Pokemon Ultra Moon LP #4: Vs. Team Skull & Lusamine

So... not much to really say. I actually progressed a fair bit in Pokemon: Ultra Moon, and for the most part the game's mostly the same with Pokemon: Sun. And don't get me wrong, it's still a good story. A bit too wordy and likes its unnecessary cutscenes of people walking away or just waving or changing expressions a bit too much for its own good, and perhaps they really could've given some characters more personality beyond 'nice dude/lady'. Because when I met Guzma and Nanu, I remembered how much I liked them because they had, y'know, personality! Nanu's personality is a very typically found in anime characters, mind you. Lazy but talented, not giving a shit, but he's clearly so much more memorable than Acerola, or Olivia, or Sophocles or any of the other trial captains and kahunas.

Oh yeah, Grimsley shows up randomly to give me Sharpedo. Talk about a pointless cameo!

So I went through a good chunk of what's left to do in Ula'ula, which is to finally take the fight to Team Skull in Po Town. It's a neat feeling, and I really wished that there were more Team Skull grunts to make it feel like a big raid the way that the older 'enemy base raid' felt -- though I suspect that part of what made it feel like I'm not progressing is how long it takes from a grunt spotting me and speaking to the battle actually going on. It's near-instantaneous in the pre-XY era, and here you've got the screen flashing in colours, the enemy trainer posing, the enemy trainer throwing the Pokeball, and you throwing the Pokeball. Kind of kills the tension with unnecessary filler, there.

Anyway, it's still a fun run through the Team Skull House, regardless of my complaints about pacing. My team's leveling up pretty nicely even if I alternate between Pikachu and Araquanid for my sixth slot for experience sharing.

After that, I battle Nanu! Who is remarkably easy now that I have a Fighting-type in my team in Bewear. And Bewear hits so, so hard.

And then after that it's the three-man raid of Aether Paradise with Hau and Gladion, which would be fun if the two of them would shut up just a bit. God, Hau talks so damn much. It's still fun, though, because it's back-to-back with the Team Skull base raid, and it's a big adrenaline-filled rush through the Aether Foundation. Faba's still a wuss, none of the enemies are particularly hard until I get to Guzma and Lusamine, but it's still a neat bit of attrition because of the sheer amount of high-leveled Pokemon and random, unexpected creatures. Vibrava! Shelgon! Parasect! Primeape! Bruxish! Houndoom! Things that I don't think I've ever seen prior to this. That's one thing I love about Aether foundation, and one thing that I don't think any other villainous team outside of the Gamecube games failed to get -- most evil teams, be it Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Galactic, Plasma or Skull always have a limited pool of like six or seven shitty pokemon, with only the admins and bosses having any variation... and sometimes not even then!

So yeah, Aether Paradise was fun, if samey. Most of the storyline ends up being more or less the same, although I think Guzma's party was buffed a little? He still has that Golisopod and that motherfucking Masquerain, which I remembered from Sun/Moon, and this time around my party has nothing super-effective against them so I had a fair bit more knockouts... Lusamine was fun, although I think I have less trouble with her than I did Guzma.

There was a brief intermission between the two where the Ultra Recon Squad shows up and talks a bit, and fights me with Poipole again, but it's not like it's particularly difficult.  Legendary Poipole may be, but my Malamar can Psycho Cut it and Topsy-Turvy it. The whole confrontation between Lusamine and Lillie progresses similarly with Sun/Moon, which is cool, if a wee bit repetitive for me due to there being so much dialogue and random mini-cutscenes, and for some reason they took out the badass Buzzwole-vs-Tapu-Koko cutscene which I was super disappointed about. Lusamine is an interesting villain with a pretty well-developed storyline and character, though, so yay for that.

There was a bit more talk about the Ultra Recon Squad, and apparently here they want to attempt to capture Necrozma and get this 'Blinding One' dude under their control to power up Ultra Megalopolis or wherever they came from? Basically they've been helping Lusamine, but Lusamine went out of control because she's too crazy even for them to keep up with. I think? And they tell me to meet up with them at the Altar of the Moon in Poni Island, so I guess we're still going to be meeting Lunala/Solgaleo in the fourth island.

And that's where we go! Most of Poni Island is the same as before, and since I'm travelling with Lillie again the game stops me every five steps I take in the city or so. I'd like Lillie a lot more if she lets me explore cities on my own, thank you very much. And if she doesn't interrupt my attempt to finish my Island Challenge with 'but no I need you to help me finish my plot!' And we get to meet Mina here, so she might very well be a proper trial captain, which is definitely something I'll be looking forward to -- always thought it was weird that she was just added randomly as a post-game afterthought.

I did some Totem Sticker collecting too, and I got Totem Salazzle and Togedemaru... and... wasn't the fire trial against a Totem Marowak? Salazzle was in the last game. And I don't get a Totem Lurantis? It's really weird. I went back to the Kantonian Gym and it's always the Viridian Gym for some reason. I did get to meet with the dragon rockstar Ryuki, who shows up there apparently.

Current party: Decidueye, Malamar, Muk, Bewear, Kabutops and Pikachu (alternates with Araquanid). I can't believe I actually have three generation 1 Pokemon in my party... but other than Pikachu, I've never actually used Kabutops or Muk despite really liking them (yes I like the turd Pokemon shut up) so it's definitely a neat change of pace for me.

Oh, and we have Hoenn Confirmed on Pokemon Go, which honestly is about damn fucking time. I haven't been playing it much, but it's nice.

I've also had some more free time recently, so I might be doing more Pokemon of the Week articles. I think restricting myself to the whole 'countdown, one pokemon out of type' thing drained a bit out of me, and I think I'll look less for 'random Pokemon' and more about ones that I actually have something to talk about. I think I'll try to talk about Alola and Hoenn Pokemon for a while, though, to coincide with Ultra Sun/Moon and Go.