Whenever you first transition to a new island, they show this little animation of your cursor moving over to the next island. They even start and finish the route from the docks- ie, where we alight from the ferry in this animation is the same part of the island we alight when we land.
Welcome to Akala Island, home of several resources that will help us blossom into Trainers that play a varied game.
Starting off with Heahea City. As a detail for Hawai'i geography nerds, Akala is actually rotated 90 degrees compared to Maui- we're in Kahului, or thereabouts.
The scene starts with everybody else off the boat, but Hau gets to jump off, because he might be slightly insane. Or just hyper. It's so hard to tell.
..She's got you there, Hau. "Land ahoy" means "there is land over there", as in "we can see it through our spyglasses".
I'm fairly sure I can see Akala from on it.
Hau desperately begs for his dignity back, and asks us for help. I ask this question not because I think Hau messed up, but because I don't think it was meant to be funny- it was meant to be inspiring.
Hau has a pout about it, before begging for validation from Kukui.
...
Well, Kukui more than provides.
Lillie realises what clowns she's stuck with, Nebby finds this funny despite possibly not understanding the joke, and both boys have a laugh while the girls stare.
This is a gender-neutral joke, incidentally, but I love the dynamic associated with the female protagonist as opposed to the male here.
Now, see, that is a funny joke.
New characters! Well, new to us. They clearly know Kukui.
Lillie, however, doesn't know them, and she immediately turns to hide Nebby. Might be a little late for that one.
Fortunately, Kukui has declared that... both of these women are safe to show Nebby to. I'm not sure if either of them have already been told, but neither comments on him.
Olivia introduces herself only by name, but her job is highlighted later on in the cutscene, in such a way I think they want to make it a dramatic reveal.
The girl behind her is "one of" the Trial Captains of Akala Island- right away, we know for a fact there's more than one Trial on Akala Island. It's not just Ilima anymore.
Huh, this is totally a short bit of foreshadowing on what Olivia's job is. Mallow, meanwhile, is running deliveries as... either a side business or a personal favour.
She fancies herself a cook, as it happens. I vaguely remember her actual skill varies depending on who is doing the shilling, so I can't say off-hand whether she's supposed to be a good cook or a bad one. She definitely has a customer base, though.
They hve this cutaway where they show Mallow sizing up the player, and then cut back to Mallow to show her saying "you two"- including Hau. Hau had no more focus than Kukui, didn't he?
Hau chuckles appreciatively, and Bethany just stares blankly. Again.
We will actually be challenging Mallow last.
I dunno, an actual idea of where my destinations are would be a start.
Oh, now you can't even justify hiding what exactly Olivia's job is, if you know how the Island Challenge works. Which Island Challenge NPC are we supposed to fight while we're on Akala, again...?
To make this scene a little bit extra confusing, Olivia drags Mallow on behind her like they have business together. I'm proceeding assuming that Mallow's delivery was intended for Olivia, although there's not much evidence for it- they already forgot the delivery part of that introduction.
Mallow waves goodbye before she follows.
She then turns to Lillie and waves again, causing Lillie to bow in gratitude. As far as I recall, these two never interact again, so no idea what that's about, either. Having been there as a writer, I wonder if the one writing the story wrote these in as foreshadowing scenes, and then forgot to drop the actual payoff.
Mallow darts off to walk away in sync with Olivia.
I'm not saying these two are gay, but...
Considering Lillie didn't even know Olivia existed, that's definitely a hint that Olivia was told ahead of time about the Nebby situation. Kukui suspects that Olivia's decision to go all the way to port to greet us personally is her wanting to make sure Lillie's handling her responsibility OK.
If that was what Mallow was doing, then there is definitely something more going on between them, even if that's just a close professional connection.
Yep, to nobody's surprise, Olivia is the Akala Kahuna. It's her job to know about stuff going on on Akala Island, and our arrival is among those. She'll also be the final boss of Akala Island, although we do not yet know her type specialty.
Kukui also tells us how many Trials to look out for- three. Really making up for Melemele's shortfall, huh?
Kukui offers this suggestion, and come to think of it, the way the world map is set up, this is a bit of an unintuitive route with no other reasoning. It will be the route we take, but the thing blocking our way from doing the "second Trial" first isn't an official Island Challenge barricade. The way the Trials as we complete them are set up, the order selected is supported by the mechanics and even the narrative, somewhat, but if you're familiar with how Akala is laid out, look at a map of Akala and label the locations of the three Trials.
Then you should've gone before we left.
...Malasada is usually sold separately. There is a malasada shop on Akala, but it's not here in Heahea.
Lillie starts having a nervous nose around, too.
Now, there's something I need to explain about how the Pokedex worked, historically: For the most part, there was one Pokedex per region, with somewhere between 150 and 300 species in it. Kalos, the region of XY, was the first regional Pokedex to expand past 300 to the lofty number of 450, and the devs decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to divide the Pokedex into three chunks. Each chunk has an entirely separate set of Pokemon in it- three groups of 150 each.
Alola has followed in Kalos's footsteps, and has divided the Pokedex of 300 (SM) and 400 (USUM) into four smaller chunks. Like Kalos, the distinction is geographical in nature. Unlike Kalos, there is overlap in the Pokedexes- we will encounter species we have seen on Melemele here on Akala too. This leads me to believe the divide is more as a lore thing than a mechanical necessity, at least here. It's worth noting that the Galar and Paldea Pokedexes, despite being equally massive, are not divided by any geographical notation. (Not that I imagine this to be an easy task, the way those regions are set up.)
A flick into the Akala Pokedex, just to see what we can watch out for. A lot of obvious repeats, mainly, as well as Bonsly, Gastly, Diglett and, to an extent, Caterpie. I won't be going out of my way to tell you when we can find these on the encounter tables- we're still focused on when you can get new stuff.
I hope you can see the sea, we just got off a boat.
