Pokemon Variants

[Ichabod]

I enjoy these write ups. Is there a way to post some screenshots to the reports, perhaps. That would make them a bit more colorful.

I like pokemon and I've played a bit in the past. I would still play it (even casual MP), if only Nintendo would allow the games to be ported to PC (wouldn't they get more money this way?). A 3DS is too expensive for where I live (when you convert the price to our currency, is not justifiable), so there's no way for me to play the new games.

I think Pokemon will someday have the same fate as Harvest Moon -> Stardew Valley. Someone will release a PC game that is very similar in the core ideas, but without all the unnecessary gameplay tropes and it'll sell a lot.

[Dantski]

I enjoy these write ups. Is there a way to post some screenshots to the reports, perhaps. That would make them a bit more colorful.

I like pokemon and I've played a bit in the past. I would still play it (even casual MP), if only Nintendo would allow the games to be ported to PC (wouldn't they get more money this way?). A 3DS is too expensive for where I live (when you convert the price to our currency, is not justifiable), so there's no way for me to play the new games.

I think Pokemon will someday have the same fate as Harvest Moon -> Stardew Valley. Someone will release a PC game that is very similar in the core ideas, but without all the unnecessary gameplay tropes and it'll sell a lot.

You can always play multiplayer on pokemon showdown online.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I enjoy these write ups. Is there a way to post some screenshots to the reports, perhaps. That would make them a bit more colorful.

I like pokemon and I've played a bit in the past. I would still play it (even casual MP), if only Nintendo would allow the games to be ported to PC (wouldn't they get more money this way?). A 3DS is too expensive for where I live (when you convert the price to our currency, is not justifiable), so there's no way for me to play the new games.

I think Pokemon will someday have the same fate as Harvest Moon -> Stardew Valley. Someone will release a PC game that is very similar in the core ideas, but without all the unnecessary gameplay tropes and it'll sell a lot.

The best I could do with screenshots would be terrible quality ones from my cell phone, and I'm a bit. . .paranoid when it comes to privacy concerns with that.  The 3DS theoretically allows you to take screenshots, but many games don't have this feature.  It's unlikely there will be any screenshots in the future.  Sorry!


As Dantski wrote, there is the Pokemon Showdown battle simulator for PC, but that's focused more on the competitive community rather than "casual" fights.  Random Battle is good for a few quick matches without the hassles of teambuilding.

Is the 2DS available in your country?  That's what I play on, and it's significantly cheaper than the 3DS.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I've been playing around a bit with Pokemon Sapphire tonight, since my DS Lite and GBA cartridges still seem to work.  *Knock on wood*

Even though I've played Pokemon since the original Kanto games, Hoenn is probably my favorite region.  It has similar terrain to Alola, but feels more satisfying to explore, and the colorful GBA graphics give the 3rd generation games that extra charm.

This will be a bit unusual for a solo run because the Pokemon I have in mind won't be available until shortly before the 2nd gym.  Before that point, I'll use Mudkip to speed up the fights in the 1st gym.

It wouldn't be a Herman Gigglethorpe solo playthrough without weird failures, so the first rival battle against Brendan went poorly.  Mudkip missed two Tackles in a row, while Brendan's Treecko debuffed my Defense with Leer a few times.  Not even Potions could save Mudkip from Treecko's Pounds after that.

Death Count:  1

Immediately after that, I tried again and won.  It's definitely possible to lose the first rival battle in some Pokemon games, and Blue in Pokemon Yellow even evolves his Eevee differently based on the outcome of the first two fights with him.  I knew I had to play through Sapphire after losing to the first trainer battle!

You may have noticed that I picked May for this playthrough instead of the male trainer Brendan.  I almost always play as the male trainers, but I wanted something different.  Some of the dialogue is different, such as Brendan saying he expected Norman's kid to be a boy.  (The player character you don't choose becomes Professor Birch's child, which leads me to suspect that Norman isn't your biological father.)

GBA cartridges are now so old that you can no longer grow Berries or perform other time-sensitive actions without replacing the battery.  I like to think May's wandering through a post-apocalyptic Hoenn where time has stopped and no crops can grow.  Team Magma and Team Aqua's plans would make a little more sense if they're acting out of desperation!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

May caught a Zigzagoon and named it HM MULE like the Ducklett from my Simipour Pokemon White solo.

Upon reaching Petalburg Woods, May beat up a Team Aqua Grunt and his Poochyena.  Why would a gang called Team AQUA give their Grunts a pure Dark type instead of a Water type like Lotad or Wingull?  I guess no matter what their theme is, every evil organization must rely on early route trash. 

Rustboro City looked distinct from other cities in the Pokemon series, mostly because of its color scheme.  The graphics in the old Hoenn games are among the best in the series, and I'd hate to see what GameFreak did to the region with the 6th generation remakes.

Roxanne was the Gym Leader here, and you can guess what type she specialized in from the bad pun in her name.  Since there weren't many Rock types at this point, all of her subordinates kept throwing Geodudes at me, which May's Mudkip easily defeated with Water Gun.  Roxanne's Nosepass was pure Rock and had better Special Defense than the Geodudes, so it was a legitimate threat.  A few Water Guns took Nosepass down to the point where Roxanne kept feeding it Potions, but it wasn't enough to stop May.  The Gym Leader battle leveled Mudkip to 16, letting it evolve into Marshtomp and teaching it the Ground move Mud Shot. 

