Pokemon 20th Anniversary: Darkrai is Evil?!

It's another month, and with it comes another Mythical Pokemon to collect. The Pokemon for the month of May is Darkrai, the Pitch-Black Pokemon! There's a lot going on with this guy, so let's start with his stats.

Darkrai is a fourth generation Mythical Pokemon from Sinnoh. He is a Dark type, who resides on New Moon Island. Darkrai's power comes in his ability to put people and Pokemon to sleep, where he causes them to experience unbearable nightmares.  Unlike all the Mythical Pokemon so far this year, Dakrai does not have base 100 across all his stats. Instead, he has a 70 in HP, a 135 in Special Attack, a 125 in Speed, and a 90 in everything else. While most of his pokedex data claims that he means no real harm, I'm not so convinced. In fact I'm certain that Darkrai may be one of the most evil Pokemon to exist! Let's break it down and I'll show you why.

First, we need to take a look at his activities in the games, and what we know about him in that medium. In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, there is a boy in Canalave City who appears to be in a coma, suffering from horrible nightmares. No matter what his parents do, he won't wake up. If you try to interact with the boy, he thrashes about in his sleep while muttering something along the lines of "DARK... is watching...me." His mother will worry over him, remarking how "We never thought our boy would fall into this endless nightmare."

As it turns out there is a way to wake him, and it involves encountering Cresselia on Full Moon Island. Once you've encountered Cresselia, the Lunar Pokemon and the only Pokemon who can stop Darkrai's nigthmares, you will find an item called the Lunar Wing. As it turns out, this is the ONLY item that can wake a person who is trapped in nightmares by Darkrai. If used on the boy, he will finally awaken.

There is also a special event item called the membership key, which allows you to get into the Harbor Inn in the North East corner of Canalave City, where you will find Darkrai waiting.

So Darkrai targeted a child. That's harsh enough, but after putting the child asleep, he haunts the child's nightmares, staying nearby, and forcing him to remain asleep. It's possible that without the help of the player, the child could have remained asleep forever. In fact, that has happened in a different Pokemon game.

In Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, there is this place called the Strange House just outside Lentimas Town. As it turns out it's a haunted house, with ruined furniture that moves around on its own. As you wander the house, you encounter the spirit of a little girl, who has some very interesting things to say.

An everlasting dark dream. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But there's even more damning evidence than that. As you continue through the house, you encounter the spirit again, and she speaks of hearing her father's voice in the dream. saying...

Why would her 'father' tell her to stay, and forget the Lunar Wing? Because the Lunar Wing is the only item that can wake a child from the nightmares caused by Darkrai. This was a child who fell into Darkrai's nightmares, and never woke up. This is probably the first and only known case of a person dying because of a Pokemon.

You know, there is one last thing we haven't mentioned about Darkrai. He has a unique attack known as Dark Void. It's a 100% accuracy move that puts the opposing pokemon to sleep. Once they are asleep, Dakrai's ability Bad Dreams actually causes physical harm to the opposing pokemon through violent nightmares.

So let's recap. We have a Pokemon who tends to target children, putting them into an endless slumber. While they are asleep, he causes them violent nightmares, which can do actual physical harm to their bodies. Who does that sound like?



Freddy Kreuger perhaps?

They have a lot of similarities. Both of them target children. Both of them cause horrible nightmares to their victims. Both of them do actual physical harm to those who are trapped in those nightmares. Darkrai is Pokemon's Freddy Kreuger.

And that's just talking about Darkrai in the video games. If you look at him in the anime, he actually has legs. Very long, spindly legs.

He kind of almost looks like Slender Man here. Another white faced, black suited long limbed nightmare creature who preys on children.

So that's Darkrai. if you'd like to obtain this nightmare creature for yourself, be sure to stop by Gamestop  and pick up your code card before May 24th. You'll have til August to redeem it, but quantities are limited and there's less than a week left, so go pick up yours now! And until next time: sweet dreams. >:3

Destiny's April Teasers: Week 1

Last week, Bungie announced that there would be teasers for an upcoming update on April 12, with new information being shared each week on Wednesday. Well guess what. Today is wednesday. So let's take a look at what they have to show and develop some first impressions.

