Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 17: Trial of the Lake Gremlins

Well, I'm a simple man, so my order of the lakes that I visit is based on which area I went to first. So Lake Verity in the Fieldlands is first, and at the beginning of each lake Volo gives me a bit of a little exposition on the history of the lake. Lake Verity, apparently, used to be a volcano that left a crater which created Lake Verity. And... considering the shape, it does look like a caldera, doesn't it? We also get a bit of a talk about Mesprit, the Pokemon that represents emotion and brought it to humanity. 

The isekai Arc-Phone given to me by Arceus himself in that strange rift between time-space activates, and... and I love the confused expressions on Irida and Volo's face as I use my plot device to interact with the stone at the center of the lake and create a cavern entrance. 

Irida and I walk into the lake at the center of the cave, and instead of Mesprit, instead... a big-ass snail sits in the middle of the cave. Specifically, an alpha version of a Hisuian Goodra. Oh, I get it. All the new forms that isn't a noble or a ride Pokemon ends up becoming the 'bosses' in these Lake mini-dungeons! That's kind of neat to give those species some spotlight. Of course, I have a Goodra of my own in my party, and it became a slow grind-fest of Dragon Pulsing each other. The enemy Goodra has the benefit of Shelter, but my Goodra has the benefit of a trainer with 20 hyper potions. 

After beating up Mesprit's snail guard, the mesmerizing sprite himself shows up, and we get a completely different font as Mesprit communicates telepathically. "Your emotions... share them with me..." and there's a hilarious response option of 'not a chance'. Mesprit asks me a bunch of questions, and I don't think this is a sequence where there are wrong answers? Or I guess the wrong answers would be if I denied any sort of emotions -- the feelings that I felt when I got isekai'd into the land, the feeling of bonding with Pokemon for the first time, mingling with Hisui's clans, the feeling when that punk-ass bitch Kamado banished me (I felt bitter is the appropriate response) and after that little emotion quiz, Mesprit gives me... Mesprit's Plume! Which doesn't look like any sort of plume. In fact, what part of Mesprit even is a plume? It looks like a weird envelope. 

Volo and Irida have some choice words after we regroup in the Ancient Retreat. Volo talks about how he's so interested in the past and he wants to know where he comes from, whereas Cogita gives a bunch of ominous talk about how the mind is connected to the world -- 'without the mind, if the rift were to widen and the very world to end, would we even know it'? And how the true nature of creation can only be perceived with someone's mind. Basically, yeah, it's really emphasizing what the original Diamond/Pearl games were limited in doing with their capabilities at the time. The concept of 'emotions, willpower and knowledge' giving context to the wide universe created by time and space is explored a lot better here. I'm pretty sure there's some metaphysical theory about the universe existing because of the presence of things that observe them, but Cogita just handwaves it as myths being creepy and incomprehensible. 

Cogita also doesn't have much respect for Volo, constantly shooting him down as someone who just goes off to gawk at ruins. 

Speaking of ruins, the second lake I go to is Lake Valor in the Mirelands, which according to Volo is carved out in the midst of a Pokemon battle. Groudon and Kyogre, did you guys fuck up this land too?The guardian here is Azelf, of course, who represents the strength of willpower in humanity's heart. The arc-phone does its thing again and I do wonder if there isn't a version of this cutscene that's a bit shorter since we've seen it before? I love that Irida comments on the oddity of having columns within the cave.

And, of course, another Hisuian evolution is here -- an Overqwil. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my own Overqwil to fight it. My Decidueye dies to a Poison Barrage because I forgot that Grass is weak to Poison, but my Kleavor makes short work of the Overqwil afterwards.

Azelf, the azure elf, pops up and also communicates with my mind, and asks me to show him 'unyielding will'. Again, these trials that actually fit with the motivations and themes of the three Lake Guardians have made their themes far, far more memorable than anything that the original Sinnoh games, the manga, or the anime ever did. Azelf's trial actually represents will, since I'm supposed to do the balm-throwing minigame but Azelf is literally impossible to hit since he teleports around. It's just a game mechanic, but I absolutely love thematic game mechanics like this! 

The fact that Azelf keeps mocking me, trying to test my willpower? "Will you abandon this folly?" "It seems you best give up." "You struggle in vain, will you yet press on?" It really does feel like a higher being trying to truly test my willpower. There isn't a way to actually give up, though, and Azelf eventually lets himself get hit by one of the magical balms that appeared out of nowhere. Thus impressed, Azelf gives me his... fang? Wait, what fang? Azelf, you don't even have teeth! I don't... okay. Pokemon anatomy is weird. At least it's more sensible for Azelf to have fangs somewhere within that mouth instead of the featherless Mesprit having a plume? And what, did Azelf just reach into that little gnome mouth of his and rip out an incisor or some shit? Damn, Azelf, you're cold-blooded. 

Volo questions why the Lake Guardians don't just give us the Red Chain immediately, but Irida points out that this is just a test to see if whoever is seeking out the Red Chain is worthy. Volo drops a line about how 'who knows what would happen if it would fall into the wrong hands'... yeah, Cyrus totally tried to chain up the gods of space and time that one time in the future. And the way Volo says it and theorizes about other uses of the Red Chain really does make it look like Volo and Cogita, or both, are shaping up to take over the Red Chain to fuck things up. 

