly I like it because it evolves into Altaria, and Altaria is one of my absolute favourite Pokemon. Unfortunately, I like Arcanine just that little bit more, so A had to go to him.

Like Swablu, Altaria is a blue Pokemon with cloud like wings that surround its entire body. So much fluff surrounding an elegant, almost phoenix like body – she’s so pretty! It uses its wings to catch updrafts and gracefully soar through the sky, often singing on humming in soprano tones. This voice can induce a dreamy state in those who listen to it, but it hasn’t lost the affection for people it had as a Swablu, and will often give people it likes soft hugs with it’s cotton like wings.

I mean, come on, who wouldn’t like a graceful, singing, hugging Pokemon! That, and it’s Flying/Dragon type, has a mega evolution, and is just an all round awesome Pokemon. Altaria always has a spot on my team, as soon as I find it or a Swablu living in the wild!

R – Rivals

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Rival: a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity. Oh boy, do you have rivals in the Pokemon world.

In every single game, you will be playing a Pokemon trainer, and you will have a rival, and you will meet them pretty soon into the game. In fact, they are almost certainly already known to you, having very likely grown up in the same town as you, often as your next door neighbour. They will have similar skills, goals, and achievements and will appear frequently during your journey, most of the time to battle you, but occasionally you team up and do some fun things together, which can make for some nice double battles.

Usually you meet your rival before or at the time when you choose your starter Pokemon. More often, when you get your starter Pokemon, they also get their starter Pokemon, from the same three that you get to pick. You choose first, and your rival will choose the Pokemon that type advantages against yours, and then you tend to have a battle straight off. The last game I played was White 2 (as I discovered I had never played it, somehow) so when I choose Snivvy, my rival choose Tepig. Not that it was hard to beat him, when all they have is tackle.

And of course, as he goes around and battles gym leaders, it levels up too, and my rival gets new Pokemon much the same as I do. Usually they will be the same level as you, or at least the level you should be for the town in which you are currently residing. Currently in White 2, me and my rival are both on our first stage evolutions, and I have four Pokemon, whereas he has three. Usually you don’t get a choice as to when they turn up and you have to fight them, but that’s fine, because it’s lots of XP and money when you beat them ^_^

Quite often they are one step ahead of you, and this is best illustrated in Red/Blue/Yellow, where they beat the Elite Four before you, become champion, and then you turn up and beat them to become the new Champion. In later games, the Champion is often someone different, but you usually have a rival battle towards the end of the game when you’re both pretty powerful.

 

Sometimes you choose their name, other times it’s chosen for you, but either way, they are very much a big part of the game, and someone you can always count on to turn up and provide constant road bumps on your Pokemon journey. In the anime, Ash has a rival in most regions, starting with Gary, and I’ll let you watch the anime to see how that goes for them all!

 

Pokemon of the Day

R is for Riolu

A small, canine like Pokemon, it mixes blue and black fur and has a mask like face with red eyes. It stand on the toes of it’s two hind legs, and despite being tiny, because it is a fighting type it possesses superhuman strength, stamina and endurance. It is sensitive to a specail type of energy called ‘Aura’, but as a baby Pokemon, it doesn’t have the capabilities to fully use these powers. It can use the waves to communicate and sense people, but only in ripples. It will evolve into Lucario when levelled up during the day with high friendship.

I don’t know why, because it doesn’t really fall into any of my usual patterns, but I quite like Riolu. And Lucarios is pretty awesome as a Pokemon as well. It has a mega evolution, which is always useful. Riolu is quite cute, and actually, having a fighting Pokemon around is quite useful for type advantaging quite a few battles. So, it’s hard to pinpoint why I like this little guy, but I do like him. He’s also in quite a few movies, despite not being a legendary Pokemon, which is slightly unusual.

Q – Quiz

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Q is a hard letter at the best of times, so today is going to be a relatively short one because I couldn’t really find anything entirely Pokemon related that started with the letter Q. So, instead, I’m going to give you a whole bunch of links to Pokemon Quizzes instead. This is mostly inspired by a little something from the anime. In each episode there was a break, and at the tart of the break they would show you a silhouette of a Pokemon, and ask the question “Who’s that Pokemon?” with the idea that you would then have to guess it. When they came back from the break, they would announce “It’s [Pokemon]!”, show you the picture, and play the sound. It was never hard, but it was a little bit of fun.

So with that in mind – Who’s that Pokemon?

And now, here’s a random collection of some fun quizzes (and games as well, because this is all for a bit of fun) for you to enjoy as you see fit

• Classics – Which coriginal pokemon might you have in your team
• Eeveelution – What Eeveelution are you
• Legendaries – Which Legendary Pokemon are you
• Pokemon Facts Quiz – General knowledge, hopefully I’ve been teaching you some things 😉
• Sihlouette Quiz – 20 sihlouettes for the 20th anniversary of the game
• Type Quiz – Find out which Pokemon type suits you
• Which Pokemon Are You – A fun character quiz
• Who’s That Pokemon – A website entirely devoted to the game of guessing Pokemon from silhouettes

Just some little bits of fun to have ^_^

P.S. – It’s Sandshrew!

