*LOST VIDEO* Pokémon Violet - The Seventh Part - Exploring South Province Area 2 and Bug Badge

Yes, the title is true. The gameplay video for this part never saved and i lost it. So this video has my audio, but the video will be the start screen.

After discovering that i was under levelled in the previous video, https://youtu.be/BeMvjwAMzjg, i changed my plans and headed to the west side of the map. This didn't go as planned. the pokemon here were lower levelled than i expected. it feels like this is the area you should do first, rather than heading east towards the grass gym.

i caught several Pokémon, including a female Combee as Vespiquen is one of my favourite Pokémon, and did a few raids. i encountered my first in game trade, a Flabebe for a Snom. but mostly this video was mostly me exploring this whole new area. as it was lower levelled, i moved around my squad and sent out many other pokemon to battle and level up.

Pokémon Violet - The Sixth Part - Where I Discover I'm Under Levelled

This is the part where my progress in the game came to a halt. I didn't see it coming, but in reality, i should've noticed it was happening. I was under levelled and had to change my plans.

The video starts with a Black Tauros sweeping my team! My luck doesn't get much better. i head to the Team Star Base nearby and barely beat the grunt outside! I try to level up around that area, but everything is just a bit too high ... so i end the video by changing my plans.

I'm not frustrated by this. i think Sword and Shield were easy Pokémon games and i've been treating this game the same way. So it having a somewhat higher than expected difficulty level is a nice surprise. it's also good that the game world and story are big enough so i can change my plans, so i can go and do something else. This set's up Part 7 as possibly something really quite interesting.

I do get a couple of Pokémon Evolutions, the most surprising being Clodsire. i suspect i got it because it levelled up in rain, but i haven't checked it out to see if i'm right. i also gave some raids a go and surprise trade.

Pokémon Violet - The Fifth Part - Defeating the Titan Klawf and Beating The Grass Gym

No Backlog Conquering this week, but check out it's playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEBkNKW1vyoTrDgaJFdhyVqABtfrXasU, maybe there’s a video you’ve not seen. 

At the end of the previous video, https://youtu.be/SIGX32Pq2u8, we were ready to face the Titan Klawf. So, at the start of this video, we face off against it and start Arven's story arc.

At the end of the video, we get our first gym badge. but it wasn't as easy as defeating the Titan Klawf. i got lucky when my final Pokémon saved me!

In-between is full of me exploring the world, getting lost, "cheating" and not getting away with it, and of course catching new Pokémon. It's not the smoothest ride and there is a point where i get frustrated with the world design and mechanics, but overall I'm still enjoying myself and the story.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Valeria Cup! - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from the Valeria Cup! (11/20 4PM - 11/27 3:59PM (PST)) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and my Nintendo Switch is Docked.

This was one of my worst weeks ever! The gimmick seemed simply enough but turned out to be difficult and a little luck based. All you had to do was make combos 5 or greater. but the competition i faced was fierce and there were some amazing high scores from them. i didn't win, i didn't even see the boss. i only got 1 second place, a couple of thirds, and many lower places.

Pokémon Violet - The Fourth Hour - The Road to Titan Klawf

Today, we set off into the East Province to find the Titan Klawf, it's part of Arven's story. The area is huge and there was soo much to see so this video became the longest yet. and by the end, we only found it, we didn't even interact with it!

I was surprised that Miradon couldn't climb or do any other type of riding other than just a bike. i guess that's something that'll unlock later. so there were some things i saw but couldn't get to. including a red glowing sword object thing in a rock?!

The area was much, much bigger than i expected. lot's of ups and downs and tunnels, too. i haven't full explored it either! it's size posed an interesting issue in that i needed to use health items and rotate my Pokémon squad. it's been a long time since i've had to be so careful. it's a nice change. Thankfully, catching a Paldean Wooper as early as i did has really paid off as it's been super useful. i highly recommend getting one as soon as you can for the early part of the game.

In this video we also had our first Tera Raid Battle, many trainer battles, we found lots of items and some TM's, and we caught a handful of new and interesting Pokémon...including the Fairy Tera Type Skiddo.

Pokémon Violet - The Third Hour - Going to School and Exploring Mesagoza City

I was curious how the school system would work. is it a hub that we return to after we do something? is it somewhere we visit once? and after this video i'm still not sure. What i didn't expect was the time skip. our room got more decorations, but our Pokémon didn't level up

Something i didn't expect to annoy me, but did, was the lack of interactions. in past Pokémon games you could click on many things and get a little speech bubble with some text on it. often that text had nothing to do with the story and more to do with the world or place in general. something like "there are many books" "the trash can is empty" or even "you found TM..." because in previous games looking around could sometimes be good as you could find things. as you'll hear in this video, i look around a lot and find nothing.

That kinda continued into the town as you'll see in the video that restaurants are often repeated and take up many shop spaces. whereas there are other shops that look like we could go in, but we can't. But the town is very big and very impressive. i wonder if it'll be a place they fill in more with updates and DLC or if it'll stay as is.

In this video we also had our first encounter with Team Star and we Terrastalized our first Pokémon!

Pokémon Violet - The Second Hour - An Hours Walk To Mesagoza, Exploring Along The Way

Continuing my laid-back approach to this game, it would take about an hour to get from the lighthouse at the end of the first video, https://youtu.be/o2qMxElMJMk, to the city where our school is located in at Mesagoza.

I was surprised at how open this game is. sure, you can't jump or climb but there are still plenty of paths to find and go down. I caught my Wiglett because i found a path that led down to the ocean. other paths have lead down to the river, whilst others have rewarded us with TM's and other items. 

Like the first video, there were some technical issues. this time it felt like they were mostly related to shadows and geometry. from the beginning of the video there's an issue where the lighthouse shadow disappears and reappears. later, as we get into a hilly area, the camera breaks out of the world and when we start Pokémon battles there are points where half the screen is "normal" and half is looking through the world.

But overall, i feel just as energized and curious as i did when i started the game so i will keep on playing.