We return to Cogita, and Volo gives us an update from the Gingko Guild about how things in Jubilife Village are a bit tense. They've glimpsed a Pokemon (Arceus? Giratina?) on the other side of the rift, and there's some very cool Digimon Tamers vibes to it. Kamado has raised a force not to survey the Pokemon but to subdue it, so they're going full gunship diplomacy with an eldritch god. Yes, Kamado. I've seen the caliber of the guards in your village, they use Dustoxes and Mr. Mimes. They will totally be able to withstand a Hyper Beam from Arceus, surely. 

Also, interestingly, Cogita mentions how Volo has started referring to the Gingko Guild as 'one of those merchants', as if he's not one of them. 

But then we're off to Lake Acuity! After accidentally stumbling on some dude from Alola whose Alolan Vulpixes are playing hide-and-seek in the snowy Alabaster Icelands, I head off to Lake Acuity near Snowpoint Temple. Volo tells us that Lake Acuity, despite being on top of the mountains, actually contains seawater, and no one knows if it's a fluke of geography or if it's connected to some sort of underwater tunnels. Kyogre, Manaphy, one of you aquatic legendary water guys, I'm blaming you all. 

Lake Acuity, of course, is protected by Uxie, the pixie of knowledge, and the one that stands in my way within the temple is, of course, good old Hisuian Zoroark. My own Zoroark is a bit too low-leveled to one-hit-KO the alpha Pokemon and its enhanced stats, but the Bitter Malice did damage the enemy Zoroark enough for my Decidueye to Shadow Claw it to death. We do get a bit more context to this specific Zoroark, with Irida (whose tribe lives in the Icelands!) identifying this Alpha Zoroark as the dread Baneful Fox. 

Uxie shows up after I beat up his pet ghost-fox, and Uxie tests my knowledge... with a riddle, of course. That's definitely in-brand, and, again, I love just how the designers of Legends Arceus actually treated Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf as actually representing their concepts. That's always been something I found very lacking with the Lake Guardians, and after almost 10 years since the fourth generation, these three have finally became distinct in my mind instead of just 'the yellow one, the blue one, and the pink one'. 

The riddle is pretty cute, too, telling me to list the number of eyes of five Pokemon (Combee, Zubat, Unown, Magneton, Dusclops) that doesn't have two eyes, and I thought I'm supposed to add them up! Turns out I just have to list them in order. It's fun, there's only a single riddle, and Uxie deems me smart enough to give me Uxie's Claw. Again, did Uxie rip off one of its fingernails? None of those chibi fairy limbs really look like they have any sort of claws or fingernails anyway. 

...also, man, the Lake Guardians really felt like they should've been retconned to being Psychic/Fairy in Generation VI, huh? They have such a strong ephemeral vibe to it. And while being connected to emotions and willpower and all does fit with the Psychic side, I really do feel like from a flavour standpoint they would've worked better as part-Fairies. 

With all three anatomical parts of the Lake Guardians on my possession, I head off to eh Shrouded Ruins, which has more glyphs of Pokemon. I recognize Palkia and... Regigigas... is that Basuclegion? If I didn't know that this was a Sinnoh game, I would've guessed Xerneas or Raikou for some of the other glyphs. Volo talks about bringing the worlds of human and Pokemon together, which is a bit ominous, while Cogita somehow arrives with the aid of a 'rather remarkable Pokemon' which I'm going to assume is one of the many, many Sinnoh legendaries. Heatran? Or maybe that new Enamorus legendary?

Cogita talks about the Red Chain, which is a divine instrument that can bind the whole world. She scoffs at the idea that the Red Chain could be forged by mortal hands, and at that point the three fairies pop up again, finally creating the Red Chain. Which looks like a circular necklace made of interlocking gemstones. 

Cogita is happy to put aside the burden of several generations, while Volo talks about how Kamado is going full-on Leeroy Jenkins and plans to lead his army up Mt. Coronet itself. 

Which leads to a fun scene as I rush back to Jubilife City, running past a bamboozled Akari (who's replaced the regular guard). We arrive too late to stop Kamado from heading off and getting himself killed trying to judo-toss god, but I meet up with Cyllene. Cyllene is all tsundere about helping me, talking about how Abra vanished on its own accord and totally inconvenienced her without her orders. Cyllene then proceeds to abuse her authority as Jubilife City's de-facto leader, reinstates me into the Survey Corps, and tasks me, Akari and Laventon to deal with Kamado. Irida's also equally pissed off, and finally pulls her weight as leader of the Pearl Clan, intent on stopping Kamado as well. In a rather cute scene, some random kid shows up and gives me a Max Revive, being happy that I'm helping out despite being banished from the village.

We head off to the Coronet Mountains, where we get a little surprise cameo from Melli, who offers to be... moral support. You know what, Melli? That's good enough from you. Your battle capabilities with your Skuntank and your Zubat are kind of embarrassing, so yeah, you stay here with the rest of the base camp (which moved to the Electrode shrine) while I stop Kamado.

...and that's where I'll stop off for now, because that's actually a fair amount of content. Most of it is just trials and dialogue (though I did do a couple of space-time rifts in-between meeting the Lake Guardians). It's been really super fun to see that Pokemon is embracing a bit more of its world-building. This is something that I felt Sun/Moon did amazingly well, and Sinnoh/Hisui with its many legendaries really is the perfect location to have a much more... RPG-esque fantasy worldbuilding. Pretty fun stuff, I appreciate them utilizing these Lake Guardians well so much. Next up, presumably we finally meet Arceus!