Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Pt 17 (Specter to Umber Hulk)

 

Click here for the previous part
Click here for the next part
Click here for the index.

This batch of monsters features aparticularly interesting reinventions in 5.5E. The big thing is the change in the Sphinx. Dropping the gendered species discrimination between the Sphinxes is kind of expected, but they have truly rewritten the lore of the Sphinxes that they might as well as be brand-new monsters. For the purposes of this review series, I will review them one after the other due to the sheer differences between 'classic' D&D Sphinxes and the new ones. This is what I want out of a proper rewrite, not to either quietly reduce the monster to a two-sentence footnote hidden in a subspecies lineage selection.

I think everyone universally loves the Incubus and Succubus for both surprisingly preserving the 'seduction demon' aspect of the Succubus. That was something that wasn't a given considering how much sanitization is happening to 5E (for better and for worse), but the themes they picked for the Incubus is most certainly welcome.

Again... while I do think I am going somewhat slow, I would rather do the Monster Manual right to be a 'point-to-something-I-already-did' when I eventually go and talk about other D&D or D&D-adjacent bestiaries with a lot of overlap in terms of monsters. 

[Originally published on December 2019; Updated in December 2025]

____________________________________________________

Specter

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 1

Out of the ‘incorporeal ghosts’, Specters are functionally the weakest of them all. They are incorporeal and can move through creatures and objects; have a ton of resistances as befits an intangible spirit; and can drain life (or HP)… but ultimately it doesn’t quite have the possession ability that a Ghost has, or the bag of tricks that a Wraith or a Banshee has. And it definitely isn’t anywhere as mechanically powerful as the deceptively terrifying Shadow. 

It always is a pet peeve of me that the much more impressive-sounding ‘Specter’ is actually weaker than the mundane-sounding ‘Ghost’, but that’s just my little hang-up. The primary difference, as far as 5th Edition’s Monster Manual claims, is that Specters are just doomed to be unable to pass to the afterlife. Unlike Ghosts, they do not possess any more connections or memories to their past lives, and no ‘unfinished business’ that would allow it to rest. They are just condemned to haunt the world forever until some adventurers grant it the oblivion of destruction. The only thing left for the Specter is the hatred towards the living, which fills the Specter with sorrow, wrath and jealousy and drives it to destroy life. Of course, no amount of life drained will ever satisfy the Specter, and it just keeps going around looking for more life and happiness to drain. 

They are repelled by sunlight, and as per 5.5E they are drawn to darkness and negative emotions, feeding on the suffering that evil beings cause – or on the evil beings themselves. The table given by 5.5E gives a bunch of potential locations that Specters would lurk around. There are obvious ones like the lair of a powerful fiend or undead; the gravesite of a villain; a death cult; a Shadowfell portal; but a more interesting one would be sites of disaster or a town that is gripped with many grudges. 

The Specter, essentially, serves the same role that a ‘zombie’ or a ‘skeleton’ would have among the corporeal undead – they are feral, they are always hostile, and there is no way to get them back. A simple lower-tier enemy to be destroyed, without much roleplay opportunity beyond 'scary crazed enemy that needs to be put down'. Their art in 5E is just a screaming purple figure, but I think 5.5E showing them as tattered skeleton-ghosts gives them a nice identity that communicates how ‘frayed’ even their identities are. It is notable that the Poltergeist, who got its own entry in 5.5E, started off as a Specter variant in 5E. 

____________________________________________________

Sphinx - Androsphinx / Gynosphinx

• 5E: Large Monstrosity; Lawful Neutral; CR 11 (Gynosphinx), 17 (Androsphinx)

One particular creature in 5th Edition was given such a gigantic rewrite in 5.5E that I think it’s best that I talk about the ‘traditional D&D’ version of the Sphinx. The original version of the Sphinx from 1st Edition tried to merge Egyptian and Greek mythologies together. The Egyptian Sphinx is a wingless lion with the head of a man, always depicted as regal and protective of the pharaoh. The Greek Sphinx has wings, tended to be female, and the ‘riddle’ thing also came from Greek myth – specifically the myth of Oedipus. Dungeons and Dragons’ earliest versions just tried to adapt the two different Sphinxes as male and female versions of the same species, and merged the different lores together.

Older editions, particularly 1E and 2E, really liked Sphinxes and added a bunch of different variations (including the hieracosphinx and criosphinx, who became notorious for certain writing choices that we won’t get into here) but 5E simplifies the Sphinxs as just a guardian of secrets and treasures of gods, and demands them to pass through tests. They are both the noble guardian of Egyptian mythos, and also the test-giving antagonists of Grecian myths. This does really fit with what D&D wants to do with their monsters, giving an in-universe explanation for whatever dungeon puzzles a DM wants to throw at his/her players. It doesn’t have to be riddles, but the idea is that you present the Sphinx at a level where it would be an unfair fight to the party, forcing them to engage with riddles and puzzles. The Sphinx’s magical powers even gives it an excuse to teleport your party to a temporary game stage, like a giant chess board or something. But even if a fight breaks out, it’s not entirely unwinnable. The Sphinx has a magical, divine bond to whatever it is guarding, causing the path to disappear if the puzzles are not completed properly. This is… interesting narratively, but perhaps a bit problematic if the DM isn’t careful to accidentally lock an important plot device in the care of a Sphinx. 

I do find that all artwork of the Sphinxes tended to be on the goofier side in older editions, and it’s not until the 5E Sphinx, particularly the Androsphinx, that looked genuinely majestic. With the Andropshinx and Gynosphinx both sitting at a respective CR 17 and CR 11 respectively, they are probably the strongest of the ‘intelligent lion mutant’ group of mythological monsters. The origins of the Sphinxes are a bit more vague, though, with 5E noting that they could be ‘high priest of gods’ but most are ‘embodied spirits’ that were brought to the mortal world by prayer or divine intervention; or they even arrive from extraplanar realms. This wording was here from 5E, and makes a reinvention in 5.5E make a bit more sense. 

Lastly, if you don’t like the ‘servitors of gods, guardians of tombs’ angle, 5E also gives the hook of Fallen Sphinxes, who break free of their divine command whether through weariness, regret from slaughtered supplicants, or just wanting to be worshipped… but they’re still somehow bound to the secrets they protect? That feels a bit off.  

The 5E Monster Manual describes two main kinds of Sphinxes – the Androsphinx, who has the head of a man; and the Gynosphinx, who has the head of a woman. Androsphinxes ‘test’ adventurers by being outwardly gruff and downcast, but is actually secretly noble and his attitude is part of his test. Gynoshpinxes are more knowledge and lore oriented, and are even willing to bargain with supplicants. 

Combat-wise? All Sphinxes have the immunity to mind-reading (no cheating in riddles!) and have a reasonable library of spells, with the Gynosphinx’s spells being a lot more lore and knowledge-oriented. They also have the ability to teleport themselves. In their lair, they have the ability to… reverse time? The Androsphinx is stronger than the Gynosphinx due to old-timey sexism (remember that none of this dimorphism is from real myths!), and is given higher-level spells, and a specific triple-roar effect. 

Ultimately, I do think that the trope of the Sphinxes guarding tombs and being so divinely and supremely tied to their puzzles and function to be a very necessary trope. The 'Sphinx' and her riddles are also quite ingrained in pop culture and people will recognize them as much as they would recognize Medusa or the Hydra or Vampires. But while there are a lot of nice stuff about them, design-wise... they're a bit dated. The Andro/Gyno dimorphism is, again, something D&D invented wholesale and probably one of the few blatantly sexist bits in D&D. It's not even a function of societal roles that could be argued for some of the humanoid species, the Gynos are just straight-up weaker. And while I do find the artwork cool in insolation... let's not forget that the Monster Manual alone has Manticores, Chimeras, Gryphons and Lamias as lion-monstrosities. Being a 'naked lion with a head and some crowns' isn't visually as distinct. 

____________________________________________________

Sphinx

• 5.5E: Tiny Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 1 (Sphinx of Wonder)
• 5.5E: Large Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 8 (Sphinx of Secrets), 11 (Sphinx of Lore), 17 (Sphinx of Valor)

So now, D&D’s 2024 5.5 Edition update has probably reinvented the Sphinxes the most out of any monster. With their very hyped-up lore from 5th Edition, the Sphinxes being retconned into a type of Celestial makes the most absolute sense to me, particularly with how much emphasis on worshippers and extraplanar abilities that the original 5E writing has. The idea of them being knowledge and secret protectors are emphasized a lot more. 

In this edition of the lore, the Sphinxes are ‘formed from spirits of sages and explorers’, and know the full weight of lore. They share the wisdom with those who prove themselves through riddles or tests – a lot of similarities to the older edition. But in this version, the Sphinxes actually gain power and change form as they gain understanding of cosmic enigmas. 

And the idea of these knowledge-beings slowly growing up like Digimon gives them a lot more avenue to interact with the fantasy world instead of just being stuck in dungeons waiting to host puzzles. The youngest version, the brand-new CR 1 Sphinx of Wonder, is the size of a regular kitty, and ‘one comes into being every time a new idea is conceived on the Material Plane’. That association with ideas and knowledge is really neat, and these young Sphinxes are fascinated by a particular type of study. Sometimes they even cross over and form a bond with mortal scholars – which feels like a much more built-in roleplay as a Celestial-type familiar. Other than Imps and Quasits, none of the other Familiar options really have a story hook to them. And besides... who doesn't want a colourful, rune-covered flying cat? 

