Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - Adventures in Faerun

Released as the first set of setting books for the 2024/5.5E rules, we've got a pair of books set in the Forgotten Realms setting, the 'default' D&D setting where most of its published adventures take place in. The Forgotten Realms (or Faerûn) is the 'safe' high-fantasy setting that many D&D settings tend to derivate out of. For the most part in these review series, most of what I say about monsters or settings is based on the Forgotten Realms, and for the most part, sentient races and monsters work similarly to the Forgotten Realms... other than the changes that those settings specifically do to the monsters. Of note, the Forgotten Realms has had a huge boost in popularity in no small part due to the seminal video game Baldur's Gate III. 

And for something that was meant to be the 'default' setting, there has been a lot of lore written about the Forgotten Realms over the years, and it serves as a perfect first expansion to the soft reboot of 5th Edition. I can't say I am going to read the book cover to cover to learn all about the setting, but it did come with a nice little bestiary tacked at the end. To be fair, these books really do feature more content regarding the setting and player options, but a bestiary's still a bestiary, and so I'll talk about the monsters here.

As is the principle with my D&D reviews going forwards, I'm going skip over any monster that is either a named character, just a regular animal given a statblock, or just a 'job', like odd setting-specific cultists and guards. Of note, I suppose, are the 'Drow of Lolth' that appear here as mostly villains, but with the benefit of having a setting book to give the context and backstory. I haven't read the context part yet, but this does mollify a lot of my grumpiness that I had when I talked about the 2025 Monster Manual. 

Also, Adventures in Faerun also re-releases the Deep Dragon, which I covered before in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons! Rather than talking about the same creature twice, I'll just pop in the art and a few extra lines on my coverage of the Deep Dragon there! I think that's a nice way to deal with these creatures that reoccur on different books. 

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Aranea

• Medium Monstrosity; Neutral; CR 2

Oh, hello, Aranea! The Aranea were one of the first D&D monsters I ever saw in the first Monster Manual for the 3.5th Edition. The artwork shows a spidery monster with a odd-looking texture... but a slightly weird head and extra arms that reached out next to the head. ("A spider's head is supposed to be joined to its thorax!" said young me, already a creature geek by that point, "That's one of the defining differences between an arachnid and an insect!") What a nasty-looking creature, I dismissed it as a 'mere' weird spider for a while, until I read through the descriptive text properly.... Araneas aren't just monstrous spiders, they're monstrous shapechanging spiders. 

That's right, in a setting with at least two dozen (unironically, by the way) different were-creatures, the Aranea is a unique "werespider"! The Aranea's natural form is a bulky, humpbacked spider with extra arms, which is the artwork represented in 3.5E's Monster Manual. But an Aranea has two additional forms. The first is a small or medium humanoid... which is always the same appearance, a little detail left out from the 5E incarnation but one I found to be interesting. The second additional form is a 'humanoid-spider hybrid', which is represented in the 5E artwork as a dude with six arms and two extra eyes. (In 3.5E, this hybrid form actually passes for human, only hiding 'fangs and spinnerets', so I assume that the 3.5E Aranea either doesn't have the extra arms, or are hiding them under a long cloak). 

5E gives the Aranea some extra lore on what they do as a culture, only describing them as skittish and avoidant of combat, and being 'Neutral' in alignment. That bit also makes its way to its brand-new 5E flavour text! 5E notes that they are a reclusive culture that creates beautiful objects to express their artistry, and trade them to other communities. In fact, this is what 5.5E's obligatory creature table gives us, a table of crafts that the Aranea is skilled in. 

In combat, an Aranea's skillset swaps around depending on whether it is in Spider, Hybrid or Humanoid form. It can use a slingshot attack when it has hands (as a humanoid or a hybrid), but in its spidery form it has access to spider powers, which is wall-crawling and a poison bite. It also has access to some spells to distract foes, like Silent Image and Hold Person. 

I am quite happy to see this old classic return. I have an inordinate amount of love for the 3.5E Monster Manuals, particularly the first one... and am always happy to see old weirdoes get revisited. Personally, with how the 5E art direction has been, I am slightly disappointed that we didn't see all three (or at least, the two non-human) forms of the Aranea not represented in art. 

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Beast of Malar

• Medium Monstrosity; Chaotic Evil; CR 11

The Beast of Malar is a manifestation of one of the gods of the setting, the god of bestial hunt Malar. The Beast of Malar can manifest in either a land, sea or sky form (both 3E and 5E elected to depict the sky form as a bat, and the land form as a... mutant wolverine?). In any of these forms, the fur is always black, but the fur around the jaws and claws are always blood-red, as if after a hunt. Fair enough, it probably did just kill something. They are also always unnaturally muscular, which may be true for these mutant wolverines, but neither depictions of the Malar Bat really looks particularly bulky. 

The Beast of Malar is particularly interesting because it can shape-shift between any of its three forms, and is even counted as a legendary creature. Unless hit by radiant damage, the Beast of Malar constantly regenerates, and when it shapeshifts, it also heals itself. It's also got the 'divine immortality' trait, causing a Beast of Malar to die and dissolve into black goo, before being recreated within a week by Malar elsewhere. 

This seems to be really tied to Malar-the-character, probably siccing the Beast of Malar on your adventurers as a test or something and presumably calling off the Beast of Malar after clearing the trial. I really would have liked this to be a bit more evidently shown in a statblock (and flavour text) that emphasizes how this hunter keeps regenerating and coming back, that there's a 'trick' to beating it... although even as I write this sentence, I suppose the idea is to trap it somewhere, bypassing the death-and-regeneration gimmick? 

