Pokemon Sun Malie Garden: Hau's Attention Span

Rather neatly, our pathway to the next island goes from Aether Paradise. Neat touch.

Welcome to Ula'ula, the third Island, based on none other than "the Big Island" of Hawai'i. We've taken off our limiters, now to see how the game responds in kind.

Welcome to, uh... the other Japanese town in this Hawai'ian game, Malie City. Because of the proximity, the Japanese are probably the largest external cultural influence on Hawai'i, even more than the United States that now controls it. At its peak, 43% of Hawai'i was Japanase. Although this percentage has dropped since, the reason has more to do with "people formerly counted as Japanese are now considered mixed-race" than it suggests Japanese culture has left the Hawai'ians.

But still, since Pokemon has less settlements than the real islands, having Malie and Konikoni may have been overkill on portraying it. Especially since we already had four regions set in Japan. Malie is definitely the one that's focusing on it, though- Konikoni just has traces of the architecture and the music.

And no Lillie to point out the problems with that one.

...I wonder just how stable Aether Paradise was. Poor conservatory, on the third floor.

In USUM, the cutscene ends around here. In SM... this is not the case.

Looks like it.

I'd like to judge it by more than just the port, though.

...Hau... Hau, mate...

Good reasoning. Although I get the feeling that maybe him not getting a battling thing is getting to him a little more than he lets on.

He is polite enough to heal us, but this battle, in SM, is one of the cruelest tricks in the game. Aether Paradise was set up as being suspicious, but was mostly a guided tour before a mandatory boss battle against a single Pokemon. You probably saved there, and probably don't think you can backtrack to safety to reorganise your party to prepare for this battle.

We have not left a cutscene state since the battle with Symbiont.

Fortunately, this time I came prepared, although sadly, a bit of a miscommunication about how to challenge Symbiont means I don't have their stats- really sells how much of a surprise this is. In my first playthrough, I thought Aether Paradise would be more substantive, so brought a team that was ready to soak up that EXP.

Yeah, don't do that. Bring your A-game.

Raichu (Ultra Sun): It focuses psychic energy into its tail and rides it like it's surfing. Another name for this Pokémon is “hodad.”

Not the least because the first thing you see is this absolutely terrifying monstrosity. So, remember what I said about Hau having no desire for the Psychic TM? Yeah, no, the real reason is he doesn't need it. Raichu is an absolutely terrifying monster to next to anything that doesn't know it's coming, and a good portion of things that do. As cameoed in the Battle Royal Dome, Pikachu's flat 15 has been buffed to have a 31 in Speed, alongside having 252 in Sp. Atk and Spd (the only one of Hau's team members to have two EVs). Still a Serious Nature, but where this thing really kicks ass is its moves. Electro Ball, Quick Attack, and Psychic. Yup. Raichu is an Electric/Psychic type, and the Ground types you were probably using on Symbiont are usually low on Sp. Def and slaughtered by Psychic. And the good Dark type Bethany is using is Woodstock- slow and not really feeling Electro Ball either. We don't have a Ground/Dark yet, and the list of things that can stand up to both of Raichu's options are narrow. If you don't have something that can counter this thing, you lose.

This is the point where you learn that Hau will let you progress the plot even if you lose. If it wasn't for that, SM would actually drive away all the kids, most likely.

Plan B: Just bring something that can actually take a Special hit. Ideally, that something is something that can hit back physically, like Snorlax, but its Special bulk isn't remarkable. Just... better.

Psychic is devastating, but we've come a long way from it oneshotting anything that dared to not carry a Resist.

I was worried that Raichu would be a little sturdier than it was. And was also kinda hoping I might outspeed. 92 is a bit too fast to be outspeeding reliably, though. A Pollen Puff would've won this match, though.

You are not taking the second Psychic.

Woodstock may not like the Electro Ball, but calling the Psychic, it does get a free switch-in.

That was... well, I can't deny you didn't achieve something. Wonder why you didn't click Electro Ball, then. Probably not quite fast enough to secure a good enough BP. Electro Ball is usually just weak enough to get away with these shenanigans. The -1 Sp. Atk probably isn't helping.

But still, the last of the HP goes down quick to Woodstock.

This is a bit of a weird decision on the moveset designer's part. Razzly gets, on evolution, a signature 90 BP Bug move with an effect that works better in Doubles. Three levels later, it learns the standard 90 BP Bug move, which has a 10% chance of lowering the foe's Sp. Def and is thus better than Pollen Puff in the main story. I guess it would've been a disappointment to get this later, but... why...

