Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke Blog Part 1

Hey all! I love Pokemon and have been playing since Gen 6 when I was a kid. I've tried to do many nuzlocke's over the years but I never managed to complete one. So, seeing as it's been a good while since I last tried one, I decided I was going to go for it again with Pokemon Emerald on the Gameboy Advance! And this time I want to blog my progress!

For those of you who don't know what a nuzlocke is, it's essentially hard mode for Pokemon. These are the rules:

1. You can only catch the first Pokemon you encounter in each area.
2. If one of your Pokemon faints, it dies and you can never use it again
3. You have to nickname every Pokemon you catch to increase emotional attachment
4. If your entire team dies, the run is over and you have to start again

With all of that out of the way, let's get started!

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The game opens with me arriving at my new home in Littleroot town. For some reason my mom had shoved me in the back of the moving truck rather than getting me there by car. I walk over to our neighbor's house and, completely unannounced, walk straight into their daughter's bedroom and immediately start rummaging around her stuff. In walks May, my new next-door neighbor and rival for the game, who doesn't question why a random 10 year old boy she's never met is standing in the middle of her room. I leave the house to find her dad, Professor Birch, being savagely attacked by a tiny raccoon. He tells me to go into his bag to find a Pokemon to help him with. I pick out a Mudkip from his bag and promptly cave in the Zigzagoon's skull. Back at Professor Birch's lab he properly introduces himself and tells me I can keep the Mudkip who I then name Blorbo. I head to Route 103 to find May an she challenges me to a battle. I swiftly shatter her Treeco's skeletal structure and we head back to Birch's lab where I receive a Pokedex and 5 Pokeballs. And now the run has officially begun. 

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I walk through the grass in Route 101 eager to see who my first Pokemon is going to be. I come face-to-face with a Poocheyena, a great encounter for the first route, and it immediately dies at the hands of Blorbo...okay. Not a great start but it's fine because I still have plenty of encounters before the first gym. I go over to Route 103 to get my next encounter and out pops a Zigzagoon...wanna guess what happened? I'm starting to get a little bit annoyed because, even if these aren't great encounters, it at least means I won't have to catch them later on. I go over to Route 102 to make my way to Petalburg city, and on the way I caught Shaggy the Lotad. In Petalburg city I met my estranged father and some loser kid named Wally who makes me help him catch a Ralts. As I leave the city some guy stops me asking if I'm a Pokemon trainer and then leaves...moving on.

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On Route 104 I caught a Wurmple I named Fodder and in Petalberg woods I caught a Tailow I named Soda. While I was there I ran into some guy asking about Shroomish who then starts getting bullied by someone dressed as a pirate. He and his Poocheyena challenge me but are made quick work of by Shaggy. The Shroomish guy thanks me and gives me a Great Ball, and then I head to Rustboro city. In Rustboro I get an HM for Cut (which none of my Pokemon can learn) and challenge the gym. After getting through the gym trainers and the maze, I make it to Roxy, the Rustboro city gym leader. She specializes in rock types, which means this should be easy for Blorbo and Shaggy. She starts off with a Geodude, who quickly falls to Blorbo's water gun. She sends out another Geodude that follows the same fate as the other. This seems like it's going to be pretty easy, until she sends out Nosepass. I had forgotten that Roxy's Nosepass was level 15, and Blorbo was only level 13. Not a huge level gap, but it was enough. I had Blorbo use mud slap in an attempt to lower Nosepass's accuracy, but Nosepass used block and I couldn't switch Blorbo in for Shaggy. Unfortunately, Nosepass landed every hit regardless of it's lowered accuracy, and Blorbo fell to a rock slide attack. The first death of the run, and it was my starter. I sent out Shaggy and took out the Nosepass with repeated use of absorb. We won, but this is not a good start.