Check out the twitch stream here.

So let's first break down what's new in this video. With the April update, light levels can now go all the way to 335. There is a new Taken strike where you take on Malok, with the footage seeming to suggest it's on the moon. The old strike Winter's Run has been updated to Heroic levels, and can appear in the Heroic Strike list as a Taken variant. Most importantly, there is going to be a huge update to Prison of Elders.

Prison of Elders will have a light 260 mode that plays as the old Prison of Elders did. No treasure key is required to access the chests at the end of the activity. This version of Prison of Elders can drop new loot with light levels up to 320. It can be played as many times as you want, and it's matchmade. It has a 1 per week Sterling Treasure, which was left unexplained this week.

There is also a special 320 light challenge mode to Prison of Elders. This one has an emblem you must purchase from Variks. It tracks player score based on the weekly modifier. In their example, score is based on precision kills. There is no treasure room in this mode, instead earning rewards based on your score. There is personal cumulative score and team score. The first tier of rewards from this system will reward a new weapon, which can go all the way to the new light cap of 335. the second tier of rewards will be an armor piece that can go all the way to 335. The emblem is only valid for the week, and the modifiers change each week. There are also new weekly bounties that tie into this new challenge mode. The challenge mode is timed, and if you don't finish the round quickly enough you lose points.

So I want to share my first impressions. Looking at this new Prison of Elders Challenge Mode, it seems an awful lot like Trials of Osiris. Except where Trials is for Player vs Player combat, the Challenge Mode is PvE. This is actually something I really like, as I always felt that Destiny had put way too much emphasis on the PvP aspects of the game while leaving PvE to stagnate. You can even find a video on my channel about how I would not do any more Destiny videos until the content drought was resolved. Looks like I might start doing Armsday videos again next month!

It's also good that these new activities can reward end game loot. even if you don't like the loot itself, it means that you're going to have plenty of high light level gear to infuse into the things you actually want to use.  It's a team based activity too, which is always good. In a way, it's like the next level of Nightfall given it's weekly nature. They also promised a large variety of enemies to fight, so it shouldn't get stale too quickly. It's also a 3 man activity, which means not having to try to dig up 6 people like you have to do for the raid.

Of course, it all looks good in theory, but we'll have to see in person just how often the rewards drop, and how often they'll drop at this newly coveted 335 light. There has been plenty of times in the past where Bungie has promised good rewards, only for players to grind for days to receive nothing. All the same, I'm cautiously optimistic. I can't wait to see what Bungie has to show us next week.

Until then heroes, stay awesome!

Much Ado About Mew

Looking back, it's hard to believe it's been a whole twenty years since Pokemon first appeared on the Game Boy. I remember adventuring through the Kanto region as a little boy, just me and my Bulbasaur and the 151 Pokemon to be discovered.

What's that? There were only 150 you say? While it is true the 151st Pokemon was quite the mystery back then, Mew really did exist.

So to celebrate the 20 years of Pokemon, let's talk about Mew for a moment. Mew's Pokedex data lists it as number 151 in the National Pokedex. It's height is 1'04" tall, and it weighs a mere 8.8 pounds. It doesn't sounds all that impressive, but Mew was not only the first Mythic Pokemon, a Pokemon that cannot be obtained from any in game means (Aside from the above video) But also the first Pokemon to boast an impressive stat spread of 100 in every single stat. This would turn out to be a standard for mythic Pokemon of the future, as every generation to follow has had a Mythic Pokemon with a base 100 in every stat, except for generation 6.

Mew's legacy goes beyond just that. Back before 'internet for everyone' was a thing, there were whispers of a secret, 151st Pokemon that could not be obtained through regular means. It was the great Mew, the predecessor to Mewtwo.  People remembered the journals from the Cinnabar Mansion, speaking of Mewtwo's birth from Mew. And while there were many rumored Pokemon to exist back in the dark ages of the internet (Mewthree anyone?) Mew was one that was real. What wasn't real was the rumored way to obtain it.

