Welcome to the world of Hoenn! My name is Professor Thompson-Bamsey, Pokémon expert, and this document chronicles the journey I undertook when I was younger, discovering the world of Pokémon fusion. During this journey, I experienced adventure, loss, heartache, and victory.
This is a playthrough of Pokémon Infinite Fusion 2: Hoenn. It’s like the first game, which included Kanto and Johto. I’ll be doing the usual Nuzlocke thing, which I’ll explain when it’s relevant—for now, let’s see what this game is all about.
This will seem very similar to anyone who’s played the original Gen 3 games. It’s basically just those, but with the classic ‘Infinite Fusion’ twists and turns.
For example, we’re instantly confronted with what has replaced the Machoke that usually help out with the move: it’s some cursed-looking fusion between Machoke and Vigoroth, from the sprites.
I won’t bore you too much with the opening strokes—you’re sent to your room to obtain a hat (rather than to set a clock), withdraw a Potion from the PC there, see your dad on television, and then head to our next-door neighbour’s house to meet the person who will become our rival.
Tradition cannot be overcome by something as simple as ‘but Rhys is not a girl’s name’. After meeting Rhystie, we head up to Route 101, as further tradition dictates, and encounter Professor Birch observing something as simple and normal and mundane as a Poochyena.
Inevitably, a Zigzagoon pops in to say hi, and grabs a mysterious device from Birch’s bag.
Ah. Fusion. Of course.
What follows is the classic sequence of events.
And thusly, Zigyena is officially the first fusion we have encountered! In a fight, anyway. I’d rate this one as a solid ‘kinda cute’ out of ten. Still gotta kill it, though. It growled at me once and then turned into 14 experience points. Yay Mudkip?
After the fight, we go through the usual rigmarole—Birch takes us back to his lab, we get our starter officially, and we’re sent to Route 103 to meet up with Rhystie.
On the way, we discover some delightful twists to the usual formula. First, walking through tall grass doesn’t spark wild encounters on its own. Instead, Pokémon appear from the grass as encounters we can pick and choose to pursue! This is an adorable feature that I will be turning off immediately for the simple reason that I want to pursue a Nuzlocke where random chance dictates the Pokémon I obtain. Seeing the sprites ruins the surprise and means I could quite easily play optimally. And where is the fun in that?
Second is a fun quirk: Route 102 is now blocked by a line of people trying to get into the Poké Mart. This has two neat functions; it first shows us that the main draw of the game, DNA Splicers that allow you to fuse Pokémon, have a narrative impact, and second, it shows us that this is not just ‘Ruby and Sapphire with fusion’. There will be other changes. Fun! Exciting!
Anyway, close call there, but the run persists. After the battle, we head back to Littleroot where the journey starts in earnest after retrieving some Poké Balls, the Pokédex, and a Pokénav, which functions as a Map, Quest Log, and seems to have space for a bunch more apps in the future.
The Solrock/Lunatone icon there toggles Dark mode, which is adorable.
Anyway, let’s establish some ground rules.
This is going to be a Nuzlocke. Put simply, there are rules that I’m going to follow to make the game harder for myself, because that’s a fun way to play a game for children.
The standard rules are that I can only catch the first Pokémon encountered in a single area. One per route, one per town or city, one per cave or forest, and so on. I’ll be playing with the popular Species Clause, meaning that I can ignore doubles (and will be forced to, in some circumstances)—I’ll do this for more variety. I don’t want to spend five hours lugging around like four Zigzagoon fused with Wurmple.
Speaking of fusions, I’ll also use some fusion-specific rules. Most importantly, I will fuse my Pokémon in order. Whatever I catch in Route 101? Going with the Mudkip. Routes 102 and 103? Getting fused together. Optimisation be damned, this is the fun way to play this. We’ll inevitably end up with some abominations, but that’s half the fun of it.
And crucially: if a Pokémon faints, they are dead. No more using that Pokémon. Don’t get attached, don’t focus on one to the cost of others, and for the love of gosh, don’t name one after a beloved pet.