You joke, but there's a poor fool in XY who's decided to swim from Hoenn (south Japan) to Kalos (France). There's probably some idiot who'd take swimming between Melemele and Akala as a challenge.
Checks.
Oahu to Moloka'i (one of the four major islands of Hawai'i that is not represented in Alola, but is geographically between Oahu and Maui) is one of the seven challenges of the Oceans Seven, the most prestigious achievement among open water swimmers. There have between twenty-seven people to have completed the whole challenge, plus anybody who's done this one but not one or more of the other six. Still, I doubt anyone's swimming between any two of the four Alolan Islands.
There's been a few of these in the series, particularly starting with DPPt- kids playing handhelds to simulate real kids playing Pokemon. The ones in this game are usually alone, interacting with NPCs somewhere else in the world. Whether that is "each other" or "people not even in Alola" is usually left to your imagination.
This kid is playing with someone over on Ula'ula Island.
They're mostly advertising the communication features.
The Vending Machine in this terminal actually works. Not that Fresh Water is worth the cash.
Good to know: We can take the Ferry to Hau'oli any time we please, for free to boot.
Also note, I tested it: It works in USUM too. You don't even need to Mantine Surf if you just want to backtrack.
I... don't know if that's a thing, actually? I know there's Festival Plaza missions, but it's one of those mechanics I give a wide berth.
Some of us are using our time in this game well, I see.
There's a fireman inspecting the extinguisher, and he's got nothing but good to say about the place's safety. Which I suppose is a good thing.
801, by Bethany's last count.
1025, at the time of writing this.
And for goodness sake, TPC, it better still be at 1025 when this is posted.
200 Poke for 30 HP? Still a better deal than Potions, but...
...Sure. That's the reason I'm not buying.
Once again, our attempts to actually make purchases at the gift shop is thwarted by a clerk who is not doing their job.
Ultra Sun adds a few NPCs in here, including these two in the corner discussing a unique mechanic from GSC. This craftsman could create special types of Poke Balls from Apricorns- and to date, these Poke Balls are not to be found in standard shops.
The method through which Kurt uses is one of the first ways Poke Balls were constructed at all. It has since been outclassed by the slow march of time, and nowadays large scale production like that done by Silph Co., Devon and the Kalosian Power Plant produces most Poke Balls on store shelves.
I'm quite familiar with Apricorn crafting, kid.
Oho? This is quite the legendary item of Pokemon history, and relevant to something that happened relatively recently in Pokemon's history on this game's release. The GS Ball is an event item, appearing in the original JP version of Pokemon Crystal, and could be given to the Apricorn crafter in order to summon Celebi. This item was never distributed to Western players, although it did make an appearance in the anime. It was the subject of a long arc where Ash and co. were to make the same delivery, but it was never opened- the perfect storm for speculation among Pokemon fans.
Two months before USUM, the original GSC games were rereleased for Virtual Console, and the GS Ball was restored to full functionality, regardless of limited time events or region. Now everybody can claim Celebi.
Ah, yes, Kurt, that's his name.
The old man goes on to give it a name- Greatest Smith's Ball.
Although he readily admits this isn't a name derived by consensus. What is the name? There isn't an official derivation. Crystal always sticks to just GS.
Accept whichever you prefer, but good luck communicating with someone else.
After this conversation, the old man gives us a present in compensation.
Freebie Premier Ball! Hopefully this one doesn't whiff.
The flavour text implies that the other Trainer actively blocks the ball, rather than it being "automatic". Whether they tell you not to steal is another matter.
Starting in DPPt, this doesn't waste the thrown Poke Ball.
And, of course, a nice reminder how to get more Premier Balls.
There's also this old lady sitting here, who drops being bilingual and includes the Chinese names of two Pokemon. I did go through the trouble of image-reading these Chinese characters to locate which Pokemon they were-
But it turns out you can talk to her multiple times and she'll change which language she's bilingual in.
The worst part is, one of the languages she can use is English, which just reveals which two Pokemon it was anyway. Still, though, that's accurate. Rockruff and Stufful are indeed cute.
Never heard that one before.
This is where Heahea Beach is located in USUM. It kinda looks like there should be something here, huh?
Odd timing, but this seems a good chance to show off what's around here on Heahea Beach. For context, Ailey has just landed here on Akala.
The male swimmer here will tell us a few details- mostly going over tutorials, but also...
...Board?
Oh, this board. It tells us what score we need to hit to get the high score for the new move and all those bonuses. Once again, I have doubled it on the first try.
Akala has its own moves, giving us a much larger collection of choices at first glance. Many of them amazing.
- Iron Tail: 100 BP, 75% Physical Steel. Has a 30% chance of lowering Defence.. A really good move if you have faith in your odds, but those odds are indeed very tough to count on.
- Spite: A Status Ghost move. Deducts four points of PP from the last move the opponent used. Could come in handy if you really want to use PP stall strats, but also really?
- After You: A Status Normal move. The target will be the next Pokemon to move in the turn order, regardless of what priority or Speed checks would say otherwise. Only good in Doubles.
- Giga Drain: 75 BP Special Grass. Heals the user for 50% of the damage dealt. An exemplary Grass move, and one that more than justifies its place on your set for most or all of the game. Although yes, this means Grass Pledge is pretty worthless for Rowlet in USUM.
- Synthesis: A Status Grass move. Heals the user for 50% of their total HP normally, 67% in Sunny weather, and 25% in other weather. We are going to learn to hate this move on the opponent, although the player may prefer Bag items to a dedicated move.
- Ally Switch: A Status Psychic move. Switches places with your ally in a Doubles Battle, diverting the opponent's attacks to the incorrect opponent. +2 priority. Only good in Doubles.