Sure, good for you. You're done for this fight, at least.

Hau not only added Eevee to his team since last we met him, he's also evolved it. He will carry the Eeveelution with the Fire/Water/Grass typing that is strong against your starter, and for us, that's... Flareon. Flat 15s with a 31 in HP, 252 HP EVs, Serious Nature, and the move Quick Attack and one of either Fire Fang, Water Pulse or Giga Drain, depending on what it is. Flareon suffers from being Flareon, Leafeon suffers from using its weaker offense (while getting the best move in exchange, and mostly making it out fine as a result), while Vaporeon can be actually kind of scary. There's compelling argument to be made that maybe he should've picked Glaceon/Vaporeon/Leafeon instead, but he can't get a Glaceon because of its evolution method. More reason to make Glaceon more accessible.

Flareon doing its absolute hardest to mock my doubts. Survived High Horsepower with a 10% Burn, and the residual damage is likely going to let it manage a KO.

At least Stamina put paid to that, but still. Murphy cut this far closer than it being a Flareon would suggest.

Keep in mind, Murphy can evolve and raise its stats for the rematch.

I am at least glad I still won, but still. I do not rescind my comments on Flareon.

Final mon is Brionne, or whatever his starter is. Same flat 15 IVs with a 31 in HP he had before, 252 EVs in HP, Serious Nature, and his moveset slimmed down since Paniola. He only carries two moves, both being ~60 BP moves. Specifically, they are Razor Leaf/Pluck for Dartrix, Fire Fang/Bite for Torracat, and Bubblebeam/Disarming Voice for Brionne. He has switched out the Normalium Z it carried for the Z-Crystal that gives it a STAB Z-Move, and for Brionne, that is Waterium Z.

...I am starting to get the sneaking suspicion that these two Pokemon shift the balance such that Rowlet has the easiest fight (Flareon and Brionne), and Litten has the hardest (Vaporeon and Dartrix). That was probably an accident with what Pokemon they wound up with and what moves fit into the niche they were building.

Once again, with Zapple still just shy of when I want it evolving, it falls to Oatchi to play the direct counter card. This is just as much the lack of Water counters as it is keeping to the standard matchup- Noah and especially Ray have more counters to Torracat than just Mio and Sirehound, while Ailey... actually, stay tuned for the Ailey fight.

Another day, another expert showing for the reason people don't typically like the main rival using the starter weak to yours. To be fair to the concept, Nemona's starters are far more dangerous than Hau's really trying to be here.

Ah, this is a move with some key utility. 65 BP Physical Dark move, it increases in power by 50% if the target is holding an item, and it also causes the opponent to lose access to that item. This is the perfect Woodstock move, and there's a Totem fight later on that's got this move written all over it. In the main story, however, opponents holding items are few and far between. In competitive, basically the only Pokemon who don't hold items are planning on using Acrobatics, and even they will still carry a consumable.

And no, Z-Crystals cannot be Knocked Off, nor does Knock Off get the 50% boost if the hold item is a Z-Crystal.

You and basically everybody you ambushed with that sneaky trick.

Would you believe me if I told you I didn't pack the Amulet Coin? Hau's x40 multiplier from Paniola is now x120.

...Actually, yeah, hold on, why didn't I pack the Amulet Coin? I blame not getting to properly prepare.

Toucannon (Ultra Sun): They smack beaks with others of their kind to communicate. The strength and number of hits tell each other how they feel.

One really nice thing I got out of this was that Sam achieved its evolution level of 28, evolving into Toucannon. This is cool mostly as an aside- Toucannon itself is pretty sluggish, with high Attack and potential Skill Link access remaining its only strength compared to other regional birds its like. Although Sam does actually possess arguments compared to Dottie, I continue to prepare for Dottie winning out. It's also worth noting that Trumbeak is also the earliest evolving of the three-stage birds, giving you something of this power level far faster than the next example (Tranquill at 32).

What I am happy to learn from this is when you get a new Island Pokedex on arriving to a new island. We are on Ula'ula Island, but we haven't yet acquired the Ula'ula Pokedex until Rotom tells us we do. Granted, this is the only edge case in either game, but I love edge cases.

