First up, I capture Iron Boulder. I honestly don't have much to say here -- Iron Boulder is just straight-up a robotic Terrakion. Those ugly-ass plastic tumours on his shoulders look more 'natural' on the artificial Iron Boulder's body. He's Rock/Psychic, and... yeah, the Psychic common type between the Paradox Lightsabers of Justice is a bit weird. Iron Boulder didn't take too much time for me to capture, it's just a bit surprising that he's hiding behind a giant grassy slab next to a waterfall. It's a bit annoying that they don't give us a proper map of Area Zero. You'd think after completing the main story and two DLC's, they do it? Eh. That's all the new legendaries.
I did run around and bump into Articuno in one of the waterfalls in the icy parts of Paldea, and I captured him. This isn't my first or second or third Articuno that I've caught, though, so I don't really have much to say here. Cool Generation I Kanto music, though. I also captured Zekrom, who's just hanging out on the South-East corner in the map just hanging out while I was there for a completely different reason -- Axew hunting. Again, just like Articuno, a real nice remix of the Unova legendary music.
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And now... it's time I do the Mochi Madness DLC! This one was a bit... confusing for me, and I really wished Nintendo and Pokemon don't do a repeat of this. Just... just make your DLC chapters downloadable in an automatic patch, man.
I had to go online to look up a whole guide on how to activate this, since it's a rather significant chunk of content. In addition to finishing up the storylines of the main game, Teal Mask and Indigo Disk, I need to upgrade my game, go to Mystery Gift to download the mysterious Pecha Berry, and go to the general shop in Kitakami. And while it's perhaps somewhat intuitive for people who're a bit more caught up in all of this theorycrafting and easter egg finding, it really was a rather 'guide dang it' moment. The other DLC or postgame content had people call us to clue us in to what to do, and this is a pretty long chunk of content -- not a relatively shorter sequence like the time-mist stuff with the real Professor Turo.
Anyway, with that rant out of the way... the moment I go back to Kitakami, my attention is drawn to the dusty old doll that looks like a peach, with an obvious seam line down the middle. I can interact with it, and the comment basically identifies it as a 'dusty old decoration' mixed with all the daily goods and things.
I do really like this, since I really do appreciate the 3D games' attention to moulding the background accessories to these shops and rooms. The fact that this little thing turned out to not just be significant, but to straight up be the mysterious legendary Pokemon itself is pretty glorious! I did notice this peach during my runaround of Kitakami, but I really didn't think much of it beyond it being a decoration. My character briefly wonders if the doll just moved.
Arven then distracts me with a call. He's apparently caught up with what I've been doing for the past year, and kind of wants to visit my house, and gets excited when I accept.
The moment I turn back, the mochi decoration is gone and my character is shocked and bamboozled at the spookiness. The calm Kitakami music also stops abruptly, before the title "MOCHI MAYHEM" with purple goopy borders appear on screen. Okay, here we go!
At this point, the mystery pecha berry or whatever also disappears from my inventory, so presumably the proximity of that mysterious pecha berry that the powers of the internet granted to my character has awakened Pecharunt. Okay!
So I fly back to my house, which I haven't been in for a long, long time. Penny and Nemona are already there, and we get some dialogue about Arven apologizing that the two tagged along. I'm just kind of happy that I don't have to go on a round trip to pick them up from different locations or whatever. We get some typical wackiness as original academy buddy trio hang out in my room. Penny gets super-excited about my Nintendo Switch, which is a fun little joke.
It's kind of nice having these guys back. They're not like, the most well-written characters ever or anything, but it is nice to have the vibe of these familiar characters back. There are some nice touches here and there, with Penny being generally 'innocently rude', Arven being the one that's the most polite, and Nemona not getting social cues initially but jumping to help when it's pointed out to her. Arven also gets some rather 'awww' moments as he tells me about my very nice mom. It's a nice little reminder about his status as an orphan.
My character's mom gives me a letter from Kieran, and there's actually an option to be a jackass and tell mom that I don't know who Kieran is. She just shrugs it off, though, giving me the letter regardless. Kieran and Carmine went back to Kitakami after the events of Indigo Disk, and wants to catch up, and has enclosed with the letter a bunch of airplane tickets. Man, their family must be loaded!
There's a cute bit where I can hesitate before calling Kieran my friend, and Arven picks up on it, and gets instantly defensive about his status as BESTO FRIENDO. But, well, we all decide to fly off to Kitakami together.
There's a brief scene of Penny arguing with her dad, who is apparently master of the dad jokes and makes puns like "adven-tour", and she grumbles about her ultra-annoying dad talk. Arven notes that, well, her dad is just probably an ultra-nice dad, and Penny actually realizes that she's being a bit of a jackass in regards to her dad, and ends up appreciating the gesture. Not to her dad's face, though. While Arven's parents are dead, Nemona doesn't really even acknowledge her parents in this conversation. We know her parents are rich but absent, and it's kind of sad, really.
