Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 46: Alpha and Omega

After grinding, after miserable, miserable grinding, Corbeau finally calls me to Centrico Plaza, where we meet Grisham and Griselle at the cafe truck. Griselle makes a bit of a crack that Corbeau only orders drip coffee, as if they've suddenly gone to penny-pinching for some reason. Corbeau ignores this barb, but thanks me for helping to protect Lumiose City -- his city -- as he gestures at Prism Tower. I actually do like this scene a bit; it helps to show why Corbeau is taking the role of the point-man for this endeavour. "The things that need doing are sometimes the hardest to do."

Corbeau tells me that I need to get to the Ruby and Sapphire Distortion. A bit on the nose there, but okay. The Rust Syndicate has been researching recipes... and they find out that the ingredient they need is Hoennian Salt. Which turns out Grisham has. Grisham is a bit confused how they know about his secret ingredient, but it's a bit of a silly question. They're the mafia! Of course they know everything about everyone. It is a bit silly as well that apparently the usage of Hoennian Salt (which doesn't even sound that impressive) is 'leverage'. 

With a goofy grin as he does a pose, the Rust Syndicate claims that they didn't even do any digging or snooping around for this information; they figured out the secret ingredient due to Phillippe's palate. That's... that's cute, actually. 

Ansha then gives me a list of flavours, similar to the Darkrai donut, that I need to create the 'Alpha Old-Fashioned Donut' and 'Omega Old-Fashioned Donut'. Which, of course leads me to go and do a bunch more grinding in hyperspace because I just don't have enough high-level berries, because the game wants me to spend the high-value berrieds to create high-value donuts to go and do the mega evolution rifts so I can grind points and arrrrrghhghghghghg. 

Anyway, I got the Groudon donut done first. It looks like an omega sign. Wonderful. 

Entering the Ruby Distortion, we enter a subterranean cave with massive ruby-coloured crystals. The set design for this is phenomenal, with a gigantic lava pool set up like an omega symbol, a massive stalagtite of rubies pointing down, lava waterfalls, and Groudon sealed in a statue-like form at the end. It looks amazing. But even more amazing is if I look up, and instead of a ceiling, it's an impossible reversal, where water is flowing upwards to a different chamber... the Sapphire Distortion. Kyogre's lair! See, this is the kind of psychedelic, weird hyperspace locations I'd rather explore, not just muted glitchy Lumiose. 

Groudon then awakens, cracking open from its statue-like prison, and we get a two-parter fight. First, against regular Groudon, and again against Primal Groudon. After all the grinding, though, I just don't have the energy to really pay attention to thsi fight. Groudon sure uses some of his iconic moves, like his signature Precipice Blades, and some Earth Powers and Solar Beams. Abilities don't exist in Legends ZA, but the raid Primal Groudon still has an aura that prevents Water-types, something that Taunie panics about. 

I primarily rely on Mega Zygarde, because ironically Primal Groudon is weak to its own Ground-typing. 

Groudon falls and I also get the Red Orb, which allows Groudon to Primal-revert any time it's in battle. Which is similar to Complete Form Zygarde in this game, where they can actually just stay in these super forms without a timer essentially for the duration of a whole battle royale or a distortion. The game gives a cutsccene where Corbeau asks Korrina about the difference about Primal Reversion and Mega Stone, but we already know that from ORAS. 

Next up is Kyogre, whose rift is in Wild Zone 5. Again, the location is wonderfully rendered. Perhaps a bit less impressive than the glowing effects of Groudon's magma, but the water pools being arranged like an alpha sign, the waterfalls, and the massive crystal... and just like Groudon, Kyogre is in a statue-like form at the end of the dungeon. And Groudon's lava location is, of course, on top of this. 

Again, the raid is in two parts. Kyogre, and then Primal Kyogre. Kyogre uses a combination of Water and Electric-type moves, and I absolutely love how Origin Pulse is portrayed in this game. Primal Kyogre actually has the little orbs that shoots the pulses appear and start pointing in different directions as it spins around, like a proper dang video game boss fight. I appreciate that. 

We beat Groudon and Kyogre, and captured them, the two legendary Pokemon of Hoenn... but our primary target, or rather, Ansha's primary target, is Rayquaza. After some offscreen study of the Red Orb and Blue Orb, we bring in Holo-Mable, who insists that she is an 'acting director', not a 'professor'. Corbeau, catty little asshole that he is, actually keeps calling Mable as 'Professor' throughout the whole conversation. What a jackass! 

Mable's conclusion is quite nonsensical, even by the standards of this franchise. Turns out that all the mega dimension energy that seeped into Darkrai isn't just subconscious thoughts, but also dreams. And this means that to get Rayquaza, we need to "actualize a related aspect of the subconscious as a basis". Or, as Mable dumbs it down for us: You. Have. To. Wish. Really. Hard. 

It is kind of dumb, isn't it? Pokemon has never been 'hard' sci-fi, never by a long shot. But it always has some sort of quasi-logical explanation to its plotlines, usually related to legendary Pokemon powers. This really felt like a bullshit handwave, even moreso than the Mega Donut. Why we can bring the Pokemon, even legendary Pokemon, out of this dream space is also never explained properly. 

Corbeau and Mable trade more barbs, before we return to Hotel Z. We recap the reest of the team about what we've learned, and we gather on the rooftop of the hotel. Ansha then gives some backstory that ties together the plotlines of Pokemon XY and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, which I appreciate. We also have some strange traditional drawings of Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, which I really love:

It's very storybook-y, and such a simultaneously goofy but historic depiction of the Hoenn legend.

In this 'Primal Age', the world overflowed with natural energy. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre clashed, empowered by their respective orbs, and they fought over the world's natural energy, with every roar and attack causing the world to shake and change. They fought for 20 days, warping the world around them until the ancient Draconid People wished for Rayquaza to descend and save them from destruction. 

And Rayquaza descended from the heavens in its powerful form, a mega evolved form, scaring the two into submission. Interestingly, the artwork also depicts a Little Prince looking trainer with green hair standing on top of Rayqauaza's head. The rest of the story is what we know, Mega Rayquaza uses its power to subdue the weather-manipulation powers of the other two, driving them away to the depths where they slumber. Ansha has read this story with her mother a lot, and was inspired by the stories of Rayquaza and the Draconids. 

After this story (which is a nice recap of the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald lore), Korrina then explains that Rayquaza has a 'mikado organ' that has the same power as a Mega Stone. You... you can say that Rayquaza swallowed the Mega Stone, Korrina. We all know what happened.

All this conversation, and all this wishing... leads to another massive rift opening above Prism Tower. Phillippe shows up and gives us another 50K point grind to get enough data to understand the sigh donut recipe required or whatever... 

Some grinding later, and we get another meeting with Corbeau and Phillippe, and I'm not saying that Legends ZA is some kind of Shakespearian masterpiece, but it really does show that the writers really didn't put any thought at all to any of these dialogues. The characterization of characters like Corbeau really get reduced to 'lol serious character saying silly things', which is only funny in small increments and just feels out-of-character when repeated so many times. The base story gives the side characters dialogue that at least tied to their personalities, but I took screenshots of their dialogue to see what I can say about them and find that none of them mattered at all. Corbeau gives us some Arboliva Oil, which is the secret ingredient to the donut with nonsense requirements, so I had to grind even more bullshit for the specific berries. 

Anyway, we open up a rift and end up in Hyperspace Sky Pillar, an excellent recreation of the Sky Pillar from the 3DS games. They even have the cute, boxy, square-shaped staircase that would've led down to the rest of the dungeon in the older games! Ah, if only this location was actually explorable, and that some of the hyperspace grinding would be actually tied to a proper, engaging location...

And then like a god, Rayquaza flies down from the sky in a straight line down, glowing green and slamming down and roaring before us. The cutscenes and the music and the environment, at least, are awesome. Rayquaza unleashes hyper beams, draco meteors, hurricanes, and rapid-fire outrage slashes, and my first team to face him had pokemon like Mega Slowbro, Kyogre and an ice-beaming Mewtwo among them.

Turns out that this was a mistake. Rayquaza mega evolves, and wraps itself in a barrier of wind that neutralizes all Flying-type weaknesses. Including Ice. I... this was part of Delta Stream's effects, and with Primal Groudon also importing its regular-game immunity, I didn't know why I didn't prepare for it. So I bow out gracefully from the mega fight, and bring in a small army of fairies. Xerneas, Diancie and Meganium take central stage now, and I just bombard Mega Rayquaza with Moonblasts and Dazzling Gleams while avoiding the attacks.  

And you know what? Credit where credit is due. Fighting Mega Rayquaza as it shoots around hyper beams and draco meteors, with the awesome music in the background, on top of Sky Pillar with the night sky around? That's awesome. I'm not going to let my utter disregard about the rest of the DLC sully that. 