- Signal Beam: 75 BP Special Bug. Has a 10% chance of confusing the target. This move can be learned by roughly all of the Psychic types, and is an absolutely fantastic move for high power and effective coverage for this stage of the game. This is one of the best moves ever, and I have no idea why SwSh decided to trim this one out of the game.
- Gravity: A Status Psychic move. Sets the field to have intense gravity for five turns, increasing the accuracy of all moves by 6840/4096 (roughly x1.67) and causing all opponents to become grounded, if they aren't already. Handy to have, but you need to benefit from the move to justify the spot.
- Stealth Rock: A Status Rock move. Sets the opponent's side of the field with pointed stones, dealing Rock-type fractional damage to any Pokemon sent out by the opponent. Really good for certain opponents, but only really good on bosses, since there aren't many Trainers with multiple Pokemon.
- Iron Defence: A Status Steel move. Raises the user's Defence by two stages. Simple, but effective.
- Telekinesis: A Status Psychic move. Inflicts an ailment that, for the next three turns, causes the opponent to be raised into the air, causing any moves following to have a guaranteed chance of hitting. Also renders the opponent immune to Ground moves. Cannot be used on Diglett, Sandygast, or on a forcibly-grounded Pokemon (such as in Gravity). I've never used it, but it might work out in the right circumstances...
- Magnet Rise: A Status Electric move. Renders the user immune to Ground moves for five turns. Electric types sure like having this move in their back pocket...
- Bounce: 85 BP 85% Physical Flying. The user jumps into the air on turn 1, before striking on turn 2, having a 30% chance of paralysis. While in the air, the Pokemon is "semi-invulnerable" and can only be damaged by a small handful of moves. Good enough for the semi-invulnerability, and if the accuracy bothers you, it's always a source of a good strong Supersonic Skystrike...
- Role Play: A Status Psychic move. The user changes their Ability to match that of the target. For the most part, best used while scouting S.O.S. battles for Hidden Abilities- but that's if you're building a dedicated S.O.S. Pokemon.
- Fire Punch: 75 BP Physical. 10% chance of inflicting Burn on hit. Great coverage on basically anything with arms, and while Litten can't learn it, it eventually will when it evolves.
- Water Pulse: 60 BP Special Water. 20% chance of inflicting Confusion. Surprisingly good coverage, useful as a Special Water move on early Pokemon, and in general that confusion will work wonders when it lands.
Basically any strong move will define the next stretch of gameplay for anything that learns it, and if you can get good mileage out of the utility moves, they're available here. I prefer pure coverage, though.
Other shop is more or less the same.
Soda Pop over in this corner. There's also a Revive and Pearl as hidden items, apparently, but good luck finding them without landmarks.
"After pulling of moves. Note to self."
Samson is hanging out at this sign. Of the places, this is certainly one of them.
And ruin it for everyone else.
There's a letter in a bottle over on this beach, apparently. Just getting it out of the way early this island.
...Odd letter, but OK. Also a bit of a vague guess on where we need to go.
Or if you go Mantine Surfing with a friend at all. Even on the same board, I think the sounds of the waves are too thunderous.
...Does he know how that sounds?
Mantine's a good boy to know at sea. Very friendly, compared to other rays.
...Don't let your employer hear that.
This exit from Heahea Beach is blocked by a set of Pyukumuku until we finish our business in Heahea City- and prevent ourselves from entering roadblocks the wrong way around.
Exiting from the south exit will put you out near where Kukui and Lillie landed.
Kukui's happy to hear our attempt to go Mantine Surfing went well.
Don't you worry, little cousin! I'm sure Mantine wants you to give it another try sometime!
And encouraging if things went badly.
...Hm. Apparently we really did beat Kukui and Lillie here. I couldn't tell.
And this is where we dovetail into the Olivia scene.
Back to Bethany, time to read this sign. They moved this to in front of one of the buildings when they made this a path.
Oh, a mention of the game's used of curved EXP. It had previously been in the Unova games, but XY reverted back to flat gains. This may indeed serve as a notice that SM has brought back curved EXP.
...Did we really need to reiterate that one?
Fair enough- it worked for the old bosses, after all. Sitrus Berries don't exactly grow on trees, though...
Wait, hold on, they do.
I couldn't tell you if the same is true of Kahului, but apparently the Kahului area does have a large Asian population. The fact I said "Asian" here means I only feel confident about Asians as a racial group in that claim- whether these are all Japanese or the cohort was made up of other nationalities is not a question I can answer.
Perhaps if I had ever visited Hawai'i...
...Meh. The areas immediately bordering Heahea City only have three Kantonian families- one of them Rattata, and one of them is potentially not narratively Kantonian even if it is mechanically such.
Anyway, this building they're standing in front of is the Tourist Bureau, and this is a mechanically significant building in Heahea.
True. Nicknames "show the personality of the original Trainer", and thus you can't nickname any Pokemon that does not have your name, Trainer ID and "secret ID". I'm told that, if you get lucky as hell, the game will let you rename a Pokemon that matches you in every way that wasn't actually generated in your file, but the odds of that happening are so infinitesimally small no sane programmer would bother accounting for it either.
The tour guide suggests we visit Poke Pelago. Poke Pelago is a major feature I wish we got access to sooner, but sadly, we have to wait until after the third trial. They really should've found a way to justify receiving it sooner...
Say hello to the most baffling mechanical NPC in the game, the Name "Rater". Rating nicknames is far from his purpose.
Ooh, early cameo from a party member that hasn't been officially debuted! K9 is a Rockruff I caught and want as a team member for Bethany, at least until it evolves. I did have thoughts about using other Rock types this run, but Rockruff certainly doesn't have quality issues in comparison to them.
The Name Rater is the NPC whose purpose is to change nicknames. If you show him a Pokemon who has your OT, he will declare the nickname "fine" and offer the option to change it, regardless of how many times you do so. If the Pokemon is an outsider, he will declare the nickname perfect and refuse to change it.