Everyone remembers the strange truck near Vermilion City. Everyone thought that was how you got Mew. It's a truck after all, and where else in the game did you see one of those? It was unique! It was difficult to get to, and if you didn't go through the S.S. Anne the right way you lost your chance forever of seeing this elusive vehicle. The story was if you used strength and pushed the truck aside, Mew would be hiding underneath. Why is Mew hiding under a truck? Well why is there a truck out on a dock you can only reach by surfing? At any rate, the rumors turned out to be false, and players spent countless hours fruitlessly trying to push the truck, wondering why it wouldn't budge.

All the same, early Pokemon fans were fascinated with this rumored Pokemon. Mew was one of the first pokemon to be seen by viewers in the original Anime opening theme, falling second only to Mewtwo. That may have been why back in 1998, when Nintendo released the first in a legacy that was the Pokemon movie franchise, Pokemon the 1st Movie has the subtitle: Mewtwo vs Mew.

Mew in fact turned out to be the hero of the movie, and we got to see the anime's telling of how Mewtwo came to be from Mew. While it wasn't the 'birth' described in the video game, it was no less full of trauma and violence. Incidentally, Mew would be the first and as far as I know the only legendary pokemon in the movies to speak regular pokemon language and not english. usually Meowth from Team Rocket would be nearby to translate.

Mew is also one of a few Legendary Pokemon to feature in multiple movies. Mew was the co-star with the Regi golems and Lucario in the 8th Pokemon movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. As before, Mew did not speak English in this movie. Mew did however transform. And I mean a lot. This was the first time we got to see Mew use Transform in the anime. Transform is one of Mew's unique moves, sharing it with only one other Pokemon: Ditto.

Incidentally, Ditto actually shares a lot in common with Mew. Both Pokemon weight 8.8 pounds. They have a similar color scheme both in regular and shiny colors. Ditto is 1 foot tall, very close to Mew's 1'04", and Ditto is the only other pokemon capable of using Transform. Ditto, like Mew, also has the same base stat across all stats, except in Ditto's case it's 50 across all stats instead of 100. This has lead to some interesting theories regarding Ditto. In Pokemon Red and Blue, Ditto can be found in Cerulean Cave, which is Mewtwo's hiding spot. In Yellow version, the ONLY places where you can locate Ditto would be the Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar Island, where Mewtwo was cloned from Mew, and again in Cerulean Cave. It would be strange to assume that the scientists who cloned Mewtwo from Mew got it right on the first try, and so many Pokemon fans theorize that Dittos may actually be failed clones of Mew. While this theory hasn't been confirmed, it would explain a lot about Ditto as a species.

Let's also talk about Mew's appearance in the 10th anniversary Pokemon special,  the Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon. Once again it's Mew who comes to save the day, but this isn't even a real Mew. This Mew is an illusion, known as Mirage Mew. And that to me is a great little easter egg for those who have been paying attention. You see, while there weren't many ways to get Mew in the old games, he was still there. He even had a Pokedex entry in the original Red and Blue games. "So rare that it is still said to be a mirage by many experts. Only a few people have seen it worldwide." A mirage. Mirage Mew. Pretty amazing stuff.

And Mew was in fact pretty rare, even when they started to do special give aways of the Pokemon. Mew is one of the rarer Giveaways from Game Freak, where aside from this 20th anniversary event, Mew hasn't seen a distribution since 2010. At least in the states, don't get me started on how Japan gets triple the number of event pokemon than any other region (so jelly). The only way I knew how to get a Mew back in the day was to go through the painstaking process of depositing 999 Pokemon into the Pokemon Ranch on my Wii. Only then would Haley trade me a Mew. I literally traded her an unhatched egg for it, it was weird.

So that's it for Mew! What memories and experiences can you share about this OG of Mythical Pokemon? Let me know what you think, and be sure to stick around and check out my Youtube channel, where very soon we'll be talking about the Mythical Pokemon for this month, the Doctor Who of Pokemon himself, Celebi!