We return to Hotel Z, where I let Rayquaza out on the rooftop and Ansha is quite delighted (if shy) to meet such a fine Pokemon. I'm supposed to give it to her, but the conversation goes into Ansha realizing that the adventure is over and she would have to hang up her apron as a donut chef. The older members of Team MZ basically then hype her up, telling her that she could continue making donuts while the rest of Team MZ deal with Hyperspace Distortions. In perhaps the one good line of conversation in this whole cutscene, Korrina asks Ansha why she's so obsessed with giving Rayquaza to her mother, leading Ansha into a bit of an introspection of 'what I would do after this', and Korrina tells Ansha that she has a better gift to give to Diantha... stories, memories, and a sign that as a child, she has matured. 

Korrina also casually tells Ansha that Jacinthe and Diantha already know that she's been hanging out in Hotel MZ all this while, and Ansha thanks Rayquaza and asks me to take care of Rayquaza until she becomes a Pokemon trainer. Korrina promises to take Ansha under her wing, and we get a short epilogue of Ansha drawing her and Diantha meeting and how she gave Diantha the gift of donuts and stories. 

Neat storyline. I would've cared a lot more if it wasn't stretched out like a rubber band across so much grinding and pointless dialogue. Was there a reason that this had to be a whole post-game to the DLC, instead of incorporated as the 'storyline' boss fights leading up to the Darkrai mission? It's a bit silly, really. It's not even the low stakes and the general wifty-wafty vibe of Ansha as a character, it's just how it was presented as a story in general. 

Anyway, there are still some more post-post-game to the DLC, which is ridiculous that this is the state of video games nowadays. I admit I wouldn't be so frustrated without the grinding and I would just be happy that I got content, but there's a reason why these reviews are a bit more spread out. 

Random Notes:

• The music, by the way, is amazing. We get a great remix of the themes from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire for the Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza fights, and the Mega Rayquaza battle even gets a nice remix with the Team MZ battle theme. No complaints at all about the battle themes, and the boss fight environments. 
• There was a bit of a funny scene where Corbeau shuts Phillippe's boasting down and tells him to be humble because they don't want to sound like they want a 'pat in the back', but Phillippe turns it around to a compliment about Corbeau's sleepless nights researching the distortions. Aw, these two. 
  
• Corbeau: "What kind of an organization are we these days... a civic think tank?" and when we call Corbeau out that he's nice, "Once folks are in our debt, we can put them to work for free... helping to shape Lumiose just the way we want it." I like them. 
• "Wait, so we're using [Arboliva Oil] because it's green?" "Sure, no sense making it complicated." Really, the writers could at least try and make these plot coupons and devices actually matter, you know? 
• Seriously, Korrina mentions one sentence about being a Mega Evolution successor witnessing the 'original' Mega Evolution. And that's it. That's the sum of her characterization. What's the point of bringing back older characters if you're not going to do anything with them? 
• And unlike the mega evolution raids earlier in the DLC, Rayquaza does not allow you to jump in partway through the battle if you fail, which I appreciate. The Rayquaza/Mega Rayquaza fight is well-designed enough that I don't mind doing it properly without mistakes, unlike some of the more bullshit raids that they had earlier in the game. 
• I catch Rayquaza in a Friend Ball, which is a ball that really fits his colouration, doesn't it? I think we need a lot of newer balls in general... was the last ball to enter the mainline games really the Beast Ball from ORAS? 

Reviewing Monsters: Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree, Part 2

As I continue my little sojourn through the Lands of Shadow, it's a nice feeling to be back like when I was first exploring the original Lands Between. A lot of castles, a lot of soldier camps, and trying to piece together the context of what's going on. In this case, we know -- at least we assume we know -- that the land was torn in a horrible, purging war between the forces of one of Marika's demigod children, Messmer the Impaler, against the local people called the Hornsent. But the forces of Messmer seem to be just as trapped as the people they were sent down to hunt. 

And there's the matter of Miquella the Kind, allegedly the kindest demigod in all of the Lands Between, who has been traveling through the Lands of Shadow and 'leaving pieces of his flesh' in various locations. 

Not much is really told, just built up, as I explore a lot of the earlier areas, clear out a couple of castles and tombs, and avoid giant furnace golems. Next up in the dungeons is Castle Ensis, which felt a bit shorter than the other legacy dungeons, although it was a bit surprising to see a lot of Raya Lucarian enemies here, scaled up to DLC scaling. 

I do have a little quibble about the way Shadow of the Erdtree's sidequest systems are designed versus the base game, though. One of the most major events that happen, the breaking of a Great Rune, happens when I... get too close to a big, imposing and very visually 'get here, it's cool' castle. There is no NPC or any lines of dialogue warning me that this was going to change anything. In the base game, as convoluted as it can be, a lot of the major changes and 'NPC acceleration' checkpoints happen when you kill certain bosses -- Radahn, Morgott, or activating the Forge of the Giants. Actions that have a significant amount of buildup by context or by the sheer fact that you're taking out a major demigod. Walking up a castle? Really? I don't think I've locked myself out of too many side-quests, looking at the guide, but that also made me, y'know, look at a guide and see just how terribly someone would really screw this up without even meaning to.

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Spirit Eel

Look at these guys.  Look at these guys! These things are adorable little tube-like entities that sprout out of the ground, rendered in transparency the same way that ghosts or Spirit Jellyfishes are. They've got adorable little dot-faces and dot-mouths that people have compared to the Kodamas of Princess Mononoke fame. What are they? The internal files call them 'Rei Chinanago', or spirit eel, which brings to mind very specifically garden eels. I've seen many of these garden eels while diving, and indeed, these tiny eels hide with half of their bodies buried underground, and their head just hanging up and bobbing around. It is that scene, scaled up to several dozen times the scale, and given adorable human faces and tiny, almost negligible human arms. 

The Spirit Eels, by the way, are completely harmless, similar to the Jellyfishes. They don't drop anything and they don't guard anything, so there's not even a reason to attack them. But if you do, their heads turn red similar to the Spirit Jellyfishes. At that point, they can inflate their angry red heads and slam them down on you like a club... or the more interesting one that I captured here in a screenshot, vomiting out strange tendrils of thread that much of the fandom has collectively identified as being similar to a sea cucumber's defense mechanism of vomiting out its own digestive tracts to distract an enemy -- a factor that was somewhat recently adapted into the Pokemon called Pyukumuku.

One of the absolutely most distinctive creatures to come from the DLC, it's no wonder that they show up in all of the loadscreens and promotional artwork. It is also honestly quite surprising and refreshing that they're just there to make the world a bit weirder and creepier. I feel the best video game worlds do that -- you don't need to devote half your bestiary to non-hostile creatures, but having one or two that isn't just a sheep or a dog does help to sell the impression of a world that's not obviously meant to have every single creature there have stat blocks for a player to kill.  

Black Knight

More humanoid enemies, the Black Knights seem to be Messmer's Army's equivalent to enemies in the base game like the Crucible or Banished Knights -- far better-armoured knights with unique tricks and weapons. In the Black Knight's case, they wield a big, fuck-off giant hammer and a very distinctive gold-rimmed shield. They can also cast certain Crucible spells, which makes me wonder if these are the 'modernized' or 'militiarized' version of the Crucible Knights -- which were always noted to be relics of a more bygone age. Or more likely, these were former Crucible Knight that were press-ganged and forced to serve under this 'away' army, because a lot of hints and dialogue we can find note that Messmer's Army is made up of the undesirables of the Lands Between that were sent away, out of sight, to fight a most heinous war, and was eventually also discarded when Queen Marika cast the spell that cut off the Land of Shadow from the Lands Between. 

Bloodfiend 

These big, burly ogre-like guys are another non-human enemy, but they're not that much terribly interesting than the knights. I do like their little squished-up rat faces, but they're otherwise just an enemy themed around the 'Bloodboon' rituals that were previously only associated with Mohg's Cult of Blood. Item descriptions tell us that the Bloodfiends had been a tribe that also found a 'twisted deity', presumably the same Formless Mother that Mohg worships, and in turn was twisted into these hulking rat-people that casts blood spells. 

I do find it neatly gruesome that some Bloodfields actually hold the dismembered arms of their kin -- and you, too, can loot the Bloodfiend's Arm as a weapon! Not the most exciting enemy, but a nice little visual and thematic difference from the Omens and Albinaurics we've been seeing a lot in the base game. Wonder if they'll actually have a bigger role or sub-area later on? 

Logur the Beast Claw

Logur, the Beast Claw, is just... some naked human with one of the new weapon types, the 'Beast Claw' weapon type. It's kind of cute, I suppose, that most of the new weapon types gets a named NPC to kind of introduce them to you. Logur is a rather surprising reference to Wolverine/Logan of Marvel comics fame, with the hair, the claw weapons, and his iconic half-naked escape from the Weapon X facility. There's not much else to note about Logur other than the really jump-scaring bird screech he makes when we wander into his territory. Unlike Logan, Logur's bark is definitely much worse than his bite. 

