Let's Play Mystery Dungeon DX, Part 5: The Tale of Ninetales

Oh yes, it's plot time! Last we left off, the prophet, er, sorry, 'one who stares at the sun' Xatu gave our isekai protagonist Mudkip some ominous warnings about the balance of the world tied to my state as a transformed human. As I wake up, my partner Bulbasaur talks to me and asks if I'm worried, and panics a little about the whole world balance thing before calming down. 

As we enter the town square, the three gossipers Lombre, Snubbull and Bellsprout are discussing about the Legend of the Ninetales, and sends us off up to Whiscash's pond to consult the town elder about the legend of Ninetales. Whiscash, finally relevant to the game, is happy to regale us with the tale of Ninetales. Ninetales has nine tails filled with psychic power, something that isn't actually true for the main series game, but it's always something quite cool that they decided to pick a particularly eerie pokedex entry for what's otherwise an average Pokemon, and use it for the backbone of this entire game's story. 

Anyway, Ninetales -- who's treated here with all the reverence of a legendary Pokemon -- is said to curse anyone who touch any of her tails to be cursed for 1000 years. And, of course, someone did it. And that someone is a human. A human, which is very relevant to my case!

But before that human could be cursed, the human's Gardevoir partner jumped in the way and sacrificed herself to absorb the curse. Taking pity on the innocent Gardevoir, Ninetales asked the human if he would take Gardevoir's place... but the human had already abandoned Gardevoir and fled. Disgusted by this act of betrayal that repaid an act of sacrifice, Ninetales made a prediction that 'that human will one day be reborn as a Pokemon, and the balance will be upset'. 

This, understandably, disturbs both Bulbasaur and myself, particularly since we just got that whole 'balance of the world' speech from Xatu earlier. But Whiscash just laughs it off, saying that it's just a story that no one is sure of the veracity of. It's something he just tells all the time.  

As we go away from Pokemon Square, there's actually a nice scene as Bulbasaur gets depressed momentarily and plods off, asking that we don't do any rescue missions today since he's just so tired. He trods off into the distance... before catching herself and admits that the tale made him doubt me for a bit. It's honestly understandable, especially since he just heard that whole story about how a human betrayed their Pokemon partner! Bulbasaur yells at me that we're friends, the power of friendship is strong, and all that jazz, before we call it a night. 

And, of course, after being absent for quite some time, the ominous dreams happen again. I, Mudkip, end up wrestling a bit with what to do, before finally deciding to speak up as the mysterious silhouette keeps appearing behind me. 

And, of course, the mysterious silhouette is... "I am Gardvoir." she says, her expression actually happy as she notes that she's glad that she could finally speak to me. Gardevoir goes "I am your..." but the dream ends just right before that one crucial word. 

I wake up and realize what's going on in the dream, and jump to the conclusion presented by all the narrative and the dramatic cutoff that I might be the human that abandoned Gardevoir to die, and, yes, all the prophecies are pointing that I might be the cause of some disaster of the highest order as being the human struck by karma and curses to be reborn as a walking mudskipper.  

A bit downcast, I walk out of my little Mudkip house, to meet Bulbasaur... who says that there's a huge commotion in the town square. Uh oh! Conflict! The town's atmosphere is different, and throughout all of this there is no ambient music which adds a lot of atmosphere especially considering the game's been quite intent on waving that main theme jingle everywhere.

Anyway, the entirety of the town is gathered together in the center of Pokemon Square. Even the shopkeepers are out of their shops to talk to us! Bellsprout, Lombre and Snubbull are super excited and shocked that the Ninetales legend is apparently true, but our good buddy Caterpie is very clearly uneasy about something. The camera pans over to who's talking to the crowd... and it's Gengar! Who Caterpie understandably is uneasy with. 

Gengar spins a whole yarn about what he eavesdropped from the Hill of the Ancients... which honestly is quite fair and I blame Xatu's very ambiguous wording for it. Gengar talks about how there is a human that was transported in the Pokemon world, that's the reason of the world's balance being shifted... and the disasters... and if it's not fixed, the UNTHINKABLE will happen. The game insists on using 'the Unthinkable' instead of like, the destruction of the world or a cataclysm or something, which I found to be a bit funny because this is one of the few Pokemon games where a very explicit death is part of the main storyline. 

Gengar's solution -- without disclosing who the reincarnated human is, which I thought is quite clever -- is make it an accepted point among the riled-up crowd that they should just... get rid of the human right? The human can't complain if their presence is causing the disasters and imbalance in the first place, right? The crowd agrees, until Gengar points out the identity of the human... me!

And everyone is shocked. But the Gardevoir dream from the previous night has really shaken up my character, and when everyone demands an answer, all I can say is "... ... ...". You're not Red, Mudkip, you can, and have, actually spoken several times in the game! Bulbasaur in particular is extra-distressed, understandably, but Mudkip is under the impression that he truly is the human that was cursed by Ninetales. Again, very understandably, thanks to the whole Gardevoir-ghost thing. 

Gengar pounces on this and wants to get rid of me to regain peace, and the crowd actually advances on me a bit. Traitors. Traitors! I will remember this. Obviously nothing too graphic happens, but it is a nice moment that I'm sure shocked a lot of younger players back in the day when the helpful NPCs and shopkeepers actually turn against you. That's simply something that doesn't happen a lot in video games!

