(Thank you to Wekhter for telling me how to edit the html code to do things with my pictures that Tumblr will no longer do for me)

Jim and I take some time to explore the desert in the north.  We find it much as we remember it from Black and White, though the sand continues to claim more of the ruins in the area.  It’s not the worst that could happen to them.  Sand preserves things wonderfully.  The desert will keep them nice and dry, and they’ll still be there in two hundred years.  We do find some interesting new wildlife, though; in addition to all the desert Pokémon we remember, there are now Sandshrew and Trapinch in the area.  After a moment’s thought, I add Daenerys the Trapinch to my team before we move on.  I also find something else, though – a Sigilyph that seems to sparkle somehow.  I look again.  It’s not a shiny Sigilyph; I know what those look like.  Wondering if I imagined it, I decide to catch the Sigilyph for further study.  It turns out, on inspection, to have been partnered with a human before, someone with the trainer ID number 00002.  Hmm.  There turn out to be several more Pokémon like this in the area – I find a Sandile, a Scraggy… and an extremely powerful Darmanitan which manages to level half of my team before I can force it into Zen Mode and capture it.  I hate Darmanitan so much.  These seem to be the Pokémon N used on Black and White, and subsequently released back into the wild, in keeping with his philosophy of Pokémon liberation.  Unsure what to do with them, I shelve them for the moment and settle in to train up Daenerys a little bit while Jim pokes around in the Relic Castle for anything that hasn’t been looted already.

 

We meet up again once Daenerys has caught up with the rest of my team in level, and strike out again for Nimbasa City.  As we reach the outer limits of the city, though, we encounter something… unexpected.  What was once a mere gatehouse has been converted into a long, neon-clad street, completely covered over with an arched roof.   This huge building appears to be deserted.  There’s no one here.  Although the place is majestic enough, with its sparkling ceiling and beautiful stone columns, it really doesn’t look like much more than a glorified entrance gate to Nimbasa City.  I mean, it’s exactly the kind of thing Elesa would build, but even by her standards it seems to put form over substance.  I look at Jim, who just strolls onward to Nimbasa.  I shrug and follow.  Before we can get far, however, we are accosted by a purposeful-looking businessman and his crew of assistants.  He declares, loudly and enthusiastically, that we are perfect, and runs up to shake our hands.  This man is the owner of ‘Join Avenue’ – the name of the building we are in – and needs someone to run the place for him.  Following a new trend in upper-level management, he has decided to entrust this vital responsibility to the first random trainers to wander by, putting his massive and important new project in our hands!  His minions’ faces fall slightly, as though questioning the wisdom of putting a pair of unknown teenagers in charge of a huge financial investment.  He assigns two of his minions, the blue-haired Jacci and Future, to our staff – at which their forced smiles suddenly turn to looks of surprise and confusion – before wishing us luck and disappearing.  We watch the owner leave, and then turn to go – Nimbasa awaits!  Jacci and Future, however, fall on their knees and beg us to stay.  Without our help, they’ll never bring this avenue to amount to anything!  We shrug and move on.  They call out, promising fame, a cushy base of operations, useful services and items, and riches!  We ignore them and walk-

Wait, what was that about riches?

Jim rolls his eyes and tells me he’ll meet me outside the great stadium in Nimbasa once I’ve turned Join Avenue into a smoking ruin.

I tell him I don’t know what he’s talking about, then turn to Jacci and Future.  They prostrate themselves and ask me how I would like them to address me.  I think for a moment and tell them to call me “Empress.”  They look at each other and I see a shadow cross over their faces, as though they are just realising how much trouble they are in, but they force grins and greet me by my new title.  They explain that my new empire is supposed to be a shopping mall, of sorts.  As people enter and leave Nimbasa City, I will be able to persuade some of them to set up shops in the empty niches of the avenue in between the decorative columns, gardens and fountains.  Once we have a couple of shops, I can try to drum up business for them by recommending their wares to passing customers.  Basically their business model is to let random people camp out in their fancy hallway and provide them with free advertising.  Hmm.

