What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

Was bored, decided to see how well my Saturn games worked on my laptop. My Saturn's been busted for a while [drive controller probably borked, a buddy of mine was installing a modchip for me and apparently something went awry, bleh; the thing boots but discs don't spin up], so I've got a stack of Saturn games and nothing to play them on.

I am so glad I got that Saturn/PS2/N64 -> USB box, you need a real JP-style Saturn controller to really enjoy Saturn emulation, haha.

SSF is the best thing ever. It is the Kega Fusion of Saturn emulators.
Ran everything fine except Virtual On for me [supposedly it works, but I'm using 010_R1 in Wine, later versions don't even start [encountered an error and needs to close box comes up, bleh], and apparently VO needs compatibility at High or above anyway, so there goes performance anyway...], and any game that runs in 480i [they work, they just run like garbage, so no VF2 or Fighting Vipers... but those are on PSN so I might as well go play it on my PS3].

Sure, I could play the PS2 version of VO, but I really have a soft spot for the vastly different Saturn version [seriously, so many move and control properties have changed compared to the arcade, apparently it was intentionally tweaked a bit for the different input method, it's not because of how many downgrades they had to make to put the game on the Saturn].

===

So, I've been playing [I tested a bunch of games, but here's what I spent any significant amount of time with] these:

Guardian Heroes, damn fun. Took the route that lead from the earth to the sky [don't ask me the stage number, I forgot], and then used my last continue; was playing as Randy. Most annoying thing was losing a continue really early on because his initial stats meant that he died after like, 4 hits. So I then dumped most of my points into vitality so there'd be no reason for him to die so easily. Probably should have put more into his magic stats... bleh. Had to crank up the compatibility settings to High [would randomly crash between stage loads otherwise... or more accurately it would randomly decide to load once in a while past a point, wouldn't even let me into the settings menu until setting SSF to High], but incurred no speed loss whatsoever and kept a full 60fps constantly. Also, I kept accidentally doing a DP motion instead of QCF, so instead of magic missile, there was that lightning area-of-effect spell.

Also, whoever did this translation should be kicked in the shin, it's so damn stilted it hurts.
I really wish this game was on PSN, that translation is amazing. Played the XBLA version with a friend a few months ago.

I did download Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru, but 1: it was an assy ISO+MP3 rip, people who make those should be exiled to Mars without space suits [CDEmu didn't feel like loading the data part of the CUE sheet, so I had to just load the bare ISO]... and 2: it crashed on me, so I deleted it. Also 3: it felt really janky, very floaty [not sure if it was running at not-fullspeed, checked a Youtube video and it looked like that's how it ran, although seeing the player made me try to give it another shot].
I'll probably just find a better copy, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a bad rip and that not having the music screwed with the emulation.

...and apparently most of the disc is taken up by the music, the game itself is like 8MB or so...

Panzer Dragoon Zwei, wow. The first game is good, this is much better. Quite nice. Excellent soundtrack too. Baffled at why the control defaults to non-inverted.
On a related note, the first game was a launch game in the US, why the fuck wasn't that the pack in game instead of that really shit Virtua Fighter port with pop-in that's measured in feet, not yards. Panzer Dragoon was quite visually impressive for 1995, and showed off the Saturn's 3D capabilities wonderfully. Then again, Sega had it's head 20 inches up its ass from 95-98 when it came to the consumer market [those years were golden for them in the arcade], so...

Burning Rangers. Popped in my JP copy, fuck it. I don't know Japanese yet, gonna just just go get an ISO of the US version, no way I'm spending $80 for a bare disc of that. Navigation without understanding the directions is a paiiiin. I don't even know how I reached the end of the first mission, fuck. And it's an impressive game for the Saturn [lighting! real transparency [sometimes, other times it's stippled]!, an actual 3D Saturn game that works!], but someone here said it looks like it'll fall apart at any second -- I think I know what you're talking about now. It's got this per-polygon pop-in that looks like the world is building and collapsing upon itself.
It's a shame about the US version though. A complete JP copy w/ spinecard landed me $30 or so. Damn 1998 US releases all being crazy overpriced...

[edit]

Bulk Slash. Holy fuck, this game is amazing. Like Ranger X and Zone of the Enders at the same time. And it looks pretty nice considering what it is, a free-range 3D shooter on the Saturn. Better framerate than most other full 3D Saturn games I've seen too. Damn impressive.

