Now then, time to get started on the Ghost-type Trial. This is one of those cases where there's not a loading zone behind there.
Again, I know why- it's because Ghost types love liminal spaces like this- but why are we letting kids into abandoned buildings when they were destroyed by the gods we actively worship?
...Should've checked to see what he'd say if I came over before checking in on the Aether House.
Anyway, since I plan for two of these Pokemon to evolve before I start the Trial, I'm just going to show you the six Pokemon I brought with. A Dark type, a Ghost type, and two Normal types, alongside a Pokemon good against the Totem's non-Ghost typing and a Pokemon that's purely here for one of her moves.
...I'm not sure if the difference here is because the two sites have different designs or if we just never get to see the one that's still open at this angle. I think this does explain why I always visit the open Megamart through the right-hand door even in Pokemon.
This Trial is... interesting. Well, so far, we've seen a lot of engaging with our surroundings or completing tasks assigned by the Captain- often both. Acerola's Trial functions slightly differently, and makes use of a mechanic you'd be surprised to see come up.
Really, the part I'm still trying to wrap my head around is how old. It's in living memory, but also Acerola doesn't think to bring this up ever.
On the other hand, that's just the kind of woman Acerola is.
Surprise! Rotom is finally pulling his weight!
Although, uh... wasn't the Poke Finder supposed to be a Rotom Dex only thing? And weren't we supposed to be the only ones with one of those? For being a small team, the game designers aren't even communicating with each other here- or worse, it's Acerola who hasn't thought this through.
The justification is also surprisingly decent, compared to other Trials- what we're doing is appealing to the Totem's inherent nature, and encouraging it to come out and "play" by doing something it enjoys. Regardless of how accessible the methodology is, this is a well-designed Trial on the Totem's part.
And this is a very cool Trial in concept for a ghost hunt.
The part of me that loves the thought Acerola has put into her Trial appreciates the reference to Rotom's Ghost typing, but the part of me that wonders how this Trial works for people who aren't me knows this is either a coincidence or highly disturbing.
Genuinely speaking, I'm not sure what the difference is between the Trial mode and the regular mode.
Basically the same rules as any other Trial, although I do like the implication that Acerola is just trying to cram the mention of them in. You think this is her first time running the Trial?
Now you behave yourself, Rotom.
Unlike all preceding Trials, this Trial does not play the Trial theme while we are on the overworld. Instead, it plays the Abandoned Megamart's ambient theme- not that I'd expect anything less.
The Megamart has been rearranged, with shelves and boxes dropped all over the area to funnel us into a strictly linear path to the Totem. Upsettingly, there is also nothing to click on- I wanted to see long-discontinued products declaring they are being sold at ridiculous prices!
As we progress through the Megamart, we will find three horror movie setpieces to investigate. Thankfully, Ghosts in the Pokemon world aren't as evil as other ghosts.
...I hope.
This is probably the biggest difference between the Trial and casual Poke Finder use- we trigger it by clicking on an object, rather than using the R button (or touching the touch screen, if we've disabled the R Button with L=A).
The Poke Finder sections here pose a bit more difficulty than the initial tutorial for the mechanic- they require us to aim the camera. Fortunately, the gimmick of the Trial alone is enough to reduce the difficulty demanded significantly- for a high score in the Poke Finder minigame, you have to make sure the Pokemon is photogenic. Here, all you have to do is make sure the Pokemon is in the crosshairs when you click A.
I mean, I'm wearing bright yellow and white. I should hope I'm being seen from the other end of the store.
The Trial Pokemon are sitting on flat 15 IVs, with an again randomly assigned Atk IV and Nature. Gastly carries the moves Curse, Confuse Ray, Mean Look and Hypnosis. Its only plan is to either Confuse you or Curse you- Hypnosis helps it a bit, if it's using Curse, but it can only get off one Curse at a time.
For Ghost types, the move Curse removes half of their maximum HP (if this would cause the Pokemon to faint, it will), and in exchange, removes a quarter of the target's maximum HP every turn. This is a volatile status, which is why it has Mean Look.