Next up is the CR 8 Sphinx of Secrets. They've grown to the 'Large' size, and one thing to perhaps note is that the Sphinxes' faces are all kitty now. Which is a change that I feel I could do without. I do like the colourful fur, and magical runes all over their body. And while they do have human-like hair, I did wish that the faces grew more human as they 'evolved'. 

Anyway, Sphinxes of Secrets are CR 8. They are associated with sites of great magic and learning, and do the dual role of protecting those sites while conducting their research. Their abilities are similar to the original Gyno/Androsphinx from 5E, with 'Inscrutable', the regular melee attacks, and a small spellcasting list... but the Sphinx of Secrets has the 'Curse of the Riddle' that turns the riddle into an actual mechanic. The book makes it into just an intelligence roll, but come on, any self-respecting DM needs to have prepared riddles handy for this!

And finally, the original Gynosphinx and Androsphinx are reprinted as the 'Sphinx of Lore' and 'Sphinx of Valor'. They're both just rune-glowy angel cats, with more or less the same abilities as their 5E counterparts. The differences in their power are now tied to the size of the secret and knowledge they are guarding. The Sphinx of Lore have the typical lore that the traditional D&D Sphinx has... ancient artifacts or texts that they guard in remote places. Sphinxes of Valor guard specifically world-changing and dangerous secrets, things that could destroy the world or dangerous knowledge that could doom the world. Instead of seeking for a worthy champion, the Sphinxes of Valor actually are far more dutiful, seeing their charge as paramount to everything else. 

Overall? I think this is an okay change. I do feel like visually there might be some arguments of dropping the 'human face', but it's at least a distinct and memorable look. The Sphinxes in D&D have always felt to be a great concept that could be explored and pushed even more. Dropping a lot of the sexist dimorphism (again, not there in the original myths), giving them a more unique visual look, and tying everything about them to the theme of knowledge is a great one. I am a fan of this redesign... again, I don't agree with every aspect of it, but I really loved that they tried instead of deleting the entries or reducing them into one or two lines without context. 

____________________________________________________

Sprite

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Fey; Neutral Good; CR 1/4

5th Edition was pretty great at representing most of the iconic monsters that have appeared in most of the ‘first Monster Manuals’ of previous editions… with the exception of smaller fey. Older editions would have Brownies, Leprechauns, Atomies, Grigs, Pixies, Atomies, Nixies, Sprites… a whole bunch of them, and I can see why they wanted to streamline them into just two – just the Pixie and the Sprite. There is admittedly a bit of a visual identity problem, though, and I am quite sad that neither the Pixie nor Sprite has insectoid features other than the wings. We could’ve had one of them be little humans/elves with insect wings; and the other be little humans/elves with more insect parts! Or maybe just make them be merely lilliputian little humans/elves.

Instead, the main difference between Pixie and Sprite just seem to be their attitude and their ability to do magic. Pixies are more cheerful and use magic a lot. Sprites are cold, lacking in warmth, suspicious, and use mundane (if poison-tipped) swords and bows. Their only real supernatural ability is invisibility and a ‘heart sight’ to understand an interloper’s alignment and intentions. 

I do like the idea of a group of tiny little forest people that protect nature, judge people who come, then either toss them out either forcefully (via sleeping arrow darts) or by scaring them off via rustling leaves. But all the other descriptions of the Sprites really do make them just feel like more boring, more serious versions of the Pixie. Which… again, really do feel like more of a cultural difference more than anything. We don't put 'Ranger Humans' as a separate species from 'Druid Humans', do we? 

I don't know... it's not that the older editions did a particularly good job at distinguishing all of their 'little fairy people' races, but at least there tended to be more differences, culture-wise or visually, beyond 'Tinker Bell' and 'Tinker Bell, but she dresses like Peter Pan'. At least when I was grousing about the various races of fish-people, there is a significant visual difference between the Locathah, Sahuagin and Kuo-toa. I skimmed through the 'small fey' of 2E and I am kind of disappointed that when they picked 'Pixie' and 'Sprite', they really didn't think of differentiating them visually or lore-wise. 

____________________________________________________

Stirge

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Beast (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Unaligned; CR 1/8
• 5.5E: Swarm of Tiny Monstrosities; Unaligned; CR 2

I find the Stirge to be a nice, underrated monster. Borrowing its name from the vampiric Strigoi of Romanian culture, the Stirge in D&D is patterned as a strange bat-mosquito, with how insectoid or mammalian the Stirge looks varying from edition to edition. I particularly love how they have grown to look much less than just a lumpy bug; gaining a second pair of wings and features that make it look reptilian in 3E and 4E. I really do find that 4E Stirge to be quite charming, looking like an old-school Star Wars alien in a way.

5E’s Stirge goes perhaps a bit too far in deviating from the previous appearances, though, giving it the head that is best described as some kind of a long-snouted possum, and legs that look almost mammalian (although it’s hard to tell). It makes it look a bit too much like a weird bat, like something that would believably be a real-life obscure species from Australia or something. 5.5E goes back into being monstrous, keeping the bat wings but bringing back decidedly insectoid legs, and a head that is just a massive, serrated dagger-piercer. It looks a lot less like a ‘proboscis’, but definitely more like something that would draw blood. It does look more like a serrated nail than the needle imagery that all previous Stirges have been using, though. 

Stirges are relatively simple monsters, being actually classified as ‘beast’ in 5E before there seemed to be a collective decision to just make all animals that aren’t in real life be ‘monstrosities’ instead just to make things simple. I like the idea of them being essentially more dangerous and threatening versions of mosquitoes as you trek through a jungle, actually able to drain someone to death instead of just giving you a nasty itch. 

I do like the writeup noting that once a Stirge has drawn blood, they would rather fly away to digest it – which really does make it feel like it’s the behaviour of a real wild creature which is just preying to survive. The problem, of course, if there’s a whole swarm of the things… each member in the swarm wants to feed, after all. 5.5E also highlights the Stirges’ nocturnal behaviour, and how an encounter might just happen due to the accidental disturbance of their hiding spot. 

I like the Stirge. In a more boring world they wouldn't have made the Stirge and filled in its role as a pest with 'Giant Mosquitoes' or 'Swarm of Vampire Bats' or something like that. But giving this ecological niche to a make-believe monster and putting in a bit of effort to detail their ecology is one of the reasons why I like world-building so much. 

____________________________________________________

Succubus

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Succubus)
• 5.5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Incubus)

I am very, very happy that despite newer editions of D&D going so much into playing it way too safe that the Succubi actually remain as the Monster Manual’s premier seduction-themed monster. They even get an expanded stat block, the Incubus – which previously is just a cosmetic, gender-flipped Succubus but is now something a bit more substantial that we’ll cover below. There is, still, admittedly a bit of PG-13-ifcation by giving us various alternate plans that a Succubus can take without implying sexual attractions (adopting the form of a lost loved one, a flattering underling, taking the form of someone needing protection, an isolating gaslighter) but the artwork and writeup does still keep the essence of the monster.

Drawing from European and Jewish mythology, the Succubus is adapted as a fiend. Previous editions have really flipped-flopped on whether the Succubi are demons, devils, or something else and 5th Edition just gave a gigantic cosmic shrug and characterized them as ‘independent’ fiends that can be in the employ of any greater fiend or work on their own. 

Succubi often use their ability to shapeshift, and essentially use a combination of sleeping manipulation, until they become susceptible to temptation. The ‘Succubus’ is the form that the fiend takes when they are physically seducing and tempting their prey, appearing in the guise of a humanoid and through seduction and temptation, corrupts their prey. The 5E Manual notes that Succubi don’t deal in contracts, but causes three betrayals – of thought, word and deed – to claim their prey’s soul. The Succubus has the ability to cast the Charm spell, but do not actually want to use it and wants to lower-case charm people to make them voluntarily lose their own soul. 

In combat, a Succubus has an additional attack called a Draining Kiss, which is a very common trope in fiction (albeit not always associated with Succubi) where they inflict the ‘pain and emptiness’ within the Succubus’s soul towards the victim. This is often a mark of the final death that the Succubus grants her victim, after successfully corrupting their soul.

In 5E, Succubi and Incubi are just terms for when the Succubus takes a female or male form. But in 5.5E, the abilities are split into two, and they can freely change between either form while being whichever gender they like. The Succubus is the ‘physical’ temptress, exploiting the waking desires. But when she transforms:

____________________________________________________

Succubus - Incubus

• 5.5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Incubus)

Most people forget that the original real-world mythology of Incubi and Succubi isn’t just about ‘sex demons’. It’s about sex demons that visit you in sleep and cause you to think of impure thoughts – essentially ancient people’s explanations of nighttime phenomena like wet dreams or sleep paralysis. The original 5E actually does note this in the writeup, saying that many Succubi stalk their prey and whisper sweet nothings while they are sleeping, making them more susceptible when the Succubus appears in the physical world. 

5.5E, however, makes the Incubus a full on alternate form with different abilities, representing the ‘dream demon’ aspect of the source material. Incubi visually look very cool, too, with ‘armour’ made of a porcelain-like material similar to their almost mask-like faces, while their ‘flesh’ glows with the consistency of the night sky filled with stars.

Instead of the ‘dream phase’ merely being a prelude to sexy seduction, an Incubus can now fully feed off dreams and continue feeding them with nightmares until their prey expires, and often haunt family members after they are done killing one. It’s a pretty sadistic demon, and you can really have a neat storyline about a constantly shapeshifting Incubus/Succubus trying to corrupt a whole family and using different methods with different members of the family. 

