Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 37: Sisters in Suffering

Last we left off, Korinna is happily enjoying her old hotel room in Hotel Z, while Ansha mentions that the hotel she stays is so decadent that she can't feel relaxed. Which... is something I can relate to for cities and towns, but for hotels... I've been in some really horrible hotels so the fancier they are, the better, really. The rest of Team MZ note how fancy Ansha's getup is, being someone who stays in Hotel Richissime, and Naveen mentions that even her apron is 'bespoke'. 

Lida then asks a question that someone probably should've asked before we brought the literal child into an alternate distorted dimension and a yakuza base: whether it's okay for Lida to be staying here seemingly away from her parents. Ansha gives some non-answers, noting that her donut shop is right there, and that she's been going home at night anyway... which sounds like a bald-faced lie, but then again Ansha is partnered up with Hoopa, the portal Pokemon. 

The bell to Hotel Z rings, and Gwynn and her Chandelure enters, with Gwynn being super surprised at the donut shop... before calmly pulling out her phone and saying very calmly that 'target acquired... in Hotel Z'. That's a very bounty hunter thing for you to do, Gwynn! Gwynn gets a shot off to shut off Nvaeen, the 'fake Canatic', which I found to be funny. 

But then Lebanne bursts in, doing her crazy wild-lady pose, and keeps yelling and screaming about 'no rooms!' and how 'there's no time for calm!' Lebanne is freaking out about risking the wrath of Lady Jacinthe. Naveen calms her down enough to explain her situation, and Lebanne does so, noting that Jacinthe has a close friend that she admires, and the daughter of that friend is staying in Hotel Richissime and she's gone. 

Of course, that child is Ansha, and based on the outfit and context clues of another rich person, it's Pokemon XY's champion Diantha, isn't it? 

Lebanne, meanwhile, hams it all to high heaven screaming in a larger font and all caps "MISS ANSHA! WHERE ARE YOU!" All of this is going on with Ansha and Hoopa standing in the room, and Gwynn even telling Lebanne that she's right there. Lebanne is so pumped up that she needs a battle to calm down, which is of course an excuse to have a double battle similar to what we had with Grisham/Tarragon. At least it's not as random as butter?

Gwynn isn't too pleased with this very 'Ivor-like behaviour', but decides to play along to crush the fake Canatic. So poor Naveen gets roped into the fight again. I actually find this to be nice; a nice follow up to the subtle rivalry the two had before.

The battle itself isn't anything special, other than the hilarious title of "Sisters in Suffering" for Lebanne and Gwynn, which I find hilarious. We've seen Lebanne and especially Gwynn's team a couple of times now. But Korrina explains the differences of a 'Z' Mega Evolution, noting that these Pokemon need less time to fire off moves, but burn through their Mega Power bar. So they're there for massive and rapid-fire burst damage. I fight them with Mega Absol Z, and it does run out of mega power a bit faster.

Lebanne having calmed down sits on a rock and starts giving an exposition about Ansha and how she really needs to find her. "I don't care what happens to me- wait, no, I do care what happens to me. But I care more about my duty as her bodyguard." That's a funny line from Lebanne as she rambles on. Of course, Ansha is right here. We get a rather fun sequence of Lebanne with her jaw open, and looking at Gwynn for confirmation silently, before she sighs and notes how distracted she was before the battle. 

Lebanne shrugs it off, noting that Ansha would be safe around Team MZ. Naveen notes that Jacinthe might not be all right with that, and Lebanne agrees... but Lebanne also notes how overprotective Jacinthe can be, and it's something that Ansha agrees with. Lida even makes a crack about how Jacinthe will probably shut Ansha in a Jacinthe-Zone, which I wouldn't put past the narcissistic lunatic. Lebanne decides to take an executive decision to defy Jacinthe. Yes! Break the chains of nobility oppression! Lebanne will cook up a story saying that Ansha is in her room in Hotel Richissime, before she heads off. Gwynn praises Lebanne for being considerate (not at all like Ivor).

Corbeau then gathers us back in the Rust Syndicate base, which is the new briefing location, I guess. Corbeau actually apologizes for making us run to Rust Syndicate all the time, because people get afraid whenever he and Phillippe roam the streets... which, you know what you are, Corbeau. He also doesn't like holo-calls, which doesn't have the warmth of a face-to-face chat. You know what? I am on you for that, Corbeau. Corbeau still directs our attention to the Hyperspace Rogue Mega Arena on top of Prism Tower, and... yeah, the big dimensional void-rift is threatening. Got it! Our research is basically allowing them to detect more rifts, containing stronger Pokemon. 