I actually misclicked and hit Knock Off, not Crunch. It didn't matter.
After defeating the Gastly, a Pikachu wanders off before our character can see it.
Well, apart from the fact it probably doesn't have any power and could only move if a Ghost type was playing with it.
Come to think of it, where are the shopping carts in the actually functioning Megamart?
This one's a little trickier. Haunter will move in a horizontal circle over the cart, and has the potential to do so at a rapid pace. Your usual bet with this sort of thing is to point your camera at the far left or right extremity of his movement and ambush him.
Haunter (Ultra Moon): It's dangerous to go outside alone on nights when you're feeling sad. Haunter will catch you, and you won't be able to go back home.
...This is our first time seeing Haunter? Strange. Haunter's kit is Lick, Night Shade, Sucker Punch and Hypnosis- it has actual offensive moves, but they're physical moves on a Special attacker, or they're Night Shade, which does [Level] damage regardless of type coverage. (Haunter's level is 30, so it does 30 damage her).
Sun: It strikes at humans from total darkness. Those licked by its cold tongue grow weaker with each passing day until they die.
Moon: It fears the light and revels in the dark. It may be on the verge of extinction in cities that stay brightly lit at night.
Ultra Sun: On moonless nights, Haunter searches for someone to curse, so it's best not to go out walking around.
Also, as an aside, all four of Haunter's Dex entries this time around are great. Although they do raise a few eyebrows, both in-universe and out...
Think this one went for Sucker Punch. Both Lick and Sucker Punch are NVE on Woodstock, though.
It's surprising, how rarely you see a member of the Gastly evolution line use a Poison type move, despite many Ghost experts carrying one. Now, granted, Woodstock would also counter those, too.
There we go, using the dangerous attack.
I would be very surprised if its wheels still worked, though.
The next phenomenon is all the way in the other corner of the site, past all these shelves stocked with nothing. I can't help but wonder if they could've put one over in the top left area, but that would've required another Ghost type to help out- or a repeat Haunter.
Just floating. Nothing about them gaining the locomotion expected of Pikachu and Marill.
Something's telling me this is our destination. Funny, though, I don't remember seeing this door in the original Megamart. Not that it would ever open to the player there.
Anyway, this one's a bit of a tricky one- the Pokemon doing the haunting here will only appear in the sides of the screen, and only for a limited amount of time. It's very much a reaction game here.
If you run out of film, you're just kicked out of the Finder and allowed to try again.
Missed! To be fair, I do have two cameras to work here. If you see it on one side, switch to the other side- it'll pop up there first.
Also, it can occasionally decide to walk into frame instead of float.. This won't change the elevation you find it at, but it will be moving slower.
Gengar (Sun): Should you feel yourself attacked by a sudden chill, it is evidence of an approaching Gengar. There is no escaping it. Give up.
...Look, I know Gengar is a powerful Pokemon, but where did that come from? Gengar is an incredibly powerful Pokemon with an offensive spread of 130 Sp. Atk and 110 Spd, but I wouldn't say it's that oppressive! This Gengar has Night Shade, Shadow Punch, Shadow Ball and Hypnosis- Shadow Ball making it an opponent you should really avoid fighting with a Ghost of your own unless you're confident in its Speed stat. Gengar lose the Levitate Ability on evolution starting in SM, exchanging it for Cursed Body. Although I wouldn't say that's reason enough to switch to a Ground type.
Moon: It apparently wishes for a traveling companion. Since it was once human itself, it tries to create one by taking the lives of other humans.
Ultra Sun: You can hear tales told all over the world about how Gengar will pay a visit to children who are naughty.
Ultra Moon: Even your home isn't safe. Gengar will lurk in whatever dark corner of a room it can find and wait for its chance to catch its prey.
Somebody involved in this writing process has a phobia. And I'm hoping it's not nearly as realistic as they're making it out to be.
Gengar went for the fixed damage. Against a resist, it might actually have been the better option.
Sadly, Flambebe didn't evolve, but Oatchi did!
Decidueye (Ultra Moon): Decidueye can nock and fire an arrow at an enemy in a tenth of a second, so its battles are decided in the blink of an eye.