This also actually fills in a nice role of a ‘nightmare monster’ that the original Monster Manual doesn’t actually have, since the name ‘Nightmare’ is given to a demon horse. Incubi have access to a bunch of spells like etherealness (allowing it to phase into bedrooms), and sleep-themed spells like hypnotic pattern and dream. It can also curse enemies to be unable to have a restful short rest, which I thought is a nice, clever mechanic to interact with the resting mechanic of D&D. I just wished they went a bit further with it.  

____________________________________________________

Tarrasque

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Monstrosity - Titan; Unaligned; CR 30

The Tarrasque might not be as iconic as the Beholder or the Mimic or the Mind Flayer, but it is another monster that is basically quite iconic as a 'face' of Dungeons & Dragons' monsters. While it borrows from the name of a dragon from French mythology, the Tarrasque has very little in common with its inspiration.

And... let's be frank at what the Tarrasque is. It is basically just 'fantasy Godzilla'. Almost always constantly the most powerful end-game monster in most basic Monster Manuals, the Tarrasque stands at a whopping CR 30. With massively powerful attacks and the ability to shake the world around it as it moves, the Tarrasque is also blessed with a carapace that reflects magic. 

The Tarrasque is indeed just a giant monstrous lizard, and has mostly kept a somewhat similar appearance with slight variations. The 2E artwork gives it a much more humanoid, bipedal posture and the 4E artwork in its 'super serious' art-style makes it gray and removes its distinctive carapace. But the Tarrasque is always a giant, titan-sized theropodal lizard with a massive jaw, two prominent horns, and a carapace on its back lined with spines. Again, the vibe really does feel like a love letter to the vibe of Godzilla. 

The lore of the Tarrasque differs from setting to setting, but at least in the Forgotten Realms, the 'default' setting, there is only one Tarrasque, and that being retreats back into the depths of the earth to slumber if it is sufficiently injured. It's like Godzilla, who always returns back to the depths of the ocean... or comes back to life in the next movie with an infusion of plot device. 

Tarrasques slumber most of the time, but when (and where) it awakens, devastation is sure to follow. They are large enough to wander through entire towns like... well, like Godzilla through Tokyo, and what causes a Tarrasque to awake is unknown. The 5.5E Manual describes it as 'the Shape of Calamity', and where I have criticized the 5.5E for randomly cutting out chunks of monster lore compared to its older sibling, the Tarrasque is one that got an extremely welcome flowery explanation. Whereas the 5E Manual kind of shrugs and handwaves its origin, the 5.5E restores a lot of its old lore, noting that this primeval destroyer is a survival from the earliest epochs of the Material Plane, being a weapon of immortal forces and awakening to usher eras of destruction. 

It lashes out at anything and everything, and interestingly, takes particular offense at the 'works of lesser beings', meaning buildings, structures, and ships. The Doylist reason for this is for DM's to go wild with all their Godzilla tropes, of course, but I do like the in-universe reason that the Tarrasque is instinctively drawn to destroy what was not created by the primordial 'immortal ones'. 5.5E also notes that it's not even just one powerful Tarrasques, but apparently Tarrasques are seemingly some kind of a multiversal constant that can only be halted. Even on the off chance that sufficiently powerful adventurers do not drive it away and actually destroy it, another Tarrasque will just spawn or awaken. 

____________________________________________________

Thri-kreen

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Chaotic Neutral; CR 1 (Marauder)
• 5.5E: Medium Monstrosity; Neutral; CR 8 (Psion)

Probably one of my favourite non-human races from D&D is the Thri-Kreen, the resident humanoid ant-mantis-people hailing from the Dark Sun setting. Short of their 2E artwork that showed them with a much more bug-like lower body (which looks cool, admittedly), Thri-Kreen tends to be consistently portrayed as having a four-armed humanoid body covered with buggy carapace. I have no complaints here, it’s a pretty cool design that communicates the idea of hardy, desert-dwelling bug-people. They have decidedly taken a more ‘ant’ based design, losing the serrated forelimb spines of the mantis that its 1E and 2E variants have… which honestly fits the desert-dwelling theme a lot better. 

In 5E, Thri-Kreen are noted to live primarily in the deserts, but also savannas. They are, as expected from a species of insect-people, based on a lot of the eusocial ‘hive’ behaviour of ants and termites... but not a hive-mind! They're more nomads! 5E’s Monster Manual describes a lot of the inherent differences of an insect-based intelligent lifeform, noting that Thri-kreens communicate with mandible clicks and antennae gestures, making it particularly difficult for them to be understood by other species. Thri-kreen are still able to write, draw, and as with most creatures hailing from Dark Sun, have psionic abilities… but it does give Thri-kreen a bit of an indecipherable ‘secret language’ of sorts. 

Speaking of psionic abilities, yeah, Thri-kreen have them. Not all of them do, but some being born with these abilities does kind of play into the polymorphism that many ant species showcase. I do like the little caveat that while your average Thri-kreen can’t really feel emotions the way that most humanoids understand it, Thri-kreen psions are just inherently a lot more sensitive to it. 

Other aspects of Thri-kreen biology is highlighted in the 5E Manual (but not the 5.5E one), like how Thri-kreen don’t require sleep, have a short lifespan of 30 years, and have a worldview where they only hunt and kill to survive, not for sport. If they kill humanoids (especially elves), it’s without any true malice behind it. As a side-note, though, while 5.5E truncates a lot of this down, like every single Thri-kreen monster entry, they find it important to tell us that Thri-kreen name their two-handed polearms a ‘Gythka’, and their three-bladed shurikens are called ‘Chatkcha’. 

While mostly portrayed as being dull brown like real insects, Thri-kreen have camouflage abilities that is translated into their initial monster entries as a bonus in Stealth. When the Thri-kreen were promoted to playable 5E species in Spelljammer (which, by the way, I absolutely love), it’s just handwaved as them being able to be any colour… and the 5.5E Manual just straight-up has them as being able to adapt to whatever biome they have set up their nests in. 

____________________________________________________

Treant

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Plant; Chaotic Good; CR 9

A trope as old as Tolkien’s works, it was through my initial reviews that I realized ‘Treant’ was a word invented by Dungeons & Dragons to refer to the Ents from the Lord of the Rings without actually breaching copyright. Treants are relatively simple enemies from what you expect from a giant tree with a face, with the ability to slam you (with the weight of a tree!) and awaken nearby plantlife to act as ‘lesser’ Treants to fight for them. It’s an always awesome fantasy trope as the helpless forest rises up to wage war against those who would despoil it. 

The depictions of Treants have been wildly different between each edition, but that is absolutely fine, isn’t it? Trees all look wildly different, and I love that some Treants are more spindly, some have very human-looking faces with leaf-beards, and some look lumpier and half-formed. It all depends on the specific tree and the specific circumstances that the Treant awakens. 

Most Treants awaken from ancient trees in locations that are steeped with natural magic, often helped by other Treants and Druids. Once a Treant has ‘awakened’, it will continue to grow as a tree and can ‘root’ itself to continue growing as a tree. Again, it’s taking on some LOTR inspirations with how Treebeard and the rest of the Ents look indistinguishable from regular trees until they decide to move. And, of course, Treants are particularly hostile towards those who cut down trees and burn down forests indiscriminately. 

5.5E adds in another LOTR-inspired tidbit by noting that Treants avoid being embroiled with the conflicts of other shorter-lived species, with the only thing that could rouse them being assaults on their forest homes. 5.5E gives us a nice table showing potential Treant plot hooks – blessed by a god to grow a magical fruit; protecting portals and dungeon entries; protecting ancient druidic lore… pretty simple ‘protector of nature stuff’. But the last two really give some fun nods to what Treants could do at the hands of a DM that’s willing to push beyond the common tropes: “rooted on a hero's burial mound and animates trees that look like questing knights” and “scarred by a fire and holds the bones of the arsonist who started it in a hollow.” Pretty cool stuff, and two Treants that most certainly have some kind of story baked into them. 

They might seem a bit more mundane thanks to Lord of the Rings being such a juggernaut in the general minds of fantasy media, but I do really appreciate the Treants a lot.

____________________________________________________

Troglodyte

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Chaotic Evil; CR 1/4

I mentioned in my original review back in 2019 that "I always kind of forget Troglodytes exist". Now, writing this in 2025... I still kind of forget Troglodytes exist. Part of it, I think, is because of their visual identity – visuals aren't everything, but they are a significant part of a monster's memorability. There is a reason why Tieflings are more popular than, say, Gnomes. Troglodytes are essentially 'subterranean Lizardfolk', but where other 'Underdark-flavour' races tended to do something interesting with it, the Troglodytes... really don't. The term 'Troglodyte' refers to a race of savage cave-dwellers from Greco-Roman historic records. Reinterpreting them as lizard-people is neat... if D&D didn't already have several dozen of them. But sure, the twist of them being lizard-people is neat... except, again, if D&D didn't already have several dozen of them. And the Lizardfolk, Kobolds and Yuan-ti have so much more lore written about them. 

But sure, let's talk about the Troglodytes as they are presented in the 5E Monster Manual. They are at war against their neighbours in the Underdark all the time... which I think is the rule rather than the exception about any species that grow up in the Underdark. They eat anything they can stomach, they dwell in filth and grime, and this is reflected by their 'stench' ability, powerful enough to stun those around them. 

Otherwise, they are simple-minded brutes that can't plan ahead and just raid to get food. They're also sadistic and eat their prey. If their leader shows weakness, they get devoured. They also fight and kill each other over simple things like weapons. 

