So, Pokémon games have been in my wheelhouse since 1999, when a friend from school let me try his copy of Pokémon Red on a flight from Seattle to Washington Dulles for our school DC trip. They were one of my earliest introductions to RPGs, so I guess they’re responsible for my interest in a bunch of stuff I’ve written about here.I played Red, Blue, and Yellow endlessly. I played a fan translation of Gold before saving up money to buy a copy on the day it released in the US. (And then had to wait days to start it because I’d left my Gameboy at my grandparents’ over the weekend.) I bought a copy of Sapphire as soon as it came out. A copy of Diamond and a DS Lite were the first things I bought with my first real paycheck in college.What I’d never done was a Nuzlocke run. For those who didn’t spend the ’00s terminally online looking up movesets and what EV training was and all that jazz, a Nuzlocke is a self-imposed extra challenge in a Pokémon game where you can only catch the first creature encountered in a specific location and if a Pokémon faints, then it’s dead and must either be released or dropped into a graveyard box in your PC. Anyway, I had a copy of Emerald handy and decided to try one. I lasted until the first gym. This is the story of my first try at a Nuzlocke.Everything started fine. I start in the moving truck, hop out into Littleroot Town, and go into my house. Set the clock. Grab the free potion from the PC. Then it’s off to see the Wiz–the Professor.He’s not at his house, so off into the untamed wilds. Where the Professor is being chased by a Poochyena (mean looking yet slightly adorable puppy). So I grab a Torchic and save the absent-minded Professor. Birch takes me back to his lab and asks if I want to name the Torchic. Lava Chicken won’t fit, so Sanders it is!Then it’s the standard bit of early game errand running. Two routes up to meet and battle the Professor’s daughter, May. She goes down, then I get my Pokédex and first batch of pokeballs. Now we’re cooking.On Route 101, my first encounter comes quickly, and the pokeball works on the first try. Wormy the Wurmple is mine. I train Wormy and Sanders a bit and head back to Route 103 to add a third member to the team. Hello, Fido the Poochyena. Back into Oldale Town to take the exit I was supposed to. Along the way, we find Leafy the Lotad (animated lily pad).So, uh, here is where I have the moment that first points out how different Nuzlockes are. I’m battling a Youngster and his Zigzagoon (the name basically describes it exactly) when I decide to try and keep Wormy in battle for just one turn to try and poison the Zigzagoon before switching. That was a mistake. RIP Wormy, we barely knew you.So we take the literal six steps into Petalburg City and head to the Pokémon Center. Wormy goes into the graveyard at the back of the PC and the rest of the team heals up to see what comes next. Petalburg has a gym, but my dad is the leader and tells me to come back later after having me chaperone a kid to catch the pokemon I wish I’d found (Ralts, a little psychic thing has been a favorite since 2003.)So we head to the seashore where we find Tails the Taillow (a bird). We do some training to get everyone ready for the woods I see to the North then go heal up. In the woods, we meet Silky the Silcoon (a cocoon) and finally get Leafy the move Absorb that she’ll need for Roxanne’s Rocks. We also meet Team Aqua as one of their jerks is harassing some guy who just wants a weird mushroom Pokemon. After that we head to a flower shop, plant some berries, and go North into Rustboro City.We get a desperately needed heal (everyone was about out of Power Points to use their moves) and head to the gym. Leafy solos all the gym trainers, settling in for the gym fight at level 12. I get real cocky given the whole “this one pokemon just two shotted everything in the building.”And then I challenge Roxanne. Her Geodudes go down pretty easy, her attempts to heal with potions just fueling more healing for me with absorb. Then comes Nosepass (a Moai statue with a copper nose and stubby feet). Nosepass has special defense. So Leafy doesn’t do nearly what she should. Then come the rocks. Rock Throw, Rock Tomb. Just all the rocks. Leafy goes down. So out comes Sanders, but Sanders only has Scratch as an attack and it does basically nothing. This continues through my whole team as Roxanne basically casts “Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies” over and over.So yeah, I’ve now tried a Nuzlocke. And made it as far as the first gym. I had a good amount of fun. Might actually try it again sometime.
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