This move gives Sam some half-decent power in its own right, as well. Beak Blast is exclusively available to Toucannon, and is a 100 BP Physical Flying move with special priority mechanics. At the very beginning of the turn, Toucannon will "charge up", and its beak gets very hot. It will then fire the move at -3 priority on the same turn. Where this move really gains some key power is that, if it is hit with a contact move during this charging time, the attacker will be Burned. In most cases, this is little more than a neat party trick, though- but it is very cool when you can get it to work in your favour.

Battling doesn't seem like the sort of activity where you stop and smell the... bamboo?

I mean, it's a recognisable location, close to port, that is pleasant to be in. What more reason does he want?

Ula'ula Pokedex acquired for real. I've also gotten a little lazy and not shown my Akala progress as I went, but after Poke Pelago, well... that kinda lost meaning.

I had a lot of time to convert into EXP.

For Bethany, who took first crack at many of the encounter tables and was usually the one to catch things as a result, the only entries missing from her Pokedexes are the other starters, the Spinarak line (I wasn't super planning on playing during Night in Sun and Day in Moon except in exceptional circumstances, which led me pretty far from it as a result), trade evolutions, version exclusives, Sableye and Castform (SOS encounters aren't fun), the other Eeveelutions, some stone evos (I'm planning on bundling those), a few random level up evos (Bethany was, strangely, the last one to finish up evos), some location-based evolutions, and the evolutions for our actual team members.

Ailey is much the same, but with a few more glaring omissions. Seriously, a few of those absences owe more to laziness than availability (looking at you, Grimer). Everything is accounted for in at least one file, and I'm considering doing some breeding and trading soon-ish to get the formal recognition for it, but for now, well... obvious holes are obvious.

The starting Ula'ula Dex, in both games. Far more of the Pokedex is filled up from the word go, especially when you realise that Castform is on this island. We can also see that Ditto is relatively early in Ula'ula, but still a little bit further in. Although we caught it before getting our Ula'ula Dex in USUM, it is an Ula'ula Pokemon.

Right, here we are in a new locale, and it's time to establish our foothold.

Starting off by looking around in here.

...

Two islands in and I'm still being clocked as foreign? Honestly, sometimes I wonder what people think I am in this game...

That's a long wait for a banal line.

The main feature of Ula'ula is the two lofty peaks, one of which we'll be visiting for a Trial, but the other of which has been saved for a... different purpose.

Funnily enough, the real-life equivalents of these two, Manua Kea and Manua Loa, are volcanoes. The funny part? The snowy one is the one that's still active. SM does somewhat recognise that fact, but still. That snow is lasting until the next eruption.

This guy doesn't even bother telling us he's not an actual shop.

Presumably, this is a joke about branding being coalesced into a single item in the series. Had I wrote this joke? The prices would be 295, 299 and 300 Poke.

I understand, geographically, this makes some amount of sense. But you are not selling the idea of us not using Charizard Glide. It's really nice that we don't need to spend any resources on that.

Hopefully there's a few more like Lurantis, or I'd say the Island Challenge is meant to show off the world's made of paper tigers.

Which wouldn't be the worst lesson...

That's not what my Charizard's saying.

This guy was added in USUM for... some reason, and he seems to be a reference to one of the classic game areas I haven't seen too often.

This guy is implied to be the same man building a tunnel on the Sevii Islands of FRLG, who also gave you a Nugget with a similar line. You're reaching, guys, you're reaching.

Nothing out this way but a Corsola.

And, I suppose, Totem Sticker number 50, too.

A fairly accurate line in connotation, seeing as it's based on Japanese architecture. It is also accurate that, on a world map, Japan can be found to the east of Hawai'i. Considering it is far easier for the Hawai'ians to travel to Japan by going west, though...

I can name a few of them that almost definitely have that feeling- particularly Bagon and Wimpod.

There are other species that may not share the sentiment. Looking at you, Shelmet and Porygon2.

The Big Island of Hawai'i makes up 63% of the landmass of the entire archipelago. I wouldn't really say Ula'ula has that much mass, but this line sure makes it feel like it.

I usually get too stressed, personally. That's a problem I know I've gotta figure out at some point.

Heh, that's a pretty famous one. Wonder Trade is an online mechanic where you deposit a Pokemon into a pool of Pokemon in which every Pokemon player in the world has access, and receive a random Pokemon from that pool in return. People who want to get rid of good-but-not-perfect stuff like to dump it in Wonder Trade, and legendaries are not out of the question.