...again, all of these descriptions really lack identity. Being evil raiding brutes that only respect strength applies to so many other evil sentient races in D&D. The whole 'filth' thing could be a twist about it, but being mottled but otherwise clean-looking albino lizard-people really doesn't communicate that thematically or visually. The 'consumes everything' aspect, as well, isn't depicted particularly well. I feel like there really could have been something more around them. Some additional aspect of their culture, or of their biology, or of their battle tactics. Anything to make them more interesting than, like, Grimlocks or Quaggoth, two other Underdark species I've complained about being boring before... but those two at least had their gimmicks. The Troglodytes just exist, and they're angry, and they're smelly... and nothing else.

____________________________________________________

Troll

• 5.5E/5E: Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 5
• 5.5E: Small Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 1/2 (Troll Limb)

The term ‘troll’ is a term in general fantasy media that just means so many different things from so many different cultures. While each individual setting is always different, you can get a reasonable guess at what a ‘goblin’, ‘orc’ or ‘ogre’ would be in an average setting… or, failing those common tropes, the creators would be trying hard to subvert expectations. But trolls? Running down through various fantasy settings on top of my head, beyond ‘big, dumb and cruel’, perhaps the one common thing that tends to be reflected in fantasy trolls is their ability to regenerate. And that alone really does help to be a hook to really differentiate trolls from the half-dozen other ‘big dumb weird human’ that you find in the Monster Manual.

Trolls in D&D have been very variable visually, being a lot bulkier in 4E, lankier in 2E and 3E, with varying degrees of tusks or hair being present. In D&D they have been consistently shown with green skin, although I must say that I really like the 5.5E redesign the most. Restoring the fangs of the 1E-3E versions, the green-skinned Troll is also now covered with a layer of moss and lichen, which does sell them as being stealthy swamp-dwellers. Love the pinpoint-dot singular eye as well. 

5E’s writeups on the Trolls just highlights their cruelty, appetites and their work as independent thuggish mercenaries to evil monsters. 5.5E gives us a bit more about ‘natural’ Trolls, describing them living in festering lairs and abduct prey either alone or in small packs. But the most important part highlighted by both Manuals is the regeneration ability. Broken bones and slashed flesh closes off quickly, and even dismemberment is a minor inconvenience. Trolls can reattach severed limbs like it’s an inconvenience, and sometimes these limbs will even scuttle around on its own. However, acid or fire stops the Troll’s regeneration, thus making the Troll highly memorable for being this ‘puzzle boss’ similar to the Hydra. 

In other 5E material such as Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Glory of the Giants, we get to see this regeneration ability be taken to some really fun conclusions by showcasing utterly hideous mutated trolls that are the result of botched regenerations. Even the original 5E Manual has foreshadowing of this, noting that some Trolls who were beheaded can grow two heads; or Trolls that feed on unconventional flesh (like a fey creature) might gain additional fey powers. 

In the original 5E Manual, we get a sidebar for ‘loathsome limbs’ which gets turned into a full, proper monster statblock in 5.5E. I absolutely love this, establishing the limbs as its own monster that the Troll can keep creating as it gets hacked up. Perhaps to be a bit more ‘realistic’, the main Troll body will actually suffer exhaustion the more limbs it loses. Which makes sense – the Troll might be able to regenerate, but it’s still losing blood! Troll limbs will lose their autonomy after the main Troll body regenerates the missing parts. This works for heads, too. 

Again, I always find monsters to be a lot more interesting if they have a bit of a ‘hook’ to them. That hook can just as well be mechanical, like the Troll's, instead of flavour-wise! This is what I'm complaining about when I talk about the Hill Giants, Ogres or Troglodytes in the D&D world. There are so many other substitutes for 'giant dumb dude' and 'lizard person' in D&D that merely being that isn't enough. Not all monsters need a new sourcebook's worth of lore to make interesting, or have to be created from scratch to fit a setting. But they have to be memorable and distinct somehow for people to remember them.

___________________________________________________

Umber Hulk

• 5.5E/5E: Large Monstrosity; Chaotic Evil; CR 5

A monster that debuted from the very first Monster Manual, the Umber Hulk is giant bug-man monster! I really do like the name ‘Umber Hulk’ as well, which has that really nice descriptive feel that gives out a ‘vibe’, if that makes sense, despite the actual meaning merely meaning ‘big brown dude’. 

The original 1E Umber Hulk is just a nondescript bipedal monster with some bug mandibles, but from 2E onwards the Umber Hulk has grown more and more insectoid. The Umber Hulk gains a beetle-like carapace in 2E, and loses the somewhat dinosaurian/humanoid face in favour of being a fully insectoid monster from 3E onwards. The most distinctive features of the modern Umber Hulk are the gigantic, chunky forearms and the two massive mandibles that jut out of their buggy faces. They are also covered with bristles all over their hard carapace, which is noted to be what grants them their tremorsense. 

While not represented in the statblocks as anything other than a burrowing speed, Umber Hulks are noted by the writeup to be able to withstand cave-ins thanks to their hard carapace. This allows them to be ambush hunters (similar to Ankhegs), but there’s also the valid tactic of them drawing prey into these tunnels then collapsing the tunnels on them. They are otherwise ambush predators, lying in wait in tunnels adjacent to where prey might travel through, and bursting out of the walls or ceiling or ground of the underground caves to attack. 

The Umber Hulk has a little extra bonus to make it a bit more surprising. It has a mind-scrambling gaze that is translated in-game as either being stunned, being confused, or even attacking their own allies. In lore, it can also cause temporary amnesia, leading people to not remember what monster, exactly attacks them. This leads to the Umber Hulk as taking a supernatural, almost boogeyman status in the Underdark. Admittedly, the revelation that it’s ‘merely’ a big bug with just one special attack might be a bit disappointing, but now I really do find the idea and the plot potential of a mysterious underground killer to be quite an exciting story. I’ve always found the Umber Hulk to ‘merely’ be cool because of its visual design, but having it as a in-universe cryptid is a story avenue that gives it just a bit more personality than just being 'bug monster, but mildly psychic'.

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 20: Lion King

So yeah, in-between running errands for gangsters, I have been doing a bunch of side-quests. To keep the formatting nice, I've placed all the side-quests and exploration that I did around the gangster arc here. 

After dealing with Corbeau's stuff, I pick up, of course, the Mega Scolipede stone. That's a badass mega all right! That puts five out of my six party members as being able to mega evolve. I'm quite happy!

Wild Zone 16 and 17 has sprang up. 16 is a little park surrounding an obelisk. Rather hilariously, perched on top of the obelisk is a single Froakie who gets panicky and jumps away to a ninja escape if I try to catch it. The rest of the zone is filled with Falinks, some Medicham, and a bunch of Flaaffy, Barbaracle and Florges hiding here and there. 

I do appreciate the bonus amount of attention given to Falinks. Falinks has been such a... one-off weirdo in their debut generation. I like it, but they don't really do much in that very gimmick-heavy generation. 

Wild Zone 17 is insane, though. The lower half is nothing to write home about, just some mounds with Diggersby. But the top half? It's a Pyroar statue and a gigantic pack of Pyroar, led by an alpha, is there just patrolling around. Pyroar isn't the most dangerous Pokemon normally, but there is a pack of like six or seven, and they all know Earth Power. Which happens very quickly, without warning, and just erupts from the bottom of my feet. I have a Slowbro with Surf, and I can one-hit-KO the weaker Pyroars, but I can't bloody well get all of them, and they just let the earth rip apart with Earth Powers. It's very cool, but it's also very deadly and I died a couple of times trying to catch the Skarmory that's in this area.

Also, the pack also has a giant alpha male, and a group of females. Which is a nice nod to real-world lion prides, as well as Pyroar's own gender distribution in-game. 

Side-questing time! A lady called Ante is worried about loud noises happening in her apartment and is worried that it's haunted or something. Not an impossibility considering the amount of Ghost-type Pokemon like Gastly and Phantump just casually floating in this city... but as I climb up to the rooftop of her building, it's actually a Dedenne! Dedenne leads me to a bit of a chase around the top of the building complex, and then into a wild battle. 

The lady walks up and is happy that it's a mere Dedenne, and offers to adopt the Dedenne until she can find a new home for it. It's a nice, short quest and also one that's actually something that ties to the Wild Zones in the middle of a capital city plotline. 

Two quests deal with regional variants. The first is a little girl fresh off of a holiday from Galar, who shows off her Galarian Slowbro and Slowking; and gives me the evolutionary items from the Isle of Armour to evolve them. A different person is hanging out with a Galarian Stunfisk outside of Wild Zone 11, noting that a second Stunfisk is hiding inside Wild Zone 11, having broken free and that we need to find her while she's hiding in her Pokeball-mimic form. This Stunfisk is actually looking for a powerful trainer, and somehow, I qualify for... finding her hidden form in the park. Okay, Stunfisk, why not? I like these two quests. Not as elaborate as the Sylveon or Shuppet ones, but it's actually a ncie spotlight for these Pokemon. 

I also go around to unlock a bunch of holovators. A Rust Syndicate grunt is guarding a holovator, which is his favourite holovator, and he won't let me use it until I beat him in battle. Rather hilariously, once I do so he gets super-duper over-the-top polite at letting me use it. Another kid notes that an Alpha Watchog is just standing in front of the holovator... which is also a battle. I feel like the Watchog one could've had some more dialogue talking about Watchog's penchant to watch or something... it's these little bits of flavour that make them feel a lot less like just stumbling blocks and an actual part of the game world. A third holovator has me beat up a Manectric and an Ampharos to settle a territorial dispute. Surprised that this one didn't actually turn into another 'forcing animals into a city is bad' point, though.