[gbaplayer]

playing dragon slayer: legend of heroes I right now on the pc engine.

[KAI]

did download Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru, but 1: it was an assy ISO+MP3 rip, people who make those should be exiled to Mars without space suits [CDEmu didn't feel like loading the data part of the CUE sheet, so I had to just load the bare ISO]... and 2: it crashed on me, so I deleted it. Also 3: it felt really janky, very floaty [not sure if it was running at not-fullspeed, checked a Youtube video and it looked like that's how it ran, although seeing the player made me try to give it another shot].
I'll probably just find a better copy, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a bad rip and that not having the music screwed with the emulation.

...and apparently most of the disc is taken up by the music, the game itself is like 8MB or so...

Next time just try converting the audio files to wav and editing the cue file.

Finished Dawn of Ys, now playing Grandia [PSX]
Like the graphics, like the music, but the game is is fucking slow.

Any recommendation for a 2D action RPG from the CD generation? (PSX/SAT/MEGACD/PCE CD)

[Ruldra]

Finished God of War 2 for the first time ever. The whole game is great, but that ending...holy shit!

"If all of Olympus will deny my vengeance, then all of Olympus will die!". He then proceeds to gather all the Titans and storm Olympus. Awesome!

Will beat the game again on the hardest setting and then move on to GoW 3.

Any recommendation for a 2D action RPG from the CD generation? (PSX/SAT/MEGACD/PCE CD)

Vagrant Story?

[KAI]

2D if possible. I already played VS.

[Jon]

Powersoul had mentioned Legend of Mana, Alundra is fun too with a heavy emphasis on puzzles.

[null1024]

did download Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru, but 1: it was an assy ISO+MP3 rip, people who make those should be exiled to Mars without space suits [CDEmu didn't feel like loading the data part of the CUE sheet, so I had to just load the bare ISO]... and 2: it crashed on me, so I deleted it. Also 3: it felt really janky, very floaty [not sure if it was running at not-fullspeed, checked a Youtube video and it looked like that's how it ran, although seeing the player made me try to give it another shot].
I'll probably just find a better copy, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a bad rip and that not having the music screwed with the emulation.

...and apparently most of the disc is taken up by the music, the game itself is like 8MB or so...

Next time just try converting the audio files to wav and editing the cue file.

First thing I did.
I'm pretty sure it's just CDEmu not supporting ISO+WAV+CUEs or something. [I wish SSF had ISO loading, I had a field day trying to get SSF to work under Windows with a mounted CD drive, where it'd crash on the title screen of everything with an opcode error, and I'm almost certain it's the ISO mounter's doing [using VirtualCloneDrive, tried some other one but SSF didn't recognize it as a drive... I wish there was CDEmu for Windows, such a good program]]
I'll find a BIN+CUE of it.

Either way, been playing more Bulk Slash [Saturn]. So delicious. And it even does that "12-step-transparency" thing that Sonic R does [well, Sonic R calls it 12-step-transparency] to fade in the stages sometimes, which is pretty neat, looks much nicer than raw pop-in.

The inside-building stage had that Burning Rangers-like jitteryness though [although when it did the per-poly pop-in, it didn't seem like everything was collapsing nearly as much], and felt a bit out of place.

Space stage was cooool though [except for picking up the bombs at the start...], although I accidentally died on the boss and didn't feel like continuing.

Escort mission was annoying because of the pop-in, not being able to keep a visual on the ship when need be is a bother. Probably the only time the pop-in has significantly bothered me. I can clear it now, it's just that I need to remember the route that the thing takes so I can go blow up the AA guns before the thing gets there.
I'm seriously wondering why the hell I needed to ferry the slow-ass thing when it just zips off at mach 2 or something at the end and showed no indication of not being able to do that before, blah. Ah well. 100x more tolerable than something like Assault Suit Leynos 2's convoy stage [I'm this close to just selling ASL2, blah].

I'm really happy with Bulk Slash, I need to pick up an actual copy of this [and go get a new Saturn, aaaa, I want to play Saturn Virtual On]. Probably one of the best 32-bit era 3D game experiences I've had.