Our first starter evolution! Decidueye exchanges the Flying typing for a Ghost typing at long last, taking away its double-Ice weakness and mostly just changing the set of things it's good for. Its high Atk is backed up by mediocre Speed and only solid Special bulk, which does kinda not work too great in its favour, but it's hardly enough to discount it over. Still, though, it does wind up feeling a bit like the worst in the trio, and there's a fair reason for it to have been given a new form in Legends Arceus.
Starting in XY, all starters gain a move unique to them on reaching their final evolution, and Decidueye's move remains such to this day. Spirit Shackle is an 80 BP Physical Ghost move that traps whatever it hits, reminiscent of the ninja technique of "shadow stitching" for which this move is named. Unfortunately, Ghost types themselves cannot be trapped, nor does it work on Golisopod. So, you know, it tries. It's at least a higher BP than Shadow Claw.
Pikachu beckons us into the back room, the camera panning away before we have to see it enter it.
I can tell when a boss fight is to be commencing. Team check time.
Woodstock's been carrying Eviolite the whole time- overkill on those poor Gastly line members, but much more useful against the Totem.
Flambebe is hoping to land some powerful hits, but I'm not expecting much from it. Maybe landing a Toxic.
Cranky's plan is to Z-Bulk Up, but in hindsight, shouldn't it have a healing move of some kind?
Huggington's plan is almost entirely Atk and Spd reduction.
And Dottie's is even heavier on the Atk down. The Totem has a Sp. Def buff, so that Air Cutter crit chance might help.
Oatchi is just going to hit hard with an Expert Belt Spirit Shackle. And hope it gets the chance.
You do not get control in this room- as soon as you arrive, you're whisked into the Poke Finder. The music has even cut out entirely in here.
You can get a good look around and see a lot of Pikachu merchandise and children's drawings. It's a really expansive collection...
Including this one, showing off one of the few instances in the series of referencing Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the original anime series. The picture's of too low quality for me to say for sure what series this is, though. Depending on my squint, it's either the original series or the Kalos series.
There's also this shot of Cosplay Pikachu from ORAS, dressed in its Pop Star outfit. This was designed for the Cuteness contests, giving it Draining Kiss as a unique move. The Cosplay Pikachu itself is a Pokemon specced specifically for Contests, allowing players a good way into each category without having to make a new Pokemon every time.
The Pokemon we're looking for is standing directly behind us. It will jump from time to time, but it won't otherwise move and should be easy to capture on the Poke Finder.
It stares at you for a good long while, flicking rapidly in and out of looking like an ordinary Pikachu. This doesn't really translate well to images...
There's just something ominous about being whacked in the face with "See me?" when there's no music playing.
Mimikyu (Ultra Sun): Although it's a quiet, lonely Pokémon, if you try to look at what's under its rag, it will become agitated and resist violently.
Mimikyu is probably one of the weirdest Pokemon to explain from a historical perspective, purely because of how it just kinda... happened. Narratively, the intention behind the design is that Mimikyu is a ghost of some description whose very appearance causes people to find themselves dead, but it wants to be loved. This causes it to wrap itself up in a Pikachu costume, hoping people will adopt it thinking it's a Pikachu. Its artistic skill... could use some work. Out of universe, however, it found itself lucky enough to be given basically the best advertisement ever, a unique song leaning in on the "loves attention" angle. Prospective players, myself included, adopted Mimikyu onto their team wholeheartedly.
And then it turned out to actually be good. Mimikyu's only got a BST of 476, but its amazing typing of Ghost/Fairy, its solid distribution of good-enough Atk, Spd and Sp. Def, and its absolutely busted Ability mean this thing should never be taken for granted. They had to nerf this as soon as SwSh came out and they could justify it.
The Totem Mimikyu takes these qualities to their logical conclusion, taking advantage of the fact that this is the first time players get to see a Mimikyu to hit them where it hurts. If you do not know Mimikyu's typing and its Ability, it will eat you alive. It has flat 15 IVs and 85 EVs, aside from its random Atk IV and Nature, and while its moveset in SM does take it easy on you, its typing is so good that it only needs the good half of its moves anyway.
