professor_tammi

This thing is kind of becoming my online video game diary. (That sounds like a good idea btw. Haven't had a diary in a while. They're actually pretty cool!)

Regarding the issue of the levels of the other trainers' pokémon post-game, they still kind of terrify me. I mean, a jump from level ~50 or so to level 65? What. Does not compute. Through some abuse of the Lucky Egg and lots and lots of healing items / revives, I've finally managed to get my party members' levels up to 60, though. I should be ready to take on the Elite Four pretty soon - being underleveled by ten levels is actually pretty standard if you're grinding averse.
I found a bug! I'm not entirely sure why I find this so exciting, but. I suppose it may be because bugs in the newer games are rare. Here are the steps to reproduce the bug, for the heck of it: first, enter a double battle. Make all your pokémon faint except for one. Use a revive on one of your pokémon, and make sure the enemy faints your last pokémon. The game will ask you to send out the pokémon you revived, as it's the only one left, but if you attempt to do so, you'll find that it's impossible, and it won't react no matter what you try to do. Only solution I've found is to restart the game.
So after finally getting through the routes with ridiculously high-level pokémon, I get to Black City. A bunch of trainers to battle, with pokémon in seemingly random level ranges (I saw several from 30 to 65), and, of course, the market. I can buy Water- and Thunderstones with the current setup of trainers, which is pretty good. As for the city itself... while Black City is certainly more useful, due to the aforementioned market, I think I would prefer White Forest, aesthetically speaking. And besides, the "theme" of Black City - which, according to its very own "boss", is greed - kind of depressed me more than anything. ... I'm putting way too much thought into this game.
After getting to Undella Town, I decided to check inside all houses, as is customary for any RPG player. To my horror, entering one of them revealed that not only did it house Cynthia, but also that she would like a battle - which was terrifying not because I wasn't expecting her, but because I knew my low-level team would stand no chance. Thankfully, the game gives you a Yes/No-prompt at that point, so you're not forced to fight her. Phew.
I decided to go from Opelucid City back to Undella Town next, in order to explore the rest of the post-game routes. There was a bridge following shortly after Opelucid, which didn't seem to serve that much of a purpose - a few trainers here and there, and maybe a short sidequest, but not much more than that. What I found interesting about the bridge was the amount of music-changing NPCs (which I haven't really properly commented on yet, so now is as good a time as any!). Speaking to them makes them contribute to the background music in some way - for example, one of them starts singing, and another one will play the harmonica for you. It's a minor but very cute addition to the game. I quite like it.
After this, there was Lacunosa Town, which really didn't seem to be of any importance. Well, at least not at a quick glance, but checking Bulbapedia pretty much confirms this. The NPCs in the town mostly spread rumors about the Giant Chasm, which is home to a legendary I won't be getting to just yet. Hm. At least the music in Lacunosa is nice.
The trainers you battle after the main story practically all have old-gen Pokémon, no doubt to fill out your National Dex. But it still feels very empty with less than 300 entries... sigh. Still, I've never been one for actually catching 'mons, so I don't feel too troubled about it. I'm more of a competitive player.

(I really love nonsensical pokémon quotes. They're the greatest.)

I'd like to check out the new Wi-Fi options; especially random matches and real-time trading. Probably won't happen for a while, though. I'll have to learn to RNG abuse properly if I want to do any random matches, and as for trading... I don't really think I've got anything worthwhile to trade. But the system certainly sounds interesting! Will probably comment on it sooner or later.