Last time, on Shin Digimon Quest: Rancher Network 2: Black Version...We added an astounding amount of allies and three actually useful ones; this slightly outpaced the two we lost due to making stupid mistakes; and we got 90% through the part of the game where 90% of the story happens. To polish off that last 10% we’re faced with Ghetsis, the once and future leader of Team Plasma now that we’ve outsted his temporary stand-in Colress. After a week-long break, our ultimate battle can finally commence!
Or it would, but the plot convenience ninjas pop back in so Ghetsis just leaves.
It’s not a total loss though, because our rival Hugh comes in to question the ninjas. You may remember that Hugh’s backstory is Team Plasma stole his sister’s treasured pet Purrloin. His extremely clever plan to get it back has been to, all game, question every individual member of a large criminal organization if they personally stole a pet on the other side of the country five years ago. An organization specializing in pet-theft, and that pet, I can’t stress this enough, not even having a name.
Well...you know what they say about broken clocks.
It’s a good thing you were robbed by someone with a great memory.
For once I might give some unqualified praise to a Pokemon story: This is a good twist. It makes sense that when we finally see someone’s stolen fighting-animal, it’s fighting for someone else. The fact that after 5 years it’s forgotten its old family, and is now aggressively pinning them down is a great dramatic setup. The only problem with the scene...is that’s the whole scene. The rest of the shadow triad show up, you beat them all, and then just leave Hugh standing there still staring down the Liepard.
When you meet Hugh later he mentions he returned the Pokemon to his sister and she smiled. Post-credits she’ll thank you and say that they’re slowly trying to get it to remember her again. On one hand, I appreciate the realistic rehabilitation rather than having the pet instantly switch sides again. On the other, this story arc resolution feels a bit like Colress’ motivation: Less lackluster and more lacking anything. There are so many potential pay-offs to this drama, why did they choose to have it just peter out off-screen?! Dangit Pokemon, you are so close to writing good stories, please finish them.
...okay, I said I MIGHT give unqualified praise. Tell you what, there’s something that happens next I can praise: I like when they try to murder a child.
I’m sure that’s a position that can’t be taken out of context.
For real though, in a sanitized setting where all the people attempting genocide only attack in cordoned-off creature battles, it’s refreshing for someone to be nasty enough to just try and impale you. We’re saved from becoming sub-zero shish kebabs by N, Ghetsis’ adopted son from last game and holder of the other legendary Pokemon Zekrom. It always bugged me that after N was betrayed in Black/White he just stepped back and let you handle things, and although it’s a little impersonal in this game it’s nice to finally see him stand up to his abusive dad.
“Just, you know, not in a way that stops the player from having to fight every one of you individually!”
I also like how Ghetsis states he knew N would come when they started bombing cities, and was deliberately baiting him to appear so he could get Zekrom. Sure, “the hero arriving was my plan all along” is a bit cliché, but the method is admirably monstrous and it doesn’t feel like a cop-out because we were legitimately about to die. With Kyurem and Zekrom in the same place Ghetsis is able to use the DNA splicers to fuse them together and bring them under his control. And we have to fight the legend the normal way, because of an extremely convenient excuse:
“A function that is only useful in this exact scenario and will never be brought up again!”
As has already been foreshadowed, this fight is rough. Kyurem-Black has the 3rd highest attack out of 1025 base form Pokemon, and is way harder to kill than 1 or 2. It has powerful signature moves of both Ice and Electric type, which synergize extremely well. Only 8 out of 1025 Pokemon resist both types, and the only ones available to me this run are the Magnemite line. I did not catch the Magnemite line. This wouldn’t be so bad if it were a 6 vs 1 battle where I could afford to lose someone, but the real problem...is this is actually 6 vs 7.
The Final Boss Before the Final Boss
Immediately after defeating Kyurem-Black, you have to fight Ghetsis. He has a full team of 6 Pokemon with plenty of power and variety. It’s a fight as hard as the very final boss of the last game, but unlike then we still have hours to go until credits. I spend a long time crafting a strategy that will tackle both fights, and it starts with the return of the ultimate technique: tickling.
Kyurem-Black’s Freeze Shock is a ridiculously strong 140 base power, but it takes two turns to execute. So we can open with Grass-type Noodldoon and use Tickle to lower its attack and defense. This will bait it into Freeze Shock, meaning we can switch to Water-type Billib to take the hit. This will then bait the Electric-type Fusion Bolt, so we’ll switch into our Ground-type Shadedahs who is completely immune. We just barely out-speed, so we can two-shot with Earthquake without any risk of someone dying.