Fearful of the mob, Bulbasaur and I run off to our house on the outskirts of town. Bulbasaur demands to know why I didn't defend myself, but my response is a very depressed "I want to end the team" or "I'm tired of this". I talk about how I don't deserve on the rescue team, shocking Bulbasaur (we do have greater priorities than the membership of a rescue team, to be fair) and I tell him about the Gardevoir situation off-screen. Bulbasaur insists that I don't actually know what really happened thanks to my amnesia, and goes through a typical friendship speech. He believes in me!

It's at this point that Team Alakazam shows up, and he notes how regrettable things were in Pokemon Square. In the two minutes that I've been gone and talking to Bulbasaur, they conducted an emergency town hall meeting... and the consensus is to get rid of me. Traitors! Persian, Kangaskhan, Gulpin, all of you! Alakazam's dialogue is nicely written to be polite and reluctant, but he is still the bearer of bad news. He notes that he's going to give us one night before he gets rid of me, and goes on a very cool Lion King style speech to tell me to run. Run, survive, and find the truth. 

Because while Alakazam clearly believes in me, he's also got his duty and he can't help me. By the next day, all Rescue Teams will attack me without hesitation. (Incidentally, I know this is a GBA-engine thing, but it'd be fun to see other Rescue Teams as NPCs earlier in the city) They straight up put a kill-on-sight bounty on my head! Alakazam also makes it known by no ambiguous means that he, Charizard and Tyranitar will absolutely be on the hunt. There is no mercy the next time they meet. 

With that glum message, Bulbasaur insists that he still believes in me. Caterpie also shows up, our first rescue client, and does the anime-little-child thing of saying that we all made a promise -- a promise that Caterpie will join in our Rescue Team once he's grown up. And it's at this point when Mudkip finally broke out of his funk that the jolly ditty theme music plays back. That's nice. I like that. 

And we start off the next dawn! Ready to escape! There's a cute bit where Bulbasaur tells me that everyone in town is still asleep, but I can run into town and use most of the resources and shops (other than Makuhita's gym) while literally everyone is sleeptalking through their services. You can even get them to give their tutorial for their services, but with zzz's and snore's tossed in place of parts of their dialogue. That's cute. 

Bulbasaur talks about how we are fugitives now. We need to keep running and never be caught, and I resolve to find out who I am before I'm a Mudkip... even if we have to run all the way to the edge of the world.

As we prepare to go, the NPCs we rescued -- Caterpie and Metapod, the two Jumpluffs, and Diglett -- show up to send us off, making sure we know that we're nice people and that they believe in our innocence. Even Pelipper the postman (er, post-pelican) shows up to drop off a little farewell letter, which I thought was quite nice.

And so, as Mudkip and Bulbasaur leave the city... 'thus begins my journey as a fugitive'. And that's where we'll pick up next time, because this has been quite a long chunk of Let's Play that's just entirely cutscene describing!

Random Notes:

• So yeah, I repeat some of the questions I asked last time -- how are humans in relation to this particular Pokemon world? Becuase clearly Pokemon partners and the existence of humans are a known quantity for this legend -- who everyone understands -- to work, and yet we never see any humans, and the fact that I am a transformed human is such a big deal. That's perhaps the only real questionable plot hole in an otherwise pretty fantastic story for a GBA game. 
• I really wished that Ninetales had been given the Fairy type, especially since Alolan Ninetales is Ice/Fairy. While this game's script does talk about Ninetales's innate psychic powers, it's a pretty fair folk thing to do, isn't it? To curse someone for a thousand years, and to make deals and stuff? It even fits Ninetales as a kitsune. 
  
• While I do appreciate that the target audience for these games are a bit younger, was it really necessary that they repeat a chunk of Whiscash's Ninetales story after I wake up from the Gardevoir dream? Especially since the game prevents me from doing anything but the cutscenes and maybe some shopping, so the scene would be fresh in my mind!
• When the story demands that I go to Pokemon Square, Diglett's little tunnel closes up. That's an interesting way to get around the fact that the little tunnel wasn't there in the original GBA/DS version of the game. 
• I know it's probably a function of this game being a remake, but I really wished Ekans and Medicham were at least there in the Pokemon Square to rile everyone up. Honesly, I wished more NPCs were there, too, in general, which would really hype up the 'mob' vibe. 
• Just to see what will happen, yes, I confirm that Wigglytuff can go 'camps, camps, TAAAAAH' even while she's asleep.
• The next leg of the game is just going to be Mudkip and Bulbasaur, because we don't want to involve the other members of our rescue team who are in camps. It does make sense from a story perspective, I suppose, although a two-player party is going to be annoying once we actually get to the dungeons. 

Bleach TYBW E41 Review: lightning beAst

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 41: God of Thunder

It has been a while since I watched the previous cour of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War. The previous cour rewrote huge chunks of the rushed and mishandled finale, and I have been waiting for the final cour to finally conclude the vision of how Bleach was supposed to end nearly a decade ago. Unfortunately, this cour, rather annoyingly for me personally, comes out at a time where I just don't have quite as much time or energy to devote into writing about stuff in time. That has affected a lot of my other writing, but I do care enough about Bleach's final arc to put effort into doing proper reviews. Hence, the compromise, and the delay in these reviews. I'm sure schedule slip will hit this review series at some point, but I am going to at least try my best to deliver.  