- Shadow Claw: 70 BP, Physical Ghost, +1 crit ratio. We're at the point of the game where they have no shame assigning Totems their best STAB move. They know, if you've got this far, you should have an idea of how to deal with being up against a STAB you know ahead of time.
- Play Rough: 90 BP, 90% accurate, Physical Fairy, 10% chance of lowering Atk on hit. This is the standard good Fairy move available to Physical Attackers, and wouldn't you know it, Fairy is SE on Dark. This is why Mimikyu can get away with only having two good moves. Every Dark type other than Grimer and Houndoom is about to get hit by SE STAB- not that they can claim SE either. So much for that forewarning on what type to expect.
- Astonish: 30 BP, Physical Ghost, 30% chance of flinching. I get the idea, especially in conjunction with its summons, but it basically never clicks this, Shadow Claw is just too much stronger.
- Mimic: Normal Status, copies the last move used by the opponent and retains it until it leaves the fight (in a Totem Battle, this will never happen). This isn't really worth the turn in most fights, but Mimikyu can use it well, and if it gets a particularly good move off you, it can always try it.
- Its hold item is the Lum Berry, allowing it a free cure of any non-volatile status ailment or confusion. Intermediate Totem-nullifying strategies of Paralysing or Burning it have an uphill battle here, and yes, it is the reason I brought Knock Off.
- Its signature Ability is Disguise, the only Ability a Mimikyu can know. When hit by a damaging move (assuming it is not Normal, Fighting or Dragon type, which Mimikyu is immune to), it will completely nullify all damage. Fortunately, it can only do this once, but once is often enough. Don't use a Turn 1 Z-Move. Don't unload your strongest hit first. And even setup sweepers pose a risk. The nerf Mimikyu took later was to cause the neutralised hit to do 10% damage, but even this is mostly to stop an absolutely depraved strategy based on pairing it with the Focus Sash.
Ghost/Fairy hits everything you have access to neutrally- the only Pokemon currently in existence that can handle it is Pyroar. It is weak in turn only to Ghost and Steel- Ghost resists Poison. Incidentally, with its +1 Spd up from its aura, it's 120 Speed neutral (108 if -Spd, 132 if +Spd). Just, uh... thought you ought to know.
Woodstock's solid bulk and being neutral on Play Rough make it a good lead, but I have no illusions about his chances of winning the fight. With any luck, it should be able to take its backup, at least.
In addition to being a powerful Fairy move, Play Rough is also hilarious. It even has the cartoon noises associated with this dust cloud.
Right, let's get rid of that Disguise and that Lum Berry...
In what has to be an absolutely infuriating move/Ability/item interaction, it turns out that "Lum Berry heals Poison Touch" happens before "Knock Off removes Lum Berry". The worst part is, I'm like 95% sure this is the only time ever this exact combination happens.
Busted Mimikyu (Sun): After going to all the effort of disguising itself, its neck was broken. Whatever is inside is probably unharmed, but it's still feeling sad.
I'm actually kind of amused Mimikyu has separate Dex entries for its Busted Form. Busted Form is basically there just to show that Disguise has been used up for that fight (in competitive, even switching out won't cure a busted Disguise), but its dex entries show Mimikyu takes that personally.
The ally Haunter has flat 15 IVs and random Atk IV/Nature, same as any other Pokemon in this Trial, and it will usually be the Pokemon to make an appearance here. It is possible to get the other summon- Mold Breaker ignores Disguise- but most Pokemon with Mold Breaker aren't great here. Its moves are Hypnosis, Sucker Punch, Night Shade and Lick.
It's been a while since I've seen the SM version of this fight, so I forgot its gimmick. This is going to turn out to be relevant.
For starters, though, Woodstock could not take a second Play Rough, and falls. I expected that, but still upsetting.
Right, let's try and land this Toxic.
At around this point, if you're watching along, you might realise what I should be doing, and what I brought two Pokemon along for the sole purpose of doing.
I'm sorry to say that it completely slipped my mind.