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Nimblewright

• Medium Construct; Neutral; CR 3 (Guard); 4 (Waterdeep's Nimblewright)
• Large Construct; Neutral; CR 7 (Hulk), 2 (Steed)

The Forgotten Realm's answer to its sister setting Eberron's Warforged are the Nimblewrights, who are intelligent constructs with magical clockwork that are the size of regular people. In fact, that was the whole gimmick of the Nimblewright during its initial 3E debut; that they can disguise themselves as people with enough clothing... or, I suppose, pretend to be a particularly armoured knight. 

Nimblewrights debuted in 5th Edition in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but this book added three new variants, all of them with the trait of 'evasion', allowing them to dodge dexterity-related damage. I suppose 'nimble' is in their name. People would expect robots to be slow (and it's also true in-universe with golems!) but the Nimblewrights often surprise foes with how speedy they are. Even the flavour text notes that the Nimblewrights always fight with "whirling pirouettes". Fair enough, you fancy robots! 

One thing about the Nimblewrights is that they are very expensive to create. And they should be, since the Nimblewrights are no mere automatons and are intelligent enough to form plans and adapt their routines. And while the text notes that they are 'wooden with metal cogs', the text also concedes that most Nimblewrights are covered up in metal plating, probably giving up on anyone interpreting the art as anything but fantasy robots. 

In addition to the regular Nimblewright Guard, Adventures in Faerun gives us two additional variant. The Nimblewright Hulk is a larger, four-armed warrior which uses its bulk to fool others into thinking they are slow and dumb. They are, in fact, still very much nimble. And we've also got the Nimblewright Steed, which are used by rich people to pull coaches and riders... but have the fun quirk of often being fixated on taking a well-trod road. 

Any 'fantasy robot' species is always going to pale before the Warforged, who did it basically perfectly for me, but I can't really hold it against these fancy whirly-boys just because I have a favourite sentient construct. The Nimblewrights are all right!

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Phaerimm

• Small Aberration; Neutral Evil; CR 1/4 (Phaerimm Hatchling)
• Large Aberration; Neutral Evil; CR 8 (Phaerimm Agent)

I was made aware of the Phaerimm's existence maybe a couple of months before this book came out, which felt extremely surreal to me. Debuting in 2nd Edition, these weirdoes are one of the few monsters that didn't appear in a 'mainstream', setting-agnostic Monster Manual. Even 3E/3.5E only relegated the Phaerimm into its Faerun setting guide, which was why I missed them. I really do like this phrase from the 3.5E entry: "if Phaerimms were less evil, they would be more alien and difficult to understand". This is a cute subversion of the 'alien horror' thing. The Phaerimm might look different, but they are a race of elitist assholes who want to eliminate all other inferior life. You don't need to be an evil race of magical wind-socks to be racist! 

What utter weirdoes they are, though. A Phaerimm is a large-sized giant tube-sock tentacle with a hideous lamprey mouth, a mass of tendrils on the outer side of that mouth, and four arms extending out of it. They start off as being teeny-tiny little grublings, and 5E shows off both the hatchlings and the adult in full glory. These things just look weird in all the best ways, and I love how every adaptation of the Phaerimm since its original debut in the 80's still keeps the same concept. 

The Phaerimm are a race of 'alien' beings that seek to dominate, living in their underground empire. Their attempts to destroy the empire of Netheril caused them to be imprisoned underground in an impenetrable magical bubble. From what I can gather, the majority of the Phaerimm people are trapped within that underground empire, but a small group of independent 'Agents' roam the world to seek ways to gain powerful magical artifacts to free their imprisoned kin. This, by the way, was why I was happy to talk about their backstory, which while having a bunch of proper nouns, is something you can port to whatever setting with minimal change. 

The Phaerimm having an extra edge of wanting to free their brethren does give them an extra twist compared to other aberrations 'merely' wanting to dominate the world and spread their influence. I mean, yes, the Phaerimm want that too (the Phaerimm has the same xenophobia most sentient aberrations share), but they also want to free their buddies from imprisonment. Thus, their plans often have that kind of an edge, whether to gain magical lore or artifacts, to create portals to free some of their brethren, or to breed just to propagate additional forces in the outside world.

The Phaerimm Agent is a full spellcaster, as you can probably imagine from a floating alien lamprey-thing. They have a nice list of spells, as well as the innate ability to teleport, to unleash a mind-controlling ray, and creating counterspells and shields against enemies. As a last resort, a Phaerimm's tail has a poison stinger... which older editions actually note that they really don't want to use, since that would be admitting that their spells suck! 

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Polar Serpent

• Large Elemental; Neutral; CR 3

Polar Serpents, or Ice Serpents in its 3E debut, are... giant snakes made up of ice! Shocker, I know. They are actually classified as elementals, and they reside in the coldest parts of the world. Somewhat similar to Remorhazes, Polar Serpents have a particular knack for tracking down warm-blooded prey, hunting them down to specifically drain their heat.  

I felt like despite being elementals, the Polar Serpent really didn't feel like one, not having any particular defensiveness against something like physical weapons... which its older incarnation does have, being able to disperse into ice and sleet. They just feel like giant snakes with some extra pokemon abilities! I feel like that would've made this a lot more interesting than basically being a discount Remorhaz. 

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The Rusted

• Medium/Huge/Gargantuan Construct; Neutral; CR 4/9/14 (Berserker/Behemoth/Wyrm)

As far as I can tell, the Rusted is a brand-new addition to Forgotten Realms lore in 5th Edition. This supernatural curse manifests as a thin layer of iron on a creature's skin, and this iron rusts easily, giving the creature the distinctive look of a rusting creature. As this Rusting curse hardens skin, it also 'hollows out the mind', compelling those affected by it to destroy all unspoiled nature.

