In my remaining Kanto column, I come head to head with Pokemon greatness
All issues should finish. All all through 2022, I’ve been making my method via Pokemon Blue and cataloguing my findings as a vacationer would, attempting to see the sport, and its world, anew. Atone for the story right here. Final week I reached the endgame of Cerulean Cave, and with it the reward of exploring merely for the enjoyment of it. However from the darkish of the shadows got here a disconcerting aura, and as I crept nearer, I realised my future was by no means to be Pokemon champion, however to attain the unimaginable.
Pokemon’s framing of your remaining battle has all the time struck me as odd. It solely stands out additional on a revisit. Although I attempt to describe the grandeur the sport makes an attempt to conjure, the actual fact is the sport depends on you to inform the story in your head in these moments. It feeds breadcrumbs to the mythos of Mewtwo, however it’s the anime and flicks doing the heavy lifting on the subject of conveying the significance of the creature within the over arching story of Pokemon.
The setting, a minimum of, is extra appropriate. Of the 4 Legendary encounters in Kanto, Mewtwo will get probably the most respect. Moltres, as I’ve already written about, is virtually given away on the finish of an already uninspiring Victory Highway. For lots of people who performed the sport for the primary time as children, with no on-line guides, it was doubtless the primary Legendary they ever caught, and is throughly undeserving of the honour.
Zapdos fares slightly higher – the deserted Energy Plant is thematically suited to being the lair of a terrifying electrical chicken, however the technological limitations of the Sport Boy maintain the sport from its potential. It’s disappointing that future video games, with the power to push past with extra detailed graphics, haven’t taken the chance.
Articuno is the one actual challenger to Mewtwo, dwelling within the Seafoam Island, mendacity in wait. You must full a puzzle and might decide out of catching it in any respect, reasonably than being donated like Moltres. Although the sport once more depends on you telling your individual tales, Articuno supplies the leather-based sure notepad and quill. Moltres affords a scrap of cardboard and a kind of chewed up pens you by chance stole from the financial institution.
And at last, again to Mewtwo. It’s deep in Cerulean Cave, and given the mythology of a mighty being past comprehension. Contemplating the entire goal is to catch it in slightly plastic ball so you may command it to do your bidding, the sport will get as near promoting this sense as you may fairly anticipate. It’s deep within the cave and there are uncommon and mighty creatures in your path earlier than it. Let’s Go does this even higher, having the being guarded by Inexperienced, a extremely underrated character in Pokemon lore.
Logic dictates that you need to use your Grasp Ball on Mewtwo. It’s the strongest Legendary and, whereas there’s solely considered one of every chicken too, it feels just like the rarest of all of them. Nevertheless, my custom has all the time been to make use of the Grasp Ball on the primary Legendary I encounter. Probably the most wise factor can be to weaken it and use an Extremely Ball time and again till it really works, however I select one other technique. I don’t want Mewtwo, and haven’t any plans to proceed this recreation past this week, so why disturb the beast. I attain its lair, give it a nod of mutual respect, and go on my method. All issues should finish.
