Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 26: Gray Ashes

Again... there's not much to really say about the trek through Lysandre Labs. The remix of the music is nice, and the dungeon is nicely moody. There's just enough puzzles to keep me from complaining that 'it's too short' or whatever.  At the end of the main level, protecting the elevator card, is a giant Alpha Aegislash with two Honedge minions. The Aegislash can't be captured, and is just there as essentially a scripted boss fight for me to have some final challenge. I wished there were more of this! I wished there were more boss fights in general in this game beyond just the trainers. 

Aegislash is guarding a dusty laboratory, with some nice whiteboards littered with a lot of scribbles. A nice cameo on one of the boards are drwaings of all the icons that the original Generation I game used to represent Pokemon -- the 'Rhydon' kaiju, the 'Clefairy', the flower-with-angry-eyes and the beetle. That's an easter egg I can appreciate.

And at the absolute end is a chunk of the rock from Geosenge Town, stones that are attached to the Ultimate Weapon. Normally they absorb energy, but when the Ultimate Weapon is activated, that energy reverses. Okay! I genuinely don't remember if this was something from XY, but considering how relatively faithful everything else has been, I wouldn't be surprised. I do remember that actual Pokemon were tied up to the real Geosenge stones, but of course we can't visit that location in this game.

The elevator key lets me go to level 2 and level 3. There is absolutely nothing on level 2, just quiet music. In XY, I think this is where AZ was locked up by Lysandre? I do know something else via downloadable content will happen here, though not until after I wrote this so it was a bit of a confusing non-sequitur and creepy location when I first wandered around here. 

Level 3 was initially dark, but then monitors lighted up in response to my presence, as well as the key cards. This was the room where the main choice was taken in Pokemon XY, with the red and blue button -- still as goofy-looking and simplistic as they looked in the 3DS -- still there, quiet and dusty, a little easter egg for those who remember. The computer tells me that there are four videos available for playback. 

I'm going for an abridged version of the retelling, of course. But it's a nice backstory of the Ultimate Weapon, created 3000 years in the past to restore life to a dead Pokemon, buried beneath Geosenge Town; and Team Flare's subsequent attempts to capture AZ to obtain 'the key'. Then, the documents explain that this Device That Grants Life draws energy from life stolen from other Pokemon. There is some discussion about how the function of the device is to distill energy into a pure form, then unleash this energy... in whatever way is required: convection, radiation or conduction; the latter being the mechanism AZ used to resurrect his Floette. The other function, meanwhile, is what Team Flare used to activate the Ultimate Weapon with a legendary Pokemon as a source. 

The report then continues, talking about how Team Flare captured both Xerneas and Yveltal, the legendary Pokemon of Life and Death. So this essentially merges X and Y's plotlines together, which honestly isn't that hard to do since those two games are very much identical other than the legendary Pokemon. The power to grant life and the power to steal life merged together in Team Flare's Ultimate Weapon, being used to activate the Ultimate Weapon.

And then we get to see Lysandre's insane manifesto. Remember that XY was released half a decade before Avengers: Infinity War! Lysandre rants about how the number of people and Pokemon continue to grow as wealth grows, causing overpopulation, causing life to fill every corner of the planet until no more life can be sustained. Things cannot be shared, and will be fought over... and in the name of beauty without conflict, the solution is clearly genocide of all living beings. Yep, okay, Thanos!

At this point, Zygarde and Lysandre, or rather, "L", shows up. 

Lysandre asks me if I've learned about the true secret of the abominable Ultimate Weapon. Lysandre had followed Zygarde into this location, and Lysandre adds a couple more tidbits. In addition to the Ultimate Weapon under Geosenge, AZ has built... a second device, hidden under Prism Tower. Lysandre notes that despite his amnesia, this location is starting to awaken some of it in him. He remembers most clearly his conversation with AZ, where he learned of some of the things but was blinded by his goal at the time. 

