Pokemon Sun LP, Part 3: Chimeras, Western Towns and Riding Dogs

So after a bit of a romp throughout Melemele Island and tying up some loose ends, I hopped off in Akala Island. Kukui, Lillie and Hau tag along, though thankfully throughout Akala Island the tutorials get progressively less and less. It's very much appreciated, that's for sure. Hau is still mildly irritating in several parts of the story, but Kukui and Lillie are less introdump tutorial tools and are settling into their roles as 'cool big bro mentor' and 'mysterious friendly buddy' respectively.

Grown from "I don't care about this"
into "MY CHILD"

My little group is immediately met by the Kahuna and the Trial Captain. The Kahuna is this dark-skinned lady Olivia who dresses in a pretty... revealing outfit. She also makes a point of pointing out how Kukui wears a labcoat without anything underneath. The Trial Captain is Mallow, who's this cute lady with a little vine-crown and long green pigtail hairs. Mallow seems to be a bit of a cheerful ditzy girl, and Olivia's the more mature one. They introduce themselves, and they go off. My little group split up as well, though naturally only to stop me after every five steps as I explore Akala Island.

Heahea City is kind of like Hau'oli City, a big city with lots of facilities. A quick stop to rename Cutiefly into Tatl (the yellow bug-fairy from Zelda: Majora's Mask), I'm off to explore the city. There's a clothing store from which I pick up a fancy new hat -- there are a lot of tank tops, which I guess fit the whole Hawaii region, but I don't fancy myself rocking a tank top. Oh, also glasses. Because I wear them in real life.

I go up to the hotel to meet up with Lillie, who's trying to investigate ruins to find out about Cosmog's origins, but I'm accosted by Dexio and Sina, who I don't even recognize are supposed to be returning characters from X and Y. They're not wearing the goofy white outfits, and are decked out in tropical vacation clothes! Dexio challenges me to a battle, and he's got a Slowpoke (who dies quickly to Dartrix) and an Espeon (who took out Magnemite and Cutiefly until Dartrix pops back out). Why can't someone like Dexio be my rival instead of Hau? It's actually a half-challenging fight.

They mention the group of five kids from Kalos, which is when I put two and two together, and they also give me the Zygarde Cube. Which I'm confused what it's for. In the big hotel there's a little sparkly and apparently I just sucked in a Zygarde Cell? Huh. I guess I have to collect all the little cells to summon the huge Zygarde? I dunno. It's pretty cool, I guess, and a lot more interesting than all the mystery and buildup they gave Zygarde in XY with jack shit payoff anywhere other than the anime, who is building up for Sun and Moon anyway.

Lillie's supposed to meet someone in the hotel, but ended up missing the meeting. I do love the design of the hotel, though, from the Chinchou lamps to the Wailmer vases and whatnot. That's mostly all that Heaheaheaheahea City has to offer, so I'm off to Route 4. There are Eevees and Mudbrays here! Cool to finally see yet another Alolan Pokemon in the wild. Not a big fan of Mudbray so he's not going to hang out in my party just yet, but it's still cool to catch new ones. Also, apparently one of the new trainer classes is a bellhop.

I arrive in Paniola Town, which is a very Western-inspired town with rickety houses, and even tumbleweeds in the background. It's pretty barren aside from the Pokemon Center and a house bizarrely full of Magmars. Oh, and a rival battle with Hau. Who only has a Pikachu and a Brionne... and ends up not even being a challenge for a lone Magnemite. Dartrix didn't even have to get out of his ball. Even without Z-Moves, Hau is an absolutely ineffective rival. By this point in time, the likes of May or Barry or Blue already have like four Pokemon with different types.

I bugger off to Paniola Ranch, which, well, is a ranch! Of Tauros and Miltank. When are they going to give the two a pre-evolution that makes sense of the two? Whatever the case, though, I meet Mallow again, who talks for a bit and introduces how the Paniola Ranch apparently handles the Poke-Ride Tauros all over Alola. She also gives me a Stoutland Poke-Ride, which is basically Itemfinder. This was... very surprising! Unlike Tauros, there is absolutely zero buildup to Stoutland, and it's not a Pokemon I expect to ride, like, ever. Okay, Gogoat, Tauros, Rapidash, Sharpedo, Mudsdale... dudes like that, yeah, you ride them. Stoutland is a giant dog!

Oh, he definitely sounds like Sasuke.

It is absolutely fun to ride on Stoutland, though, who I appreciate so much more after riding him around and just aww-ing over his smelling for items in the ground.

There's a nice little mini-quest with a rowdy Tauros that I have to battle, and the Miltank Mistress of the Ranch. I like Paniola Ranch. What a calming place. Route 5 up North is also pretty cool, with the terrain being far more rocky and stuff. A bunch of Sudoowoodo block a path, and a bunch of squatting Team Skull grunts block another. At this point, I see Hau and I'm ready for yet another useless inane nonsense, but we get plot! Gladion shows up, and he's like this super-serious super-cool super-anime-esque character, and, man, he just talks a big game about how he only fights strong trainers, and how Hau has potential but is an absolutely shit trainer. Or something. Whatever the case, blonde dude, I totally agree with you.

Gladion talks about how he's looking for powerful trainers to train up Null, and we go into a battle! Gladion has a great pre-battle animation, but his team is... a Zubat and a Type: Null. Zubat goes down easy to a Spark from Magnemite, but Type: Null... well, I want to say that he's at least a challenge, but only his bulk proves him to be annoying. I keep waiting for him to use mini-judgement or whatever, but all he does is tackle. Cool design, though. Really love Type: Null when I actually see him in-game.

There's a slight bit of conflict as a bunch of Grunts show up, and Gladion tells the grunts not to bother because they're weaker than him. All the while the grunts are doing rappy things! The grunts tell Gladion off themselves, noting how the boss only keeps this mercenary around, and how he'll never be a real part of Team Skull. They all leave, Hau says some stupid nonsense (get good, Hau) and he goes off. That's a pretty cool intermission! Gladion is cool, and he insults Hau so clearly he has good taste. With that out of the way, hopefully I can get to the trial and to Lillie's plotline.