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Anyway, 'God of Thunder' opens up the final cour of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War arc. These first couple of episodes are going to wrap up the final Schutzstaffel fights, and the final properly-paced fight during Bleach's original last days. The episode starts off with an interesting bit of a recap. Juhabach 'dreams' and sees some ominous visions about Ichigo and Haschwalth, before we get an interesting way to recap things -- a CGI shot of Wahrwelt and the camera zooming through the battlefields to show where everyone at, from Gerald Valkyrie rampaging against the Visored, showing the other combatants facing off, until finally landing at Uryu and Ichigo facing off against Haschwalth. 

In scenes that are still relatively consistent with the manga's counterpart of these events, Uryu tells Ichigo that Haschwalth and Juhabach switches 'The Almighty' powers, and basically sends Ichigo off to end Juhabach while he stalls Haschwalth. There is a bit of a back-and-forth while Haschwalth's shadowy powers explodes out of his body, and Uryu assures Ichigo that he doesn't planning on those being his last words. 

Ichigo, Orihime and Chad run up the stairs until they are interrupted by random giant moving stone statues. This was an infamous scene in the original manga that really came out of nowhere and is unexplained, and just functioned to give Chad (and Ganju) the lamest reason to stand back and do something. The scene is preserved more or less in its entirety here, so poor Chad really doesn't do much but fight some unnamed statues. 

What is changed, however, is that we do get some explanation as to what the statues are -- they are glorping with the same shadow-goop and eyeballs that animated some of the fake Soldats that attacked the people below in the Seireitei, as well as the false Soldat that fought Giselle and Liltotto, so at least we do get the explanation that these beings are tied to Juhabach. Chad, for his credit, does get a cool line talking about how Ichigo always watches the front, so it falls to him to make sure the path back is clear for him. 

Of course, I highly doubt this is a fight that's going to get any extension, and I'd be happy just to see the resolution. Does Yasutora Sado actually beat some nameless stone statues? Find out after a nail-biting ten-year delay to this epic cliffhanger!

Instead of the very vague Antithesis-vs-Balance non-fight that they had in the initial manga (which played in the background of the Askin, Gerald and Juhabach fights and concluded in the lamest way ever), Uryu and Haschwalth are actually given some action. Uryu is trying to figure out how to fight someone who can see the future, and trying to push the limits of Haschwalth's (or the Almighty's) future sight. We get a flashback to Haschwalth's note that he is surprised from the last season. 

While Uryu thinks about it, he keeps shooting his Quincy arrows, while Haschwalth dodges and Matrix-es around the battlefield. It is quite interesting to see Haschwalth smirking in a smarmy manner and actually showing more emotion than his normally emotionless look that he's had for essentially the whole series, for sure. 

Uryu then elects to do something quite logical -- just because Haschwalth can see the future doesn't mean that he can react to a massive, gigantic area-of-effect attack, and Uryu again assumes his Vollstandig form. He sends his army of arrow drones around Haschwalth and begins a multi-directional attack to try and get Haschwalth in them, but Haschwalth just blitzes through them, dodging or deflecting every single projectile and even getting close enough to last blows on Uryu a couple of times. These scenes look very cool! There's a nice bit of an attempt on tactics (as much as that means in a battle between superpowered ghost-people) with Haschwalth noting that Uryu is limiting the angles that Haschwalth can attack by constantly positioning walls behind him; and a pretty cool sequence where Haschwalth jumps on Uryu's little arrow flechettes like they're  platforms in a video game. 

Haschwalth then gives an interesting motive speech, talking about how no one can take His Majesty's power away from him, since he's the Quincy born to be together with Juhabach. It isn't emotional or anything, but it's a nice description of why he does what he does -- and reaffirms the flashback with Bazz-B and why Haschwalth ultimately betrays poor Bazz-B. He really is essentially brainwashed and seeing that his life and existence only has value as long as it revolves around Juhabach's purpose. 

Haschwalth then changes the topic, pointing at the ominous giant black orb-rift thing that was glimpsed very briefly in the previous season. This then cuts to a scene in the real world, where forgotten characters Tessai, Jinta and Ururu are beating up Hollows only to see a massive crack in the sky appear. That's quite welcome, and they identify this as a Distortion -- and Haschwalth notes that this is Juhabach's "True Wish". Juhabach's main goal, and this is something that wasn't fully explained in the original manga, is to use the constant imbalances of souls going from one realm to the next, to upset the three realms... and to utterly destroy the borders between the living world, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo so Juhabach can rule over everything in his own image. 

It is something that the TYBW anime has been slowly hinting at, and wasn't present in the original manga unless you squint really hard (much of Juhabach's manga motive discussions has been more nebulous, and involves more about taking revenge and taking the throne away from the Soul King). According to Haschwalth, Juhabach wants to create a new 'Welt', a world only for the Quincy. Haschwalth boasts that Uryu isn't part of this future that he has seen. 

And we get a rather cool (if cheesily ridiculous) scene of Haschwalth's sword taking forever to pierce Uryu's glasses, and doesn't even do anything but scratch it a bit before Uryu zips aside as he transforms back into his Vollstandig form. Surrounded by the CGI glowing arrows, Uryu delivers a bit of a badass boast... even if his 'to-do list' boast isn't really anywhere as cool as even Chad's in this episode. My boy's trying, though. Bless him. 

