Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 16: Banished From The Village

So after completing most of the side-quests in the previous part, I decided to finally proceed with the story. I have a new batch of like, three or four side-quests from Laventon's blackboard, but I don't think I'm going to complete them until after all this madness happens. And, well, madness it is! Again, it's typical story-writing, but I feel like Legends Arceus did a great enough job building up these characters that it does feel like, hey, characters like Laventon, Akari, Adaman and Irida all accepting me as their comrade and companion, that I have a place in the Jubilife City of Hisui even if we never figure out how to undo the space-time rift... it's all fuzzy feelings and all that, you know? 

But I suppose the game does give us a hint by having that mustachioed punk Kamado keep talking about how "some people in the village might still be suspicious about you falling out of the sky". Turns out, those 'some people' is him! 

After the requisite potato mochi party and sleeping in my house, I wake up and walk out to a massive sound of explosion, and... the whole damn skies are red and purple and splotchy! Oh no, did the Anti-Monitor cause some more Crisis of the Infinite variation? No, it's just the Space-Time Rift above Mt. Coronet going haywire. The game directs me to Kamado almost immediately, who's also talking to Adaman and Irida. 

And Kamado... isn't the most flattering at basically pointing fingers and accusing me of causing the space-time rift from causing all the scary red skies. And Kamado's very flimsy argument basically boils down to "you fell out of the sky, you damn isekai brat" and "the same day you appeared, the lightning bolt from the rift struck Lord Kleavor". Okay, that last part does probably have some sort of connection, but as Irida points out, Kamado's being utterly unreasonable by asking me to prove a negative, to prove that I'm not connected to the nobles going wild and the skies going red. I actually do appreciate both Adaman and Irida backing me up and pointing out how Kamado's being a paranoid dipshit here. 

Kamado orders Cyllene to walk me out of the village because I am banished now. Apparently I should take solace that I'm not "in chains"... yeah, no, I have a giant mud-bear, a vengeful ghost fox and a metal snail-dragon in my party. I highly doubt that anything your jerk village has a prison is going to be able to hold me. Who's gonna stop me, that punk with a Dustox?

Cyllene is all business and cold-hearted, but somehow that's a lot nicer than Kamado. She's proceeding with banishing me, yes, and there's a cool sequence of her walking me through the village as the villagers gossip at me. Cyllene is stern and all, but as I'm tossed out into the Obsidian Fieldlands (the travel function is locked at this point) Cyllene makes it clear that she's on my side in all but name. She uses the excuse that banishing me is her responsibility, but ends up saying some... well, as kind of words as she can manage, I suppose. She points out that orders are orders, but all but says that she disagrees with Kamado. Isn't it interesting that the Professor Rowan analogue turns out to be antagonistic, while the Cyrus analogue turns out to be an ally?

Professor Laventon and Akari also join me and Cyllene in going to the Fieldlands, and Laventon is about to roll up and challenge Kamado's ruling, but Cyllene stops him from doing anything too harsh, because Laventon shouldn't cause any problems for me by being banished as well. That's nice. I also love that a very irritated Akari points out that the only reason I went out to quell the nobles was because Kamado's orders were to do so in the first place so that I can earn Team Galaxy's trust.

One of my favourite lines here is Laventon going "this is utterly intolerable - and might I add, absurdly unscientific! As a man of science, I must fight such illogical thinking tooth and nail!" Yes, Laventon, because dimensional rifts, isekai protagonists and the skies turning red-and-green could be explained by science. 

After some discussion about what I should do (Irida and Adaman went back to their respective settlements) my allies tell me to go see Lian, Lord Kleavor's warden. So at this point I'm just locked into the Obsidian Fieldlands, which is bathed in creepy extradimensional red light. Cyllene has a very heartwarming "Don't die out there. That's an order." line, and also a cool line about "in this life, you will meet with both admiration and abuse from others. How others choose to view you is a choice only they can make. You cannot make it for them. All that truly matters is that you hold firm to your own values." And... okay, yeah, I get that, Kamado is making his choice, but I'm going to solve this space-time rift problem, then come back with my shiny fire horse and burn that stupid mustache off his untrusting face. 

...and after all that dramatic stuff and plot-relevant stuff, I find Wanda being besieged by three Paras screaming her head off because she didn't want to sprout mushrooms. Well, nothing like a wacky side-quest to lighten the mood, I suppose. She went to hunt some mushrooms, but the mushrooms ended up hunting her!

In a pretty cool little bit of detail, Laventon, Akari and Cyllene actually disappear from the camp after you go around. Couple that with the eerie distorted music, and the game does try its best to make us feel alone and abandoned!

