View difference between Paste ID: 9P8mB2Ts and DHiTkLtb

 Pocket Monsters Stadium 2 FAQ:
 
 Q: What is this game? It says 2 but this looks like Stadium 1?
 A: The answer is in the title, Pocket Monsters Stadium 2. It is the Japanese equivalent of Pokemon Stadium 1. As Japan had a Pocket Monsters Stadium that never released internationally, this is the sequel and referred to as such. Short table to explain in case you still don't get it:
 				Japanese name		|   English name:
 Game 1: Pocket Monsters Stadium		|	Unreleased (Sometimes referred to as Pokemon Stadium 0)
 Game 2: Pocket Monsters Stadium 2	|	Pokemon Stadium
 Game 3: Pocket Monsters Stadium: GS	|	Pokemon Stadium 2
 
 As such, please refer to this game as Pocket Monsters Stadium 2 (or PMS2), as that is the best easy to describe label (e.g. Pokemon Stadium 1 JP is awful, could refer to more than one thing)
 Also note, the rentals/cups in the third stadium game are exactly the same between the releases, and so JP is no different there, and as such there's no point playing that one in JP. So it'll just be this one.
 
 Q: What is this category?
-A: Because it's different. The rentals are totally different with their moves, so the Pokes and strats used are completely different. As such it's not like I'm playing in Japanese because it's got faster text, it's a different game. The cups in the Stadiums are also different in this version, and there are more of them, so it's totally different for Complete Game (I'll do that at some point in the future...)
+A: This is the Complete the Game. Essentially I finish the Gym Leader Castle, then do all 12 Stadium Cups (4x Prime Cup, Petit Cup, Pika Cup, '97 Cup, '98 Cup, 4x '99 Cup) and then the Mewtwo fight. That then unlocks Round 2, and I do it all again. And yes, it takes about a whole day to do this.
 
-Q: So the rentals are different. Are they better or worse in JP compared to English?
+
-A: Almost always worse. There are some better options here and there. For example for the full game, Pika Cup has better looking rentals overall (though missing Ice Beam on Lapras sucks...), Petit misses Fire Blast totally, etc. But for Gym Leader Castle, since that's what I'm doing atm, I'll give a more detailed breakdown.
+A: Because it's different. The rentals are totally different with their moves, so the Pokes and strats used are completely different. The cups in the stadium are also different, and there's even a different amount of them! As such it's not like I'm playing in Japanese because it's got faster text, it's a different game. And it's in fact even longer...
 
-Bad differences for JP: (listed in order it really matters)
+Q: So the cups are different. How are they different?
-1) Way worse Ice options. You really miss Ice Beam Articuno, bad. The next best option is Ice Punch Jynx, which barely hits with half the power. It also gets Psychic in English, but doesn't in JP, making it a less viable option too.
+A: So first off, there are 10 cups in English, and 12 in Japanese. They are as follows:
-2) Worse Earthquake option. In English, EQ is given to Nidoking, which proves to be quite useful. In JP the best option is Sandshrew, which is far worse. Dig is still given to a few Pokes (Dugtrio, Rhydon, Golem), but a decent missing EQ is bad.
+	English Cups				|	Japanese Cups
-3) Missing Moltres/Zapdos. The birds also get good moves in English (Fire Blast & Sky Attack, Thunder & Sky Attack), but sport nothing of use at all in JP. So best Fire Blast user is downgraded to Flareon/Ponyta. Thunder still has good options in Jolteon/Electrode, however they have a bit less special than Zapdos.
+Prime Cup (L100) Poke Ball		|	Prime Cup (L100) Poke Ball
-4) Thunderbolt option. The best used to be Gengar, but it's moveset is entirely different.
+Prime Cup (L100) Great Ball		|	Prime Cup (L100) Great Ball
-5) A few Pokemon have one useful move altered that is slightly worse, e.g.: Tentacruel has Poison Sting instead of Acid, Vaporeon has Double Edge instead of Quick Attack, etc. Starmie also does not have Thunder, which is a decent loss.
+Prime Cup (L100) Ultra Ball		|	Prime Cup (L100) Ultra Ball
 Prime Cup (L100) Master Ball	|	Prime Cup (L100) Master Ball
-Good differences for JP:
+Pika Cup (L15-20)				|	Pika Cup (L15-20)
-1) Way more exploding options. Specifically Snorlax (Self-D & Body Slam), Weezing (Self-D, Sludge, Thunder), and Gengar (Self-D, Night Shade) mark themselves as quite nice. Snorlax especially is extremely strong, however quite slow, so it's more used for tougher battles to ensure a win rather than a fast win (e.g. will be quite useful in Round 2 I imagine)
+Petit Cup (L25-30, babies)		|	Petit Cup (L25-30, babies)
-2) Jolteon has Double Edge instead of Double Kick. This might not seem much, but the added power means you can use it to finish off a lot of Pokemon that you would otherwise have to hit with another Thunder. Given Jolteon is the most used Pokemon, even a little boost is nice.
+Poke Cup (L50-55) Poke Ball		|	'99 Cup (L50, no 'competitive' mons) Poke Ball
-3) A few Pokemon have one more useful move that was taken away in English, e.g.: Persian has Substitute (useful for exploding team), Dugtrio has Hyper Beam, etc.
+Poke Cup (L50-55) Great Ball	|	'99 Cup (L50, no 'competitive' mons) Great Ball
 Poke Cup (L50-55) Ultra Ball	|	'99 Cup (L50, no 'competitive' mons) Ultra Ball
-Result:
+Poke Cup (L50-55) Master Ball	|	'99 Cup (L50, no 'competitive' mons) Master Ball
-Overall worse, but Snorlax is a huge boost to be able to explode away most pokes. Articuno is a massive loss though, there's no real good option for taking out Grass mons, and a lot of the time you are forced to use defensive Gengar to wall them down. Also makes Ground mons harder to deal with in general too (and Dragon, and Flying...you get the idea, it's really bad)
+(None)							|	'98 Cup (L30, only 'competitive' mons)
 (None)							| 	'97 Cup (L50-55)
 