Although the lore implications of a random kid getting what is implied to be one of many incarnations of an artificially created and semi-secret legendary Pokemon are certainly hilarious. I usually like to ignore the existence of "duplicate Mewtwos" when considering Mewtwo's narrative, but because of the need to have such Pokemon made available to newer audiences, they do often happen.

Funnily enough, USUM either realised this or its change accidentally fixed this- receiving a Shiny Pokemon through Wonder Trade is equally likely and also something the average person should probably be expecting in-universe.

Speaking of USUM, the first time you visit the Malie City Cafe, you get a unique event that sure surprised me when I first encountered it.

Nurse Joy spontaneously decides "you know what, being a 24 hour nurse whose sole job is pushing a button needs break time, I'm clocking out."

This is so surreal in concept alone, and basically every time I've ever seen it on console, I wasn't expecting it. Usually, because of Poke Pelago, you don't really bother with the cafes much come Malie (indeed, I'm no longer using Cafes as a source of Poke Beans for any file), if you ever bothered at all. So the odds of bumping into this one are pretty low as is.

I mean, I'm not questioning that. I'm just questioning why you decided to plonk down right next to me out of nowhere. And also trying to reconcile the fact that you're not a literal sexy lamp some.

Just like he does for us, the Cafe guy shares some pertinent advice for the Nurse. Not advice she's unfamiliar with, but helpful for us, too.

I believe it. But, well, most people who don't tend to need a Pokemon Centre don't tend to drop by. Pokemon has few contagions to worry about to justify it, and the Pokemon Centre does typically hold more essential services than just the healing. Particularly the Storage System in all games, and Communication and Marts depending on the game.

Always an important step, although I'm not sure when the usual timing is.

Looks like a full set of 7 Patterned Beans.

And indeed, a little personal moment proved little permanent bearing, for the Malie nurse will continue to be the same as ever.

Not a line out of place!

That is... a lot of new TMs. We have seen a good portion of these moves, but a fair few of them are still new.

• Facade is a 70 BP Physical Normal move that doubles in power if the user is inflicted with a non-volatile status condition. Note, because this is going to be a problem later, Sleep doesn't count. As of XY, Facade also ignores the halved Atk of Burn. It's a good move with a situational bonus effect, but because of how late the standard Normal move is, this makes a pretty good substitute for anyone who needs Normal STAB. Snaggletooth is still running Tackle.
• Payback is a 50 BP Physical Dark move that doubles in power if the target has already performed an action that turn. This can be either offensive or supportive, it can even include the use of a Bag Item, but as of BW, it does not count the opponent having switched out. This is not the worst move if you plan to be the one acting second, and I know Woodstock certainly has his eye on the move, but it is not a particularly popular one. Mainly, I assume, because many popular Dark types prefer to be the ones going first.
• Rock Polish is a Rock Status move that increases the user's Speed stat by two stages. The move is typically learned by Rock types, but there are a few funny examples that get the move through technicalities- like Sandygast, actually! Hey, sand is a type of rock! Whether it is useful is left as an exercise to the player.
• Swords Dance is a Normal Status move that increases the user's physical Attack stat by two stages. This is the best source of Attack bonuses to many Pokemon, and can typically be found on most Pokemon that at least have something pointy- if you can manage Slash, you can probably manage this. Unlike Rock Polish, many Pokemon in this category actually do make good use of this buff.
• U-Turn is a 70 BP Physical Bug move that, upon dealing damage, automatically switches the user out with a Pokemon of the user's choosing. In addition to some nice chip damage on whatever opponent you're facing, you get a switch that obeys the turn order, which can be to your benefit in certain situations. Now, I normally never engineer these situations enough, but I cannot deny their existence.
  

USUM greatly simplifies the TM list. Since most of the TMs were added earlier in the game, this list only contains one new move. USUM will get Payback pretty soon, but as a heads up, Swords Dance is postgame locked.

• Psych Up is a Normal Status move with a pretty crafty trick- it changes your current stat stage distribution to match that of your target, wiping your old stages in the process. Very nice if you're fighting something with a lot of buffs under its belt, and especially singing out to anything fighting a Totem. SM gets this move relatively soon, but after the next Trial.
  

Don't worry, Bethany had a lot of stuff to sell. I think this is after buying the TMs, too!

As we leave this side of the docks and gain access to Malie Garden (north of us), Lillie stands in our way on the left.

She does not plan to let us travel in that direction until we've talked to the Professor.

Malie Garden is a pretty popular tourist destination, and certainly one of the major reasons to head to Ula'ula. Most of the super tourist hotspots, in both Alola and Hawai'i, are on Melemele and Akala (well, O'ahu and Maui), but that doesn't mean the other two are lacking.