Roxanne gave me the ability to use the Cut HM outside of battle and the TM Rock Tomb after May defeated her.  Rock Tomb is a mediocre Rock attack that always debuffs the enemy's Speed if it hits.  

A guy called the "Cutter" gave me the HM, but I didn't need it quite yet.  Team Aqua was causing trouble once again, and stole some "Goods" from the Devon Corporation.  May headed east into the unfinished Rusturf Tunnel, where the Team Aqua Grunt was stuck in a dead end.  He sent out his easily defeated Poochyena, and then was forced to surrender the Devon Goods and Briney the sailor's Wingull.

As thanks for beating up Team Aqua, May became the Devon Corporation's errand girl.  Devon's president ordered her to deliver the Goods to Slateport and a letter to his son Steven in Dewford Town.  He was nice enough to give her the PokeNav, this game's equivalent of the Town Map.

I immediately took up Briney's offer of a ride to Dewford Town.  Dewford may not be as visually interesting as some of the other towns in this game, but it at least has the gimmick of the "Trendy Sayings".  One thing I'm wondering is why this seaside town has a Gym, but not a Poke Mart.  The Pokemon League makes some strange choices sometimes.

May went directly to the 2nd floor of Granite Cave, where she finally caught her solo Pokemon of choice.  Drumroll. . .

Sableye!


Sableye is one of the 3rd generation's most interesting Pokemon, and is also weak enough to make for an entertaining solo run.  It's a Dark/Ghost type, meaning it has no elemental weaknesses!  Well, at least until the 6th generation added Fairy types, but I'm playing a much older game than X and Y.  Dark/Ghost also grants nice immunities to Normal, Fighting, and Psychic attacks.  Then you look at its base stats and realize why Smogon lists it as "E rank" in its ingame viability tiers:

HP:  50
Attack:  75
Defense:  75
Special Attack:  65
Special Defense:  65
Speed:  50


Firestorm the Butterfree had 10 more base HP, 25 more Special Attack, 15 more base Special Defense, and 20 more base Speed.  Sableye has better physical Attack and Defense, but that's it.  Not having a single stat over 75 is terrible for a Pokemon that never evolves.  Its ability Keen Eye prevents accuracy losses from Sand Attack, Mud Slap, etc., which is nice in certain situations.  Later games gave Sableye the superior ability Prankster (non-attacking moves get extra priority), and the 6th generation remakes added a Mega Evolution with the ability Magic Bounce (non-attacking moves from the enemy team are reflected).

The next Gym is Fighting, a free win for Sableye.


(I considered doing a Breloom solo for a bit while I was in Petalburg Woods, but thought Sableye would be more fun.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

More of the misadventures of May and her Sableye:

WEAKENED MOVIE was the Dewford trendy saying at the time.  No wonder there’s no Poke Mart in this town.  No one wants to work near people who can’t even come up with a proper fad.


Brawly should have surrendered his badge as soon as he saw May’s Sableye enter his Gym.  The Machops, Makuhitas, and Meditites could do nothing but Detect, Bulk Up, and Meditate while my Pokemon Scratched and Night Shaded them to death.  Brawly’s Makuhita feebly attempted to damage Sableye with Knock Off.  Sure, Brawly, a base 20 power special attack is going to increase the Death Count.  Beating each trainer turned on the lights in the Gym, making me suspect Brawly is a miser and doesn’t want to pay the electric bill.  After Brawly lost, he gave me the TM for Bulk Up.  This would be a decent move if Sableye could learn it, because it buffs Attack and Defense by one stage.  Getting the second badge let me use Flash outside of battle, but HM MULE couldn’t learn it!

Fortunately, Granite Cave was easier to navigate in the dark than Rock Tunnel was in Kanto.  No trainers appeared to cause trouble either, so with a few Repels, May delivered the letter to Steven so she could sail to Slateport.  Tuber Lola on the beach south of Slateport didn’t add to the Death Count, but I missed so many Rock Tombs against her Azurill that I ran out of PP and had to resort to Scratch.  I know I called Rock Tomb “mediocre”, but Normal types are immune to Night Shade, and I can’t get anything better to deal with them for a little while.  80% accuracy is more like 8% in a Pokemon game, and Rock moves have terrible failure rates for some reason.      

 

An interviewer asked May to describe her Sableye.  Her response was SABLEYE ALONE CAN WIN OK?.  She likes to shout her dialogue whenever possible. 



Team Aqua Grunts were outside the museum, paying to enter like law-abiding citizens.  What kind of a criminal syndicate is this?  Team Plasma at least had the audacity to break into the Nacrene City museum like gangster s should.  What made it worse is that the Grunts said they didn’t know what they were looking for inside the museum.  Inside the museum, one Grunt remembered me and gave me the TM for Thief before running away scared.  Another one said “I didn’t have $50, so it took a long time getting by the receptionist”.  $50 Pokedollars is probably worth a nickel, so how poor is Team Aqua?  Two Grunts appeared to challenge May when she handed the Goods to Stern.  Carvanha was the only Water type they used, and the rest were random unevolved Pokemon like Zubat.  After the battle, Archie told May she was too young to understand his dream of flooding the world and ran away.



Slateport had a Contest hall, and yes, Sableye will participate some day.  There’s no way he could win without feeding him lots of Pokeblocks, and I can’t get the proper berries until later in the game.  Sableye has a Mild nature, making him suited for the Beauty competition.



