Welcome, dear fellow gamers, for the first episode of
my Avian Solo Runs feature! We're dealing with star material here, since our
lone ranger du jour is none other than Pidgey, an absolute fan favourite
and one of the most ubiquitous 'Mons of the first two generations. Did that
famous opener live up to his reputation? Well, we'll see that very soon.
I cruised Johto and revamped Kanto on my DS, since I don't own the original
games; and things will probably remain that way since these games are notorious
for being unplayable these days lest one regularly replaces their batteries.
Fun fact: my copies of HeartGold and SoulSilver, which are boxed
and mint and which I snatched for a very fair price back in the days, are
Canadian ones. More specifically, french Canadian ones, which sport only
the language of love and are uncompatible with english copies. Now, this
honestly boggles my mind: why release an exclusive french version in a country
with two official languages? Was it a Québec exclusive? Anyway, this messed up
with my Poke-references quite a fair bit — just think of all the translation
work I had to go through just to be able to deliver that post — but owning the
games in perfect condition was definitely worth the hassle.
This time around, I polished off Kanto right after Johto, taking my Pidgey-turned-Pidgeot all the way to the summit where Red was lounging around, seemingly staring at nothing with snow piling up around his ankles (Spoiler: Pidgeot wiped the floor with him and his 'Mons). And boy, what an epic, mindblowing and fulfilling run that was! It was all at once deliciously grindy, heart-warmingly cosy and brimming with thrilling exploration and roaming, and I loved every minute of the 22 hours I spent cruising the original two Pokemon regions. Well, nearly every minute: I could have done without the 100.000 times my Pidgey was paralyzed by Electric 'Mons (could it be due to her weakness to that particular Type?), without Whitney's bloody sturdy Milktank (good thing my Pidgey was female, or things would have been even worse because of Milktank's Attraction) and without Lt. Surge's ridiculously annoying Magneton, which I needed to postpone over and over to be able to beat it (Pidgey towered literally 45 levels over it when she took it down yet still struggled to do so).
The rest, however, was a cakewalk; and the fact that I even managed to reach Red at all despite my Pigdeot's occasional lack of punch — the poor thing has a base Attack of only 80, which is even lower than Liepard — was in no small part due to smart Move management. Flying 'Mons have very few weaknesses to start with, and most of the work consisted in working around these weaknesses. I unfortunately didn't manage to alleviate issues with Electric 'Mons, and they remained a thorn in my side until the very end. Rock 'Mons, on the other hand, were easy to dispose of thanks to an ingenious hack: I reprised the trick of wielding one Special Move and one Physical Move of the same Type — in that case Air Slash and Wing Attack respectively — to target each foe's defensive weaknesses. It turns out that Rock 'Mons often have shitty Sp. Defense, which allowed my Pidgey to dispose of them without breaking a sweat thanks to the combination of Air Slash, decent Sp.Attack and overleveling. I had an Electric-typed Hidden Power that allowed me to take care confortably of the many Water 'Mons littering Johto and Kanto, and Quick Attack retained its power for so long that I hold unto it until the late stages of the game before replacing it with my beloved Return, a.k.a. the Perfect Solo Run Move. As for my Pidgey's last glaring weakness, i.e. Ice 'Mons, they were so few and far between that dealing with them was hardly a hassle. I only had to delay Mahogany Town's Gym until my Pidgey was overleveled enough to take down Pryce's Pilowswine without passing out in the process.
This leads me to one of HeartGold's highlights, namely its non-linearity. I had written off this feature as crappy old-school game design during my first run of the game, but I realize now that this enthusing opening of the game world after Ecruteak City was entirely intentional on GameFreak's part. And boy, is it a thrill to get to explore the wilderness at your own pace and tackle the three next Gyms in the order you want! As it turned out, I started with Mahogany's Gym, failed to clear it and then followed the more traditional order of Cianwood and Olivine before returning to Mahogany with a vengeance and a good number of extra levels under my belt. Kanto was even better, allowing me to roam around as though I owned the place. I kinda did, in a way; despite having played through the first generation only once, I remembered nearly all locations. Now that I can appreciate better non-linearity and roving in Pokemon games, maybe I'll replay Generation I entries with a more open mind at some point. Hey, I own a copy of Yellow that is just begging to be played before its batteries die on me.
You get the picture, dear fellow gamers: this first official Avian Solo Run was a total and complete blast. It was thrilling, uplifting, heartwarming and a delightful adventure from beginning to end. Never before did I undertake 16 Gyms, a whole Pokemon League (twice) and a legendary Champion with a single 'Mon, and this exploit created the most enduring and amazing bond between me and my beloved Pidgey. This most breathtaking run also gives me good hopes for the following Avian Runs; although I already suspected that bird 'Mons were stellar solo run material, successfully tackling two regions and a regiment of Gyms Leaders with a single bird really drives the point home in the most flamboyant way. See you soon for my next Avian Solo Run, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
Sieg18 September 2017 at 18:01
Generation 2
was so good. And so much stuff to do, specially back in the 2000's when it
released. It was an enormous game by the GBC's standards.
So, Wing Attack, Air Slash, Hidden Power (Electric) and Return? Pretty balanced
I'd say. Nice touch on using Hidden Power by the way :p. Now that you remember
it exists, you're trying it out and see how useful it is?
Isleif19 September 2017 at 16:10
I'm still a bit on the fence about Hidden Power, to be honest. I'm reluctant to use it unless I know which Type it is, because my meagre Pokemon knowledge won't allow me to figure this out by myself... :P But if the Type is good, it can sure work miracles.
KosNikon20 September 2017 at 11:06
Hi, I've been
interested in asking you this for quite some time... How long does it take you
to complete a typical solo run? I've been interested in Pokemon since childhood
but can't say I have much experience with actually playing these games - I
*almost* completed Gold on the friend's GBC (played til morning several nights
in a row, oh yeah), played a bit of emulated FireRed on PSP (yep, that's
perverted lol), and now I'm tackling X on used 3DS I recently bought by
chance... Of course I'm playing it in a usual way - a full party, not much
grind or overlevelling (though I'm trying to catch all pokemons I can and also
did raise about 10-15 pokemons to lvl 30 while I was deciding whom I want to
keep for the rest of the game). So far I'm 32 hours in and beaten only 6 gyms,
which actually makes a decent length for a portable RPG, even not really
simplistic one. :)
TL;DR: I'm really wondering how long it takes to beat, say, specifically X game
with a single pokemon. There are some runs I'd like to give a try later, and I
also got myself copies of Platinum for DS and Omega Ruby... but I don't think
I'll be really willing to spend another 50 or so hours for a single playthrough
of any of them :D
KosNikon20 September 2017 at 11:54
Oh sorry, just looked through the current post more attentively and noticed that it still took 22+ hours :) Quite impressive, for me this means that even a solo run without all the catching fuss will take me like 2-3 weeks... Could be much faster if playing DS only, but I guess I have way too much Steam and other PC games awaiting my attention :D Anyway, it's always a great fun to read your posts, keep up the good work
Isleif20 September 2017 at 13:09
Hello and
welcome! My Pokemon solo runs tale between 14 and 20 hours, depending on the
game. 3DS entries usually take longer to beat, while DS entries are on the
shorter side. HeartGold is an exception, because you have two regions to
explore, so it's naturally a bit longer than your average Pokemon entry.
But yeah, playing solo is a completely different experience - and a very
refreshing one, if you ask me. Rushing through the region du jour with a single
'Mon without bothering with capturing wild creatures makes these games feel
more like dungeon crawlers than like collection-based RPGs.
Last but not least, thanks for
the kind words! ^^
KosNikon21 September 2017 at 06:03
You're most welcome!) I see, then I may tackle some solo runs with the versions I have after all. Yes, I vaguely remember that Gold version had two maps, though I though one of them was a bit shorter on content. But it's still bigger than any other Pokemon title with one map included
Isleif21 September 2017 at 18:16
Well, I wish you good luck and hope you'll enjoy Pokemon solo runs as much as I do. ^^
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