Malie Garden doesn't have its own theme, sadly. The Night version of Malie's own theme makes a pretty good candidate, though.

The tea place is literally directly across the bridge. Hau could see it by looking. He could also probably see the Professor sitting there by looking.

But no, these Swablu-looking bridge mounts are too interesting.

To be fair, Swablu is not available in the original SM.

Presumably, at the place people tend to hang out.

On top of the whole thing about Hau being a bit of a ditz, there's a map literally right here.

I never caught the motif of the garden myself. I have since been informed what it apparently is, and I refuse to believe it. It makes a little more sense with Rotom's map, though.

Once again, Charizard gets the favouritism.

This sign is imparting genuine information, however: Not only are Ride Pokemon not allowed here narratively, but mechanically. We may not Tauros Charge, Lapras Surf, or most cruciallly, Stoutland Search. There is one hidden item here, which is a bit annoying, but it's not that valuable.

It's literally ten steps away. But Hau is preventing us from going that direction, and we'll have to find another way to the tea place.

As it happens, we need to go west, so east first it is.

Return of the Sightseer class! I was starting to miss them a bit. They also bring two Kantonian Pokemon this time!

Persian (Sun): It has a violent temperament. It will attack anything that looks it in the eye. Its sharp claws inflict deep wounds.

Kantonian Persian is pure-Normal, and focuses more on Physical damage instead of Alolan Persian's Special. Both have relatively low values in these Atk scores, however, and Kantonian Persian doesn't have particularly great Abilities with which to justify itself. There's a reason that many do not bother to remember Persian the way they do Raichu.

Persian is all about high Speed and landing annoying moves ahead of time. It planned on using Taunt to disrupt my strategy, but all it wound up doing was giving me a free hit. This one doesn't have Fake Out, it's too high level.

Marowak (Ultra Sun): It throws bones at Mandibuzz to knock it down. It's thought that Marowak is trying to avenge its parent.

Kantonian Marowak offers a much different opponent to the Alolan variety, using a pure Ground typing instead of pivoting sharply to Ghost/Fire. While Ghost/Fire is a pretty terrible Physical type, it does offer to it some significant advantages that make the Alolan turn out better in most circumstances. Still, though, Ground is pretty cool in its own right.

When it's not being matched against a gigantic school of fish, anyway. And when it's using better moves than Rage...

Sorry, Mitch. You put in an effort, though, good on ya.

Must've missed the Island Challenge amulet.

USUM, rather annoyingly, condensed his team down to just one Pokemon, presumably because they added a bit more EXP elsewhere in Malie. Also annoyingly, he uses Kantonian Raticate there- we'll see it later in SM, though, don't worry about that.

There's nothing new to find in Malie Garden's grass, just evolutions of older Pokemon.

Malie Garden can have weather SOS spawns, but the only things you can find that way are Poliwhirl and its two evolutions in the rain. Those evolutions are also timelocked- Poliwrath during the Day, Politoed during the night. Since I don't know which night-time hour has global rain, I'm not really able to go and get this as I'd like. 1% SOS Spawns are hardly my idea of fun.

This is one hell of an item. The Grassy Seed is an item that gives +1 Def if the user happens to be in Grassy Terrain. What's Grassy Terrain? Well, I happen to actually get the chance to show it off this update in the Ailey file, but a quick overview of Terrains:

• Terrains were first introduced in XY, and they are a weather-like field effect that can occur simultaneously with weather, but not with each other. SM represents them trying to bring them into greater focus, with this item and many others its like being new to it.
• There were three Terrains in XY, with a fourth added in this game. They are Electric, Grassy, Misty and Psychic.
• They last for five turns following their summoning.
  
• Each Terrain provides their beneficial effects only to "grounded" Pokemon.
• Electric Terrain gives +50% power to Electric moves, and prevents anyone suffering Sleep.
• Grassy Terrain gives +50% power to Grass moves, halves the power of Earthquake, Magnitude and Bulldoze, and heals everyone by 1/16th HP every turn it is active.
• Misty Terrain halves the power of Dragon moves, and prevents anyone suffering any non-volatile status condition.
  
• Psychic Terrain gives +50% power to Psychic moves, and blocks any targets from suffering from priority moves, regardless of how they got that priority.
• Terrains also change the field effect as far as Nature and Secret Power are concerned, although this is a hard thing to get benefit out of.
  
