Nobody outside the Aether House. Encouraging. I think.
Still gonna prepare my team. Sorta. Murphy has an Expert Belt and Haruka an Amulet Coin. I only expect to use half of these.
You're welcome. Then again, I think they were trying to get me and you lot were just collateral. I'll just grab Lillie and we'll be on our way.
...Hau, don't tell me you're being used as a human climbing frame. You're 11, you're too young for this joke.
Hau, it's OK, you don't have to smile every minute of every day.
Now, what's the bad news?
Well then.
Looks like Team Skull was smarter than we gave them credit for.
As an aside, this is, as far as I can recall, the first Pokemon game to make use of a flashback as a means of conveying information. Pokemon introduced the fact that the in-game clock matches the real-time clock back in GSC, and presumably as a result of that, has been incredibly sketchy about the idea of making the plot time-sensitive in any way- this in regards to both timed missions and time skips. This is not the first time SM has experimented with the idea of making the current time relevant to the story (the first was the Iki Town Festival), and while Pokemon still prefers the idea of its day/night cycle more than the story opportunities it lacks as a result, the fact that SV now uses a non-real-time clock allows them more freedom to experiment in the future, should the opportunity arise.
Relevant note- Team Skull has been informed that Lillie has the capacity to disappear. Presumably by people who've seen her do it. The only people to have seen her do it other than us are the grunts she was running from in the opening.
Lillie proudly betraying her "actually somewhat cautious about the information she shares" cred by sharing the limitations of her "I get out of bad situations free" card to people openly preparing to put her in a bad situation.
Come on, Lillie, just because you have no intentions of making Nebby use this power is no reason to inform them of that fact.
Lillie's chief aim here seems to be more of a rallying cry for herself as opposed to a message for Plumeria. I certainly don't know what she expects Plumeria to take away from it.
Right spirit, wrong time.
Team Skull has this to say about Lillie, which is... certainly a comment to make about her. From our perspective, she's been a girl like any other, with the exception of being Nebby's designated caretaker. With that said... that dress does look pretty high-quality for just anyone.
Something that came as a surprise to me, but what Plumeria is about to say differs between SM and USUM.
Her SM line is delightfully phrased. Lillie was once the kind of spoiled child the likes of which would be unwelcome in a society formed from societal rejects like Team Skull, but she is not that kind of person today, and Team Skull really has nothing to gain from targeting her other than Nebby.
Plumeria follows up that thought by latching on to a different train of thought- that Nebby's previous owner did not give Lillie permission to claim him.
Which only more blatantly highlights the fact that Plumeria knows who this said prior owner is, and has some interest in returning Nebby to their possession.
Lillie responds to that threat with the desire to avoid other people getting hurt and giving up her autonomy.
Don't think I didn't notice the kids hiding behind the desk there. As best they can without animating.
Plumeria's USUM comment removes the weirdly phrased bit about "nothing more to take" (when, by all accounts, Skull hasn't appeared to have taken anything from her yet) and instead has Plumeria comment on Lillie's own dialogue. The fact that Plumeria expresses kinship with a fellow woman asserting agency is a pleasant bonus.
Her follow-up remark, where she alludes to knowing Nebby's former owner, offers the opposite conclusion about Team Skull's relationship with them- this implies that Team Skull see more reason in Lillie's position than that of her antagonist.
This does not prevent Plumeria from taking Lillie right to them. We're starting to draw nearer to the point where SM and USUM's primary divergence is going to become something we'll have to actively care about, and already we can see a narrative that doesn't want to be in the plot it's in.
Hau explains pretty much exactly what that whole skit of us being dragged to Po Town was all about- Team Skull was actively separating us from Lillie. The Yungoos was collateral damage, and if Team Skull cared about it at all, they were much more concerned with just keeping us there long enough. Which goes some way to explaining the lack of attention paid to the fact that we were supposed to be there- might as well put us through the wringer if we're meant to be kept there at all costs.
Ultimately, this does kinda mean Acerola's decision to come get the Yungoos off our hands had the largest impact. We were the threat, but Acerola was the dealbreaker.
This is also terrible news for Hau, who had absolutely no excuse for why he couldn't be the one to stop Plumeria from kidnapping Lillie. Worst of all, the fact he says they came after Acerola left implies that Plumeria didn't even have to take long to defeat Hau.
The "several hours earlier" in the flashback also implies it's a long walk to Po Town. I mean, yes, I will admit there was a recording gap between me doing Po Town and coming back to the Aether House for this plot point, but it's hard to really square the timeline here when Charizard Glide is a thing.
Yes, Hau doesn't actually start frowning until he comments on Lillie not being a Trainer. I'm not particularly sympathetic to the assertion that Hau should have been better equipped to handle this situation because he was a Trainer, but the fact remains that Hau should have been a roadblock worth commenting on. The way the situation has been presented, Lillie was "helpless" when Plumeria arrived.
Part of how this arc plays out harkens back to Barry, from DPPt. Barry's confidence in himself was shattered when he failed to protect something he was responsible for- in his case, keeping Team Galactic's hands off the Legendary Pokemon Uxie- and kickstarted his character development. They're clearly going for the same thing here, although the two start from very different places.
