Pokedex

I've been playing Pokemon for years. I've grown up with it. It's always been there. My friends leveling and trading, battles in the schoolyard, trying to catch them all. Trying to catch them all. That's the rub. As long as they've had the games, the pressure to catch, trade and fill the Pokedex has been not exactly subtle. This Brings me here, now. When this all started, there were 151 Pokemon, spread over two versions. Marketing genius. Get kids to need both games or a good friend to finish the game.

As a completionist and an achievement whore, not being able to complete the Pokedex has bugged me for years. Time to put that to an end. The gauntlet has been thrown. Let's do it. I've got friends with Pokemon, I've got older versions, I've got a game boy with red still in it. Let's do this. All the Pokemon, one game.

The Journey Begins

Here we go. Limited edition Zelda 3DS in hand, Pokemon white game in, let's do this. First off, the rules:

1. We're going for 100% complete Pokedex here. All 646 Pokemon (as I look this up, I see that there's a newly discovered Pokemon that will be released as an event Pokemon. Bugger).

2. All the Pokemon will be caught by myself where possible. If I need to find and purchase an older version of the game to do so, this will be done.

3. Certain Pokemon will be held on a friend's game simply due to difficulty of getting. Event Pokemon fall into this category. Specifically, Victini.

4. Due to my own O.C.D., all catchable pokemon will be caught in regular pokeballs. Including legendaries. The safari zone is excluded from this rule.

5. no shinies. Let's be real, people. The odds of finding one is more than 1 in 8000 encounters, plus the overlap of pokemon in grasses, plus actually catching it. They're just a nice bonus for now. Male, female and regional variants maybe.

The game is on and I'm staring at the blank blue screen asking if I want to delete all saved data. This is it. Fresh start. Ish. I actually have to do this twice more so I have the starters.

running for the starters is more annoying than it sounds. Ive got to start a new game, get my starter, battle my two friends, race to the first town, beat N, kick my friends again, kick the gym, kick team plasma, and then i get the c-gear and can trade off my starters to my friend's game. Twice.

up+select+B

Delete all saved data?

yes

Once the saved data has been deleted, there is no way to recover it.
Is it really OK to delete all saved data?

yes

Deleting all saved data... Don't turn off the power.

and just like that... over 115 Pokemon, 8 badges, and 200 hours of gameplay are gone. Forever. All to make way for the new...


OK! now that the dramatic moment is over, the runs are done, the starters safe, the journey ready to begin anew. Time to meet Juniper. My starter this time is Oshawatt. I don't know why I like him this time around. I've gotten the fire starter every game. Oh well. Samurai otter is it.

Total Pokemon: 1

The Trash Can is Empty

Made it to the first town and beat my friends again. After three runs, this is nothing new. I do have more Pokemon though, a lillipup, patrat, purrloin and a pansear. I don't know if it's nostalgia that makes the early ones seem better, but damn, i miss things like houndoom and kangaskhan. I'm also trying to get all the items and talk to people while going through. I'm not really levelling things evenly. Not until the end when I need them to evolve. Getting to the end is kinda important because beating the elite 4 and becoming the champion gives you the national Pokedex.

about to do the dream mist bit with team plasma, meaning I get some weird dream altering Pokemon. I do get to trade all of my starters and elemental monkeys over though, upping my numbers. Lillipup is scary good at the early game.

Pokemon: 5

Drilbur

I've never caught one before. I've tried, but they are really rare. Pokemon white has this new thing where certain grasses or certain bits of dirt start to shake or spin. This is a rare Pokemon encounter. Usually this is nice and easy, you can run around waiting for grass to shake and then run into it, but if you are in a cave, where battles can happen anywhere, this really sucks. I've just spent two hours trying to get a spinning dirt pile to encounter this Pokemon. Got it. Finally.

This along with a new audino, woobat, roggenrola, pidove, munna and a newly evolved herdier bring the new total to 13. I'm making pretty good time. Got to catch a few little guys to trade for the starters and the elemental monkeys. This will bring my total to 17. Heading toward the next town and prepping for the gym.

Pokemon: 13