Pokefan Miguel was annoying to fight even if his Skitty couldn’t attack Sableye directly.  He used Attract, and since it was a female Skitty, Sableye spent many of his turns “immobilized by love”.  A Sing put Sableye to sleep too.  Rock Tomb misses added to the frustration.  Eventually, a Scratch finished off the Skitty.  At least Pokefans are wealthy and give out generous rewards when defeated.       



The cycling road route wasn’t noteworthy apart from the Brendan battle.  One critical hit Rock Tomb defeated Numel.  Wailmer wasted turns Splashing, so Rock Tomb and Night Shade could take it down.  A few more Night Shades beat Grovyle.  Grovyle is one of the few cases where the middle evolution looks better than the final form.



A TV in Mauville City featured the interview May had in Slateport.  “The bit ‘OK?’ that really accentuates emotional impact!. . .If I had to score this letter, I’d give it 86 points.”  An NPC in that house gave May the Rock Smash HM, which was needed to access the northern desert.  On Route 117 west of Mauville, Sableye leveled to 29 and learned Faint Attack, a 60 base power Dark attack with perfect accuracy.  It’s clear the translators for the Johto games meant “Feint” instead of “Faint”, since that error was corrected much later in the Pokemon series.  Faint Attack would be Sableye’s first move that took advantage of same type attack bonus, since Night Shade deals damage equal to the user’s level.  Having a move that could reliably hit Normal types was nice too.



May backtracked to Slateport in an attempt to think of a nickname for Sableye at the Name Rater’s house.  She settled on “NOWEAKNESS” because of Sableye’s unique typing advantages.  The nickname was in ALL CAPS because May liked to shout at random passerby in accordance with Hoenn custom.



The next stop was the Electric-themed Mauville Gym.  Several of the trainers didn’t have Electric Pokemon at all, and used Zigzagoons and Meditites instead.  This was a strange choice on the part of the developers, considering that several Electric types are available on Route 110 immediately south of Mauville.  Not a single trainer in this Gym had a Plusle or Minun!  Wattson had a complete disregard for trainer safety and decided to place electric barriers throughout his Gym.  No wonder one of his building projects for Mauville failed. 



Wattson led with a Magnemite that confused with Supersonic and paralyzed with its other moves.  Good thing May had stocked up on Paralyze Heals!  Magnemite’s Steel type forced NOWEAKNESS to use Night Shade instead of Faint Attack.  Voltorb was surprisingly tough because it outsped Sableye and hit him with Spark.  It paralyzed NOWEAKNESS at least once too.  The last opponent was Magneton, with a high Special Attack and the perfect accuracy attack Shock Wave.  Being over level 30 allowed NOWEAKNESS to scrap Magneton with two Night Shades.  All of Wattson’s Pokemon were in the low 20s, a respectable range for this part of the game.  Normal playthroughs often have problems with this Gym, especially if you pick Treecko as your starter and don’t have Marshtomp’s Ground type or Combusken’s Fire attacks to deal with Magneton.



Stopping by the east side of Rusturf Tunnel was rewarding.  HM MULE smashed the rock separating the two lovers, so the man gave May the HM for Strength.  The southern exit had a man looking for his glasses, and the Itemfinder revealed Black Glasses.  Black Glasses were going to be useful for NOWEAKNESS because they provided a small boost to Dark attacks. 



Getting through the desert was impossible at this point due to the sandstorm, so May had to take the long way around through Mt. Chimney.  Mt. Chimney is a much better volcano than Wela Volcano Park from Moon, and it even spreads ash on Route 113!  It’s a shame that GameFreak is being rushed with the newer games. . .



Lanette’s lab was west of Fallarbor Town.  Her notes said “The name and wallpaper design of each BOX will be made changeable to please the stored Pokemon”.  That raises more questions about what happens to Pokemon inside the PC.  Judging by Lanette’s notes, they exist in a kind of limbo that has nice wallpaper.  In Moon, stored Pokemon are sent to the Poke Pelago, an archipelago within the Alola region. 



At Meteor Falls, Team Aqua Grunts laughed about how they were going to do something with a meteorite at Mt. Chimney.  Team Magma chased after them, talking about how much they loved dry land.  Professor Cozmo was probably confused about all the gangsters dressed in colorful outfits.  May rode the Cable Car up to the Mt. Chimney summit.  She immediately saw a Team Aqua Poochyena fighting a Team Magma Poochyena.  I somehow don’t think Poochyena can “Hose them down!” without any Water type attacks, Team Aqua!



The first Team Aqua Grunt to challenge May told her that they wanted to expand the sea to “give people fun places to swim”.  There’s a reason Team Aqua ranks near the bottom of the list of Pokemon villains.  The Grunt and Admin didn’t have any Water Pokemon besides the Water/Dark Carvanha that has weak defenses.  Come on, Team Aqua, at least throw in a Tentacool! 



Even their leader Archie had only one Water type.  His first two Pokemon were Mightyena and Golbat, which were Dark and Poison/Flying respectively.  Sharpedo, the evolved form of Carvanha, was his signature Pokemon.  However, it wasted both its turns using Focus Energy and Scary Face instead of attacking.  The AI in this game is a little dim, as you might have guessed.  At least Archie seemed to have more of a plan than his minions.  He wanted to use the meteorite to make the volcano extinct, and then the crater would fill up with rain and make new habitats for Water Pokemon. 