I still haven't beaten it, but that will probably change by tomorrow. It's a rather easy game and I find myself dying from unexpectedly high-damage hits more than anything, and only on bosses. The M.I.S.S. system is neato too, collect 'em all!


man, I started playing Ranger-X earlier today and just put it down because I really wanted to play Bulk Slash instead

[BIL]

did download Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru, but 1: it was an assy ISO+MP3 rip, people who make those should be exiled to Mars without space suits [CDEmu didn't feel like loading the data part of the CUE sheet, so I had to just load the bare ISO]... and 2: it crashed on me, so I deleted it. Also 3: it felt really janky, very floaty [not sure if it was running at not-fullspeed, checked a Youtube video and it looked like that's how it ran, although seeing the player made me try to give it another shot].
I'll probably just find a better copy, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a bad rip and that not having the music screwed with the emulation.

No idea how badly the game is being affected by emulation (or not) - the framerate and responsiveness are faultlessly tight on a real SS. But Taromaru's slightly floaty jumping is intentional, just like Ninja Spirit's. The game is designed around gracefully evading enemies' (heavily telegraphed) attacks until the charge shot is ready, then letting rip and causing mass explosive rupturing. Playing as Taromaru you want to use the outright killing shot, since his will leap from one enemy to another at full strength. As Tenkai you should rely more on possessing a single enemy and exploding it to take out the rest of the screen, using his unlimited range and stronger single shots.

Either way, contrary to the HG101 scrubwank, the game is balanced around that principle of targeting one enemy to kill all the rest. Don't forget you have a free shield that blocks/nullifies literally everything, too, at the cost of resetting your charge shot.

Playing without music would really blow, Taro has a great brooding soundtrack that really boils over at points.

[Obiwanshinobi]

2D if possible.

Not 2D, but Brave Fencer Musashi is good (I don't consider it an RPG of any kind). Then there's the Tales of Phantasia port (that's a jRPG alright). Valkyrie Profile is... interesting.
Oh yes, The Granstream Saga (polygonal too).

[null1024]

Burning Rangers [Saturn].

Playing it in English now.
the voice acting is down right atrocious

2D if possible.

Not 2D, but Brave Fencer Musashi is good (I don't consider it an RPG of any kind). Then there's the Tales of Phantasia port (that's a jRPG alright). Valkyrie Profile is... interesting.
Oh yes, The Granstream Saga (polygonal too).

I'd just go recommend Tales of Destiny over Phantasia, even the PS1 version.

[edit]
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru [Saturn].
Figured out what the issues were: 1, needed to crank the compatibility options in SSF to High and 2, got a BIN+CUE of the game so no crashes and now I can have music.

Damn impressive stuff here. Still getting to grips with the controls though, and I keep firing as my target goes out of range so my charge gets wasted, blah.

I like the shield, it's like a super-long version of the Sonic 3 insta-shield, haha.

[BIL]

Yeah, it definitely takes some getting used to the attack method, as well as the game's idiosyncrasies in general (uses all the SS pad's buttons, iirc). I remember the annoyance of whiffing fully-charged attacks when I first played. Once you get the attack range sussed out though, and start taking advantage of the enemies' delayed strikes to get in close and let rip, it gets nerdgasmic. It's like Scanners IV: SCANNER NINJA.

"You killed a man last night, you know that."
"I didn't touch him!"
"I know you didn't. That's what makes it so interesting, don't you think?"

Tenkai is probably the stronger character, since with his range and power he can one-shot virtually anyone onscreen with a possession attack, then explode the target for huge damage to everything else. And he has an airdash and a sweet hat. But he doesn't have Taromaru's infernally satisfying chain-reaction bloodbaths, so I use Taro more.

[Hagane]

Just reached stage 7 in Alien vs. Predator. Got to Mad Predator in a single life with full health, but he managed to take a life away since I'm not that familiar with him. He's not that tough; with a bit more practice I should one life him easily doing jumping d+attack -> air throw when he's on the ground and rising tackle when he comes from above.

Unfamiliarity with stage 7 showed and died a stupid death just before the boss rush. Getting to Alien Queen consistently shouldn't take much more, but actually beating her will be quite hard as I've experienced with a bit of savestate practice. Any tiny mistake is an instant death most of the time.