• They have terrible maingame availability. They would not become TMs like they needed to be until SwSh, leaving their distribution to whatever level up pools happened to be in the game, and they really didn't put their best effort into letting the player luck into them.
• Electric Terrain has one user available in the main story, with another one added with the Move Reminder. USUM added a third, but also at Reminder.
• Grassy Terrain has one user on the beaten path, with one more added normally and two more added in Island Scan for USUM (and also learning the moves at what one might describe as reasonable levels).
• Misty Terrain has two users on the beaten path, one of which gets it at a reasonable level. USUM added two more, with one getting it by Reminder and a second might as well do so.
• You're not going to believe this garbage: Psychic Terrain only has one user, who gets it by Move Reminder... and is only available in USUM. Half the users in competitive only got the move by Breeding in USUM.

They did come up with something that genuinely makes the Terrains powerful in this game, and I'll mention it more when we see it in the postgame, but oh boy if you didn't want to use them, your Terrain-setting options are terrible.

Well, with that disappointment out of the way, moving on.

Really? I thought that was in February.

...Oh, uh... wow. Hi there, Ailey! Samesies!

She was renamed Nancy for USUM. I have no idea what's funnier: That there's an SM Trainer who shares a name with the USUM protagonist, or they recognised it and fixed it for USUM.

Cleffa (Ultra Moon): Said to have ridden here on a shooting star, Cleffa seem to appear in places where meteorites have struck in the past.

In either game, her only Pokemon is Cleffa, a baby pure Fairy whose evolution line is more-or-less officially confirmed to be a literal alien by now. Not that that stops them propogating around the place. We'll find them later, but they happen to be the night-time exclusive counterpart to Igglybuff. Remember how long ago we caught that one?

Pure Fairy means you need either Poison or Steel to hit it SE. Luckily, I had Flambebe.

...I believe it.

Freebie. Good for that Cleffa later, for sure.

There are fishing encounter rocks scattered around here, but all you're going to find in them is Goldeen. And in USUM, Basculin.

Also, this girl is also blocking a path we could otherwise use to get to Kukui. Not that there are any Trainers we are forced to fight en route.

This one's the hidden item. It's the only hidden item on my checklist here, and that's what I'm going with. What are the odds something better than this is hidden somewhere, anyway?

What these roadblocks force us to do, other than walk through all that tall grass and run by Ailey/Nancy, is to come to this end of the garden.

This is more or less the best view of the place we have from the Rotom Pokedex's view, and from here we can see that the garden, at least allegedly, resembles a Gyarados. I... kinda see it? But that's one heck of a choice, especially for a peaceful garden area.

Johto's regional treat in a very Johtovian area, rather fitting.

There's a second Sightseer around here, but she's at the far north part, which is optional. That Rage Candy Bar was at our destination, Kukui was just off-screen.

Raticate (Moon): Its disposition is far more violent than its looks would suggest. Don't let your hand get too close to its face, as it could bite your hand clean off.

There's the Raticate. Kantonian Raticate is pure Normal type and significantly faster and somewhat stronger than the Alolan variety. How's losing both for a Dark type that gives you more weaknesses than strengths working out for you, Crunch?

The answer, of course, is that even the "higher" stats of the Kantonian variety don't offer much help to it against Fighting types. Although the fact its damage is being cut into a quarter by Fluffy and a Resist, as well as the lack of STAB, is doing it no favours.

Raichu (Ultra Moon): Because so many Trainers like the way Pikachu looks, you don't see this Pokémon very often.

Akali's other Pokemon, and her only one in USUM, is the Kantonian Raichu. Raichu has a bit of an interesting history in series history as a result of its unfortunate relationship to the series mascot. In the first season of the anime, Ash's Pikachu outright refused to evolve in order to defeat the stronger Raichu with superior Speed (a strategy that only works in anime logic and not in game logic, Raichu is faster than Pikachu), and from that moment on Pikachu maintained its reputation as remaining in the smaller form. Pikachu has gotten a lot of special attention, from getting special moves and forms... and no special form of Pikachu is even capable of evolution. No, despite Raichu being superior to Pikachu in every way mechanically, fans of Raichu were few and far between, and seeing it, and only it, get an Alolan form was a welcome surprise to a fanbase starting to get sick of the attention lavished on only the smaller form.

I brought Murphy, but Flambebe was lower level, so I decided to give her a try to see if I could get it some EXP.