After thrashing several trainers, May wound up in Lavaridge Town to get the 4th Gym badge from the Fire specialist Flannery.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

A solo Sableye playthrough update for the midgame:


Flannery's Gym was a bit like Wattson’s because there were a few trainers who didn’t use the theme at all.  Kecleon?  Meditite?  Flannery needs to give her underlings a Torchic.  Flannery’s Pokemon ranged from the mid to late 20s in level, and two of them were Slugmas.  Sometimes I think  the designers were a bit lazy with this game.  Her final Pokemon was a female Torkoal.  Why did I specify Torkoal’s gender?  She knew Attract, of course!  NOWEAKNESS spent many turns “immobilized with love” after Torkoal ran out of Overheats and whiffed with useless Flails and Body Slams.  This Gym Leader battle was the biggest farce in the whole playthrough so far.     Being level 40 made the fight easy, but I used a Soda Pop or two to be sure to survive Overheats. 
 
After beating Flannery, I gained the ability to use Strength outside of battle, and Brendan handed May protective goggles to walk through the desert.  While beating up the new trainers on Mt. Chimney’s peak, Sableye leveled to 41 and learned Shadow Ball.  Shadow Ball has base 80 power and will be Sableye’s main physical attack for the rest of the game.  Yes, a Ghost type attack is physical in Pokemon Sapphire.  I think the developers meant for Dark to be physical and Ghost to be special, but made a coding error back in the Johto games.  Almost all Dark moves became physical in the Sinnoh games, if you want evidence to back up my suspicions.
 
May now had 4 badges, so her dad Norman would deign to challenge her now at Petalburg.  Norman’s specialty was Normal types, which meant another defensive type advantage for NOWEAKNESS.  The trainers mostly used Linoones, Delcattys, and Zangoose (Zangeese?), and their shared gimmick was using a particular buffing item such as Dire Hit or X Defend.  Faint Attack slaughtered all the Normal types.  Norman was a little more threatening because he had two Slakings.  For those who haven’t played the Hoenn games, Slaking is a gimmick Pokemon.  Its base stats look like this:
 
HP:  150
Attack:  160
Defense:  100
Special Attack:  95
Special Defense:  65
Speed:  100
 
As you can see, Slaking’s stats are on par with the stronger legendaries.  How does a Pokemon with no base stat over 75 defeat it?  Slaking also comes with the crippling ability Truant that forces it to “loaf around” every other turn instead of using a move.  If you can survive a hit from Slaking, you can heal or buff yourself on Truant turns.  Since Slaking could only hit NOWEAKNESS with Faint Attack, it wasn’t much to worry about.  The second Slaking fell to two Faint Attacks when one of them got a lucky critical.  Norman’s other Pokemon was Vigoroth, a more conventional Normal type with the Sleep immunity ability Vital Spirit.  That died to a Rock Tomb and a Faint Attack.
 
Defeating Norman gave me the Facade TM and the ability to use Surf outside of battle.  Wally’s parents in Petalburg gave May the Surf HM as thanks for helping their son.  One meme people often say about Hoenn is “7.8/10 Too Much Water”, derived from the infamous IGN review of the 6th generation remakes.  Hoenn’s critics have a point, because there are an excessive amount of aquatic routes.  However, there are ideas like the Abandoned Ship, the strong currents near Pacifidlog Town, and deep sea diving to make it more interesting than the seas of Kanto or Johto. 
 
Imagine May riding on a tiny Zigzagoon across the ocean, and that’s what the next part of the game felt like.  NOWEAKNESS bullied trainers who were swimming around Dewford Town with Faint Attacks and Shadow Balls.  Sableye may have leveled into the late 40s doing this, but he still wasn’t guaranteed to KO Tentacools 23 levels lower with Faint Attack.  That’s how bad NOWEAKNESS’s stats were for a Pokemon that overleveled. 
 
Exploring the Abandoned Ship wasn’t profitable for NOWEAKNESS, but it would have been for many other Pokemon because the Ice Beam TM was there.  Ice Beam is a staple attack in competitive battles, and any Water Pokemon that has decent Special Attack should consider learning it.  Ice Beam is so overpowered relative to the story mode that Pokemon White placed its TM in a postgame cave.  Pokemon Moon restricted its Ice Beam TM to Mt. Lanakila, or right before the Elite Four battles at the end of the story.  I joke about how the Pokemon Moon developers were biased in favor of Water types, but Pokemon Sapphire is just as bad about that with Surf and Ice Beam right after the 5th Gym.  Making two of the first 4 Gyms weak to Water, and giving the Water starter a Ground type to make the Electric Gym a cakewalk only makes me more suspicious.  GameFreak should make a game where the Grass starter is the best as penance.
 
In Mauville, Wattson wanted May to shut down the defective generator in “New Mauville”.  New Mauville was similar to the abandoned Power Plant in Kanto, and featured several Voltorbs disguised as items.  Finding the generator was trivial, and Wattson rewarded May with the Thunderbolt TM.  Thunderbolt is another classic special attack that any Pokemon capable of learning it should consider.       
Route 119 was the next destination.  The grass was too tall for my Acro Bike, so May had to walk through it and fight a bunch of trainers with assorted Bug and Flying types.  Catching a Tropius here was necessary to get through the game with as few HM users as possible.  May was lucky enough to find one early and catch it with an Ultra Ball.  Night Shade isn’t just good for ignoring resistances, but makes for a decent Pokemon catching tool.  May named her new friend “HM BRONTO”, because he would be on Strength and Fly duty for the rest of the game.
 
