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.

 

 

 

L – Legendaries

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.

Legendary Pokemon are incredibly rare, and very powerful Pokemon that are often the cause or focus of the myths and legends of the Pokemon world. In game and anime terms, this means that there is usually only one of them, and they live in very remote places, or are very good at avoiding humans, or only appear under special circumstances (these ‘event’ Pokemon are sometimes called Mythical Pokemon because they appear to rarely that their existence is doubted, but calling them Legendary Pokemon is not wrong)

In the games, this means that there will be certain legendaries based on which game you are current playing, and you generally only get one shot at catching them. Hence, when you get the master ball, you save that thing, save it until you find the legendary, because there’s a good chance it’s the only one capable of catching it.

In the anime, the legendaries tend to appear in the movies rather than the TV series, usually one or two depending on where within the world they are. Quite often there will be pairs of legendaries – Latios and Latias for instance – who will appear together. The movies are pretty good at showing off just how powerful they are compared to other Pokemon, and this happens in the games as well.

In the games, generally the legendary Pokemon can’t breed, especially after being captured. However, in the anime it is shown that they can breed, so instead of being unique, they are just rare. Hence why some trainers are shown to have legendary Pokemon as part of their teams. In the anime & movies the legendaries only tend to show themselves to special trainers (usually Ash Ketchum, the main protagonist of the anime) or villainous teams seek them out (See Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, and Movie #1 & the TV Special Mewtwo Returns to see how well that goes for him).

So, who are the legendary Pokemon?

• Legendary Birds – Articuno, Zapdos & Moltres
• Mew Duo – Mew & Mewtwo
• Legendary Beasts – Entei, Raikou & Suicine
• Tower Duo – Lugia & Ho-oh
• Celebi
• Legendary Titans – Regice, Registeel & Regirock
• Eon Duo – Latias & Latios
• Weather Trio – Groudon, Hyogre & Rayquaza
• Jirachi
• Deoxys
• Lake Guardians – Azelf, Mesprit & Uxie
• Creation Trio – Dialga, Palkia & Giratina
• Lunar Duo – Cresselia & Darkrai
• Sea Guardians – Manaphy & Phione
• Heatran
• Regigigas
• Shaymin
• Arceus
• Victini
• Swords of Justice – Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion & Keldeo
• Forces of Nature – Tornadus, Thundurus & Landorus
• Tao Trio – Reshiram, Zekrom & Kyurem
• Meloetta
• Genesect
• Mortality Duo – Xerneas & Yveltal
• Zygarde
• Diancie
• Hoopa
• Volcanion
• Magearna – The first Pokemon to be revealed as a Generation 7 Pokemon!

Yeah, there’s quite a few. 54 in total (16 of which can be considered Mythical Pokemon), which potentially more to come in generation 7!

 

Pokemon of the Day

L is for Lapras

Resembling a plesiosaur, it is a large sea creature with a blue spotted hide, long neck, and shelled back. Instead of legs, it has flippers, which it uses to swim with, or occasionally, slid along long ice paths that it can create. Lapras is a very intelligent but gentle Pokemon that travels in pods in the wild, using song to communicate with it’s other pod members, although it can understand human speech. As well as being water/ice type, it can sometimes develop psychic abilities such as telepathy.

One of the reasons I love Lapras is because it’s the ‘travel’ Pokemon. In the anime (and often since I give it surf, in my games) it is the Pokemon that they use to travel between islands and across water ways. Also, it’s super cool to watch it slid across ice, and it’s generally a graceful Pokemon. Also, wouldn’t you just love to ride on the back of a Pokemon like that? I would!

 

 

K – Kanto

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.

Turns out, this was one of the hardest letters to actually find a topic for. Seriously, you wouldn’t have thought it, but K gave me lots of trouble, hence I had to get a little bit creative with the title. K is for Kanto, which is one of the regions of the Pokemon worlds, and that’s the topic for today – The Regions.

The Region is the part of the world that a game (or anime series) takes part in, and currently in the main series there are six regions:

• Kanto
• Johto
• Hoenn
• Sinnoh
• Unova
• Kalos

The picture from yesterday’s post is of the Unovo region, which is the setting for Black/White & Black 2/White 2. And because today is named after it, here’s Kanto, which is the original region for Blue/Red/Yellow & FireRed/LeafGreen:

 

Regions, being the setting in Pokemon takes place, tend to have fairly similar structures in place regarding society. So there’s eight gym leaders that make up the Pokemon League, and once you defeat those you can challenge the Elite Four and the Champion of the region (although Johto and Kanto share their Elite Four). There’s also a Pokemon Professor that has residence in the area, who is the person who gives out starter Pokemon and Pokedex to new trainers. And you’re pretty much always going to find a villainous team trying to accomplish something there.