Lysandre, five years ago, had attempted to activate both the Ultimate Weapon and the Prism Tower Device, but the Prism Tower required a specific Floette... AZ's unique Eternal Flower Floette. Which, of course, was MIA until the end of the game. Thus Team Flare abandoned their plan for the Prism Tower device, but they were able to activate the Ultimate Weapon... which, of course, was stopped by the protagonist of XY. Lysandre was caught up in the explosion, and, as most people speculated, was granted eternal life by the weapon similar to AZ when his body absorbed the energy from the exploding device. Lysandre was buried under the rubble, but was saved by Zygarde. 

Turns out that Zygarde has been working behind the scenes of Pokemon XY to protect all the Pokemon and humans in Kalos from the aftershocks of the Ultimate Weapon. Was it why the Zygarde we found in XY is always only in its 50% serpentine form? Is the other 50% going around, protecting the world? Interesting. Regardless of the specifics, Zygarde exhausted its own power, and was reduced to this dog form. 

 ...but the activation of the Ultimate Weapon during the events of XY caused the Prism Tower Device to also become active. Slowly, insidiously, being more and more powerful and awakening deep bneath Lumiose. Lysandre vows to help Zygarde regain his full power, to help stop the Prism Tower Device. Lysandre tells me that the Tower itself will undergo Rogue Mega Evolution (???) and the only one able to bring it under control is its original key, AZ's Floette... and a trainer who can draw forth her full power. 

Lysandre, having delivered this massive info-dump, turns to leave. I look at the monitor and marvel at the amount of work they put in the Lysandre Labs for a bit. 

As I walk back up to the cafe, Grisham greets me. I tell him about my meeting with Lysandre, and Grisham laughs. He muses about how dare Lysandre forgot about all of them, while Griselle is outraged about how it's all his fault that the rest of them had to suffer. Grisham then gives me a bit of an ultimatum: bring AZ's Floette and bring her to him, because he has a plan of his own. He's going to use AZ's Floette to keep the Prism Tower contained. Everything he's learned from the secret underground base points him to this conclusion... which... uh... maybe talk to AZ about it? I get it, though. Consumed by hatred and everything. 

They give out a bit of a passionate speech about the 'true' goals of Team Flare and how they know the city better than anyone. Grisham and Griselle seem to be far more concerned about restoring Team Flare's reputation in helping to bring together a beautiful world than actually wanting to do the right thing at all costs, though, so... yeah, probably not the best people. There's some nice nobility to their status as pariah children and their desire to save Lumiose, but they are... well, not very rational about it. 

Returning to Hotel Z, AZ immediately knows what has transpired, having been caught up on our little visit to Emma. AZ brings the entire team to the roof, and starts giving us a story. It's partially a recap of his backstory from Pokemon XY, when he fought in a war 3000 years ago. Many things were lost, many lives were lost, including AZ's beloved Floette. In his grief, AZ made the Ultimate Weapon, getting back what he was lost... and in his rage, he couldn't forgive the world that had hurt the Pokemon he loved. 

And we get a nice, 'old-school art' style picture similar to how the backstory was initially shown to us in Pokemon XY, albeit scaled up for Switch graphics. In no unambiguous way, AZ narrates how he 'put an end' to the conflict that would've taken everything from them, turning the light from the Ultimate Weapon into the heavens.... and down again, burning away all that rested upon the earth. Everyone died. Floette, disgusted with AZ for stealing the life of so many, left him to wander the world for 3000 years.

In a bit where I don't think is from XY, at some point a man asked AZ for help, wanting a way to protect Kalos. Unless I am having a massive brain-fart, this is brand-new! I wonder who this is. AZ refused to make another weapon, but in his slow journey to redemption, he thought he could make a device that could share the eternal life he had bestowed on Floette. Thus, he made the original Prism Tower, "Ange".  