A very cool quest has a dude called Reu tell me that there's a Mawile that 'can't be caught'. As I investigate this rumour, turns out that the Mawile is the very same Mawile that went feral and underwent Rogue Mega Evolution. Of course, fighting against me, the Mawile is treated as just a regular Pokemon and I could catch it. Reu notes that he's heard of some Pokemon that will only allow themselves to be caught by trainers they found worthy, which, as this Mawile's benefactor, is most certainly the case. This has been something that's more of an anime/manga thing, but I am happy to see this represented in the game in some way, particularly through a Pokemon that went through a bit of a character arc himself. Okay, Mawile, you get a Mega Stone and can hang out with Absol and Heracross as my backup Megas. 

A dude called Volli meets me on top of a building, and tells me about a 'fad' in Kalos from a while back called... sky battles! Oh god, I completely forgot about this. Generation V and VI experimented with a bunch of alternate battles, and Sky Battles was just there to show off the flying animations of some Pokemon -- and particularly relevant for some guys like Heracross who had both standing and 'hovering' animations. It has since been completely forgotten... until now!

Volli refuses to battle unless I have a full team of Flying-type Pokemon, which isn't quite the same ('floating' Pokemon like Chandelure or Haunter would've been eligible in XY), but I bring out my strongest Flying-types and fight him. He's got a Noibat, a Talonflame and an Altaria. I have a Mega Hawlucha, an alpha Talonflame, and a freshly-evolved Pidgeot and Gyarados... not the most threatening batch of fighters, but at least Hawlucha manages to win because he was running Thunder Punch. There's a nice sense of melancholy as Volli wonders if Sky Battles will ever catch on again. I loved this! This was a nice little blast to the past! 

The trainer school has a bunch of kids that stand around and get excited that I can mega-evolve my Pokemon. They start bombarding me with questions like 'what Pokemon changes type when they Mega Evolve', 'what are the items called that you give to Pokemon', and the final question is asking which of the three starter Pokemon in this game is the coolest. Even without taking into account design, how can Mega Meganium not be the answer? She's got two Megas in her name!

A random quest has me drop down into a courtyard where a Delibird is just running around, screaming in Pokemon-speech. And suddenly, a Garbodor attacks! I beat the Garbodor! And then the Delibird gives me a berry, and the trainer thanks me for helping it. It's a bit of a weird quest, and I don't know if there's some Japanese pun that was lost in translation?

A police officer called Rancun asks me to find Shuppet for him, and he sees Shuppet as an ideal Pokemon. Shuppet is a Pokemon that likes negative emotions that people feel, like jealousy and vindictiveness, so it would be ideal for him to flush out criminals. I've seen Minority Report, this feels like that but with a grudge-filled ghost thrown in for good measure. Well,  I've got a spare Shuppet in my box, so I give one to him. Officer Rancun asks Shuppet to hone in on negative emotions...

...And the Shuppet goes straight to Rancun's home, and identifies his wife. Uh-oh! It's a bit of an unexpected twist for a Pokemon game, although the sidequest does end in a wholesome note as Rancun apologizes to his wife for being too obsessed with his work, and just took his wife for granted and didn't realize that her emotions are a step away from going into a full-blown grudge. Pay attention to your partners, dear readers! You don't need a friendly ghost to help you out on that end!

Sushi High Roller starts opening up a five-course battle meal. Normally I would've stuffed this to the segment below, but there are actually fun little easter eggs to the rest of Kalos! The first fight is just a Beedrill, Vivillon and Ariados. Three Bug-types... but I face all three at once! The second fight is from Miroir Way, which is the route heading up the mountains... and consists of Raichu, Dedenne and Emolga. That's a big fat lie! Out of those three, only Dedenne can be found in Miroir Way!

Next up is a trio from Lost Hotel. The Lost Hotel! That would have been so, so cool to explore in HD. I love abandoned locations. It's a Klefki, Scizor and Lucario. Winding Woods gets a representation, of course, with the excellent selection of spooky boys Trevenant, Gourgeist and Chandelure. And the last one... okay, kind of boring, with Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon as three evolutionary stone Pokemon. But the area-based Pokemon aren't bad! I just kind of wished they committed to the gimmick. 

The last side-quest I'll describe is a bit of a longer one, where an older lady called Calma is quite excited at her Sylveon's ability to detect strong emotions, and calm them down with her aura. This, just like the Shuppet mission, is the exact kind of 'spotlight a Pokemon's behaviour in a cool way' that I really wished Legends Z-A did a lot more of. 

This quest is a bit long, as I go around looking for five arguing people around the river. It always ends similarly, but I did find it kind of charming enough. First we've got two kids fighting... oh, turns out they're fighting that the other kid's Pokemon is cooler. Then a father and his daughter are fighting about career... oh, the daughter doesn't want to leave his father behind in their Pokedex career and want to make it a family activity. Two Rust Syndicate grunts appear to be yelling and intimidating each other... but it turns out to be practice for the company. Two Canari fans appear to be yelling, but it also turns out to be practice for a comedy gag or something. The closest thing to a conflict is a couple that argues 'who to take care of it', but it's just them trying to figure out how to deal with Noibat while at work, which boils down to 'oh wait, work from home is a thing'. Can't say Pokemon isn't up with the times, I guess. 

Ultimately it's Calma that ends up losing a bit of her patience and yells at Sylveon a bit, and vice versa, until we calm the two down. It's very basic, but I did like that it actually picks up a specific aspect of Sylveon's different behaviours and dex entries, and makes something out of it instead of something like... say, the Delibird/Garbodor quest, where you could replace the Pokemon with literally any pair and the quest would still feel more or less the same. Get more creative, Pokemon designers! Side-quests would be amazing, but I'm really not feeling it for most of what you're doing... which is surprising since they did such a good job with Legends Arceus!

Anyway, next up, we're going up against the nobility of France!

Random Notes:

• I ran out of eyecatcher characters, so I'll just use random Kalos characters from XY until we meet new NPCs. Since they haven't released Sugimori art for many of the other humans or new megas, what else to do? Have Valerie, who shows up in some posters showing off some her fashion brand 'Valerie Kawaguchi'. I guess that's her full name -- a genuine rarity in Pokemon!
• More side-quest content:

• Two Rust Syndicate guards argue about who is stronger, Arbok or Glalie, and have me fight both of their teams. Not much to say about this quest, again, we don't even get any fun facts about either Arbok or Glalie. 
• A lady wants to battle me in the rain to teach me about weather effects. Thankfully, she lets me 'wait until rain comes' so I don't have to keep resetting the clock to get the desired weather. 
• The Furfrou artist unlocks even more hairstyles, this time by asking to demonstrate Razor Leaf. Honestly, I kind of wished that this was more of a spotlight for Furfrou itself instead of Scyther, but it's not much of a particular spotlight on Scyther, is it? 
• Another gimmick introduction is a waitress that uses a party with Leftovers as a held item, and gives me Leftovers as a result. 
• Yet another gimmick introduction is someone who teaches me about flinching, which... is kind of bad in this game, honestly, since you just get stunned briefly; hardly equal to losing an entire turn. 
• A rather fun one has a lady that fights with a party full of Clefairy that only know Metronome. One of them, genuinely, no-bullshit, randoms into Explosion. That's hilarious! 
• A 'fetch quest' lady wants me to bring her Pokemon to inspire her perfume. The first is a Vanillite, and the second is an Inkay... it's a bit stretching the definition of what a perfume is, yeah? 
• I still haven't managed to get an Alpha Gogoat to spawn for the one random guy that wants it. 
• I do like that the Leftovers quest has a line of dialogue that lampshades that the Leftovers held item never actually gets consumed into nothing, and always just kind of stays there. Always. 
• The Spewpa gotten from the museum mission actually evolves into a differently-patterned Vivillon, specifically the 'snow' pattern. Interestingly, all Vivillon in the game, regardless of your region, is the default pink colour. Yeah, a lot of these random alternate forms really end up becoming a bit of a pain to support down the road, aren't they? Even if it's not a technical standpoint, trying to find a location in the game to 'fit' them is a bit annoying. 
• The Delibird is nicknamed Delilah, and he apparently likes to give out Bug-type Pokemon. I can just imagine that bag filled with Scatterbugs and Spinaraks. 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 19: Centipede Godfather

Our last Rogue Mega Evolution from the previous batch is Mega Mawile, which I face off with Taunie. There's actually nothing particularly clever or special about this one, really -- I like Mega Mawile, but her attacks are very simple, particularly compared to the hectic Mega Barbaracle I fought right before this. Her special attack has her jump out of the arena. That was kind of interesting and a nice little subversion, but ultimately Mega Mawile's attacks are quite easily dodged. It does look impressive, though, a barrage of spherical beams like a carpet bombing... but it moves so slowly and is easy to dodge. 

After beating the Mega Mawile, there is a short scene by Taunie apologizing for the problem that she kind of put all of us into. But she's not sorry about running around and helping people, because that's who she is, and that's what she does. Which... uh... yeah, that's laudable and all, but we have the Kalosian Yakuza breathing down our back wanting to get a one million poke-euro debt because you thought you needed a budget to make TikTok advertisement videos,  so the altruism really rings hollow. 

Lida also thinks so when I return to Hotel Z, muttering that that's just what Taunie does. And it really is kind of inconvenient for her to just completely disappear and go AWOL and not pick up her phone for these past couple of missions, yeah? 