Finally, the second half of the episode deals with a very faithful adaptation of the Askin Nakk Le Vaar fight, although the addition and extension of action scenes does make the fight a lot cleaner to follow. There's a fun comedic scene as Askin lies down on the ground and does some random monologues about how he doesn't have to move to avoid the giant pieces of rubble falling all around him. He converses with a paralyzed Yoruichi, who is disabled with a Gift Ball containing the spiritual pressures of common gases. Askin also notes that it's not that he's not trying to kill Yoruichi; anyone else would ahve been dead with all this fatal dose manipulation. Askin notes that Yoruichi is a 'freak', and he absolutely did not go easy on her. 

But then, Urahara pops up and for an anime adaptation that has removed all instances of sexual jokes (and only leaving in just fanservice designs), it is actually a bit of a surprise that they retained Urahara's wedgie joke, and the fact that he administered the cure to Yoruichi by groping her butt. There's a bit of a comedy thing going on, and... and I actually buy that Askin is the type of guy to let this kind of nonsense happen. 

Urahara, of course, cures Yoruichi and they run off. This is to the surprise of Askin, before he remembers the data about the 'special potentials' and how Urahara is one of them due to his sheer unpredictability. Askin, who prefers to outsmart his opponents, bemoans the fact that he's stuck with a troublesome opponent. 

Urahara, of course, injected an improvised 'immunity enhancer' plot device that can neutralize the effects of the Deathdealing on Yoruichi for around a mere five minutes. Yoruichi engages Shunko again to attempt to fight, but Urahara then notes about trying out 'that thing', which Yoruichi is reluctant about... but of course, we quickly later find out that Urahara isn't giving her a chance, and forces her to engage her 'Raiju Senkei: Shunryu Kokubyo Senki' form. The manga (and this anime adaptation) does gloss over it, but it actually is a nice nod as to how Urahara is funny and good, but not nice, seeing that Yoruichi has shown to actually not consent to assume that form. 

It is a cool (if, as always with Yoruichi, very fanservice-y... particularly with how the animation handles her lightning 'clothes') form. And just with Yoruichi's earlier Raijin Senkei animations, the animators had a lot of great fun animating Yoruichi zipping around here and there with lightning flashes and thundering explosions. 

But let's take a step back from the huge flashy explosions, and note that the Raiju Senkei form has always been a bit of an ass-pull. The fact that Urahara gets to find the perfect solution to Askin's immunity (with some handwave about this functioning like influenza A antigens) isn't the problem. Heck, I didn't even mind that the story continues to refuse to give us Yoruichi's zanpakuto name or whatever and just keeps introducing new Shunko forms. That's all right. Her having a more 'beastly' form -- as eye-rolling as the gag of her purring up to Urahara at the end is -- is also something that kind of makes sense. 

But to introduce it here after we already see Yoruichi have a pretty good showing earlier in the arc, just as a random last-minute power up before Yoruichi collapses anyway and doesn't really do anything beyond setting the stage for the Urahara/Askin fight? For all the screentime that Yoruichi got throughout the TYBW arc, it is a bit of a shame that the way that Yoruichi exits the arc (and the story, too, in the manga) is for her to be defeated and against her wishes be forced to take on a form that she hates... which proves to not be all that useful either. 

That said, it is cool, and as the animation studio has shown last cour, they love Yoruichi. Both showing how she blitzes around and the effects of the lightning blasts slamming and blasting in the skies... it's good punchy-punch action stuff. Yoruichi zipping in and appearing in front of Urahara to bash Askin in the middle of an exposition is a really fun sequence, and I like the sequence where Yoruichi blitzes Askin on top of that spire. 

After that cool sequence, we get the silly bit where Urahara distracts Yoruichi with some catnip, notes that Yoruichi can't transform back until the mood strikes her, and Yoruichi gets knocked out as the five-minute timer expires. But then Askin returns with a giant purple ball, 'Gift Ball Deluxe', as he finally engages his Quincy Vollstandig, Hasshein. And that's where the first episode of the cour ends. 

And that's where this episode stops. It is a visually great episode, with Yoruichi and Uryu both having really cool, flashy action scenes. The weaknesses of Yoruichi's exit from the story still remains, and I am always never a big fan of the random new Raiju Senkei form. But a lot of the buildup to some other aspects of the show's final story is done pretty well, and I'm a fan of it. Moreso than the adaptations of the relatively straightforward fights, I'm just really excited to see what new additions and expansions they do. 

Random Notes:

• The first three episodes of the cour were released in certain regions as a compilation movie a month before the airing on TV. Which means that through osmosis, I already know roughly all the major changes in the first three episodes -- making it a bit easier to write the first three episode reviews. The rest of the season would absolutely take a lot more time to review, though.  
  