I'm happy with my progression so far. I'm improving much faster than with The Punisher, I guess because I'm now familiar with the basics of the genre and can see patterns in enemies and control crowds effectively, something that I didn't know before and made these games look much harder than they actually are. I also figured out a way (I know there are more) to cancel Linn's gun reload animation: when you are about to run out of bullets, shoot while jumping, then shoot again when she lands. Linn will try to reload as soon as she hits the ground, but when you try to shoot you will cancel the reload animation and will be able to move. This is very very handy since her gun is the best special weapon in the game, and you can avoid getting destroyed during that lengthy reload time.

There's always something new to discover in this game.

[drauch]

Replaying Quake for the first time in, er... 16-17 years. Feels good. Real good.

[boombafunk]

Panzer Dragoon Zwei, wow. The first game is good, this is much better. Quite nice. Excellent soundtrack too. Baffled at why the control defaults to non-inverted.

The whole Panzer Dragoon series is amazing. You might as well try Panzer Dragoon Saga/Azel, it's my favourite RPG of all time. I'd say it's right up there with the likes of Vagrant Story, Suikoden II, etc. Panzer Dragoon Orta continues the rail-shooting tradition on the Xbox, which is also great.

Radiant Silvergun works great, except for some graphical glitches when restarting.

And yeah, the SSF emulator tends to be picky at times. The latest version that works for me is 011_alpha_R5". I was playing PDS and the game froze during a certain conversation. The only way to get around this is to not move the SSF program around at all

Any recommendation for a 2D action RPG from the CD generation? (PSX/SAT/MEGACD/PCE CD)

Here are some suggestions:

-Tales of Phantasia (plays better than SNES version imo)
-Castlevania: SoTN
-Star Ocean: the Second Story
-Princess Crown
-Guardian Heroes
-Popful Mail (japanese version is more forgiving)

[boombafunk]

On another note, I'm finishing up Ys VI. That secret boss is a pain.

[Ed Oscuro]

I recently played the special editions of Yahtzee's (Ben Crenshaw's) CHZO mythos games, minus the trilogy of text games released before the fourth installment. Was okay but I find it highly amusing how The World's Most Famous Game Reviewer deigns to be entertaining (or doesn't). Lots of extremely questionable design choices (all that hooking and unhooking from the safety rail in 7 Days a Skeptic = very fun. Also, apparently you can use cell phones like walkie-talkies in the future, because the main character can call other characters underground despite being blocked from calling the outside). The stories - and the story - are pretty cliche, but literate and mostly well-implemented (aside from a glaring hole or two, which I've already forgotten, that you may or may not notice in the last one). A rather modern humanistic/misanthropic outlook is evident from the moments you first start reviewing Sir Roderick's hunting trophies. The series has a fairly interesting and more or less satisfying conclusion, although not exactly in the direction I wanted to take. There is a fair deal of care bordering on brilliance involved in the shift from the simple masked killer stories of the first games, to developing an overarching mythos for the third and fourth games - I would have to say it approaches a tour de force in that it took a rather humble couple of games and turned them into something with a pretty vast scope.

Spoiler: You don't get to take out the big bad but you eventually find out it's just an overgrown fairy, which is hilarious in of itself and defuses some of the tension. Not a great comfort for the denizens of the game world though. Crenshaw treats his apparent self-insert, the Trilby character, hilariously badly in the final installment. On the whole, an interesting and worthwhile game series, and it can only make watching Zero Punctuation (if you were inclined to do a horrible thing to yourself, which I am not) even more entertaining. I doubt I will go back to play through these with the commentary on, although he does have some entertaining things to say. Apparently he gives up the real name of Trilby in one of them.

Least favorite thing in the games: Auto-scrolling text of variable speeds - short phrases often flash by relatively quickly and I spent a fair amount of time reloading games and watching entire cutscenes just to catch one or two lines of dialogue I'd missed because I clicked through them (short phrase + switch to next line + click to get to next line = oops). It was nice that he attempted to shorten the amount of time you had to wait through cutscenes, I suppose. Runner up annoyance: Slow walk speeds, especially Trilby's agonizingly slow pace when walking into the foreground or background, compared with a rather brisk sideways walk animation. Huh? The main character of the final installment is just slow all the time. I moderated my time investment in these games by heavily using walkthroughs, of course, and I didn't feel like I missed out on the brilliance of repeatedly searching areas or trying combinations of things that wouldn't work. Final note: Fullscreen mode doesn't work with correct colors on modern DirectX. I had to play the games in a little 640x480-ish window. Big monitor users beware.