We arrive in Kitakami and after some initial comments by the Paldea gang, we meet up with the Caretaker. Who still doesn't have a name. Penny gets absolutely flabbergasted and horrified that my buddy Kieran doesn't have a smartphone. "How is this kid even alive?" she yells out, which I found very funny.
The others have different priorities, though. Nemona heard about Kieran being the Champion of Blueberry Academy and she just wants to fight-fight-fight like a lunatic, while Arven is all insecure and very much wanting to defend his title of besto friendo.
Interestingly, Kieran is still in his Indigo Disk era outfit. He's back to speaking like a dork, though, and he mumbles about things being 'crazy at home'. Instead of explaining anything about this, however, Nemona arrives and yells on top of her head about battle battle battle, and poor Kieran is just confused. Penny shows up and has the only sensible reaction out of the three, while Arven throws some passive-aggressive shade, identifying himself as the real Best Friend. The Bestest of all Best Friends.
I do really like this little argument back and forth between them. Penny and Kieran kind of hit it off by both being kind of a break from their school (after being antagonists in both their schools) and Arven delivers some ridiculous lines like "Penny! Don't go sympathizing with the enemy! Keep this interloper at arm's length!" God bless you, Arven.
Nemona, meanwhile, just bullrushes her way through social interactions and essentially all but drags Kieran off to battle in front of the community center. If this game has a more robust animation library, I bet she would've done so already. As Nemona and Kieran go off to battle, Arven realizes his mistake and mumbles about how Kieran's actually a good guy.
Penny? "We introverts know how to recognize one another."
Ain't that the truth.
I really appreciate the scripting in this DLC. Honestly, a lot of the storytelling and pacing in this game hasn't been the best, but the scripting has been pretty consistently top-notch, particularly for the main character NPC's.
The fight, however, is over by the time I catch up to Nemona and Kieran. Nemona beat the piss out of Kieran, who is confused, but isn't too confused when I tell Kieran that Nemona is the champion of Paldea. One of many. Nemona, in all her battle-frenzy, walks up to Kieran and is all happy about the battle, noting that winning or losing doesn't matter as long as BATTLE happens. It's a blast. And... I didn't really think too much about it until I see the two of them interact on-screen, but Kieran's a pretty good foil for Nemona, isn't he? They're both obsessed with battles in a different degree. And there's a neat bit of character development for Kierean as he smiles and acknowledges Nemona's point.
And then Carmine shows up out of nowhere, shocking the shit out of Arven. She's also got pink-purple eyes, and just looks forward... before going "m... mo... mochi MOCHI!!" and she does... uh... a dance or some shit, bobbing up and down with tucked arms and doing this weird series of... exercise movements? It's a chicken dance. I'm calling it a chicken dance. There's weird music in the background, and... it's just kind of weird. I think it's meant to be unsettling, but it's just so ridiculous that it doesn't quite have the same vibe of 'creepy but wacky' vibe that they're going for.
Nemona, as clueless as ever, thinks that Carmine might just want to join in all the BATTLE fun, but Kieran breaks the meeting up, and we drag Nemona back home offscreen.
And this is when Kieran explains what's going on. Apparently this has been happening for a while, and the reason that Kieran sent the letter in the first place. And... was there really any reason for Kieran to be elusive about it, actually? I originally thought Kieran was 'already infected', that's why he sent multiple tickets to me in Paldea and didn't tell me the whole story, but apparently it's just some Kieran awkwardness. But that doesn't really explain why he doesn't tell me in the letter, or when we first meet up with Kieran in their parents' house. Sure, Nemona is a huge, gigantic distraction, but you'd think "guys I called you here because my sister has been possessed or something".
There's a bit where they discuss the possibility of all of this being caused by a curse. Penny is a bit terrified by the idea of actual curses. Nemona, surprisingly, is the one that's the most on the ball, trying to figure out if there are any local legends about it. I guess she doesn't care about ghosts, she would punch the ghost. Nemona's got real strong 'dumb shonen protagonist' energy to her. Kieran mumbles about how I've already cakewalked through all of the local legends. They're all in my Pokemon box! Arven and Nemona quickly volunteer to help, and Penny also joins in because she doesn't believe in horror movie tropes.
The quintet regroups in the community center, and they briefly note that the lady that runs the Peachy's shop is gone. That's not ominous at all, considering what's been happening. Nemona goes off to buy some soda pop or whatever, leaves behind some money, and sees some 'help yourself' mochi and ate it. Oh no, the zombie plague is spreading.