SV eventually made nickname changing a feature you could just do, no NPC required. Until then, the NPC was always a Name Rater and not something more indicative. An actual Name Rater would also be painful to program...
Whether or not I make use of his services is another question.
Lady in the back is just looking through the souvenirs.
Camera shifts over to show your face in the faceboard if you walk around into it. They don't actually put the face in, though, you just kinda stand behind it.
A USUM only location, not far out from Heahea City. Shame, too- Zapple would love it.
Curiously, both of them are in the same city.
The next stop after the Tourist Bureau is the clothing shop, where Lillie has idled.
So what caught your eye this time, Lils?
Hm. Might be a bit tricky to manage- the pathway's a bit stuck right now.
Tapu Lele, like most of the non-Koko Tapus, is a bit less free in turning up for random people. Nebby can visit the Ruins of Life, but whether he'll see Lele is another matter.
Lillie asks us for this regardless of our last answer. To be fair, she's not asking on her behalf this time- she's asking on Nebby's.
And Nebby has been nothing if not uncontrolled.
This is a bit of an interesting sequence, mainly because they don't really come back to this one in the story- but unlike some other examples of plot hooks we've seen, we do know who this is.
You will be fine.
Nebby, though, is going to get lost five times on the way.
There's a bit of an extended skit here, where Nebby tries to snuggle against us to get out of going back in the bag.
Lillie tells him to suck it up, and he proves a bit more amiable. This sequence was the one part of this scene that was changed for USUM- they trimmed it down so Nebby just smiles at us before going happily in to the bag. I have no idea why they changed their minds on this one, other than maybe going "OK, people didn't like the Lillie cutscenes in the original SM, which ones can we trim...?"
As Lillie leaves, she pauses to mention a group of troublemakers- and notably, she only mentions she's heard of them.
She doesn't realise most people just flick them in the nose and move on with their day.
...OK, granted, Lillie might find that harder than most...
...What an odd thing to say.
That's what's tingling your Rotom sense? What's even the point of you?
The old lady just outside the shop is just inside Lillie's trigger- it looks like you can talk to her first, but you can't. She is, however, good to talk to- she gives you a freebie Rare Candy. Always nice to have more of these.
Inside the salon, we get two girls discussing the process of dying outfits. Going through this process in Festival Plaza is a bit of an ordeal, and I won't be doing it for the most part, but if I can get it set up, it will let Noah start using his red coat...
Over in the corner, we have an old man with another Job for us. This time, instead of a pushy tourist, he's a pushy old man.
Steady on there. Try to tone it down a tad.
So that's what we're calling it this time? It's barely a trial as you designed it.
He tells us to find a Pyukumuku in Hano Grand Resort. I'll let you in on a secret: We can actually find it sooner than that. Even then, though, we won't be finishing this job for a little bit yet.
It's still cash.
The USUM job changes the NPC to a fashion designer interested in Salazzle. Oh boy is Salazzle a choice. Fortunately, Ultra Moon players have a way out of the "ugh" of this objective. But I'll discuss Salazzle when we can even start looking for one. In both cases, we have to wait until after next Trial.
...Spinda? You OK?
...Dumb question.
A sampling of the stuff you can get from this clothes shop to wear. Nothing that really stands out to me, although maybe the Sludge set works together. Those shoes are getting kinda expensive...
This is what Beth's going with.
This shop, in USUM, happens to sell the SM protagonist's starting outfit. You know, if you wanted to reuse that one in USUM for whatever reason.
Although Oahu has the big city of Honalulu, my impression is that Maui has all the cool stuff. The ultimate in zoning permits, having multiple separate islands.
And a thankless job it sounds. These people are in Alola, walk your own damn dogs.
Although strangely, no blue island. Just yellow, pink, red and purple.
If we try to travel any further east than the Pokemon Centre, we stopped by what is quite possibly the biggest asshole on the archipelago.
He will block this public road until such time that his Stoutland has sniffed out every litter item for himself. This guy is the reason we have to go north for our first Trial and can't start by going east, like I think would be possible in other people's Island Challenges (there's no Island Barricades on this path, possibly because it is a public road.)
The worst part is, there are still litter items once he's done.
Fortunately, Crabrawler isn't too annoying to deal with if you really want them.
Also where Paniola Ranch is. Which feels like more of a touristy place to go than the private residence of one of the Trial Captains of Akala.
Basically every Pokemon can learn Protect, and Doubles finds it's an awesome filler move to have. Singles, not so much, but a Protect at the correct moment can make a difference.
Mention of outsider EXP. Not sure if that's been mentioned...
Anyway, the tourist mentioned one of the TMs for sale, and indeed, we can find a pretty neat suite of TMs in this Poke Mart. These are one-time purchases, and this is the only place we can find these TMs. All of them will be incredibly nice to have, but will they be worth the cash? Well, depends on how good your income is.
- TM17 Protect: A Normal Status move. Will make you immune to whatever attack the opponent attempts to use this turn, although not any passive damage. The chance of Protect succeeding when used consecutively drops by 1/3 each time. It's never good until it is the perfect move, no in-between.
- TM33 Reflect: A Psychic Status move. Will set a field effect that halves all damage from physical moves for five turns, or until the screen is dispelled. If you want one of the screens, go for this one, especially in USUM- a lot of the Totems go for physical moves.
- TM16 Light Screen: A Psychic Status move. Will set a field effect that halves all damage from special moves for five turns, or until the screen is dispelled. SM has a few nasty Totems with Special moves, and they do pop up from time to time, but you could probably afford to pass up on this one more often. If you have the money for both, though, the ability to switch on the fly is nice.
- TM20 Safeguard: A Normal Status move. Will set a field effect that prevents all non-volatile status conditions and confusion for five turns. A bit too niche an effect for my tastes- there are smarter ways to escape being inflicted with non-volatile statuses if you really need it. Still, though, the option is available.