Corbeau takes this time to call us, and dispenses a bit with the theatrics. He tells us that he knows what we've been doing, since he's been watching us. Okay, yakuza man. He gives us our first job, too. Some people in Bleu District has been misbehaving, and he wants us to... correct them. Educate them. Okay, so we are the hired help, then, going there for some intimidation factor.

Naveen and Lida stay behind to try and figure something out while I go and enter the underground world. I arrive at the location that the Rust Syndicate pointed out, and it's a house that was recently rented, and a bunch of troublemakers entered it and is squatting there. It's not a bunch of rival gangsters, though... but a group of Gengar and Gastly! The Syndicate grunt there tells me to get rid of the interlopers, which I oblige. 

It's also a nice way to get Gengar, which normally evolves by trade. I'm not sure if all the trade-exclusive Pokemon will show up in some way or form, but at least Gengar is a nice one to have since he's one of the Pokemon capable of undergoing Mega Evolution. Legends: Arceus was particularly good due to the availability of the entire Pokedex without needing to engage in trading. 

Corbeau shows up at this point to inspect the job, and he's... he's not very tall, which I thought was cute. The client thanks Corbeau, who says that it's the Syndicate's job to look after any citizen who needs help, and notes that despite Quasartico's efforts of setting up the wild zones, some Pokemon still slip through the cracks and cause trouble for people. This trend has caused a lot of Pokemon out of their usual habitats and into humanity's living spaces... and Corbeau notes that he himself was someone who didn't have a place to belong as a kid. 

Surprise sad backstory! And Corbeau's a gangster of the people! It's not a particularly huge surprise that the 'evil team with a badass name' turns out to be not-so-bad after all, but unlike Team Skull, Yell or Star, at least we actually got to see the Rust Syndicate be a bit evil. I mean, they may be friendly to us and is helping people, but they are still going around intimidating people and giving out terrible loans. 

In a nice little cap-off to this scene, a final Gengar shows up and ends up getting adopted by Corbeau's client, who notes that at least some humans and Pokemons should try to live together. 

Corbeau then sends me off to an electrical substation, telling me that I need to take care of some 'undesirable elements'. Which isn't an euphemism for snitches or rival gangsters, but just around 20 or so mega crystals that the Syndicate grunt is too lazy to clean up. The grunt there does raise some question about the nature and how fast these Mega Crystals have been growing all over the place. 

After doing that, Corbeau starts asking me about my role in cleaning up the Rogue Mega Evolved Pokemon. Honestly, he's made it clear that his goons have been stalking me, so there really isn't a point in denying it. But his main point is to ask about "L". I actually respect the game by making sure my character doesn't have an option to act like we know who L is, since to the protagonist of this game he's just some dude that keeps showing up, drops some ominous lines, and struts off. Corbeau gives us some backstory on Lysandre. Corbeau tells us that Lysandre was a wealthy businessman, who helped him a lot when he was an orphaned kid. He lost contact with Lysandre after the incident five years ago (hi, XY!) but if he's alive, Corbeau wants to repay him for everything he's done for him. 

With a grin, Corbeau then says that all of this backstory stuff is just something between the two of us, bringing the interest payment as a potential 'bigger issue' if I don't keep my mouth shut. 

Corbeau then gives me a third job. There's some outsiders causing trouble on their turf, and I need to get rid of them. Okay, is this another community service thing? Of course it is... kind of? In Centrico Plaza, we see two rich adults kind of bullying kids, telling them that "oh, Roselia should use Giga Drain instead of Poison Sting". I have opinions about these scene! These adults are the Society of Battle Connoisseurs, who are meant to be high-falutin' types who tell you that there is only a 'correct' way to battle Pokemon, mm-hmm, just like the twits in real life who tell you that there is only a correct way to appreciate wine, or appreciate coffee, or play golf, or criticize a movie, or everyone else is stupid. Oh, like enjoying a video game, how dare you like a video game and have a good time when you should be criticizing the slightly inferior graphics and be angry at the big corpo just because it's cool to bitch on them now. Ahem. 

Anyway these kind of elitist people also exist, very much so, in the Pokemon genre. The kinds that tell you that you need to really pay attention to EV/IV/nature/moveset, metagame, Smogon brackets, et cetera to really enjoy Pokemon battling. I care more about the dex lore and real-world biological or mythological implications and the story and I find the corny jokes fun, and I don't actually give two whits about the metagame? 

I love that the game portrays these motherfuckers who are bullying children who's just there to have fun to be insufferable twits. However, the specific advice they're giving? The physical/special split? Honestly, that's good advice! The way that they were saying it wasn't even particularly dickish! They really should be going 'oh, your Roselia is non-viable, you should evolve it ASAP and change it to a better Pokemon'. 

Francois and Vivica then challenge me to a fight, and honestly they aren't even being particularly dickish about it. They're just... airheadedly polite. Francois is the first to fight, and... and for a trainer that's supposed to represent the elite in battling, he's kind of lame. He uses Gabite and Sliggoo... and doesn't really get to do much before I crush them. Vivica sends out Aromatisse and Slurpuff... and also get crushed. Again, it'd be something if they used actual tactics!

Vivica and Francois grumble about losing, and consider calling in reinforcements to protect their brand. But Corbeau shows up at this point, telling them that everyone is on edge, and it's hardly a good time to go around troubling the children. It's at this point that Vivica and Francois actually gets rude, turning their nose down on Corbeau for fancying himself a hero of the masses, that he's responsible for sending a 'boor' to humiliate them... and run off. Pussy!

The kids thank Corbeau and head off home, and Corbeau notes that he respects me for being strong but not flaunting that power...  particularly my involvement in calming down the Rogue Mega Evolutions. But our conversation is interrupted by screaming people...

...there's a protest! A riot in front of the Quasartico HQ! A bunch of people is confronting Jett, the CEO of Quasartico, and Taunie is with her for some reason. And you know what? I'm on the side of the protesters at this point! They are yelling at Jett, demanding answers at the constant increases of Wild Zones and the lack of explanation or communication to the public. Apparently the protestors 'did not want to listen to reason'... but I feel like the game could've made the protesters look a bit more violent, honestly, because I really do think their arguments have merit. 

A large dude with a beanie strides up to Corbeau and myself, declaring that he's going to keep his city safe. An admirable goal! But Corbeau mocks him, and then challenges him to a battle while Taunie takes Jett away. Corbeau apparently can't abandon people in trouble, but he's picking the side of Jett and Taunie, and... I dunno. At least we're doing something that's slightly more villainous as we take the side of the big corporation!

The nameless representative sends out a Pinsir. Not even a Mega Pinsir! And Corbeau and I... fight him side by side? Two versus one? Wow, we are being villains! In complete coincidence, my own Scolipede was at the forefront of my party, so both Corbeau and I just send giant centaur-centipedes at a single Pinsir. Well, centipedes feed on other small arthropods, and we just tear through that dude's team of Pinsir, Onix and Glalie. Come on, dude, not even a mega evolution? 

Corbeau mocks the 'defeated villains' who run off, promising to find out the truth behind Quasartico. That's not villainous, Corbeau! Even if Quasartico does turn out to be on the up and up, what they wanted isn't exactly criminal! 

Taunie thanks Corbeau, who handwaves it as something he needed to do to protect his debt and investment. Apparently the Rust Syndicate only deals in favours, not violence. Sure, we're just going to ignore the fact that we sent two giant centipedes to gang up on a protester trying to protect his city. Sure. Corbeau does at least ask Jett if there's any truth to the complaints, and Jett gives a wonderful non-answer that just has her reiterate what Quasartico is doing. And...  you know what? I'm not even mad. This is exactly the kind of answer that a CEO to a company that isn't legally allowed to make statements would say.  

Corbeau walks off, saying that he doesn't want anything bad to happen to the city. Taunie stays to make sure President Jett stays safe, and apparently Vinnie is off doing an errant. Ohh, some mafia bodyguard you are, Vinnie! I return to the hotel, where Naveen and Lida point out that the Rust Syndicate's jobs are just odd jobs and good deeds around the city. Yeah, I'm also slightly disappointed -- if Corbeau wasn't so likeable I would actually be a lot angrier that we get another cool villain team that ended up to be somewhat toothless. 

I go to the Rust Syndicate HQ. Corbeau notes that he is impressed with me, and just like that, he decides to clear all of the interest. I... I really wished that there was something more concrete to 'impress' Corbeau, such as it is -- even if he's not actually evil, I kind of wished that I had to do something more epic, something more drastic, to make him think that I am a 'man of the people' like him. 

Corbeau tells me that he wants to have a proper, no-holds-barred battle with me. Extremely coincidentally (he hacked the system, didn't he) the notification for my promotion march pops up and Corbeau just happens to be my next gym leader promotion match. 

I already have a Challenger's Ticket at this point (I have been farming the battle royale a fair bit for money to buy clothes and mega stones) and so the fight begins immediately at Corbeau's little sand garden. Corbeau says that I must be a strong trainer since I know Lysandre. My possible responses? "Hey, I barely even know the guy" and "Acquainted might be a strong word". Corbeau handwaves the semantics. Corbeau then declares his little world-view, that everyone gets covered with grime as they get through life, but the city needs people that are willing to get their hands dirty to clean up the mess. And to protect Lumiose City, Corbeau will climb all the way to rank A. 

Okay, them's fighting words! Corbeau then... spikes his Pokeball like a volley ball. What the heck! That was so unexpected, and funny!

