Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 5: City Hunter!

So evolution takes place from the menu, and Chikorita leveled up enough to evolve after the past couple of missions. It did really feel like a short amount of time that I spent with the adorable little pear dinosaur, but Chikorita has evolved into Bayleef now. Now, again, still somehow unspoiled, but I have no idea if we're getting a regional Meganium, or just a Mega Meganium. After all, Oshawott, Cyndaquil and Rowlet all turned into their 'regular' second forms before getting the Hisuian Samurott, Typhlosion and Decidueye forms. 

Also evolving in the party are Kakuna to Beedrill, Mareep to Flaaffy, and Fletchling to Fletchinder... and probably a bunch of others. Flaaffy and Fletchinder are quite useful for type coverage so I rotate them in fairly often, but other than Bayleef and maybe Binacle I'm not sure if I'll be using either of them to the end of the game. 

Bayleef also learns GIGA DRAIN when she evolves, which would be a bit insane if we're in the regular battle system. 

I return to Emma, who does this non-stop-until-you-click-the-A-button clapping animation that I find is quite adorable. Taunie reveals that while I was going around solving sidequests, she was consulting with Emma about something. She's looking for someone, and that's the whole reason that she came to Lumiose City in the first place... but she doesn't actually elaborate. They are stretching this mystery for quite a bit, aren't they. 

Emma basically gets me in as kind of an extra helper, but more importantly, she tells me about a special kind of evolution in Lumiose City (or, well, technically Kalos... and also Hoenn, Alola and Kanto...) called Mega Evolution. Emma then decides to battle me outside her office! She doesn't use Mimi or any of the Pokemon she played around with as Essentia, but... a Mareep? Anyway, I make short work of her Mareep, and we get the return of the adorable clapping animation. 

Emma then tells me that Mareep evolves twice -- into Flaaffy, then Ampharos. And then she sends out her Ampharos, which she proceeds to mega evolve with the Mega Stone embedded in her spy bodysuit. I love -- I love that the first Mega Evolution we see in this game, the Pokemon they choose to display this super-duper epic mechanic that is part of the game's selling point, is Ampharos. Mega Ampharos, if you forget, is just Ampharos with some extra luxurious flowing hair on her head and tail. In contrast, XY debuted it with mascot guy Mega Lucario, and I believe the anime used popular starter Mega Blaziken. I'm not even mad, this is awesome. 

We don't have abilities in this game, so I suppose the Mega Evolution just changes typings and just gives a boost to stats? Emma explains some aspects about Mega Evolution as a temporary power-up, and Taunie says that we need to become the best Mega Evolution users in Lumiose. Emma tells me to help anyone in need... and cryptically also notes that a 'black, four-legged Pokemon' is something she is interested in. Ominous! 

The game directs me to the Y promotion match, but... but I kind of want to wander around a bit. After spending a rather long amount of time distracted on the fashion district, I start doing a bunch of the parkour puzzles and collecting items and screws. 

I find a fancy Japanese-style dojo, too, with statues of Kingambit and Weezing inside. They've got a sick rhombus-shaped neon purple symbol that reminds me of the Z-stones from Sun & Moon. I can't enter this place yet, though, and the smartly-dressed guards outside just throw me out if I try to waltz in. 

I do sidequests as I encounter them. One of the first NPCs I meet is named Vivace, who wants me to show all five Flabebe variants. I've got a red and blue one, but I apparently need to do some rooftop-hopping to get the other colours. She is a hairdresser and this unlocks hair colour options. That's cute! It's like that one hairdresser in Hisui that gets inspiration of styles from random Pokemon she requests me to find. 

Another one is a cafe owner called Meuse whose Slurpuff is throwing a tantrum, and I have to escort the Slurpuff like two blocks over so he can get his usual snack of macarons. It's honestly kind of adorable to have the Slurpuff waddle after me, and I honestly do feel like this brief interaction gave me just a bit more of an appreciation for this Pokemon that I have otherwise neglected since Generation VI. Slurpuff is quite cute when its mouth is closed; that dog-tongue really does sell the look. Also, the cafe owner gives me free coffee for helping take care of a loyal poke-customer. That's nice!

At this point the Battle Zone pops back up, and I'm introduced to the bonus cards system, which is just mini-objectives to do while I run around ambushing people and beating up their weak Cleffas and Fletchlings. Unless something noteworthy happens, I don't think I'll be talking too much about the Battle Zones. They're fun to run around in, but the trainers, being randomly generated, don't really show much variety.  

Yvon faces off with me, but she's not as memorable as Zach. She's an adult that wants this to be over fast, and... when she reaches rank A, she wants Lumiose to... have a marathon? She doesn't like the Wild Zones cutting off her jogging route or something. Okay? Her party is a Spritzee, a Swirlix and a Vivillon. I send her packing, and she jogs off the stress while I get promoted to Rank X. Hey, that's all the original Generation VI letters dealt with!

After beating Yvon, Team MZ reconvenes in the hotel and have some dialogue about dinner again. All the while, the Zygarde Cell is watching. Cell-chan, do you want some of the croissant curry? Or are you perhaps enraged by it? In the next morning, Lida asks a question about why I joined Team MZ, and I can say 'for Taunie' or 'for Lumiose'. I was kind of strongarmed into it by Taunie, so I suppose she's the reason more than the city. I might say the city, but no one's explained the Big Plan (tm) to me yet. 