Team Aqua was causing trouble at the Weather Institute, so of course NOWEAKNESS had to whale on them.  Sableye leveled up to 50 here, with these stats:
 
HP:  125
Attack:  95
Defense:  77
Special Attack:  84
Special Defense:  84
Speed:  77
 
Firestorm the Butterfree had better HP, Special Attack and Speed, but NOWEAKNESS the Sableye performed better everywhere else.  The Dark/Ghost typing was far superior to Firestorm’s Bug/Flying, so defensive typing is more important than stats for solos.  I’ve only had one death this whole playthrough, and that was an extremely unlucky rival battle with Mudkip. 
 
Team Aqua still had a shortage of Water types other than Carvanha.  Even Admin Shelly only had a Carvanha and a Mightyena in the late 20s.  The Weather Institute scientists must have been wimps if Team Aqua of all people could intimidate them.  One of them said “I’ve been researching rain for many years, but it’s ridiculous to think that humans can freely change the weather”.  Clearly he didn’t know about the Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Hail, and Sandstorm TMs. 
 
Brendan appeared to challenge me once again near the Weather Institute.  His team was exactly the same as the fight south of Mauville, and was about level 30.  Numel, Wailmer, and Grovyle all died in one hit.  The Hoenn rival is probably the weakest in the Pokemon series.  I don’t know why people hate Hau from Pokemon Moon so much.  He’s quite competent compared to several other rivals.  I don’t think Brendan will have the final form of his starter for his last battle in Lilycove City, if I remember this game well enough. 
 
A Kecleon blocked the route to the Fortree City Gym, so May had to go east and get the Devon Scope from Steven.  He said May’s battle style was “intriguing”.  Yes, Steven, the “brute force” method requires great skill.  Kecleon is another gimmick Pokemon whose ability Color Change alters its type to whatever attack hits it.  If you use Surf on a Kecleon, for example, it will become a Water type.  Human players can easily create weaknesses with Color Change and then exploit them, so Kecleon wasn’t common in competitive battles.  Later games gave it the much better ability Protean, which changes a Pokemon’s type to the move that it uses. 
 
Fortree City’s Gym was based on the Flying type, and yes, the trainers remembered to bring Pokemon that match the theme.  They were mostly from the Swellow, Pelipper, and Altaria families at about level 30.  Winona the Gym Leader had a more diverse team than previous Gym Leaders.  None of this “two Slugmas” business.  Swellow outsped NOWEAKNESS and used Double Team to increase Evasion, but Faint Attack never misses.  Pelipper was sturdy enough to take a Shadow Ball, and Winona could heal it with a Hyper Potion.  Another use for Night Shade is softening up strong Pokemon so you can knock them out in two hits without going through the “potion cycle”.  NOWEAKNESS took advantage of this and knocked Pelipper out of the sky that way.  Night Shade ignored Skarmory’s Steel typing and beat it in two hits.  Altaria was the only concerning Pokemon due to its high defenses and ability to buff its Attack and Speed with Dragon Dance.  Winona was too greedy to settle for only one Dragon Dance, so Shadow Balls could knock it out.
 
May received the Aerial Ace TM and the ability to use Fly outside of battle after defeating Winona.  Fly isn’t necessary to beat the game or advance the plot, but being able to go back to a previous town at any time is too good a convenience to pass up.  Sapphire is a less linear game than White or Moon, and you can save a few Gym Leaders for later if your team has a bad matchup.  Brawly can be skipped because the event trigger for going to Slateport is delivering the letter to Steven instead of getting the second badge.  Winona is another one you can save for later.  Keep this in mind for any 3rd generation variants.

[RifleAvenger]

Used to be if a 3DS game had a miiverse page, you could get screenshots from it.  This was NOT the same as the more obvious "take screenshot" option that appears on the 3DS home menu.  I was informed of this when doing my SMT 4 Apocalypse Ironcore run.  I've also confirmed that it worked for Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold.  Games too old to have a miiverse page were out of luck (ex. SMT4, EO4, Pokemon X/Y).

You can take screenshots through the 3DS and miiverse, though it is admittedly a bit of a hassle.

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Screenshots-with-the-3DS

Sadly, Nintendo killed miiverse for some dumb reason, so this no longer works. Shame.

Buuut... if you're playing a game on a system older than the 3DS, there's an emulator out there that has no restrictions on taking screencaps.  I don't see anything wrong with using an emulator for a game you also own a legal copy for.  When I actually get the time to do another report I'm aiming to do a "Realms Beyond builds my guild" for EO3, and I'm passing up my cartridge for an emulator that'll take nice screenshots and let me start new game with Shogun and Yggdroid unlocked from the get go. I've even heard rumors of 3DS emulators...

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Buuut... if you're playing a game on a system older than the 3DS, there's an emulator out there that has no restrictions on taking screencaps.  I don't see anything wrong with using an emulator for a game you also own a legal copy for.  When I actually get the time to do another report I'm aiming to do a "Realms Beyond builds my guild" for EO3, and I'm passing up my cartridge for an emulator that'll take nice screenshots and let me start new game with Shogun and Yggdroid unlocked from the get go.  I've even heard rumors of 3DS emulators...

Oh, please.  You know Realms Beyond is going to give you 5 Farmers for your Etrian Odyssey 3 combat party.

EO3 is easily my favorite game in that series, even if the classes are unbalanced.  It's solo friendly, and Sea Quest RNG exploits allow for quick grinding.

