Pokemon Sun LP, Part 6: Interdimensional Elder Ones

So, I tried to access the Ruins of Life, but huge Legend of Zelda style blocks are, well, blocking my way. So I bugger off back to Hano Grand Resort after an interlude of going around catching random Pokemon, and beating up the swimmers around Hano Grand Resort, and being surprised by a random Sandygast that popped out of the sand. Sandygasts are creepy, read their Pokedex entries. I'm surprised at just how prevalent Pyukumuku are in the overworld, like this 'chuck Pyukumukus into the ocean' mini-quest, and the Pyukumukus on Melemele Island's beaches... but I haven't actually met one in the wild yet.

I meet the Aether Foundation green-bug-goggled dude, who's apparently called Faba. Who... tries his best not to sound douchey. I mean, the Aether Foundation seem to be built up as that seemingly-good organization that will later be revealed to be evil or partially evil as a big plot twist, so I don't fully trust them. At this point the game is making it a huge, huge point to shove it in our face how nice and good the Aether Foundation are, those nature-loving tree-hugging Pokemon-rescuing people. And, I dunno, I may be wrong. In either case, Hau and I get shipped off to the Aether Foundation Island, which in itself surprised me because I didn't think that there was going to be

The Sleeper awakens.

anything outside of the four main islands.

The trip to the Aether Island is a big, big cutscene, with Faba and long-suffering aide Wickie going through each floor in succession and showing me the nice things they're totally doing for the Pokemon. We're then introduce to a lady whose awesome blonde hair doubles as a cape. And is totally related to Lillie, and since this is Japanese I'm immediately assuming mommy. She also has that Tsunade/Biscuit thing where she looks young but is actually super-old... well, she's 40, at least, according to the dialogue which is a lot more believable than like grandma age, but definitely an age where she can have a daughter of Lillie's age. Her name is Lusamine, and she gives a speech about how she's going to protect every single Pokemon.

Of course the sky cracks randomly, Hau and Lusamine are frozen in shock (yeah, you're totally useful, Hau) as a weird eldritch being from a dimension beyond our comprehension shows up. It's... well, it's a floating, faceless jellyfish. I mean, they're trying to go Cthulhuid here or something, extradimensional tentacly-things with no face, but man, I've stared down the likes of Mewtwo, Giratina and Kyurem, and even a true eldritch abomination -- MissingNo. A jellyfish doesn't scare me. Everyone else freaks out, so I just send out my Magneton to fight Mr. "???". UB-01 can only headbutt and pyswave, and while I don't exactly know its typing (it's not Water, as a non-super-effective Electro Ball can attest) but it's weak to Steel.

One dead jellyfish later, Lusamine explains that it's an Ultra Beast, coming from an Ultra Wormhole. She seems... very... excited, disturbingly so... about rescuing everything, even rescuing Ultra Beasts, whatever the costs! I mean, Lusamine might have a point that Cthulhu Junior might just be lost and scared and the correct response isn't throwing an eyeball monster made up of magnets and screws to Flash Cannon it, but my Magneton needs the experience, damn it! Anyway, Lusamine sends me and Hau on our way. Perhaps recognizing Hau's uselessness, I get TM29 for Psychic, which is awesome, while Hau gets malasadas. Yeah.

Now this? This is an awesome eldritch abomination.

Anyway, that's two islands down, and the ferry brings me straight to Malie City, which seems to be very... Japanese-esque, if Konikoni was more Chinese. There are your usual 'big city' ameties like a clothing shop, a salon and a bunch of random stuff, but the big thing that Hau keeps babbling about entering is the Malie Garden, this pretty peaceful-looking bonsai garden that, again, is beautifully crafted. I can't enter the huge pagodas in the background to check if Suicunes or Ho-Oh's are hanging around, but I did encounter a fucking Araquanid, one of my favourite designs, and would undoubtedly make it into my party... if it didn't share a typing with Golisopod. Ironically, capturing my first Araquanid gave Xeno the Wimpod enough experience to evolve into a Golisopod... who is an absolute fucking beast. Golisopod comes immediately with his special move, First Impression, which is a mammoth of a physical strike. The catch is that you can only use it as your first move in a battle, much like Fake Out, but man, what an awesome and hilarious animation with both Pokemon going '!' at each other. I mean, if you meet a Golisopod in the street '!' would be the appropriate response.

I had to understand just how Emergency Exit/Wimp Out work in my mini-grinding session to get Xeno up to the 30's, and, well, basically it removes you from battle entirely if the HP passes the 50% mark, which if you're fighting a wild Pokemon, you run away from it (ha ha fuck you Ariados) while trainers just gives you a free switch. But if Golisopod enters the battle with her HP already below half, then it just doesn't activate.

Anyway, I love Golisopod. We recap the Aether plot to Professor Kukui, who says some shit about the trial and the bus on route ten or something or other. I tune Hau out so hard that I don't even remember what he did other than block that one bridge on Malie Garden.

There's a short, fun little mini-story at the waste disposal facility north of Malie Garden where a janitor father teaches his son the importance of growing a fucking backbone and fighting even against insurmountable odds. That was a nice little side-story. Route 11 is blocked off, and I clear out the trainers on Route 10 and find six Stuffuls for a poor old lady, but I'm not quite ready to go on the trial just yet.

