Hello, and welcome back to the Vesryn region! It's time for number 14 in my Text Play through Pokémon Zeta!
As always, I want to warn you, I will be spoiling the whole game, so please keep that in mind before reading this. If you want to play it for yourself, you can download it at the game's official wiki here. And with that, let's rock!
Last time, we went through Route 312, and battled Jake. Jake is an idiot. My Pokémon and I smacked him around like the idiot he is. I get the feeling we'll encounter the so-called "King of Swag" again. Hopefully, we won't see his smug mug around for a long time. Heh. I'm a poet and didn't even know it. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to battle some of the remaining Trainers on Route 312. Get some extra XP in. Once that was done, I made my way to Route 313.
Route 313 is a maze of raised platforms over a river. You can encounter wild Pokémon on the bridges, and there's a variety of trainers here to battle. I expected lots of Fishermen here, as this route is over a river, but there's only one. Huh. It's strange, but in a good way. I like it because it forces you to bring a variety of Pokémon with you on this journey. They are generally easy to avoid if you just don't want to deal with them on your travels at the moment.
The things about this route is that the wild Pokémon you find here can be very tough to catch. I get what they're going for with this. The Pokémon species you encounter on this Route are fully-evolved. Well, except for Skarmory. It has no evolved forms or pre-evolutions. Unless Sword and Shield changed that. Anyway, it makes sense that wild fully-evolved Pokémon would be pretty tough. But the game seems to almost make it...unfair.
What I mean is that catching these Pokémon can be very frustrating. You can bring their lifebars to the red, you can put them to sleep, you can try to catch them with Ultra Balls (Ultra Balls are the most powerful Pokéballs that you can buy), but they refuse to get caught. It's a real pain.
I hate trying to catch Pokémon here. I really do. It can be done, but it requires a lot of luck, and willingness to spend a pretty penny on Ultra Balls. And they're not cheap. Really. I know I don't have to capture all the Pokémon on the Route, most likely I'll never use them in battles, but I would like to complete the Pokédex. After all, that's usually one of the goals of Pokémon games. "Gotta Catch 'Em All", and all that. I especially hate Gliscor. Hate trying to catch them here. Hate hate hate HAAAAATE Gliscor.
Look at it. Look at Gliscor. Look at that smug flying squirrel scorpion bat thing. Look at that face with its cocky grin that mocks me. Well, joke's on you, buddy! I got a Gligar! Gligar is Gliscor's pre-evolution. I just need to give it an item called a Razor Fang and level it up during the night! Who's the man now, Gliscor?! WHO DA MAN NOW, YOU BAT SCORPION FLYING SQUIRREL JERK?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Now where was I? Oh yeah! Once we get through Route 313, you enter a cave to go to Route 314. "But wait!" You say to me. "You said that Route 313 is a maze of raised bridges, right?" Well, yes. Yes it is. But don't you worry. I'll get you through. It's actually kind of simple.
1. When you enter the route, you will encounter a fork in the road. Turn left here.
2. Follow the path until you get to another fork in the road. One path goes right, the other goes up. Go right. The upward path takes you to a dead end.
The item is a Rare Candy, if you're wondering. If you end up here, just head back to the previous fork, and then go right.
3. Shortly after going right, you'll encounter another fork, with paths going up and down. Go on the downward path. And then just follow the path until you reach the entrance to Route 314.
Route 314 is a short underground route. You just travel through five floors on with ladders.
If you're worried about trainers, there's none on this route. However, there is something interesting on the third floor.
Don't worry about this right now. We can't do anything with it at the moment. Once we make our way through Route 314, we arrive at Treader Town. Treader Town is a small mountain town, located right at the base of Mt. Press, the Everest of the Vesryn region.
The metal doors there are the entrance to Mt. Press itself. It's closed off right now, so don't worry about it. We'll get through that place in due time. I'm just hoping it's not as bad as that lousy mountain in Pokémon Mega Adventure. God, I hate Mt. Snarlet. I haven't thought about that game in a long time. I really should finish it. Maybe I should. One day...
Anyway, Treader Town a bit unusual from other towns in the region for one reason. If you've been following this Text Play, you may have read me pointing out that the towns in this game tend to follow a theme: Lakes. The towns here are named after real life lakes from around the world. It's a neat theme as we got to learn about places it's likely many of the readers of this blog never heard of.
Treader Town seems to buck the tradition, not being named after a lake. Well, I don't think there is a Lake Treader. But I get why the town has its name. It's on the base of a mountain, so it's best to stop here and get supplies before treading up the mountain, ha ha.
