Okay, so for the past few weeks I have been Nuzlocking Green.
That's right, not Leaf Green, ポケットモンスター グリーン (Pocket Monsters, Green), the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue.
I actually really like Green because of all the quirky sprites you're not used to as an American (and Cloyster still looks like a pussy, lol). One sad aspect about playing all the Japanese Pokemon games before Black / White is that there is no Kanji 漢字, or Chinese characters, so it gets kind of tiring on the eyes just reading Hiragana / Katakana. Besides, after playing through a few Japanese games you realize that GF's translators are amazing, and the lines are almost exactly the same in both languages-- a few quirks, usually from speech forms; Professor Oak talking like an old man (makes sense), Bill and many other characters from Johto speaking various forms of Kansai-ben (Johto is based on Kansai, so makes sense), etc.
Oddly enough, it seems like most programmers are from Johto, as they tend to speak like Bill.
Anyway, back to my Nuzlocke; I name myself チョウ "Chou" and the adventure begins! (I named my ドゥーシュ "Douche")
A few things I'm thinking about as I Nuzlocke:
-Be wary of the 1st gen's Critical Hit functions-- they're pretty stupid. In fact, my Nuzlocke ended pre-maturely once when Gary critical hit me in that first battle and I died even using the Potion... gay...
-I'm playing on a Rom so I can't trade; this means I'm missing out on 3 of RBY's very best Pokemon, Golem, Alakazam, and Gengar.
-Golem is like impossible to get anyway as you have a 100% chance of running into a Zubat first. Abra, likewise, is generally like impossible to get in Nuzlocke for obvious reasons (except buying one in Celadon), but missing out on Gengar is sad (as you'll like 100% run into Ghastly > Cubone)... eh, Gengar is a hose for TMs anyway so whatever.
-I'm playing on a Rom, so I can boost the speed to x600%, so grinding was no big issue :D
-Psychic attacks... fuck... >_>
So I started my adventure (for the second time... rest in peace Sakamoto the 1st...) with my Bulbasaur, Sakamoto.
No, he ain't named for the cat in Nichijou (really! I mean it!), but instead for one of my absolute hero's...
Sakamoto Ryoma
In fact, I decided to name every Pokemon I caught after someone in Ryoma's life, or was a big part of the Bakamatsu.
So Sakamoto and I went out, doing the typical start-of-the-game stuff, grabbing potions, getting Oak his package, etc.\
Finally we got some Pokeballs, and began to gather up teammates! I went back to route 1, and ran into a Ratata Lvl 2 (Izo, named for
Okada Izo, one of Ryoma's childhood friends and a famous hitokiri, assassin of the Bakamatsu). If you're wondering why, Izo gets killed off pretty early in the Bakamatsu, and so I gave him this name knowing he'd probably end up as death fodder; lol Moving on, I headed back to Viridian City, and then went West on route 22, and crossed my fingers that I would run into ANYTHING besides a ratata...
...nyan! out popped a Nidoran female! (Ryou, level 4) I named her Ryou after Ryoma's wife. I decided it was time to go raise Ryo and Sakamoto, so I headed up to Viridian forest, where there'd be lots of harmless Metapod's to rack up experience without any risk of taking on attacks. Plus, both of my Pokemon were immune to Poison, so I figured I'd have no problems.
On the way up, before entering the forest, I ran into a Caterpie! (Toranosuke, Level 3) I named him Toranosuke for one of the more forgettable members of the radical group Tosa Kinnoto (and later, Ryoma's trading company/Revolutionaries, Kameyama Shachu).
Then I entered Viridian forest... amongst the dark foliage, I took my first step when a flash of light streamed into my field of vision... out popped...!
Pikachu Level 4
O__________________________O
carefully! Carefully! I tackled it once, Tail-whipped it twice with Izo, and String shotted it twice with Toranosuke before switching back to Sakamoto to take the thundershock and spam Pokeballs!
...ding! (Yataro, level 4) :3
I named it Yataro for
Iwasaki Yataro, founder of Mitsubishi and one of Ryoma's most important childhood friends.
After 1 hour of x600 speed grinding against ONLY metapod/kakuna (no risking anything against Caterpie/Weedle/Pikachu...btw, I ran into 5 consecutive Pikachus...O.o) my team looked like this:
Sakamoto (Bulbasaur) Level 12
Ryou (Nidoran Female) Level 11
Yataro (Pikachu) Level 9
Izo (Ratata) Level 3
Toranosuke (Caterpie) Level 3
I figured I was ready to take on Gary on route 22.
More later! :3