Knight of the Solitary Gaol

We've got more gaols in the Lands of Shadow, and one of them is guarded by the Knight of the Solitary Gaol, an asshole who wields a repeat-fire, infinite-ammo crossbow that makes the boss fight against him particularly annoying due to the small, square room it happens in. What little information we can find about him note that the mausoleums in the Lands of Shadow -- again, a land patterned and themed upon death -- have mausoleums specifically for great warriors "who lost their names, or their hearts". Which is apparently literal, because the Knights of the Solitary Gaol were an order who, through a secret rite, 'relinquished their hearts for heightened battle prowess'. The idea that this order might be connected to the Mausoleum Knights from the base game (who sacrificed their heads to become wandering security guards devoted to the mausoleums they guard) is intriguing, but on the other hand the Mausoleum Knights become teleporting ghost guards. This guy just has a minigun crossbow, that kind of ruins the whole vibe of a warrior who sacrificed his life for power. 

Dryleaf Dane

Technically an NPC who has a questline, I do fight Dryleaf Dane. He just sits in a corner of the world, not saying anything, unless you manage to find some instructions from a different NPC to to do a certain kung-fu-fight pose in front of him because 'no words are needed'. That's... that's kind of cute despite the ridiculous way you get around this. Defeating Dryleaf Dane earns you the respect of this kung fu master, and gives you a weapon that allows you to punch-and-kick enemies to the death instead of just utilizing weapons attached to your arms. For that alone, I find it funny. 

Moonrithyll, Carian Knight

While the exterior parts of Castle Ensis is filled with your regular gaggle of Messmer Soldiers and Black Knights, going a bit deeper shows some surprising returning enemies -- the stone-slab-headed mages of Raya Lucaria! Or the Carian Royal Family! We've got other Caria-related enemies like Troll Knights and Noble Sorcerers as well. Guarding the pathway to the boss chamber is Moonrithyll, Carian Knight, who's basically a similar-looking enemy to Moongrum, Carian Knight, who had guarded Queen Rennala. And that's because the boss is...

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight

RELLANA, Twin Moon Knight, twin sister of Queen Rennala! If the very similar-sounding names and the convoluted Game of Thrones-y royal family tree confuses you, this lady seems to be a cheeky joke by the developers. Yes, just like how some of the connections in the game are a bit ambiguous, turns out that Queen Rennala had a twin sister all along!

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy her boss fight. She had zero dialogue, which I thought was doing her dirty -- if the nameless lion dancers got a whole cutscene to build them up, surely Rennala could have had a badass line or two, right? She has one of the most kickass sounding boss OST's in the game with a really cool violin solo, though, and I found her hectic fight so fun. During her first phase, she just fights with her twin swords coupled with souped-up versions of Carian Magics. Her sword extending to a gigantic size to slash across the entire battlefield, summoning magical flying swords around her... 

But on phase two, she ignites her twin swords into fire and ice. Such a simple thing, such a simple visual, but it looks cool, isn't it? She starts casting all sorts of fancy fire and ice spells, and near the end of her health she flies up, summons twin moons, and chucks them down onto the ground. And a third, unexpected explosion when Rellana herself slams down and makes a groundpound. I love the fact that the 'Twin Moon' isn't just a wink-wink nod at Rellana being a 'twin' with a character very associated with the moons, but part of her ultimate attack as well. 

Very cool boss fight, even if I really wished we had learned more about her as a character. Item descriptions from stuff we got after beating her tells us that she is disavowed her birthright (which is probably why she's 'scrubbed from history' or something) and chose to stand at Messmer's side, and it's implied that she did it out of unrequited love. Okay! 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 45: Hyper Mega Berry Grinding Guhhhhhhh

Grinding is bullshit in this game. The 'post-game' for the Mega Dimensions DLC requires you to grind a whole ton of points to get to Groudon and Kyogre, and then even more points after that to get to Rayquaza, and god it is so frustrating when I don't even feel like I'm playing Pokemon as I grind, do you know what I mean? Like, at least interacting with the world via side-quests keeps me a bit more engaged, but this isn't even running around catching Pokemon or battling, which are the two parts that made me roll my eyes in the original non-DLC parts of the game, but at least it's something. 

I really, really like Legends ZA, despite its flaws. 

I do not like Mega Dimensions. 

Why am I still playing? Honestly, completionism, and to finish writing it for this blog. Normally, I don't even mind 'grindy' games. They let me do something quasi-mindless while I listen to a podcast or hop on a call or something, like a more elaborate fidget spinner toy. But the Mega Dimensions grind for berries and all that bullshit is just so bad. Sure, go for the mega raids, but I don't want to repeat the same old raids I've done before, and the scaling tends to be quite bullshit too. 

Anyway, this section is basically a nice little archive for all of the side-quests I did throughout the Groudon/Kyogre/Rayquaza grind. 

I eventually grinded enough Infinite Z-A fights to get to the fabled 15th reward match. And it is against Taunie! She fights me, but something is a bit off when she doesn't immediately evolve her Emboar, and it was actually taken down without evolving. She then tosses out AZ's Floette! And Floette evolves into Mega Floette! That was acutally unexpected and I cackled a bit when that twist happened. 

After beating her, Taunie talks a bit about how glad the is to meet me, and the rest of Team MZ... but then Emma shows up and begins to talk to Taunie, triggering a bit of a surprise. We then go to Quasartico Inc, where it is revealed that... Emma has finally found the person that Taunie came to Lumiose City to find. And that person is... President Jett! Turns out that President Jett is Taunie's grandmother, dun dun dunnnn! Vinnie and I have a huge expression of shock. 

Jett had given the jacket to her daughter, but the two of them became estranged over time. We get the revelation that Taunie's mother developed holographic technology, and disagreed with Jett over how Quasartico Inc should be ran. Eventually Taunie's mother left, never spoke to Jett again, and fell into Team Flare. Did... did we know that? I don't think we know that. But Taunie's mom is the scientist behind the creation of the hologram technology that Team Flare (and now Quasartico/Lumiose) uses.

Taunie doesn't understand fully the circumstances of her mother's work, but they take some solace in that this is another path of interesction, a theme that has been mentioned several times throughout the base game, and Taunie's mom's research eventually led to the creation of something nicer like the Wild Zone. The dialogue is ambiguous on where they come from, with Taunie noting that she had to 'go to some faraway region to try and rest', and that's where she passed away. Taunie and Jett's family are also not natively Kalosian (or Lumiosian, at least) which ended up complicating Taunie's search. 

Taunie tells Jett something that her mother left with her, that even though Jett and her walked different paths, they had so much in common, and knowing that made her life feel fuller. Jett regrets not reaching out to her daughter before her passing. 

Jett then moves the conversation to her stepping down as Quasartico Inc's president, because of her part in concealing the truth about Ange from the public. She decides to keep it 'in family' (nepotism, yay!) and give it to... Taunie? Who has experience 'being a leader'...? I'm sorry, I like Taunie but she is having problems leading four people, and has had a history of entering ambiguous debts with the mafia. I hardly think she is qualified to run an urban redevelopment company. But oh well. 

(This bit, by the way, is spoiled a bit by some lines in the DLC where Naveen and Lida discuss that Taunie is 'busy with Quasartico'. It doesn't say that she's the CEO or anything, I don't think, but it was still a spoiler nonetheless.)

Taunie muses about how many people she ccan help with this new position and decides to accept. And in honour of that, and to help me keep Lumiose City safe, Taunie decides to leave AZ's Floette with me, and give me the Floettite. Okay! Yay! Umbilial cord flower get! 

That's a nice bit of epilogue for the main story, which I did appreciate for sure.

Next, let's go through the second round of 'hyperspace battles'. It's a bit weird because the game's not really clear when some of the people we meet here are the 'real' people, when some of them are and some of them aren't, or whatever... the quests themselves are just double battles with the same old parties, but I need to eat like a minimum of a 4* donut to steamroll them. In quick discussion:

• Vinnnie brings me to a meeting with Phillippe and Corbeau. This is actually a rather cool sequene where it starts off as a tense business negotiation, because Corbeau and Phillippe claim that Quasartico isn't paying them enough and that the risks aren't quite what they estimated when the contracts were drawn. Vinnie needs buy-in from all the stakeholders to give out a cash bonus... but the conversation actually seemed to go well until we get some handwave to get a pokemon battle. 
  