It should also be worth mentioning, for the purposes of comparing Barry and Hau's arcs, that while Barry alone was responsible for Uxie's capture, that was because Lucas and Dawn were busy targeting Mesprit and Azelf, and all three of them wound up failing. Poor Hau comes off... far less well by dint of the differing circumstances.
Our commiserations are brought to a halt by the sudden arrival of Gladion, pretty much giving up on this whole "being part of Team Skull" facade.
Gladion reveals, in one fell swoop, that he a) knows Lillie, b) knows only partial information about the Nebby situation and c) is not particularly happy to be just finding this out now.
We are already somewhat acquainted with the notion that he's an ally as far as Nebby is concerned, but any pretenses he sees eye to eye with Team Skull as a long-term ally have just been thrown out the window.
Hau takes the opportunity to comment on the whole "knowing Lillie" thing. Frankly, I think there were bigger revelations packed in that train of thought.
In SM, Gladion takes offense to the fact that we failed to fulfill his request to protect Nebby that he challenges us to a battle on the spot to vent his frustrations.
In USUM, it is instead expressed as anger at himself for failing to get strong enough to protect Lillie and Nebby. This is truer to his characterisation, and a USUM edit that improves the text. You really can't tell what you're going to get, can you...
Despite the fact that Gladion has well and truly established himself as not playing in Team Skull's interests- and eager to reverse their latest victory- Gladion's introduction still uses the Team Skull logo and colours.
My lack of attention to my team was truly proportionate- SM Gladion is pathetic. Golbat has 15/15/15/15/15/31 IVs, 0 EVs, a Serious Nature, and the moves Acrobatics and Poison Fang. Yes, it'll hurt if you're stupid enough to send out something weak to Acrobatics, but anything less will probably finagle a win, or at least a very good tie.
Haruka might be overkill.
Even he knows to go for the Poison rather than use the "high-damaging" Acrobatics.
Rocks go up, mainly because every point matters for Null.
Golbat's strategy of "attempt to inflict Poison" pays off.
Not that it gives it any long-term prospects, but it was a valiant effort.
Ooh, Null was the next Pokemon to appear! Type: Null has flat 30 IVs, no EVs, a Serious Nature, and the moves Pursuit, Crush Claw and X-Scissor. Crush Claw is a 75 BP, 95% accurate Normal move that has a 50% chance of lowering Defence on hit. It is actually rather rare among Normal moves, but it's a surprisingly solid pick. With that said, if you are going to use a slot on Normal coverage, Return and Body Slam are usually better options.
This is probably the greatest interaction you could get out of Crush Claw.
Murphy pulled the Low Sweep card because I kinda don't want to stuff Lord Huggington full of EXP, and there's a lot of things it wants to fight in the near future.
Sadly, Type: Null outsped even after a Speed drop, but gone are the days when its stats were something to write home about. They're still good, but the things we've been asked to fight have been as good if not better.
Gladion's third Pokemon is, somehow, Sneasel. We won't be able to obtain our own for a bit. Sneasel has 15/31/15/15/15/31 IVs, 0 EVs, Serious Nature, and the moves Icy Wind, Metal Claw, Feint Attack and Quick Attack. Weak moves and fragile defences hinder Sneasel's effectiveness in competitive play, and Gladion sure is playing to its weaknesses here.
Sneasel's Ability is Inner Focus, not that flinch moves are likely to leave it standing.
I don't think Flambebe needed the rocks for that.
So if we're too weak to protect Lillie and Nebby, what does that make you?
Funnily enough, this Gladion battle is one you are allowed to lose and proceed with the plot. Gladion's line about how he knows that battle wasn't accomplishing anything in-universe is a good indicator why.
You told us, we got to work protecting Lillie... and ultimately kinda screwed around with Acerola's Mimikyu, followed up with being tricked by Team Skull.
We either needed better direction, or at least two of the three of us weren't taking this warning seriously.
Gladion declares that he knows where to go, and he's going there.
Gladion forces us to join him, but honestly, I don't think this was a question even if he wasn't blaming us for losing Lillie. If he didn't want to go, I'd be asking him to take me too.
If you say yes, you are automatically teleported to Malie City terminal and the cutscene therein. If you say no, you remain here, and will have to make your own way to Malie City.
There is incentive not to follow Gladion immediately, but you will not be denied the opportunity to benefit from this incentive if you say Yes now.
Saying no also allows us to see the comments from Rotom, Acerola, Hau and the kids. Rotom, of course, mostly just tells us where the next plot trigger is with absolutely none of the tone.
Acerola's once bitten, twice shy. She's not going to make the mistake of leaving the kids unprotected again. Although I wouldn't say Team Skull has any designs on repeating the feat, I know I wouldn't take that risk.
Something worth mentioning about this, let's talk about Absol again. Absol is a Pokemon that, narratively, is said to appear in places that are about to experience disaster. One of the weirder things about Absol, in series history, is that the devs have actually tried to back this up in gameplay.
- In RSE, it appears on Route 120, shortly before the Mt. Pyre sequence in which the evil Team steals the Orb it thinks it needs to fulfill its plans.
- In Platinum, it appears high on Mt. Coronet, where Cyrus is planning to use the Red Chain to awaken Dialga and Palkia to destroy and recreate the world.
