POKEMON GOLD PROGRESS, DAY 2

Today I had breaks in my workday so I could periodically do some further exploring in Pokemon Gold during daylight hours.

Thus, I can confirm that you shouldn't leave a particular area "for good" until you've visited the "grass" or other areas during daytime hours. So far, some Pokemon are only out during the day, some are out only during the night, but in the late afternoon you might be able to catch a few of both during the transition period.

Visiting the same areas in the daylight came up with a bunch of new and "old" Pokemon that weren't out at night. I'm collecting male and female species as I go. Once you catch a Pokemon, though, it will work with you- you don't have to worry about the nocturnal Pokemon falling asleep on you in the daytime.

I also noted that the screen and "world" brightness adjusts to reflect the time of day- at night, lights are on in windows and it looks like nighttime. In the day, everything's brilliantly lit.

I ran into old favorites Poppo (Pidgeys), Onisuzume (Spearows), Ishitsubute (Geodude), Iwark (Onix), Caterpie, Madatsubomi (Bellsprout), Trancell (Metapod), Zubat, Ghos (Gastly), and Koratta (Rattata)- the latter of which hangs out both in daytime and nighttime.

I only found two new Pokemon today. These included the Otachi (#161), a "Lookout Pokemon"- a tanuki-like critter that balances on his/her big fat striped tail, and the Annoon (#201), a very strange- but cool-looking ball Pokemon with so far at least 5 variations in its look!

The Otachi is cute and doglike, and is a good Pokemon. I've already raised mine to level 10 from about 4 at start.

The Annoon appear to be "sexless" and have several straight or curved "projections" attached to a central ball with a  solitary eye in the middle.  Each of the different forms still counts as one Annoon in the Pokedex, but I've collected several of the different looking ones in case this can have something to do with breeding down the road <g>. The Annoon is a surprisingly power-packed Pokemon and has stomped most of its competition handily, even when an opponent is of much higher level.

A busy day, otherwise. I went to Kikyou City and faced the Kikyou Gym Leader, Hayato. He was a somewhat easy win (uses flying Pokemon), had only 2 "pre-trainers", and I was awarded the Wing Badge and Hidden Machine 3 (Flash). I also visited the Madatsubomi Tower, reminiscent of the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town (Cyan Town)... but these guys worship the Bellsprout, and every monk in the tower had one to three Madatsubomi! Good level, though, and we find the Rival has even more of an agenda- he was threatening the chief of the tower. I was awarded a one-shot Waza-machine for Flash for saving him.

I also went into the Alph Ruins (Iseki no Arufu), and helped an archaelogist sort out a puzzle (in a fun minigame)- the answer dumped me into the bowels of an ancient temple- and the place swarmed with Annoon. For my help in their "research", the scientists added extra capabilities to the Zukan (you can change how you view your Pokemon records this way).

Most of our old Trainer friends are back for battles, including the Kid, the MiniSkirt, the Bug Catcher, and the Bird Catcher... lots of fun and brand new art for these characters. One man even mentioned word of the Rocket-dan, so I expect to run into our old enemies- later, perhaps.

Once I figure out how to go further, I'll update everybody, Watch for Day 3...
 
--Richard