• 
  Ivor and Lebanne are fighting in Hyperspace, which is actually a nice follow-up to the hints of them having a history. Lebanne claims that she pursues strength only for herself... but Ivor gets her to think otherwise because he fights to protect the people, while Lebanne's way hasn't gotten her out of her indentured servitude to Jacinthe. Gwynn shows up, drags me into the fight and uses me to just settle the fight because she's had enough. I fight alongside Lebanne against the siblings, and both Ivor and Lebanne agree that the other party has some legitimate points. 
• Gwynn and I see a holographic Canari, and Gwynn gets angry at the 'fake' Canari, which is Tarragon. Gwynn and Tarragon get into a bit of an argument about whether the 'bandwagoners' are true fans or not. Tarragon says the best thing one could say about a fandom: "what about the poeple who just think she's neat? That sounds like a fan in my book!" The ending has a cute moment when Canari tells Gwynn that she's important to her as well. Aww! 
• Grisham and Griselle discuss food with Phillippe, who was inspired by his poor upbringing to respect chefs that give their heart and soul into cooking. This one doesn't really have much of a hook, but it's nice to see them talk about their passions, I suppose. 
• Lebanne is lurking in hyperspce thinking about how to beat Jacinthe, and shit-talks her... when Jacinthe and HOLO Jacinthe show up and start getting into a weird conversation. By the way, I completely and 100% agree with Lebanne's shit-talking of Jacinthe, but the game has everything be restored to status quo after the fight with Lebanne still kinda-sorta taking Stockholm's Syndrome pride with Jacinthe. Boo!

All these fights give me alternate colour costumes for the NPC outfits, and also unlocks their hairstyles in the salons. I think nothing beats the fact that we get Ivor's amazing little Falinks pouch, which is the most adorable thing out there. 

A side-quest I particularly like is a kooky old man who insists that his Arbok is actually a Seviper. I show an actual Seviper, and he's just adamant that the other serpent Pokemon looks the same, and is only different if you 'squint'. Rather hilariously, he comes to the conclusion that his Arbok 'Sevy' is a regional variant of Seviper, before we finally get him to see reason. 

In the sewers, one of the workers ask me to investigate a strange blockage. I run in to find a poor Dodonzo stuck inside one of the overworld sewer holes, and I'm surprised that with how lazy the animation team has been that they actually had the Dodonzo tail sticking out of the sewer hole. It leads to a simple Alpha Dodonzo battle, and the construction worker adopts the Dodonzo. I thought this one was quite a charming one. 

The police officer who arrested me for the Goomy incident in the base game recruits me to test a the museum's security. All the guards have dog Pokemon (Houndoom, Dachsbun, Houndstone, Mabosstiff) and make jokes about 'the script'. A nice reuse of the museum assets, and it actually reminds me of a chapter of Pokemon Adventures where the Johto gym leader Janine was actually recruited by the police to do exactly the same thing. 

A guy called Trian, the Porygon guy, is an indie game developer who gives a long discussion about how he works a lot with polygons, and he also has a Pokemon called Porygon, and that the development of technology has allowed them to render these polygons with more rounded edegs. The siequest has me trade a Porygon with his, and his Porygon is holding an Upgrade that evolves it to Porygon2. It's the 'perfect illustration of how much games change when procerssing power improves'. Apparently Porygon2's upgrades even includes AI! Egad, ChatGPT has made it into the Pokemon universe!

Rather interestingly, there is a bit of a follow up for Porygon-Z. Unfortunately, while Trian gives me the Dubious Disk, he doesn't give me a trade as well. And rather interestingly, the quest to meet him has Trian show up in a hyperspace distortion; specifically the abandoned house. He says some existential-crisis thing about how if polygonal models keep evolving, it will be indistinguishable from the worlds around us, with the implication that the Trian we're talking to in the distortion isn't real. All this 'hyperspace people' thing is really confusing, isn't it? It's not even creepy. It's just wishy-washy.

Anyway, that's it for sidequests for now, next up will be the Groudon/Kyogre/Rayquaza finale!

Random Notes:

• Some more side-quests I didn't have much to say about: 

• A Canatic wants me to find a very specific bench so she can recreate a Canari papparazzi photo with her partner Manectric. That's kinda creepy, but at least she's not stalking Canari. 
  
• A courier tells me of a creepy 'bloody Mary' urban myth thing to enter the graveyard. It's just a silly memory game for the gimmick, but the spotlighted Pokemon is a Houndstone that is terrifying people by being a gravestone that moves around. The simplest story you could tell with this Pokemon, but it's all right.
• Bene, nurse joy of the Hibernal pokemon center, wants to increase awareness by having a Foongus on her desk to make her stand out. Because hers has the worst performance in sales. So they do keep track of that. I give her a fun guy, and a couple of fungal puns ensue.  
• Another Nurse Joy asks me to go into a Wild Zone to find her Pokemon, 'Rosebud'. It's not a Roselia or a Glimmora, but actually a massive, enraged Annihilape that I need to fight and calm down on the rooftop. I actually reasonably like this one. 
• Corbeau: "Kind words are nice and all, but they're not what really motivates people in the end!"
• Ivor tries to offer Lebanne the uniform of his dojo as well, but Lebanne deflects it masterfully by saying that she is sworn to wear the maid outfit for Jacinthe's sake. 
• I can react "okay, bye" to the Gwynn-vs-DYN4M0 fight, but Gwynn just replies with a flat 'no, help me.'
• While evolving other Pokemon, I had to look up Galarian Yamask's evolution. It still needs to take 49 damage, but then I have to walk under a specific Coulant Waterway bridge, then go into the menu and tap it to evolve it. God, this is still probably the weirdest evolution method ever. 
• Am I disappointed that these 'hyperspace dimension' stuff, with glitching and Porygon being part of the game, that we don't get a proper Porygon dimension? It could've been a properly long side-quest and everything, but nope. 

Ironheart S01E06 Review: The Devil Wears A Suit and Tie

Ironheart, Season 1, Episode 6: The Past is the Past

And so, the show hits its climax. And... admittedly, with me having some spoilers about who shows up at the end of this episode, that bit wasn't the biggest 'damn that's cool' moment for me. But it's definitely an interesting ending for sure. 

The episode starts off with us actually playing the flashback we have of Parker's origin story in full, which we've seen snippets of in the past. A pre-Hood Parker and John tries to rob the mansion, and Parker gets cornered by guards. A strange hooded man appears, and magically manifests a doorway to a pizzeria. This strange man talks about potential and does the devil thing of "what is it do you really desire"... and then demonstrates his power by freezing everyone around him in time. The strange man plays up Parker's potential, then does the gaslighting thing by suddenly being in a rush to leave. Parker accepts the deal, shaking the figure's hand and gives up something he 'wouldn't miss', and his strange sponsor gives him his hood, which is the tools for Parker to get whatever he desires -- to be filthy rich. 

We flash back to the present day, where Parker is sitting in front of a lavish meal... but the only person there with him is a mind-controlled and not exactly happy Zeke Stane, who isn't appreciative of being essentially used as a puppet, and uses the first chance he could to try and stab Parker with a fork. Again, at this point Parker is still under the impression that Riri is dead. 

Riri, meanwhile, tries to duplicate the accident that created AI Natalie, but it's impossible. Driven partially by a desire to bring back the Hood and analyze it, Ironheart flies to Parker's base, and is confronted by the first of the boss gauntlet -- Ezekiel. The two have a nice little fight, and after figuring out that Zeke is not entirely herself, goes through a whole routine where she tries to explain to Zeke that she needs to kick him in the balls. Because that's the only way to hard-reset him. Which... honestly, is a bit eye-rolly and feels juvenile for the tone of the rest of this show. 

Riri manages to accomplish that after a bit of a struggle, and leaves Zeke behind while his systems reboot. As Zeke notes, though, his life is destroyed and while he's presumably grateful for this rescue, the two of them have unfinished business. 

While Riri was fighting Zeke, Parker is yelling in the chamber where he puts the Hood, and summons the strange demon-man, who manifests and 'breaks character' a bit, speaking with a different accent and eventually a deep, dark, demonic one. The demon-man tells Parker that he kept to the letter of the deal, and tells Parker what a disappointment he's been... but promises that he might give him more power if he could hold on to the Hood and make something out of it. 

And so, Ironheart and the Hood confront each other. Ironheart shows off some new tricks that her magicked-out armour has, which includes a quite cool giant magical rune explosion that eliminates the Hood's invisibility. The Hood launches his magical bullets, but eventually goes absolutely batshit-feral, being almost demonic himself as he starts tearing into the Ironheart armour. In a bit of desperation, Riri seemingly detonates the brand-new armour in a self-destruct sequence... but somehow survives unharmed. 

This is all a bit of a clever thing from the showmakers, though as the unarmoured Riri lies sobbing and Parker walks up. After a bit of a verbal exchange, Parker shoots 'Riri'... only for it to be a really realistic hologram. The real Ironheart suit is still intact, and bursts out of the smoke and rips the Hood off of Parker, and leaves him mewling and crying on the ground, ranting about how much it hurts without the Hood. 

Riri leaves him behind... and as she walks down the stairs, she ends up meeting the strange man in the pizzeria from earlier in the episode, something that Riri has absolutely no context for. The strange man pulls Riri out of her suit and essentially forces her to talk to him... and Riri initially assumes this demon man to be Dormammu. After a giant laugh at Dormammu's expense, the man reveals himself to be... Mephisto. The episode goes on for a bit, but essentially Mephisto gives Riri what she wants as the episode flip-flops between the moment of this deal and the past scenes and the future... and it's revealed that Mephisto did get a deal from someone he finds interesting... and Riri has asked Mephisto to bring Natalie to life. The episode closes at the same demonic scars appearing on Riri's arm as we fade to black.