Yeah, I apologize. Treader is a small town, but there's quite a bit to do here. For one, there's the Game Corner. When you enter, you get greeted by this man.
He shows you around the games available at the Game Corner: The slots and Triple Triad. Yes, Triple Triad from the Final Fantasy series. I'm guessing at least one of the game's developers was a fan. He also gives you a Coin Case. Gotta carry your money in something, and a moneybag would be a bit obvious. He then gives me a free deck of Triple Triad cards. Well, you can choose between a Fire, Water, Electric, or a Grass-themed deck. Considering I chose a Fire-type as my first starter here, I chose the Fire deck.
The slots are pretty fun. I got two credits the first time I played them.
One of the main events of this place is the Treader Town Gym. This is the sixth gym we're going to have to face. The leader, one Avery, is a specialist in Bug-type Pokémon. We'll have to load up some Fire, Rock, and Flying types to take him down.
We can also find another Ancient Tome in this game. It's located in a house that's located above the Poké Mart.
You see that woman in front of the sink? You have to get behind her and talk to her. The Tome is hidden under the sink. Yeah. Under the sink. ...who is hiding these Tomes? I can imagine these things are ancient and very important, so why hide one of these things under some random person's house in some mountain town? It's just so hilarious to me.
There's an opportunity to add to your Pokémon collection in this very house. You just have to talk to the old man.
He'll give you a Spinda for any Pokémon. Seriously. Just give him anything. I had an extra Phanpy, so I figured he'd like that.
Cute little fella, ain't he? I always enjoyed watching Spinda stagger around in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. It's kind of like they're drunk or something. I can imagine that in-universe, Spinda tend to be portrayed in media as either cloudcuckoolanders or alcoholics. Anyway, there's an opportunity to add to our HM collection here. There's a house near the Poké Mart. An old man resides in it, chasing around his Wingull.
This is what you get for letting a Pokémon drink soda, I guess. When you talk to him, he mentions that his Wingull is named Peeko. Wait, I know of a old man who had a Wingull by that name. Is this Mr. Briney? Yeah, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald as well as in its remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, you do a sidequest in which you save Peeko from Team Aqua or Magma (depending on the version). In gratitude, Mr. Briney will take you between Dewford Town and Slateport City. I wonder what he's doing here in Vesryn. Is that even Mr. Briney? Is it a relative of his?
Either way, he gives you the HM05 (Waterfall). It's a Water-type attack that basically allows the player to climb up waterfalls. In Gens II and III, you could go down waterfalls without the HM, but you needed it to go up. In Gens IV-VI, you needed the HM to go down as well as up, which makes no sense to me. I mean, it seems easier to go down a waterfall than go up. I can also have to use this item once before we end up discovering an item that effectively replaces this. I know that I've gone into a rant about this before, but I just have to say it again. This is the only thing about this game so far that I have really hated. I hate that this game has items that can be used as replacements for the HMs, but the game not only still has the HMs, but forces me to get and use the HMs before I get the items! Just give me the items! What's the point of having HM01 (Cut), when I can get a Machete, which does the same thing?! It's needlessly redundant! I'm sorry, it's just that this drives me nuts.
I know you've all heard this rant before, and I do apologize. It's just...that's the big thing that drives me nuts about this game. Anyway, let's get back on track. To get inside Mt. Press, we have to defeat the Gym here. As I established earlier, the Gym here has a fondness for Bug-type Pokémon. Avery's style of battling involves using powerful Bug Pokémon and using status ailments to his advantage.
That makes sense. Bug-types tend to learn attacks that emphasizes status effects. Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, Acid, that kind of thing. To counter this, I'll need Pokémon that can hit hard, and hit fast. Flying, Fire, and Rock are strong against Bug. I can keep my Magmortar and my Butterfree on the team. Butterfree knows Gust (a Flying-type attack), and Magmortar is a Fire-type.
I might bring out the Murkrow and Charmeleon I caught. Charmeleon can become Charizard, which is Fire/Flying. Murkrow is a Flying-type, and mine knows Wing Attack. I also have a Nosepass, which is a Rock-type. It's at a rather low-level, so I'll have to do a LOT of grinding to catch it up to the others.
And I think that's where we'll stop for the month. I have some work to do, so I'd better get on that. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask if you go out! See you next time!
Pokémon Obtained:
Route 313
- Honchkrow
- Mandibuzz
- Skarmory
- Swellow
Route 314
- Drilbur
Treader Town
- Spinda
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