The book gives the statblocks for a 'Rusted Berserker' (regular humanoid), a 'Rusted Behemoth' (a giant) and a 'Rusted Wyrm' (a dragon), while also providing artwork for a rusted panther and a rusted basking shark. If we're honest, that artwork of the cursed basking shark is half the reason I considered this entry in the review. I like my sharks. 

Anyway, so the Rusted act and behave like traditional 'zombie'-style creatures, or at least the zombies who get reduced to base instincts and attack everyone not like them. All Rusted count as Constructs, and have a bunch of immunities against effects that affect organics (like poison and exhaustion). Interestingly, the Rusted have no way to spread the Rusting Curse, though the Behemoth is able to rattle off its rusty hide to poison those around it, while the Rusted Wyrm breathes a steam breath and is able to encase people in rust... which both poisons and paralyzes the foe. I suppose tetanus takes the form of those two status conditions simultaneously. 

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Spirit Dragon

• Medium/Large/Huge/Gargantuan Dragon; Neutral; CR 2/8/15/22

Almost every D&D book needs to give us a brand-new dragon type, and Adventures in Faerun brings us two dragon statblocks. We've talked about Deep Dragons in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, which leaves us with the Spirit Dragon to talk to. An interesting artwork, a green dragon with huge elk horns and wings that look like autumn leaves. I've only heard the term "Spirit Dragon" as it refers to Magic: The Gathering characters who are... well, spirits, so I am curious to see what D&D's Spirit Dragons are. 

And the first sentence in this entry? 'Spirit Dragons, sometimes called Song Dragons'. Oh! This is a take on an old friend. Old-school Song Dragons appeared in the first three editions, being a type of metallic dragon that particularly likes to spend its time shapeshifted into women. Specifically women, regardless of the gender of the dragon. Older editions even made it part of the Song Dragon's reproductive cycle. Which... yep. It did make the Song Dragon a bit of an in-joke, particularly when its actually interesting special feature, the ability to transform into a human form and spend most of their time among mortals, is an ability that's given to all metallic dragons, making these guys lose their novelty.

Anyway, 5th Edition's Spirit Dragons... doesn't really have much to do with that, for understandable reasons. Spirit Dragons are born when a dragon egg is buried amongst ancient rubble, and given the right conditions, the 'spirit of the bygone age' is infused into the wyrmling. Thus, the Spirit Dragon is empowered with the 'magic and history of forgotten fallen realms'. They are eternally fascinated with the ruins of ancient realms, and wish to learn more about the culture and art of humanoid societies. This, I suppose, is where the Song-Dragon-based fascination with mortal societies comes from, which is why adult Spirit Dragons like to use their magic to walk among people. 

These Spirit Dragons are very emotional specifically in regards to anything involving the lost region they are associated with; and the Ancient Spirit Dragons embodies the lost culture so much that their personality and outlook become indistinguishable with the realm. Understandably, each Spirit Dragon looks unique as it embodies their respective lost realms.

The Spirit Dragon, of course, lairs in the ruins of ancient cities. While inhabiting it, acoustics of songs from bygone ages are enhanced, and the Spirit Dragon's yearning for the past distorts time. This segues nicely into the Spirit Dragon's draconic breath, which is a distortion of time that speeds up or slows down the enemy (a bit weaker from the actual Time Dragon). The Ancient Spirit Dragon is also able to 'unearth ruins', which summons just a chunk of an ancient city to sprout up. If you're not going to respect archaeology, the Spirit Dragon's going to hit you with it!

It is a pretty fun remaster and I didn't expect the Song Dragon to ever see the light of day again, but to be honest I did wish for either the 'really likes spending time as a humanoid' aspect to be highlighted a bit more in the modern Spirit Dragon. At the very least, the Aranea-esque aspect that each Song Dragon has a specific associated human form they always turn into would have been interesting.

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Spore of Moander

• Huge Plant; Chaotic Evil; CR 12

Look at that gorgeous, gorgeous artwork. 'Moander' is a dead god of corruption or decay in the Faerun setting. I'm sure it's a cool god and all, but look at that gorgeous heap of rotting dung. It's a mass of detritus, corpses and plant matter with vines and a giant maw that's just rampaging and knocking over trees. I love the random number of ribcages and mushrooms you can see in this thing's design. Spores of Moander can rise anywhere Moander's influence can be felt, so... dismal swamps and miasmic lagoons. Sure! 

The Spore of Moander is just a big, monstrous ball of destructive rot. It just wants nothing more beyond spreading death and destruction, just like any sentient pile of rot would. Of course this thing has cultists, who think that the giant ever-spreading mass of rampaging rot will give them insight. Sure! If you say so, crazy cultists! I've heard crazier things in real life!

The Spore of Moander is a tanky giant glob of dirt and fungal matter, and it primarily fights by consuming foes, grappling and trapping people within its body. And presumably continually constricting and killing them with its acidic tendrils. Oh, and it also blows up when it dies. I'm sure the lore with Moander is exciting, and I'm sure this excites someone the way I do when my boys Kyuss or Atropus gets mentioned, but I'm not that familiar with Moander, sorry! 

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Swanmay

• Medium Fey; Neutral Good; CR 3

I have mentioned that I have been slowly working through a copy of the 2E AD&D Monstrous Manual, which is going to be one of the huge series that I'm going to devote a lot of time to after I'm done with most of my 5E rewrites. One of the creatures that I haven't really heard before were the Swanmay, who are a group of quasi-lycanthropes that transform can only transform from human to swan form with tokens, and go around protecting nature like rangers. 

5E reinterprets the Swanmay as fey, which makes so much sense. I love the new artwork for the Swanmay. No shade on the older versions, but that neck decoration and black hair combo just looks elegant, doesn't it? The Swanmay is more or less the same type of combatant as her previous versions, transforming between swan and humanoid form, and having access to a batch of druid spells. 