Cranky did turn out to be a surprisingly decent option. Comatose blocking Hypnosis is an amazing boon to have in this fight.
I just forgot to account for the fact that Cranky doesn't resist Play Rough, it's just immune to Shadow Claw.
That was a good Sucker Punch, though, it proves that Cranky was actually a good idea and I just failed to use it well.
Because honestly, it has kinda felt like Cranky has been doing this a lot.
Oatchi, meanwhile, has multiple issues here.
Namely, the combination of Mimikyu's high Speed Shadow Claws and the priority Sucker Punch from Haunter doesn't play to its strengths well. Ghosts in general aren't that great an idea here.
For those that didn't realise what I should have been doing (to be fair, I am one of them), Lord Huggington should've come out as soon as Woodstock went down. There's an argument to be made that Huggington should've been the lead, but my team only has two members that outspeed neutral Mimikyu, so it's hard to get both Rock Tomb and Baby-Doll off in the numbers I need.
Fortunately, the combination of Baby-Doll Eyes and Fluffy pulls Lord Huggington's weight.
Less fortunately, Haunter immediately shows off just how devastating Sleep can be if it's lucky enough to hit. Hypnosis is 60% accurate- easy to dismiss, but not something you should get in the habit of doing.
Unfortunately, Lord Huggington did not wake up before Play Rough chipped him down to zero. I think you can see where this is going.
Fortunately, Dottie does manage to show off something really cool.
Once again, this is something that should've come out much sooner.
It gives Dottie some staying power, though.
Totem Mimikyu proceeds to spend a turn Mimicking rather than attacking. This, right here, is the key moment of this fight as a valuable learning experience- other than the obvious "use your -Atk moves, Beth, they're there for a reason".
Mimikyu decided to use its newly learned Feather Dance to reduce Dottie's Atk. This is a bad decision at the best of times- Dottie is a Special Attacker, reducing her Atk doesn't do anything.
At the time I recorded this fight, this was, to the extent of my knowledge, an undocumented interaction. It turns out that, if a Pokemon with Dancer is incapacitated due to Sleep or Freeze (I did test the latter) and someone uses a Dancing move, it will actually wake up in order to copy the move. This raises Dottie's value in this fight tremendously (although it depends on Mimikyu being stupid enough to Mimic Feather Dance).
Also, since Dottie hadn't yet acted of her own accord, she could use her newly found "being awake" to use her own move.
Unfortunately, Air Cutter didn't wind up doing much about that Haunter.
And it's back to being asleep.
The worst part is, -Atk only takes you so far when the opponent has heightened crit rate. 1/8 chance of ignoring all the Atk penalties is a lot more important to remember than the standard 1/24.
Since it happened on the Bethany file- and also my last save was a while ago (I don't like saving mid-Trial)- I decided to let this stand. It also allows us to show off what it looks like to Game Over in a Pokemon game- in wild battles, you drop money, while in Trainer battles, you have a payout of prize money, same as other Trainers do for you.
In the original games, it was half your on-hand money, same as Dragon Quest. Starting in FRLG, though, it's actually calculated the same way as Trainer's payouts are- by multiplying the level of the last Pokemon in your party with a constant, although your constant changes based on your progress in the game. In most Pokemon games, it's based on your Gym Badges, but for Alola, it's based on Grand Trials. Right now, our payout is x32.
Frankly, while I do prefer the system of deducting money based on the payout system, I do kinda wish our value was a little higher. In post-game, it's an impressive x120, but x32 feels a little low for this late in the game. Maybe that's just because Grand Trials come slower than Gym Badges, though.
This is a bit of a weird part of Game Overing- you "black out" ("white out" in GSC and, depending on whether you're playing JP or ENG, HGSS or RSE), before immediately returning to the last Pokemon Centre you visited. A fairly standard progress penalty in RPG tradition- and unlike many RPGs, you retain your progress, rather than reverting to last save file- but the way Pokemon implies we black out then run away produces a funny mental image (as well as raising some concerns if you happen to Game Over in, say, a villainous team hideout). LGPE eventually changed the loss condition to "you were overwhelmed by your defeat"- which more accurately reflects the emotional state the character is probably in here.