There's a post-credits scene of Parker, hoodless, looking for some magic and arriving in Zelma's store. 

Now, how do I feel about this episode? It's another show that is meant to leave on a cliffhanger and build up something with a brand-new villain. These sorts of cliffhangers are a bit played out at this point, though this one was... okay. The episode and the show really does rush through a lot of its beats, waving away its entire supporting cast in the opening scene to give us the flashbacks that give us Hood's backstory and Mephisto's context, and then the showdowns that Riri has with the three antagonists. 

And the thing is... the showdowns themselves were really neat. Action-wise, it's a nice showcase of utilizing magic, and probably one of the few times that we are shown, rather than told, Riri outsmarting someone with those holograms. The show, in my opinion, also does a great job at somewhat sticking the landing with the Hood, giving us a semblance of someone who bit off a bit more than he could chew after the previous episode and this one. And, of course, Sasha Baron Cohen of Borat fame plays an absolutely perfect Mephisto, alternating between disarming to a greasy scammy salesman to a terrifying demon when the script demands him to be. 

But the episode's dialogue itself really lampshades a lot of the problems I have with the show. Riri herself has no fucking idea who Mephisto is, or that there even was a 'Mephisto', or a man-behind-the-man behind Parker. Sure, there was the handwaved explanation of Dormammu, but even as a red herring, the idea of Dormammu was barely in the show other than some scribbly drawings in episode 5. Zeke himself lampshades that he and Riri 'ain't done', which is how I feel about Riri's conclusion with both of her antagonists -- neither of them have a satisfying conclusion thematically against Riri, with a handwave before Riri heads off to do something else. 

And Riri herself? This is a really strange direction to take the character. The comics version of Ironheart has nothing to do with magic, or making deals with devils (or a devil analogue), or even being part of a criminal gang. If you're going to change something drastic about the main character you are adapting from the source material, you better do it right. And I don't think the show makes a particularly good case as to why Ironheart needs to be a magic hero. 

The show goes in a strange, wild direction but never really delivers on giving us any real thematic growth between Parker and Riri, and I guess what we're supposed to take away is that despite the previous episode promising some maturity (?) on Riri's part, when given another easy way out -- like stealing the Ironheart suit from MIT, or joining a gang, or making a deal with a literal devil -- Riri will take it. It's a bold way to end the season, of course, but one that leaves me feeling like I watched the first draft of a show instead of a fully-realized one.

It is a bit of a shame, really, since there were definitely some really good talent attached to this TV show. I have described the various Ironheart episodes as the creators managing to film a lot of great setpieces and thought up of a lot of parallels between Riri and her two antagonists, some interesting morality questions in regards to AI, wishes, fight-or-flight and a bunch of thematic stuff... but simply wasn't able to string it together properly. This show is nowhere as bad as some of Disney+/Marvel's worst hits like Echo, She-Hulk or Secret Invasion, but it's definitely on the weaker side of things.  

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mephisto is the Marvel comics' equivalent of the devil, being named after a real-life mythological demon. Mephisto debuted as an adversary of the Silver Surfer, and later on is extremely associated with the stories of Ghost Rider and Spider-Man, being particularly infamous for the 'One More Day' storyline. 
• We don't see it clearly, but we do get a glimpse of Mephisto's true form -- a red-skinned, clean-shaven man with glowing eyes -- reflected in the spoon that he uses to stir his coffee. 
• Dormammu is mentioned once more, and Mephisto mocks the ruler of the Dark Dimension. In the comics, the two don't really have much of a relationship as far as I can gather. 

One Piece 1178 Review: Popsicle Mu

One Piece, Chapter 1178: A Fading Nightmare

We kind of rush through a fight with Gunko-Imu, and while it's clear that it's not quite the climax yet, I'm not the most impressed with this chapter either. Maybe it's a residual from my underwhelmed reaction to 1177, but I just feel like this is rushing through the ending fights of Elbaf without giving me any really satisfying emotional closures for a lot of the characters, while spending time with scenes that aren't the most interesting. It's a growing problem I've been feeling since Sommers and Killingham were taken out, honestly. 

Luffy drops Brook and Usopp with Team Nami, before jumping back into action. Meanwhile, Loki launches lightning breaths while Imu gives a bit of an exposition about rumours of some large flying beast, referencing Loki's time as a pirate. As the battle continues, Imu glorps out of Gunko's body and emerges as a giant goopy shadow demon, which... feels a bit odd, considering how much she's been spending time going around possessing people and keeping her identity hidden? I guess she needs it to try and Domi Reversi Luffy and Loki, which is important to show... but it fails, of course. 

I am a bit surprised that it failed on Loki, but I never thought for a second that it would've succeeded on Luffy. Whatever the case, whether it's Conqueror's Haki or their specific devil fruits, Imu doesn't seem too surprised by this while the two are just confused and angry. Luffy unleashes a Dawn Gatling that pushes shadow Imu full of holes, and then Loki uses Ragnir and unleashes a blast of Niflheim to instantly create a block of ice that freezes Gunko and Imu within. 

Luffy reverts out of Gear Fifth, and Loki notes that he was a giant dragon for 'too long'. Okay. 

We then cut to a montage of the crisis being solved all over Elbaf, with Zeus, Jinbe and Lilith using their respective powers to put out flames. Zoro and the giants are about to finish off more Domi Reversi'd giants, but Chopper walks up and then whacks them, knocking the demons out and reverting them. Again, this mystery is still going on, and I just don't find it particularly interesting since it had zero buildup. Oh, there's also a bonus mystery that the books of Ohara and Bilbo the owl has disappeared, although it's not that hard to assume that Bilbo shrunk the books to protect them from the fire. 

Things are thankfully not over yet, and I really do hope that whatever climax next can salvage this arc. Summers's head-halves and heart seem to put themselves together, while the Imu frozen in ice disappears while we cut away to Mary Geoise, and the main body of Imu calls the Gorosei to tell them that 'The Holy Land will be without Mu for a short while'. I genuinely feel like I've checked out a little from the lack of resolution on a lot of the plot points while introducing random new quasi-mysteries, but hopeful, slightly, that there is a better climax on the horizon? 

Random Notes:

• He gets back in crazy mode quickly, but there's a nice panel of Luffy in Gear Fifth looking angry when Franky asks him if he needs backup, as he gets ready to launch himself into battle. 
• None of the giants 'slain' by Team Zoro were shown being reversed back to normal, so there was a theory that some heavy emotional component was needed to reverse the Reversi like what Dorry and Brogy had for each other; or maybe it ties to Chopper's protective nature as a doctor... but nothing anywhere as interesting happened. It's just punch them really hard, or be Chopper, I guess. 

Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - 5E Adventure Modules, Pt 2 - Tomb of Annihilation

Released in 2017 for 5th Edition, Tomb of Annihilation is a pretty fun sequel/revamp of one of the most famous (or, rather, infamous) modules of classic 1st Edition, Tomb of Horrors, most well-known for being specifically designed to kill as many players as possible. Set in the remote, deep jungle island of Chult, the area around the titular tomb is filled with a lot of strange wildlife (many of which are 'story' debuts for the monsters that were featured in Volo's Guide to Monsters), which is why I had singled out Tomb of Annihilation as the adventure module features a rather significant bestiary. 

Tomb of Annihilation is also one of the adventures that the D&D team experimented with digital 'expansion packs', little 10-15 page PDF's that you can pay for to download, and they expand upon the adventure, giving extra NPCs, locations, playable races... and most importantly for this review series, new monsters. 

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

[Originally reviewed in November 2020; Revised in March 2026]

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Aldani (Lobsterfolk)

• Medium Monstrosity: Lawful Neutral; CR 1
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

A race of crab-people or lobster-people or just crustacean-people in general is a fantasy genre staple. They're never the first animal someone goes to when they are designing animal-people for their world, but it's always fun when they show up! The 'Crabmen' (which we'll cover in a different segment, Mordenkainen's Fiend Folio) appeared quite early in D&D's history, but lobster people didn't really show up... save for a minor mention in a 2E supplement about the area of Chult. 

In 5th Edition's Tomb of Annihilation, however, the design team for the adventure zeroed in on this little detail and decided to expand the Aldani into a whole monster statblock. The description even mentions the Aldani Lobsterfolks' elusiveness and eeriness, with most people in Chult thinking that they had been wiped out. Instead, they're just hiding and living quietly in a more hidden basin. There is a history about them where they used to be a tribe of greedy fishermen who wiped out the local lobster population by overfishing, causing them to be cursed by the local god into being lobsterfolk. Interestingly, unlike most recipients of these kinds of curses, the Aldani just shrugged, went 'fair enough, god' and went along their ways. 