The lore is quite simple and a nice adaptation of the previous lore, characterizing Swanmays as being part of a reclusive order, being charged to defend the wild, and being able to transform into swans. They also understandably get along well with dryads and other fey that protect the wild. With so many variations you can get for giants, dragons and fiends, I am happy that we're slowly padding out the fey ranks both nice and naughty with each successive 5E entry!

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Werewyvern

• Medium Dragon (Lycanthrope); Chaotic Evil; CR 8

I wasn't kidding on that Aranea entry when I said Dungeons & Dragons had a whole ton of were-creatures to pick from! As far as I can tell, I think the Werewyvern has only appeared in the 2000-era video game Baldur's Gate II before, and not actually shown up in any bestiaries? The specialness of the Werewyvern is that it's transforming into a draconic creature instead of a regular animal. The artwork is pretty neat, I suppose, showcasing a Wyvern with more humanoid proportions, that chest and the way those legs are arranged. I must confess that between Magic: The Gathering and anime in general, a more humanoid 'build' for dragons isn't particularly novel to me. 

The inherent greed possessed by dragons bleeds into a Werewyvern's personality, leading them to become particularly greedy as bandits, mercenaries and assassins. And they also keep their wyvern transformations a secret until they need a trump card to either escape or bring down an enemy... which really should be standard practice for all werewolves, surely? I get that some of them might be unable to control their rage, but the lycanthropes that can control it surely would keep the fact that they have a transforming super mode a secret unless need be. 

The Werewyvern is a bit unique in that it spreads its lycanthropy curse through its poisonous stinger tail. The flavour text makes this sound a bit more exciting, like it's always going to be random whether its victims succumb to the transformation (it's a surprise to the Werewyern as it is to the victim). In reality, it's not that much exciting -- upon being stung, a constitution saving role is rolled. If it fails, and only if the character dies from the poison, do they become a Werewyvern. 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 36: Distortion Investigation

Last we left off, we investigated the Mega Dimension distortion. This strange child Ansha gives a bit of a cute smile and more un-childlike observations about how the donuts can give us access to that otherworldly space. Team MZ alternates between going 'aw shucks' at the praise and questioning what the heck Ansha is talking about. Ansha admits that she doesn't understand it herself, but she went into the Mega Dimension six months ago and saw a wondrous legendary Pokemon... which the game immediately spoils to us as Rayquaza. 

I mean... okay? Mega Rayquaza being involved in the game all about Mega Evolutions isn't a brand-new revelation, I suppose, and going on a bit of a meta-joke, Rayquaza being a legendary being associated with the skies definitely does not explain these alternate dimensions.

But any discussion about this is interrupted as we get a call from... Corbeau. Lida gets a bit miffed, asking the group if anyone borrowed money from the mafia again. Corbeau lampshades that no one in Team MZ would be stupid enough to borrow money off of the Rust Syndicate, and that's the actions of a real idiot... all except one, that is. The camera zooms into Taunie's face, while Corbeau makes a comment noting that he knows he's getting a dig in to Taunie. What a dick! I love him. 

Corbeau asks us all to come, and there's a brief discussion about what to do with Ansha. Despite Ansha offering to remain behind in Hotel MZ, somehow the group consensus leads to it being okay to bring a child all the way into a yakuza base because I'm there. Which... fair enough, I can beat up Corbeau easily, but it's still mighty irresponsible, even if Corbeau is our homie now. 

We arrive in the Rust Syndicate Base, finding not just Corbeau and Phillippe but also Vinnie. No, Vinnie did not join the Rust Syndicate despite also having a mafia-coded look. This is just a collaboration between Rust Syndicate and Quasartico. There's a brief question of why Ansha is here, but they just handwave it away. The dialogue here is probably one of the more clunkier ones in the game, but essentially Rust Syndicate and Quasartico want to hire Team MZ to look into the distortions, and they'll be acting as our like, base control or whatever. Quasartico had detected a different kind of energy from the tower, and while they would investigate these readings on their own, Quasartico has their hands full cleaning up the mess from the tower, while also handling Lumiose City's own redevelopment. The Rust Syndicate, meanwhile, decide to protect their investments, er, city, that's totally what Phillippe wanted to say... but any planning they were about to do was interrupted by the gigantic distortion above Prism Tower. 

An offscreen recap later, and Corbeau and Vinnie identify the portal rings as Hoopa's signature move, Hyperspace Hole, which allows access to this alternate dimension that they dub uncreatively 'Hyperspace Lumiose'. Corbeau tells me to basically get used to Ansha and Hoopa being part of Team MZ... although there was a bit where Corbeau makes sure we know that it's Ansha's call on whether she wants to be in or out. I guess he's the kind of cool mafia who doesn't like to put children in danger. Not without consent, anyway. Ansha being Ansha, she immediately agrees without question. 

Vinnie and Corbeau then give even more exposition about the new map layout, which shows up distortions all over the map like side-quests. Corbeau also has a 'survey' meter similar to the Infinite Z-A Royale, only instead of Challengers' Tickets, we get progression in the DLC story. The portals phase in and out of existence depending on the in-game days, and I need different donuts to access them. It's a bit grindy, and as I understand it, a huge chunk of the game depends on this. This... I don't really like, but we'll see how much the grind throws me off as I go through them. 

It is, by the way, a bit weird that it's Corbeau, the criminal overlord of all people, that's heading this investigation to alternate dimensions instead of Quasartico or even Professor Mable. But I really like Corbeau, and I find him as one of the most fun characters in this game, so I don't mind. 

Anyway, we get back to Hotel MZ and I make a bunch more donuts with all the random berries I've picked up over the game. Mable shows up via hologram and makes a joke that we are making our hotel stand out with the donut business... before just dropping the new regional Pokedex for the DLC. It's similar to the DLC areas in Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet, with a separate Pokedex for the Pokemon exclusively found in the distortions. I do like the detail that Mable was 'pinged' by my pokedex registering a Mankey. 