Lida is a bit of a blabbermouth and keeps talking about how my reason is different from Naveen, and despite Naveen telling her to hush several times, Lida prods enough to get Naveen to agree to fight me and he'll 'spill the tea' if he loses. "This is an invasion of privacy." Naveen moans, but it's clear that he really has no say in this and is just doing this to hush Lida up. Naveen sends out a Spinarak, a Sableye, and his final Pokemon is Scraggy. Very punk, my friend, very punk. 

After the battle ends, Naveen makes some comments about changing moves. Lida, however, isn't having any of this tutorial stuff distract us from gossip, so actually spills Naveen's whole backstory for him. ...not cool, Lida. Not cool. Anyway, Naveen's grandmother wants him to focus on his test scores, while he wants to be a fashion designer. And angry grandma threw away all of his sewing equipment. When he walked out in anger, he met Taunie and was roped into Hotel Z and began using it as a oasis-slash-studio. That's a rather simple but effective backstory, I feel. 

I go around the rooftops a lot and there are a lot of Pokemon on the roof! Flabebes, Pidgeys... and even Bellsprouts? Cleffa? Okay, I guess Cleffa falls down from space and they sometimes fly. I also catch an Abra that's just hovering on the rooftops casually. I suppose it makes sense for the Psychic Pokemon to teleport up to the rooftops to not be disturbed by the silly humans on ground level! I think it goes without saying, but just as with any game, Abra teleports away when you get near it. 

I also discover that as night falls, you don't have to go to the Battle Zone, since it's just random parts of the city that's fenced off by the battle royale. And I don't quite know why I didn't realize it, but there does seem to be Pokemon that do different stuff at night. In particular, the graveyard Wild Zone has a new rare spawn, Honedge! Loved this sword dude, and I used one quite extensively in XY. I think I'll be happy using one again. 

I find cute little alleys with Trubbishes hiding behind trash bins, which I thought was adorably appropriate. I also find Wild Zone 5 that's kind of infested with Venipedes. Always had a soft spot for the Venipede line, and I've always found them one of the most visually appropriate for an 'invasive bug swarm' vibe. The design of Zone 5 is quite interesting, you mostly have access to a street and a little lower pool, but destroy the sludge barriers and you unlock a sewers that leads to another side of the area... where a gigantic Alpha Whirlepede nests. Nope! Running out of there, that Whirlepede is level 28 or something!

The last sidequest I did was to help a little girl in a park who is very excited about the bestest Pokemon in the whole whole world... Kakuna! She is so excited about her Kakunas, and her team is three Kakunas... and a Beedrill! Kakuna uses Electroweb in this game, and this is where I learn that Electroweb (and moves like Spikes) actually create hazards on the battlefield, hazards that my silly big Venipede actually runs straight into and gets zapped. Also love the effect of Infestation that Venipede has access to, and the little infestation bugs just prevents the opponent from switching out. 

This poor Kakuna lover is a bit sad that I beat her, but even more confused when her Kakuna evolves into Beedrill. Beedrill is cool, but she wants a team of Kakuna! I mean the Beedrill itself seems quite enthused to evolve. This is a cute lampshading of the different evolution mechanics. In the Legends games you need to go to the menu and click 'evolve', since battles happen in real-time and evolution can't happen right after a battle finishes. But the Kakuna Fan's Kakuna actually just evolves automatically, meaning it's somehow still working off of the 'classic rules', however that works!

Random Notes:

• I do feel like the level scaling relative to the 'main story' of the game has always been a bit off ever since the move to the more 'real-time' 3D games? Or maybe the battles just feel a lot less personal with how much faster-paced they are, so we just feel like we're spending 'less' time with Chikorita. 
• One of the random shorter side-quests is a guy called Distan who challenges me in a tennis field, waxing lyrical about how he will only ever use ranged attacks in combat. It's a very simple battle mission against him, and the game kind of makes fun of him because he acts in an over-the-top way about his battle philosophy. It is kind of useful for me to learn that the ranged attacks actually have longer cooldown, which makes sense since getting close up to the enemy does make it much easier for them to not miss. 
  
• The promotion rank trainer is waiting for me as I gather points. Yvon, for example, waits in front of the obelisk in one of the parks. It is a bit of a weird system, though, because what if I just kept losing and never gather enough points? I know the game won't acknowledge it, but in-universe, what happens, then? Is Yvon just stuck waiting for me, or will the organizers/app assign a different promotional fighter to her?
• In addition to rock smash rocks, there are also brambles (which just shatter with anything; you'd think it would need fire) and giant Grimer-looking sludges that need Binacle's Water moves to break. 
• "For Water-type moves, do you think Pokemon use their sweat? Or other bodily fluids?"
• One of the NPCs notes that "I don't see many punk guys and the like around lately." Actually, that's true! The Punk Guy and Punk Girl NPCs don't actually make a return in this game, it seems! 
• Fire Spin creates a giant swirling vortex of fire. That's very cool, and looks a lot more impressive than any of the 3D games ever rendered it as. 
• A random NPC near the hotel called Claddia can give me a 'head-to-toe makeover', giving me a set of clothing that I can wear around for a day, but I have to return it to her at the end. Okay? 
• With the assumption that they're not going to pull an XY again, and that every NPC's prominent Pokemon will get the gimmick, I'm assuming Scrafty is going to get a Mega Evolution since it's Naveen's signature Pokemon. That, by the way, is easily one of the worst parts of XY where none of the new Kalos Pokemon nor a vast, vast majority of the characters in the game ever use Mega Evolution. They did this a lot better from Gen VII onwards, where every major character's signature Pokemon tends to have some kind of exclusive Z-Move, Gigantamax or Teracrystalization respectively.