Bethany Plays: 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?

I will say that this Team Skull appearance feels a bit more cohesive to me here in USUM. In SM, they were going down to the Marina to "steal Pokemon"- a very classic villain team deed, but one that doesn't match Team Skull's general story goals in the overall narrative. Here, they want to steal our island challenge amulets, which is much more in line with what Team Skull wants.

OK, it seems Hau knows of Team Skull, but only by reputation and not by having seen them himself.

And "knowing Team Skull by reputation" is not the most flattering of images.

Team Skull affirms Hau's claim, not realising that Hau meant it as an insult (as much as Hau can mean anything as an insult). Although Team Skull, in general, does whatever mischief they can (and plenty of mischief they can't), it is the Island Challenge that attracts their attention the most.

Which makes us their biggest enemies.

Hau, the idea that you can teach them anything is wishful thinking, and that's not because it's you.

In USUM, Rotom is a lot more scared of Skull than SM's Rotom was.

Oh yeah, Hau is Hala's grandson. I can only imagine that doesn't do him any favours with Skull.

Funnily, I think the way this cutscene is set up, we fight Grunt A in SM and Grunt B in USUM. It's the same Zubat in the end, though.

So then... what does Ailey have for dealing with Zubat?

An underlevelled, freshly caught Baby Pokemon. With a weakness to Astonish and bad physical Defence.

It's also got Confusion, Super Effective on Zubat.

And somehow it also outsped? Skull's Zubat has flat 0 IVs, meaning that SM's Zubat has 13 Spd and USUM's 14. It seems our guys pick up more than that quickly.

Instead of Astonish, Skull went for Supersonic.

I think Soundproof over Filter has been working out for us so far, don't you?

Aside from camera angles, this seems mostly the same as it was in SM.

Including this line of rapping nonsense, which forgets we're not at the port. We're close, though.

The petty "We didn't need it anyway" feels even more petty with USUM's stakes.

They do the same panicked run, but because they have to turn a corner to go around us (and because "going around us" involves running in a straight line, stopping, turning, and then running in a straight line again), it loses some of the comedy timing. Maybe they should've snuck up on us from behind so they could run away without us in the way.

You don't formulate routines like theirs without an unbelievably large amount of time on your hands.

And then Hau drops the mother of all cold reads on them, and mentions something that's going to be vaguely implied under the surface for a while in SM: the members of Team Skull a) tried and failed the Island Challenge and b) are still salty about it. He probably knows about Team Skull largely from Hala, and this seems like something Hala would be on top of- even if knowing how to solve it does not appear in his toolkit.

And we won't have to visit the Marina ourselves at all. Although there are Totem Stickers down there.

...Does Hau pick any up, or are we the only ones doing that?

Ilima's gratitude to us is to show his appreciation to us, rather than "because we did as we asked".

Which makes the free heal seem a bit more out of place.

With that said, considering SM Ilima wasn't exactly looking for us, Ilima's appearance in general is a bit more surprising here. USUM Ilima hasn't mentioned anything about expecting to see us later on in Hau'oli...

This part is all identical from SM, complete with the free opportunity to back out and do all sorts of other business first. (For Ray, this will actually be an important part of his strategy.) I feel like there's a part of the conversation missing by surgically moving this over here, though.

Both of you did the same "mimicking him" schtick and I don't get if that's supposed to be something catchy Ilima says or not.

Anyway, what's USUM Ilima like?

Ilima's Yungoos has changed its IVs (it is now 30/25/25/25/30/25), but its defensive EV spread and Adamant Nature are the same as in SM. It is also one level higher.

And, of course, Callie is the way to go here.

Not helped by the fact that Ilima has decided that Leer seems like a good idea.

Callie is more than he prepared for.

Um... Did you not notice what happened the first time? Yungoos went down like a chump.

With the EXP from that fight, Neo attempted to learn Meditate. This move sounds cool, until you read the effects and learn it ups your phyiscal Attack stat. Best saved for Meditite and other such Pokemon that actually physically hit their opponents.

Smeargle saw a bigger improvement: As well as having its IVs shifted to 30/25/25/25/25/25, it also lost its 252 offenses- they are now 170 offenses, with 170 EVs being invested in HP. Despite being one level higher than SM's Smeargle, it is actually weaker than the SM Smeargle offensively- but it does have an extra point in Speed and some extra bulk.

