Pokemon Ultra Moon LP #6: Plus Ultra!

So last time we left off, we're in Ultra Megalopolis! Which looks cool. If only someone will tell me what the hell humans are doing there, but eh. It's evacuated, with Necrozma making its nest atop the huge huge tower. Two other Ultra Recon Squad members whose name I forgot (I think they swap places with Phyco and Soliera in Ultra Sun) heal my party and gives me a rundown about how Necrozma has basically stolen the light and shit. Oh, and that Necrozma is particularly interested in me because I have a wide variety of Z-Crystals... even though... uh... all the kids that run through Alola Trials have a lot of Z-Crystals too, don't they? Eh. If we're going to discuss plot holes in a Pokemon game we'll be here all day.

And as I climb up the tower, I see Lunacrozma... who then transforms once more into this huge dragon-angel creature straight out of Digimon (that's meant as a compliment). The Ultra Recon Squad calls this form 'Ultra Necrozma', and this was certainly a form that I wasn't expecting to see. It's Necrozma's original, full form, I imagine, and it looks pretty dang badass, even if I'm not sure those two pairs of wings can actually allow him to fly.

Shit, though. It's an unexpected form and the 'WHOAAAA'  factor from this was totally worth not looking up any information about this game at all. It's cool, that's all I can say about it (I'm not going to post any pictures in case I spoil anyone that's just browsing through). It's definitely a slightly overdesigned form, but compared to the awkward, forced fusions with Solgaleo and Lunala? This is truly a proper creature that's worth calling 'the Blinding One'.

And by god, the battle against Ultra Necrozma is hard! He hits hard, he's got the ultra beast aura thing and one-shots my Malamar before I can foul play it (I could Topsy-Turvy Necrozma, but I don't want to cheese through boss fights). He's also dual-typed into something that resists water, which I noticed when he resists my Kabutops' Aqua Jet. I ended the battle with just my Muk and Decidueye with any sort of health, and have a newfound respect for Muk's tankiness. Necrozma disappears, and this might be the first Pokemon game since the Game Boy Color era that I don't get to capture the mascot legendary before the Elite Four Battle.

Overall, though, it's definitely a breath of fresh air for me. After spending a fair bit complaining about how same a good chunk of the game is to Sun/Moon, it's neat that the climax is fully different. Does it really excuse the shit hand-holdy experience of the first two islands? I don't quite think that it does, but at least I do get a truly epic feel this time around.

From all the multiple conversations with the Ultra Recon Squad, I also get more backstory behind Necrozma and it's... interesting. We've had super-evil Pokemon antagonists in games before, but they're almost always being controlled or set loose by human villains (Team Magma/Aqua unleashed Groudon/Kyogre and caused their rampage, Cyrus mucking around with reality caused Giratina to go berserk, Reshiram/Zekrom was sympathetic to N's plights, Kyurem was captured by Ghetsis, Lysandre forcibly awakened Xerneas/Yveltal and Nihilego was more of a beast doing what it does instinctively than being a straight-up antagonist). Necrozma had his light stolen by the Ultra Recon Squad's ancestors, it appears, and he went to Alola in the past where Lunala and the Tapus fought him back... and he's returned now to regain his light, but then goes and tries to get even more light? Pretty cool stuff. I really wished that we had more foreshadowing about Necrozma beyond the Recon Squad cryptically saying stuff about the Blinding One and all that, but eh.

And design-wise, Nerozma does seem a lot cooler, with the weird prism with Z-crystals in it seen in the Ultra Moon opening that serves as base!Necrozma's face appearing to be it's true form, and that the black parts of base!Necrozma being like a suit of armour for Necrozma's real, restored form that it can only access after absorbing a large amount of light and truly assimilating Lunala/Solgaleo as opposed to the temporary possession that he did during the first fight. Again, it does feel quite Digimon-esque, but in a good way.

I free Lunala (who has an amazingly hilarious 'scratching my head' animation) from Necrozma, and the Ultra Recon Squad shows up, talks some stuff about light and auras and stuff, and how Ultra Megalopolis will have to find its own light and stuff. It's neat stuff, and I get a random Poipole out of it. Which is cool! Poipole is cool, but she's pretty untrained and low-leveled, and I already have a Muk as my poison dude, so she can stay in my box for now.

