Replaying Pokemon Heartgold

Unfortunately, this past week I mysteriously got really sick, took some time off work and really didn't do that much. It put a red light onto doing anything physical; so absolutely no running. I stayed home and did the one thing that would make me feel better - I broke out my old Nintendo DS and started a new playthough on the best game in the world. Or, the best game in Johto - Pokemon Heartgold!

Pokemon Heartgold is a remake of an old GameBoy Color game called Pokemon Gold, with an additional Kanto region postgame. And boy did GameFreak remake it. The graphics are incredible (for the Nintendo DS), the music is fantastic, and this game includes all Gen I-IV Pokemon, which is well in the several hundreds.

I first booted up the game and checked on my old save file. I had made it to Olivine City with 5 badges or so, and I had surprisingly chosen the grass starter, Chikorita, which had evolved into a Bayleef. I say that's surprising because I don't usually go for the grass starter, but I think it's something I wanted to try in that playthough.

I wiped my save data, and started a new file, naming myself Nicnac and choosing the fire-type starter, Cyndaquil which I later named Roary. Together we beat up Wimpy our rival. I quickly obliterated Falkner to obtain the first badge. Soon after, we meet our next party member, Rocky the Onix from an in-game trade. An NPC also gives away Kenya the Spearow which quickly evolves into a Fearow. I keep Kenya around so I can teach it how to fly. I decided to recruit a selection of the in-game trades into my party for the experience boosts from trades.

With Roary, I squash Bugsy to get the 2nd badge and then teach Wimpy a lesson in pain, again. Finally our small party reaches Goldenrod city to wipe out Whitney and get the 3rd badge. We also decide to gamble until we have enough money to buy Lemon the Dratini. Then things go smoothly for a while, defeating Morty and Chuck to get the next couple badges, giving some "medicine" to Amphy to melt Jasmine's steel types, meeting our final party members along the way: Billy the Voltorb and Mama the Mantine.

This is where my Pokemon dedication knows no bounds. Mantine has one of two abilities: Swift Swim or Water Absorb. While both abilities are useful, Swift Swim is practically worthless compared to Water Absorb. Swift Swim doubles Mantine's speed when it's raining, which would mean I would need to teach it Rain Dance. Water Absorb on the other hand is a passive ability that heals mantine when it's hit with a water-type attack, effectively granting it an immunity! Just our luck, Mama was born with Swift Swim, so something had to be done about that. Kenya flew us first-class to Goldenrod where we drop off Mama the Mantine and Donor the Ditto at the day care, and we became flush with eggs.

With some help from Eggmar the Magmar, we quickly hatch cartons of eggs until we get a Mantine with Water Absorb and a good enough nature. Our luck finally turned around when Eggmar hatched us a Calm Mantine with Water Absorb! With our new Mantine, named Ham, our party was finally complete:

Calm raises Special Defense by 10% while lowering Attack by 10%, which is the best nature for Mantine, in my professional opinion.

• Roary the Typhlosion
• Rocky the Onix
• Lemon the Dragonair
• Billy the Electrode
• Ham the Mantine
• ...and Kenya the Fearow (for the secret of flight)

We caught the red Gyrados at the Lake of Rage, before single-handedly disbanding the Team Rocket gang, and completely melting Pryce's team with Roary. Clair's dragon-type Pokemon were much more difficult, which was a wake-up call for the elite four. After the 8th badge, my game clock was around 23 hours or so, and my highest Pokemon was around level 40.

Victory road was a long and intentional grind, finally getting 3 of my Pokemon to level 50: Roary, Billy, and Lemon. Rocky was at level 45 and Ham was still a young, fresh level 34. Frustratingly, Dragonair does not evolve into Dragonite until level 55 (what the heck, Lance, with your level 49 Dragonite!!) so I had to keep Kenya around for her flying ability. Finally it was time to take the ultimate challenge; the elite four.

Will was easy, with Billy zapping his Xatus out of the sky and Slowbro out of the water, and Roary incinerating his Jynx and Exeggutor. Koga was much more difficult, mainly because of his stupid Muk. This literal pile of sludge kept using Minimize to evade all my attacks and then literally eating sludge to heal itself. But once I flushed him away, Bruno and Karen were easy peasy. In fact, I got through all four with no fainting.

Lance was the real challenge, with his two level 49 Dragonite and level 50 Dragonite. (Why have 3 of the same Pokemon?) I swear, the battlefield must have looked like a dumpster afterwards with all the empty potion cans lying around, and I'm not proud of it. But in the end, our rag-tag team pulled through and literally all of my Pokemon fainted except for Lemon which struck the final blow against Lance's Charizard. It was a gruesome fight, but we entered the hall of fame around the 31-hour mark. My reward? A ticket to board the cruise on the S.S. Aqua, a well deserved vacation from all this battling. Wait, what? Trainers want to battle on the ship?