 

As they explain their plan to me, a young boy, perhaps twelve years old, enters the avenue heading for Nimbasa City.  Future points at him excitedly and tells me to talk to him; he can be our first proprietor!  I raise an eyebrow, but go up to the boy anyway, introduce myself as Empress of Join Avenue, and ask him whether he would be interested in owning a stall on our fine premises.  It turns out that this boy, Janus (named, I can only assume, for the Roman god of doorways), has always dreamed of owning a stall selling useful items for trainers!  He has fresh water, Moomoo Milk, and… well, okay, at the moment he just has fresh water and Moomoo Milk but he promises he’ll talk to his suppliers about getting other products once he’s established.  If I give him a spot, he’ll be so happy he’ll say ‘pit pat’!  I assume ‘pit pat’ is what kids these days say when they are happy.  I squint at him, framing his face with my hands.  I look over at Future, who is nodding enthusiastically, and Jacci, who waves her hand and sighs.  I look back to Janus.  “Welcome aboard, kid.”  He cheers and hurries over to a spot near our office to set up his shop.  I soon recruit a second shopkeeper, a ranger woman named Annetta.  Annetta, it transpires, is a clever charlatan who sells people rocks by disguising them as valuable artefacts.  Now, as an archaeologist I have a deep-seated hatred for people who deal in actual black market antiquities, but selling cheap fakes to unsuspecting members of the public is a-okay as long as I get a cut of the profits!  Annetta sounds like my kind of felon, and I permit her to join my empire.

Now we just need some customers.

Before long, a woman with a parasol wanders through and Jacci suggests, somewhat despondently, that I try to engage her interest and win her custom.  I accost the woman and awe her into submission with my almighty personal charisma, before telling her our mission and asking about her shopping preferences.

“I want to wander around the avenue,” she says.  “If there is a shop with a male clerk, I want to go there.”

I consider her request and size her up.  Mid-twenties, I’d guess.  I glance briefly at Janus, who is pottering around his new stall trying to connect his fridge to our power generators.  He continues to look about twelve, fourteen at the most.

“Well, there is one, but I’m not sure if he’s exactly what you’re looking f-”

Parasol chick barges past me and goes to check out Janus Mart (Janus’ imaginatively named store).  “Uh… Miss!  Please!  Wait a minute!”  What did I just do!?  Oh, good lord, are they flirting?  I- what?  I glare at Future, point urgently at Janus Mart, and draw a finger across my neck.  Future shrugs, then grins and gives me a thumbs up sign as parasol chick hands Janus some notes and a few coins, accepts a large case of Moomoo Milk, gives him a saucy wink, and leaves.  As she walks past me, she assures me that Janus Mart is a wonderful place, and she’ll tell all her friends.  I respond with a stunned nod, decide I’d prefer to let Jacci and Future run their creepy dating service alone, and sneak out while they’re not looking.

Join Avenue is a weird place.  Jim feels it’s gimmicky, and I have to agree, although the products and services you can buy there become extremely useful once you fill up all the shop spaces and start to level them (the more customers you attract, the better the stuff they’ll sell).  The avenue will grow more quickly if you regularly interact with other players, but even if you don’t customers will appear every day so you can direct them to the shops they need and boost the place’s popularity.  It gives the old concept of specialty shops a new twist by enlisting the player’s help in building them up, which is a nice touch, although I would gladly trade the dozens of blank, relatively emotionless shopkeepers you can choose for a small handful of actual characters to run your stalls.  The premise used to get the player involved is also, let’s face it, fundamentally absurd, and I can’t help but feel there are less ham-fisted ways of putting the player in a position of control over the place.  Like a lot of things in these games, then, Join Avenue is far from perfect and I probably would have done it rather differently, but it’s certainly not a bad addition – it gives you a lot of interesting things you can spend your money on (important, given the vastly expanded size of your purse in the fifth generation games) and, more importantly, it gives players a sense of achievement by directly involving them in building up the businesses – so I guess it’s kinda fun.