Vandaeron

Maybe, but there's also the same element of "they're crazy magic monsters that go into little balls" going on where they have to be made more interesting to appeal to people, so it's still a pretty gray area overall.

Honestly, I don't see too much issue with eating pokemon. They may be portrayed with remarkable sentience, but for the most part animals are capable of exhibiting the same level of intelligence/mutual understanding that pokemon are. Just a part of life, I suppose.

Yep, you're still good to go. Whenever you have your team set up, PM me the move set and you're good to go for your qualifier.

I guess not a lot of people know me here for the time being, since I haven't been active in 5 years, but I plan to be as active as I can manage for the foreseeable future, so I guess if you have any questions about me, the way things were in the olden days, or whatever else, feel free? I don't care if they're super personal or not. You don't have to be careful about making sure the questions are basic or unassuming, if there's something you're curious about. (Wow, I'm an idiot.)

I can't really say that I've settled to a single game for for any particularly long time this year (in the past, yes,) but if I had to guess, I'd say Valdis Story: Abyssal City. Throughout the year I've played through it probably 4-5 times, but never for very long at a stretch. It's a fantastic game.

What is love, anyway? Does anybody love anybody anyway?

What I'm really trying to say is that I will be around Should you find that after all, you can't get by with what you found Oh, it wasn't just my heart you took and gently tossed into the sea Though it's hard to find the words I need... I guess it was me

There's no harm in setting some goals~ It doesn't have to be anything hard and fast, like you can't start it til New Years day, or must finish it before the year ends. It doesn't have to be anything more than something to keep in mind to strive for. Everything in life is only what you want it to be. Anyway, my goals for the year are to find myself a job I can sustain without doing serious damage to my body or mind (as my last two attempts had,) to break off some of my layers of anxiety and be a bit more sociable, and to try to get back up to pace with my programming projects.

The best was getting into the first not-hopeless-feeling relationship of my life. It didn't work out as a relationship, but we're still just as close without having to rely on that label. The worst was working a job that really messed me up mentally, and taking way too long to assert myself and leave.

So, since I've started getting into the Reborn game, I figured I might as well post my journey in a slight creative-writing format. I'll be streaming a lot of this playthrough at http://www.twitch.tv/vandaeron but I'll try to do the boring stuff off-stream, and keep the stream to only advancement. I may do some boring stuff on stream, but only if I think it'll be brief and enable me to continue safely. I don't have any set time or duration in mind for streams, but I'll do a status update thingy each time I start, and say so in Showdown too. This is a blind playthrough, so I'm going to be trying to get as many pokemon as I can, but not knowing everything (and deliberately avoiding information resources) means I'm probably going to miss some stuff. Don't tell me if I have, or might in the near future. This first post will cover my journey so far (~10 hours) in a more summarized fashion than the rest will be. --- My arrival in Reborn City was... well, about as gentle as it could have been, given the circumstances of the landing. I got acquainted with some relevant people, picked up my first pokemon (a Totodile,) and set about catching what I could. Fortunately, there were several species hiding out just outside, so I had myself a small army right from the gate. I got myself a Pachirisu and various Normal critters, and headed out for Peridot. What a dump. I don't really like judging people or their choices, but... wow. No wonder people are leaving. Still though, through the wave of hobos and way-too-young would-be gangsters, there were still some legitimate people looking to do what they can. One guy was protecting a pool full of rescued pokemon, and then this other elderly guy had done the same with Grass and Bug pokemon in his garden. It was a real ordeal getting through Peridot safely, but through it all, my pokemon got a lot stronger, and the team had plenty of opportunities to refine itself. Gulpin and Poochyena made their way into the team and came to prove themselves quite well! Then I finally got down to business and joined the attack on the factory Team Meteor was hiding out in. Even though Fern is a jerk and his Budew is a monster, he was undeniably a valuable asset to the assault. Eventually, we brought the whole operation down, though the supposed-leader managed to escape. Then came time to earn my first badge, against Julia. I took some time to toughen up, expecting the worst. But... honestly, she didn't give me a super hard time. It's possible I had over-prepared, but I don't think I had gained so many levels to change how the battle turned out that much. Well anyway, a badge is a badge. Oh, and somewhere between the Meteor incident and Julia, Pachirisu found me a Nugget! In Peridot! How in the world?! Pickup is gonna have to be a staple in my party the whole way, now. Unless it comes down to having something much more powerful. --- Afterward, I moved on to the incident in Obsidia. Wasn't much I could do without taking the long, long way around through the slums, so I did. There I learned about magic healing shurikens, and about people making big fusses about little issues. And boxes. Found my way through, then down to Coral (and made a special trip back to pick up an egg left down there. A truly sad state of affairs.) Went through the obligatory scene and friend battle, then made my way back. That Tangrowth monster seemed like a pretty big ordeal! But ultimately, between Pachirisu's paralyze and Gulpin's Acid Spray/Sludge combo, we took it down quite handily! Day saved, etc. etc... Then I lost to a pair of Mightyenas. ._. Then, this morning, I went back and prepared some things, and cleared up some side stuff in established areas. Rescued the Day Care, found the first two locales of Lillipup and Zangoose (WANT,) saved Igglybuff, found Espurr, traded Furret and Bibarel, etc. Just some loose ends cleared up, and some levels gained. -- Next time? Onyx! Excitement! Presumably Florinia! More engaging writing style! Hopefully!

I am the villain of this story What else could i ever be?

I liked... What was the gen 2 one? That one. I liked being called by people you've fought before. Even if they didn't have a rematch to call you about, just some random tidbit about their life, I enjoyed that. I felt like the world was a bit more believable, having people interact with you at opportunities other than specific story triggers or when you press A in front of them. Just some people out there who want to say hi and tell you about their day.

As a late gift, someone got me Grandia 2 on Steam, which is fantastic because I couldn't play my physical copy any more. Only other game I got was Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, which I know nothing about.

I usually nickname competitive team pokemon, but other than that I don't really. Mostly because coming up with good names takes me forever.

The first game I ever played was the original Super Mario Bros., but the one that really took off with me was Blaster Master.

I added an update to the main post to include major items discussed later in the thread.