#what ensued was a needlessly complicated process just to get a copy that was slightly cheaper than full price nintendo blood money

[bogkeep]

the way the most recent pokemon games don't let you turn off the exp share or the affection mechanic bonuses is nothing short of maddening. i think they make great accessibility features If Only They Were Optional and the flavour text is cute, but i want to have a fun casual playthrough that's at least mildly challenging without having to make it a nuzlocke or something. i don't want to feed my starter bitter medicines to make her hate me :(

#JUST LET ME TURN IT OFF... PLEASE.... #i can't do nuzlockes i do Not have the willpower to stick to the rules and they stress me out haha #anyway i am a fool who's left all of my DS games in norway and i got a hankering for replaying sinnoh games #so i decided to get shining pearl right. figured it might be fun even if ill miss the 4th gren spritework something fierce #what ensued was a needlessly complicated process just to get a copy that was slightly cheaper than full price nintendo blood money #there's a store that listed shining pearl at a lower price. not brilliant diamond - just pearl #i feel like maybe it's by mistake since that's the price of a nintendo DS cartridge. so maybe wires got crossed #the norwegian version of the store does NOT have the price disparity. #anyway i can't order online without a swedish phone number. and the local store is out of stock #so i have several long walks to the store to get them to order it in for me and then to order it delivered to me etc #and then of course another long walk to pick up the mail BUT I HAVE IT NOW. I HAVE VIDEO GAME #and it's very nice and nostalgic with a couple quality of life upgrades #my first pokemon game was pokemon diamond. when i got it i was still learning english and had no idea what was happening at any time #good times good times #obviously no pokemon run is ever gonna be as challenging as my first ever run #it does not need to be! u can immediately tell that a lot of difficulty in earlier games is that leveling up your team was a hassle #and almost always required grinding. i do not miss that at all ! but the remakes seem to be Extremely Faithful #so they're not rly structured around how fast you can level your whole team #or that your pokemon are gonna start doing extra crits or hold on to last HP before u even get to the third gym #OH WELL #you know what's very exciting for me though. i have a misdreavous!!! they're pearl exclusive and not in platinum #ive always wanted to do a sinnoh run with a misdreavous on my team for some reason