(In which this morphs more and more into a straight-up Pokemon blog maybe I should find a new hobby for some variety)

I’ve still been playing VC Gold, though it’s been sort of an on-and-off thing. There have been a few places where I’ve realized I needed to buckle down and grind, and that’s…not the most fun you can have with a Pokémon game, so it was rarely a speedy event. But I managed to get past the League on my first attempt, and getting through Kanto after that was rather brief. Then came Mt Silver, which actually has high enough levels that I can get decent EXP, so grinding hasn’t been too bad. I also realized you can rematch Silver on Mondays and Wednesdays, and discovered the Trainer House in Viridian City, so those have helped me train. Other than that I’ve been slowly expanding my Unown collection—I’ve decided I want to get another complete set here, since it’s their original appearance…sorta. The best way I’ve found is using the Level Ball made from Red Apricorns, so I’ve been trying to check in every day to bring one of those to Kurt if nothing else.

Of course, there was still the ultimate goal of any Johto game: fighting Red. His levels aren’t quite as bad here as they are in HGSS, but still…73-81 is terrifying, especially when the second strongest trainer, Blue, doesn’t even hit level 60. I wasn’t sure how much I would need to grind, but after a while I decided that when my team reached level 60 across the board, I’d give it a shot.

Turns out, that did it. It was nerve-wracking, but my team was able to pull off a victory against Red himself. Wow. And everyone got to be in the battle for at least a little, too, which I was concerned about, and I rather like that it was my starter that took out his starter (even tanking a crit Thunder in the process). So, a round of applause for my team!

-Blaze V, the Typhlosion

-Will, the Crobat

-Mettaur, the Forretress

-Lurerre, the Lanturn

-Tau, the Xatu

-Gori, the Primeape

I still have a few more Unown to catch, and even once I’ve done that and Pokémon Transporter gets updated to send these Pokémon to Gen VII…I might hold off a bit. Being back in Gold has been wonderful, and now that I’ve proven just how awesome my partners are, I kind of want to enjoy where we stand a while longer.