Pokemon Sun LP, Part 2: The Trial of Melemele Island

Let's Play Pokemon Sun, Episode 2

What, what? They're hard as bones.

So last time we left off in our Let's Play, we were exploring Hau'oli City. There were a couple of cool parts of town that are shoved straight into my face by my buddies Lillie and Hau like the Malasada shop and the clothing shop, but I'll try not to bitch too much about them stopping me every five steps I take while exploring the city. There's really not much to say about Hau'oli City... it's a cool little city, we saw it in the demo. I absolutely love the amount of detail put into making the barber shop and the police station and the Malasada shop feel unique. In any game, it's little details that I absolutely appreciate -- like actually taking the time to make the model for those chairs at a barber shop they use to wash your hair.

Also, the big mall apparently is not a building you can enter? Or is it some post-game thing? Huh.

Hala is calming down the Tauros over on the north side of the city, pigeonholing me to explore Hau'oli City's pier. The trial captain Ilima (whose house is a huge fucking mansion) is just hanging out. After a brief talk, Team Skull show up! It would be a surprise if I wasn't interrupted halfway through exploring the city by a cutscene of two random NPCs discussing that Team Skull is evil and they're hanging around the city. Jeez, let me discover these tidbits by talking to random NPCs and getting them as gossip!

You just know he sounds snotty, even if
he's actually really nice.

Anyway, Team Skull is hilarious. They're these punks with those... handkerchiefs you use to hide the lower part of your face, trying so hard to be tough. And the scripting is top-notch, portraying them as absolutely thuggish. The game clearly doesn't take them seriously. As the Team Skull grunts show up and do their stupid pose, and the Team Skull theme song flares up... suddenly it cuts away to Ilima and me talking very calmly with the music grinding to a stop and returning to Hau'oli's ambiance again. Hell, the Team Skull dudes even get pissed off for us ignoring them, which is hilarious! A fight ensues, though as in all Pokemon games, the grunts of the evil team suck and lobbing a single Zubat against a team of six? Of which the leading Pokemon is Gigaton the Magnemite? Yeah. Team Skull beat it, and Ilima then challenges me to a fight.

So apparently the trial captains will still be battle-able, even if the focus is going to be more on the trial itself and presumably things like Totem Pokemon and whatnot. Ilima has a Yungoos and a Smeargle as his Pokemon. The Yungoos is obviously not a threat, but the Smeargle knew Ember... which just coincidentally very effective not only against my starter Rowlet, but also against my Magnemite and my Butterfree, the two other Pokemon that's decently leveled up in my party. It's not that huge of a hurdle to clear, though I did find it pretty hilarious.

Speaking of which... despite me dismissing him for being an old Pokemon, I am starting to get pretty attached to Gigaton the Magnemite that I think I'll keep him around. I've always loved Magneton, and didn't mind Magnezone, but I never actually used one in a playthrough. (Lulu the Caterpie evolved into Butterfree and she's marginally useful, but I used Butterfree so many times already that it would kind of be overkill to have one-thirds of my team be older Pokemon). 

Afterwards I'm told to go up to Route 2. I should go straight up to the trial, but I investigate a weird house with a father whose child apparently went off to an adventure without his consent, and a brief turn leads me to Hau'oli Cemetery. A lady in the Pokemon Center did give me a mini-quest to catch a Drifloon... which is either super-rare or there's a pre-requisite to getting to appear. Is it Fridays again? There are some depressing dialogue from the characters about losing their Pokemon and whatnot, so I leave the area and go up, upon which a santa bird accosts me.

I really love the slight focus on Delibird. Delibird's never really been given any sort of focus aside from bizarrely being the Mask of Ice's main fighter Pokemon in the manga, and while I question the idea of having Delibirds handle a Berry Farm instead of something less... ice-breathing... well, the Delibird brought me up to see the berry farmer who doesn't give a shit that the two Team Skull Grunts from before are accosting him. In the immortal words of Grunt A, "So, I'm lower than a Pokemon? I've already got self-esteem issues, man!" Team Skull is just so hilarious. They really have to ask for people to act scared of them. The grunt that fights me this time around has a Drowzee, who isn't much of a threat either.

Team Skull's theme song is dope, though, as much as their grunts are jokes. In a sense, I love Team Skull even more. They just try to be scary and act all tough and everything, but no one takes them seriously, and they're kind of crushed because of it. Kinda like the cartoon's Team Rocket, whose lack of effectiveness adds to their charm.