The design of the Aldani is essentially a more humanoid lobster, with a tokusatsu suit-esque torso, and a body that goes upright after the lobster 'tail'. However, instead of a lobster face, we've got half a human face, and two tiny beady eyes on stalks. That head really does make the Aldani look extra weird and somewhat unsettling in my books, although the Aldani themselves aren't particularly hostile and prefers to hide from other species. They don't like other species, but they know they would be outmatched in combat. 

Aldani try to frighten intruders away instead of killing them, but when they are confronted by more capable interlopers, like, say, adventurers, the Aldani will instead offer them bribes. The Aldani trawl the bottom of rivers and lakes, and gather whatever valuables they find for this reason. Pretty cool artwork, although I did kind of wish there was a bit more to them. 

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Almiraj

• Small Beast: Unaligned; CR 0
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

The Almiraj (more properly, Al-Mi'rāj) is a mythological creature from Arabic folklore, and is depicted as a hare or rabbit with a massive horn. They are known to attack larger creatures like humans and even draconic serpents... but in D&D, it is merely a rabbit with a unicorn-esque horn and no other magical properties. Kind of a missed opportunity there. Debuting in the 1st Edition Fiend Folio, the Almiraj was merely described as an unpredictable beast, but didn't really get much in terms of anything super-interesting. 4E actually made them a Fey beast, which I thought would be far more interesting and appropriate to the source material. 

In 5E, we get the little additional lore that the Almiraj were introduced to the land of Chult from a distant land. Since they are skilled at evading Chult's predators, they have bred explosively and flourished throughout Chult. And... that is really it. Older editions had the Almiraj be able to teleport, and some variants even gave them psionics, but 5E's Almiraj are just bunnies with horns. The book does really hammer home that Almiraj are able to be utilized as a familiar, which means that it's similar to the Tressym from Storm King's Thunder where it's more of an expansion pack for the players' sake. 

And I like that, but at least give the Almiraj something to make it interesting beyond the inherent nature of being a bunnicorn! Its stats are weak enough that something like the teleport abilities that the 2E Almiraj had would make this bunny a lot more interesting and a lot less 'just there'. 

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Assassin Vine

• Large Plant: Unaligned; CR 3
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Many plants have appeared throughout D&D's history, and older editions would stack a bunch of these 'hazard' plants under a segment in a 'plant' entry. Which is fair enough, without being Treants, Shambling Mounds or Blights, it is a bit hard when all that a plant can do is to maybe hurt you from afar. Tomb of Annihilation does bring in a lot of these classic 'trap' plants, however, which works with both the deep jungle setting as well as the callback to older D&D editions. 

The Assassin Vine is ambulatory, being able to inch around, and it grabs and crushes prey to kill them and create fertilizer... in the form of carcasses near its roots. Assassin Vines consist of a main 20-feet vine, but smaller vines branch out from the main vine to look for prey. What the Assassin Vine does is relatively simple, which is to wrap around a prey and just constrict them until they die (or the Assassin Vine is dispatched).

Tomb of Annihilation helpfully also notes that the secondary vines produce grape-like fruits. There is apparently a variant of Assassin Vine that is not really explored in Tomb of Annihilation, but they grow near hot springs and volcanic vents, and in locations like the Underdark, the amount of prey killed by an Assassin Vine often causes fungi to flourish, which lives alongside the Assassin Vine like a bit of a symbiosis. 

In older generations, there's the rather cute detail that the leaves are shaped like human hands, which would I wished was kept for the 5E version as well. There's not much to the Assassin Vine otherwise. It's not, like, a fey spirit or created by a mage or whatever. It's just a highly-evolved savage plant in this fantasy world. 

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Atropal

• Huge Undead (Titan); Neutral Evil; CR 13
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Oh, the Atropal. I love the Atropal! The Atropal was introduced in 3rd Edition as part of a group of creatures called 'Abominations', which refer to cast-off aspects of gods and creation that possess reality-warping powers. None of them really ended up having staying power, save for the Atropal... which is such a screwed-up concept that plays up just enough gore and horror to be creepy without going over-the-top. Atropals are conceptually stillborn godlings, for whatever that means to beings like gods. In their original 3E appearance, they were just huge creepy floating babies, while 4E went for a disturbing (but not quite baby) screaming corpse. 5E is still a giant floating god-baby... but rotting and malformed. That umbilical cord trailing from its body is probably simultaneously the goofiest and creepiest part of this design. 

As I grow older a lot of the 'whoa, that's cool' factors from the shock-value monsters have gone down a lot, but the Atropal manages to always have a special place in the creepiness factor due to the creepy design concept. Babies, and dead babies are creepy. And if this was 'just' an undead baby, it would be schlocky. But the Atropal has a bit of a higher concept that makes it feel a bit less lazy, a bit less that it's just there for shock value. And that fact is that the Atropal is an unfinished god, abandoned before it was complete. 

The Atropal itself is classified as an 'undead (titan)', but since it was never actually alive, never given the essence of life, it can't be resurrected, not even by divine intervention. The Atropal's body is bloated, its limbs twisted, and its vision is vacant, drooling mindlessly as it floats in space. That umbilical cord is described as 'trailing into nothingness', but is actually connected to the Negative Energy Plane. It can only be severed by a weapon like a Vorpal Sword, which will cause the Atropal to lose one of its power sources and some of its powers. 

And in 5E, that Negative Energy Plane connection is a not-insignificant part of why the Atropal is so powerful. It has a Negative Energy aura that prevents healing around it and deals necrotic damage to them. The Atropal constantly also summons Wraiths from the Negative Energy Plane to harass its foes, and undead around the Atropal are resistant to effects like Turn Undead. 

In addition to those, the Atropal is able to unleash several attacks that are themed with death, like cold-element spells, life-draining spells, and a screaming wail that causes its opponents to become instantly exhausted. At a 'mere' CR 13, it's a nice batch of abilities, although I do miss some of the abilities that the Atropal had in previous editions, like a much more robust set of spells, and the ability to drain ability scores. I know this does go against the design philosophy of 5th Edition. Still, despite being quite weaker relatively compared to its previous incarnations, 5E's Atropal is still a fun miniboss.  

Overall, I still like this dead godling quite a bit. It strikes a nice balance between being creepy and wretched, and not going too over-the-top. It has a wholly creepy design that I'm not surprised that even with D&D distancing itself from being too gory, the Atropal still made it in to 5th Edition relatively early. 

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Chwinga

• Tiny Elemental; Neutral; CR 0
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

5th Edition tried really hard to make the Chwinga into a little mascot, and these little buddies made their debut in Tomb of Annihilation and has since cropped up in Icewind Dale, Candlekeep Mysteries and even Spelljammer. Chwingas are tiny elemental spirits that live in plants, rocks and rivers away from civilization, and move about unseen. They look like tiny little humanoids with a mask for a face, and while we've only seen tiny little forest Chwingas initially, other modules would show snow and sand-based Chwingas. They really do remind me of Kodama, which are tiny nature spirits most famously shown in Studio Ghibli movie Princes Mononoke. 

It is noted that no two Chwingas look exactly alike, and they all have subtle variations in their masks. Each Chwinga 'takes shelter' in a different plant, rock or pool of water. In tune with nature, a Chwinga's presence is often foreshadowed by cool breezes, the smell of flowers, or dancing fireflies. They're almost fey-like in nature, although I suppose to borrow a 3E term, they are 'non-Outsider Elementals'. Creatures who are attuned to nature, represent the base elements of nature, but are not tied to the energies of the Feywild.

Being tiny little buddies, Chwingas hide from most larger things, but find humanoid civilization to be fascinating. Out of curiousity, they follow these large humanoids, and if they find the humanoid likable, they will use cantrips to aid them, or give a magical gift. What attracts a Chwinga varies for each individual. Some might like the way a humanoid walks, some might like a sword or staff they are holding, some might like their music or the colour of their clothes or whatever.

Chwingas are very much not a combative monster, but one that's meant to be an interesting encounter. They have some minor spells like guidance, druidcraft and resistance, and once a day, can give a humanoid it likes a 'supernatural charm'. When harmed, they can magically take shelter under 'their' rock or leaf or pool of fresh water, upon which they are completely immune from attacks unless the shelter is destroyed. It's pretty cute, and why would you hurt the adorable little Chwingas? If they die, they turn into flower petals or pollen or a little stone statue of itself, something natural that will remind you of the cruelty you inflicted from this adorable little friend, you monster. 

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Eblis

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 1
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

The Eblis is a weirdo that appeared all the way back in 1st Edition's Monster Manual II, and they just look like cranes. They are actually monstrosities, however, and are reincarnations of evil humans that were punished by the gods, for crimes of larceny and kidnapping. That... that sounds extremely specific, and I found it rather unconventional that it's the crane of all animals that these kidnappers and thieves get turned into. It's breaking stereotypes, I'll give you that. 

The Eblis are fully intelligent and build huts and nests to hide the treasure they collect. The prose characterizes the Eblis as being a sinister, evil race like grung or yuan-ti. Eblis sway people to do their bidding, cook up sinister plots, lead intruders to unexpected deaths and kill creatures that offend them. It's all pretty typical 'evil D&D race' stuff... except that the Eblis isn't a race of stork-people, they are just... 8-foot-tall cranes. 