 

Pokemon of the Day

Q is for Quilava

A slim quadruple Pokemon, it’s stomach is cream whereas the back is a dark blue with five spots from which it can project flames, two on the head and three on the body. It can use this to protect its body, or launch it as a flame attack. Unsurprisingly, it’s fur is non-flammable, so it is protected from its own fire and other flame based attacks. They’re pretty rare in the wild but can occasionally be found living in hot grassland areas. It is the first stage evolution in the chain, evolving from Cyndaquil, and into Typhlosion.

As you can imagine, Q doesn’t have many Pokemon names associated with it. I found 4, and out of those, Quilava is definitely my pick. It’s kind of a cool Pokemon, and it’s one of the three starter chains from Johto/Generation 2, and Cyndaquil is a cutie. Also Quilava is known as the volcano Pokemon, and I do loves volcanoes. Spent quite a lot of my time at university studying them!

 

P – Professors & Pokedex

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

P! The letter for everything Pokemon! Practically everything can have Poke- added to the front of it in this world, so there was a heck of a lot to choose from for today’s letter! I did, in the end, manage to get it narrowed down though, to two important aspects of the Pokemon world – The Professors and the Pokedex.

We’ve touched a little on Pokemon Professor’s before. They’re an expert on Pokemon in the region in which they live, there is often only one Professor per region (although they tend to have assistants and can travel around) and they are often the first person that you as a brand new trainer meet, responsible for giving out your very first Pokemon and the Pokedex!

As well as helping new trainers out, they also have an area of research that they focus on. It would be pretty unusual to be called a Professor otherwise. This research will of course involve Pokemon in some fashion, but each of the Professor’s has a different topic that they specialise in.

Rowan, Elm, Sycamore, Oak, Juniper, (Ivy), Birch

 

 

There are six Professors from the ‘core’ series, one for each region (and of course there are others in side games and the anime).

• Professor Oak, Kanto, studies the relationship between Pokemon and humans
• Professor Elm, Johto, studies Pokemon breeding patterns
• Professor Birch, Hoenn, studies Pokemon habitats
• Professor Rowan, Sinnoh, studies Pokemon evolution
• Professor Juniper, Unova, studies the origins of Pokemon
• Professor Sycamore, Kalos, studies Mega Evolution

Of course, they do publish some of their work, and if you can get your hands on a copy of Pokemon Researchers Monthly, you can find exciting articles such as “Pokemon adaptive variation as a function of regional distribution” or “Challenges facing anthro-Pokemon global co-habitation”.

And as already stated, the Professors are the people who give you your Pokedex, which is a very key part of the games, the anime, and the Pokemon world! Originally created by Professor Oak, in the very first game, and every game afterwards, you are given a Pokedex with the goal of completing it.

The Pokedex is a handheld electronic device which is designed to record and retain information on every Pokemon that is encountered by the trainer. This can be when a trainer meets a Pokemon in the wild, meets the Pokemon of another trainer, or sometimes even seeing a picture of it (mostly for legendary Pokemon this one). Basic information is recorded upon meeting a Pokemon, but detailed information is not stored until the trainer either catches the Pokemon, trades for the Pokemon, or acquires it in some other fashion. Detailed information includes a few sentences describing the Pokemon, habitat and wild activities of the Pokemon, height, weight, cry, footprint, history, anatomy, and of course, a picture.

One of the goals of the games is to attempt to get a complete Pokedex. Of course, with every generation that gets released, that gets a little bit harder. But since Pokedexes are only ever given to a few exception trainers, or those with exceptional potential, I always feel like I owe it to the Professor to at least try and encounter as many Pokemon as I can, even if I don’t catch them all.

But, you know, since the catch phrase of the entire Pokemon world is ‘Gotta catch em all’, I generally at least attempt to catch quite a number of Pokemon, even if I don’t end up using them. That, and I am a completionist at heart.

 

Pokemon of the Day

P is for Pikachu.

Pikachu is a short yellow rodent Pokemon, with long pointed ears, a lightning bolt tail, and two red circles on its cheeks, which is where it stores electricity. In the wild, Pikachu live in groups in forested areas, and it uses its electricity to roast berries before eating them. It can unleash varying degrees of electrical energy, absorb energy from both human and natural sources, cause lightning storms when in large groups, and although it is classed as a quadruped, it can walk on its hind legs as well.

