It’s probably bad form of me to start a new nuzlocke so soon after dropping another one, but not only was the interest just not there anymore, I went through a long bout of not writing literally anything. By the time I had the energy and motive again even with my gameplay notes it’d been so long I’d forgotten what I was doing enough so I couldn’t get any decent writing out of it. RIP, Brilliant Diamond nuzlocke. I had a decent team going, and at so close to the end I think they could've carried me across the finish line.
Session 1
Hello, Pokemon Emerald Seaglass! I have many fond memories of nuzlocking the old pixel art style games; however, after all these years, they’ve become a total slog for me. No special/physical split pre-gen 4, no fairy types at all, some pokemon have even gotten moveset rehauls! And the grind, my god the grind. Recent gen games give you party-wide EXP shares as soon as you escape to tutorial. Can you imagine wasting hours pacing back and forth in the same patch of grass just to get all 6 members of your team up to level? Like some kind of caveman?? And that’s not even taking into account the suffering a losing a longtime member, only to find with shock and horror that everything in the PC is at least 15 levels too low for the current area.
I’ve become spoiled in my old age. This is where romhacks beam in from the internet to save me. Give me my fairies, my new moves, my crossgen evos, my basic QoL! In addition to having everything I was looking for in an Emerald nuzlocke, Seaglass also has a few optional features that’re gonna be fun, a very pretty art overhaul that you can tell a lot of love went into making.
Optional feature 1: You can just give yourself a bunch of masterballs and nuggets at the start of the game. I now have infinite money and a 100% catch rate because I’m here for a chill time, not a long time B]
Optional feature 2: Alternative starters! In addition to Emerald’s normal starters there’s all of the Kanto and Johto starters, as well as a beefed up spheal and aipom just for fuzziness. Through random choice I ended up with totodile. Gator is female, hardy, and ready to take on the world!
Before I rapid-fire blast through all of my early game catches I wanna take a moment to say I fucked up entering my name. I typed in “Galluz” instead of “Gallus”. This will have no bearing on the playthrough, I just felt the need to get that out there.
Route 101: a zigzagoon. Stardust, female, adamant, caught at level 2. She came holding a potion!
Route 103: after 2 more zigzagoons my final chance at a catch was a spearow. I always find these sorts of last shot catches to be fortuitous in some way. Peck ‘em, male, modest, caught at level 2.
Route 102: a lotad burst into battle the instant I stepped on the first patch of grass! Cool Guy, male, quirky, caught at level 3.
By this point Gator was at level 8 and tanking everything, so I decided to blast through everything at Petalburg to get the full party EXP share and get started getting everyone else up to level. Thankfully, the game didn’t make me sit through the entire pokemon catching tutorial. I was simply there to provide Wally with some emotional support, I guess. On the way out of town a strange man insulted me for not being covered in Wilderness Grime, then gave me my precious, precious Anti-Grind Device. Two more rapid-fire catches to fill out the team.
Route 104: marill. Killer, female, brave, caught at level 4. three-out-of-six team members are water types, so I have a feeling Killer or Cool Guy may be forced to sacrifice themselves to Roxanne if worst comes to worst.
Petalburg Woods: much like Cool Guy did earlier a cascoon quickly threw itself at me. Mothy, female, bold, caught at level 5.
So currently the team standing is Gator (beloved starter), Startdust and Peck ‘em will be on a while during the early game, either Cool Guy or Killer will be swapped out as soon as I get a better catch, and Mothy is canon fodder.
There’s a soft level cap in this hack but I’m not sure what it is and didn’t care to look it up. I just sent Peck ‘em loose on Petalburg Woods until everyone was at least level 8, and by god did he peck them all. The women, the children, the way cooler bug types I could've gotten instead of a cascoon. After the massacre it was time for the first grunt fight.
I knew all the trainers in this hack would have revamped teams, I’d even noticed a few major ones in previous fights. I was not expecting this first encounter Team Aqua grunt to send out a level 9 wailmer. No, really, where did he get that from. Peck ‘em got it with a leer, then I swapped into Gator to scratch it to death, so no worries. (Many worries actually for future battles.)
The other side of Petalburg Woods is also counted as Route 104, so no new catch. This sucked major ass since the first wild pokemon I ran into behind the flowershop was a yanma. Pain and suffering and such.