It is... a bit of an over-the-top silliness that Mable gets super excited over me seeing a Mankey versus her blithe commentary on Hoopa, the mythical genie Pokemon, being there in the hotel. I mean, sure, Mankey isn't in Lumiose City, but in-universe Pokemon have been gathering in Lumiose over time. Sure, Mankey isn't even native to Kalos, but it feels rather silly that this was the in-universe thing that make her get super excited. Mable gives me some tasks and disappears, and Ansha comments on what a lively woman she is. 

Anyway, the game then throws me into a couple more Hyperspace Lumiose missions, with Corbeau telling me that I need to do certain quests. Each journey into Hyperspace Lumiose triggers with 3 quests (again, similar to the battle cards) and has stuff like catch a certain Pokemon, break some of the strange floating balls, or do stuff like catch them unseen or after they've been stunned. It's... it's all a bit repetitive, honestly, and the vibe of a dead, empty distorted ghost-town is neither different nor creepy enough after going through it two or three times. I mean, yeah, the Pokemon there are all level 125 or something, but it's just numbers. Temporary numbers. The donuts boost my own numbers, which ultimately is dumb and artificial because the Pokemon we catch from the dimension go back to like, level 15 or something. And I don't even mind because how stupid is it that random level 125 Zubats are just flying around in the dimension with no real explanation? 

And... and I did some runs with donuts and some runs into the hyperspace to catch some of the new old Pokemon appearing, but I genuinely don't have any interesting commentary to say about that. There sure are like, Purrloin and Zubat or whatever in these dimensions, and a bunch of parkour and whatnot. The tasks are repetitive from what I've seen, and this is... this really is something that I feel I'm going to be doing passively while listening to a D&D podcast or something and not a 'main' game. So in that end, I'm not a big fan. 

After finishing the first research task, Vinnie and Corbeau conclude that... the distortions could bleed into the real Lumiose City and might be dangerous. I mean, yeah, gee, I could tell you that, too. It does kind of feel a bit like the plotline of Digimon Adventures, doesn't it? Another problem, however, is that Rogue Mega Evolution is likely to happen in these distortions, and Taunie worries about the sheer power of rampaging Hyperspace-altered Rogue Mega Evolutions. Corbeau also brings up another wrinkle: Hyperspace Lumiose gets unstable if too many folks head inside together, and the maximum number is three. 

Corbeau suggests that Team MZ bring in a third trainer, who can do the work of both Naveen and Lida... which honestly isn't even that high of a bar to clear. The game makes us ask Corbeau and go through five options of the five main supporting characters -- Canari, Ivor, Jacinthe, Grisham and Corbeau himself. Answering 'Corbeau' has him smirk and say that we can't afford his services. Ivor's dumb, Canari would start a livestream, Grisham is unpredictable... and Jacinthe? Corbeau's answer: "we'd be better off keeping her quarantined in one of her Jacinthe Zones". Bless you, Corbeau, I know there was a reason I liked you. 

Corbeau then lets our new teammate in, and it's a blonde girl in a huge puffy jacket. She introduces herself as Korrina! A returning character! Korrina's grown out his hair and has fancy new jacket. She demands a battle to test out her new skills, and we fight on the Rust Syndicate's Battle Court. Korrina wants to fight me with mega evolution, then rips off her cloak to reveal her brand new wacky design. It's... it's sure a lot. I'm not a big fan of it. 

But battle we do! Korrina still has a party of four Fighting-types. The first is a Machamp that gets one-shotted by Yveltal, then a Hawlucha that I moonblast with my Diancie, and a Sirfetch'd (!) that I take down with my Xerneas. I mean, at least compared to Pokemon XY, she's using more than two Pokemon! Korrina's ace is, of course, a Lucario. Korrina yells out loud, lifts her arms in the air and jumps up as she mega evolves her Lucario...

...and it's not the Mega Lucario we know and love. 

It's, uh... it's... I can say it's ugly, right? It's got the colours of shiny Lucario, which is neon yellow and teal... not the worst colours out there. But Mega Lucario Z has like, terrible anime hair, weird zigzag lines down its two head-sausages which are also coloured weirdly, and a random shark tail. It's... uh... I have gone on paper saying that I'm not the biggest fan of base Lucario's design, and this one makes that look like a masterpiece. I just... I just don't like this one. At all. 

I also one-shot it with my Mega Diancie. Get this abomination out of my sight. 

Korrina thanks me for showing me that I showed myself through mega evolution, and that I am a kind and straightforward person. Korrina then talks about how Rogue Mega Evolution takes its toll on Pokemon, and as the 'Mega Evolution Successor' (something that is a bit apropos of nothing if you didn't play Pokemon XY) she wants to help us free these Rogue Mega Evolutions. Corbeau and Vinnie send us off on our next mission, where we are to fight and catch all the Rogue Mega Evolutions we find. Sure, I was going to do that anyway. 

Our next distortion is in Rouge (not rogue, rouge as in the colour) District 1. Korrina stands there and briefly wonders what would happen if she pokes the thing to see what happens. I feed Hoopa a donut so it stabilizes the portal, and we enter to see an Absol in the throes of Rogue Mega Evolution. Yep, here's another "exciting" and "interactive" part of the gameplay, you need to stock strong, high-value donuts for these Rogue Mega Evolution fights, for the privilege of having the timer not run down quickly. I don't care for that, if you can't guess. 

This battleground is bereft of buildings, and the terrains kind of cut off randomly between grass, snow and concrete; and random cliffs are 'half-rendered' in the background. Korrina asks me what happens if an Absol mega-evolves, and I can answer that happens to regular Mega Absol (either its Special Attack or Speed goes up)...

