Pokémon

I've added two new things to my blog. If you'll look above, you'll see the "Current Project" box. That's where I'll post stuff relating to my current project (obviously). Right now, it's Orphan Wars, so I've got a word count and a snippet there for your reading enjoyment.

Also, I've added a thing up there on the sidebar for my Pokémon! As you know, I have been a long-time fan of Pokémon since day one, Red n' Blue. I loved the show (not so much now, since they changed the voices and they have those funky new Pokémon all over the place--not that all of them are bad), I collected the cards... life was good. And apparently I can't give it up. The idea of Pokémon is just so great, to me. When I was younger, I was drawn in by the simple-to-understand concept and the wonder of so many awesome Pokémon to catch. Today, I'm more drawn in by the sheer replay value and customization this game offers. There are, what, over 450 Pokémon now? That's a dang lot of party combinations. Not only that, but you get to choose what moves your Pokémon learn, and lately, I've been looking even deeper into the hidden stats and junk. Just last night, I learned about Effort Values for the first time. I've played Pokémon for years and I never knew about them. If I chose to keep track of those, I could raise my Pokémon to a whole new level of awesomeness.

Another thing I love is how different it is from most games in that the player isn't really in control of mastering the game. Sure, you can beat the Elite Four, but when it comes to collecting all 150 Pokémon--much less the shiny versions!--you gotta have a whole lot of luck on your side. You also have to be somewhat social and trade with other people who have different versions of the game. It fosters friendships. Most of my childhood friendships were honestly based on Pokémon, I kid you not. That's what we did when we hung out. It was the good old days. Not only that, but there are special real-life events where kids can go and get access to brand new areas or ultra-rare Pokémon you just can't get anywhere else. You miss out, and you'll never, ever get another chance.

And then there's stuff like Mirage Island, a hidden area. Every day, the game picks a random number between 1 and, like, 60,000. If your Pokémon's internal number (the number that basically determines everything about that Pokémon) matches that number, you get to go to a new, secret area. How often is that going to happen? Seriously. There are shiny versions of Pokémon that have alternate colors. The chances of ever seeing one of those are slim, other than the red Gyarados, which is part of the main storyline. In all my years of Pokémon, I've seen two shiny Pokémon in the wild. One was a silver Tentacool, and the other (which I just found the other day) was a golden Magikarp.

Even more rare than that is the Pokérus, or Pokémon Virus. It's a status effect that happens to your Pokémon about 1/3 as often as you seeing a shiny Pokémon. It can't be cured by the Pokémon Center or by putting it in your box. It can also spread to other Pokémon in your party. Luckily, it doesn't do anything bad--in fact, what it does is it doubles the effort points you get from fighting enemy Pokémon. If I didn't know that and there was suddenly some incurable status effect on my Pokémon, I would be freaked out--which is quite amazing, considering I've been playing this game for over ten years! A game I've played for that long can still surprise me! Can anyone say that about any other game? Honestly? Apparently now that there's Wi-Fi trading with the new version, people will try to circulate the Pokérus through trading and letting it infect their party. I still doubt it's very widespread, though, considering the age group of players (nine-year-olds don't care about effort values) and the sheer rarity of the Pokérus.

I'm just... amazed at the depth of this game. It's frustrating that so much of it is left up to sheer luck and unbelievable odds, but then again, it makes getting those shiny Pokémon and getting to Mirage Island and contracting the Pokérus all the more fulfilling and amazing. It sets you apart from every other player out there. It makes every game experience unique.

As soon as I get my hands on some dough (It'll happen one day), I'm gonna get myself a Nintendo DS and a copy of the upcoming Pokémon version, Platinum. I hear it's possible to get every single Pokémon ever made (with the exception of the event-only Pokémon) on that one, whether by catching or trading. With the DS' dual-slot thing, you can put in one of the Generation III (that's games for the Game Boy Advance, to put it simply) games into the other slot and new Pokémon will appear in your DS game. Plus there's the Wi-Fi trading and battling thing... Man. It just sounds so amazing. I can't wait.