• Among the things shown by the CGI 'drone view' recap is, rather interestingly, Bazz-B's corpse. Out of everything else to show? Okay? Wonder if there's something they're going to do with Bazz-B?
• Using the imbalance of souls does tie in neatly with how the TYBW arc did start with the Shinigami killing a lot of Hollows offscreen, and something tying in to the upcoming serialization of the Hell Arc, the deaths of great Shinigami like Yamamoto and Squad Zero. 
• It is from the source material, but I did find it a bit hilarious that the anime kept Yoruichi's 'sexy ass up' pose for when she's injured and barely able to move, while giving us a brief shot of her brother in a similar predicament but he's choking up blood and nearly dying.
• Also, just to rub the fanservice in more, the 'God of Thunder' title card is even shown on a shot of Yoruichi's ass, which got a loud chuckle out of me for its sheer absurdity. 
• As much as an asshole Urahara is in this episode, the expressions he makes while he brings up flashcards, and how he responds about his role as doing exposition for Yoruichi's form to Askin, is hilarious and brings back some old-school Bleach vibes where there was a bit more comedy. 

Digimon Reviews, Episode 61: Pteromon and Friends [Liberator]

So we have a bit more focus now as we get a huge batch that were released to tie in with a piece of fiction. And that is the web-comic (and associated web-novel spinoff) Digimon Liberator, which was released to tie into the 2020 reboot of the trading card game. And Liberator has gorgeous artwork as well as a surprisingly large amount of new Digimon!

I've read through most of the Liberator manga in the process of doing these new articles. I know nothing about the card game so I do admit to skimming through most of the battle explanations, but the artwork and new Digimon designs do help to carry the reading experience.

I'm a TCG guy anyway if you can't tell by the MTG content in this website (and it used to have a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh and Hearthstone content too) but I don't think I have the capacity to learn another TCG. The artwork for the cards are gorgeous, though! I have been resisting dropping the new TCG artwork on a lot of the older reviews.

The premise is similar to a bunch of other Digimon media, with main protagonists Kazama Shoto and Kinosaki Arisa arriving through a virtual-reality MMORPG into a 'digital world', except in the world of Liberator, the most popular aspect of Digimon is the card games instead of the combat. They find two brand-new, strange Digimon that are independent and seemingly not tied to the pre-existing cards -- Pteromon and Shoemon -- and end up being embroiled in card games, an ominous organization, and attempting to rescue these living digital creatures. 

The manga focuses on Shoto, Arisa and a couple of other characters Violet and Owen... but the accompanying web-novel expands the cast and gives us a lot of additional Digimon forms with the rest of the 'Debuggers'. We'll cover all the TCG / Liberator designs more or less together, though!

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Yolkmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Slime
• Attribute: None

Ohhh!!! A cute!!! I like this. Yolkmon is a sentient yolk, with a cute face drawn on the yellow part of the egg while the white part just blorbs around it. And it's wearing the Digitama shell as a hat! That's adorable. The fact that it's a sentient egg fits with both the oft-ignored 'slime' designation of the Baby I stage, as well as the fact that this is the baby form of a brand-new Bird Digimon.

I love the profile for this one, too, which notes that the Digitama shell actually allows Yolkmon to use it for camouflage, allowing it to evolve without being spotted. That's cool! Actual unique lore for Baby Digimon instead of going 'it's a small version of the marketable Child-level'!

 9/10.

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Fluffymon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Lesser
• Attribute: None

This does look like Pomumon's relative a bit, doesn't it? Fluffymon has got that jagged bird beak with teeth that Pomumon has, in addition to being a round friend with two tiny bird feet. I like it! I like its colours, and there's even a plant-esque vibe to Fluffymon. Digimon started off introducing a lot of its birds and plants together in the Wind Guardians set, leading to a bunch of birds and plants sharing features, and Fluffymon could very conceivably evolve into a Floramon or a Pomumon instead of its assigned Pteromon. It's like, yes, there are more features that correspond to Pteromon than other Child-levels, but the whole point of Digimon is some degree of being able to change into other forms of digital data creature! And that's what I like out of these baby Digimons!

Fluffymon's wings are underdeveloped, and its feathers allows it to camouflage in the trees, but it runs really fast and headbutts enemies for intimidation. A cutie!

 8/10.

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Pteromon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Bird Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Not to be confused with the jet-pterosaur Pteranomon, which was indeed shortened to 'Pteramon' in the English dub. Pteramon is a new bird-dude Child-level Digimon sharing the same body style as Piyomon, Hawkmon and the two Falcomons. With its name referencing a prehistoric dinosaur, though, there's a bit of a subtle 'Lost World tribe' to Pteromon. It's got more primal, jagged-looking set of feathers on the underside of its arms, spikes on its long tail, and a helmet-mask that looks like salvaged bone. It's not so obvious to be eye-rolling like the tribal getups of Allomon or Sepikmon, but subtle enough that Pteromon looks different from its other Child-level bird friends. It's not evident in this official artwork, but Pteromon has the same mouth as Fluffymon under that mask. I kind of like it. 

Pteromon's descriptions aren't the most interesting, although I appreciate any discussion of these Digimon biology. Pteromon uses its horns as sensory organs, perceiving changes in climate by reading the wind striking against its horns; and also has instant-regeneration abilities for its feathers. (Despite its artwork, it doesn't manipulate the wind any more than any other bird Digimon). Anyway, it feels a bit less special since we've had a bunch of other birds before, but I do find this one to be quite a pleasant new addition. 

