Thursday 28 November 2013

A complete Pokédex! Completing Heart Gold


"Gotta catch them all" used to be the catchphrase of the first 150 Pokémon, however recently, catching all the Pokémon has become an incredible chore. After the release of X and Y there are now 718 Pokémon to catch.
When I started playing Pokémon Heart Gold in the end of  2011, I set myself the target to catch them all. For nostalgia's sake. I felt that the goal was obtainable, had I not caught all Pokémon as kid, years ago, on the old retro Game boy?! Oh silly me!

Even though the maximum Pokémon to catch was "only" 493, little did I know how painful that number would be. For example, there are a lot of Pokémon that you cannot catch within the game, or in its counter part "Soul Silver". Which means you need someone with leaf green etc to trade with you, or you will never complete the game. Furthermore, there are so many little specials, stones and evolutions, that it turned out to be a far more time consuming venture than I bargained for. I now understand why most trainers just give up and only collect the Pokémon they like playing with.

Nevertheless, I spend over 100 hours of game time, catching, breeding, leveling up, trading. Now this would have been easier if the world trade would have worked, but my internet and my DSi didn't communicate well, so I didn't have that option either. Only thanks to my generous friends, especially one of them, I managed to finally finally complete the Johto Pokedex.
With shaking fingers I approached Professor Oak to show him my - with pain and suffering - completed Pokédex.


What item would I get?
Well, guess what, in the next sentence he said only "Congratulations, I knew you could do it." Full Stop. The end. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED!
I think my face in that moment would have been the best pictures. I was like "WTF you send me out to CATCH THEM ALL!!! And I don't get anything?"

It's like a mentor sending you in the jungle to take pictures of 400 rare animals and when you are back with them he gives you a pat on the back and walks off with a tin of cookies for his coffee break. The stingy old man could have spared some cookies, right?
Yes, I do want a cookie for completing a Pokédex! Simply because it's so difficult to do it. At least give me a different ending sequence Game Freak!

Seeing my friend S complete the full Pokédex this summer, it seems like you receive a certificate for completing the game. Yes. That. Is. All.
Wasn't the challenge "Catch them all?!" Well recently the tagline has changed into "Gotta SEE them all" because nowadays only seeing a Pokemon "counts" as entry in your Pokédex. Of all games I had chosen to play the last one that required you to catch them all. I think the "seeing them all" option is only reasonable, since 718 is a huuge number, considering all the clever things it takes to get them together.

Now I will stop whining, I still love the game. It's full of rewards and quirky entertainment and if you love collecting things, and don't have much space in "real" life, it's nice getting them all together. I guess completing a Pokédex and owning "them all" is a thing in which only gamers can pride themselves with. And only true Pokémon lovers will actually understand and acknowlege it as a skill, if you should ever try and boost to your friends. For the others, it will be an eternal waste of time. Well well, but then they won't know the joy either of finding a rare Pokémon in the grass and catching it with a Quick Ball before - ah stop me here, or I will go off on a story!

I think once you have 'caught' them all, you still have a great advantage to others who have not caught them all yet. Simply because you can now transfer your "oldies" to the new game and just catch the additional ones that will be released in the new game. So if you have collected and transferred Pokémon since you were small, this would have been a much easier task!

On that note, I am looking forward to seeing how the Pokémon Bank will work, once it launches next year. I am glad there is finally a method to move full boxes of Pokémon about, I think that was overdue, considering how long it takes to transfer only 6 of them!

That's it for today, I will get back to completing my Pokédex of X and Y!
Next I will be in Berlin for a week, so let's see how I will blog during that time.
Thanks for reading!

Well done Pikachu!
x
Cat

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