Now then. At the very end of Route 104 there is a humble fisherman with his pile of magikarps. I decided to lead the fight with Cool Guy because even through I’m stacked for water types his grass duel typing might come in handy vs Roxanne. I get him that free EXP from the first magikarp and then the fisherman sends out an omanyte. And then a kabuto. Hopefully my standards are now properly set for what any given rando could throw at me this playthrough.
Before quitting at Rustboro for the night I wanted to grab my next catch real quick. Hopefully something to help round out my abysmal team comp.
Route 116: abra and holy shit am I glad for all these masterballs. Mr. Stache, male, lax, caught at level 7.
I don’t know if in this romhack abra can learn any attack moves before it evolves, or if it can even evolve at the current level cap. I do know that Brawly is waiting in the next gym to get mindblasted before he even has time to blink, So Mr. Stache will be resting safely in the PC for now.
Also Mothy evolved. Everyone give it up for Mothy and her one whole attack.
Session 2
Before going to fight Roxanne I realized I actually had two more catches to make. First one is in that cave you go to catch whismur.
Rusturf Tunnel: whismur. Bunndy, female, timid, caught at level 7. I’m not really sure what whismur has over zigzagoon, and Stardust is already up to level so it’s the box for Bunndy.
My second catch comes from another one of Seaglass’ extra features. There’s a well in Rustboro that you can use to get random pokemon. I really wanted to try it out so I decided to count this as a gift pokemon. It has a possibility of giving any first stage or single stage pokemon in the entire dex so wasn’t expecting anything all that great, hopefully something fun or silly, or even something super common like a zubat to give me extra catch chances later.
It spit out a fucking pseudo-legendary.
Rustboro Wishing Well: dratini. Leslie, female, quiet, caught at level 1. As much as I would love to be overjoyed by such a lucky catch it’ll be a while before she’s battle worthy, and I’ve never particularly liked dragonite. Since there’s a gym coming up she gets the box.
Cool Guy evolved against the gym trainers just in time for Roxanne! Between that, his ability to self heal with absorb, and bubble’s speed lowering effect I decided to lead with him. Followed by my highest level team member Gator, Killer for an emergency, and gave all three oran berries since I hadn't picked up any held items besides the quick claw yet.
First up was a level 12 anorith. Bubble’s damage hit a sweet spot that couldn’t quite OHKO anorith, but still got it low enough to for Roxanne to use all of her potions. Next up was a level 12 lileep. I think Gator’s bite probably would’ve done better damage, but I figured lileep would have at least one grass type attack. Cool Guy’s duel typing negates the super effective so I kept him in. Boy, did that lileep’s rock tomb do good damage! I switched into Gator vs Roxanne’s ace, nosepass. Both of them were level 15. I had noticed earlier Gator’s EXP gains had dropped off severely after she hit 15 so I guess the level cap is the upcoming gym leader’s highest level pokemon. I don’t know what was up with Roxanne’s AI but she did nothing but spam rock tomb which did decent damage and lowered Gator’s speed with each hit. Gator clutched it out at the very end with 7 HP left!
After the gym battle I ran to swap Killer and Mothy for Mr. Stache and Leslie so they could get some leveling. That’s two team members that are fully dead weight, but it’s not like Killer and Mothy were doing much better.
Both of the beginner Team Aqua grunt battles have had tanky wailmers so I’m starting to get worried over what Team Magma has waiting for me. Peck ‘em got two leers in before Gator slowly bit it to death.
Next up is the rival battle on the way out. I lead with Peck ‘em because he’s turning out to be a killing matching. He OHKO Brendan’s wingull with fury attack and treecko with a peck, and in an exciting development he leveled up! Peck ‘em peck has sadly been dropped for aerial ace, but the spirit of being pecked to death will live on. At this point though it occurred to me that fury attack was doing crazy damage. It turns out the hack has swapped out spearow’s normal ability, keen eye, for technician, which boosts moves with a base power of 60 or lower by 50%. Amazing improvement given spearow/fearow’s abysmal moveset.
The last thing I wanted to do this session was get to Dewford and garb all the free items in town so I’ll be ready to go next time. While running back and forth looking for any new items that might’ve been added I ran through a patch of sand that was a different texture from normal sand, not thinking very much of it. That is until a battle triggered! Cool, I guess some towns have wild pokemon in them.