The Pteromon line is used as one of the partner Digimon in the Digimon Liberator web-manga, where it's the partner of main character Shoto. Interestingly, while most Digimon manga tend to go for dinosaurs and dragons, Shoto is associated with birds even though he's in a setting where he could have multiple Digimons -- with Shoto's other main partner being a Muchomon of all things. 

 7/10.

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Galemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Bird Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Pteromon evolves into Galemon, a 'wyvern' style dragon-dinosaur with a more serpentine body. I do like this look quite a bit, and the mix of serpentine features and avian bird features work quite well to give Galemon a unique look. Its head is a lot more 'Digimon-esque', looking like the helmets we see in the Greymons and Megadramons of the world, and there are some extra fuzz around its chest and talons that I'm not sure I like. But overall, a pretty neat little wyvern monster.

Galemon is noted to scuttle around on its four legs (again, like the wyvern-style dragons we see a lot in modern fantasy media) and its horns are far more sensitive than its pre-evolved stage to detect things around it almost like a sixth sense. Galemon is also described to particularly like fruits and nuts, developing a great symbiotic relationship with many Plant-species Digimon, guarding their territories in exchange for food. 

It's a neat-o! I like it. 

 8/10.

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GrandGalemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Bird Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Is it the Perfect-stage or the Ultimate-stage that it becomes a dude? It's the Perfect stage, this time around. I do like GrandGalemon a lot less than its two pre-evolutions, but it's still a pretty cool bird-dragon-man. The silhouette and colours used for this one is pleasing and doesn't hurt my eyes... I think that's also a problem I have with some of the uber-detailed flashy dragon-robot-men that I complain about so much; it's sometimes really hard to even describe or tell what I'm looking at. GrandGalemon doesn't have that problem. It's an armoured muscular bird-knight with two large robot wings. 

I like that it still has the same feathery tail that Galemon and Pteromon has, and the horns are even more epic. Known as the 'King of the Forest', GrandGalemon has covered its body with magical armour that allows it to camouflage perfectly in the forest. That's not a giant hammer/mace that Grandgalemon is holding, but rather a gunbai fan, a mythical wind-controlling item from Chinese/Japanese myths. 

Apparently, GrandGalemon is part of the 'Vortex Warriors' led by... MedievalDukemon? That's not a name I've heard in a long time. MedievalDukemon is also one of GrandGalemon's possible evolutions that Shoto's Pteromon turns into a surprising amount of times. It's a cool bird warrior. I can't say I dislike this, but it's also a bit of a 'safe' direction for the main 'mon.

 5/10.

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Zephagamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Magic Knight
• Attribute: Data

Zephagamon is the big final Ultimate form, and it gets the expected set of robotic armour bits and pieces to streamline its arms and legs. I don't think it's a surprise at this point that I like this form a lot less than GrandGalemon, but... but as far as these things go, Zephagamon is actually quite neat? Again, the silhouette is really clear here. A central knight with two massive bird wings attached to it with those white armour, and its arms extend outwards in windy wing-blades? That's a neat enough design, even if it's not 'my thing'.

Zephagamon is known as the 'God of Wind' of the digital world, a title that I'm surprised we haven't really gotten. Digimon has never really been big on the traditional RPG fantasy elements, but I don't think wind's been particularly represented even in the video games. Zephagamon uses the wind not just to fight enemies, but all the other positive aspects of wind that helps it to protect the environment and stuff. Zephagamon's chest-wings that cover its chest actually covers its Digicore, and in times of need it will open it up and unleash all the energy from its core.

 4/10, could be 5.

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Vortexdramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Bird Dragon
• Attribute: Data

As mentioned in the previous episode when discussing Ryugumon/Ariemon, all the main characters would receive an alternate Ultimate-level during the story. While Pteromon has also moonlighted as a MedievalDukemon (!) in the story, its proper alternate Ultimate would be Vortexdramon. Which is a lot cooler by virtue of being a draconic entity and not just a dude. Vortexdramon's got a serpentine body, two arms that end in wings with blade-like feathers, and two more robotic 'regular' wings. Its head is a knightly-armoured face, and there are a couple of extra details like those vines with orbs hanging from it, and even more mini-wings below it. 

The design is a bit too cluttered for me to fully say I love it, but I appreciate where we're going with this one and it feels like a much grander 'wind god' form than Zephagamon. From the official profile lore, Vortexdramon also acts as the mount of MedievalDukemon, and alongside Pteromon's other highly-evolved forms is part of the 'Vortex Warriors'. Okay!

Those tiny orbs on Vortexdxramon's vines (?) contain other types of magic which allows Vortexdramon to combine other elements with its wind, allowing it to create elemental wind attacks like blizzards, scorching-hot sandstorms, or giant blades. It's not 'my thing', but it's a much cooler final form than Zephagamon for good old Pteromon. 

 6/10.

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Forgebeemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

The Funbeemon line (Funbeemon, Waspmon, Cannonbeemon, TigerVespamon) debuted around the same time that the Commandramon line did, in that time between Frontier and Savers. And the two of them would languish in not being used as either partner Digimon or as adversaries in that anime, instead being relegated to being minions in the Digimon Next manga. Which I loved the depictions of them therein! Funbeemon unexpectedly became one of the partner Digimon of one of the web-novel characters, and got some new forms in the process!