- In the Unova games, it appears in and around the Giant Chasm, where Ghetsis is planning to claim Kyurem and use it to freeze Unova solid in B2W2.
- In XY, it appears on Route 8. This one's the most shaky claim, since Team Flare's plans to awaken the Ultimate Weapon are happening over on Route 10, but it's not that far away.
- And here in Alola, Absol are found round outside the Aether House, where Lillie's flight to save Nebby is finally brought to an end.
The kids are mostly shaken, and don't seem to recognise what actually happened. We'll let them come to that realisation on their own.
Hau's instinct is to follow us- I'm not sure whether Gladion's suggestion that we help him extended to Hau, Hau is of no particular mind to believe he'll be any better at saving Lillie than guarding her.
It's hard to argue otherwise, although I'm sure it won't express itself as being counter-productive.
Hau's comment about his weakness differs based on version, to minimal consequence.
Now then... before you set off to rescue Lillie, the game, and the Island Kahuna, have unceremoniously dumped the Grand Trial of Ula'ula Island right here, and we will be required to complete it before we leave. This will take a proper team check.
Razzly is overqualified for this fight- not only does she have STAB SE to spare, but Shield Dust is a valuable Ability to bring. The only reason she can't sweep the Grand Trial clean is that he is aware of this and packed plenty of Rock.
Lord Huggington is likewise good against the Kahuna, and he resists both Rock and Dark. If anyone could compete with Razzly for "best idea", Huggington can.
Kasplashle can delete one Pokemon on the kahuna's team, and while she might be able to handle the other two, I have no shortage of candidates for that. She'll just have the Amulet Coin.
I really want Woodstock evolving soon, he is here for the EXP. He at least resists the kahuna's specialty type.
Murphy is also here for EXP, but Low Sweep is what he brings to the table compared to the other choices.
Keokeo is just here for EXP. Had she evolved before the fight, she could have been somewhat useful during it, but oh well. There'll be time for her to flex elsewhere.
Like a good rival of his age range, Gladion apparently spends plenty of time staring moodily off into horizons.
You called me here, you can't call me out for interrupting.
Bethany has far more faith in Hau to come along than I do. I feel like, if Hau was going to come along, we would have to argue him into it, rather than him deciding he wanted to come on his own. If anything, I'd expect him to have decided too late.
Even Gladion has faith in him.
At least Gladion has a reason for this confidence- Hau's ambitions are far greater than his own. His successes, less so, but he's set himself a high bar. Falling a bit short is hardly his own fault.
USUM adds on a comment that Hau's trying to surpass Hala rather than merely match him. I'm not sure that was ever a part of his character, to be honest, but I'd appreciate the sentiment.
This conversation is brought to its conclusion by the arrival of Nanu, who'll be happy to pass the time until Hau gets here.
...They didn't. Their troublemaking already extended beyond Po Town's borders. Their successes did not, but they still tried. You don't get credit for their failures.
Oh yeah, just casually revealing that Nanu is the kahuna and that this is our Grand Trial in the same breath. Kahunas do not apply for the position, they are appointed. And Nanu is what happens when the appointee didn't want the job.
If you are not ready to fight Nanu (say, because you just fought Gladion and need to heal or readjust your team), you can say no and he'll let you walk off and do your business. Since we are waiting for Hau, Gladion will not allow us to progress, and Hau won't get here until we do our boss fight.
Nanu will complain about it a bit if you delay, but he won't leave. There's also a Rotom quote that only appears if you happen to take that chance.
It's our childhood rite of passage, I'll take it as seriously as I damn well please.
The dramatic music cue really doesn't fit Nanu. Nanu is a Dark type expert, a fact only hinted at by his association with a villainous team (who themselves are more known for Bug and Poison types) and his lack of care towards his stated job of dealing with troublemakers. He does, however, have a herd of Alolan Meowth at his station, which may be considered an adequate clue if spotted.
That is the least effortful throw I have ever seen. It's not, strictly speaking, a learnable Battle Style, although there's what I think is a similar one.
Nanu's lead is Sableye, which is weak only to Fairy moves. It turns out my teams have less Fairy in them than I thought, in many cases, but Bethany is fortunately not that badly off. Sableye has 31/15/15/31/31/15 IVs, 252 EVs in Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, an Impish Nature (+Def/-Sp. Atk) the moves Power Gem, Shadow Ball and Fake Out, and the Keen Eye Ability. Nanu is particularly fond of the move Power Gem, which is possibly a means of countering Guzma.
Funnily enough, Sableye is not carrying a Dark move of any kind. He's also got a -Nature in his good Attacking stat, but not having a Dark move is funnier.
Now then, here comes the funny part about my cunning plan.
First of all, Razzly blocks Fake Out with Shield Dust. This part of the plan was well thought out.
I, uh... forgot Razzly switched from Draining Kiss to Dazzling Gleam. This won't be a big deal, but it will limit Razzly's sweeping power more than I had in mind. Perhaps I ought to have dropped Stun Spore.
And I don't even oneshot with the extra power.
I'm fairly sure literally every kid had to respond to Nanu using a Hyper Potion. Fortunately, it never actually mattered, but it was kinda frustrating.