The Berry system in Generation VII is a bit whelming, there are just piles of berries under trees (that respawn, I guess?) that you take. I dunno. I'm raised on Generation III where the berry planting system is slightly more complex, but the existence of empty Harvest-Moon-style fields might hint at something more. Also, the nearby house is filled with Delibirds.

Onwards to the location of the trial, Verdant Cavern. I caught a Cutiefly on the way. Flutter the Cutiefly's not one I'll keep on my party for long, but I like Cutiflies better than I do Alolan Rattatas, so she's on the team for now. A battle with a Pokemon Breeder caused Rowlet to evolve into Dartrix, upon which he looks like such a dork. I love Dartrix! He just rocks it out with that goofy hairdo and that bowtie. His idle animation has him stroking his hair!

The Verdant Cavern looks beautiful, like something straight out of a Zelda game. It's a pity that the trial, for all Ilima builds it up to be, is just a simple 'run around the pretty cave, talk to the little burrows, defeat Yungooses.' Though I must admit, my (un-nicknamed) Pikipek, who learns Rock Smash for some reason, ended up being very useful. The two Skull Grunts show up again, talk smack, and I just find them the only real distraction that's just hilarious. For whatever reason they help me out in blocking two of the dens because... they want to beat up the Gumshoos or whatever? The two Team Skull Grunts also build up a scary-strong Pokemon that is in the innermost part of Verdant Cavern, which is a Totem Gumshoos.

I do like the idea of a Totem Pokemon, who have greater stats than normal and are unfair due to basically making the battles into 2-v-1 affairs, but Pokemon's AI are dumb most of the time and having a boss fight that's somewhat challenging, even if it's via a handicap, is a decent concept. Dartrix absolutely tore through the Gumshoos, though, that dumb-looking thing that actually got a pretty sweet cutscene when he backflips off the ledge. Not a big fan of the orange aura around the Totem Pokemon, though. I get that they want to make Totem Gumshoos stand out, but you'd think being twice the size of everything in the field would do that.

It's a cool bit where they're a bit unashamed about the roadblocks in this generation -- Ilima straight-up says that parts of Melemele Island is barred with literal barriers unless you're strong enough and have completed the trials... which really begs the question as to just why they needed so many follow-Kukui/Hau/Lillie/Ilima mini-cutscenes.

One of the most egregious part of the tutorials is the Z-moves. I know that they're the gimmick this generation, but you get a brief explanation from Ilima, and you can already equip and unleash Breakneck Blitz (which looks hilarious when it's a Magnemite doing it, by the way) onto the Yungooses and Digletts in the Verdant Cavern. Certainly I don't need Kukui giving me a step-by-step tutorial, then a step-by-step demo. I actually just spammed A without looking, and honestly I think I'd like Kukui so much more if he isn't Tutorial Man 90% of the time.

Also apparently Lillie is missing in Route 3, which is the area that has just opened up. Route 3 has these shadows-of-birds thing that we had in Generations V and VI, which caught me by surprise because I wasn't paying attention.

Speaking of which, let's talk about Poke-Refresh. Slightly pissed that Antidotes, Awakenings and the like are basically irrelevant now outside of battle -- the 'medicine' option really could've had it have charges depending on the actual medication you carry -- but it's a cool little bit. The lack of stupid minigames like Pokemon Amie is a huge, huge bonus because after the first two or three Pokemon you play games with, the minigames in Amie are just irritating. I want to pet and feed my Pokemon, not fucking play stupid yarn games.

Less commendable is the Festival Plaza, which I accidentally clicked on the lower screen, sending me through a very wordy and absolutely irritating tutorial where I just rolled my eyes and spammed A. The concept of Festival Plaza is cool -- albeit recycled from B2W2 -- but holy fuck, I'm not an idiot. Let me figure these out by myself, you don't have to spoon-feed me every single iota of information. I don't particularly care that much to do Wi-Fi related things until the post-game, so fuck off, fat kid and your stupid castle.

Since we're talking about random things, I want to take this moment to acknowledge how hilarious the new animation for Astonish is. My Dartrix just turns around, hopping and dee doo dee BAM SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER! And somehow it hits for Ghost-type damage. Pursuit's another one with a cool animation.

Route 3 is a cliffside route with Delibirds, for some reason. Delibirds are a bit of a weak Pokemon, but I find them hilarious, and I love them. Do penguins hang out in Hawaiian cliffsides? The Pokedex even lampshades this, noting that Alolan Delibird can withstand hotter temperatures. I'm starting to let Gigaton the Magnemite and Flutter the Cutiefly out to train them a bit -- I mean, it might be some time until I get more ideal teammates, and I'm starting to get attached to these two in particular.