Well, there is exactly one risk.
Billib needs to not get critically hit.
PLEASE don’t get critically hit.
…
...Billib does not get critically hit.
I breathe a sigh of relief, and the rest of the fight goes exactly as expected. Shadedahs comes in and takes no damage from a Fusion Bolt. They hit an Earthquake, take no damage from a second Fusion Bolt, and secure the KO. Everything went precisely as planned and wait a minute what was that about a second Fusion Bolt?
Can you blame them? The first was so effective.
I get a sinking feeling, because I think I know what happened. There was no reason for the AI to choose a move I’m immune to a second time in a row, it was the worst possible option it could’ve chosen. But that’s assuming...the AI was choosing at all. Because Ghetsis is controlling this creature and we can’t catch it, I’ve been thinking that it was using trainer AI. But if it technically counts as a wild Pokemon, it could be using wild Pokemon “AI”. An AI which...chooses moves at random.
In other words, I dodged multiple chances to die in one-hit due to sheer, dumb luck.
...here’s hoping we don’t have any more AI mistakes next fight!
I really do not care for you right now.
Ghetsis opens with a nasty set specifically designed to mess with setup Pokemon. His bulky Cofagrigus knows Toxic, which deals increasing damage every turn, Protect, which prevents damage and stalls turns, and Leftovers, which heals a little each turn. Fortunately, we have the perfect counter in Robobor, whose Steel-type resists Cofagrigus’ other moves and is completely immune to Toxic. And in response, there’s a fun little set we can run on Robobor: Toxic, Protect, and Leftovers.
You know what? That makes sense.
Cofagrigus will die on its own over time, but if I wait until it gets low Ghetsis might use a healing item, prolonging the fight and losing HP Robobor needs to counter later threats. So I wait until a specific turn about halfway through to send the coffin into another, larger coffin. Seismitoad is up next, a Water/Ground type with very threatening coverage...unless you have its exact counter. Our Bug/Grass Silklis quadruple resists the incoming Earthquake, then strikes back with a quadruple effective Leaf Blade.
Next up is Eelektross, who you may be shocked to hear is an Electric-type. But thanks to its ability Levitate, it’s immune to the Ground-type moves which would normally be its only weakness. This means that although slow, nothing can take it out in one hit and will have to survive one of its strong coverage moves. To counter this I switch to Billib, who easily shrugs of the incoming Flamethrower and baits an Electric-type move. Just like with Kyurem-Black before, we can take advantage of this by switching to Shadedahs and…
WHAT.
WHY?!
...things go catastrophically wrong. To this day, I have no idea why Eelektross used Acrobatics here. I’ve run the calculations multiple times, and Thunderbolt did over double the damage of any other move it had. Acrobatics might not have even KO’d on critical, and I haven’t brought out a Ground-type this battle so there’s no way the AI could “know” I might switch into one. And not only was Acrobatics the strongest move it had against Shadedahs, but it gets a critical hit on the worst possible turn.
As a reminder, Shadedahs has the ability Moxie, which raises its attack when it gets a KO. Two of Ghetsis’ remaining Pokemon have super-effective moves against Shadedahs, but are also weak to one of its moves in return. If my understanding of the AI is correct, this means I could’ve out-sped and KO’d Ghetsis entire team if it weren’t for this. But now instead of destroying four Pokemon in a row, it’s not safe for them to even attack once. It’s going to be a rough path out of this, and I might even have to sacrifice someone, but I think I’ve got a plan. Though it’s close, Acrobatics should be the only option that KOs Shadedahs from here. So I’ll switch to Robobor to resist it and pivot to someone else.
Pictured above: NOT ACROBATICS!
Once again, it’s not the move I thought, and now I’m seriously in trouble. My heart is beating as fast as the drums in this battle theme. The two best counters for this fight are now both seriously injured. I’ve failed Nuzlockes before, but never this many dozens of hours in. Yet one more bad switch or not accounting for a critical hit and I could legitimately lose everything. I’m running calculations on every team member; I’m considering the full line of switches to get through the next three opponents; I’m weighing how essential everyone is to the run. Eventually, with grim determination, I believe I find the best line.