I went with Bug Buzz for accuracy, and after the heal, hoped for a Sp. Def drop. Not that it would matter.
Sableye is slow and the Dazzling Gleam finished it anyway.
There she goes. 90 BP Special Ice, Ice Beam is incredibly important for Keokeo to learn before she evolves, as it is only otherwise available by a TM found at the end of the game.
Oh, that's a surprise. Persian is Nanu's ace- I thought he had to send it out last, since it's got Darkinium Z? Either way, 31/15/15/31/15/31 IVs, 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Spd, Timid (+Spd, -Atk) Nature, and the moves Fake Out, Dark Pulse and Power Gem. Yes, it is kind of a copy of Sableye, but its high Speed means it's probably going to go first, and Dark Pulse has a chance of flinching. Plus, it's got Fur Coat.
Yeah, I should've expected that. I was hoping it was going to go "Ooh, I have Fake Out, I must use it"- but Nanu already knows Fake Out is helpless against Shield Dust.
Sorry, Razzly.
I go for Woodstock, mostly because Fur Coat is going to be a thing and I want Poison.
Go, Eviolite. It won't be long until I lose that, but Muk ought to be worth it.
Now then... two separate 30% chances of inflicting Poison each jab. What are the odds of landing a Poison?
The odds of missing three Poisons in a row are probably better than you'd expect (the probability of landing a Poison is a little bit short the full 60% you'd intuitively guess), but still highly unfortunate. Woodstock can't roll the last hit, sadly.
Murphy'll have to do it.
Persian took offense.
This isn't the first time we've seen Black Hole Eclipse- it was previously used by a Veteran on Mount Hokulani, surprisingly for one of the few Z-Moves we'll see from the designated Type Expert. But Murphy took it like a champ.
Persian is easily dispatched.
For the experience, Woodstock finally got a move I considered capable of outclassing Disable- Screech. Woodstock'll be big on softening things up with both Screech and Poison, should the needs arise.
Krokorok is Nanu's physical mon- and despite being a Ground type, the only one not carrying a Rock move! 31/31/15/15/15/31 IVs, 252 EVs in Atk/Spd, a Jolly Nature (+Spd/-Sp. Atk), and the moves Crunch, Assurance, Swagger and Earthquake. Earthquake and Crunch is powerful, while Swagger + Assurance is supposed to be a fun alternative combination. One that doesn't work quite so well as he thinks it does when he's running Jolly 252 Speed. (Assurance does increased damage if the target has already been damaged that turn- so, you'd expect him to build so he goes second and that damage his target took was confusion damage thanks to Swagger).
He chose Intimidate over Moxie. Fair choice, Intimidate is a lot easier to use, but it seems to have backfired on this guy.
There were hopes. Vague ones, but there were hopes. Eventually Kasplashle's weaknesses will be a problem. On the other hand, "bulky Water" is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of players the world over. Fear or moderate annoyance.
On being defeated, Nanu has one of the longer animations, and a slightly unusual one in that the textboxes containing his defeat quote show up before he's done animating.
All that for a slight smirk.
Fortunately, he repeats it out of battle regardless.
Skull also isn't exactly as great as you remember it.
Nanu heals your team for free. If you're playing with a team of six and not cycling out like I am, this is an incredibly helpful boon, since you're about to be plunged directly into the next major dungeon.
I'm going to turn around and head back to the Pokemon Centre to cycle my team anyway, so it's nice but not necessary. I appreciate the effort, though- sometimes, when I cycle, I forget to make sure everyone's healed.
And of course, we are now the proud owners of a Darkinium Z. Dark has some surprisingly decent status moves to keep an eye out for, although I'm not sure which ones I've got space for in my kit. Hone Claws, Snatch and Taunt can work wonders.
We also get the Ula'ula Stamp, of course. Nanu doesn't mention it, but our obedience limit has been raised to 65, more than adequate to fight the final boss with. Obedience simply rises too high too fast to be truly impactful past the early-game.
Nanu also demonstrates the Dark type dance, as is tradition. The thing about the Ghost and the Dark dances is that they're all but identical- the difference is that with Ghost, the head goes between the hands, while with Dark, the hands go over the head.
The fact that Ghost and Dark are so similar offensive typings, as well as Acerola and Nanu being related, seems to have directed this, even though Ghost and Dark aren't exactly that similar when it comes to their theming (Ghost being based on the paranormal while Dark is based on fighting dirty). Although I suppose Dark stealing some other type's dance fits in with that whole "dirty play" bit.
Gladion takes a moment to stare at Nanu. Considering Gladion spent a lot of time around Team Skull, he probably knows Nanu on a good enough basis to be familiar with his lack of emotionality, but not familiar enough with him to be familiar with his need to do the Z-Pose after finishing a Grand Trial.
Curt as everything Nanu has ever done. He's hardly encouraging people to keep up with it, is he?
Nanu knows full well we're about to do to someplace else (someplace else that Gladion still hasn't named, incidentally) what we did to Po Town, and decides it's not his problem, but ours. Of course, he clearly has the utmost of faith in us- he tells us not to destroy them, rather than making plans for our funeral like before we stormed Po Town.
