Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 12: Honey Hunting

It has been a while since I played Legends Arceus, and... last I left off, I think I did the Electrode boss fight? Well, it's nice that the game is relatively simple enough to jump back in. Quick recap -- four out of the five nobles have been de-frenzied. My team consists of Decidueye, Rapidash, Goodra, Ursaluna, Kleavor and Overqwil. 

Normally I'd go around exploring, but I guess I'll just recap myself on the story this time around, and I return back to Kamado in Jubilife City. On the way to report to Kamado, though, a random little girl gets super-duper excited about the Magikarp statue on top of the Galaxy building, and I end up showing the pokedex entry to her. She's impressed by the Magikarp. Good girl.

Kamado is a bit confused about the idea that Almighty Sinnoh is using these frenzied lords as a trial, as well as space-time rifts and shit... but who cares about that, let's just eat our customary potato mochi from Beni at the end of each trial. Laventon and Akari give a cute little speech about how I'm not a proper, permanent part of the village. The next day, both Adaman and Irida arrive, and they seem to have patched things between them a bit -- though obviously it's partly to my credit as well. They're summoned by Kamado, who directs us to the final frenzied Noble Pokemon -- Lord Avalugg, associated with the Pearl Clan, who lives in the Alabaster Icelands. So there is a final area, and it's the far north, where Snowpoint City is in modern-day Sinnoh! 

Both Diamond and Pearl representatives agree to help because Avalugg is apparently the largest of all the nobles, and I wonder how big he's going to be considering that regular Avalugg is significantly larger than the likes of Electrode or Arcanine that we've seen previously. Kamado, in contrast to Laventon during the mochi session, does emphasize that there are still people who doubt me and that I need to earn the city's trust. Well, gee, the big pile of side-quests kind of implies that I already have earned the city's trust, but okay, then, whatever.

There's an adorable little comedic moment when I go to report to Cyllene... and she's all KYAAAAH A BUG. A Wurmple wandered into her office, she's all panicked and on the floor, and apparently her Abra can teleport the Wurmple out. I thought teleport only works on yourself!

Interestingly, Laventon actually calls out just how weird this mission is. Avalugg isn't bothering anyone all the way in the Alabaster Icelands. The worst it's going to do is cause avalanches, which won't bother anyone in the icelands and would happen naturally regardless. Laventon also notes how we don't really have much evidence on whether purifying and de-frenzy-ing these nobles is a good thing or not. He's not the biggest fan of 'quelling for quelling's sake', and surveying without a proper goal ...and I do like the differing points of view, but on the other hand, I really do have to agree with Kamado more on this. Rampaging giant Pokemon can't be good, and sure, there might not be humans in the Alabaster Icelands, but you don't want a giant sentient iceberg to go around squishing all the other Pokemon that live there!

Akari also challenges me to a fight. She has a Mr. Mime, a Staravia and a Pikachu. Sorry, Akari, you fell under Nintendo's "our rivals are really underleveled' syndrome.

I am not going to the Icelands first, though, especially since I haven't even explored half of the Coronet Highlands. Instead, I go around turning in my quests while also collecting new sidequests. Among others, I return Wanda to Zeke and get a reward... only to literally turn around and Wanda's now lost in the Coronet Highlands. Oh, Wanda, you crazy lunatic. 

Among the pile of requests, there is a fun one where a Mr. Mime is apparently creeping people out in the back alleys of Jubilife City. Bless the people who realize how creepy Mr. Mime looks and they play it up. Another interesting request is from Laventon himself, who, after a brief cutscene with Iscan, gives an exposition about a strange 'princely Pokemon' in the sea. Manaphy? We have a Manaphy quest? A bit surprising but in retrospect I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Manaphy is one of Sinnoh's many legendary Pokemon. 

Sanqua, the Karen lookalike, has an Umbreon now! I don't think she had that before. That's nice. 

There's a cute little side-quest in the village where three villagers are arguing about what is the 'real' Burmy, since they've only ever seen one of the three cloaks. I can complete that quest immediately since I do have all three Burmies in my box, but it is funny that the NPC's all have names corresponding to the three Burmy cloaks. Which means one of them is essentially named Trash. I do like that the conclusion for their quest basically has them wait until they see a Professor Laventon authenticated Pokedex entry. 