As for my Sapphire playthrough, I'm realizing how silly the level curve is for solo Pokemon.  Would a 6 Pokemon monotype actually be harder than a solo for the older games?  One of my X playthroughs was mono-Normal using Pidgeot, Linoone, Bibarel, Pyroar, Diggersby, and Heliolisk.  Maybe I should have turned off the Experience Share for that one, because the Kalos games are too easy with that item on.  If I replay a second generation game, I'll be sure to use Grass types because Johto hates them.   

Nintendo won't let me upload the Battle Video for some stupid reason, but I should post the depressing ending to the solo Butterfree playthrough.  I decided to take on the Battle Tree to see how far Firestorm could go.  He didn't last more than one round.

Montañero Julio sent out Armaldo.  Firestorm used Sleep Powder on it, only for me to realize in horror that it had a Chesto Berry to wake up.  Armaldo's Rock Blast hit multiple times, so not even a Focus Sash could save him.  

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's a giant update for the end of Pokemon Sapphire's main story.  There will be a postgame post eventually.

The next route was a rainy one, further emphasizing GameFreak’s favoritism to Water types.  Explaining weather conditions in full would take up several pages at least, so for now, think of rain as “buff to Water attacks, debuff to Fire attacks”.  Lilycove City didn’t have a Gym for some reason, but it did have Brendan waiting outside the department store to challenge me to a final battle with him.  He shouldn’t have bothered.  His Swellow, Numel, Wailmer, and Grovyle all died in one hit.  No Sceptile after the 6th Gym?  No Wailord or Camerupt either?  What is wrong with you, Brendan?  Or maybe he’s attempting a low level playthrough and failing.  Team Aqua’s Wailmers blocked the path to the eastern sea.  This meant May had to backtrack to Mt. Pyre, a Pokemon graveyard.  One trainer inside mourned his Zigzagoon, which makes me wonder how long Pokemon live. 


At the summit, Archie stole the Red Orb and fled to the Team Aqua hideout in Lilycove.  May backtracked again and beat up all the Grunts easily.  At least they tried to justify their weakness by saying they were “stalling for time”!  Admin Matt was another unremarkable fight with a Mightyena and Sharpedo.  Mightyena’s Swagger powered up NOWEAKNESS’s Shadow Ball to finish it off.

 

Archie then set off with his stolen submarine to try to find the legendary Water Pokemon Kyogre.  May’s next move was to Surf to Mossdeep City to take on the next Gym Leaders.  Yes, that plural form was intentional, as you’ll see in a bit.  Steven was waiting inside his house and handed the Dive HM to May.  Neither of my HM Pokemon could use it, so May fished for a Sharpedo. 
 


Mossdeep’s Gym was Psychic type, which might have been difficult if it had existed in the 1st generation where Psychic Pokemon effectively had no weaknesses other than Bug moves with terrible base power.  In the 2nd generation, the Dark and Steel types were created to counter Psychics, so NOWEAKNESS had an overpowering advantage.  One hit with Shadow Ball destroyed the trainers who used the Natu, Abra, and Ralts lines, and a Faint Attack defeated a wise guy who thought the Normal/Psychic Girafarig could stop May.  The Gym Leaders Liza and Tate were twins who refused to battle me if I didn’t have two Pokemon.  I tried taking HM MULE out of the PC and making it faint to a wild Wingull, but Liza and Tate wouldn’t accept having an unconscious Pokemon as a partner.  Fine!  I’ll use a Revive! 
 
To mimic a solo battle, I had HM MULE use a useless Normal attack on NOWEAKNESS.  A Psychic from Lunatone knocked out the Zigzagoon on round 1 after Sableye beat Solrock with one Shadow Ball.  Another Shadow Ball on the following turn ended the battle.  Being level 58 before the Elite Four is a bit too much for the AI.  This battle may have been easy, but I’m very fond of Double Battles.  It’s disappointing that you don’t see more of them in the main series, especially because Double Battles are now the Nintendo-sponsored competitive format.  Liza and Tate gave May the Calm Mind TM and the ability to use Dive outside of battle.  Calm Mind is a great buff for specially oriented Pokemon because it boosts Special Attack and Special Defense simultaneously.
 
One area that I’d forgotten about was the Shoal Cave to the north of Mossdeep City.  There’s a tide gimmick in the area based on the clock battery.  Since mine is long dead, there’s no way I can complete the quest to get the Shell Bell, an item that heals you for a percentage of the damage you deal.  It’s also one of the few cold places in Hoenn, so if you’re looking for Ice types, this is the place to visit.


Getting to Sootopolis City and the final Gym required Diving underwater to get into its volcanic crater.  Along the way, I made sure to catch a Relicanth underwater.  Why?  It’s involved in a quest later on. . .Anyway, when May made it to Sootopolis, she found a karate master who gave her the Brick Break TM.  According to him, “It’s a move so horrible that I can’t describe it”.  Fortunately, the game describes Brick Break for us.  It’s a 75 base power Fighting move that also destroys enemy Reflect and Light Screen.  I was so happy to get rid of Rock Tomb and its stupid base 80 accuracy!  GameFreak hasn’t created any Pokemon that resists both Fighting and Ghost as of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.  Maybe in the 8th generation, they’ll make a Normal/Ghost type? 
 