- TM70 Aurora Veil: An Ice Status move. Will set a field effect that halves all damage from both physical and special moves for five turns, but it can only be used if the weather is currently Hailing. This is a brand new move to SM, trying to make the idea of exploiting the Hail weather condition more appealing, but it is a hard sell. Still, though, if you have the Hail weather you need to set this, it's more than worth it. (Also, it is considered a screen, and is vulnerable to all the same dispelling moves that Reflect and Light Screen are.)
USUM added two weird examples of "utility NPCs"- by which I mean "they technically have functions", although I have no idea what they're for other than quirky stuff.
This Super Nerd makes a comment on your lead Pokemon's Poke Ball. It's entirely an inane remark about the Poke Ball type.
I've heard of those people. I sorta understand them, but also you won't catch me doing it.
He's another example, this time with Shade's Nest Ball. ...Don't ask questions you have no intentions on answering, game, it's very rude.
On the other side of the Centre, we have... Fred, the NPC who knows who you've traded with.
...
I have several questions. From both a "how does he get away with this narratively" and a "how does this work mechanically" perspective.
...It may be for the best we walk away from this one. Maybe I'll see what happens if I show him one of Noah's Pokemon, or more realistically, what happens if Ray shows him L'Arachel.
Melemele. Or, you know, just on Route 4 itself. It's not that scary.
Just before we get to the way out of Heahea City, we have one more event to get involved in, and somehow, this might just be the most inexplicable event yet.
Say hello to a pair of nostalgia characters, Sina and Dexio. What, don't recognise them? They were in XY, they even had their own theme and everything!
In USUM, they do dramatic poses when introducing themselves. This is not something they did in XY, although you can tell that this is only because XY's engine does not allow them to.
So, uh... for those of us who didn't play XY, who are they, and what is the joke here? Sina and Dexio are Professor Sycamore's assistants, who showed up intermittently on Serena's quest to, say, guide them to Sycamore's lab on the first visit to Lumiose, or give them their upgraded Pokedexes. Later in the game, when the battle with Team Flare begins in earnest, they become masked vigilantes styled as "the Defenders of Kalos", and are of... some help. If XY had a better grasp on its story, this could've been an actually somewhat tragic element, but as it is, they're comedic exposition NPCs there and they're little better here.
What are they doing in Alola? They say "seeing the sights", although I think they do have something useful to be doing for Sycamore.
For no reason in particular, Sina decides that you should battle Dexio.
Even Dexio looks at her like she's gone slightly mad. Not without reason, though.
...Oh, all right. You can't be that tough an opponent- I mean, you barely battled at all in XY.
Sina and Dexio have an associated theme in this version of the XY Battle theme, but it doesn't actually play in this fight- this theme is reserved solely for the post-game rematches you can have. Shame, that.
Dexio's Slowpoke is level 15, having flat 15s in everything except HP (which is 31), no EVs, and neutral Nature. It only knows the moves Confusion and Water Gun. Mostly a speedhump at this point than a serious threat.
Especially if you have a Pokemon that can beat either Water types or Psychic types. Slowpoke's weaknesses don't really cover each other.
I figure Zapple's newfound bulk is enough to justify going for the extra Special Attack, to secure the KO on a particularly bulky Pokemon.
Yeah, I was justified on that call.
Although hilariously, a Nasty Plot wasn't enough to secure a oneshot. Maybe if I had Electro Ball, but it wasn't that important.
Espeon: It can instantaneously sense its opponent's movements by feeling air currents with its fine fur.
Dexio's significant threat is the Espeon. It has 31 IVs in both HP and Spd, with no EVs or Nature, and knows the moves Confusion and Quick Attack. So why is Espeon scarier than Slowpoke? Base stats. Espeon is one of the final forms of the Pokemon Eevee, and every single one of them has a high BST. Espeon has chosen to invest in its Sp. Atk and Spd, rendering it a powerful offensive Psychic type force and a worthy competitor to Kadabra- it is, in fact, stronger and faster than an equally invested Kadabra.
You know what we do to powerful Specially-focused offensive forces?
Yeah, uh... even after a Struggle Bug, it does that much damage.
To add insult to injury, Espeon has a not-unreasonable Sp. Def stat, and actually took those Struggle Bugs to the chin. Sorry, Razzly, I guess this just wasn't your fight to win.
You know whose fight it is, though? Woodstock's.
Something something immune to Psychic Attacks.
Leftovers may not be outpacing the Quick Attacks, but when you're a Dark type hitting Espeon's weaker Defence stat, well, it's an easy win.
Rather than press the victory, I decided to show off a bit. Here is Infestation in action: A bunch of ticks surround Espeon and cause its trapped status ailment, in what I can only assume is intended to be fleas.
Absolutely bafflingly, Infestation is considered a contact move, and triggered Poison Touch to Poison it as well. Passive damage is going to make this Espeon's life difficult.
Espeon's Ability is Synchronise, which causes it to inflict any statuses applied to it right back onto the setter. Of course, Synchronise does not work, because Woodstock is a Poison type and immune to the Poison status. Better luck next time.
Because you lost roughly a quarter of your HP just from arriving at the end of the turn.
Woodstock, in a fit of "you know, I'm having a bit too much fun having revenge for Razzly", decides to do something about that whole "Quick Attack" thing.
If there's one degenerate strategy I approve of, it's engineering the fight to make the opponent's only valid option be to attempt (and fail) a move that I am immune to.
I probably could've two turned that fight if I went for Bite.
On the other hand, this let me use Disable and win without throwing a single punch (other than Infestation). I think I know what the fun option was.
Acid Spray is a 40 BP Special Poison move that always drops the opponent's Sp. Def by two stages after it is used. Early on in the game, it's a good move that only gets better. Later on, it becomes a surprisingly effective way to deal with an opponent who's got high Special Defences, although you might prefer to have more powerful Poison moves handy. Woodstock prefers to attack with his Physical stat, anyway, but that doesn't mean there's no use for decreasing the opponent's Sp. Def while it can.