Corbeau gives us an update that more Pokemon from Hyperspace has been showing up in regular Lumiose City. Which would be cool if this was reflected in the Wild Zones or the overworld (which I thought was a bit of an underutilized mechanic) but sadly no such things happen. This cutscene does trigger a bunch of cutscenes that deal with Hyperspace Pokemon appearing in sidequests, though, so there's something. 

Corbeau and Vinnie direct me to a particular distortion which I must admit it took me a while to get to, being placed on top of a building. As Korrina, Taunie and I venture into this Hyperspace Portal, Korrina notes that the Ange tower was the cause of the Rogue Mega Evolutions... so why are the Pokemon in Hyperspace Lumiose still Rogue Mega Evolving? Taunie speculates that the energies from the tower bled into Hyperspace or something. 

But then, a Staraptor floats in the middle of the arena, ready to fight. And fight them we do. Korrina explains that Mega Staraptor is a Fighting/Flying type. Mega Staraptor is pretty neat-looking, exaggerating the Pokemon's 'emo brawler bird' features and giving a lot more definition to its feathers, its plumage, and most importantly its pompadour without going too over-the-top (unlike Mega Lucario Z or Korrina's new design). I actually like it quite a bit; I feel like if Staraptor wasn't limited by how simple a sprite could be, this would be what the original D&P designers would make it out to be. 

Oh, and those eyes. Black sclera and a glowing red pupil. That's fucking metal as shit, Staraptor. 

The fight is... miserable. Rogue Mega Staraptor is at level 120, with all of the bulkiness of what that level implies. But I went in with a mere +6 donut or something, which gives me a set timer, and considering the raid needs me to gather energy and to fight the Mega Staraptor, while also dodging it as it zips around and does this 'disappear then kick' attack (Fly? Bounce?) four times in rapid succession, it feels particularly annoying. The Absol Z fight was simple, but this Staraptor fight was... a miserable one. I don't feel like this game rewards particularly clever strategizing with Pokemon combat, or dodging, or understanding the mechanics of the boss's attacks, but just... 'did you consume a big enough donut before you came in' and 'by the way, we overinflated the defenses and HP because of the higher level'. It's just annoying. 

Fortunately, at least because this is part of the main quest, the game actually lets me 'continue the fight with the boss's HP reduced'. After restarting the Mega Staraptor fight a couple of times, I decided that it absolutely wasn't worth it, that I wasn't even having fun anymore, and just kept spamming this to whittle Mega Staraptor down. This is dumb. 

Beating Mega Staraptor gives us another golden pokeball with berries and even more butter, which Taunie dubs Great Butter. Yay. Great. This is starting to get repetitive. We return to Hotel Z, and we get another dinner scene with the croissant curry. They discuss how much more powerful the Pokemon in a Hyperspace Distortion is compared to regular Pokemon, but we also get information that Hoopa's donuts can buff the power of my Pokemon as I explore the distortions. Wonderful, this is... this is everything I hated about the sandwich buffs from Scarlet/Violet, but enforced into gameplay. I don't want to be optimizing which random berry taste flavour combination is going to be useful for my team for a certain 'raid' or whatever. It's miserable. I want to optimize my Pokemon party, my Pokemon stats, my Pokemon moves, my Pokemon's held items, all that, not whether I can stack a bunch of berries together. 

I'm not very impressed by all these donuts nonsense, if you can't tell. 

Anyway, Ansha and Korrina get a short scene as they look at the Prism Tower and the giant swirling vortex above it. Ansha notes that she feels like she could hear a voice calling from it. Korrina goes 'well, that's eerie', but quickly jumps to the conclusion that there's probably a Pokemon out there trying to tell us something... how did you jump to that conclusion? I mean, that's probably the right thing here, but it really is apropos of nothing. 

And we do get some cryptic words in the dark! Initially it's just '...way...' but eventually morphs into 'stay away...' Oh, that's nicely ominous. 

The next morning, there's some generic discussion and re-stating of our mission to save the Rogue Mega Evolutions. Taunie (despite being leader) is a bit surprised that Korrina and Ansha aren't considered full members. Ansha notes that she doesn't have the Team MZ logo anywhere on her garments, and Naveen responds that he couldn't bring himself to ruin a haute-couture coat with logo. Fuck the haute-couture, Naveen, you are going to be the face of the fashion world, you need to be more confident in yourself. 

