Ok, a misspent weekend later takes me nearly to the end of my “role” in the game. And yes, I’d racked up 26 hours of play over the two days. It starts off nice and gently, taking you through a couple of basic adventures with fairly low-level Pokémon. You’re then thrown into deeper dungeon adventures as time goes on. Then, in some plot twist in the middle of the game, you get really dumped into it. Hint: Once you get back from seeing Xatu, do not talk to Whiscash until after you’ve seriously levelled up!

You only have control of your main character; you can only control only the most general of behavioural settings of your other characters. As such, I was fortunate to be playing the yellow rat. This stage of the game lasts from you talking to Whiscash until your meeting with Ninetales. During this time, you have no access to any of your stored items or money (just what you have in your Toolbox). You also have four dungeons to go through, the middle two of which end up in defeating two of the three Legendary Birds (you defeat Zapdos earlier in the game). So, before talking to Whiscash, I’d levelled the rat up to level 26 when he learns Thunderbolt. When facing Moltres, Charmander just looked on, but he threw in a couple of Embers against Articuno. Thanks a lot, buddy…

But now I’m in a bind. Second-last dungeon of the main play mode, and it’s full of ground and fire Pokémon, against an electric rat! Needless to say, at level 28, he can’t even get past the first of the 26 floors of this dungeon! And there are no decent water Pokémon to be had! I’d have to go back and level up a Poliwag (the only one that gets any half-decent water moves) to level 35-40 to have any chance against Groudon at the end of the dungeon!
More to follow…