Lillie has wandered into a portion of Route 3, the Melemele Meadow, which is a cool meadow made almost entirely of flowers. No Flabebe here, but lots and lots of Cutiefly (which are fodder for Dartrix) and Oricorio, who is a cool new Pokemon, but I'm not using one, since the pom-pom one has type overlaps with Magnemite and Dartrix. Maybe if one of the cooler variants in other islands showed up. As usual, Lillie's Nebby has wandered off. How is the little nebula-cloud thing still a secret? Every trainer in Melemele probably saw it already. 

After working through a small army of Oricorio, I got to Nebby who went along with minimal fuss. Also, want to get really wasted? Take a shot every time Lillie tells Nebby to get in the bag. A brief battle against Hau, who is barely more challenging than the wild Oricorio (how is his Popplio not a Brionne yet? If you're going to take the weak starter, at least make it more challenging!), and then I'm off.

Route 3's minimap seems to have these little rocky outcroppings in the nearby water, which I bet is going to be explorable once I get surf. Or the surf equivalent. There's a boss Ace Trainer in the area, who looks like he could be a Final Fantasy game protagonist, but he's only barely tougher than Hau. He did use the cool tactic of using his Rockruff to Stealth Rock, while his Slowpoke forces me to switch with a Red Card held item. I mean, his Pokemon are all still deathly weak to Dartrix, so...

Legit thought that was a sword on his belt.

Then I make a quick stop in Iki Town to fight the gym leader. I mean, Island Kahuna. It's Hala, who I saw all throughout my journey through Melemele, which I thought was pretty cool how this old dude acts like, well, the old dude in anime and such. My starter is part-Flying, so Green Arrow the Dartrix absolutely wiped the floor with Hala's team. The Crabrawler took a couple more Pecks to bring down than I thought it would, though -- so Crabrawler might just have far higher defenses than I give it credit for. It's a respectable kahuna fight, I guess? Maybe it'll be a bit harder if I didn't pick Rowlet, but then there are a fair amount of Flying-types like Spearow and Oricorio in the route preceeding this, so yeah.

I get a stamp and a second Z-crystal, the Fighting-type one. Hala gives the post-gym-battle talk about how traded Pokemon up to level whatever will obey me, I get a free TM, and the Tauros that's been a recurring character throughout Melemele Island shows up, and I get to summon him via pager any time like he's a Grab Taxi or whatever. The Tauros-riding gear is cool, though, and yeah, Tauros basically replaces Rock Smash, and I'm off to explore everything else in Melemele Island. Hala and Kukui basically tells me to bugger off to the next island, though I'm sure as hell going to explore the rock smash areas first.

Lillie gets a short cutscene telling me about how she wants to come along to help find Nebby's real home or whatever in the other islands. She's actually pretty cool, because her dialogues are generally more story-oriented and not Kukui or Hau's "HEY HAVE YOU FIGURED THIS OUT".

I raided Melemele Island of the goodies hidden behind smashable rocks, all the while loving the sheer speed that Tauros riding grants me. One area that used to be completely blocked off is the Ten Carat Hill, located near Kukui's lab and not at all as close to Hau'oli City as the demo implies. There is also a severe lack of Jangmo-os, though there's a lot of others that I captured and added to the collection. I looked in the Pokedex and apparently Rockruff is found here... and it took me nearly an hour for the damn thing to spawn. It's Machops and Carbinks everywhere! But catch a Rockruff I did. I named it Ressa. It's in my party and it will never leave. Afterwards I decided to grab a Grubbin before I leave for the second island, and hopefully to raise it up into a good and powerful Vikavolt. Apparently it's in the grass patches near Iki Town, and I had to sort through a literal buttload of Rattatas and Caterpies. Why is it so hard to catch a couple new Pokemon? Jeez. You'd think they would made Grubbin the common encounter as opposed to Caterpie and Spinarak. And that's honestly one of my pet peeves I have with Sun and Moon... I don't mind incorporating older Pokemon, but they're so omnipresent that Yungoos and Pikipek aside, it's actually really hard to find the newer Pokemon.

Anyway, Shrapnel the Grubbin joins the party, giving me my first full team I'm happy with: Green Arrow the Dartrix, Gigaton the Magnemite, Flutter the Cutiefly, Lulu the Butterfree, Ressa the Rockruff and Shrapnel the Grubbin. Lulu's the one that's going to get a boot if/when I find someone more interesting. 

Overall, though, very much enjoying this game. At around route 3, the introdumps start to get fewer and fewer and the exploration gets so much better after that. Alola is absolutely fucking gorgeous, and exploring the terrain itself is fun.