I also show off a Finneon to a lady, and I leave a Croagunk to use Rock Smash to clear the fields and do hard labour. The saga of Tao Hua and Choy continues, and after handing over Crunchy Salt and picking up the next part of their storyline, apparently Choy took Tao Hua's "treasure" at some point. The 'plot' thickens?

I spend a good chunk of time just... testing out the outbreaks and space-time distortions. I go through a Petilil, Mime Jr. and later Zubat outbreak, and... and apparently there's a chance for them to spawn alphas! Which is hilarious with Mime Jr since it's tiny, and even moreso for Zubat, which doesn't have eyes to glow!

One of the more frustrating quests is the Combee-hunting. The first two parts of this quest isn't that terrible, really. Hunt a Combee in a specific area. Grueling Grove and Aipom Hill. The Grueling Grove is just a bit confusing because that's a part that I haven't gone to before... Sneasler really does unlock a whole lot of areas! After catching the big-ass Alpha Heracross that stays there, though, the Combees are easy farming. But then... the final part of the Combee is in Ramanas Island... and there are no wild Combees that spawn there. It's the stupid Infernape island in the middle-bottom of the Fieldlands, and I have to keep resetting the area and swim there to see if one of the trees are shaking. 

It's not even a hard quest, it's just so troublesome since I keep having to reset the instance of the Fieldlands. And that is after I realize that the Combee will only spawn from shaking trees, something that the sidequest never implies at all in the spoken dialogue. 

Anyway, fuck that Combee quest. 

Other quests I finally completed include me just... just trying to fill up Pokedex entries while I try and evolve some of the Pokemon in my box. I get the coloured shards from a space-time distortion and gave it to Anthe, unlocking more clothing options. I finally get the full data for Machoke and made that one guy in the Coastlands happy since he now can use grain balls to catch a Machoke. 

I also try and peek into Lake Verity since I have Sneasler now. All I get is a Unown-I for my troubles. Which... I don't mind! I'll have to check out the other areas that are now available in the Mirelands and Coastlands with my Sneasler. I did also run around the Coronet Highlands and end up finding a Stone Cave that I can't access. Some dude is blocking it. And there's a clearing in the snow that's just filled with Electabuzzes and a big Electivire. It's a bit weird that they're in the snow, but I guess they are the equivalent of mountain-dwelling oni? 

I also use a bunch of evolutionary stones. I really do want to use a Thunderstone and get me an Electrode, but no such luck from the space-time rifts. I do use it on Growlithe and got myself a Hisuian Arcanine. One of my Eevees gets turned into a Vaporeon, since I have a half-dozen Water Stones. I need to start rotating in a sixth member to evolve them -- the obligatory Golbats and Togepis and whoever that need to be evolved from friendship, I think, needs to start hanging out in my team. 

The final long quest I did was just running around Mt. Coronet, looking for Misdreavus for Arezu's quest. Didn't even realize Misdreavus hung out here! Charm from the Miss-fortune Sisters is just randomly hanging out in one of the mountains, gets angry and sics her Rhydon and Gengar at me. She's completely harmless without the battle gauntlet, though, and my Ursaluna makes quick work of her team before she runs off and drops some Stardust. 

Anyway, Misdreavus is one of those Pokemon whose AI has them just try and escape immediately, and it took me quite a while to just reset it over and over again... mostly because I thought Misdreavus only spawned in that ruined area where there are lots of Luxios, Voltorbs and Haunters. Turns out, right after I got my Misdreavus, I ended up exploring the cliffs and found like a bunch of them hanging around an Alpha Mismagius (who completely wrecked my team). Much more fun than the Combee quest regardless. Anyway, Arezu gets to look at the Misdreavus's hair, and, well, Misdreavus is a Pokemon who I agree would definitely inspire hairstyles.

...anyway, this isn't a particularly exciting entry, I feel. But that's more or less what I did, and since I'm kind of just catching up to everything in this blog, I suppose it's nice to have a little short bit of catch-up on what I've been doing Pokemon-wise. 

I haven't been keeping up with Scarlet/Violet at all after the first trailer. Apparently the region is called Paldea? And at this point... honestly, I think I'll just try and not spoil myself. I remembered I enjoyed Sword/Shield (and admittedly complained a bit more than I probably would've otherwise) since I went into at least the first half of the game blind.