Certainly, you don't see Serena doing something like that.
Dexio and Sina use the generic "Pokemon Trainer" class, but this is a class that does have varied prize money amounts depending on who exactly is doing the payout. Dexio and Sina are the only Pokemon Trainers to have a payout of x140- compare Hau, who also uses the Pokemon Trainer class, but pays out x20.
"Perhaps more than I asked for... last time I let Sina make me get into a battle."
As alluded to, you could potentially be challenged either by Sina herself or Sina will volunteer Dexio. The differentiating factor is whether you are playing Pokemon Sun or Pokemon Moon: Sun players will face Dexio, and Moon players will face Sina.
Glaceon (Ultra Moon): It can instantaneously freeze any moisture that's around it, creating ice pellets to shoot at its prey.
While Dexio used a pair of Psychic type Pokemon, Sina's team uses the Ice type Delibird and Glaceon. Same IVs as Dexio's equivalent, with Delibird knowing Present and Glaceon having Icy Wind and Quick Attack. Although Sina may look like she has it worse because Delibird is more blatantly a dud, Glaceon is no slouch of an Eeveelution. It has the same high Sp. Atk stat as Espeon, and is using a move with higher BP- one that also cuts your Spd and doesn't have an immunity to exploit. In addition to this, while Glaceon is not fast, it has made its BST investments in Defence and Special Defence, making it a pain to take down if you don't happen to have its weaknesses handy- and while Ice is often considered frail, right now, that isn't a guarantee.
In USUM, Dexio and Sina exchange their leads for the newly introduced Mime Jr. and Smoochum, both of which have the same IVs as the Slowpoke/Delibird, and know Confusion/Powder Snow (whichever one is their STAB) and Pound. Sina definitely upgraded, but YMMV on whether Dexio did. However, Dexio definitely won when it came to their Eeveelutions- he got his Confusion upgraded to the 65 BP Psybeam, making his Espeon hit harder than Sina again. Strangely, both teams also had their 31 IVs downgraded to 30 (I'm not sure this even changed the stat's actual value), and both Eeveelutions were demoted to level 15.
If you're curious, yes, all five evolutionary families represented in these four fights appear in the Kalos Pokedex.
And Sina's version of her closing dialogue. Mostly the same, but also slightly different, because why not, if you're committing to the version-exclusive fight?
The whole "do you fight Dexio or Sina?" thing converges here, where Sina is the one reaping the rewards either way. Just, in this route, she got to watch someone else take the heat.
I hope you'll still be saying that when I get to the end of my challenge and have a team worth bragging about.
Dexio comments on our passing resemblance to "five young Trainers". This is, of course, referring to the protagonist and her miscellaneous band of misfits- the opposite gender PC, who serves as the main battle rival, Shauna the carefree story-chaser, Trevor the dedicated Pokedex completionist, and Tierno the groovin' dude. It should not surprise you to learn it's mostly the protagonist we take after.
And now we see why they brought Sina and Dexio back, in particular. Pokemon has a bit of a tradition starting with RSE, in that the pair of legendaries that appear on the boxarts of the launch games of a new generation (Groudon/Kyogre, Dialga/Palkia, Reshiram/Zekrom, etc) are actually two members of a trio, with the third Pokemon appearing in an out-of-the-way place and not rising to story prominence until the release of the second game set in that region- Emerald adding Rayquaza, Platinum adding Giratina, B2W2 adding Kyurem. XY's legendary pair, Xerneas and Yveltal, were clearly preparing to follow this pattern with the Legendary Pokemon Zygarde, only for there... not to be a second game set in Kalos. I suspect this is because they wanted a new set of games to appear for the 20th anniversary, pushing SM out the door in order to [insert reasons to have big game out on anniversary date here], and because they had this complicated and, frankly, cool idea for Zygarde already drafted up and sorta in the data for XY- and also in the Kalos arc of the anime- they simply finished up the mechanics and slapped it into SM.
The Xerneas/Yveltal connection is toast, but at least Zygarde got his cool new features for the competitive players. And oh boy did the competitive players get a face full of Zygarde.
Also, that is not a cube.
So yeah, you remember how I mentioned how Totem Stickers were a replacement mechanic for an unpopular system in SM? We have finally been introduced to SM's equivalent of the Totem Stickers. There are 95 Zygarde Cells and 5 Zygarde Cores scattered across the Alola region, in all sorts of crevasses and corners of the region, and there is a reward for finding all 100. The problem? 20 of them are Day only, 20 of them are Night only, these don't have the dignity of being in easy-to-get-to locations even if they are time-locked, and they're also rather hard to spot if you're not keeping a close eye for what you're after. The Totem Stickers, in contrast, are always available, clearly visible, largely sequestered to towns and other populated areas, and also have some degree of partial completion rewards- the rewards for collecting only some of the Zygarde Cells aren't quite as nice as the Totem-sized Pokemon are in USUM. Add, on top of that, the fact you can start collecting Totem Stickers basically as soon as you start seeing them, while getting the Zygarde Cube now means we have to re-explore Melemele twice to find the 14 Cells and 2 Cores on it? Yeah, uh, turns out it was nice for Zygarde and only nice for Zygarde.
USUM has cheerfully decided not to include the Zygarde Cell hunt. Note that all the features that the Zygarde Cube unlocked are still in this game, just unlocked later on. And nobody shed a tear.
You have been so helpful. And to think, I didn't even get your names, masked heroes.
They do an Alola wave before walking off.
I think their outfits are available without having to buy them. They're definitely outfits you can obtain for yourself.
...Does this street sign really point out the hotel ten meters away?
