Part 4: Mount Battle

Mount Battle is another returning location from Colosseum. While it has a storyline role in both games, its ultimate purpose is as an extended postgame dungeon and tool for training your Pokemon more efficiently. I like the panning intro to each area, but in this area in particular we only ever get a clear view of the mountainside from this shot. You can't make out as much during the actual ascent. The cloud layers surrounding the center mountain are a nice touch because they're actually in constant motion; it's one of those little details that's only visible in a limited number of scenes.

"Back then, I sought only to become more powerful. I didn't need any other reason. As a result, I've attained this status. But now, I've taken to questioning my motive for gaining power. I wonder what I am fighting for. I ponder if I am putting my Pokemon under cruel stress..."

This is our second encounter with Eldes, the other Mystery Man that was traveling with Mr. Verich. For years I pronounced his name as "Elds" but now that I can read the katakana I'm obligated to point out that it's pronounced in English as "El-dess." Given the naming theme of a certain other character's Japanese name, it might be that it was intended to be localized as "Eldeath," but that seems to be stretching it given how tight the localization behind Pokemon usually is with the original writers.

I've always felt that his introspection was directed at newcomers to the franchise rather than at Michael the character, because the GameCube isn't one of the main platforms for the Pokemon games and it's entirely possible for XD to be a "gateway" to mainstream Pokemon going off of that. By cautioning the player against mindless powergaming, Eldes also compels the player to reconsider what makes Pokemon most enjoyable for them personally.

Each generation following the first has introduced or expanded on ways to relate to your Pokemon without violence. Exploration has always been a part of Pokemon, but in the first generation once you had caught Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno there wasn't much incentive to return to their dungeons except for the scenery, and the Power Plant was the only dungeon scenic enough to really cultivate an atmosphere that you'd want to revisit. Generation II's introduction of a real time clock, phonecalls and swarming Pokemon promoted returning to already-explored areas by providing incentives to do so. So Pokemon became more than just a linear narrative experience, it also became something that you did as a daily practice, like Salah or teatime crammed into a GameBoy Color. While I don't want to dwell on generation II for too long because it distracts from my main point here, this is one reason why Gold, Silver and Crystal endure as truly timeless works even independent of the HeartGold/SoulSilver DS remakes. Crystal's focus on existing traditions and a past very similar to our own, and the emphasis of daily life and living together with Pokemon while taking the GBC to its absolute limits in terms of what will fit on the cartridge all create a work that can be experienced regardless of the period you're reading it from.

Generation II also introduced the happiness mechanic and happiness-based evolutions, so that it wasn't enough to raise strong Pokemon, you also had to love them. You could take them to be groomed, get them a haircut (different kinds of haircut!) and in the remakes just go for a simple walk with them. While Generation III further built on the exploration by including undersea areas and completely wild environments, maelstroms of nature and weather that you had to endeavor with your Pokemon through, what it really brought to the table was the Pokemon Contest. Equivalent to dog shows, because EVs and IVs ironically had no effect on a given Pokemon's ability to perform, these provided a competitive but nonviolent means of interacting with your Pokemon, earning them ribbons and recognition in an alternative venue for multiplayer that could ultimately get you paintings to decorate your own secret hideout with. Contests are an important development because they give purpose to Pokemon that otherwise wouldn't see much use because of low battle ability, and they even the playing field to let you be the best with your favorites. Generation IV expanded on Contests further, and V repainted the exploration angle while also letting letting your Pokemon become theater presences and movie stars.

As a result of all these evolutions, there's really no one way to live with Pokemon. You can be an ultimate coordinator, a competitive breeder, a Pokemon archeologist or naturalist, and of course the age-old goal of Pokemon Master. But for the purpose of living together and being happy with Pokemon, no one way is better than any of the others, and none of them are wrong individually. You just need to think about what kind of relationship to them makes you personally happy. That's the sentiment I get from Eldes, and as we won't be seeing him again for a long time, this is a pivotal point for his character.

Vander is holding a training session right now, so the Mount Battle challenge is closed, but we're allowed through anyway to go meet up with him.

We get mistaken for a challenger on entry, and have to battle through a gauntlet of three novices to get to Vander. Unfortunately, none of the early Mount Battle fights really compare to that one match with Eagun's Superpikachu, but we are getting close to the point in the game when things are actually challenging.

The second battle could have been dangerous if everything were bumped up a level. Corphish is old hat, but Swablu is an actual hat.

She's just one level away from learning Sing, which has just 55% accuracy but puts any Pokemon it connects with to sleep. The sleep clause exists in competitive battling for good reason, and I could see Cridel being a little dangerous to a small team like ours in a battle where Sing does go off, but right now I'm just mimicking Return to clear away the field in two turns. The wait to get Eevee to the right level for evolution is a lot less painful than in the handheld games because we have Mimic to turn her into a physical sweeper practically from the onset, but I still wish I didn't have to wait quite as long as I will.

Vander's just finished his lesson on coordinating the strengths of Pokemon in double battles, and wants us to help with a practical demonstration.

Vander's student has a Spoink and Doduo. The Spoink knows Psywave, a Psychic-type special attack that deals between 0.5x and 1.5x the user's level in damage. Normally we could nullify the damage from it entirely with the Dark-type Poochyena, but the damage that Psywave deals is actually typeless and is unaffected by weakness, resistance or STAB. I wanted to talk about how Bardo's Pokemon play together to go with the ability lesson Vander was giving, but they really don't. Spoink's ability can be either Thick Fat (reduces incoming Fire and Ice-type damage by 50%) or Own Tempo (prevents confusion) and Doduo's can be either Run Away (basically useless in this game because it lets you run away from wild Pokemon) or Early Bird (halves the number of turns needed to wake up from sleep) and their moves at this level just don't have a lot of synergy beyond basic type coverage (Spoink does typeless damage, Doduo does Flying and Dark.)

This is what Return looks like. The higher a Pokemon's happiness, the more hearts are present in the animation and the more damage it deals. Happiness starts at 70 for most Pokemon and caps at 255, though it can go as low as 0.

"It seemed to be abandoned for a long time. But recently, I've seen groups of shady characters going inside. [...] Are they connected to Prof. Krane's abduction somehow?"

Vander points us to a southeastern lab that was once thought abandoned, but suddenly has a flurry of activity going around it. Five years ago the facility served as a key location in the production of Cipher's Shadow Pokemon, so it's natural to assume that they've reestablished operations to start up their second Shadow Pokemon plot.

If this really is Cipher's base that we're talking about, then we could not just rescue the Professor, but also nip this second plot in the bud and seize all of the Shadow Pokemon in one go.

We get this e-mail on our way out. Like in Colosseum, Poke Balls aren't available from the onset of the game, but now we don't have to squander them as much as before, and because of their availability being currently limited to Agate we'll be making a berry run every time that we go to buy some.

Always buy Poke Balls in batches of ten. From generation III onwards an extra Premier Ball is included when you do so. It has the same 1x catch rate as a normal Poke Ball, but it has a white shell with a red capture line instead of the red-and-white-on-black color of a normal Poke Ball. These are sadly not available in Fire Red/Leaf Green, but every other game after Ruby/Sapphire has them and getting used to buying them in tens is one of the best habits a trainer can cultivate.

Next time: Actually rescuing Professor Krane!