The fact that Gladion and Nanu are acquainted is confirmed, as Nanu mentions he knows why Gladion's in Team Skull. He drops this line to get him to notice that hey, Team Skull's a pretty pathetic band, why act like they're helping him get stronger?
Nanu walks away before Gladion can respond to that question. I wonder what his answer would be.
Perfect time for Hau to show up! I have no idea when he's going to get his chance to fight Nanu- the plot's taken so little time to highlight Hau's Island Challenge that I'm still genuinely not sure he's got any Stamps.
Gladion's expectations were rock bottom. Or he just really doesn't want to hear it. I don't blame him. I know why he's saying it.
Hau knows better than to push it. It could be that he's genuinely not having fun either.
Although he has one heck of a serious face if that were the case.
It is at this point in the proceedings that Hau finally asks where Lillie went. Team Skull took her, but if they wanted to take her to Po Town, having sent us there ahead of time would be the worst strategy they could have for avoiding a swift retribution.
Gladion compliments him for noticing that, in the most backhanded way possible. The naiveté is just ignorance, although it remains to be seen how good he is at problem solving when he has all the information he needs to solve said problems.
Thanks to the opening of the game showing Lillie running from the Aether minions in a recognisably Aether Paradise location, this probably isn't the bombshell to the players as it's delivered. Hau is doing enough reacting for all of us.
Bethany's probably halfway between not wanting to get close to Lusamine after her show last time, or plotting revenge for it.
We are immediately whisked to Aether Paradise's docks, with a remix of the Paradise theme to suit the new context of the place. There will be little doubt about what we're doing here.
I wouldn't expect to be stopped on the open waters. That might look suspicious to outsiders. I'd definitely expect the strongest security to be in here, where nobody has to notice.
Despite the fact that there has been an entire boat ride between the last bit of the conversation we saw and this one, Hau is no more well-informed about the nature of the Aether Foundation as opponents than he was back then, when he didn't even realise they were bad people.
Gladion is in no hurry to illuminate him. You're the one who whisked us here, the least you can do is tell us what kind of crazy Lusamine is. You don't have to assure me she is, I'm already well aware.
Hau's unamused face is always a treasure.
Bethany has two suggestions for what to do first. The first is pretty obvious, and the second is an absolute trainwreck of an idea. No, going up to and talking with the people who had Lillie kidnapped does not strike me as a cunning strategy.
Gladion's suggestion is no more helpful than either of mine. Sure, what's the smartest thing to do in a hostile technological supercomplex? Get on the easiest thing to trap us in. At least it's not a closed box elevator, but still.
This is actually USUM > SM this time... because the SM line was almost entirely preserved and is also found in USUM! He addresses us by name rather than by "my friend", but otherwise, same line. Neat. It's a pretty appropriate one.
We are not actually railroaded into putting a stop to the Aether Foundation. However, since we're technically indoors, we have to use this ferry to leave. Annoying to me in particular, but if you're using a team of six like a normal person, probably less so to you.
We will, of course, be assaulting the Aether Paradise separately, and probably in two parts. For now, we've got plenty of time to wander around and get all of the stuff that's opened up for defeating Nanu.
Starting with a long overdue present for an adorable little fox.
Ninetales (Ultra Sun): The reason it guides people all the way down to the mountain's base is that it wants them to hurry up and leave.
Ninetales was a Pokemon I appreciated a lot, but never really stood out to me as a Fire type. Something about the way her fur was restyled for Alolan Ninetales rocketed it up to the position of one of my favourite Ice types- it loses out on being a great Fairy because Fairy is stacked with my favourites. Its Moon entry says that the ancient Alolans thought it was a deity of some description before it was identified as a Ninetales, and I think they were onto something.
Oh, neat, that also got me 90% on the Ula'ula Dex. That's hilarious.
This would've been so nice for Nanu. On evolving, Ninetales gets good Fairy STAB. I wish it were Moonblast (she needs breeding for that), but with Ice Beam, Keokeo is well and truly ready to serve as an amazing Ice type on this team.
Oh hey, neat! After defeating Nanu- and only in the daytime- this lady finally notices the pattern in the Malie Garden pond, and is happy to share her information with passersby.
That is a long list of choices- nine items in all. All of them are in the Alola Pokedex, neatly. The correct answer, of course, is Gyarados.
It's a lot easier if you have a Trumbeak's-eye map.
The Air Balloon is one of the funnier items in the series, conceptually: It makes the holder ungrounded until they take a hit from a damaging move. This makes them immune to Ground moves, plus all the other effects you might expect a Pokemon with the Levitate Ability to enjoy. It even has a pop-up message when the Pokemon is sent out, so you can't even use it as a surprise tactic.
Since it's a consumable item, we're probably not using it.
Come to think of it, when was the last time Pokemon used the Easy Chat system from the DS games?
Good question. I got this conversation by accident in Noah's file, and the fact that it's sunset (I have no idea what I'm doing awake in the 5AM-6AM timeslot) makes me realise the colour of the water at this time of day resembles the colouring of Gyarados's shiny hue. A Shiny Gyarados appears in GSC in a major role, to show off the existence of shinies introduced in that game, and that's basically the only tie to Gyarados in specific the Johto region has.