Corbeau opens up with Arbok, which I face off with my Malamar. Not the biggest challenge, and a couple of Psycho Cuts takes care of the Arbok. Corbeau's next Pokemon is... a GYARADOS! That thing is neither Poison, nor Steel, what the heck, Corbeau? I panic and toss out my Meganium, but Gyarados unleashes a BOUNCE. In addition to looking hilarious, it is also a rare STAB flying attack from Gyarados, and with Gyarados repositioning itself a couple of times with Waterfall, it gets to use Bounce again and takes out my Meganium. Oh! I toss out Slowbro, but I just kept fumbling attacks until Gyarados just knocks the tanky Slowbro out. 

My Hawlucha manages to take out the Gyarados's remaining health, but then the next Pokemon Corbeau summons is Roserade. Roserade unleashes a Sludge Bomb, takes advantage of Hawlucha's longer animation for Flying Press to heal with Synthesis, then takes Hawlucha out with a Giga Drain. Chandelure shows up and takes down the Roserade.

And then Corbeau swaps to Scolipede, and I swap to my own Scolipede. Got to end it with a fight like this, right? Especially since I've been kind of using Scolipede a lot in the playthrough? I have already been spoiled that Scolipede has a new Mega, but I don't know what it looks like. Corbeau mega evolves... and holy shit that is an awesome design. Scolipede gains armour, like, it doesn't exactly look metallic, but it looks like it's made up of the same material that Whirlipede is made up of. Its two horns looks badass, the circular armour pieces look great, and... I like this one a lot. It might be my favourite Mega from this game? 

My Scolipede tries its best with Rock Slide and Megahorn, but the damage from Mega Scolipede is a bit too much for my non-Mega Scolipede to stand up to. I did manage to chip off more than half of Corbeau's Mega Scolipede's health before mine gets taken down... and Chandelure hops back out to finish the job with a Flamethrower. 

Corbeau accepts his defeat in stride, even blaming himself for not being able to let his partner Scolipede shine.

Corbeau notes that I have earned his respect, and have climbed up to Rank C. He gives me the TM for Gunk Shot, gives me a fist-bump... and actually offers me a place in the Rust Syndicate. Hell yeah, I would absolutely love to work for someone who understands the coolness of Scolipede! I actually can say yes, but Corbeau plays it off as a joke and tells me that I belong with Team MZ. Boo, boo I say!

As we cut away to Hotel Z, the team discusses Taunie's debt. Naveen notes that it's unlikely that the Rust Syndicate would show up again, not without severely losing face after their leader's defeat at my hands... but even though I dealt with the interest, Taunie still has the original principal to pay. Which... honestly, I've farmed more than 400K just going around the royale, I could very easily pay Taunie's debt and be done with it. Taunie is apologetic while Lida and Naveen try their best to try and get everything sorted as fast as possible.

But then Corbeau shows up at the hotel! Everyone gets shocked at the idea of a guest coming up, then gets terrified when it's the mafia. Lida begs for a debt deadline extension, but Corbeau then nonchalantly says that he's just there to book a room, which is why most people come to a hotel in the first place, right? Taunie helps Corbeau check in, and Corbeau makes a crack at AZ's immense height (extra funny considering he's a short fellow). Corbeau puts his occupation down as 'handyman' (heh), and gets up the lift to Hotel Z's finest room. 

The next day, Corbeau wakes up after a good night's sleep. He asks for the person in charge of housekeeping, which is Taunie, and he compliments the sheer amount of quality that went into cleaning the room and even food for his pet giant centipede. Corbeau pays his fees... and gives Taunie a humongous tip. Which, of course, is the exact amount that she owes the Rust Syndicate. 'Coincidentally', Phillippe shows up right at that moment to pick up Corbeau and the debt from Taunie, which Taunie is, 'coincidentally' able to pay off immediately. Team MZ breathe a sigh of relief, no more sketchy debts and Lida mutters about the convoluted way that thieves and gangsters need to go about doing things. 

And so, our indebted-to-gangsters arc is over, and it's done in a way that I feel is kind of satisfactory and kind of cute. I feel it's still a bit of a disappointment that the side-quests for the Rust Syndicate is a bit boring and it honestly could've been spread out a bit more alongside other distractions... but I do think that taken as an 'episode' (the way the Canari and Ivor/Gwynn stuff are both episodes) it's all right. I think I enjoyed Corbeau a whole ton as well as he balances being intimidating and being actually a nice man-of-the-people. I felt like the dramatic moments just could be done a lot better, is all. 

Oh, and as a bit of an epilogue to this, AZ finally trots up to the team and gives Naveen and Lida Mega Rings and Mega Stones. Right, they've never mega-evolved their partners! But neither did Taunie, even though she has the other two starters and has been shown to have access to Mega Manectric. Lida and Naveen both are surprised because they aren't strong enough, but AZ notes that he should've given these to them earlier. Too right, we're supposed to be helping clear out the rogue, rampaging berserk mega evolutions!

Naveen then lampshades that Lida's partner Staryu still needs to evolve into Starmie yet. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Naveen also notes that Pokemon can only mega evolve if they can't evolve further, which... is an interesting qualification, but not one I would take as pure gospel. The team then goes off for a fight to test out their new mega evolutions... which we'll do next time! And after I do a bunch of sidequests. 

Random Notes:

• 
  I like that the Gengar-haunted house actually has a cute easter egg... a dusty photograph of Professor Laventon, of all people! 
• I've also been slowly filling up my Pokedex by evolving Pokemon. Mostly focusing on Pokemon that can fill up my Mega-Dex. Banette, Pidgeot, Barbaracle, Ampharos... 
• Friendship is also at least relatively simple to do as well in this game, just going and buying coffee four times. It's annoying that it's taking away my money, though. 
• Taunie going around helping people is really more of an informed attribute thing, isn't it? In a normal Pokemon game it's perhaps not so inexcusable,  but this is a game with sidequests and I did like forty of those. Couldn't a couple of them co-star Taunie, showing that she's also helping Lumiose citizens solve their problems? 
• Lysandre's philanthropic activities didn't come out of nowhere; he actually was noted to be that in XY. We just never see him do it, and it's really only mentioned in Malva's holo-news thing that you could (and I did) go through the entire game without really seeing. 
• More random XY references: Diantha is mentioned to be focusing on her acting career. Yeah, not really making a case of you being a cool champion, yeah? Cynthia and Lance and Leon were going around fixing problems in their respective regions...
• You know what would have been cool and thematic? If the SBC actually appeared as NPC quest-givers earlier in the game, replacing some of the bland side-quest 'battle me, I'll show you barrier moves' or whatever. 
• Other fun stuff in Corbeau's office include an Overqwil-themed giant vase, a lucky (Hisuian?) Sneasel statue, and a bronze mirror shaped like a Bronzor. It actually is the model for Bronzor just placed on a table, and notably Bronzor isn't even in this game! 
• I'm at rank C, and if we count Vinnie as the first 'proper' rank-up match against a non-generic model, then we actually have had a couple of 'gym leaders', haven't we? Vinnie, then Canari, then  Ivor, and now Corbeau? Depending on how they handle rank A, I have maybe two or three more named characters to fight, leading the total to a 'named' batch of gym leaders to be around 6-7... but that number can easily expand depending on whether we count the sidekicks (Tarragon, Gwynn and Phillippe) or the first three or four generic rank-up matches. 
• Corbeau tells me to have all my Pokemon learn Gunk Shot. Considering the Rust Syndicate wants to make the city clean, I'm not sure a move that shoots out garbage is the best thing to be giving out to people there, Corbeau... 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 18: Sewer Saunas, Piranha Movies, and Rogue Barnacles

Last we left off, Taunie is heavily in debt and has dragged the rest of us into the sad world of being indebted to gangsters! But Rogue Mega Evolutions are threatening the city. 

First up is the brand-new mega evolution, Barbaracle... and I must admit, the positioning of the quest marker made me spend way, way too much time trying to figure out how to get into the closed-off area. To make things worse, there are two massive scaffolding puzzles and I thought I had to do something with it and Roto-Glide to get around and find a way to climb around the walls. 

That is most certainly not the way the game designers wanted me to do it. Turns out that all I have to do is to look for a sewer-like exit near the Wild Zone, and just walk up maybe twenty steps to where the Barbaracle and Lida are waiting. 

Lida rather helpfully informs me that Mega Barbaracle will transform into a Rock and Fighting type. Yay! New type changes! I have my Mega Meganium ready to fight, and the battle begins... and... I don't know what I expected from Mega Barbaracle, but it's certainly not this! It does make sense, though, in the theme of Mega Evolutions being exaggerated versions of themselves. But Mega Barbaracle's body has expanded, it's got way more tentacles -- or more accurately, additional goose barnacles -- and the general result makes it look like a crazy octopus alien. Except it's a giant cluster of barnacles! There is definitely some heavy Sentai/Ultraman kaiju vibe to it, too. 

Mega Barbaracle's fight is intensely chaotic. It starts off with just shooting out water pulses or something, not too hard... but then it starts flash-stepping and teleporting right in front of me, and unleashes gigantic barrages of ORA ORA ORA punches. I don't know what move this is in the game, but it actually reminds me of the Fighting-type Z-move that summons a whole ton of punches! Close Combat, I guess? It's quite awesome.

Honestly, the biggest unexpected thing is just how utterly fast Mega Barbaracle is. I wouldn't peg Barbaracle as a fast-looking Pokemon, but in this game, at least, it's just blitzing all over the place like a Bleach character. It also summons Rock Slide from the sky, which is terrifying. Mega Barbaracle does feel extremely fragile, or it might just be that my Mega Meganium really is a bad counter with her Giga Drain and Dazzling Gleam attacks, but we won rather quickly. I was actually rather surprised at how fast Meganium was carving through Mega Barbaracle's health pool.