Worth noting that my spoiler-free ass doesn't realize that Poipole's dex page has a second blank space next to it, which means that... Poipole evolves? Or has a 'rival' Pokemon? Interesting indeed.

So yeah. The ending cutscene after that is pretty neat, and I do like how Guzma and Lusamine still get their humbling character development despite the different direction that the storyline takes it in. Guzma respects the ideals of friendship and hard work even more, and Lusamine is just dang impressed that Lillie and me managed to get through all the trials to protect Nebby and defeat Necrozma. It does feel a bit jarring because unlike in Sun/Moon she doesn't have the justification of being affected by Nihilego's emotion-fuckery toxins... I dunno. I do feel that they really should've done more changes to Lusamine's earlier dialogue beyond just stapling the Ultra Recon Squad into the Aether Foundation scenes.

And then... we get a Trial of Mina! Yay! So yeah, we get a proper Mina/Hapu trial/kahuna sequence in Poni Island now. And the trial of Mina is... a battle against her fairy Pokemon team! Which is cool. She then sends me to collect flower petal tokens from all the other trial captains, and, well, it's pretty neat -- the trial captain battles were a bit hidden away back in Sun/Moon, so it's nice that we get them as part of the storyline this time around. And the trial captains very nicely offer to transport me to the next locations, so I don't have to sit through Charizard fly animations. I don't think there's a lot for me to say about it -- I get to fight Ilima, Lana, Kiawe and Nanu. Sophocles and Mallow just gives me their petals without a fuss, and Acerola's replaced by Nanu because she's off being the Elite Four, I guess.

There were some neat scenes in-between them, mind you. We get to see Hau apparently completing all his trials (did he actually just complete Ilima's trial right there? I really hope he's just going through the Mina trial and not being shit) and repeating his whole "I will beat Hala!" speech. Which is a lot better than how he was in Sun/Moon where after the Aether stuff he literally just disappears until showing up with a still-crap party before the League. I mean, doesn't he have a Noivern and a Tauros instead of a stupid Komala here? We get... apparently Mallow's super-embarrassed about whatever she's doing. Is she, like, using the Fomantis and Comfey to get high or some shit? And Sophocles gets a farewell with Molayne, who goes elsewhere.

And Guzma gets to thank me. I'll probably go through a list of character changes for a lot of the main characters thanks to the addition of the Necrozma subplot (Hau, Lillie, Lusamine, Gladion and Guzma are the only ones hit, really) once we're done with the game's main storyline, but I do think Guzma's one that emerged relatively well from the changes. Sure, he's lacking a couple of important scenes, including the one where he's scared shitless in Ultra Space and when he's all tsundere and challenges us to a battle in the postgame of Sun/Moon, but his quiet waiting and apology to us in front of Aether House, and his subsequent acknowledgement to Hau and me that, yeah, he raised his Golisopod from a Wimpod because he's proud of being the strongest bug-users, and how Hau notes that he has Team Skull as his group of friends, and that not being a trial captain is totally fine, is a very great scene that resolves his character pretty well.

Your nightmare. 

And then... Totem Ribombee! Which was another thing that I didn't expect! It's genuinely hard, too, because as I have discovered from having Tatl the Ribombee be a main fighter in my Pokemon Sun playthrough, the little bugger hits fast and hard, and my party is so terribly un-optimized to killing her. I didn't lose as many Pokemon as I did when fighting Ultra Necrozma, but it's still a fun battle nonetheless. I have utmost respect for Ribombee, and I'm glad Game Freak does too.

Mina then gives me the Fairinium, and sends me off to fight the island kahuna Hapu. Her team's still identical as before and Ground-types aren't a threat to my Decidueye as I one-shot her entire party to oblivion. The fight does happen in Exeggutor Island and we get a fun little cutscene with the Exeggutors, which I like.

And I guess next up is just Victory Road, the Elite Four and the Champion!