But instead of the Absol we expected, this Absol evolves into... MEGA ABSOL Z. 

I most certainly did not expect that, and let out an expletive when I saw the design. In a much more positive fashion compared to the expletive I let out when I saw the horrid Mega Lucario Z. Mega Absol Z has its entire design be jet-black, its head-spikes be spikier, and instead of angel wings, we get an edgy, emo spiral-twisted giant fang made up of fur sprouting off of one shoulder. This is every emo trope you could give to a fanmade Pokemon back in the day, distilled into a great twist on Absol and an amazing contrast to the more angelic regular Mega Absol. 

The actual fight against Mega Absol Z isn't anything to write home about, with rather simple attack patterns and the only real problem being the timer (which is extra annoying since these new rogue megas have buffed HP pools due to their higher levels). But I capture the Absol, and get the Absolite Z. Korrina suspects that the energies turning into a mega stone is the Pokemon thanking me for freeing it from the pain of Rogue Mega Evolution.

Apparently, Mega Absol Z isn't... isn't actually a brand-new species variation that is literally debuting with these hyperspace portals, which I would absolutely prefer it to be. It would give these new megas a certain oomph to them that makes them feel special. But Korrina just handwaves it as Mega Absol Z being 'discovered recently', so apparently people have seen Mega Absol Z elsewhere? Eh. I don't like this particular bit of explanation. 

Taunie questions Korrina's overexcitement and her qualifications as a Mega Evolution expert, but she's just a bit wacky now. A golden poke ball appears and this acts as a poorly-shoehorned tutorial to the golden Pokeballs that can appear in Hyperspace distortions... which I've already seen from venturing into the hyperspace portals before. I get a bunch of berries... and Nice Butter, which Taunie and later Ansha acts all impressed at me somehow looting butter from an interdimensional un-space. This is a thinly-veiled excuse for Ansha to upgrade her skills, being able to fit four berries instead of three. I actually like the butter joke.

Korrina comes to Hotel MZ, noting that it's been a while since she's been around. Korrina is introduced to Team MZ, and we give Ansha the Nice Butter. Korrina also makes an observation that nothing seems to be real in hyperspace Lumiose other than the Pokemon and the items like butter and berries that we find. A bit strange... what happens to all the Pokemon we don't rescue? Do the random hordes of Panpour and Wimpod just tumble off into the abyss alongside the remnants of the false echoes of Lumiose City? 

In the subsequent dinner, Korrina tells us that she's been in Hotel Z before, and re-establishes that she knew AZ and had been working alongside with her, being the original trainer of the Lucario I used to fight the first Mega Absol. Actually, with AZ's main plan being to prepare Lumiose City against Ange, what have you been doing all this while, Korrina? We know she's invested and allied with AZ, but what has she been doing outside of Lumiose while rogue mega evolutions are rampaging around? We never get a clear answer to this. Oh well. Korrina tells us that she 'came back' to Lumiose to pay respects to AZ's grave and to deal with this problem. 

She reveals herself to permanently have a room in 301, which is apparently a room that is permanently locked. Which would probably be a major impact if we actually wander around the hotel's floors and are able to visit other rooms and other characters, which was what I had been expecting and lowkey a bit disappointed that we didn't get. We get a short scene of Korrina (now in her cloaked, superior design) going up the rooftop to see the Prism Tower with the giant swirling distortion above. She promises to AZ that she'll help end the suffering of all the Pokemon suffering from rogue mega evolution. Neato. 

And with that... that's where we'll leave off for now. Yeah, the writing is a bit clunkier than the base game, honestly, with the game kind of alternating between going 'oh look wacky hijinks' and being in full-on exposition mode. The grinding (which I have been doing on-and-off in-between main story cutscenes) aren't helping either! I still find the general concept of the story neat enough, but the framing is perhaps not the best. 

Random Notes:

• Korrina's new design is... certainly something? I am definitely not a huge fan of her bizarre mega-stone inspired hair exploding in all directions (the extra colours are a terrible-looking head-scarf or something); and especially not the removal of her roller blades which was her whole thing. I do kind of like the ridiculousness of having all the mega stones strapped around her body like Kamen Rider Zi-O, although it still is kind of... not the best look. I'm also not sure about her random change of personality to a somewhat 'look at me, I'm wacky but nice' vibe compared to her energetic but still mostly down-to-earth original personality. 
• I think the silliness is that they made a model with her only having her regular blonde hair which just looks so much better while still being a bit exaggerated. 
• With how much it's repeated, I am very very happy that unlike the day/night switch animations that the sequences of Ansha and Hoopa cooking the donuts; and Hoopa opening the portal are both skippable. Sometimes they even auto-skip if you've done a couple of donuts and/or missions in a row. 
  
• There are also 'Hyperspace Berries' in the Hyperspace Lumiose, which are basically negative-coloured versions of the most basic berries, and provide larger bonuses when turned into donuts. 
• Again, Corbeau is a friend now so it's okay, but I do like Lida constantly getting some digs at Naveen, telling him to shut up since he's someone who didn't actually go into the Rust Syndicate base with the rest of them. 
• Corbeau's answer to a little child entering his yakuza base: "is that so."
• I did like the hyperspace-warped Lumiose City has some nonsensical setups, like how the Holovators are all broken apart and point in weird directions. 
• Four or more people going into Hyperspace Lumiose is the 'limit', which... I dunno, I feel like the little sojourn we had with the full team plus Ansha didn't really communicate this too well but... oh well. 
• While eating with Team MZ, Ansha gets a smaller, less-dark version of the croissant curry that everyone else has. 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 35: Mega Dimension, Mega Donuts [DLC]

So, it's time for the DLC! 'Mega Dimensions' is the DLC for Pokemon Legends ZA, and it takes place right after the main story has ended. I return back to the Hotel MZ, where the quest marker sends me to the rooftop. A little girl with a brain that impossibly circles around like a donut is sitting on top of the roof, and I have the option to ask the little child why she's sitting on the roof. 