 Q: So the rentals are different. Are the always different? Are they better or worse in JP compared to English?
 A: The rentals are identical for Prime Cup, and Mewtwo fight. In every other cup, and Gym Leader Castle, they are different. This means even though above it appears 6 cups are the same, really only the 4 Prime Cup ones are, as Petit/Pika have different rentals to choose from.
 
-A: This is the Gym Leader Castle, specifically Round 2. So basically beat everyone in there. They can be done in any order (so long as Elite Four is last), so I start with some of the harder fights to get out of the way early. (GLC R2 stands for Gym Leader Castle, Round 2)
+As far as being better or worse, they are almost always worse in Japanese. There are some better options here and there. For example Snorlax is better in Japanese in like every cup, because he has Self-Destruct. In Pika Cup, Starmie has Surf instead of Bubblebeam and turns from a good rental to a great one. But overall they become worse, things like not having Ice Beam on Articuno for Gym Leader Castle, or Ice Beam on Lapras for Pika Cup, make more of a difference.
 
-Q: Why is the order scrambled like that?
+
-A: It's allowed because doing it from a fresh file would be really annoying to reset the save data for (given you'd have to remake the teams every reset as well), so it's stupid to not allow play on a completed save. And since that's allowed, no reason to restrict order either. Elite Four still must be done last because timing ends during the cutscene after that battle (would be slower to not do him last because of that anyway).
+Q: So what are these cups I've never heard of? '97, '98, '99?
 A: They are based on the "official" rules at the times in Japan, stand for 1997 Nintendo Cup, etc. '97 and '98 cups are also in the first game, Pocket Monsters Stadium. Back in that game, there were only 42 Pokemon, that were seen as the "competitive" pokes (plus Pikachu), and serve the crux for the rules for '99.
-As such, I fight the gyms in reverse order, as they are roughly progressively difficult, so I get the harder ones out of the way this way.
+
 '97 Cup rules: Level 50-55, total level must not exceed 155. Is essentially the same as Poke Cup, but because there's only 1 level, the trainers are very different, as are the rentals.
 
 '98 Cup rules: Level 1-30. Only 42 Pokemon can be used. They are: Beedrill, Fearow, Pikachu, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Dugtrio, Primeape, Arcanine, Alakazam, Machamp, Golem, Magneton, Cloyster, Gengar, Onix, Hypno, Electrode, Exeggutor, Chansey, Kangaskhan, Starmie, Scyther, Jynx, Pinsir, Tauros, Gyarados, Lapras, Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Aerodactyl, Snorlax.
 
 '99 Cup rules: Level 1-50. While the full roster is available, Pokemon that were used by competitors in previous tournaments were banned. Think of it as an early days "UU" ruleset. Banned Pokemon: Venusaur, Dugtrio, Alakazam, Golem, Magneton, Gengar, Hypno, Electrode, Exeggutor, Chansey, Kangaskhan, Starmie, Jynx, Tauros, Gyarados, Lapras, Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Aerodactyl, Snorlax, Articuno, Zapdos, Dragonite, Mewtwo, Mew.
 