Since Pokemon has infinite use free full-party healing, there's no "only one team member survived, you have to revive the rest yourself" like Dragon Quest or other RPGs of its ilk might do. Indeed, if we didn't lose all control over our character after being defeated, this would absolutely be the next action of 99% of players, and Pokemon doing it for us is just saving us time. Or, perhaps more accurately, an extension of Pokemon's absolute phobia of allowing the player to enter a battle with no Pokemon. Those 1% of players know exactly what they'd do if allowed control with a full fainted party.
If we've lost 10 quid from taking a Game Over, might as well pick up some extra cash from the regenerating items on the walk back.
Acerola also happens to have some text if you get defeated. I think most Captains do, but since most people who lose prefer the "save and reset" method of returning to the fight, I imagine most people haven't seen them all.
If you lose to specifically Mimikyu, Acerola will be nice and tell you what weaknesses you want to have prepared. It's less that Ghost and Fairy have few weaknesses (although two is the fewest number of weaknesses for a single typing) and more that Ghost/Fairy as a dual-type supplements itself well. Not as well as Ghost/Dark, bur still impressive.
I believe in me too.
More surprises: We can skip right to Mimikyu on repeat attempts.
Switching around my items for the second go. Lord Huggington is taking the chance to be more involved in the fight with a free Sleep cure, Cranky decided to forgo Z-Bulk Up and get the passive healing, while Oatchi will try and handle things with its signature Z-Move. I'd like to show those off, it's just a matter of knowing what fight to do so in.
You do have to take the picture on repeats, though.
Right, second attempt. I'm still leading with Woodstock, the Knock Off thing remains a good way of getting rid of Disguise and the Lum Berry at the same time.
For its part, it went for Mimic and not Play Rough the second time around. That'll help immensely.
This is basically the same outcome as last time, but it feels a lot better to not have to see the Poison Touch thing.
I'll get to you, Haunter.
...That's actually a somewhat frustrating choice in Mimic, actually. I'm not sure if I can name something I'd less like it to have, much less a move I don't have.
...Maybe Spirit Shackle.
This time, Hypnosis fails to connect, allowing Woodstock to land Poison Fang and attempt to roll a Poison infliction.
And I get not only a 1/24 crit, bypassing the +1 Def stage, but I also get the Bad Poison from Poison Fang rather than the normal variety from Poison Touch.
I don't think it can defeat me faster than that Poison will defeat it.
OK, Woodstock, now you're just mocking it. Eviolite doesn't give evasion.
Woodstock lands a Crunch, defeating Haunter. I think it didn't even try Hypnosis, but its other moves don't inspire fear in Grimer.
Mimikyu's low-health summon is Gengar, running the same flat-15-but-for-Atk stat lineup Haunter had. Its moveset still contains Hypnosis and Night Shade, but exchanges the other two moves for Shadow Punch and Shadow Ball. Shadow Punch was a downgrade from Sucker Punch, but Shadow Ball means this thing is absolutely worth going out of your way to not have to deal with. Especially since Gengar has 8 points of extra Speed if both are neutral.
At last, Woodstock bleeds! ...Not sure what, though.
That Eviolite and resist allow it to handle Shadow Ball just fine. Which means I get one more move...
Yeah.
I'm not sure what feels worse- the fact that I lost the first attempt through what can only be described as my own doing, or the fact that Woodstock just kinda lucked into sweeping the second attempt.
With that much remaining HP, I think it goes down next turn no matter what I do.
So I switch in Flambebe, entirely to make sure it gets enough EXP from this fight that it evolves.
It can handle Play Rough just fine. Shadow Claw, though, not so much.
Flambebe's evolution achieved.
Dottie tried to learn Captivate, a gendered move that inflicts -2 Sp. Atk only on opponents of the opposite gender to your own. Helpful, but I really hate the gendered moves on principle.
...It's only after sending out Flambebe for the EXP that I realise Flambebe has totally got four Totem clears in a row. I swear that wasn't intentional.