In the interests of not completely savaging this fight with Callie, I switch in Furfrou. I mean, it's not like it's going to win a lot of fights...

Its Fur Coat doesn't exactly protect it from Smeargle's Water Gun, anyway. The Popplio fight has better odds.

Sadly, Furfrou doesn't have its annoying early moves, so it has to resort to Sand Attack, to try and lower Smeargle's accuracy.

Clearly, it's not working.

Growl it is, then.

And... here come the Tackles.

Come on, Nephenee, you've got now or never.

This seems like a tricky idea, considering Neo isn't exactly a physical powerhouse, but Neo has the move in mind.

And it is managing to take hits OK...

Right, Tickle. Tickle, annoyingly, doesn't usually come on Mime Jr., even though I don't see why it wouldn't, and it applies a debuff of both Atk and Def -1 simultaneously. It's a really useful trick to have in your pocket for early fights, if you can find something that's actually carrying it.

Time for Usagi to enter the damage races. Silk Scarf bunny versus overturned beagle.

Usagi not only wins, but she wins so decisively that not even a Potion stops her.

That's the move I was hoping for for Furfrou. At level 9, it gets Baby-Doll Eyes, which is basically Growl, except it has +1 priority and goes before most moves. In addition to helping us early, it can help us on physical threats that Furfrou otherwise has no business with.

This was a bit of a weird switch to make, but considering Usagi has Pound on lockdown, Moss doesn't really need Scratch coverage and more options for manipulating stat stages felt more appealing than Normal coverage.

Both SM and USUM get him to the point where he's happy to let us in to our first Trial.

And the closeup angle lets him have a more animated wave to accompany this choice in farewell.

Now then, how about Noah and Ray?

...Wasn't Noah supposed to be Xenoblade jokes? I'm sure I'll find uses for Eunie and co, but it seems to have slipped me already. I blame Wingull not coming until after the festival, unlike everyone else who picked something up during the opening stretch.

At any rate, PRNDL is another Pokemon who seems well-equipped to dealing with waves vaguely at Ilima, on account of its Steel typing. Its Thundershock one-shot the Team Skull's Zubat!

This was overkill.

Not that it really seemed to help PRNDL. Remember Woodstock piercing Emily's Magnemite with Bite? Yeah, that works for Ilima, too. It also means switching out isn't exactly an appealing option.

Still, it's not the most damaging thing in the world, and our Thunder Shocks probably have it beat.

Oh, you have Full Heals, too?

Yungoos goes for Leers, to try and wear PRNDL down for its later attacks.

Unfortunately, it was not dealing with the Thunder Shocks well enough to be the one to capitalise.

More fortunately, it actually almost worked. If I had switched out PRNDL, it would've been knocked out by those Pursuits. Also, despite the fact this Smeargle does have Leafage packed and not Ember, PRNDL'll probably still lose if it stays out here.

Still, losing PRNDL isn't a huge loss, and whoever gets the next chance doesn't have to give Smeargle the free hit.

Good news for Mio, who's facing SE attacks and needs the extra HP.

Mio's job here was more for Growls than it was actual damage. Keeping it in on SE isn't the most encouraging of prospects.

Now, Daj, on the other hand? Neutral to Grass.

Takes things a lot better.

...Oh, right.

That just means it switches to Tackle.

So much for Daj.

Crunch it is, then. For some reason, I decided Hustle was the way to go for Rattata- it's certainly going to make things interesting.

If Crunch can actually land its Quick Attacks, they hit hard, especially with the Silk Scarf. If it can't, well... it's a Rattata.

Three cheers for the rat infestation!

Oh, both of those moves are absolutely being learned, no questions.

Of the four Ilima fights I did, Ray had it hardest, without question. He only got three Pokemon so far, and none of them have a clear anti-Ilima plan the way Callie and PRNDL do.

Even Growl doesn't work if you're staring down crits.

It is not promising when I'm already down one of three. Fortunately, I planned for that.

Penny actually has an ace in the hole.

And as cool as it sounds, a criticial hit on Fake Out is not it.

You see, while the TM for Echoed Voice is behind where you get the Ilima fight, Ilima allows you to explore the south side of Hau'oli if you refuse to fight him. Penny is going to carry this move to victory.