Pokemon Alola Bonus: Normalium Z

Before Ailey starts her Trial, I think Nephenee deserves to show off her special mechanic. You can trim Furfrou with this Beauty in the Hau'oli Salon.

There are nine possible haircuts for Furfrou. The first three are fairly simple, and this is because unlocking them is based on the "style" mechanic of Lumiose City. Later games didn't bother with that bit, and all Furfrou forms are available immediately. They're all purely cosmetic.

We might as well use a trimmed Furfrou at least once.

I was never one for dog grooming, but you know, it's a neat thing. Even if it does mean the devs did not want to deal with Furfrou in the new games (and with good reason, honestly).

I went with Kabuki.

Anyway, with that business taken care of, Ailey's turn to complete the Trial of Captain Ilima is now.

Pokemon Sun Normalium Z: The Trial of Verdant Cavern

Well then. Can't keep the First Trial waiting, can we?

If you're going to make "greeting people" your shtick, you need better than that.

This is your warning that "enter here and you will come out in victory or defeat".

And as such, you can't count on the Pokemon Centre anymore. Whatever your strategy is, make sure you have the resources to see it through.

Some limits cannot be broken. They are usually called "laws of physics."

Other limits are all in your mind. And in a Trial, you will defy those expectations placed on yourself and rise to the challenge.

Yes. My team is ready.

(Because of the nature of Trials, I will be showing stat screens before the boss fight).

He actually leaves us to wander around freely. We are not properly committed to the Trial until we follow him in.

Trials only.

And that's us.

Pokemon Sun Route 2: Encounters, New and Old

Welcome to Route 2. This isn't the only area we'll explore today, but every other area we visit can only be accessed from Route 2 on foot, so close enough.

Route 2 introduces SM's incarnation of a recurring element across the series. These were first introduced in BW, called "phenomenons", and in all cases, their function is to be visible random encounters. If you touch one, you will automatically trigger an encounter, even if you have a Repel up. Visible encounters usually have a different random encounter table than normal tall grass, even if they're inside the grass like this.

Between SM and SV, this mechanic sorta evolved into what became global visible encounters, where you can see what you are about to fight. SwSh is clearly an intermediate stage, but it's a progression.

This is a new feature to SM, though: After defeating or catching a visible encounter, it may drop an item. There are two main types of such items: Items based on the location (usually Berries), and items based on the Pokemon (some better ones can come as a result). The odds are a little more esoteric, though.

That's a Trainer. It wouldn't do to go into the grass hunting for wilds and come out and be ambushed by her, better go in first.

Pokemon Alola Hau'oli Bonus: Captain Ilima

Something about the way his dialogue is being all squished up further ahead in the conversation kinda clues you in that Hau's about to be interrupted by something.

Hello, Team Skull.

Hau, do you know these weirdos?

Pokemon Sun Hau'oli City: There's Even Government Buildings!

Time for a big city.

Complete with a few wide shots of the beachfront. Considering Game Freak, I think they are outright shooting the money here. This is a huge improvement over past games' city designs in technical quality. Even if there are things Castelia probably wins in.

When we arrive, this lady calls us over for possibly one of the weirder notes they throw in, and it's something that I'm fairly sure is already kinda weird because of why it's relevant.

The Alola region has a common gesture used in greeting to accompany the actual word- you wave your hands in front of your face to trace the curve of a circle. I'm not sure what it represents as a cultural element- probably the sun- or if it comes from the Hawai'ians, but it is surprisingly not a story thing.

It's probably more common in USUM, for a cute reason- in fact, I think a lot of the characters in the vanilla game introduce themselves with a brief wave, rather than this. No, where this is appears is Festival Plaza- when you talk to someone else's avatar, you do this wave. Wouldn't be too weird... except, you know, we already can go to Festival Plaza. Did they remember not to make our avatar do this wave until we learned how?

Pokemon Sun Trainer's School: A New Trick Up Our Sleeve

One thing you will notice is that Rotom marks your next destination with a red flag, so you do at least know in which direction to run.

Fortunately, our stop is literally right next door to the Pokemon Centre.

Guys, you had one job. Whose Tauros even is that? Tauros isn't native to Melemele!

Trainer's School first, then the rest of Hau'oli. I can handle that.

...On the other hand, that's clearly not working.

Smartass.