For the minutiae: I’ll be ignoring fused wild Pokémon—I want fresh fusions only. Also, if this game is like the previous, there will be quite a few Pokémon eggs doled out. These I will accept, but if they hatch into fusions, I will unfuse them and make sure that the resultant individual Pokémon get new partners. This will mean more Pokémon, which makes the game easier, but chaos is worth it.
And after all that preamble, this is what I’m rewarded with for a first encounter. Well I’m glad to get this out of the way early on, I guess. Something I do like about the game is that so many Pokémon have multiple sprites to choose from, and they are changeable at will.
But with that done let’s head to Oldale Town and pick up our first few sets of DNA Splicers!
In addition to this, Rhystie also gave us the Trainers app, but we’ll look into that later. Before that, though, let’s fuse our starter with… a garden worm.
I’m not enthralled with either pick, but I’ll go with the first fusion for stat reasons: Fusions consist of a Head and a Body. The Pokémon that takes the Head slot contributes more Special, Special Defence, and HP, while the Body contributes more Attack, Defence, and Speed. I don’t want a Wurmple body in the game where deaths are permanent.
Anyway. Here we go.
I don’t hate it.
I name her Daphne, and then move on to the surrounding routes to see what my second little creature will be.
Route 103 gets us the Zigzagoon, Route 102 gets us the Poochyena. I do not know how I could possibly have expected anything different.
I’ve seen worse, much worse. This one gets named Kristine. After I settled with this collection of two, I started training a little so my journey wouldn’t be over as quickly as it started.
Quickly, Daphne hit level 7. Her Wurmple half therefore began to evolve.
Hm.
Well, that aside, we have two level 7 Pokémon now. Let’s make the long journey towards Petalburg City!
Along the way, we meet our first proper trainer battle! And whaddya know, it’s a mirror match. Of course it is. This is a great way to show just how varied the sprites can get. Even wild Pokémon do not have one consistent sprite—they are pulled from the collection at the point of the encounter. It really adds some variance to things that I appreciate a ton.
Anyway, the fight goes without a hitch.
Talking to trainers after a battle, though, gives us a nice new feature—we can get unlimited rematches (amazing for grinding, I’m sure), and also view their team, which gives us full insights into their Pokémons’ moves, natures, and all that jazz. Super nice little feature.
You’ll also notice that I have a shiny Ralts sitting on my head. I’ve picked up a Zigzagoon hat and a Poochyena hat after battles with wild Pokémon, and by standing here without moving for a long time because I’m flipping between writing and playing, a Ralts came and sat on my head.
I like this, for now. Character customisation is a big thing, it seems.
Bug Catcher Rick, the second trainer on the route, is largely not worth covering, but I do want to show you Surple. He looks quite dapper, no?
The third trainer is a bit neater. The Taillow sprite is ace as hell, and Loyena is… worth pointing out. This is what not to do with Pokémon, kids. Look at the eyes on the thing. They took a perfectly good Poochyena and Lotad and gave them anxiety is what they did.
After winning the fight, I go heal and then move on to the final fight of the Route.
This one… is quite cute. Must admit. She goes down quickly, though! After the fight, Lass Tiana gives us a small quest that teaches us about trainer rematches. Talking to her a second time lets us know that she’s gone and caught herself a Zigzagoon. The rematch itself is nothing much to talk about—her original Mazagoon grew to level 7 in the few seconds between fights, and she’d added a level 4 Zigzagoon to her party. I guess it just shows us that rematches can let trainers develop their teams, which is another little neat thing that I appreciate about the game. We also get alerted to the possibility that trainers might want to trade after beating them, but I can’t see myself taking part in this for a Nuzlocke.
And with that, we’ve made the long trek to Petalburg City.
We’ll leave it there, for now—this has been quite the introduction to the particular brand of zany that the game holds. Next time, we’ll see if we can’t make it to Rustboro!
Ryan Thompson-Bamsey 
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