Pokemon Sun LP, Part 4: Giant Fish Army

Well, that was a lot more fun! The trial captain is Lana, who's this very chill-looking girl that just looks so... calm. The trial takes place in Brooklet Hill, and after meeting Mallow and Olivia, I'm surprised that the trial captain here is something else. Brooklet Hill is gorgeous, a series of ponds and waterfalls and rocks, and holy shit they outdid themselves from XY and ORAS with animating the water. Especially when the trial reaches its climax and it starts to rain? Man, the water looks so good.

Lana is a bit of a bullshitter, talking about how the legendary Pokemon Kyogre lives in Brooklet Hill -- that got me a laugh -- and she keeps acting surprised by the huge splashes that keep happening in the various ponds, which turn out to be Wishiwashi. I caught the first Wishiwashi I fought and named her Legion, which, if you're not naming your Wishiwashis Legion, what the hell are you naming them?

Lana gives me very quickly a new Poke-Ride, which is the Lapras Paddle... and Lapras's animation looks so much smoother than it did in XY, with Lapras actually, y'know, paddling and moving his fins instead of being static. Again, after the trouble we went to introduce Tauros and make Tauros feel like a huge deal, it felt odd to just have Lapras shoved in our inventory, but whatever. Two Wishiwashis, and into the central pool and, of course, the Wishiwashi that attacks is one in its gigantic combined form. This Totem Wishiwashi has a pretty dope-ass cutscene where it rises dramatically out of the water and lunges at me, and mother fucker that dude looks big. And it's actually pretty tough to take down, too, as far as bosses go. In addition to the intrinsic defenses that a Totem Pokemon gets, the boss Wishiwashi isn't content in just summoning shitty Yungooses, but it summons an Alomomola, a huge bulky fucker of her own that shoots Heal Pulses.

-insert Jaws theme-

I mean, my Pokemon is a Dartrix with Razor Leaf, so you'd think a multi-battle against two Water-types would be easy, but a combination of Soak -- which annuls my Grass-typing -- and the intrinsic bulk of both Wishiwashi and Alomomola made it a bit of an ordeal in chipping both their healths down. An attempt to switch in Magnemite is met with disaster, because, y'know, a Helping-Hand-boosted rain-boosted STAB Water Gun from a Totem Wishiwashi? Cuts straight through even Magnemite's steel-typing.

Of course, Dartrix eventually took out the Totem Wishiwashi and his backup squad of an Alomomola and a regular Wishiwashi, earning me the Waterium Z. So I don't get to fight Lana? I mean, I guess the Wishiwashi fight kinda counts, but still. I have no use for the Waterium Z since I don't run any water-types, so that goes into my bag. I'm going to abuse the heck out of the Fishing Rod. I guess they're abandoning the Old/Good/Super Rod system? That's a bit sad, but it's not a change I'm super sad to see go away since Generation V only had the Super Rod.

There's a brief encounter with Team Skull and some little kid with a Mudsdale or something, but it's kind of just throwaway and I honestly don't really remember what happened. I rescued a Drifloon. That's a good thing.

WHO'S DERE JUMPING UP IN DE SKY

Afterwards I spend some time dicking around and just exploring Brooklet Hill, trying to hatch the egg that the day-care center (that no longer gives XP and just is a breeding station, which is weird but okay) gave me while filling out my Pokedex. The game, of course, funnels me into this battle facility thing, where I can experience the four-people battle royale dome... which is a bit of an
underwhelming addition. It went on for a bit too long -- we had Hau, Gladion and Professor Kukui THE MASKED ROYAL, DEFENDER OF JUSTICE AND PROPRIETOR OF ABS.

Okay, having the Masked Royal show up -- and very transparently reveal himself to the audience as Professor Kukui, woo, is very out of the left field and very unexpected. Especially when I expected the whole Battle Royale thing to be another boring-ass Hau-introdump, having the Masked Royal ham it up and just simply the idea of Kukui replacing his labcoat with luchador gear... why is his Pokemon a Rockruff and not, like, a Hawlucha or a Incineroar? Jeez. It was fun, though ultimately I'm confused why Gladion is in it and no one really raises a fuss over the dude associated with the criminal group wielding a chimaeric Pokemon that presumably no one has ever seen before. I find Gladion's super-emo lines absolutely hilarious, though, and the anime poses he strikes, man... yeah, fuck Hau. Behaviour-wise this dude works so much better as a rival, and he's bordering on parody.

