The trip took more time than necessary, but I guess that's to add to the gravity of the story. Anyway, enjoy these shots from my journey through the castle.
At long last, the top of the castle, where N has been waiting for me. He was disappointed that I hadn't awakened Zekrom and was prepared to defeat me.
But when he called Reshiram...
Of course, Zekrom awoke in the presence of Reshiram. Ta-da!
I should take this time to explain how I handled this part of the game with regard to the Nuzlocke/Wedlocke rules. Zekrom is genderless and is therefore not technically a valid capture for me, but the game forces you to capture it. Once you capture Zekrom, you have the option of adding it to your party before facing N. Technically I shouldn't be allowed to do this either, but I decided I would add Zekrom to my team for the final battles for the sake of the story, and to keep me from being at a disadvantage against Reshiram. Also, since I am forced to capture Zekrom, I won't count any Pokémon that might be knocked out by it as "dead". Zekrom won't technically be part of my official team, so it won't get a nickname and if it faints it won't count as an official death.
As usual I went with my trusty partner for catching Pokémon, Hot Wings. This is why I never got rid of Yawn.
And in just a few turns, Zekrom was mine!
I decided to switch Hot Wings for Zekrom. You've been great, Hot Wings, so you get to sit out of these last two battles so you're guaranteed to be spared. Take a well-deserved rest!
Time for the ultimate battle with N!
Of course we begin with the obligatory epic showdown between Reshiram and Zekrom. While N insisted on using Fusion Flare, I had Zekrom steadily use Dragonbreath, which although much weaker did super-effective damage. In just a few turns the question of which legendary Dragon was superior was settled.
I'm not sure it makes sense to continue after we've both already used our legendary Dragons, but in any case this is where Shortcake comes along to destroy half of N's team.
Against Vanilluxe? No problem!
Against Klinklang? No problem! Wait, why is it so fast? And why is it using Focus Blast?
...Ah, because it was Zoroark in disguise. I don't know why it always takes me longer than it should to realize a Pokémon is actually Zoroark, even when I already know to look out for him. Anyway, it didn't make a lot of difference because Shortcake's Fighting moves are super-effective against both Klinklang and Zoroark.
A-ha! It's the real Klinklang! Again, not a problem for Shortcake. She was so perfect for this battle!
N's last two Pokémon were the Unova fossil Pokémon. For Archeops, I used Scampi for an easy win.
For Carracosta, I had Gummi use a Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain combo to get around its Sturdy ability.
Ok, that wasn't too bad.
Time for another cutscene. Having been defeated, N is now questioning his life's purpose.
...But along comes Ghetsis to be a total jerk and reveal that he was the evil mastermind behind N's upbringing after all. Surprise, surprise. By the way, one thing that is never fully clarified. Ghetsis is N's "father", but is he N's biological father? They certainly have physical similarities, but Ghetsis almost makes it sound like he found N as a young boy. And if Ghetsis actually is N's biological father, then does that mean that he was too lazy to give N a real name? Or did he name him after L from Death Note? Am I getting way off topic? ...Yeah, let's move on.
So now it's time for the real final boss of the story, Ghetsis!
Zekrom was already at the front of my party, so I figured I'd just use it against Cofagrigus. It was kind of an annoying match, but Zekrom ultimately won.
Next was Bouffalant. This one could be scary because he has decent bulk and his ability boosts the power of recoil moves (of which he has two). I decided to go with Bacon since not only was he the best choice to power through Bouffalant's Defense, but Bacon has high Defense of his own, making him one of the best choices to wall Bouffalant's all-physical attacks, oddly enough. It only took a few turns to take him down, helped in part by the fact that he kept inflicting recoil damage on himself.
Next up is Ghetsis' main threat, Hygreigon. I have no ideal Pokémon to face him. As a Special sweeper, he would probably out-speed Bacon and take him out in one hit due to Bacon's frail Special Defense. I could try to poison him with Gummi, but he knows Fire Blast, and I needed to save Gummi for Seismitoad. Zekrom had already been weakened, so it would probably go down too. Scampi knows Blizzard, but it's not very accurate and his defenses aren't great. (Looking back, I should have re-taught him X-Scissor and he could have probably handled it.) Gingersnap might have been able to take him on, but I wanted to make sure I had her to use against Eelecktross. In my mind the best choice was Shortcake. It was risky because Hydreigon knows Focus Blast, but Shortcake has pretty high Special Defense, and her STAB Fighting type attacks would be the best offensive option against him.
First turn: Hydreigon uses Focus Blast and it hits. It takes out a little under half of Shortcake's HP. Ok, that's not bad. I wanted to have her use Brick Break to avoid the risk of missing with Hi Jump Kick, however, thanks to the magic of the touch screen battle menu, a slip of the hand had her use Crunch, the worst possible choice in this situation, instead. It did a moderate chunk of damage, but not what I was going for. No big deal, I thought. I'll just take it out with Brick Break next turn. Unfortunately I never got to find out if that would have worked. Hydreigon used Focus Blast again, and not only did it hit, but it was a critical hit. Shortcake couldn't handle it...
This was truly my saddest loss of the entire game. Shortcake was such a great Pokémon, especially towards the end. She almost single-handedly took out three of the Elite Four and N! In addition to the emotional bond I had with Shortcake, her loss was particularly bad for this battle, because now I had nothing to easily take care of Ghetsis' Bisharp. But first, I had to take care of Hydreigon.
I sent out Scampi, who took a couple hits like a champ until Blizzard finally hit. Way to avenge your fallen teammate, Scampi!
Next Ghetsis sent out Eelecktross. I didn't have any Pokémon with an offensive advantage against it since I don't have any way to get around its Levitate ability. I decided that Gingersnap would be the best choice. She took hits and gradually lowered Eelecktross HP until it fainted.
For Seismitoad I had a ridiculously simple strategy: Send out Gummi. Use Giga Drain once. The end. Thank you, double super-effective damage!
Last up is Bisharp. Taking a look at the current state of my team, I didn't have a lot of options. The only one at full health was Gummi, and all of her attacks would either be not very effective or totally ineffective.
Perhaps it was a little cheap, but I decided that my best option would be to try to buy some time with Zekrom and heal some of my other Pokémon. If I sent out anyone else, I was afraid I would have been destroyed. Once I healed a couple of my Pokémon I decided to see how many hits I could get with Zekrom before it went down. But it turned out that Zekrom was strong enough to take it down in a few turns.
And with that, it's finally over! But Shortcake is gone...
Ghetsis decides to rage about losing for a while, firing insults at everyone around him, particularly N. Blah blah, he leaves to go prepare for the sequel.
Finally, N has a talk with me about what he's learned from this whole experience.
And after all that, he flies away epically on Reshiram, not to be seen again for about two years.
And that's the end! But before formally ending this run, I want to take a moment to remember my fallen friends.
And finally, one final nod to my team who saw me through this challenge. Thanks, guys!
Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed following me through this Wedlocke Lite. I don't know if or when I'll be doing another one of these, but if I did I would want to make it more of an actual let's play with video. For that, however, I'd need the proper equipment. Anyway, thanks for following this series!