Of course, as well as having similarities, the regions also have their difference. At the most fundamental level, this means that the map is different, with different towns, routes and places to explore. The larger experiences of the world will change as well, such as climate and culture – Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh are based on Japanese islands (some more loosely than others), Unova takes inspirations from New York’s metropolitan area, and Kalos is based on northern France. So as well as geographical similarities, you’ll find cultural indicators as well. Kalos for instance has a lot of cafes, and is the only game where you can buy clothes for your trainer avatar, which is something that I highly approved of.

Actually, in the Diamond/Pearl games, Professor Oak explains that Sinnoh, Kanton, Hoenn (and probably Johto as well) are all part of a larger country, whose name has yet to be revealed, much like Japan which is what they are modelled after – a number of large and many more small islands making up the larger country. Unova and Kalos are known to be much further away, so they are probably part of a different country.

You will also have different Pokemon, each region did introduce some more Pokemon as we progressed through the generations, so there’s more places to explore and find/catch/train Pokemon. The legendaries will also be different for each area, and that often means that the stories and legends that people pass around from one to another will be different, to better reflect the legendaries that live there, and their influence on the world. Taking Groudon and Kyogre, the legends of the Hoenn region change depending on which game you’re in, and thus which legendary you have, because Groudon will take all the water away, whilst Kyogre will flood the world. Either one is bad, but there is a difference in their methods.

I might have mentioned this before, but the world building that go on in the Pokemon world is spectacular, even if it is in the background most of the time. But that’s kind of what good world building is like, at least that’s what I always feel when I’m writing my novels. Lots and lots of work, for a subtle underlying enjoyment of the world, and a few shining examples where you can really see it come to life. That, and I am super excited to see what the new region for Sun/Moon is!

 

Pokemon of the Day

K is for Klefki

Kelfki is a sixth generation fairy/steel type Pokemon which has a pale grey face, pink body, and a oddly shaped appendage from its head. A thin white loop that might be it’s arms extends around it’s entire body, and upon this loop it will collect various keys. If it finds a key it likes, it will never let it go, and it uses it’s collection to threaten attackers.

It uses it’s body to collect keys! How cool is that? Sure, he’s only been in since the generation 6, so I’ve only had him in X/Y game, but I really, really like him. Not only is he adorable, and has some really cool moves that only he can use because he’s basically a key ring, his type combination is excellent, and when he got up to high level, he was super powerful. Really, he was probably my favourite out of the new Pokemon for generation 6, and I used him all the time.

 

J – Journey

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.

Your very own Pokemon legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with Pokemon awaits! Let’s go!

A Pokemon journey is very much like a questing fantasy novel, and is pretty much the basis for all the games. The standard journey, and the one you undertake as the player in the games, is that you, as an individual trainer, will be given your first Pokemon and a Pokedex, and you will battle your way across the region of that game, defeating all eight gym leaders and then challenging the elite four and the champion. Quite often this involves some other stuff, like taking on the villainous team of the region, but your goal, as the trainer, is to become the champion by defeating a whole bunch of people in Pokemon battles.

Of course, that’s not the only journey that a trainer can undertake. Some younger trainers decide that they want to compete in Pokemon Contests, competing not in battle but in shows to collect ribbons and get to the Grand Festival, where they can compete and win the biggest show of all time. Other simply want to travel and explore the world, or they want to study Pokemon in all kinds of habitats and scenarios, working with or for the Professors.

A Pokemon journey can begin as early as 10, which is the age at which one can officially apply for a Pokemon Trainer’s license, which allows them to get a starter Pokemon. Of course, in the real world, children can become friends with Pokemon well before this point, but 10 is the age at which they start to think about leaving home and going on their own journey.

In the anime, Ash Ketchum is the young trainer that we follow as he starts off on his Pokemon journey. Unusually, he starts off with a Pikachu as his first Pokemon (due to oversleeping) but after that things get on track, he meets several friends of his own age, some of which sign up to travel with him – Misty and Brock in the original series, and other of which are going about their own journeys. They meet Pokemon, people, compete in various contests and battles, and of course, encounter team rocket and thwart their plans.

 

In the games, you can usually see roughly what’s up ahead through the map of the region. I mentioned this yesterday in the Items post – the Town Map is a key item that you get really early on in the game, and it helps you navigate the Pokemon world. You’re unlikely to get lost without it, but I find it really useful.