And even then, the Johto region didn't want the Shiny Gyarados to happen, but I think a lot of post-GSC media forgets that anyway.
Available only at night in all games, as the counterpart event, is this Oranguru in the Malasada store.
He'll give us a copy of the TM for Frustration. This late in the game, almost certainly not worth it.
As soon as he does so, a policeman runs up to finally show a cop doing his job.
By which I mean "show him trying and failing to accomplish said job." Sometimes I feel this was on the intentional side, the way they sometimes go.
This story gets worse the longer he lets it go on.
As Pokemon for a cop go, an Oranguru who's aware he's smarter than the cop is not winning any prizes for good sense.
Well, you see, "giving" implies a capacity to refuse-
Oh, never mind, we really are going there. I am a minor, sir.
Also, of course both the kids in the shots are the black kids...
I mean, I'm assuming he has the prerequisites to do so, if not necessarily the permissions. The fact you describe him as "partner" implies he's an employee.
There's still more downhill to go from here.
Yeah. This Oranguru used to belong to a criminal.
Scratch that. It still belongs to a person currently incarcerated by the very man giving the orders.
Aside from not using Pokemon belonging to another person either without permission or through coercion (which this is almost definitely one of) being the sort of thing I'd hope would be one of the basic human rights in this world, using a criminal's Pokemon for official police business rates somewhere high up on the big list of bad ideas even from the police's side.
To try and prevent us from telling anyone how badly this situation has gone down, he gives us the matching TM for Return. Return is, of course, the best Normal move around for damage without drawback, worth 102 BP at max power. Here, it has been provided at a point in the game where that power is not ahead of the curve, if a little late- Normal is one of those types that's hard to justify using if there are better options, which is why Return is best suited to being closer to the middle of the game.
I'm probably not doing much more than sticking it on Cranky and Wiingo.
I am embarrassed for you on all of the levels.
I hope he robs you blind.
Right, yeah, before we get too far out of Malie, we need to sample the restaurant's menu. Moderately amusing, what they went with as the set names. Geisha not only included, but listed above Samurai? Hell, Ronin as the top set? Then again, "Ronin" does fit Nanu, in some symbolic manner.
Don't tell me what I can't handle. I'm already fully aware.
Yup, that looks exactly how I imagine Nanu walking into a restaurant.
That, on the other hand, does not sound like the sort of thing Nanu's OK with going by. Probably makes more sense in honorifics.
In comparison to Olivia, who goes "I'll have what she's having", Nanu instead just happens to order the Ronin set and doesn't realise we've done the same.
The Ronin set is a rather elaborate Japanese dining option. Someone else can probably explain what is traditionally packed in there as food and what is decoration- I've never been one for identifying the foods of any culture.
No, seriously, that is the order the dialogue is delivered in. I was never expecting Nanu to make a good conversationalist, but he sure makes a fascinating one.
Woo. Eight Heart Scales, in an event that can be repeated daily without even spending all that money. When we finally get a use for these Heart Scales, this will be a great source of them.
See ya, old man.
Also here in the community centre, this kid will sell you a Shiny Stone (Sun) or a Dusk Stone (Moon) for 3K. You can find a freebie of both early in Poni Island, but the necessary items are surprisingly weirdly balanced. SM doesn't need any Shiny Stones at all, while USUM needs two for Cinccino and Florges. Both games need two Dusk Stones for Mismagius and Honchkrow.
He really just tells us we're on our own looking for it.
Wow, Mum really hasn't changed her dialogue much. Anyway, there is a reason we're back on Melemele Island, and it's a doozy.
Nanu's defeat spawns multiple "Plates" around the Hau'oli City area. Plates are relatively interesting- they were first found in DPPt as items that boosted the power of a single type of attacking move by 20%. Yes, this does make them equal to the miscellaneous items. Their secondary purpose was introduced with the Mythical Pokemon Arceus, as the Plates allow Arceus to change its Type when held. As a result, they are somewhere between a helpful addition and inventory clutter, always appearing in every game, often as a bundle in some fashion. In this game, they actually sorta serve the purpose of allowing access to the type buffing items that are randomly sparse (like the Fist Plate), were it not for the fact that these items are starting to lose value in general.
They really scatter these all over the area. This is defined in like four separate maps, five if they're counting the beachfront separately, and while it's not too much hassle if you know they're all in this vague area, it does bear remembering, because otherwise you might incorrectly think you've got them all.
There are seventeen Plates total, and nine of them are found as hidden items.
They also adjusted the locations of Meadow and Insect for USUM, mostly because the redesign to Hau'oli means their original locations are no longer traversible terrain.
If you haven't talked to this guy yet, he won't actually offer any indication that he is now selling something mechanically the first time you talk to him.
But yeah, he does. The lady next to him will also tell you about them if you talk to her. He's strangely reticent to sell them to us, though.
He sells these eight Plates. The Pixie Plate is the only hold item that gives Fairy moves a 20% buff. SwSh doesn't have any way to get the Plates, but it does consider the Pixie Plate to be Fairy's 20% item. SV DLC would finally introduce the Fairy Feather as a normal 20% item for Fairy.
Also, the Zap, Iron and Fist Plates are adequate substitutes for missing 20% items. Granted, all of them are obtainable in SM, you just need to find them on a wild Pokemon.