This child is Ansha, who declines to explain where she comes from under the justification of 'an air of mystery', but then the mythical/legendary Pokemon Hoopa appears floating next to her. So yeah, just like some other mythical Pokemon in previous remakes (most notably Deoxys in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Keldeo in Sword/Shield and every Sinnoh mythical in Legends Arceus) we're getting another mythical Pokemon being spotlighted in a main game. That's nice! 

Ansha has arrived on my rooftop with a particular request... and her request is the rather ridiculous 'help me make a delicious donut that will fill Hoopa with power'. It's a neat nod to the Hoopa anime movie, where Hoopa has a bit of a sweet tooth for donuts in that movie due to donuts also being shaped like rings. 

We get a bit of a scene with Taunie, Lida and Naveen gathering together and lampshading what a weird request this is, and how strange that she needed to come all the way to a hotel with strong battlers to request for a donut mission, and Lida briefly questions why she doesn't just ask her parents. But Taunie, in her mentality of always helping people, will always honour any request.

Ansha apparently lives in a different hotel before, noting that Hotel Z is a bit different from the hotel she's used to living in, and it feels a bit calmer. Taunie offers the kitchen and the front desk for her to use. However, as we set up the ingredients for Ansha to bake her donuts, we realize that we're out of butter! Crucial, crucial butter! 

Taunie leads me to a shop that sells Lumiosian Butter, and... there's only one pack of butter left. Really? The only pack of butter in all of Paris -- okay? I guess I shouldn't complain, we've had cups of tea shared between four guards of Saffron City as a plot device before. Taunie shares that this baker is someone she had helped out in a jam before, and now they're nice to her.

However, our butter quest is interrupted by an unlikely pair... Grisham... and Tarragon! So after the events of the climax, the multiple pairings throughout the game's story have seemingly been mixing together and making friends. Tarragon explains why this unlikely duo is working together. He wants to make a brand-new merchandise called Canari Bread for Canari and her fans, and Grisham has agreed to teach him bread-making and take him as an apprentice. Despite Tarragon's joy, Grisham deadpans that he "never agreed to an apprenticeship, but [he] mustn't extinguish the passion of a budding baker." That line got me giggling a bit. 

And so, we're fighting for butter. Because that's how this DLC storyline goes. With absolutely no seriousness. I appreciate it. 

We get a proper 'double battle' between two sets of trainers, and in the DLC, the opponents' Pokemon have a ring under them. I guess people were complaining that the multi-battles in the climax were a bit too confusing with four to six Pokemon, only half of which are your allies, running around and doing animations? Grisham and Tarragon have basically the same Pokemon they use, and they mega evolve both their Excadrill and Charizard at the earliest opportunity. 

After taking them down, Tarragon bemoans "so long, Canari bread..." and Grisham notes that their teamwork is lacking because they don't fully understand each other... particularly highlighting the fact that Tarragon doesn't drink coffee. I... sure, Grisham. If you say so. I didn't expect you going from a cold emo guy into the funniest deadpan straight-man, but here we are. 

Anyway, we get the butter, but of course Taunie shares just a bit of the butter to Tarragon so he and Grisham can make the Canari bread. Because, yes, apparently this is the only block of butter in all of Lumiose City, and Tarragon is going to need this super-duper avant-garde butter for his amateur attempts at breadmaking, and this butter is going to last Ansha for all of her butter requirements. Okay. Maybe the specialness of Lumiosian Butter is how long it can apparently last, because I go through butter faster than that. Tarragon is ecstatic, while Grisham initially grumbles that he hasn't agreed to take an apprentice... but if he's going to teach, he's going to expect only the finest of breads. Okay!

As I return to the hotel, Ansha has changed into the most adorable little chef-baker's outfit, and Naveen has made a couple of custom shop stands for her. One with an adorable donut logo shop-stand, and another being a menu. They've also strung up some of those party chains around AZ's old desk. It's actually a bit adorable, and the game devoting several unique models to these props really does mean that Ansha's little donut store is going to be a permanent addition to the hotel. Naveen makes a bit of a gag about this, noting that it's a bit much if Ansha's just going to bake a single donut once... but then gets shot down by Lida, who lampshades that Naveen was the one who made the artful decoration for the child. Aww, Naveen! 

Anyway, Ansha has claimed the counter, I give her the butter, and Ansha asks me to choose a donut for her to make, since her donuts are made-to-order. Again, I just kind of play along. She asks me to pick three berries, and she'll make the donuts from that choice. It's a nice little way to utilize all the berries I have been gathering throughout the game (which hasn't really been useful other than the occasional Sitrus Berry usage). Every game since Generation III always has a little minigame involving berries, either for contests or to create food for Pokemon-Amie friendship or whatever, and it appears donuts are going to be the little berry gimmick for this game. 

I toss in some of the more common status berries (and Lida gives me a bunch of Pecha and Oran Berries in case I somehow don't have any) and we get a brief little cutscene of Hoopa and Ansha doing some Cooking Mama animations to make a donut. There is a 'level boost', a flavour profile and some points, and Ansha says that Hoopa now has a donut to eat. Ansha then heads off, and we follow her strange request that Hoopa's going to eat the donut somewhere else. That donut's going to give Hoopa a huge surge of power, apparently, and we're going to consume that donut near the Saison Canal, near the Justice Dojo. 