It was AZ's attempt at atonement, and he dreamed that one day he could use Ange after reuniting with Floette. But in a time of peace, that was not possible. But Ange, having awakened in response to the Ultimate Weapon, is now emitting excessive amounts of Mega Power. "The pokemon suffer, the people come to harm". 

Naveen asks the question burning a hole at the back of my mind...  why would AZ's Floette be able to Mega Evolve at all? Only fully-evolved Pokemon can mega-evolve, shouldn't Floette evolve into Florges then Mega Evolve? AZ then notes that his Floette is special, and can't evolve, and is essentially at the end of its evolutionary line because it has been transformed after receiving the lives of so many other Pokemon. AZ noted that Floette returned not just because of forgiveness, but for them to atone for their sins by stopping the tower. 

Okay, I'll buy that explanation, I guess. 

AZ notes that he's too old to properly battle as a trainer, and Taunie starts to say stuff about how it's not AZ's fault, that he didn't mean for things to go so awry... but Naveen actually cuts in and starts getting a bit cross at AZ, noting that he was responsible for all this thing. At the very least, yeah, AZ did cause one (1) genocide, and it's not like he really did anything in XY other than stand around, feel sorry for himself and give some exposition. So it's nice that he gets to play a more active part in atonement here. AZ agrees with Naveen that accountability matters here, and he is causing Team MZ a fair bit of problem with his lack of power. 

There's a bit of a discussion on what to do next, but it's quite simple that we just need to beat up Grisham. To be honest, after so many chunks of exposition, Grisham's ultimatum is kind of handwaved aside with 'we need to battle', and the quasi-hostage situation with him demanding we hand over Floette doesn't really amount to much. 

I confront Grisham and Griselle at their little coffee truck again. Griselle gets a bit angry as usual, but Grisham then asks me that, as an outsider to the city, why am I risking so much to protect it? I can give some nice answers, whether I care for the Pokemon there, for the people there, or that I've grown to love the city. Grisham notes that it's good to have a motivation that I care about, but he also has his own desire to emerge victorious from this battle.

We face off, and he rants about burden and causes and how mine are hollow... I dunno, dude, compared to AZ and Lysandre, Grisham really does feel like he's got a lot of rage that's being driven by something much more trivial than the two older men. But hey, gotta beat him up! 'I will free you from your past', I tell him, and the battle begins. "May the flames of Team Flare rage strong and true... and burn away all our shame and regrets! Charizard! Let your dark flames pour forth!"

The battle begins with a Pangoro, the Pokemon that evolves into a strong warrior due to bad influence. Cool themes. I switch into Hawlucha and Flying Press the panda bancho down. Next up, he sends out his Malamar, and I send out my own, both evil squids trading Night Slashes until his gives up the ghost. Grisham then sends out a female Pyroar... which is honestly a bit of a joke at this point and gets earthquaked by my Scolipede. 

His fourth Pokemon is a lot more impressive, a mighty Tyranitar! A pseudo-legendary, that's more like it! Tyranitar faces off against my Meganium, who Giga Drains it but not before eating a couple of Stone Edges. Tyranitar is followed up by another pseudo, the mighty Salamence. Salamence actually manages to take out Meganium, but gets Ice Beamed by Slowbro. 

And Grisham's ace, of course, is the mighty Charizard. "My wasted youth, nothing but ash and ruin... mega evolve and burn it all away, Charizard!"

Can I say how refreshing it is to see Charizard get a villainous role for once? It's not often, with Nintendo's poster boy always being given to main characters and 'ace' characters. As his opening line with dark flames hints, Grisham wields Mega Charizard X. My own Slowbro gets taken out after getting off a single Surf, and I accidentally swapped into my wounded Hawlucha who gets taken out as well. But I send out Malamar, Mega Evolve him into My Friend Malamar, and manage to take Charizard out with Psycho Cut. 

And with that victory, I am rank A. 