Of course P is for Pikachu. Pikachu is the official mascot of the Pokemon franchise, Ash’s only permanent team member in the anime, and it was even the special starter for the original Yellow game. In the anime, Ash shows up late on his first day as a trainer, and because of that, he gets Pikachu instead of the usual starters. They have a rocky start, but eventually they become fast friends, and you never see them far from each other. Pikachu doesn;t like being in it’s Pokeball either, so he’s usually out either walking or riding on Ash. To mirror this, in the Yellow game, the Pikachu you get follows you around as well, walking behind you for the whole game. it also refuses to evolve, much like Pikachu did in the anime. Either way, I remember having Yellow as my original game, and my own Pikachu got ridiculously strong, because I basically didn’t use many other Pokemon. Why would I need to? I have my tiny yellow mouse! Although these days I have other favourites, but that happens when they keep bringing out new ones.

 

 

 

 

O – Officer Jenny

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Following on from Nurse Joy, today we have the other half of that combination, Officer Jenny. As her name might lead you to believe, Officer Jenny is the name of the police officers who attend to the world of Pokemon, fighting against the crimes of Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua and Team Galactic, among others criminals that occur in the world.

As with Nurse Joy, there are many different Officer Jenny’s working across the regions of the Pokemon world, all who look alike and share the same family name of Jenny. Most people can’t tell them apart (although the Officer Jenny’s in Unova look distinctly different to those of the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions) apart from Brock, who again, seems to be able to tell which Jenny comes from which city. For the rest of us, see if you can spot the symbols on thier hats, which changes depending on the town which they operate in.

The uniform can change between the regions, but generally the Officer’s will be wearing a blue and light blue fairly practical outfit, with a cap under which you can see the greenish-blue hair. Other equipment that the officer’s have varies depending on the region and particular problems that they encounter, although quite a few of them have motorbikes. Huge motorbikes, with a back seat large enough for a Growlithe to sit on! Yes, Officer Jenny’s tend to have a Growlithe as their partner Pokemon due to their loyal nature and excellent tracking skills. Of course, there are exceptions, but mostly I get to see the basic stage of one of my favourite Pokemon!

 

As you can probably guess, there is a distinct parallel between the families of Office Jenny and Nurse Joy. And whilst they never outright say (there’s maybe on episode where they mention potentially being cousins? I seem to remember that being a thing, but I could be remembering them talking about the other Jenny’s rather than the Officer/Nurse connection) if there is a connection or not, they do mention that they are on very good terms with each other.

 

Pokemon of the Day

O is for Oddish

Resembling a bulb plant with a round blue body and green leaves on it’s head, Oddish is know as the weed Pokemon. The leaves are prehensile and can be used to catch objects, scale vertical surfaces, and of course, absorb light. Oddish is a nocturnal Pokemon and will bury its body in the ground during the day, leaving on its leaves exposed. It will wake up when moonlight shines on the leaves, and then during the night it will scatter seeds and find new soil to plant itself in.

 

Turns out there are only six Pokemon that begin with the letter O. That, and I do quite like Oddish. It’s cute, and nocturnal, and heavens knows that given half a chance I go nocturnal (really, I do, it happens quite a lot when I’m off work on holiday and things). That and those leaves are more useful than they look.

N – Nurse Joy

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Welcome to your Pokemon Centre! We heal your Pokemon back to perfect health! Shall we heal your Pokemon?

Nurse Joy is a character that is primarily in the anime, they are the nurses who take care of Pokemon, healing them back to full health, also running the Pokemon centres in which this happens, and young travelling trainers are allow to stay nights.

One thing which you will notice first is that all of the Nurse Joy’s in the anime look exactly the same. At first, you might think that’s just because of the nature of the children’s cartoon, but actually, it’s revealed that they are all related to each other, and that Joy isn’t their first name, it’s their family name (This has been revealed by the creators to be a play on the Japanese word joi  which means women doctor). Each Nurse Joy has a different colour cross on their hat (or a badge) which indicates which location they work at, and they are able to tell each other apart as they insist they are not identical. However, in the anime, only Brock seems to be able to tell them apart, every other character can’t.

In the games they are known as Pokemon Centre Nurses, and man the Pokemon Centre’s where the trainer can go and get their Pokemon healed. This service is provided for free, and is a pretty big staple of the Pokemon world, since battling your Pokemon gets them hurt.

Healing at the Pokemon Centre restores all lost hits, all move PP (power points, aka, how many times you can use the move before it runs out) and removes any and all status conditions that they might be suffering from.

There tends to be a Pokemon Centre in every town that you find, and sometimes they can be placed out in routes that are particularly long or wild, so you know that you’re never all that far from one. That, and sensible trainers stock up of medicine items to see them through from Centre to Centre.

Nurse Joy’s don’t tend to work alone – they have Pokemon helpers! Commonly a Nurse Joy will have a Chansey, Wigglytuff or Audino working with her as an assistant or helper. This isn’t exclusive, and sometimes they will have other Pokemon, but generally, depending on the region you are in, one of these three Pokemon will be helping out around the Pokemon Centre.