Lida continues to note that at no point throughout all of this process has Ansha explained anything. And Ansha continues to insist that she just wants to feed Hoopa the donut. Finally, in the canal, Ansha reveals her goal... 'to catch a fine legendary Pokemon for her dear mama'. Okay? A good child? But that Hoopa is legendary? Naveen's answer is a hilarious "I have some concerns." and this leads to Ansha deciding to demonstrate. She points out the brick wall... and then suddenly a weird warpy distortion (it's 'squirmy', according to Lida) appears on the wall. 

Hoopa then eats her donut, and then pulls out the rings on her ears and tosses one towards the squirmy distortion, which expands into the same Hoopa portal-hole we see in Hoopa's appearances in the anime, manga and the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games. Ansha explains that the donuts give Hoopa a great surge in power, and this allows us to travel through the 'Distortion'. Team MZ is just shocked... and even more shocked when Ansha and Hoopa just jump into the strange warpy unexplained portal. 

Taunie and Lida start yelling at the terrifying and dangerous sight of a little child jumping into a portal. Naveen yells: "I have MANY concerns!"

And so, to rescue the child, Team MZ jumps into the portal... and we get a nice cutscene of me falling through the portal, and we get a Digimon Adventure style showcase of the 'regular' Lumiose City appearing in the sky above as I fall down the dark abyss. It's quite neat-looking, actually. 

And I end up in... a strange, bleached, off-colour version of Lumiose City in the void of darkness. The world around the strange fake Lumiose is just the darkness of the abyss, while the regular Lumiose City hangs upside-down in the sky surrounded by Hoopa's portal. Oh, and parts of this strange false city just cuts off and trails into the darkness, like a video game environment that wasn't fully rendered. Team MZ is horrified, confused, but quickly decide to pair up. Despite the game seemingly giving me a choice on who to pair up with, the game pairs me up with Lida and Taunie goes off with Naveen. The two teams go in different directions, and apparently Rotom-Phone signal still work because we could still keep in contact with each other. 

As I wander around the strange, empty reflection of Lumiose City with a distorted music... Lida yells at the appearance of a strange Pokemon... MANKEY! ...okay, that's not very weird, we've seen Mankey since 1996. Except Mankey isn't supposed to appear in Lumiose City! The National Pokedex is still banned! Lida is concerned that despite the place's resemblance to Lumiose City, the Pokemon population is different enough. 

Mankey being Mankey, it looks at us and immediately screeches in hostility, summoning four more friends from on top of the building. They jump down (crotch-first, as the camera shows) and it appears to be a simple horde battle... until the game pans away from the cutscene and shows that these Mankey are LEVEL 115.

Excuse me??? I wasn't spoiled on this, and in fact I'm spoiled on nothing for the DLC other than the existence of an alternate dimension, so I was not prepared at all at the game so casually and randomly debuting Pokemon above the level of 100. My party is around the level of mid-70's, with a mixture of legendaries and my main party, and it's quite bizarre to see these Mankey use Leer and Low Kick while outleveling my Diancie. And actually managing to gang up enough to knock my poor rock princess out. They're still just Mankey so it's not a threat, but the fact that they're beyond level 100 is a bit of a surprise.

Team MZ reconvenes, being even more worried about Ansha's safety. We chase down Ansha, but she's just extremely calm. I suppose she does have a mythical Pokemon of her own. Ansha notes in disappointment that the 'fine legendary Pokemon' she's looking isn't here. Creepy child Ansha isn't worried about the strange dimension we're in, nor the potential danger, but acknowledges that there's no point for her to be sticking around if her 'fine legendary Pokemon' isn't there. We get a cutscene of us ascending through the while Hoopa hole, and we return to regular Lumiose City.

Team MZ discusses what to do next, planning to tell Vinnie... but then Ansha gasps... and we see an expanding large distortion above the remnants of Prism Tower. And as it does so, (rather goofily) the title of the DLC appears from inside the portal. 

And... and I think this is where we'll leave off for now. It's a bit of a strange beginning to the DLC, and the pacing is really a bit slow and weird with the whole butter quest. But here we are with the Mega Dimensions DLC, and while I do know that it's nowhere as good as the main game, I am still excited to play through it! 

Random Notes:

• Peeling back the curtain a bit, I got the DLC when it released, but obviously wasn't able to play it until I finished the main story. I did part of the opening quests for the DLC shortly after beating the game, but then got distracted by Xerneas/Yveltal/Lysandre shenanigans after doing the initial part of teh DLC. Part of this article (and some of the side-quests) were originally written alongside the Yveltal sidequest until I realized I really should separate the DLC and the base game. And... there is actually a bit of a real-time break I took in-between doing the original post-game versus finally going to the full story of the DLC. And here we are!
  
• I would like to take the opportunity to say that... I still don't like the idea of Pokemon games having DLCs, but it feels almost honest compared to the nonsense they're pulling with the Mega Stones tied behind some bullshit time-gated multiplayer. It's not even 'tied behind multiplayer' the way Palafin or Spiritomb used to be, but the time-gating of the stones is just moronic and utterly nonsensical. I loathe that with every fiber of my being, and I really didn't bother to chase that bit of completionism even if it's permanently missable or whatever. Paying for the DLC is one thing, being forced to encourage both paying for the 'right' to play online and to chase the mega stones for some of the more popular Pokemon... yeah, no.
• Naveen: "Donuts have to be fried in oil that's at least 350 degrees Fahrenheit. She'll need supervision." and also, "Donuts are dangerous business. The oil gets scalding hot." Didn't expect Naveen to join in the silliness and leave Lida as the straight-man comedian, but here we go. 
• 'Pii hya hya' isn't exactly how I would think Hoopa would sound like, but okay. 
• The Lumiosian Butter has the rather fun description of "if you know, you know." What do I know, man? What do I know???