I wound up buying out not only the Plates, but also the Orbs the other lady is selling. Hey, might as well, I'm rich enough.
After buying a Plate, the man reveals why half the Plates are scattered over the city- there was an attack during the delivery.
Your treatment of your customers leaves a lot to be desired, and you can't even be bothered to makes sure your stock is in good condition? See how long you stay in business with that attitude.
Right, yeah, stuff to do in Po Town. All of this is USUM stuff.
The barricades are down, which I think is part of all the Skulls leaving in USUM. These guys are still around, though.
Anyway, we saw this guy last time, finally time to hear him out.
Not that he doesn't take his own time getting to the point.
The Skull Grunt performs a little animation, before stopping and shrugging.
Ailey doesn't see what the problem is, but this time, this isn't a bad animations joke. It is possible to tell from the animation alone what the problem is- it's just incredibly unintuitive and you wouldn't be blamed for failing to tell.
The animation he performs is legitimately the first part of the Team Skull pose.
Eh. I think it's more the destination than the journey as a pose.
While I'm the last person to try and persuade you otherwise, I am curious what your relationship with the team is if this is a dealbreaker. What do you want to be getting, and are you really getting it?
Well... I mean, OK?
Oh, hi! Where did you lot come from?
I'm fairly confident this argument is a good reason for his decision.
All he did was talk to me. I made no arguments one way or the other. I, however, think he had a point.
The pinnacle of friendship right here- doesn't even bother listening to the problem and insists on "helping".
Despite being challenged by two Skull Grunts, we only have to fight one Pokemon, a Scraggy.
I notice that, whenever this happens, it's always the male Grunt we fight.
Huh. Impressive. This particular Skull Grunt's Scraggy is actually EV Trained- flat 20 IVs, 252 EVs in HP, Serious Nature.
All the more reason to ditch Fairy Wind. I wish Moonblast was reasonable.
Despite being a Physical move, this didn't go far.
Yeah, I beat your boss. Took more than two Fairy Winds for him, though.
After having their skulls knocked on, they are finally able to recognise what their friend has been telling them. Now, whether they appreciate it is another matter.
Especially when he proves reticent to share.
The two of them pelt him with requests to explain himself- of course, leaving him little room to get a word in edgewise.
Eventually, the pressure gets so great that the Skull Grunt yells at them to leave him alone, punctuating his point by performing the Team Skull pose.
It takes him a few moments to realise what he just did.
I dunno, I still think some space might be worth considering from a mental health standpoint. I'm not going to argue strongly on that one, but you know... if this was a good place for your mental health, it wouldn't have got this far.
Extra Full Restore, neat. We won't get these as buyables for a while.
I'm not sure your boss is of the same mind.
At least they're all friends.
...Huh. There's an Oranguru you can play with here now. Wonder if that was always there.
I didn't get a good shot of where this guy is- he's on the west side of town, behind a hedge that you crawl through. Since he's behind a hedge around his height, I usually find the best way to see him is either to check the front yard of every house, or to look for a small blue arrow pointing at him.
His business is on the shadier side. Not that we've heard what he's up to yet.
...You're not selling Pokemon, are you? I guess someone needs to buy all these "stealing Pokemon for money" that the game assures us Team Skull is in the business of doing.
We can battle this guy once a day for a reward. I'll be honest, I think I'm more excited for the EXP than the reward.
Royce, like the Skull Grunts we fought earlier, has two Pokemon with 20 IVs and 252 EVs in HP each. Serious Natures and no assigned moves.
His first Pokemon is an Elgyem that takes a lot of punishment from Sue.
Or, well, Anna in disguise. Sue probably could've done a much more effective job.
The other Pokemon he has is Metang, who I had the real Sue fight. A bit of a bold strategy, when Metang is a Steel type.
Metang wasted its time with Miracle Eye. I needn't have worried.
That would've been interesting, but it's not Chip's thing. Final Gambit is a Special Fighting move that causes you to faint, and deals [your remaining HP] in damage to the opponent. This move also has an extra life in this game- since it's a Special Fighting move and not a Status one, it turns into All-Out Pummelling when powered into its Z-Form, and has a surprisingly high BP rating of 180. Unfortunately, few Pokemon who learn it are great Special Attackers.
There exists a Pokemon that, as part of its gimmick, is locked at 1 HP. They went out of their way to allow that Pokemon to learn this move.
Glad to hear. Now then, what have I agreed to?
You should see the other kids. Poor Ailey's not where I'd like her to be.
Now this is a prize. The Big Nugget, of course, is worth 20K when sold, ensuring this is a tidy 15K profit. That you can repeat daily.
But wait, it gets better! Royce, lest we forget, is a Trainer battle, and Trainer battles award prize money. Royce's payout is 1600 Poke by default, or 3200 Poke with the Amulet Coin. We're actually getting 18200 Poke in profit every time we do this.
I did wind up doing this event twice, but for an important reason. You might have noticed that the second screenshot looks brighter- almost like it's daytime.
Tyrantrum (Ultra Moon): The king of the ancient world, it can easily crunch a car with the devastating strength of its enormous jaws.
