>>21717944Trying to level up in this game is murder because there's no breaks; if you beat a Gym Leader, all the trainers are even STRONGER than that Gym Leader. You can't grind without abusing save states because, after you barely beat the Gym Leader with Lv. 20 Pokémon, every trainer is suddenly at Lv. 22-23. And if you don't want to use the trainers, you have to use Lv. 3-7 wild Pokémon.
Grinded a bit, and eventually found my new fifth rival, Cal. He has Gary's sprite, he thinks Pokémon are all tools, he outright says he uses HM slaves (though you don't see any on his team), you know the stereotype. His Pokémon, funnily, are technically underleveled compared to every other trainer right now, a Lv. 19 Beldum and a Lv. 22 Charmeleon.
Afterward, I stand back and watch Team Aqua capture Suicune.
Then I go back to Comet Town because there's fuck-all to do, and find Emerald and Kathleen again. They challenge me to a double battle, they can't because I only have one Pokémon, and to Jagold's credit the game doesn't break, he has a script to have them leave instead, and I see I can challenge them later if I so choose.
Five steps later Jude makes me battle him. He has a Lv. 18 Pidgey, Lv. 22 Bayleef, and Lv. 20 Feebas. I don't know why Jagold waited until now to tone the game's level curve down a bit.
I found what I can only assume to be N from his sprite and his dialogue, talking about how people and Pokémon need to be together. He'll randomly give you a Water/Thunder/Fire Stone.
Which one should I take? I don't feel like waiting for max happiness for Espeon, even though I named my Eevee after the one from RR.
Oh, and the weather randomly turned sunny. I guess that's the variable weather system Jagold talked about.