At the moment I'm fooling around with the moribund Gardens of Time on its final days at Google+.

Also picked up another AGS title, Pleurghburg - Dark Ages, which is really dated and has some considerably more questionable design choices than the Chzo games, including a very clunky interface. Not sure I'll stick with it but it has its points. Apparently it is sort of in a series, and the intro alludes (this game would probably spell that "eludes") to prior events, but I don't think the other game (Cops and Killers) was anything like this one. I'd just play Konami's Jail Break instead of trying to download the demo (?) of Cops and Killers from one obscure location on the web. Another downside: Plugburg (I'm just going to call it that) has an installer, which games on the AGS engine really shouldn't need. I don't know if it messes with your registry though.

Replaying Quake for the first time in, er... 16-17 years. Feels good. Real good.

Don't forget to play the expansions!

[null1024]

Pokemon Gold [GBC].
aaaaa, my cart might be acting up
The clock is completely wrong even though I set it properly last night, I think it only ran while the game was on.

note to self: clock reset password for me [with 0 money of course, so glad you can deposit money] is 00945

I hope clock problems don't indicate saveram battery problems.
Anyway, did the cloning glitch early on in the game to get all 3 starters [save before selecting, play up until you get Pokeballs, catch another Pokemon, deposit your starter(s) [and give them a Pokeball to hold], change boxes [turn off as the SAVING... part is about to reach the start of the second line of text], repeat until you have all 3]. Not sure if I'm gonna try a run where those are my only 3 battle Pokemon or not [so the other slots will just be HM slaves].

[trap15]

Hah, nice to know my group of friends and I aren't the only people who use the term HM slaves

[Acid King]

Magical Drop 3. Really enjoying this game since it is like, the perfect arcade game. I can play one credit in each mode in less than half an hour. Mostly playing Survival but have topped out at level 17 on normal. Made it to the what I assume to be the last boss (the broad after the robot castle) in Vs. but got housed straight away.

[KAI]

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I already played most of those game except for Alundra (so I started playing it yesterday)
Also playing Cyborg 009 [MegaCD], Ishimoto ala Castlevania.

[null1024]

Hah, nice to know my group of friends and I aren't the only people who use the term HM slaves

Ahaha, yeah. I think that's standard parlance. Terrible, useless HMs like Flash and Cut get dumped onto them. Waterfall and Surf are actually decent water moves. Non-competitively, Fly isn't too bad [against a person, they'd probably switch out, the AI in G/S/C almost never switches out. When I saw it switch out once [and only once ever], I was amazed, I didn't even think there was code for that implemented, since the AI just about never does it]. Whirlpool is butts.

also, I feel silly for insisting on using a Pidgey in my team

I really need to find something to give Whirlpool to. If only there was a single G/S/C Pokemon that learned Cut, Flash, and Whirlpool [and maybe Surf or Waterfall], I'd be so happy. Tentacool can do Cut, Flash, Whirlpool, and Surf. Flash isn't that necessary, but still.

Krabby can do Cut, Whirlpool, Surf, and Strength, not bad. Strength isn't terrible, but there's better moves, so I'd rather keep that off my main Pokemon. I forgot to get an Old Rod, damnit. Gotta go beat Whitney first.


Still playing Pokemon Gold [GBC]. About to fight Whitney. I forgot how easy 2nd generation was, just about no grinding. Just beat up every trainer before going to a gym, and don't bother with actively looking for wild encounters. It helps that the Cyndaquil line is the best starter for Johto, to make up for the Charmander line being terrible for in R/B/Y [hello first two gyms! That's what you get for picking the coolest looking Pokemon]. Grass was made useless [until you get to Kanto, you have no type advantage against a gym, and several type disadvantages].
My team is Quilava, Croconaw, Bayleef, Pidgey, Flaffy, and [my current HM slave] Bellsprout that's level 3 and is only good for Flash and Cut.