(The big banners either side depict brand new Alolan Pokemon. The small banners depict the Kantonian Pokemon Krabby, Staryu and Horsea, the latter of whom appears on the fountain, too. Only Staryu is found in the Alola Pokedex, with Horsea found by Island Scan and Krabby not being present at all.)
These ladies are Dancers, and they're doing a little singing.
The other one makes a bit of a comment, and one that does actually apply: The Z-Poses are based on Hawai'ian dances with meanings similar to those of the types they borrow from. Although I do suspect the poses for types like Dragon, Fairy, Psychic and even Normal may have some artistic license...
I don't take umbrage with the fact there are two grandiose hotels on Akala Island. I take umbrage with the fact they're both in Heahea. OK, probably zoning on the other side of the island is the problem.
And that's all the guy says on the subject. In USUM, he gets a little more to it.
He gives the same spiel as he does in SM, before pausing to express his discontent.
On asking him what his problem is, he's happy to open up. We may be a customer (well, OK, this hotel is well out of our price range, and probably overbooked), but we also asked, so I suppose it's really on us...
Turns out, when all you have to side with one hotel is "they're the one who paid me", you can have worms of doubt to fester. Especially if the reason you're working at this one is "the other one rejected me" rather than "this one made the better offer."
His self-esteem isn't really in question- this is still loads better than even working at a normal hotel, and especially not working at all. But an unanswered "what if" is always there to haunt you.
We can't do anything more for him. But we can have a chat with the owner, once we get around to him.
The interior of the Tide Song is appropriately flashy. This tourist knows what she's going to Paniola for.
And get pelted in the face with all those litter items I pick up and never use? Sounds horrible.
...
At this point, I think you have a problem. This much business can't be healthy.
Eh, could be better. I prefer other sources of location data.
The photos on the wall have little blurbs if you click on them. We've got the pink flowers that Oricorio needs for nectar, and also a nice commemorative one.
Lillie has also made it to the Tide Song OK. And, somewhat hilariously, the Tide Song is optional. You don't have to see this dialogue, and if you don't, you might have forgotten about the plot hook Lillie dropped before she left.
This is the greatest line if you know exactly who she was supposed to be meeting. But yeah, it seems like Lillie's effort to get in touch with somebody else hasn't gone well. If this friend could help us, that sucks, but who knows? Maybe we'll find them again...
It's nice, comfy, and will let Lillie cool her heels while she waits for the path to the Ruins of Life to no longer be obstructed. (It turns out that it is not just the Stoutland guy in the way of that, although he's not helping.)
Lillie will remain here waiting until we clear all three Akala Trials.
Yup. Lillie is sitting this island out.
He's actually the owner? I'm impressed they put him on a customer service position. At any rate, Ailey can talk to this guy about the bellhop.
This sounds like the sort of thing that you shouldn't be hearing about. Although in this case...
No, I wouldn't, but I will keep it in mind. It will be some time before we can complete this quest, it seems. It does sound like this guy does have an idea about what will help his bellhop out- which makes him leagues better than other managers.
...Good question. Hopefully it's just Charm and not Attract. Unless you start clicking with him.
...Looking closely at this, those vases look like they're based on Spheal. Spheal is from the Hoenn region, and can be found by Island Scan in Alola. So many foreign Pokemon...
(The light fixtures are Chinchou, those are in Alola.)
More singing. If I had a better finger on the pulse of the music scene, I might be able to tell if these songs are supposed to be references to real songs or not. Either way, you don't get much from text alone.
In the back corner, we can see our first Zygarde unit, a Zygarde Cell. It glows a light green and easily blends in with a lot of outdoor designs.
Zygarde Cores glow red, but are mostly the same.
The first time you suck in a Zygarde Cell, you get a short message from Sina explaining their deal.
...Couldn't have mentioned this in person? I was expecting something more substantial if we were deferring it?
Photos on the left-hand sight are more for impressive Water Pokemon sights. Both Luvdisc and Wailord are available in Alola.
Back in USUM, where we're going to be staying for the rest of this update, this lady says something different...
If you realise she's the girl we were directed to in the beach bottle.
Yes, yes we have.
If you could explain why we should be excited, too?
Huh. That explains the phrasing on the letter.
Still, it was probably not nice to the ocean life.
Whatever it was, it worked, and this lady has accomplished the dream she set out in the bottle.
She's got hers, and if there's any left over, we're welcome to it. I'm incredibly grateful, but...
It turns out Heart Scales are just paperweights in the Alola region.
There is a special NPC that appears somewhere in every region, starting from RSE and being retroactively added to the remakes of the games beforehand. They are known as "the Move Reminder", and can teach your Pokemon any move they could have learned at a lower level than they currently are. In every game except FRLG, learning a move from this NPC cost one Heart Scale. This made any sources of Heart Scales very nice in most games, since this can even be a source of moves you can't get anywhere else, whether because you caught the Pokemon at too high a level, or because they got special new moves at level 1 added on evolution.
SM decided, "for the player's convenience", that the Reminder be allowed to teach moves learned later in their moveset than their current level. To balance this bonus, the Move Reminder can only be found right outside the final boss rush. Yes, dealing with this nightmare will start messing with Pokemon viability somewhere round the end of this island/start of the next. They never fixed this for USUM or even Let's Go, but it was much celebrated when they actually improved the Reminder system in SwSh, at the "cost" of no longer getting those later moves. No one really wanted those anyway. Except maybe Little Cup players.
In USUM, Tide Song added an entire second floor (well, third floor) to explore. Not that much of value up here, but it is a place we can visit.
Going up. No inside the elevator in this game, elevators are loading zones now.
...You do know I haven't checked in, right? Wait, has Lillie? Can I borrow her room?
Corsola to play with at the far left end.
...It is, huh? Spike Cannon is an attack that hits 2-5 times in succession. I would not imagine that to be a pleasant massage.
The first room contains a unique character- we can see him later in SM, too, but he gets a cameo because of this.