Corbeau needs more time to analyze the data, or more accurately he needs me to run around and gather more hyperspace-task-experience or whatever they call it. It's okay. I don't mind jumping into some of these shorter rifts and catching new Pokemon and evolving them. A lot of these grindings happens in-between missions, and I really don't have anything interesting to say about them. None of the Pokemon are really even new to me per se, since I know all of the Pokeymans, and it's not like I'm seeing Nickit or Meowth or Sandygast doing anything new with the environment or trainers or whatever since it's just exactly the same Hyperspace Lumiose architecture with random Pokemon plonked in.

Speaking of Lumiose architecture, Korrina and Ansha go around to play tourist for the day. We get a rather long, extensive sequence through the Lumiose Museum. It is one of the best locations in the city with a lot of care put into it, and I appreciate that at least a main quest forces players to go through it, even if it's not the most comprehensive look around. Korrina volunteers to be 'a tour guide who doesn't know anything about art', which is actually funny. 

We stop in Laverre City and its clock, and Korrina makes a comment that 'the world is ours for the seeing', after Ansha mentions that she keeps being cooped up. Great sentiment, Korrina, except that is particularly untrue in this game which locks me only in Lumiose. 

There's some discussion about the Lumiose holographic model, the Hisuian ancient Pokeballs, and the Temple of Sinnoh. Through this all we get to see that Ansha has a bit of a complex where she doesn't consider herself a trainer (Hoopa is a 'partner') and she's afraid she can't stand up to all the standards that her mother -- who is totally Champion Diantha -- had set. Korrina offers to train her, and then shows off the painting of the Tower of Mastery to Ansha. Korrina gives her own backstory, saying that she was raised in a family that encouraged her to be a trainer, despite her own parents' being busy. It's a simple, if nice, sentiment of 'your parents will be happy as long as you are happy.'

Ansha tells us how she and Hoopa met, and she nursed Hoopa six months ago, where Hoopa looked wounded and injured after a battle with a 'mighty Pokemon' it played a prank on. She fed Hoopa a donut, and they've been buddies ever since. 

We then go to Cafe Soleil, where we get a cute scene where Ansha orders black coffee because that's the flavour her mom likes to have... and we get a hilariously off-put expression on her face. Yeah, I didn't get to like black coffee until I was well and fully into my teenage years. Korrina adorably seems to have anticipated this and ordered some Moomoo Milk Tea to swap. We get a bit of a discussion on what Pokemon exactly hurt Hoopa to that extent; and later on discuss how dangerous it was for Ansha to peek through the distortion. 

We then return back to Hotel Z, where Lida admonishes Naveen for not treating Ansha's little trip as something special. It's never the museums and cafes that are special, it's the occasion, the moment, the people! Speaking of the people, Naveen, Lida and Taunie show off the brand-new apron emblazoned with Team MZ's logo, which was actually quite an adorable moment. We formally welcome Ansha to Team MZ. Korrina... doesn't get anything with the rather flimsy excuse that her outfit is way too busy for Naveen to put another MZ. But I'm sure they could've fit something in there! We still note that Korrina is part of Team MZ, though. 

We are then interrupted by a noise from the meeting room. Lida hilariously thinks that it might be AZ's ghost... but as we investigate the room and Naveen starts getting war flashbacks to the Mega Banette fight, a dark figure drops down from the ceiling... and it's... a Gulpin! Falling on top of Naveen's head! It's adorable. Gulpin is adorable. 

Anyway, we get a new Gulpin guest in Hotel Z, with Team MZ speculating that this Gulpin is another refugee that teleported in from Hyperspace. Team MZ decides to let Gulpin live there; and it's now sitting on top of the donut table. I... okay! That's cute. I don't mind that. It's a bit unexpected, but I'm always for giving non-legendary, non-mascot Pokemon more spotlight. Hi, Gulpin!

Ansha and I feed the Gulpin a donut, and after the Gulpin eats the donut, he gives me a fancy rare berry. I guess Gulpin's use is to recycle shittier berries for fancier ones? Eh. I am still enamoured by Gulpin's adorable entry into the hotel and the story, if we're being honest. 

This went on for a bit too long, but it's a lot of scenes that I otherwise didn't have much to say about and so I decided to just cram them together. Next up we'll cover some sidequests! 

Random Notes:

• People actually realized that Ansha's very first appearance in the DLC had Diantha's theme song playing, but if I'm perfectly honest I don't actually remember much of Diantha's theme song before re-listening to it for this writeup. 
  