She pulled through, but wow that Raichu hit hard. Not that we really expected less, after Hau's, but the fact Akali's actually has Thunderbolt (90 BP Electric move) is scary.

Finally. Nuzzle is a very unique move: It is a 20 BP Physical Electric move that always lands paralysis against its target. Unlike T-Wave, which was nerfed to 90% accuracy in this game, it remains at 100% accuracy, making it an alternative to Glare for reliable paralysis, and it also breaks Sturdy in the same action. Since it is a damaging move and not a status move, it also circumvents Taunt and its like, but be careful: It is vulnerable to being blocked by Shield Dust. Fortunately, Taunt is a more frequent concern for Paralysis setters than Shield Dust.

Nuzzle can only be learned by Pikachu and the various members of the legion of Pikachu copycats across each region, giving them a valuable niche where they only had cuteness beforehand. It's not really enough to make them a member of the team if they wouldn't be otherwise, but it is a tangible option they have that more standard Electric types do not have.

Well... I mean, not on the social media Bethany had access to. I had access to a resource that told me your entire team, but that's not something you contributed to. Knowingly.

...You do you, Akali.

I'm actually going to show off this fight in USUM.

...First of all, yes, Akali has Thunderbolt and Thunder Shock, this is a quirk of how Raichu's default learnset is set up. Why she used Shock when she had Bolt, I'll never know.

Anyway, since we just got an introductory briefing on Terrains and Floette is one of the first Pokemon to get access to one- in fact, I thinks she is the first one, in a pure numbers game- we might as well get to see it used once.

It restores both sides, but I'm the only dented one right now.

...I swear your AI is running on RNG at this point, lady.

I have several comments about the fact that, even with an equal-to-STAB bonus from Grassy Terrain, Raichu is still a 3HKO. I haven't evolved Crysantha yet, but seeing this again is starting to make me worried I might need to.

Fortunately, the healing is only 1/16, but it is irritating they benefit too.

I'm not getting a Sp. Def bonus in here! What, is my Sp. Def just that much higher?

In the end, I did come out with only -9 HP to my name. Even if it took far longer than I imagined.

Also, Terrain persists to this line. Anyway, that's enough about that mechanic.

Evolving Pikachu is always a tough call- you want to wait long enough to get access to its good moves relatively later on in its toolkit, but not so late you get caught using something that can barely handle its own job for being too weak. Although I really want Thunderbolt at 42, I can't justify not evolving it that long, so I defined my cutoff as Nuzzle at 29.

Zapple has joined Hau and Akali's Raichus, batting for team Alola. All hail the fluffy pancakes!

And yup, just for evolving, Zapple gets to learn the powerful Psychic STAB move. This would have been really useful against, say, Totem Salazzle, and if it wasn't for Nuzzle and Volt Tackle, I would say you wouldn't be too unjustified going for it, but as it is, I'm happy with the kit I've got. Even if I wish I wasn't -Atk.

...Although speaking of things that happened to the backup run worth commenting on, Alena achieved her own evolution level! Alena learns Stomp at level 29, and similarly to Bonsly and Mime Jr. with Mimic, knowing Stomp is her evolution requirement.

Tsareena (Sun): Its long, striking legs aren't just for show but to be used to kick with skill. In victory, it shows off by kicking the defeated, laughing boisterously.

Today, on the subject of "are you sure this is a kid's game"-themed Pokemon, it is Tsareena. Tsareena is significantly more powerful than Steenee, with 220 extra points in BST, and +80 of that is just in her Atk. She's also got +50 in both her Defences. This Pokemon is here to win, and her signature Ability adds to that. If you started with an Oblivious Steenee, you receive a Tsareena with the Ability Queenly Majesty, which blocks her from being hit by priority moves. She's not exactly the fastest, but there are some opponents that stop cold when this thing is put in their path. Now, whether they're scared of a Grass type is another matter, but I'm not saying that in her earshot.

Trop Kick, a move that Kukui mentioned in USUM's opening monologue, is Tsareena's signature move. It is a 70 BP Physical Grass move that lowers the opponent's Atk by one stage on contact. It is also likely to be her Grass STAB of choice for a good long while to come, and single-handedly turns Alena from "short of a liability" to "terrifying to nearly anything that doesn't resist Grass". And even some things that do might think twice if they're weak to some of her coverage.

Over in this far dead end is a Zygarde Cell in SM.

Without Zygarde Cells in USUM, they replaced it with the free copy of the Thunder Wave TM. SM already has its copy, so this is just delaying it somewhat.