After this scene, we get another shot of Zygarde showing up and howling, before L appears and says some more of his ominous stuff about the protection of Lumiose City and the Rogue Mega Evolved Pokemon. He notes that the incidents of Rogue Mega Evolution seems to have something to do with the Prism Tower renovations. I mean, it's kind of what's expected from Pokemon at this point, right? The Mega Corporation is the real evil? L notes that Zygarde is an entity that's egging him on to investigate all of this for the betterment of Lumiose City -- and that it ties to his goal of a more beautiful city, and therefore a more beautiful world. 

I mean, sure, Lysandre. You still tried to nuke France with the powers of the god of death for a beautiful world, you muppet. 

I go for the Ampharos next, and Naveen is there complaining that the holovator leading to the top of the building where Ampharos is isn't working. Lurking from the side of a nearby building is... Gwynn! I like Gwynn! She's not really good at hiding, and most certainly not when a human-sized Chandelure is also peeking from the side of the building behind her.

Gwynn is extremely rude to Naveen, telling him to be quiet several times during the conversation. Gwynn wants to fight me as a revenge for her earlier defeat. She's actually changed her team a bit, adding a Gengar to her original team. We have a proper Mega Chandelure vs Mega Chandelure showdown! I think either one of our Chandlures would've one-shotted the other, but I quick-drawed her with Shadow Ball. 

Turns out that Gwynn wanted to avenge Canari more than her own defeat, leading Naveen to realize who she was -- she was in the Quiz Whiz contest or whatever. So turns out that Gwynn's hostility was more because of Naveen's status as a huge Canari fan, and she's... she's not having that. She gets a bit confrontational with Naveen, before walking up to the Holovator and doing a whole deal where she pretends it's cursed... but then tells her Chandelure to fix the problem, driving away a Phantump that was haunting the holovator. 

Okay? Was a bit weird, but it was nice to see Gwynn back again. I climb up the rooftop and fight the Mega Ampharos, and... there's really not a whole ton that I find to be special here. I don't have anything particularly good against either Electric or Dragon -- my only anti-Dragon measure is Slowbro's Ice Beam, but would get wrecked by Mega Ampharos's electric attacks. Ampharos's field attacks aren't the most impressive, really, it's just rather easily telegraphed thunderbolts coming down from the sky or rising from the ground. Eh. 

After taking out Mega Ampharos, Emma shows up! I like that these Rogue Mega Evolutions are starting to involve more of the secondary cast. Emma just notes that she hasn't been particularly lucky or fruitful in finding either Zygarde or L, although she suspects L is actually evil. 

_____________________________________________

And up next is a bit more of a side-quest batch! First up is a director, who is filming a scene near the docks... but then realizes that I'm a trainer and ropes me into helping out. He wants to catch footage of the wild Pokemon within a city... but he's also terrified of filming a real wild Pokemon. They are dangerous and scary! The script calls for a Carvanha, and he asks me to bring him one. 

I do, of course, and as I let my Carvanha out in the canal... she refuses to attack or pretend to attack the actors. Oh no! Is the Parisian canal water getting to you, Carvanha? The actors tell the director that they studied up on the Pokemon, and turns out that Carvanha is actually very timid when alone, away from their pack. This leads the director to get surprised... before retooling the movie to feature a friendly Carvanha who is afraid of humans instead. 

...I didn't actually know that about Carvanha! I actually learn something new about an older Pokemon!

I then find Herup in the sewers near Wild Zone 5. I actually discover him muttering about profiting from some entrepreneurship plans. Herup and his Camerupt reveals that this is another gateway to the Sewers, unlocking another portion of the Sewers we visited to find Gwynn. And a very convenient teleport point that makes me not need to look for where the frozen Clawitzer statue is! 

Herup walks down to the humid and secluded room in the sewers, boasting that it's the perfect room. He then fights me with Camerupt, wanting to get it warm and fired up. And Herup reveals his plan... CAMERUPT SAUNA! He wants to use the rather airproof nature of the sewer room and the superheated body of Camerupt to create the perfectly heated water vapour. 

...other than the fact that this is sewer water, you absolute muppet. There's a reason why sauna facilities aren't located in the sewer. Not to mention all the potential public property discussion. 

My character doesn't point out the fact that this is a SEWER, but rather the fact that it's hard for people to reach this location. Yeah, sure. Herup is disappointed, but then a Scraggy, a Noibat and a Patrat show up. they like the warmth, which actually kind of makes sense for the lizard-based Scraggy in particular. Herup is reinvigorated and is happy to make the sewer sauna for the sewer Pokemon. I mean... it's still breaking public property and you're not going to profit from the Scraggys and Noibats, but whatever makes you happy, Mr. Herup! I kind of expected a bit more from you when I discovered you earlier in the game, not going to lie. 

Another neat quest is a Canari fan called Anguil, who has been training up some Eelektrik, trying to figure out which one is the strongest to evolve into Eelektross. I fight him and beat up all three of his Eelektrik, and he is about to decide on who to evolve... until Mani,  the 'main' fan from that part of the quest, shows up and yells at Anguil to not be a fool. Canari, after all, didn't evolve the strongest Tynamo she could find, but rather raised a weak Tynamo into an exceptionally strong Eelektross. Even the three Eelektrik had a surprised animation at that! And... it's actually quite heartwarming as the two Canari fans run off to train, followed by the three Eelektrik following behind. 

Finally, we've got a reunion with Dora, the lady who was the companion of the Rogue Hawlucha. She has gone back up on the roof to look for her friend. Apparently the formerly Rogue Hawlucha is depressed and despondent... because it wants a rematch! It's a nice little coda to that quest. I fight the Hawlucha with my own, which is both an Alpha and Mega Evolved. I crush the Hawlucha with a Flying Press, but the point for him is not to win -- it's to fight with his own full might. 

Inspired by this, Dora decides to adopt the Rogue Hawlucha as her own partner, wanting to learn everything there is to know about Pokemon battling to better support Hawlucha. Aww, that's kind of a sweet way for this sidequest to end. 

And finally-finally, I explore the two Wild Zones. Wild Zone 14 is a factory-looking location, not too dissimilar to the place where the Quiz Whiz contest took place. It's mainly patrolled by Excadrills and Drillburs, but bursting out from the sand are large Onix, and some Aron and Lairon are also around. Rather interestingly, Helioptile show up here in the morning, and are a huge pain to catch with the Aron and Drillbur family being exceptionally hostile. 

Wild Zone 15, on the other hand, is insanely hostile. The two poster boys of super-aggressive bug monsters, Beedrill and Scolipede, patrol this area and are as hostile as their anime counterparts. Also in this area are Pumpkaboos and a particularly angry Alpha Gourgeist. Not as cool as zone 13, I feel, but I think that's because I was low-key hoping for a full Halloween-themed location for Pumpkaboo. 

Random Notes:

• More sidequests that don't make the cut for me properly describing them:
  
• An overacting dude who yells 'feel the energy' a lot, and has a team... based on the move Focus Energy? Out of all the moves to make a quest around, this isn't it, sorry. The overacting jokes also kind of fall flat, and I wonder if there's a better pun in the original Japanese script. 
  
• A far more interesting move-based side-quest is a woman who insists that Detect is better than Protect, because it might do the same thing but it's cooler. In ZA, I do feel like Detect actually activates the second you hit the button, while there's a bit of animation with Protect. So you're cool, Detect Girl. 
• Another broken holovator, but this time I need to hit it with a physical move to get it up and running. A bit late for the physical/special split. This was was kind of cute because it's one of Ivor's muscle-brained minions that tell that to me, and insists that percussive maintenance is the only way to fix machines. 
• Mega contacts lady asks me to bring her Mega Medicham and fight her with that. Same old, same old, but she unlocks some rather interesting contact lenses, letting my eyes have the colours patterned after the Poke Ball, the 'cyberspace' box, and pure lifeless void. Mmmkay! 
• I've been reading the dex entries. Most of them are honestly quite boring, but Mega Chandelure's actually got one eye that has turned purple, and its dex entry points this out -- that eye is connected between this world and the afterlife. Cool! 
• I've also been slowly evolving a bunch of my Pokemon in the box. Gallade, Venusaur, Sylveon, Lucario, Pidgeot...
• The pokedex still differentiates between the different sizes of Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist despite all Pokemon having size differences. In real life that's because the different Pumpkaboo sizes have incrementally different stats, which justifies them as separate forms. The Pokedex insists that this is because 'the varieties of Pumpkaboo vary not only in size, but also in the sized of the souls they collect', excuse me,  how do you measure- I mean- uh- okay. Sure. Fine. 
• One of the random NPC's insists that she wants to know what "you are not the one" means. That has been one of the creepier easter eggs in Pokemon XY that everyone thought was going to lead to something, some secret encounter or a foreshadowing to a new game... but never really led anywhere. I guess them making fun of it is the final nail in the coffin, then. 
• A bit less of an orphaned joke is a tourist who wonders if he should go to Alola to get a 'Strange Souvenir'. The Strange Souvenir is a weird key item in Pokemon XY whose only usage was to foreshadow Alola in Generation VII. That's cute. 
• A bunch more easter eggs of older characters include the revelation that Diantha stepped down as champion to pursue her acting career; and Siebold also left the Elite Four to pursue his cooking career. Man, with Clemont also presumable MIA, ain't nobody in Kalos taking their duties seriously.