 Q: I'm too lazy to read through that, but would those Pokemon be considered good in Gen 1 competitive nowadays?
 A: Yes and no. A lot of the staples are there in '98 and banned in '99 (Tauros, Snorlax, Exeggutor, Jynx, Starmie, Chansey, etc), and some aren't in '98 cup just because you can't get them as low as Level 30. But there are some exceptions (Like why the fuck is Ditto banned?)
-A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnstadium#Gym_Leader_Castle_Round_2 (Click on JPN) | See: Splits (No one else has done a run)
+
 Notable exceptions allowed in '99 Cup: Slowbro, Rhydon, Cloyster, Persian.
-Q: So what's your goal?
+In general though, since just about every Electric type is banned, Bulky Waters are extremely difficult to kill in this cup.
-A: Would be nice to get sub 3, but I'd probably stop at something just before that too.
+
 Q: Why are you using <pokemon>? Why not <other pokemon>?
 A: Because the restrictions in running this game involve only using rental Pokemon (as otherwise it would be incredibly easy and not at all challenging). A lot of the times the lower evolved Pokemon have better moves (e.g. Abra has Psychic, Alakazam has Confusion), so they end up being better options.
 
 Q: Why does that gym leader have a Pokemon that isn't of their type??
 A: Because if every leader had only their type, all these fights would be easy. Though some of them actually do do that in Round 1 in Stadium 1 R1 is actually fairly easy, and there are less Pokemon to choose between. But this is Round 2, so full balls to the walls.
 
 Q: Why is that Pokemon coloured differently?
 A: Giving Pokemon nicknames in the Stadium games changes their colouration, so you can see some cool and different looking Pokes.
 
-Q: Are you gonna go back to that really long run that was like over 20 hours now that you have an JP cart?
+Q: Why do you reset after completing a cup?
-A: Yes, I'll do Complete Game on PMS2 as well. It'll also be even longer than the English variant, as there are 12 cups in the stadium compared to 10, along with worse rentals, so that'll be fun. I still gotta route all that though, so it's a long way off.
+A: This is just to skip the small cutscene that shows all the Pokes you used in the cup. Saves just a few seconds each time it's used. It isn't used on the Poke/Great/Ultra Cup levels, as they do not show the pokes, and just give you the cup straight away.
 
 Q: How are you going to play for 24 hours straight?? Don't you need to eat and shit??
 A: I got some snacks. It ain't too hard to not use the bathroom for 24 hours, especially if you aren't drinking too much. I've done this whole thing before, it honestly takes no extra effort in that regard. Focused on the game, so I just get it done.
 
 Q: What is the record?
 A: No one has done a run of this yet. So, whatever I get.
 
 Q: So what's your estimate then?
 A: Given my time in English was just over 20 hours, and this game has 4 more cups to complete, along with harder difficulty, I would say ~25 hours is a decent estimate. But it can obviously go a bit better or a lot worse depending on how my luck goes.
 
 Q: Why is there splits for some times but not others? Has a run been done before?
 A: I had done 2 attempts before, but not completed either. The first run I stopped because I was sick, the second run got stopped because there was a blackout. I'm comparing against one of those until the point it stopped.
 
 Q: Does this game have the Gen 1 1/256 miss?
 A: No, it does not. Stadium changed a few mechanics from the handheld Gen 1 games (for example, switching after Wrap/Fire Spin means the other Pokemon won't attack, so you don't get stuck forever, Hyper Beam needs recharge), and the removal of the 1/256 is one of them.
 
 Crit mechanics are slightly different. See this spreadsheet for specifics: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lab4RC9Ngt3x1Eb7qOMYvLtqhKIekOVPmv4eaiyc4nY
 
 Q: What does "Round 2" or "Round 1" mean in this game?
 A: This game repeats itself over, after you beat Round 1 of the game you unlock Round 2. Round 2 gives the opponent different pokes, with different moves, and better stats. It is in general, much much harder.
 
 Q: What is the hardest fight in this run?
 A: Fisher, the last fight of Pika Cup Round 2. And yes, he's even harder in this version! Quite substantially so too. Not having Lapras to take on Dragonair means you specifically *need* an extra turn to go your way (Wrap miss, crit Ice Beam, or fully para), otherwise you lose even with a good team. It's...awful.