Arven, Penny and Kieran decide to find the remote to the Community Center's television. Arven wants to watch movies, and Penny has the superior idea to play video games on the TV. Unfortunately, as Kieran points out, the TV is stuck playing the same tourism video on a loop. The Nameless Caretaker has hidden the remote, and the group gets excited over finding it. And it's a simple run-around as I go and check everything, but notably Nemona is going "..." and quietly looking at the exit while Penny, Arven and Kieran are running around. I, of course, find the remote. It's hidden in the planter for some reason.
But by the time that I found the remote, Nemona's disappeared. My other buddies were standing in front of all the other doors, so Nemona's clearly gone out of the building. I did feel like the Kitakami BGM music is a bit too cheerful for this scene. Penny does the smart idea of immediately taking out her smartphone and calling Nemona, but she doesn't pick up -- and neither do they hear the ringing of the phone. Realizing that she's not in the Community Center anymore, our group... decides to split up.
Okay, Penny, I know you said something about not liking horror movie tropes, but you really should've realized what's going on here.
Right outside of the community center, the place is deserted. Peachy's is empty, and the bitchy nurse even warns me about how people have been acting weird in the village, and tells me to heal my Pokemon while I have the chance. Kieran recognizes two people that normally works the orchards, who eyes glaze over in purple... and go MOCHI MOCHI!
And I get it. It's pretty obvious from the get go that Pecharunt's making mochis that mind-control people into doing the mochi dance. With Nemona eating the free mochi, she's also been 'turned'. I don't even mind the whimsical imagery of the possessed humans yelling Mochi-Mochi all the time; Pokemon's never been into the grim-and-gritty things and having this extra layer of ridiculousness fits the genre. What I don't like, though, is the music design. The annoying thing is that as the talk with the two possessed villagers show, they actually have some creepy music, but it gets replaced after the cutscene and when people start dancing with this ridiculous track. I'm not the biggest fan.
Anyway, Kieran and I fight Shige and Aya, who are possessed as they toss out a bunch of Pokemon. Salazzle, Ariados, Victreebel and Noctowl. Nothing too fancy -- I guess these are just possessed people with some local Pokemon. I do find it interesting that Kieran's Poliwrath is dead-set on doing a Belly Drum combo.
Are these Pokemon also possessed by the mochi? I remembered in Sun/Moon when Lusamine was possessed by Nihilego that her Pokemon also have a uniquely 'blank stare' effect to their eyes, but I don't know if the Salazzle and Noctowl that these guys use are just blindly following orders, or if they have fallen under Pecharunt's spell as well.
And... with the two defeated, they just mutely go 'mochi mochi', all deflated despite a creepy purple miasma covering their bodies. The town is also completely deserted of NPC's, other than a couple that are doing the Mochi Chicken Dance. Apparently the mind-control zombie apocalypse is spreading, Carmine's been affected, and it looks like Nemona's also been affected. There's quite a bit that I wrote in this one, so I think we'll pick up on this next time!
Random Notes:
- I'm working on the Mochi Madness DLC in conjunction with writing up the 'Gotta Review 'Em All' segment for the Generation IX DLC Pokemon, so if that article gets released first, know that I've finished the Pecharunt quest before talking about his story.
- I can fly in the Paldea overworld now! It's a fun little novelty. I don't necessarily think there's much left for me to explore in the overworld, but it's nice to be able to fly around and spot items from the sky.
- When they arrive in Paldea, apparently in the bus ride on the way from the airport to Kitakami, Penny "loaded up on internet goodness" before she arrives in a town that may or may not have internet service. Is this something people do? And also, how does the bus somehow have better service than the town?
- I do like that when Carmine is first doing the chicken dance, everyone's heads bob up and down slowly as they follow Carmine's movements.
- Penny: "Sweets and carbonation! My two love languages!" She would be an energy drink kind of girl, wouldn't she?
- I do like the gag of Kieran lampshading that the TV in the community center only ever cycles through the same promotional video over and over again. That's not because the caretaker is trying to keep it on a loop, that's just because Nintendo's too lazy to program more pictures in a TV most players won't even notice!
- I'm slightly disappointed the remote isn't in the trash can. That feels like a very old-school Pokemon thing to do.
- Kieran does give a reason about why the group splits up -- Kitakami's dangerous at night (dangerous from what? Hoothoots?) and both Kieran and I have experience running around in Kitakami. Plus, Nemona might return to the Community Center. But i honestly still think it's a dumb thing to do!
- I did some minor stuff in the Terarium. I still have the final upgrade to unlock for the starters, but I did spend some BP on improving the League Club room. I also did a trade with Drayton (with many of the 'catch a Psychic-type Pokemon' bullshit quests) and he gives me a Duraludon that... doesn't feel all that special other than a random ribbon. Okay, then. I think the rematch with Drayton has the exact same six Pokemon, but he gives me his clothes, a tracksuit. Okay? I'm trying to think if there's any specific characters I want to steal the clothes from, but I really can't think any other than Mela's ridiculous boots.
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