I’m going to have to sacrifice one of the Pokemon I caught in the first hour.
...and then I’m going to have to sacrifice the other one.
Silklis the Leavanny and Billib the Golduck have been glued to my team the entire game for all but a few fights. But not only are they the least useful for the rest of Ghetsis’ team, but I have plenty of Grass and Water types on the bench. The first loss will get us a clean switch. The second loss will take half of Eelektross’ HP. Then Shadedahs can come in as originally planned to finish it off, get the Moxie boost, and wreak havoc. I send Silklis straight into the path of a quadruple damage Flamethrower.
They do not survive.
I send out Billib next. They strike back with Surf, setting up Shadedahs to finally murder this god damn eel. Then the already-damaged duck takes a STAB super-effective Thunderbolt straight to the dome.
They do not...oh.
For once, I didn’t expect something in my favor. It seems that the EVs built up over Billib’s long tenure gave them just enough bulk to barely hang on. Could we be making it out of this disaster of a fight with only one loss? With this miraculous turn, has Billib saved itself?
No.
I double-check as Ghetsis sends out Drapion, but the risks of switching are simply too great. There’s a chance, but it’s too unlikely to risk everything. No matter how admirably the mallard performed, it needs to go down so Shadedahs can continue as planned. There’s simply no way Billib survives.
…
...Unless…
Hey look, it’s the second screen I’ve been cropping out all game.
Ice Beam. This move has a 10% chance to freeze a Pokemon after damage. Freeze is a stupid, awful, broken status condition I hate, but that might work in our favor for once. Frozen Pokemon can’t do anything at all, and only have a 20% chance to thaw each turn with no upper limit. This means it’s technically still safer long-term to just let Billib die. But...I’m willing to give them a chance. They’ve fought through dozens of trainers and multiple gyms. They’ve stared down the highest power move from the highest attack legendary. They’ve taken their weakness in stride and survived what I never expected.
Can they roll...a one in ten?
Well statistically...
Painful but predictable, we proceed as originally planned. Shadedahs comes back out and strikes back with a super-effective Earthquake. Drapion goes down, Shaedahs attack goes up. Toxicroak comes out, and the earth splits open to swallow another. Shadedahs attack goes up. Now all that’s left is Ghetsis’ ace, the dread Hydreigon. And Shadedahs...needs to switch out.
Even in the original plan, Hydreigon made things difficult since it also has the ability Levitate. It hits back incredibly hard due to holding a god damn Life Orb, boosting the power of every attack by 30%. Since Shadedahs has one less buff and much less HP than expected, it’s not even worth the risk except as a double backup plan. The first backup plan is Porkrop, who can one-shot Hydreigon with a strong Fighting move but needs a safe switch since it goes second. That leaves the main plan, Robobor...who’s now had half their health melted off. I have to risk it, so the gears hits the field…
...and Hydreigon hits NOTHING.
With the luck of that 1 in 4 miss on Hydreigon’s powerful Dragon Rush, and the incredible defense of this iron behemoth, we should have this battle solved. With Toxic ticking down time until the terminal turn, the only risk left is whether or not Robobor can stall it out without getting critically hit. The two titans trade blows and blocks back and forth until…
...the hydra heads to hell.
And so comes to a close one of the closest shaves I’ve ever survived after almost a dozen hardcore nuzlockes. Ghetsis throws a tantrum, N tells him off and shares some platitudes, and the plot convenience ninjas make one final appearance to spirit their boss away. Rather than, you know, killing or jailing the murderous psycho who’s tried to take over the world twice. I can breathe a sigh of relief, because now it’s finally over…
...apart from the actual end-game.
Oh Right, We’re Not Done Yet
Now that we’ve finally pushed past the Plasma part of the plot, there are just a couple areas before the final boss rush, Route 23 and Victory Road. The good news is these last two areas are excellent. They both have great music, the former being another exclusive to this game I’d never heard before. They have terrain both vertical and varied, rising up from canyons to forest mazes to ancient ruins to bridges over waterfalls and a hidden grove to the ruined remains of Victory Road from the prequel. Throughout those areas is a huge mix of interesting wild Pokemon, and dozens of challenging trainers of all types. Though that can be a little nerve-wracking in a nuzlocke, I appreciate when these generally easy games are willing to ramp up the challenge. Besides, despite being hard enough that I definitely had to play carefully, there wasn’t any fight really worth mentioning…
NOTHING WORTH MENTIONING
...until our final showdown with Hugh. At the end of the road our rival returns to rematch once more, and at first things seem to go well. In fact, when he swaps to his Bouffalant, Nessissen succeeds where their recently passed predecessor Billib failed, and got the 10% freeze on Ice Beam. Which yielded a well-timed response from the game:
Dang, he’s a pessimist.