There's also the Thrifty Mega-Mart thing, which is a very awesomely-crafted area, and a place to get really, really good sales. I return to the Heahea City to find a small portion of the city has been made available, including a building that has Aether Foundation personnel on one floor and the Game Freak office -- always nice to find that. Aether Foundation is basically like animal rescue designed with some futuristic style, and they seem like very decent folk, and if I hadn't seen them chasing down Lillie and Cosmog in the opening cutscene I would honestly think that they are super-nice dudes. Hell, there's a small van I found near the volcano route where the Aether foundation is helping a Slowpoke whose tail has been cut off (man, whatever the generation Slowpokes can't catch a break) to recover.

There's also Diglett's Tunnel, but I get blocked and shooed out of the cave by Olivia almost immediately, who very unsubtly tells me to go climb a volcano and fight Kiawe's trial. The volcano is... surprisingly different from what I expected. Instead of being a cave-styled dungeon, the 'caves' just teleports you to different parts of the mountain, and it's more Jagged Pass than Fiery Path, to use Hoenn comparisons. The surrounding area is basically swarmed with Salandit, one of the cooler new Pokemon and they look so good animated in 3D! I don't think I'm going to use one in my party, since Legion the Wishiwashi is chilling as the sixth member until I find a Wimpod... and holy shit, I might actually just use Legion after all. Schooling is a very insane-looking ability and I'm starting to really fall in love with Schooling-mode Wishiwashi. Such an insane tank.

Kiawe's trial is certainly different, and Kiawe himself admits it freely. It is presented as a very tribal-style 'spot the difference in the dance' that's actually a lot simpler than it is, since all you have to watch isn't the dancing of the Marowak, but the final pose. And after the first time around, it's just, 'hey, a hiker has photobombed!' and 'hey, now a Salazzle has photobombed!' It's more of a parody than anything, and an excuse to get you to fight through a series of battle, first against an Alolan Marowak (or a couple more times if you get the second trial wrong), then against a Magmar, then against a Totem Salazzle. Who my brain remembers as Fire/Dark and not Fire/Poison for some reason, causing me to make some... very poor choices. Like sending poor, poor, Tatl the Cutiefly against a type that I think she's strong against, but actually absolutely allergic to. Also, I forgot that Salazzle can poison Steel-types, that's part of her ability, and my poor Magnemite got Venoshocked to death. Of course, It's time for my cute little Rockruff Ressa to shine, and after slaying the Totem Salazzle and her little harem members, Rockruff evolves into Lycanroc. What an awesome-looking design Midday form Lycanroc is. I just love it. It's just a very cool-looking wolf, and while Accelerock is basically Rock-type Aqua Jet I really like it. Salazzle looks cool, but she's nowhere as horrifying as Totem Wishiwashi was.

I get a free pager ride for Charizard, which is Fly! And I can fly to any route, not just Pokemon Centers. It's going to be fun -- there are some areas I missed in Melemele and now that I have access to Surf I think I'll have to pay Melemele a visit sooner or later.

I wander around catching Pokemon for a bit, before going off to fight Mallow... and I meet a very unexpected old face -- Colress! Who still has that stupid Internet Explorer hairstyle, but he now has a very cool gauntlet-computer things. Colress, if you forget, is one of the main antagonists of Black 2/White 2. He's not as well-written as N in my opinion, but he is one of the more interesting characters and well-defined ones from the games, and having him wander around still trying to figure out the bond between Pokemon and trainer, having mellowed out a lot since Generation V, is very fun. I really wish he still has his Magnezone and Klinklang army.

Honestly, when I first arrived on Akala Island I thought it was just going to be Mallow and Olivia, just like how it's just Ilima and Hala in Melemele Island... but apparently there are going to be three trials, and one kahuna. So that's two down, two to go as far as Akala Island goes.

Current party: Green Arrow the Dartrix, Ressa the Lycanroc, Gigaton the Magnemite, Tatl the Cutiefly, Legion the Wishiwashi and Shrapnel the Charjabug.