• The museum trip also has Korrina very unsubtly go 'if the Lumiose Museum is a trainer, it'd be a Champion!!!' in a very terrible unsubtle foreshadowing that just sounds random. 
• Going back to see Tarragon actually reveals that he is selling Canari Bread, which is a healing item. I can only buy one per day, and it's a croissant shaped like Canari's head. That's actually cute, not going to lie. 
  
• I like that there is some tangible differences to these specific types of Mega Evolutions. Not sure how they're going to translate it to the mainline games... maybe something similar to Gigantamax, where the super mode lasts only for a set amount of turns?
• At one point, Taunie notes that Jett and Quasartico is taking over a lot of the PR and communication with the public, and lampshades how everyone seems to be taking this very calmly. I do like that, but on the other hand as far as I can tell none of the overworld NPCs even mention anything about the mysterious portals appearing all over the city, which feels like it wouldn't take much to add like a couple dozen "These portals... they should be okay, right?" flavour dialogue. 
• Mega Staraptor's dex entry isn't really giving it anything new, only noting that it can soar through a sky while gripping an 800 lbs Steelix. Which is a bit of my annoyance with a lot of these newer dex entries. 
• Honestly, Korrina going 'you can just go to Laverre City if you want' makes me even angrier that the Mega Dimensions DLC doesn't actually like, select another map in Kalos to give to us as a proper DLC area. 

One Piece 1172 - 1173 Review: Imu vs. A Straw Hat

One Piece, Chapter 1172: The Elbaf I Admire; Chapter 1173: A Generation of Warriors

I didn't really do a review for chapter 1172 because a huge chunk of it is just a recap chapter, which is understandable considering that we've spent the last couple of months in a very intense flashback. We get a recap on the positions of everyone as far as the Straw Hats, Hajrudin's crew and Gaban are aware, as well as the powers that we are aware of. 

Hajrudin's group arrive on the upper layers, seeing the chaos that's happening with all the dream creatures, as well as the Great Erik, Dorry and Brogy's ship, on fire. Kashi, wounded but alive, catches our heroes up about Domi Reversi. Rodo rushes to save the children, because apparently the cowardly child Bjorn is his little brother. Goldberg and Gerd go with him.  

The second half of 1172 has Jarul pick up a broadcasting snail and give a whole speech exonerating Loki and condemning the World Government as the ultimate villains of everything bad going on in Elbaph's history. As Jarul goes on his speech and explains why he kept it all a secret for Harald's sake, we get a badass shot of Killingham, Gunko-Imu, and... well, Summers is taking a nap, so a badass shot of two of the three villains, at least. Jarul tells the World Government that they are not going to be anywhere as patient as Harald was, and that Elbaph is now an enemy of the World Government. 

Most of the random generic giants fighting against the dream monsters cheer in agreement, and Usopp goes super-wild as he gets excited that the Elbaph he loves is back. Yes, Usopp, maybe, hopefully, you'll do something this arc, then? The chapter ends with the demonized Dorry and Brogy almost reaching Jarul; while Zoro, Hajrudin and Stansen arrive at the scene. Zoro has a plan, and that's the cliffhanger. 

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(That cliffhanger didn't amount to much, by the way, Zoro's plan seems to just be slashing the giants, which is basically business as usual for ol' moss-head)

There is a brief discussion as Hajrudin and Stansen tell Zoro that while they understand that some fighting is inevitable, a bunch of random Domi Reversi'd Giant Warrior Pirate crew members take notice of them and start mocking their dreams of uniting the other giant tribes in the world. Mocking dreams? Them's fighting words! Something snaps in Hajrudin and Stansen and they just yell at Zoro to do it. 

Zoro hops on top of the heads of the Reversi'd giants, avoiding the, well, reversi game piece thing. Hajrudin and Stansen, meanwhile, go around the crowd. Zoro unleashes Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Crossing of the Six Paths, taking out a bunch of the weaker giants. Cool! We haven't seen rokudo no tsuji since Fishman Island! Zoro finds himself in the middle of Dorry and Brogy's attacks, both of whom swing down at him... and the art is a bit unclear here. Zoro seems to propel himself down by slamming the air (something he did in Wano and Thriller Bark), and this causes Dorry and Brogy to attack each other, slicing off each other's shields. 

Now if Zoro's plan is to get the two of them to fight each other, it would make sense, especially for Zoro, who has witnessed Little Garden. But the close-up to Zoro's face after he witnessed the two giants clash is one of confusion, which... confuses me. Was that not intended by Zoro? That doesn't really make sense.