The fight started to go downhill when his pesky pest of a pigeon started spamming Swagger, a move that confuses the target but raises their attack. Some bad coin flips make things a little dicey, but our luck comes around before any serious risk and Hugh is bested once and for all. We step forth into the Pokemon League, where the Elite Four waits to give us our final challenge. And in the grand tradition of this play-through, once we’ve finally arrived at our long-sought destination at the literal peak of the country, all that remains…
...is to immediately leave and grab some encounters.
For the most part, there’s not much left likely to change our final party. Indeed, Afrorfa the Bouffalant was so far from being considered I resent having to scrub back through footage to remember their name. But there is one encounter left that’s a genuine contender for the end: Bronzor. Its Steel/Psychic typing matches up great into the finale, but it’s about twice as rare as the other Pokemon in the area, Swablu and Cottonee. Fortunately, in our penultimate encounter at Victory Road, both of those are available to increase our odds. Which is why I’ve been using repels this entire time, and now that I’m heading back down to catch one the only thing that could possibly stop me is accidentally running into one of the randomly spawning dust clouds that-
Ugggghhhh...
Blech, what a let-down. I name the Excadrill we find in this dust Dorkrod out of spite, but what’s done is done. There’s just one optional area left to find Pokemon in, and even though odds of getting what we want are now low it’s still worth checking out. It’s not like there’s much risk, as despite the Abundant Shrine only being accessible via the Waterfall move you get in Victory Road, both its wild and trainer fights are over 10 levels lower. I even checked this before-hand to be sure, which is why I’m surprised when, after back-tracking to the area…
I see THIS.
Look. Technically, it’s my fault for overlooking this trainer blocking the entrance to Abundant Shrine. But in my defense: We have an optional area where all the Pokemon and trainers are in the mid-30s. In the area just outside, all the Pokemon and trainers are in the mid-30s. I would posit that putting a single trainer in between these places, and having them be one of the strongest trainers in the game, is a dick move.
Regardless of how we got here, we’re now up against three powerful Pokemon while half my team are low-level losers brought to help catch something. Jumpmuj, finally seeing action after an extensive training arc, handily KOs the lead Heracross. But next up is the real problem, a bulky and monstrously strong Conkeldurr. None of my team can one-shot it, but looking at some calculations nothing it has should stop Jumpmuj. It’ll hurt, but unless it both hits a 50% accurate DynamicPunch AND gets a critical hit, I should still…
I’m...I’m just gonna’ stop talking.
This one really hurt. As mentioned earlier, Jumpmuj had the strength and speed to be a great party member for the end-game. They might have swept half the Elite Four single-handed! So I spent hours training them up and even grinding out the perfect EVs...only for them to die after throwing one punch, to a random I didn’t even have to fight.
The thing that baffled me the most was that it wasn’t even a critical hit! After some puzzling I realize my mistake: Conkeldurr’s default ability is Guts, and that’s also the ability of the Conkeldurr in the Elite Four I’d been training for. But it’s possible for the Pokemon to have another ability: Sheer Force. This removes the additional effects from moves but also gives them a power boost, pumping up DynamicPunch juuuust enough to crush my hopes and dreams. If we factor abilities into the odds, this merely makes the KO an unlucky 1/4 rather than an unlucky 1/48. Looking at it that way, I should feel less bad.
I do not feel less bad.
Alright, it’s about time we wrapped things up before my majorly massive off-sceen training arc. This is our very last encounter in Pokemon Black 2. Looking back in retrospect, the bitter have been balanced with the best. For every male Combee, we’ve had a Lapras. So even though I know this isn’t how things work, I’m hiding just a hint of hope in my heart. I was just ambushed with an unexpected, devastating loss. It would be real nice if now, at our last possible chance, we could get just slightly worse odds than that DynamicPunch disaster.
Could we see...a little bronze circle?
In honor of the fallen...Belleb.
See you at the Elite Four.
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