The Gym was locked, so May had to find Team Aqua in an underwater cave.  The Grunts and Admin Shelly were weak as usual, but Archie was probably the hardest fight for NOWEAKNESS in this whole playthrough.  He lead with Mightyena, whose Intimidate prevented a one hit KO from Brick Break.  It also knew Swagger, a move that both confuses an enemy and raises its Attack by two stages.  Confusion damage is based on Attack vs. Defense, so a high Attack can cause a lot of damage to yourself if you fail the coin flip chance to attack normally.  NOWEAKNESS hit himself several times with Confusion, and Mightyena’s Roar sometimes wasted turns switching out to one of my HM users.  Crobat knew Confuse Ray to cause even more annoyance.  Archie’s last Pokemon was Sharpedo, which was easily defeated by a single Brick Break. 


 
Archie revived Kyogre with his Red Orb, but it started to rain far more than he desired.  To prevent Hoenn from being flooded, May needed to go to Sootopolis City and confront Kyogre at the forbidden Cave of Origin.  What would a Herman Gigglethorpe playthrough be without killing off legendaries with bottom-tier Pokemon?       
 
May descended into the Cave of Origin, and the screen shook the further she went in.  The music stopped when she reached the bottom floor with Kyogre.  The fight began when May activated the Blue Orb, and I thought it would be a bit harder than it turned out to be.  Kyogre has the Drizzle ability, which summons permanent rain unless someone changes the weather.  Drizzle is so good an ability that it lifted otherwise mediocre Pokemon like Politoed and Pelipper into the “Overused” tier when they acquired it.  Combine a team-friendly ability with legendary-caliber stats, and you have a Pokemon that ruled Ubers for several generations.  The AI is extremely stupid for wild Pokemon, so I stood a chance with NOWEAKNESS.  On the first turn, Kyogre buffed itself with Calm Mind.  Then it blew any chance of victory by using Body Slam.  Body Slam on a Ghost type is sure going to show me, Kyogre!  Three Shadow Balls were enough to put Kyogre back to sleep and save Sootopolis.  Who needs legendaries when you have a level 60 PU Pokemon?


 
Wallace’s Gym had mostly Water Pokemon with a level range in the low 40s.  NOWEAKNESS Shadow Balled most of the random trainers, and Brick Break on someone who thought she was clever and used a Normal type Azurill.  The Gym puzzle made me wonder if it was intended to be an Ice Gym early in development, because it involved stepping on all the ice tiles in the correct order.

 
 
Wallace was a bit more challenging than his female fans in the Gym basement.  He led with Luvdisc, which died to one Shadow Ball because it’s a joke Pokemon.  Whiscash could have been annoying, but NOWEAKNESS got a lucky critical hit with Shadow Ball and knocked it out in one shot.  Sealeo was Water/Ice type, and that meant a super effective Brick Break.  Seaking barely survived a Shadow Ball and used Rain Dance.  For once, the AI used tactics!  Seaking must have had Swift Swim, since it outsped me in the rain on the next turn and tried to confuse NOWEAKNESS with Water Pulse.  It failed, and a Night Shade softened Seaking up for the Shadow Ball when Wallace healed it with a Hyper Potion.  The defensive Milotic was the last opponent, but even that couldn’t take two Shadow Balls.


 
After beating Wallace, the only plot requirement was for May to become the Champion at Ever Grande City.  Before that, it was time for a bit of backtracking.  She Surfed southwest to Pacifidlog Town, and NOWEAKNESS gained a few levels from the swimmers along the way.  Pacifidlog is another interesting Hoenn town.  It’s built on a coral reef, and the residents give some clues about Hoenn’s legendary Pokemon.  The currents are strong to the west, so you can only get to it from the eastern side of the ocean.  Someone handed May the Return TM there.  It’s a bit late for the staple Normal attack TM, GameFreak!  (Correction:  You can get Return earlier by handing the Meteorite to Professor Cozmo after you beat Team Aqua at Mt. Chimney.)
 


One boy asked May “Where did you come from?”.  The only possible responses were YES and NO.  Answering YES made him think May came from Yes Town, and choosing NO generated the response “No?  That doesn’t make any sense.  You have to come from somewhere.  Oh!  Wait!  You’re not going to say you were born at the bottom of the sea?”.


 
After reaching the final town in the game, I needed to catch a Wailord for the same reason I needed Relicanth.  Why?  You’ll find out in the postgame.  It was easy to find, because it was the first random encounter while May was Surfing on Route 129.  After that, the only place left was Victory Road and Ever Grande City. 
 



Hoenn’s Victory Road was similar to other Victory Roads, but it wasn’t as visually interesting as Vast Poni Canyon or Unova’s Victory Road.  It required most of May’s HMs to get through, especially Strength, Surf, and Rock Smash.  It was a dark cave too, so Flash helped.  The trainers tended to carry Pokemon in the 40s level range, and NOWEAKNESS couldn’t one-shot all of them thanks to his lousy stats.  They were still mostly easy.  Wally appeared at the end to challenge me with his improved team of Altaria, Delcatty, Magneton, Roselia, and Gardevoir.  Altaria took several hits to beat due to its high defenses and Wally using a Super Potion.  NOWEAKNESS karate chopped Delcatty and Magneton with Brick Break.  Shadow Ball took care of Roselia and Gardevoir. 
 