Anyway, the game leads us to talk to the two wardens in this area. Lian, with his little cowboy hat, is a bit pissed off, but at least unlike before he's not outright antagonistic of my attempts to subvert Almighty Sinnoh... but he's unable to help. I go off to look for Mai, who has some poetry of choice to toss my way, and kind of recaps my predicament. But she talks about how the Diamond Clan villagers are politically unable to help out, for fear of causing a war with the Galaxy Team. Her advice of "time solves all things" really doesn't help, though at least she's keeping to brand. 

I do also really appreciate the zoom-in to my character's desperate face for allies as he talks to Mai and Lian. It's expected that the game's emphasizing the 'you're all alone' part of this, though. I also really like the short scene of my character looking at a Shinx that cheers me up, before it runs off to play with its Luxio parents. 

And the next ally to talk to me is... Volo! He knows the importance of staying abreast of all the latest news, apparently, and notes how I have been abandoned by Diamond, Pearl and Galaxy. Volo then leads me to a place where he can stash me off in secret, and... it's not actually the Gingko Guild Headquarters, but a brand-new area called the Ancient Retreat. By the location of it in the map (it's slightly Northeast of Mt. Coronet) I think it's meant to be the Hisuian version of Celestic Town? The little town where Cynthia's grandmother resides? 

And oh, hey, what a coincidence, someone who looks to be Cynthia's ancestor does live here, in this mysterious location where there's just a single tent filled with herbs. A fancy lady with a very gothic-looking elegant dress, drinking tea (the tea set, regrettably, are not Sinistea and Polteageist) and she seems to be related to Volo. This is Mistress Cogita, who seems to be aware of a lot of the myths in Sinnoh. She does talk about a 'duty' that she has to fulfill after a long time, and recognizes me as an isekai protagonist lost between time and space. Her role is apparently a guide to help me prevent the great disaster and... I'm going to assume she's the nameless Ancient Hero that all these myths have been talking about? Or at the very least, connected to the Ancient Hero?

Either case, Cogita tells me a bunch of information that I already could deduce. But then I'm a huge Pokemon lore-geek so it's nice for any first-comers to get someone to lay it all out -- Almighty Sinnoh lives within another realm away from ours, and that Sinnoh (or, well, Arceus) is beyond mere 'time' and 'space', but rather both together. I do really like how Cogita just mocks the Diamond and Pearl Clans trying to insist that their worldview is greater, when both are expanses that are equally as important in the creation of the universe.

Then Cogita goes straight into telling me of the three great lakes of Hisui -- Lake Verity, Valor and Acuity, and tells me to seek the three Pokemon that embodies the aspects of the human mind... and tells me to create the Red Chain. Hey, gotta work in the legendaries in some way, yeah? It is actually really nice that the script of this game really does tie in together the themes of time, space and human emotion/will/spirit a lot better than the Generation IV games did. 

Also, interestingly, there are some arguments as to what the Red Chain will do. Cogita says that the Red Chain is meant to bind the world together, and Volo seems to be confused since he thinks it's supposed to close the rift. Cogita keeps shutting down Volo's 'doubts', which does kinda make me feel like one of them is going to oppose me? Cogita also notes that she's just passing down the 'old words', and how true they are, she really doesn't know. She just straight-up mocks her ancestors! That's hilarious. 

And then suddenly Cyllene's Abra shows up!

She shows up with a letter addressed to me, and Abra's basically going to take the place of the Pokemon pasture service, allowing me to swap out my team as needed. A great way to actually tie up a little possible gameplay/story conflict, while also giving Cyllene an adorable "helping but not really" plausible deniability! 

Speaking of allies, Adaman and Irida have returned after reassuring their people, and they note that they can't directly undermine Kamado's orders otherwise relations would grow really strained. Honestly, I actually appreciate them showing up -- I thought it'd just be Volo and maybe Cyllene, Laventon and Akari and that's it. The two clan leaders note that they want to help without drawing attention, so it'll just be one of them. And... I don't know. Adaman was the one with the better first impression, but he's kinda just... fallen off? He's never became unlikable, but I guess beyond putting Melli in his place, I didn't really forge a connection with him. Irida has this whole backstory of her conflict at being a leader at such a young age in the Cobalt Coastlands chapter. And besides, Palkia's always the superior Generation IV mascot over Dialga. 

Adaman takes this in stride, telling us that he's going to take the 'tough job' of keeping an eye on Kamado, and that this is totally a sign that I trust him. Right! Sure, Adaman, whatever keeps you and your multi-coloured hair asleep at night. 

So yeah. That's basically a pretty long cutscene, and I guess next up I'll be looking around the three Hisui Lakes and their pixie guardians. Glad to see that they're integrating the guardians of the lakes into the main story, and not just leave all the legendaries to the post-game! Anyway, Volo's relevance and a brand-new character appearing is frankly a bit unexpected, but it's a lot of fun!