Fortunately, there'll be no chance of it making the fifth- or if it does, it'll at least be a different Pokemon. Incidentally, it says a lot about the power of Salazzle that we're only getting our own now, rather than when we fought the Totem.
The main reason I showed off Dottie attempting to learn Captivate was the absolute hilarity of Flambebe attempting to learn it too. If Dottie didn't get it, what makes you think I'm giving it to you? Dottie had moves that Captivate would potentially be better than- the same does not apply to you.
Mimikyu's off to wherever it hangs out when the cameras aren't rolling.
And it looks like it's made a friend! I suspect the part of the process that required the upgraded Poke Finder is related to our storage, rather than the actual process of taking pictures.
I'm not sure if the fact it was raining when we entered and cleared up now was by design, but I'll gladly accept it if it is.
I prefer this to the Poke Finder. After all, it's her judging my shots.
She actually lingers to look through something in her hands before confirming it.
I don't think it was a matter of it being too hard to snap a picture of. Then again, "camera shy" isn't exactly an element of Mimikyu's characterisation.
The Ghostium Z is ours. Its value is somewhat debatable, especially when we have the Decidium Z, but it does allow one of the cooler Z-Moves!
Never mind that this Z-Move is completely inaccessible in SM without trading, Pumpkaboo appreciates it!
I still kinda wish I could do it again, but giving Mimikyu more of a chance. I wanted to see if doing the proper strat worked.
The Ghost Z-Pose is interesting, but mostly because of something we'll see later.
Also, incidentally, had we managed to find an opportunity to perform Decidueye's Z-Move, we would have performed the Z-Pose for Ghost moves.
The Z-Pose for Ghost involves building up a little wave, before leaning your face and hands forward in the traditional "GHOST SCARE!" pose. Kind of a little weird with Acerola's cat grin, although I reserve judgement until we see Bethany try it out.
It's been a while since this was an explicit thing, but I think Brooklet Hill and Lush Jungle do sorta count on this front. But yeah, there's stuff to catch in the Abandoned Megamart, and Bethany is 100% picking up one of them.
Sophocles forgot to keep up the tradition of giving us 10 Poke Balls after the Trial (I don't think anyone's given us Ultra Balls yet, and that wouldn't have been a bad time to get some), but Acerola hasn't forgotten. Dusk Balls are not only good to use on Pokemon found in the Megamart, but they also feel fitting to own a Ghost type in.
Ghost is a bit of a rare type traditionally, being the third-rarest type today and the second-rarest in Gen 7, and we have had access to eight thus far in the Alola Dex (plus some extras from Island Scan). With that said, the Megamart actually only has one new Ghost type for SM players. It's kinda amusing to put those numbers into context.
Bethany pauses to turn back to the Megamart, so she can have a "line of dialogue". She doesn't actually say it aloud, though.
This is an exchange that feels a lot weirder in SM compared to USUM, mostly because of the choice in the way they express this thought.
Bethany is talking about a genuine unexplainable phenomenon (as compared to "things ghosts do that Pokemon can explain by ghosts being real"), but of all the choices, "your sentient camera turning on on its own" is not one of them. It isn't even the first time in this game's story that Rotom has turned itself on!
The thing that's actually supposed to sound weird here is the fact that Mimikyu's Pikachu shrine is not actually a physical location in the game world. In SM, there isn't even a through line between what Acerola says she hears and what she's actually dismissing- although this is probably a "silent protagonist" issue.
Bethany: "...So wait, where was I during the Totem fight, then?"
Oh hey, someone other than Hau says something Hawai'ian. But yeah, Acerola, it turns out, doesn't actually understand her Trial Pokemon as well as she thinks.
And off she wanders, in a slightly "possessed" way. I'm not sure if that's intentional or just a quirk of the animations.
I'm not sure if I caught a good shot on this one or it's just genuinely more visible when it's in motion. Did you catch it?
Wonder what it's gotta be like for Lillie's idolisation and self-esteem that we've lost a fight? Hopefully something healthy, but right now, I don't have confidence in that.
Next time: The kinds of Mimikyu fights I wish Bethany had.
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