With the Commandramon line getting a split adult evolution, the Funbeemon line also got one. Forgebeemon is an alternate Adult evolution instead of Waspmon, and I love the idea here that we're depicting the 'worker' caste instead of the 'soldier' caste. And just like how Waspmon was a giant robot wasp death-machine, Forgebeemon is a robot wasp construction mecha. I love its robotic buggy head, but while the official artwork shows Forgebeemon from the front, it does have a proper insectoid body layout -- that yellow orb is the thorax, and the abdomen stretches on behind. Forgebeemon's even got the requisite six limbs! Its two giant taser/mecha-arms are obvious, but it's also got two smaller humanoid arms that can manipulate power tools. And it's got a pair of chunky legs. I love that on top of the thorax are tiny little nonfunctional wings. Real 'worker' bees can fly as well as their 'soldier' counterparts, but I do like the idea that these Digimon bees have specialized so much that they've given up flight. 

I really like this. It's a nice bit of world-building of older Digimon 'sets', if you will, while still feeling very different and feeling like it's actually building towards the completion and world-building of the Funbeemon family. Love the little detail that Forgebeemon's gun is actually a glue gun, using 'honey glue' that it produces to help in its construction. In a rather cute little detail, Forgebeemon are noted to not actually know what they're building, they're just following orders. 

 9/10.

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Vespamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

The original Funbeemon line ended in a 'TigerVespamon', without there ever being a Vespamon. Well, we have one now. (Vespa is just the scientific name for a wasp). Vespamon does an actually good job at looking like a less-impressive version of TigerVespamon, with a lot less laser-cyborg brouhaha. I actually prefer Vespamon's look much more, with its simpler silhouette and a lot of the details being easier to pick out. It's got a lance and a 'honeybee comb' forcefield shield. Neat.  

Where its fellow Royal Base Perfect Cannonbeemon is a giant mobile base, Vespamon are the equivalents of elite soldiers that hunt down specific targets around their territories. The new bio establishes the Vespamon as being the 'royal guards' of the queen, and the most elite of them are promoted into the TigerVespamon. 

I would like Kamen Rider TheBee here a lot less if it didn't really come in a set with all of the rest of the Royal Base, but as it is, I find him neat!

 7/10.

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Queenbeemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

It is kind of unavoidable that the 'Queen' of the Royal Base ends up being a queen bee waifu, isn't it? I suppose it does make sense, in a way, and it does fill in the niche since the TigerVespamon should be guarding something. It has been a while since we've gotten one of these 'sexy lady' Digimon, and I'm a bit bummed (if not surprised) that the boss of the badass robot bee hive ended up being one of these. There are some nice details, like the metal mask, the hexagon honeycomb cape and the end of her ponytail being a bee abdomen... I suppose there's a 'tokusatsu villain' vibe to her backstory of being the scientist that created all of the technological advancements of the Royal Base. She does kind of resemble Bee-Woman from the original Kamen Rider, doesn't she?

Queenbeemon is noted to be weaker than its fellow Ultimate-level TigerVespamon, which makes sense since those are her guards. That fan is noted to be flashy but does absolutely nothing at all. However, Queenbeemon compensates herself with her... 'Royal Throne'?

Oh HA HA HA! Okay, with the Digimon official profiles really liking to give profiles to every other alternate form out there, Queenbeemon's Royal Throne isn't actually considered an 'alternate form'. Even though 'Beelzebumon on a bike' is considered an alternate form?

Queenbeemon's royal throne is pretty cool. It's goofy, yes, but since I'm already comparing TigerVespamon, Vespamon and Queenbeemon to tokusatsu villains, this does feel like a big wacky mecha that would show up in one of those shows. I like the big, bulbous orb-body that recalls Waspmon, and it's got giant chunky arms with launching stinger fingers, and a bunch of cute little propeller-headed bee minions. Oh, and that giant wasp-stinger-cannon at the bottom of the Royal Throne is, of course, a big honking sci-fi laser cannon. Again, I am also a big fan that this is a cheesy giant bee throne and not just a big robot bee Gundam. Which would be cool too, but would be redundant with TigerVespamon and this giant mobile base actually fits with the military themes as well. Actually, the older and newer lines would fit better if we swapped the Perfects, with Waspmon going to Vespamon and TigerVespamon as a soldier that gets increasingly promoted, while Forgebeemon to Cannonbeemon to Queenbeemon plays off the trope of the military base. Neat!

Queenbeemon on her own would have earned a very lukewarm, maybe even scathing response from me, but with her giant awkward mecha suit? I am actually happy about it.

 7/10.

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Dinomon

• Alternate Names: Dynamon (alternate EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Dinosaur
• Attribute: Vaccine

That's just Godzilla! Burning Godzilla! Not to be confused with actual Godzilla crossovers that would not be covered in this blog!

Dinomon is an Ultimate-level dinosaur on fire, described as the 'pinnacle of Dinosaur Digimon' that has awakened ancient power. Dinomon is the dinosaur Digimon, then, being coloured an impressive set of red, black and yellow with giant fireballs for fists, and smaller bits of flame popping up from its head and shoulders. Little green markings pockmark its body, showing that... yes, Dinomon was a Tyrannomon, and the designers of Liberator wanted to give a proper, non-cyborgified Ultimate level for Tyrannomon! That's awesome. Tyrannomon has always been ignored in favour of the more marketable Greymon, but it's not that Tyrannomon hasn't received a lot of alternate evolutions either... they're just all robots. Spinomon and maybe Dinorexmon are the closest, and they are one of those Ultimate-levels that have been "powercrept" in terms of how impressive and elanorate Ultimates are now. And those aren't exactly a T-rex! I love that someone took a look at Tyrannomon, really liked it, and decided that it's time that the chubby T-rex becomes Godzilla. 