EDIT:
ass fucking damnit
Apparently, clock not working means the save battery is nearly dead [not enough power to drive the clock, enough to keep the SRAM powered], so I'll need to replace it [and thus restart].
Tempted to just play Crystal on my phone. I should learn the timing for cloning in Crystal, apparently it's different [and much narrower] than in Gold/Silver. And then there's that neat trick where you can change the color of your player character to the opposite gender's, I remember doing that on my old phone [painfully slow and the emulator wasn't accurate enough for me to play up to the first Gym... effing BlackBerry].

[Marc]

Mr Driller Online. Is it me, or does the air meter on this country down WAY faster than the DC version? I'm finding that with this version, if I can't get a capsule within seconds of it landing on screen, there's no point trying because it fucks me up further down the stage.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Going for the 1CC in Alien Hominid HD. Is it just me or do grenades seem to be nearly worthless for general combat? The arc motion is rarely that useful, and about all I save 'em for is to destroy buildings, whereas the charge shot is genuinely powerful.

EDIT:
ass fucking damnit
Apparently, clock not working means the save battery is nearly dead [not enough power to drive the clock, enough to keep the SRAM powered], so I'll need to replace it [and thus restart].

Yeah, it's a known issue that its battery dies way, way faster than most games, obviously because it has an internal clock it keeps track of via the battery, whereas standard SRAM games without an internal clock have relatively little power drain on the battery.

[Ruldra]

Recently finished Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Excellent game, even from the demo you can tell it's good. Lots of tomb exploring and guns to shoot enemies with. The challenges are also a lot of fun to complete. Especially the speedrunning ones.

It's funny how a level can take like 40 minutes to complete when you're exploring every corner of the map and killing every enemy, but it takes 5 minutes if you're doing a speedrun.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I already played most of those game except for Alundra (so I started playing it yesterday)
Also playing Cyborg 009 [MegaCD], Ishimoto ala Castlevania.

Looks like Castlevania if Apogee software made it, almost...tons of secrets hidden in walls and stuff. Looks interesting though, although my apathy to player-height distance attacking is giving me a pause. I'll go ahead and play it though

[null1024]

Mmkay, while waiting for the battery and security bit to arrive for Pokemon Gold, I decided to do the same thing with Pokemon Red [GB].
Except, on my phone because 1: I haven't had a Red cart for years, and 2: I can't edit the SRAM on a cart, nor can I do the cloning glitch to get 3 starters [so I just edited in 3 starters from 3 savefiles into one, adjusted the IDs so they weren't traded].

I'm in Mt. Moon, horridly underleveled [not grinding at all, also gave myself the penalty of always having the Exp. All with its rounding errors and whatnot], Paras has is going to get Cut and Flash. Gyarados is going to get Strength and Surf [once the Magikarp that guy sold me evolves at least], and then Pidgey is going to get Fly.
I'd love to get a Kadabra, but there's no space in my team...

[BIL]

WHOA ITS BEAUTIFUL

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

So, I played some more of the Injustice demo and the depth in the game started coming out. I went ahead and ordered a copy of that. Really looking forward to playing the full version. They definitely put some effort into it. They could have just made a Mortal Kombat knock off, but it's a new game with fresh move list. I've also been going through Mario 3D Land and it's really impressing me. Great use of the 3DS even if the 3D effect gives me some serious headaches. Started in on Soul Hackers. Trying to get in the right compulsive mindset to play that also.

[null1024]

Pokemon Red [GB].
Beat Misty, almost to Bill's house, explicitly fighting every trainer in the area because I don't feel like doing a billion wild encounters to level up.
The Exp. All messages take forever to scroll through, but I made it a condition that it would always be in my bag no matter what.

Yeah, it's a known issue that its battery dies way, way faster than most games, obviously because it has an internal clock it keeps track of via the battery, whereas standard SRAM games without an internal clock have relatively little power drain on the battery.

It's done pretty well, the game is like 13 years old. I'm amazed it didn't die sooner.

[Moniker]

Pokemon Red [GB].
Beat Misty, almost to Bill's house, explicitly fighting every trainer in the area because I don't feel like doing a billion wild encounters to level up.
The Exp. All messages take forever to scroll through, but I made it a condition that it would always be in my bag no matter what.

The time it takes to scroll through messages is why I've never been able to get through a Pokemon game. I'll have to see if I can find a romhack or something that speeds up combat. Want to play at least one of them all the way through.