Another treasure up at the base of this tower...

And we're pretty much done here. The seat to our south-west has Kukui on it, and walking too close to it triggers the cutscene. There is a little more to be done, however.

Including laughing about how far away Hau is from the other side of his roadblock.

But primarily, USUM added a fourth encounter here, one that mostly makes up for the two other missing Pokemon. This one's a Double Battle, even!

The Tourist Couple pairing was introduced in USUM, with both examples being added to it. There's this one, with a female Sightseer being paired with the new Bellhop class, and a later one with a male Sightseer instead. Both battles have a pretty cool theme that I wish they did more of:

Vulpix (Moon): From its mouth spew flames that seem to resemble the spirits of the deceased. Some people mistakenly think this fire is a ghost.
Vulpix (Sun): It exhales air colder than -50 degrees Celsius. Elderly people in Alola call this Pokémon by an older name- Keokeo.

Using the Kantonian and Alolan forms of the same Pokemon together! Statistically, both Vulpixes are exactly the same, but one of them is a Fire type and the other one is an Ice type. Although their movesets aren't set, they do have a trick if their AI lets them: The Fire one knows Will-O-Wisp and they both know Hex. Sometimes they get lucky with clever strats. Most of the time they don't get them off.

Also the colonialism implicit in the suggestion that Vulpix is no longer identified by its traditional Hawai'ian name because of its association with the Kantonian...

A quick Aqua Tail for the Fire type, and a Fire Fang for the Ice type. Gotta get Moss that EXP she lost for losing to Hau...

You've got something going on there, don't worry about it.

...And from the sounds of it, that "something sparking" might be more than just battle potential...

Anyway, this is a meeting long overdue. Hi, Kukui!

...Or, uh, what he said. I prefer mine.

...Well, so much for that suspicious wind Bethany picked up through Aether Paradise. That is not the way one phrases their impressions of what happened in there if they saw it as anything other than "aliens are cool".

Hau is the one who gushes about the Ultra Beast encounter to Kukui, and also offloads the duty of informing Burnet onto him.

Oh believe me, it is a reason to train harder, but it sure isn't the one you think it is.

In USUM, he also adds a comment about the Ultra Recon Squad, calling them, explicitly, aliens. This terminology is almost never used to describe Pokemon that come from outer space, even if the game is all but explicit on the topic. Even the Pokemon literally named LGM is not called an alien, although the word "alien" does appear in one of its Pokedex entries.

And hopefully we won't suffer the same fate as Symbiont when we do.

Mount Hokulani is a site with quite a lot of nice things to offer us for our adventure, including but not limited to the Trial. As good a next destination as any.

So much for Hau's hard training. That battle we just had notwithstanding, I think the game is starting to think of us as having well and truly surpassed him.

And this next one will have some of the fiercest tastes to adapt to!

His USUM comment follows up on doubts he expresses after his USUM battle with us, although I'm not sure he's taken the correct lesson from the experience.

I'll be a while, I've got a big city to explore down here too.

...There is a broad range of answers to that question. I know a great deal about a lot of things and very little about a lot of things, and nothing but a vague guess as to which of the two you are referring to.

...Then don't ask for a response.

...Oh. Then yes, I did know that.

...Hau, mate. Observatory. It is a place of observation.

I understand it is a problem area for you.

See you next time, Hau. Let me know if you're still on your Island Trial by then.

...Also let me know which of the Trials you've actually beat, because I'm still not 100% convinced you've beat Hala and Olivia yet.

...I'm from Kanto, not Johto. Speaking as myself, though, I think the architecture is very Ecruteak, but I don't think HGSS included much in the way of the bamboo or these fancy golden bridges. Swablu isn't even a Johtovian Pokemon (it's from Hoenn).

Since we've got to 50 Totem Stickers, our new Totem Pokemon for each file.

Ultra Moon gets Salazzle as a freebie. This lets it get the 10K without having to raise its own Salandit, but I lucked into one anyway. Salazzle gets no special moves for having come under its evolution level of 33- a level 30 Salandit has access to all these moves.

Ultra Sun gets Lurantis instead. This is also underlevelled, and also doesn't learn any special moves for coming so underlevelled. I'm not planning on replacing Flambebe with this Totem, nor is any of the teams too interested in Lurantis as a Grass type, so this batch of Totems has nothing to offer this time. Oh well.

Next time: The developed side of town.