I am a bit Godzilla fan, even if I haven't seen as many of the older movies as I would've like. The original "Nightmare Soldiers" V-pet actually had its sprites designed to resemble Godzilla kaiju before they dropped the crossover and designed brand-nee artwork out of the dot spri

Again, Dinomon's profile is essentially Godzilla. It builds up heat energy within itself, and ultimately will unleash so much heat and energy to destroy the terrain into ash and lava. So it needs to go into the sea to cool down its body. Not quite the reason Godzilla goes into the sea, but it's a nice way to incorporate that trope. Anyway, I like this one. I like that they're giving the option for dinosaurs to embrace their dino-ness and not just become one of the humanoid WarGreymons and VictoryGreymons and ShineGreymons and Siriusmons and Regulusmons and Dorugoramons and Darkdramons and Slayerdramons and Gaioumons and Dorbickmons and Dynasmons and Imperialdramons and UlforceVeedramons and Examons and -

 7/10.

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Punkmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Demon Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

This one is a bit of a cute lore cut. In the development of Digimon Tamers, Impmon was originally intended to be the main Digimon, until executive meddling from Bandai ended up pushing the dinosaurian Guilmon in the role instead, and Impmon ended up being an antihero. Tamers was better for that, perhaps, but two decades later and Liberator's writers decided to give its Impmon a full evolutionary line that homages Guilmon's evolutions. Okay!

Punkmon is basically a Guilmon or Growmon with punk and metal trappings. It's got a jacket, a tattoo on its belly that replaces the Digital Hazad, a whole ton of Digimon belts, metal mouth-bracers and bright green mohawk hair. Oh, and golden knuckledusters, too, why not. While intended to be Impmon's evolutions (particularly with that pierced devil tail, and Impmon's iconic scarf), everyone and their mother points out that this is even more perfect for everyone's favourite King of Rock, Shoutmon.

I didn't care for it that much the first time I saw it, but I ended up really liking the silliness of this whole design and its ties to Impmon and Shoutmon. Punkmon, of course, hates being ordered around as a group and gets angry when there's no audience. Its special move is a homage of the song 'Blitzkrieg Bop', where is heats up its brass knuckles and pounds the opponent to brand them with the Digimoji for 'punk'. Neat!

 6/10.

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Loudmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

Okay, so you take MegaloGrowmon's insane amounts of mechanical neck-and-chest brace and... replace that with a mothefucking sound system. I love that. I love that the chunky MegaloGrowmon arms are now speakers, and its shoulderpads are like those subwoofers. That's actually genius. I do like MegaloGrowmon's design, all things considered, but I've heard people describe MegaloGrowmon's cybernetic parts as being awkward and artificial looking compared to MetalGreymon. This ls a great and maybe even more thematic reinterpretation of the design? I love MegaloGrowmon's tail being a mass of AUX cables tied together by Impmon's bandana, and even the original metal whip jutting out awkwardly from MegaloGrowmon's back is now a super-long AUX cable. 

It's just amazing. Loudmon just wades into battle and starts yelling into the microphone built onto its one-band band equipment, amplifying the noise to break down the mental faculties of its enemies. Loudmon just treats all its fights as live performances and gigs, and of course it cares more about putting an all-out performance moreso than winning the battle. Unlike Punkmon, despite its attitude during the singing, Loudmon will actually praise the opponent if they put up a good show and maybe even consider collaboration. 

Its attacks? Metallica Edge and Deep Purple Blaster. Killer band choices. 

 9/10. +1 for Metallica reference. 

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HeavyMetaldramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Evil Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

Fuck yeah, they picked Megidramon as the Ultimate. And it's not as over-the-top as MegaloGrowmon, no, but they did replace all of Megidramon's demon dragon wings with... with metal electric guitars. The actual design is just Megidramon with some metal gear, and there are two more AUX cables trailing down HeavyMetaldramon's 'skirt', but I don't like it as much as Loudmon. 

It's still quite insane that this exists, and that it's actually done quite well. HeavyMetaldramon's personality is the same with Loudmon, where it goes around looking for exciting audiences and heavy metal songs, and even goes into Dark Area (i.e. hell) to search for exhilarating battles. I love this. I love the idea of Lucemon and Barbamon and Bagramon and all these fancy demon lords scheming and planning on how to break down the forces of good,  and this crazy dragon-man with guitars for wings just flies down, and demands a fight... but with metal. I bet it gets along well with the Etemons. 

HeavyMetaldramon's body is noted to constantly be emitting noise, and this somehow makes it hard for other Digimon to make phyiscal contact with the embodiment of heavy metal. That's neat. Its special ability? Black Sabbath. I love that. I shouldn't love this thing, but I do. Parodies are normally not my thing, but Punkmon, Loudmon and HeavyMetaldramon are just so... so fun!

 8/10.

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