 

Pokemon of the Day

J is for Jigglypuff

Known as the balloon Pokemon, Jigglypuff is a round pink Pokemon, with triangular ears and stubby arms and legs. It is filled with air, and when dejected, will let out this air until it becomes completely flat. It can use it’s large eyes to mesmerize opponents, and will then begin to sing a soothing lullaby, which lulls all those who hear it into a deep sleep.

Talking on a level of Pokemon that I like, I actually like Wigglytuff more (A Wigglytuff appears in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, as the guild leader, and he’s fantastic) however there are very few J Pokemon, and Jigglypuff is amazing in the anime. All it wants is for people to listen to its beautiful song, except, every time it sings it, they all fall asleep! In the anime, it follows Ash and co around, and every time they fall asleep, it reveals that it’s microphone is actually a permanent marker, and draws on their faces! Makes me laugh, every time.

 

I – Items

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 my nostalgia.

Items. I’ve touched on this in a couple of the previous posts, including H’s HMs post quite a bit. Items are something that the player can pick up, store in their bag, and then use in some fashion to help them out. In the later games, the player’s bag is divided into compartments to help sort the items into various types:

• General Items
• Medicine
• Pokeballs
• TMs & HMs
• Berries
• Mail
• Battle Items
• Key Items

Of course the types used do slightly depend on the game, these are the ones from Diamon & Pearl & Platinum, in the latest game X & Y, there were five bag sections: Items, Medicine, TMs & HMs, Berries and Key Items.

So, going through these, medicine is what you would expect, it’s potions and status cures for you Pokemon, to keep them healthy (and happy as a bonus, not letting them faint increases their friendship level with you). Pokeballs are also what you would expect, and as the games go on, there are an ever increasing amount of them to choose from depending on your situation. I quite like the great ball, it’s an all round reasonable choice. TMs and HMs I covered on Saturday, so go check out that post for information on those.

Berries are like fruit or vegetables, you grow them, and that have mostly the same effects as medicine, the thing with berries is that you can a) grow your own when you find appropriate soil patches and b) Pokemon can hold them and will eat/use them at the appropriate point in battle. I bought Pokemon White 2 over the weekend (turns out I never bought/played it, so I’m rectifying that) and I have Oran Berries to give to my Pokemon, so when they get injured they eat them and ta da! 10hp back (it’s still early in the game).

Mail generally does not get it’s own pocket. It’s a letter you can write things on and then give to a Pokemon to hold, which means that you can then trade that with the Pokemon to another trainer. Of course, given advances in communication technology, this became less of a thing and it was removed for generation 6 altogether. Which was fine by me, I spent way too much money on the pretty stationery. Battle Items are like medicine in that you use them on a Pokemon, but these items gives Pokemon a power up in battles. They have names like X-Speed or X-Defence, and give the stat a boost. I don’t tend to use them, mainly because between extra levelling and type advantaging, it’s an advantage I just don’t need.

Key items are probably the most interesting section, these are things that you really couldn’t do you Pokemon journey without, or it gets a bit harder, or they’re things you really shouldn’t throw away. Stuff like your bicycle, town map, fossils, the PokeFlute, fishing rods, key cards, and in the newer games, your Xtransceiver, used to communicate with other trainers in the game.

And then items is everything that doesn’t fit into another pocket. So escape ropes, evolution stones, repels, a whole bunch of items you give to Pokemon to boost stats (silk scarf anyone?), valuable items that exist for you to sell, just anything else that comes up and doesn’t belong in a names pocket, get put in here. Thankfully, in later games, there are ways of organising this pocket, and that helps enormously.

 

Pokemon of the Day

I is for Ivysaur

The last of the original three starter Pokemon, or at least in their chain, Ivysaur is the first stage evolution, evolving from Bulbasaur, and evolving into Venasaur. It is a seed Pokemon with a large seed starting to bud on it’s back, but it resembles a blue/green dinosaur on four legs. When it comes time for it to evolve, Ivysaur spends a lot of time out in the sun, absorbing energy.

Mainly it’s Ivysaur instead of Vensaur because a) I like Ivysaur a little better, although Bulbasaur is the best out of all of them and b) there are only five Pokemon who’s names begin with I. So today, the best out of those, is Ivysaur, and I did want to mention all the original starters. Look at how fierce he is, look at him. Also he’s modelled after a dinosaur, and that’s kind of awesome as well.