Also we can steal his litter items. Although I doubt the Wing was his. The Health Wing gives a single EV in the HP stat- not really worth gathering in numbers.
Talking to the man causes him to make a loud exclamation. Whether he has noticed us is another matter.
He's also a nostalgia character! He appears in B2W2, and so is talking about the power of Rosa.
In B2W2, he was a scientist character, investigating Team Plasma to study the best way to draw out the power of Pokemon, and facing the protagonist overwhelmed his original hypotheses and caused him to change track.
And it seems he's incredibly enamoured with the possibilities of Z-Power.
All the pictures from the left-hand wall that the elevator displaced have been moved up here, including this extra one for Horsea.
Second room contains this guy, who is a utility NPC whose utility is... awkward.
He will provide us with the three Event-Only Z-Crystals from SM on a permanent basis. Mewnium and Marshadium are associated with the Mythical Pokemon Mew and Marshadow, and if you have one of either, you have already participated in an event. Then again, Z-Crystals cannot be traded. Snorlium Z, in comparison, was given out as part of SM's early-adopter bonus. Snorlax's Z-Move is more of a joke than an actual utility option, but still, it's a very funny joke.
We can't get any of these Z-Crystals unless we actually have the associated Pokemon (on a per-Pokemon basis). The only one most people will be able to get is the Snorlium-Z, but do you really want to go all this way for it?
I actually generated a Mew for Ray to claim the Mewnium. I can say that, despite Genesis Supernova using the Psychic Dance regardless of whether you've got the Psychicium Z, owning this doesn't get you the ability to use the Psychic Z-Pose in the Photo Album. I was wondering.
This Totem Sticker can only be seen at some angles, because of the way the bars on the window are set up. It's a little bit of a pain, but this balcony doesn't have a Wing, so it's your cue to look elsewhere. Oh, speaking of which:
If you're diligent, you can get to the 20 Totem Sticker threshold with the Totem Sticker on this table. Whenever you have enough Totem Stickers to amass a threshold, Samson calls you and tells you to go to Heahea Beach. He doesn't tell you what he's going to give you- or even that he has a prize- but if you know this is why he's calling you, it does serve as a reminder.
Third door contains this lass.
Approaching her starts a cutscene where she starts giggling in the presence of two Pokemon that spray some exotic fragrances.
(By the way, Bellossom is not available by any means in the Alola games.)
There are some questions that should not be asked, let alone answered.
I don't think I wanted to be in that room anyway.
...Is this a bribe?
They're all gone now. I think I want to know if they got their deposit back.
Eh, this wasn't worth coming back in for.
Fourth door has an old man with a bit more of an extended quest to go along.
He's looking for something.
And some spry young legs ought to help him find it. Fortunately, it's not too much of an ordeal.
All he's here for is a reunion with some old friends.
Don't you just hate when you've been out of town so long they remodelled?
It depends on how long ago you planned this reunion, really. If it was a little more recent, I'd say it's on your head for not doing the research.
The three NPCs you need are all brand newly added, and they're all idling in a thinking animation. They're also all mostly old...
Except this one on the port. Maybe she was a kid at the time. That raises its own questions.
Anyway, off you go. That's the only one on this map- you need to go through loading zones to find the other two.
A group? No. A man aspiring to form a group? Yes.
There goes the one waiting on the beach. So where else can we check?
Why, the clothing store, of course!
A bit of a long walk around, but we got there in the end.
Heading back to the room shows everybody getting into the spirit of a nice reunion, now that they've all been properly directed.
This is the young lady talking, which leads directly into the explanation for her deal:
Nope, she really is as old as all the other folks here. Her youthful appearance was hard work and something I'm not 100% sure either myself or a doctor would recommend.
Mareanie is a Poison type, see.
Although these two seem to have a laugh about the idea after the fact. Good to hear.
At least they landed in being the same in good spirits. I'd hate for this to be restarting of a thirty year old argument.
...Wow, you haven't come by this place in ages.
Hey, the ferry's still in use! And besides, not everybody wants to take Mantine. That's a lot more conscious effort, and there's benefit in being able to not think about your trip throughout the entire journey.
Even Sudowoodo is happy to raise a bushy arm to that.
...Do I ask them how their Island Challenge went, or would it be so different to mine that it's not particularly helpful?
Huh, you guys knew Hala? At that point, though, I guess you left the region.
...Did you know Hala has a grandson now?
I hope that marriage goes well for you. And that you wish the same thing.
So, what was that all for?
A bitter herb. Using a Revival Herb on a fainted Pokemon will restore it to full HP, but it will also dock them 15 points in friendship (20 if it really liked you). Despite the fact that friendship is meaningless unless you're actively interacting with the stat, I never use these. It doesn't feel right.
..That's either depressing or morbidly depressing, depending on why that's the case.
Anyway, something about 20 Totem Stickers giving me a prize?
Our first Totem-sized Pokemon! And it's... not something I would have used regardless. I've been a bit wishy-washy about whether these count as "new options" for Ailey's rules, but I'm considering letting her use the UM Totem at 70. It's a tough call.
50 was also tempting, but I think Bethany wanted to use that mon herself anyway.
Ultra Moon receives Totem Raticate, and Ultra Sun receives Totem Gumshoos. While this is nice and fitting, later Totems being version exclusive is just for exclusivity's sake.
Totem-sized Pokemon have increased weight, which does come into play for a small handful of moves like Low Kick (Totem Raticate sure doesn't appreciate an even more painful Low Kick...), three guaranteed perfect IVs, and will always have a locked Ability, regardless of what they had when they were an actual boss. Both Gumshoos and Raticate got their HAs, Adaptability and Thick Fat. Poor Yungoos suffers from a bad starting set, though- although Raticate might be able to make something of the stretch of game before its bad moveset and even worse stats start to bite it in the butt.
Next time: Ye Olde Towne.
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