But I don't really care, because the coolest part of this chapter is Brook. Brook, who has been squirming away like a caterpillar to reach Gunko... and he starts calling at Gunko by her real name. "Princess Shuri". Brook then goes on a bit of a rant saying things we already know -- Gunko looks familiar to someone from Brook's past, sharing features like the eyes and the love for his music... and even if Gunko wasn't Shuri, she would share blood. 

But then instead of missing a daughter-figure or someone he is fond of... we get a zoom-in to Brook's angry face, something we don't really see a lot from this skeleton man. "I had hoped to go the rest of my life without having to think of you again!" Brook actually hates Shuri/Gunko, and there was a huge schism caused by Brook thinking that Shuri killed her father, who Brook identifies as a man that he had 'owed everything to'. So that does fit a lot of the questionable decisions that Brook never brought a daughter-figure up and never looked for her. He actually hates Shuri. 

Of course, what seems to be the simple answer was is that Shuri probably got Domi Reversi'd or entered into an Abyssal Covenant, causing her to be taken over and used to kill her father the king. With one of Gunko's few flashback panels having her cry while yelling father, it's a safe enough assumption. 

Brook continues to yell at the 'patricidal princess', while Gunko/Shuri has her own inner confused fight with Imu, who is attempting to re-establish control. 'Shuri' regains control of her body for a short enough period of time to yell at Brook to run, and does something with her arrow powers to let go of the arrow powers. This isn't enough to affect the children, but Brook manages to get most of his body out, and more importantly so does Usopp and Nami's group (except for Robin, who is trapped by Summers instead). 

Brook doesn't get all of this mind-control stuff and is still  riding the high on finding a person that he hates with all of his nonexistent guts. He yells and demands to know who the figure before him is... and IMU charges and slams her trident onto Brook, who blocks it with the random Elbaph shield he has. Imu is just yelling and demanding to know who Brook is to Gunko, but Brook, Soul King Brook, Humming Brook, Straw Hat Brook... stands firm. Blocking, not for the first time in the series, a god-like being way more powerful than what he should be facing. 

I am sorry, I did not expect coming into this arc to have motherfucking Brook, my favourite Straw Hat, get both a second backstory and the honour of actually facing off against potentially the final villain of the series. You fucking go, Brook. 

Anyway, Summers is sitting on top of the giant kids and is mocking them, while Colon is just being defiant as usual. The other kids panic, while Summers is about to lead them into their ship, mocking that this is the last time they'll see their homeland. The group of mothers (and Oimo) finally catch up, but they are interrupted by one of the Mumas, specifically the God of Destruction Nika. However, despite some fear from the kids, the mothers just pull out their weapons and start hacking the Nika apart. They still have warrior's blood within them, after all, and they are also going to get their damn children back. 

As the Muma Nika starts stabbing the ground, Rodo, Gerd and Goldberg arrive. The three of them do a combo attack, their own version of Ikoku and Hakoku called Three Generals: Gokoku Sovereignty. I guess it's just an Elbaph thing that when you swing multiple weapons together, you just create a destructive beam of force. The fake Nika gets blown off towards Summers, who instinctively creates a giant thorn-club to bash the fake Nika away... and the fake Nika smashes and destroys the getaway ship. This gives us a hilarious Summers expression, and I am completely okay, by the way, of the direction that Summers is basically this arc's punching bag. 

Anyway, really like the Brook stuff. The Zoro stuff is fun, too, but I really wished I was a bit more clear on what is going on. 

Random Notes:

• I don't think I quite realized that the little lifts that carry people up and down the different Elbaph realms are shaped like two boats arranged like hamburger buns. 
• Goldberg briefly floats the idea of eating the God's Knights to stop their immortality. Goldberg's shield being mysteriously tied to Big Mom, this is... a rather scarily morbid little suggestion from him. Mind you, I don't believe that this would work; I've seen characters like Wolverine just tear their way out of being eaten by large monsters or whatever. 
• No sign of Franky (or Bonney, or Lilith), even though Ripley is there with the mothers group. 
• Sadly, Brook as a father is most definitely not a thing now. If the twist that Brook actually hates Shuri wasn't so good, though, I would probably be a bit more upset. 
• We have known for near a decade now that Brook's backstory involves him as the leader of a 'battle convoy' of a 'certain kingdom'. If that kingdom has been wiped out or assimilated by Imu in some way or form, it kind of makes sense that it was never name-dropped, I guess. 
• One question is how Gunko got the surname of Manmeyer. Did Imu just get that particular Celestial Dragon family to adopt Gunko? 

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. 

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

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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.