It really is hilarious just on that one detail, and I've always found the Eblis memorable for the sheer absurdity of this. I don't know why I found this particular detail to be so charming, but I do. The Eblis has access to three spells that it can cast: blur, hypnotic pattern and minor illusion, so they've got some potential tomfoolery to do, but it's still all coming from a giant crane. I feel like a good chunk of the weirdness around the Eblis is that it visually is just a big bird. 

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Flying Monkey

• Small Beast; Unaligned; CR 0
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

We get another 'fusion' fantasy creature here, just a casual flying monkey. Pretty cute artwork, and a lot more adorable looking than the feral, Wizard of Oz based artwork this creature had in older editions. It's another creature that the designers tossed into the wild jungles of Chult to make it feel even more exotic and filled with strange flora and fauna. Not everything needs to be a giant zombie tyrannosaurus or a leopard with extra snake heads, after all! Sometimes there are just adorable monkeys with wings. 

Like the Almiraj and the Tressym before it, this creature is also an available familiar option, and I think they really were trying to experiment a lot with customizing the familiars. I find it a fun little exercise, I suppose, that for a while they were trying to 'Pokemon-ize' familiars, if that makes sense, until 2024 shrugged and just did a list of customizable familiars based on the creature type.

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Jaculi

• Large Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/2
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

A lot of weird wildlife show up here, and the Jaculi here is actually drawn from an obscure creature of Greek mythology called the Jaculus. Nowhere as famous as beings like the Cyclops or the Harpy or the Cerberus, the Jaculus is merely a serpent that launches itself from the trees like a javelin. And, yes, if you haven't noticed, the creature draws its name comes from the same root word as ejaculate. They just mean 'shoot' or 'launch' in Greek. 

D&D's Jaculi is a 15-foot snake that... does exactly that. Coiling themselves in trees and then just launch themselves at unsuspecting prey, intending to impale them. That does not sound like a particularly efficient hunting or defensive method, really. The artwork does make the Jaculi's head be filled with bristles of bone growths, which gives some credence to this snake, when hardened and ready to launch, would deal as much damage as a thrown javelin. 

Additionally, Jaculi are able to alter the colour and texture of its scales to camouflage itself, and in the artwork, presumably the brown-gray colour that most of its body is taking is just camouflage to hide on that branch, and the Jaculi's natural colours are closer to the blue of the head. Interestingly, the little flavour text it gets notes that a Jaculi's shed skin is important for the crafting of magical items such as Boots of Striding-and-Springing, as well as Cloaks of Invisibility. Which are both of this snake's powers!

Overall, I do like this creature. It is weird and simple, and if we are being honest a variation of the 'Trapper' or 'Piercer' style of old-school 'gotcha'  enemies. This module does have a fair bit of Yuan-ti presence, which probably explains the number of serpentine beasts it also includes. 

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Kamadan

• Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 4
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

I really like this one! The Kamadan is another weirdo that debuted in the original Fiend Folio, and you always know we're up for something either iconic or super-weird when I reference that tome; the second-ever bestiary for Dungeons & Dragons and probably one of the wackiest. The Jaculi above also debuted in the Fiend Folio.

The concept for the Kamadan is a simple one, a large leopard... but with six snakes sprouting out of its shoulders. The Kamadan has a bunch of abilities that you would associate from such a weird combination of species, but a very unexpected ability is its exhalation of a sleep gas. Not something I would readily associate with a combination of leopard and serpent -- and there really isn't any real thematic tie-in on that. 

Kamadans are are ambush predators that either hunt alone or in mated pairs, using their sleeping gas to knock prey out, before going in and finishing whoever manages to stay awake through the sleeping gas. I do appreciate that the creature does have a bit more going on for it beyond just slapping two animals together in a way that looks cool (which, nothing wrong with that, the Kamadan is cool) but this just feels a bit off, you know? It doesn't seem to be the type of ability you would associate with this creature. 

Lastly, there is apparently some in-universe discussion on whether the Kamadan is related to the Displacer Beasts, by virtue of being big cats with tentacles... but with how the Displacer Beast looks, I don't think anyone is making that mistake. 

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Mantrap

• Large Plant; Unaligned; CR 1
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Mantraps appeared in the first two editions as an entry under 'Plant' or 'Carnivorous Plant', and the fantasy behind this thing is relatively simple, and one that shows up a lot in video games. Particularly Nintendo video games. Venus flytraps are such weird plants. They eat insects, and that strangeness has inspired a trope in fantasy of a giant flytrap that eats people instead of just flies and bees. 

The Mantrap in 5E is a bit more involved than just two jaws, but rather a set of six jaws and tendrils that all wrap around an unlucky adventurer that walks into the center of the trap, at which point it wraps its vines around the prey and the jaw-leaves snap shut. As with real-life flytraps, the jaws exude digestive acid. 

The Mantrap is noted to 'prefer humanoids' to feed on, and it actually has two abilities to do this. The first is the typical 'false appearance' trait that so many monsters that rely on camouflage as a gimmick have. The second, however, is a magical, attractive pollen. Mantraps release these pollen, and humanoids that smell this pollen have a compulsion to walk towards the Mantrap. This does make it a bit more involved than just 'giant beartrap plant', and I approve. 

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Pterafolk

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 1
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Dinosaur people? Dinosaur people! The Pterafolk are particularly associated with the jungles of Chult in Dungeons & Dragons lore, and they return for this adventure. The Pterafolk (a mangling of 'Terror Folk', apparently) are 10-foot-tall humanoids. They are big dinosaur people! The Pterafolk are malevolent isolationists, and don't like other people. They snatch whatever they can from the skies, terrorizing their landbound neighbours, taking treasure and food back to their roosts. The whole vibe is a mixture of 'The Lost World' trope combined with the 'barbaric primitive tribe' trope. Oh, I get it. Dinosaurs are primitive. 

In 5th Edition, they are simple fighters that are able to fly, with a 'divebomb' attack that causes fear. Their visual design is just a man with Pteranodon features, just like Sauron -- the Marvel supervillain, not the Dark Lord. Interestingly, the flavour text noted that in the past, Pterafolk was once able to shapeshift, either into full Pteranodons, or into a Lizardfolk form. That's interesting! That makes them sort of a very reptile (yes, dinosaurs are more closely related to birds, I know) version of a lycanthrope.

I actually don't have a whole ton to say otherwise about the Pterafolk, which is surprising considering I had something to say about most of the other entries on this page, but I just don't find the Pterafolk to be particularly interesting beyond their visual design. 

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Su-Monster

• Medium Monstrosity; Chaotic Evil; CR 1
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Ah, the Su-Monster. Appearing in the very first Monster Manual for the 1st Edition, and in the Monstrous Manual for the 2nd Edition, the Su-Monster is a bit of a weirdo. The name itself isn't really descriptive or particularly memorable, and the monster concept is... it's just a hideous ape with blood-soaked claws. The 5E artwork made it look positively ghoulish, but it doesn't really change the fact that it's still visually just an angry monkey. Some people think that the Su-Monster is based on the cryptid called Succarath, which is an obscure reference, but I really don't think the D&D Su-Monster has that much in common with the cryptid. 

A Su-Monster's description really does just explain it as a particularly intelligent and malicious monkey. They can use tools, they communicate with moving their tails to make gestures, they kill and bury corpses in their territory. They like to sleep hanging upside-down, which is also a position that's apparently ideal for them to launch ambushes out of. Again, all  of them are neat, but I don't understand why this creature is so monstrous that they are called the 'Su-Monster'. The one thing that separates them from a particularly smart primate is that they have psionic energy that can stun targets, and leave them immobile for their physical claws. 

 

Again, it is quite unsurprising that the Su-Monster really doesn't have much going on for it that it didn't get reprinted too much despite the franchise trying to make a point to represent a lot of its original Monster Manual in subsequent releases. Not everything can be as memorable as Mimics and Otyughs, but it is a bit surprising for me that the Su-Monster didn't get a bit of a retool in its 5th Edition update. 

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Tabaxi

• Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 1/4 (Minstrel), 1 (Hunter)
• Debut (as enemies): Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

The Tabaxi are technically also represented as a playable option in Volo's Guide to Monsters, but it's taking me a while to be bothered to cover all the playable races in 5th Edition. And since the Tabaxi show up as a monster statblock here, I'll talk about them! The Tabaxi debuted in the 1st Edition's Fiend Folio, as a rather monstrous 'Cat-man'. Their intelligence and sapience was established even from there, but it is clear that they were initially conceived as just a race of intelligent animals, being described as essentially behaving like a pride of lions... but sentient and able to use weapons. 2nd Edition's Monstrous Manual also introduced the Tabaxi, but gave them a redesign, portraying them as more humanoid than cat-like, essentially drawing a 'werecat' style body layout. 2E's Tabaxi are specifically just jaguar or leopard-people, still portrayed as a reclusive people and lore.