Aurorus (Ultra Sun): An Aurorus was found frozen solid within a glacier, just as it appeared long ago, which became quite a big event in the news.
Keen-eyed players may have noticed that I had Ailey using a Tyrunt and Ray using an Amaura. These Pokemon evolve at level 39 during a specific time of day- and in both cases, the wrong time of day for their respective kids. From a team-building perspective, these were the correct decisions (imagine where Ailey would be without Sue, while Ray has an uncomfortably shallow selection of Special Attackers), but it did mean I had to find an opportunity to evolve them. I was very fortunate both of them were mid-level 38 at this exact point in the story, since it allowed me to painlessly evolve them here.
And this is line if you try and get more than one a day.
Don't ask where he gets them.
Took me a while to remember to do this, but I've had Garchomp's Dex entry for a while. Poke Pelago in the background means that everything I have caught thus far that I don't intend to use is fully evolved. This is easier in USUM, where the Poke Pelago EXP training gives 500 EXP a session instead of SM's 300.
Gabite requires a total of 138,240 EXP to evolve. Gabite are found between levels 32 and 35 in the wild, meaning that they start with between 40,960 and 53,593 EXP. From level 32, it will take you 194 sessions to get close to evolving, or just over four days without Poke Beans. Ray and Ailey actually had to do extra, since I had them transfer in a Gible from Noah each rather than catch their own (Haina SOS was painful enough doing it three times, I wasn't having all four kids get their own Gabite), but because EXP increases cubically, that wasn't even a 50% increase.
To lampshade how ridiculous a requirement this is, the Aether mook feels vindicated in their decision to have us do all of this instead of doing it themselves. At least it was a lot harder than finding a 5% Mimikyu in SM.
Let me know how that works out for you.
Come to think of it, aren't I supposed to be raiding your foundation's HQ right now?
Considering I can also get this sum from Pyukumuku chucking or the shady Big Nugget guy, not sure if that was worth it.
Don't expect any sympathy from me. Although you may or may not be better than your bosses ethically when push comes to shove.
We have one more USUM event to complete here, and funnily enough, Ray wound up doing it first. It can only occur at night time, and I did this alongside evolving Agnes- I just forgot to do it with Ailey in the first lap. A fortuitous outcome, however, because this sidequest is more useful to Ray.
As you walk en route to the non-existent back room after defeating Nanu, you can spot Mimikyu drifting around the place, being its typical playful self.
Every now and then, you'll get little pop-ups asking "Mimikyu?" or "Pikachu?". If you say Pikachu, Mimikyu will get angry and chase you backwards. If you say Mimikyu, however, you pique its interest.
Sometimes you forget just how scary Mimikyu can be when it wants to be.
And other times, it just sneaks up behind you and calls out.
This one, similarly, wants you to respect its boundaries- treat it as it is, and don't get hit with the nightmare fuel underneath its cloth.
Someone's happy here.
Get this far, and it calls you over here, so it can take you back to the mystery backroom. We don't ask questions about how we got here.
This one is a similar option to the first case, but with a more obvious explanation. We want to show Mimikyu that it's wanted, and not just a budget Pikachu we'd gleefully discard it for should we get the real deal.
And there's a lot of Pokemon fans who'd gladly make that choice unironically.
This Mimikyu doesn't stick around for our party, but it does give us Mimikyu's brand new exclusive Z-Crystal, the Mimikium Z! This will enhance the move Play Rough to become Let's Snuggle Forever, a 190 BP Physical Fairy Z-Move.
Ray will show it off when he gets to level 46. There are multiple tempting targets.
We are not given control while inside the mystery room. I wonder if there's a technical reason for this or it's just a lore thing.
After getting the Mimikium Z, the Trial Guide just outside will drop by to ask what you were up to. This is mainly flavour, nothing to be worried about.
Fitting, owing to the fact it's not found in SM.
Yes, the fact that only Ray will be able to use Mimikium Z is part of the reason he's using a Mimikyu of his own and not just leaving it at Beth's.
Right, well... he just wanted a cuddle.
Shy? From a Pokemon that dresses itself up to attract attention from people?
The dialogue branch here actually changes the dialogue- and lesson- the Trial Guide imparts.
If you express surprise at Mimikyu's shyness, the Trial Guide lampshades the fact that simply appreciating someone is an easy way to get them to like you. And he's sure not wrong about that.
If you merely speculate about why it's shy, he'll instead just allude to the fact that Mimikyu probably doesn't like being second best. I think I prefer the answer Ray went with.
Either way, the Trial Guide is happy Mimikyu likes us for such wholesome reasons. I can only hope Brave Bernie shares the sentiments.
Also after defeating Nanu, you can find this lady trying to find out what happened here. This requires us to bring a specific Pokemon to show her, and we cannot obtain that Pokemon until post-game. Perhaps this is for trade-in purposes?
Bethany and Ailey's respective Pokedexes. Porygon, Sneasel and Drampa are Pokemon we are meant to be missing, and everything else is going fine. Well, except for Ailey's Froslass- apparently she hasn't found a Dawn Stone in Pelago yet- and a smattering of pre-evolved Pokemon- Poni's going to introduce a lot more, I'd like to deal with that in bulk. Otherwise, we're very well-covered for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment