Black 2 Kingslocke

As you may have picked up if you, for some godawful reason, pay attention to my Twitter: the extremely good boys of the Exp. Share podcast, who play through Pokémon games in tandem and discuss their adventures each week, are currently running Black 2 and White 2 with my “Kingslocke” rules, after the idea was put into their head by my good friend Ben from I Chews You (the podcast about cooking and eating Pokémon, I LIKE WHAT I LIKE, OKAY!?). As well as being a nice treat for any fans of the Kingslocke who want to see someone else suffer through this ludicrously complicated tarot-based challenge run, this is a fantastic opportunity for me to get more data on how the rules actually function in practice and where they might be confusing or easily misunderstood (well… more confusing than they’re supposed to be). I still haven’t played under the revised version that I wrote after completing my Pearl run a few months back, so this is pretty valuable information if I want to keep updating the rules, or follow through on my threats to create an “advanced” version where the four suits all do different things.

Of course, seeing as Josh and Tanner of Exp. Share are doing something so helpful for me, I think it’s only polite if I join in. Again, after all, I haven’t yet played with the most recent version of the rules myself. Exp. Share has a segment called “Level Check,” where the hosts discuss the current state of their teams (including recent casualties if they’ve been playing a Nuzlocke… etc.). A lot of listeners keep pace with Tanner and Josh playing through the same game and post their own Level Checks on Reddit each week, so I’m going to start a run of Black 2, try to catch up to them reasonably promptly (I believe they normally tackle one gym per week, and they’ve just passed the third in Castelia City) and then keep pace for the rest of their run. This should be a lot less intense than my almost-daily updates on the Pearl Kingslocke, and the posts will probably be a lot less detailed (at least the first few while I’m catching up), which is good because I’m also still playing Legends: Arceus and have ideas I need to discuss about that game too. I’m not going to take time to talk much about Black 2 itself or the story (I’ll assume readers know the plot and characters), or give detailed accounts of most major battles; instead I’ll just focus on what’s happening with the Kingslocke cards and deck, with periodic updates on how my team is doing in the spirit of Level Check. Also, if I need an observer rule I’m just going to go to Jim the Editor rather than crowdsource it like I did for Pearl (not that that wasn’t also great, but I want to come up with a more refined system before doing it again; this is just more convenient given my format).

Let’s Talk About Legends: Arceus (part 2 of Some Number)

Last time I checked in, I was about to try to do… something… about the enraged “noble” Pokémon, Kleavor, the Pearl Clan’s “lord of the woods.” Professor Laventon’s plan is to leverage the player character’s incredible skill at throwing $#!t by mashing some of Kleavor’s favourite foods into throwable clumps, which will in some way achieve something good, probably.

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Let’s Talk About Legends: Arceus (part 1 of Some Number)

listen, it’s been a mere week since this game came out and I started playing yesterday; that qualifies as punctual for me

For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t decided yet whether they want to buy this game, here are some thoroughly de-spoilered opinions:

It’s very different; it’s quite unlike the traditional Pokémon formula. Follows Pokémon Go and Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee in putting the emphasis on catching and releasing a lot of Pokémon to progress; follows Sword and Shield in putting the human characters and their motivations front-and-centre a bit more than previous titles. A lot more open-world-action-game-y than Sword and Shield ever tried to be. Cares a great deal about Pokémon’s exploration/discovery themes. Sometimes Pokémon try to murder you. Battles with other trainers are not completely absent, but so far a very minor aspect of the game, appropriately enough given its premise and setting; it’s mostly about wild Pokémon. So far I like it; the characters are great, the new Pokédex system is great, the environments (both natural and human) are very pretty if you care about that. I mean, I have to reserve full judgement until… well, if my previous record on Pokémon games is anything to go by, until about 10 years have passed and I’ve played it all the way through multiple times, but yeah, so far it seems good.

Also, while playing this game, I was watching an episode of House, M.D. (episode 8.8) in which the title character remarks – out of nowhere and to the utter bafflement of everyone else in the room – that “Arceus created a universe with three states of matter.” It’s totally in-character; House spends a lot of time playing video games and he enjoys saying cryptic things just to mess with people; I just thought it was a fun coincidence that I’d never seen that particular episode before and happened to watch it during my first day with Legends: Arceus.

Anyway, this concludes my not-a-review; from this point on, HERE BE SPOILERS (but only for what I’ve played so far, which is honestly not that much, so unless you’re observing absolute blackout protocol it’s probably fine). Let’s talk about the first… chunk… of this game, and some things I thought about it.

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I invoke the power of Janus to answer a bunch of reader questions rapidfire while drunk

Okay, I’ve gotta-

fµ¢£in’

fµ¢£

I’ve got a very narrow window of time here, is the point

It’s 2022 in New Zealand but still 2021 in most of the rest of the world, which won’t be true for long, but I can use that time to invoke the power of Janus, the Roman god of the New Year, (and also some alcohol) for supernatural aid in answering the GREAT BIG DUMB PILE of questions from readers that I haven’t answered in the past… I dunno, fµ¢£in’ COUPLE OF MONTHS probably???

this is probably, like, super dangerous, spiritually speaking; I might end up owing my soul to a doorknob or something

ah, it’s probably fine

LET’S TALK ABOUT A BUNCH OF STUFF

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A Pokémon Trainer is You! XLIV: A Wild Bunch

Catch up on the story so far here!]

Last time, on A Pokémon Trainer Is You:

What’s your next play?

Try to prepare another ambush

Use a different Pokémon?

Stick with Jane Doe

You could rush in, guns blazing. After all, there’s only two of them now, even if they were good enough to beat Blue; you reckon you could take ‘em. But why take the risk, right? You’re smarter than that. You might not be able to split the other two Rockets up like you did the first one, but you may as well seize the element of surprise – especially now that you now have a really cool opportunity for another trap.

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A Pokémon Trainer is You! XLIII: Rocket to the Moon

[Catch up on the story so far here!]

Last time, on A Pokémon Trainer Is You:

Do you want to give Paras a nickname?

Receive an AI-generated name

Okay! Look at this, kid; you’re gonna love this. It’s gonna revolutionise the whole business of naming Pokémon. All you have to do is plug in some context data to get the AI started…

and presto!

Um. Well, it… uh…

Look, it’s still in the experimental stages, okay? Needs some… y’know, refining. Work the kinks out.

I mean, your Paras seems pretty chuffed about it; she’s acting all bashful and her mushrooms are blushing. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.

Ah, whatever; Cutie it is!

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Kingslocke Rules: Second Revised Edition

[June 3, 2022: These rules are now superseded by the Third Revised Edition. If you’re looking to start a new Kingslocke, you should probably go there; I’ve put a lot of work into making it more consistent and hopefully easier to work with. If you’re on this page because you’re continuing a run in progress, it’s probably safest to keep using this version.]

Tremble, mortals, and despair, for the Second Revised Edition of the Kingslocke Rules has come to this world.

For those wishing to know the history of this most bat$#!t of all Pokémon challenge runs, see the intro to the First Revised Edition, which remains available here. You can see those rules in action in my recently-completed run of Pearl, which inspired the changes in this edition; you can also read the Ur-Rules here. If you want to know more about the Second Revised Edition and my thought process behind some of the changes, scroll down to the second half of this post. If you just want to try playing a Kingslocke, read on…

You will need:

A Pokémon game
A deck of tarot cards (or a simulation thereof)
An observer to the game, willing to occasionally provide custom rules (optional, but recommended)
Sanity and a willingness to sacrifice it

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Pearl Kingslocke: Episode 28

Okay, this is gonna be the day. It’s gonna be. I can feel it. We got up to Cynthia on #24, we’re going to beat her. It’s going to happen. Let’s go!

Attempt #25

Anna can finally one-shot Aaron’s Dustox with Psychic, a milestone that has been a long time coming and will greatly reduce its ability to fµ¢£ me over. Du Fromage is close to doing the same to Beautifly with Flamethrower, but that matters less, since Beautifly can barely damage Du Fromage anyway.

Bertha is pretty easy to beat without losses now. Flint’s Infernape can still cause trouble, but the rest of his team is straightforward.

My new method for Lucian’s Mr. Mime is to open by switching in Du Fromage, who can basically ignore its attacks, use Sweet Kiss and wait for its Reflect and Light Screen to drop. In theory this can open up an opportunity for someone else like Anna to jump in and take over. In practice things aren’t usually so neat, but it still seems like a decent way to spend the first few turns. Madame Malheur can also apparently one-shot Lucian’s Medicham now, which is a pretty big deal. I still need luck on my side to beat Bronzong, and this time I don’t seem to have it, but we’re getting closer.

Remember: the further I can get in each run, the more my Pokémon will grow in strength for the start of the next run. There’s a lot of experience between here and my next shot at Lucian.

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Pearl Kingslocke: Episode 27

…you all know the drill, let’s bash our faces against the Elite Four another thirteen times.

Attempt #14

Beat Aaron pretty routinely. One concern I have is that I’m still usually beating his Vespiquen at the cost of a lot of PP from Du Fromage’s Flamethrower, which I might need later on to beat Lucian’s Bronzong. But we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.

I was about to write that fighting Bertha feels a lot better now that I have a strategy for dealing efficiently with her Quagsire (and one that actually gives Effie something to do, even if it is just switching in and out to intercept digs, and even if it is something Madame Malheur could do just as well), but then her Hippowdon got a crit with Earthquake and one-shot Alexolotl, so no, this still sucks.

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Pearl Kingslocke: Episode 26

Big rules here, little rules down there, let’s go.

We’re probably only a couple more episodes from the end, and the last ones are going to be a little different. As you might remember, at the end of the last episode I drew the Hierophant going into the Pokémon League, so I only use a Pokémon Centre after finishing a new area… and there are none of those left. I can’t really train under those conditions. That being the case, I have no choice but to simply fight the Elite Four over and over until I win, receiving pity-healing each time I lose and coming back slightly stronger. I don’t really know how long this is going to take. Previously in this playthrough I’ve been giving fairly detailed summaries of important battles against gym leaders and the like, but I don’t think that’s going to be practical here. This is going to be more… let’s say, summaries and highlights of each attempt. Hopefully I’ll have a pretty good sense of when I’m close to beating Cynthia, so I’ll be able to give more of a blow-by-blow for the final battle.

Well… here goes nothing.

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