They remained obscure afterwards... until 5th Edition picked the Tabaxi as one of their 'monstrous races' options in Volo's Guide to Monsters. At which point the Tabaxi absolutely exploded in popularity. People just wanted to play as cat-people, as it turns out. A combination of other fantasy video games offering animal people to play with (like Skyrim's Khajiit) and just people generally finding animal-people cool meant that the Tabaxi became popular as the de facto mammalian 'furry' option. 

5E also gave the Tabaxi a lot more interesting lore than just being reclusive jungle-people. Tabaxi are noted to be gripped with a lot of wanderlust. They keep moving from one place to another, and they love to collect anything and everything. They want to collect trinkets, they want to gather tales, they want to lay eyes on the wonders of the world. Curiousity drives the cat, in this case, and they wander the world to look for new experiences and sights. That's a really fun background trait as an adventurer! Again, it is also nicely cat-like without exhausting every trope about cats. 

Tomb of Annihilation gives the statblock for a Tabaxi 'Hunter' and a Tabaxi 'Minstrel', both of which being nice nods to what an average non-adventurer Tabaxi might be doing. Being traveling bards and storytellers fit well with the lore given about the Tabaxi being a people that like to collect and trade stories and music. In combat, Tabaxi both monster and playable have a trait called 'feline agility', that lets them have bursts of speed like a cat. I like these guys!

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Tri-Flower Frond

• Medium Plant; Unaligned; CR 1/2
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Another plant that was listed in the 'Plant' section in 2E's Monstrous Manual is the awkwardly named Tri-Flower Frond. It's not as awkward as 'Su Monster', I suppose. The Tri-Flower Frond is a 7-feet tall plant with a thick stem, and exactly three large flowers that are brightly coloured, and each of them are the size of a human head. Each of them also have their own ability to harm you.

The red flower can exude thorny vines to entangle its prey. The orange one, depicted in art with trumpet-like stamen, shoots poison that puts foes to sleep. The yellow one shoots globs of corrosive acid that deals acid damage over time until the target washes it off in water. We don't really learn anything else beyond this, and unlike the Mantrap, Assassin Vine or the Yellow Musk all covered in this book, we don't really learn why the Tri-Flower Frond evolved in this manner. 

I find the visuals and the themes to be neat, but there's also a very 'video-gamey' vibe towards it. Which would be fine if the D&D mechanics actually interacted with targeting different flower-heads or something, but it isn't. It's just a weird oddity, and I suppose that's all right if that's the case... but that has been one of the big complaints about plant monsters, that they often feel like they should be classified as dungeon hazards instead of monsters. Tri-Flower Frond here doesn't help this argument. 

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Yellow Musk Creeper

• Medium Plant; Unaligned; CR 2 [Yellow Musk Creeper]
• Medium Undead; Unaligned; CR 1/4 [Yellow Musk Zombie]
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Oh, yes, this is more like it. I love the Yellow Musk Creeper in that it's the kind of plant-based horror that I like. Shambling Mounds and Mantraps are cool, but there's also something quite horrifying from an immobile plant that can do something terrifying... and not in a gimmicky way that the Tri-Flower Frond above does. Sorry, Tri. The Yellow Musk Creeper itself looks extremely innocuous. It's a weird, thin yellow orchid-like flower growing out of a vine. It's a pretty flower, and it expels a musk that attracts prey. 

This musk charms the target that smells it, and comes close enough to the flower... and the Yellow Musk Creeper will shoot bulbs that implants itself into its prey. In 5E mechanics, the Yellow Musk Creeper is actually able to unleash psychic damage to destroy the minds, killing them before the bulb implantation happens.

Once the bulb is implanted, within a day, the bulb sprouts a creeper vine that magically animates the corpse, turning it into a Yellow Musk Zombie. This corpse is able to walk around, and the Yellow Musk Creeper vine psychically puppeteers this zombie to defend itself... and also to use it as fertilizer as the vine grows bigger. It takes seven days for the Yellow Musk  Creeper to grow into maturity, at which point it ejects itself from the zombie, which just rots. Interestingly, the creeper will die if the zombie is destroyed before this maturation is done. 

The Yellow Musk Creeper is another one that appeared in the 1st Edition Fiend Folio, and is one that was a fair bit deadlier with the older mechanics. I really love this trope, and the Yellow Musk Creeper essentially did the 'parasitic plant zombie' trope before Resident Evil and Last of Us made it cool. Extremely cool monster for sure. 

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Zorbo

• Small Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 1/2
• Debut: Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

Ah, yes, the Zorbo. Older editions just drew a koala, while Tomb of Annihilation made it look like... well, it looks more like a Star Wars alien based on a koala, with lanker arms, a slightly different face and beady eyes that make it look a bit more malicious. I really kind of wish that they had kept a bit more of the koala vibes to it, even if they didn't want to just draw a koala.

The Zorbo is based on the totally-real-and-not-a-running-joke-in-Australia Drop Bear, which is the totally-legitimate carnivorous cousin of the koala. In 5th Edition, they basically behave like Drop Bears, lurking in trees, and waiting for people to pass through before they jump and attack them. They have the capability to alter its natural armour to match its surroundings, and actually changes its Armour Class based on what substance it is perched on as it mimics the material. That's very cool!

The Zorbo also has resistance to magic, but also has the surprising property to destroy magical items. This is a much rarer ability to find in 5th Edition monsters, but the Zorbo, this deadly koala Drop Bear, is one of the creatures to have it. Again, I find these little twists make the Zorbo a fair bit more interesting than something like the Su-Monster. 

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Decapus

• Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 4
• Debut: The Tortle Package (2017)

The next couple of monsters are released in 'The Tortle Package', a 'DLC' style web supplement for Tomb of Annihilation that featured the playable Tortle race, a mini-map and adventure, and some monsters. The first of these monsters is the Decapus, a bit of a weird monster that is a ten-tentacled octopus which lives on trees. That alone wouldn't be particularly interesting... if the artworks don't consistently feature the Decapus with wild, unhinged fanged smiles. 

The Decapus use their tentacles to swing through trees like Tarzan, and prefers fighting from trees, using one tentacle to hold itself and the other nine to attack. On land, it needs all its tentacles to support its weight and is a bit more harmless. A fun little detail! I do like the goofiness of the Decapus, and the 5th Edition writeup does note the existence of the Marine Decapus... which really would just be slightly mutated octopi. 

Not a whole ton to say here, but I really do appreciate the Tomb of Annihilation team essentially making a lot of 'flavour' additions to the forests that are just weird, not-harmless but not-too-threatening enemies. 

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Geonid

• Small Elemental; Neutral; CR 1/4
• Debut: The Tortle Package (2017)

Geonids are a fun little elemental type that resemble hermit crabs of sort. They hide under rocks,  where all you can see is a dark void with two glowing white eyes, and a pair of gangly arms and legs. Always love monsters that you can't see the face of! I always find these 'glowing eyes in the dark' style creatures to be charming. 

Geonids are also known as 'Rocklings' and 'Rock Hermits'. They originally come from the Elemental Plane of Earth, and just like hermit crabs, they can retract their limbs into their stone shell, and close the opening to pretend to be a rock. Adorably, while in this form, the Geonid can't see! They have to rely on tremorsense to detect other creatures nearby. 

The Geonids live in tunnels and caves, and are carnivorous little guys that attack tiny animals like lizards and slugs and rats, and eat them. With what mouth? You'll never know! They have the 'Stone Tell' ability, where they are so attuned to stone that they can instantly know what other people have stepped over certain stones -- although not all the details. Geonids use this ability to track prey, and to determine whether other creatures have trespassed in their territory. Geonids don't like to confront larger creatures... but will do so to scare them away or to rob them. I am sorry, that is adorable, the thought of these tiny cute rock-people robbing a full adventurer is a cute mental image. 

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Topi

• Small Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 1/2
• Debut: The Tortle Package (2017)

Our last monster for this batch is the Topi, which is based on the 'shrunken head' practice used by some Amazonian tribes, and became prevalent in media. The Topi is a zombie based on that, where the ritual to create the Topi involves shrinking a corpse until it is small, and a ritual that involves replacing the heart with a live poisonous snake. The end result is a small undead assassin that looks like a monster baby. 

The ritual to make a Topi grants it several abilities -- one is the claws of the Topi being poisonous, due to the magical connection with the snake that has replaced its heart. Their spongy bodies give them resistance to bludgeoning damage. And finally, they are somehow able to resist the 'Turn Undead' ability of the clerics. Perhaps it's because of the live snake in their heart? That snake enjoys magically being enhanced with the ability to not need air or sustenance, but if the Topi dies, the snake inside dies as well. 

It's an interesting undead variation, and I like that they gave the Topi some additional abilities instead of just making it a 'shrunken head zombie'. The artwork not being so racist and emphasizing more on being a creepy sharp-clawed baby-looking zombie is also an interesting twist.