Before taking on the Pokemon League, May bought some supplies and managed her inventory.  One of the annoying things about the older Pokemon games is the limited inventory space.  It isn’t like Etrian Odyssey where each item takes up one slot in an effort to prevent overuse of healing items.  It’s the more annoying version where you can carry ridiculous amounts of Full Restores, but one Rare Candy won’t fit in your inventory.  I had 6 Rare Candies left over, so NOWEAKNESS went up to level 74 with these stats:
 
HP:  181
Attack:  146
Defense:  117
Special Attack:  127
Special Defense:  124
Speed:  120



 
Sidney was the first Elite Four member, and his preferred type was Dark.  There’s never been a Dark type Gym in a Pokemon game, but there have been several Dark Elite Four members (Karen, Sidney, Grimsley).  Yes, the Dark type is “Evil” in Japan, but the games emphasize that Pokemon are only evil if a trainer forces them to be that way, so it doesn’t make much sense.  Giovanni was both the villain and the Viridian City Gym Leader of the original games, so it’s not like GameFreak is averse to an “evil” Gym Leader.  Alola doesn’t have Gyms, so I guess GameFreak thought a Dark type Kahuna was fine. 
All of Sidney’s Pokemon were weak to Brick Break, so one karate chop took out Mightyena, Sharpedo, Cacturne, Shiftry, and Absol.  Perhaps he should have considered adding a Sableye?  The only “difficulty” during this battle came from Mightyena’s Intimidate forcing me to use an X Attack on the first turn to undo the debuff.



 
Next up was Phoebe, the Ghost type member.  Ghosts are weak to their own attacks, so guess what that meant.  Shadow Balls bowled over two Dusclops, and two Banettes.  (Ghost was a very rare type for Pokemon then.)  The greatest difficulty came from, ironically, a fellow Sableye!  Shadow Ball from NOWEAKNESS wasn’t enough to take down his rival with one hit, and the enemy Sableye responded in kind.  Two Night Shades defeated the doppelganger after Phoebe healed it with an item.     
 


Glacia was more difficult than the first two, despite having even less variety than Phoebe.  She was an Ice specialist, and she only had the Spheal and Snorunt lines.  Lorelei from the Kanto games had more than that!  Ice is a rare type in the Pokemon series, and Hoenn is a warm region.  NOWEAKNESS’s subpar stats were beginning to catch up with him here.  The first Glalie and Sealeo barely survived a Brick Break, and caused residual damage with Hail.  Hail was new at the time of Sapphire, and is a weather effect that makes all non-Ice Pokemon lose 1/16 of their max HP per turn.  Hailstones and Blizzard attacks kept making May feed Hyper Potions to Sableye so he could stand a chance.  Is Sableye a good candidate for a no item solo run?   NO!
 


Using a Night Shade before Brick Break helped to get around Full Restore healing.  Another Sealeo and Glalie went down, and Glacia sent out her strongest Pokemon Walrein.  Walrein could take away almost half of Sableye’s HP with Blizzard, and Hail damage meant he would die in about 2 hits without healing.  A Night Shade and a Brick Break eventually clubbed the walrus to death.
 


Drake the Dragon master was the final Elite Four member.  Like Phoebe and Glacia, he suffered from a low variety of Pokemon and had to use several from the same line.  He led with Shelgon, the defensive middle form of Bagon.  Starting with Rock Tomb lowered NOWEAKNESS’s Speed for the rest of the fight.  Two Night Shades were enough to crack its shell.  Next came Flygon, an annoying opponent.  It used Sandstorm to inflict residual damage similar to Glacia’s Hail, and paralyzed Sableye at least twice with Dragonbreath.  Dig allowed it to dodge an attack too.  The Night Shade and Shadow Ball combo worked.  The second Flygon and Altaria weren’t as bad.  Salamence came with Intimidate and Fly to cause trouble.  Trying to predict the AI’s Fly turns was useless, because it seems to act randomly at times.  An X Attack undid Intimidate, and a Shadow Ball combined with a Night Shade slew the dragon.
 

Steven was the last opponent, and it was nice for a recurring character to be the Champion.  In Pokemon X, you see Diantha only once in the game before it goes “Surprise!  This character you barely know is the final boss!”  Steven had everything the rest of the Elite Four lacked, including a decent variety of Pokemon.  He led with a Skarmory that knew Toxic.  Toxic doubles in strength every turn unlike the regular Poison status, so NOWEAKNESS was doomed for sure without Full Restores.  Night Shades were needed because Skarmory was one of the best physical defenders in the game, and it resisted Faint Attack. 


The Bug/Rock Armaldo was scary because it received a buff to all its stats from a lucky Ancientpower.  Night Shades and Shadow Balls sent the fossil back to the museum.  The Ground/Psychic Claydol set up Reflect and Light Screen for his team, but its Ghost weakness made it die to a Shadow Ball after Night Shade.  Using Brick Break on the Steel/Rock Aggron not only capitalized on its weakness, but also destroyed Reflect.  No, I wasn’t clever enough to think of Brick Break’s Reflect dispelling property at the time.     Cradily also had Ancientpower, but it didn’t get that lucky buff to all stats.  Brick Breaks smashed the Rock/Grass fossil.        
 

Steven’s strongest Pokemon was Metagross, a Steel/Psychic spider with a 600 base stat total and only Fire and Ground weaknesses.  Its signature move Meteor Mash made NOWEAKNESS lose more than half his health, so he never would have survived without an X Defend.   Meteor Mash also has 80% accuracy, so a few misses gave me time to heal.  It took 3 Shadow Balls to scrap Metagross because its Defense was so high.  And after that came the shortest Hall of Fame scene ever!  The play time was a little under 14 hours, but it was really less than that because I was writing these updates as I was playing.