Grisham mutters about how they would be happy if they could leave Team Flare and Lumiose City behind. You... you could leave the former and not the latter. Just saying. Grisham gives a bit of a speech about how the original ideals of Team Flare is something that he truly believes in, and that desire for beauty and peace still ties him down, and he can't throw aside all the good parts of Lysandre and Team Flare. Okay, sure. At least by beating him he's not really going to go around enacting his master plan that involves kidnapping poor Floette. Grisham and I share a fist-bump, and he resolves to help me out, since I am now on Lumiose City's side. 

Zygarde shows up briefly and zips off, and Grisham realizes he's not worthy of being Zygarde's trainer, and vows to make a life where he's not so rigidly defined. Wait, since when did you care about Zygarde, Gris? Grisham leaves, and Lysandre shows up to thank me for helping Grisham but also ominously says that things are about to reach a breaking point, and soon I'll have to save all of Lumiose. 

And... you know what? I know I complained a little bit about Grisham, but I do appreciate all of this. He really is probably intended to be a bit off-kilter, with some nice points but trapped in an obsession. It's a nice nod to how he's honestly slowly devolving into a less-extreme version of XY!Lysandre, and there's a whole discussion there about the separation about accomplishing his goals versus doing so in a certain, very specific way. I do like Grisham's story a lot. Pretty fun stuff... and I sense that between the Z-A rank and the exposition, we're heading into the endgame!

Random Notes:

• Bit of a longer one, I know. But I'd rather stuff all the exposition into a single episode instead of spreading it around. 
• Aegislash's Stance Change actually taking 2-3 seconds to happen is really detrimental in this real-time game, isn't it? 
• I do like that among the rooms modelled into the Lysnadre Labs are the 'mass bedroom' that your character can take a nap in XY, except all the beds are ransacked. 
• I've always found it kind of odd to constantly remind myself that Magearna, the legendary Pokemon whose entire gimmick is to draw life from other Pokemon and channel it into energy, didn't actually debut in the generation where the main plot is exactly that. Oh well!
• The blue monitor in the final room of Lysandre Labs has some nice scenic shots of areas from Pokemon XY, although the grainy filter makes it hard to tell if it's screenshots from the game or like, concept art or something. We also get slight cameos from Xerneas and Yveltal.  
• ...so the tower is like, a Pokemon? Of some sort? I mean, Gigantamax Duraludon exists, but that's a different European skyscraper!
• During the time that I'm going around Lysandre Labs, apparently Taunie, Lida and Naveen are investigating about Team Flare Noveau, who has been collecting information about Lumiose residents from their cafe. Okay. 
• It was always odd that the ancient king's beloved Floette was sent to battle. Presumably she didn't have access to the legendary-tier Light of Ruin back in the day when she was a regular Floette, so why was she fighting at all? 
• Nowadays Ange looks huge, chunky and honestly kind of some postmodernist ugly chunk of geometry. No doubt a remnant of the limitations of the 3DS rendering capabilities. But in the past, when it was Ange, it's essentially just Eiffel Tower with a lighthouse on top, which looked a lot nicer. 
• I do appreciate Naveen's little outburst. He also acknowledges that AZ has been their benefactor, but that doesn't mean he should suddenly be unaccountable for the whole Ultimate Weapon debacle. For his part, I find AZ to be a lot more easy to forgive because he's nowhere as self-righteous as Grisham. 
• Notably, other than the tutorials (Emma's Mega Ampharos and Taunie's Mega Manectric; and both have new Megas later on) Grisham is the only character whose chosen mega-evolution isn't a new design introduced for this generation. Instead, Mega Charizard X comes all the way from Pokemon XY. Other than obviously giving ol' poster-boy some screentime, it's actually a nice little subtle nod that Grisham is still 'trapped in the past', so to speak.
• Grisham gives me the TM for FLARE Blitz. Get it, Flare Blitz, because Team Flare, oh ha ha ha.