Dewford Town: vupix. Wimby, female, bold, caught at level 11. And for an extra surprise vulpix is also part fairy in this hack!
Since a fire type rounds out my team nicely and as stated earlier, it’s gonna be a while before Leslie’s able to do anything I swapped them out. Stay tuned for next session in which I fight 100s of zubats in a desperate bid to evolve Mr. Stache before fighting Brawly.
Session 3
Immediately starting this cursed session off on a bad foot. I forgot Dewford doesn’t have a pokemart so I had to leave and stock up. Then my first trainer battle was vs a fisherman who told me about how he pisses into the ocean. I grabbed my new catch after that awkward experience.
Route 106: growlithe. Rex, male, calm, caught at level 10. I was already attached to Wimpy at this point so into the box.
Granite Cave is shrouded in darkness and you’re not allowed to use flash until after beating Brawly. I definitely wasn’t ready for the next gym battle so I decided to brave the darkness and stumble around blindly until I found Steven in his dumb little cave. Three floors = three catches though, so I’ll do those rapid-fire real quick.
Granite Cave Floor 1: zubat. Batto, female, native, caught at level 7. First zubat encounter of the run. You know, there are arons in this cave– WAIT WHAT’S THAT?
Granite Cave Floor 2: aron. Dino, male, naughty, caught at level 9. He’ll be useless vs Brawly but definitely come in handy vs Wattson.
Granite Cave Floor 3: misdreavus, Goode, male, native, caught at level 11.
After giving Steven his letter I ran around leveling for awhile and Mr. Stache evolved! With a psychic type sweeper, a flying type that’d be carrying like crazy, and a few other solid team members I decided it was gym time.
Oh, how truly native I was.
I led with Mr. Stache and got a quick and easy OHKO on Brawly’s level 16 makuhita. Next up has heracross. I was worried about a super effective bug type move on Mr. Stache, and very confidant in Peck’ em’s quadruple effective aerial ace. So I made the switch.
Level 19. Okay, I was a little worried about being underleveled, but still, I had the typing advantage. So long as it didn’t have a rock type move counter Peck ‘em could 2HKO easy. The heracross out sped Peck ‘em to use bulk up, buffing up it’s attack and defense. Still, technician buffed aerial ace did good damage. Next turn heracross went for another bulk up. This has now turned into a 3HKO. I considered my options carefully. The heracross was outspeeding Peck ‘em, so if it attacked next turn I’d definitely take major damage. It could go for another another bulk up, or maybe Brawly would start using his potions. Once more aerial ace would be the knock out blow, though, and it wasn’t like I had any good switch ins.
OHKO knock off.
I actually yelled in agony. Peck ‘em was such a good team member. A beast in battle. A comrade lost too soon.
Now I was worried for Mr. Stache. This thing had just outsped me and knock off is a dark type move. After some careful consideration I sent out Cool Guy. He was relatively tanky, would be able to get some first round damage with fake out, and would be able to drop heracross’ speed with bubble. Brawly used his first potion then continued to bulk up. Cool Guy wasn’t doing great damage, but he did lower heracross’ speed and was now ready to self sustain with mega drain.
Critical hit knock off.
This is around the time I entered crises mode. The handwriting and basic spelling in my notes deteriorates at this point they’re difficult to read. I must’ve sent Mr. Stache out at this point? There’s no mention of him. I do clearly remember sending him out feeling hopeful that between the speed difference and confusion being a special attack move I’d be able to take this thing out. I’d come out the other end with major losses, but ultimately defeat this monster (and whatever Brawly’s third pokemon was, but I was no longer thinking that far ahead.)
This did not happen.
Next pokemon, Wimby. I meant to use fire spin but accidentally used confuse ray, and once again wailed in agony in real life. Heracross hurt itself in confusion, though, so I thought this could be my final chance!
It immediately snapped out of confusion and OHKO knock off.
I sent out Goode (brought alone for ghost type’s fighting type immunity) as my final sacrifice. One attack lowering growl and then it was time for my last pokemon: Gator. Since bulk up boosts physical defense Gator’s water gun did okay damage. Next turn would be the knock out.
THE HERACROSS KNEW BULLET SEED.
Brawly used his last potion and then it was over.
Second nuzlocke attempt coming soon.