Lillie talks about how she wants to research Ultra Wormholes and the Tapu guardians and the like in the Malie library, which is cool! Oh, and Alolan Professor Oak shows up while I'm talking to Lillie, introduces himself as Oak... he's, like, the regular Oak's cousin, right? Or the regular Oak with a super-tan. Whatever the case, Lillie and I are searching for a particularly old tome about the guardians, upon which a little weird girl dressed like a witch shows up and gives us said book, who talks about a battle between the Beast that Devours the Sun, Solgaleo, and the Tapu guardians, and somehow Solgaleo became a guardian... or something? Creepy girl is apparently the descendant of the old royal family? As in typical Pokemon library fare, everything is super-cryptic and probably makes not much sense.

Whatever the case, I find two Team Skull Grunts assaulting... the bus stop. Um. UM. Yeah, I mean, thug life and all, but that's not what gangsters and thugs, y'know, do. I mean, it's a bus stop. Golisopod beats their lone Golbat up, before I hop on a bus and head off to the top of the mountain. I ride a hilarious Exeggutor bus (complete with kissy-mouth ass-face) up Hokulani Mountain to the observatory, upon which Kukui gives a short speech about how his great goal was to build an Alolan Pokemon League atop the highest mountain in Alola, which we can glimpse from Hokulani. Complete with Elite Four and Champion and everything.

But we meet some dude with a unique model, Molayne, who's Kukui's old travelling buddy back during his Island Challenge days. Molayne is like a former trial captain or kahuna or potential choice or something along those lines? He's got Steel-type Pokemon, like Skarmory and Metang, and it was a decent fight. Molayne also comments fondly on Kukui's eccentricity, even gives me one of Kukui's... er, ROYAL MASK's masks that was left behind. After a bit I enter the Hokulani Observatory, talk to people and get items, and realize that that fancy-looking door in the corridor isn't part of the scenery and was actually interactable. So I meet... Sophocles! From festival plaza!

I haven't actually gone back there, Sophocles, but hey. He's this cute little chubby tinkerer, and he talks about how he can just summon the Totem Pokemon without having to let the island goers go through so much nonsense. His invention is... very... unique, let's say. Everything goes into blackout mode, and I have to go through a gauntlet of questions and a series of Grubbin and Charjabug attacks -- and of course I was leading with my part-water Golisopod. Golisopod actually took them out pretty handily, though had to suffer through a Spark when he failed to OHKO a Charjabug. The Totem Pokemon is a juiced-up Vikavolt, who looks awesome and I want one. My poor Golisopod just took a single hit before saying 'fuck you, I'm outta here', upon which Ressa the Lycanroc just came in to Rock Slide everything.

Actually a bit of a fun trial, a nice, straightforward one that doesn't have much in lieu of puzzles and just a series of battles. Plus it has Vikavolt, who is awesome. Sophocles is apparently Molayne's cousin, and recently rose to the position of trial captain due to some circumstances, and I get not one, but two Z-Crystals: Electrium and Steelium. Magneton loves both of these, as I immediately proceeded to test out both on the trainers that dot the road down to Malie City. It's a fun bit where you can actually just fast travel back to Malie City with the Exeggutor Express, but you can take the time to go the long, winding way down, fighting trainers and meeting Beldums.

I forgot how hard it is to capture a Beldum. Holy fuck, man, that catch rate.

Those glasses, though. What the eff.

I also found a Minior, who self-destructed on me. Everything else is just lots of Fearows. So with a promise to return to capture Miniors, I return to Malie Garden to meet Kukui... who's facing off against two Team Skull Grunts. Double battle time? One of them fancy battle royales? No, not quite, as the Team Skull boss, Guzma, shows up. Guzma talks about how Kukui and he both disagree with the Island Trials, but for different reasons. Guzma is just like, angry at the whole system and fuck the po-lice and stuff like that. He's cool. I like him. Can't really take him seriously much more than his goons, but he at least actually looks and sounds semi-threatening. Dude really needs to get some sleep, though, those eyes, fuck, man.

Guzma has great taste in Pokemon, as he leads with a Golisopod. Mine's better, though. Guzma throws a bit of a fit before stalking off, the grunts talking all about how Guzma can destroy the world if he gets serious. Um, yeah, good luck with that. Kukui gives me the Z-Crystal for Decidueye, allowing him to unleash Sinister Arrow Raid, which looks AWESOME. There's a short cutscene with Lillie and Acerola, who're like shopping buddies now.

I head off to Route 12, where the little Mudsdale Girl whose name I cannot for the life of me remember registers Mudsdale to help me pass through rocky outcroppings. Basically a cooler-looking Rock Climb, or the Rhyhorn sections in the Kalos games. Route 12 is a fair bit longer than what I'm used to in Sun, which is a nice. I always liked exploring longer routes. There's a bit of a short detour to a Power Plant that didn't really have much in it bar a TM, but hey, not every Power Plant has to be infested by Voltorbs, Magnemites and the odd Zapdos or two, right?

In either case, I'm off to fight the Ghost-type trial, as the trial helpers spoiled for me.