Considering the service that they provide, always for free to trainers, you can see that Pokemon Centre’s, and the wonderful Nurse Joy’s that run them, are a pretty big part of the Pokemon world, and are well loved because of the work that they do.

 

Pokemon of the Day

N is for Ninetails

Evolving from Vulpix when it is exposed to a fire stone, this fox like four legged Pokemon is covered in thick golden-white fur, and as it name suggests, has nine long tails, each of which are tipped in orange which match it’s gleaming orange eyes. It’s elegance hides a vengeful nature, especially to those who mistreat it. Each of it’s nine tails are said to hold a different mystical power, which is can use to curse those that have wronged it, and considering it can live for up to 1,000 years, it will remember.

I think I’ve said before, but I really like graceful Pokemon, and Ninetails definitely falls into this category. That, and it’s based off some really cool myths involving a Japanese creature called a Kitsune (the nine tails thing is the key here). It also curses people and is the kind of Pokemon that will go out and make a bad day for someone who has wronged it, and I can get very much get on board with that kind of behaviour 😉

 

M – Mega-Evolutions

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Mega evolution is a bit different from evolution which we covered earlier in the month. Whereas evolution is a permanent change of the physical form and stats of a Pokemon, Mega-Evolution is a temporary change, affecting both form and stats (apart from HP), which will last for a battle, or contest if you’re a Contestant Trainer rather than a Champion Trainer.

It occurs when the trainer has obtained an item called a Key Stone, often seen in the game as a fetching bracelet or other piece of wearable jewellery (rings, necklaces, a tiara, even a pair of glasses for one trainer!) and the corresponding Pokemon that you want to mega evolve has it’s appropriate Mega Stone. So for instance Gardevoir needs to be holding Gardevoirite, and I as the trainer need to have obtained the Key Stone. In battle, I can then choose to Mega Transform as a free action, and then attack with a move. Transforming always happens before a move, so you get the effect of the boosted statistics. Mega-Evolved Pokemon are simply identified by adding “Mega” in front of their name, so Gardevoir becomes Mega-Gardevoir. After the battle, or if they faint, then they revert back to their normal form.

 

It’s a relative new event in the Pokemon world, and has only be in the X/Y & Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games so far, although I fully expect that it will be in Sun/Moon as well. So far there are 46 Pokemon that are capable of Mega Evolution, and 48 different Mega Evolutions (Charizard & Mewtwo have two different forms depending on whether you’re playing X or Y).

In X/Y, The Tower of Mastery plays a critical role in understanding the concept of Mega Evolution. You go there and you learn about Mega Evolution for the first time from an old man called Gurkinn, which is the grandfather of the city’s Gym Leader Korrina. After you win the rival fight there, you go fight the Gym Leader, and you can then use Mega Evolution when she gives you the Key Stone and challenges you to a Mega Battle. They say that Lucario was the first Pokemon known to Mega Evolve, however in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, you learn a legend about how Rayquaza was the first Pokemon to Mega Evolve. This might make more sense, especially after you learn that Rayquaza does not need a Mega Stone to Mega Evolve, instead it onlys needs to know a certain move called Dragon Ascent.

As you can imagine, Mega-Evolution is a big power boost in fights, and yes, the trainers you fight can use it as well. Although it tends to be only big NPCs, like Gym Leaders, rivals, bosses of Villainous teams, The current champion, ect. As I have mentioned, Gardevoir can Mega-Evolve, and thus usually has a place on my team. There are quite a few others that do, but the others I use are Lucario and Altaria. Mostly Gardevoir though, because I do play favourite Pokemon.

 

Pokemon of the Day

M is for Mew

A legendary Pokemon that is said to be the origin of life, Mew is a member of the Mew Duo, along with Mewtwo which was created from it, and is the last Pokemon in the Kanto Pokedex. It is a pink, pipedal Pokemon with mammalian features, although rather than walking it uses it’s considerable psychic ability to fly from place to place. It has large hind legs, short front arms, and a long thin tail and is covered in exceedingly fine fur. It is thought to be intelligent, curious and playful, although considering it can make itself invisible at will, it is often thought to be a Mythical Pokemon, since so few have seen it. It is also known for apparently containing the DNA of every other Pokemon, which leads to it’s ability to know any Pokemon move that exists.

I’ve loved Mew ever since the first Pokemon movie where is appears. Obstensibly the movie is about Mewtwo, but since it’s an origin story, you can’t have Mewtwo without Mew, and you get to see this playful, but utterly powerful Pokemon playing around and giggling on top of a wind turbine. Also it’s exceptionally cute, who wouldn’t like that? And, you know, totally powerful psychic Pokemon.