So, Delta Episode! Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire adds in an additional 'chapter' or episode or whatever to the Ruby/Sapphire plot after I beat the Elite Four, which is awesome. I've always loved post-game content and I thought one of the biggest strength of the Johto games is the amount of post-game content it has. I mean, there are always Battle Frontiers and legendaries to capture and whatnot, but I am always happy to see these additional stories being told, and the Delta Episode incorporates Rayquaza and Deoxys to the plot, making at least two more legendaries relevant. And it kind of absolves the fact that Rayquaza's expanded role in Pokemon Emerald is kind of completely cut out of the ORAS plot, whereas the fact that Deoxys is around excites me because of the possibility of these normally event-exclusive legendaries being incorporated into gameplay and having more to their story than just 'oh look awesome pokemon with a cool pokedex entry, but you need to watch the anime or read the comics to understand their full story.'
Anyway, I've already covered the little cutscene with
Cozmo and Zinnia in the previous post, and as I rebooted the game, I am back in
my room in Littleroot Town. As I go down there is a bit with my parents where
they give me the Pair of Tickets to watch this Litleo-something meteor shower (I'm
assuming it's a pokemon-based pun on a real meteor shower) in Mossdeep Space
Station, and Norman in particular isn't holding back on the fact that he really
wants me and May to get together. They're fun!
As I get out, though, I'm accosted immediately by Zinnia
and her cute little Whismur, and she's kind of… crazy? Or stalker-y, at least? She
talks a bit about how happy she is to meet me at last and how it's our first
'real meeting', and how nice Littleroot and my neighbour are, and brings up
Mega Evolution. She then just scampers off after her Whismur reminds her of
something.
Going off to May's house, apparently May has been
assaulted by some crazy girl who went in from her window, and had her Key Stone
stolen. We get a bit of her talking to her panicked mother, and it's heavily
implied to be Zinnia (she did mention May and
Mega Evolution). Whatever the case I apparently am not allowed to ask May
on the date though I guess it's for the best. She seems to kind of be in shock
over the attack. It's a bit surprising since I thought Zinnia is going to be a
heroic character, but I guess she is dressed
like a Darkrai. May tells me that Zinnia was talking about how Petalburg is
next.
Thinking that she's going to go after Norman, I hightail
it to Petalburg and find instead that Aqua Admin Matt is kind of attempting to
beat Wally up, and it's pretty scary to see this big muscular thug glowering
over this poor kid in his pajamas, demanding for the Key Stone. Though I'm sure
Wally, if he is inclined to, can take on Matt and his lone Sharpedo with his
team. Matt challenges me to a battle and loses. It's weird that his character
art has him holding two pokeballs when he only ever uses that one Sharpedo…
would it kill the designers to throw him a bone and let him have some others? A
Mightyena, a Golbat, a Crawdaunt, something? But whatever the case, Matt
hightails it out of there, talking about Meteor Falls.
Wally reveals that even before Matt showed up, someone
had stolen his Key Stone which he left at home. Key Stone or no, though, a Gallade
and an Altaria should be more than enough to take on a Sharpedo. Hell, the
Gallade alone is plenty. Talking to Wally and his parents a bit, I exit their
house, at which point Steven Stone calls me with some communication device on
my Pokenav Plus, and asks me to go to Rustboro City. For a moment I thought his Key Stone was stolen too, but I guess
no one's stupid enough to assault Steven Stone.
Steven Stone and his father, the president of Devon, tell
me the history of Devon corporations, how Steven's father's grandfather had
founded Devon Corporation after studying the ancient weapon in Kalos, and using
it to build this thing called 'Infinity Energy', which powers a lot of their
things like rockets or the submarine. I then get informed about the whole
meteor situation, and they want me to help to search for a Meteorite Shard while
Steven and Cozmo prepare the Link Cable that will take out the meteor, which
got a little chuckle out of me. Anyway, there's also this little fun moment
where Steven is like 'daaaad' when his father was making jokes about Steven not
being the champion anymore.
Anyway I fly all the way back to Granite Cave, and while
it's odd that a lot of the Delta Episode is just flying around and reading
dialogue, I thought it was a nice change of pace for a more plot-heavy stuff
going on here. Back in Granite Cave, I encounter Zinnia again, who's looking at
the big Kyogre painting. She's kind of… obsessed with me, I think? She's all 'I
adore you' and 'we keep meeting' and 'that's my boy' and all that, and her
pre-battle pose does have her jump into the air and do this crazy animalistic
crouch-leaning thing. She has dragon-types with her, namely a Tyrantrum, an
Altaria and a Salamence (which all got wiped out by the power of Primal Kyogre)
and after a bit she gives me the Meteorite Shard and does some ideal-truth
dialogue which kind of feels like it would fit in the Black/White games.
I then fly to Mossdeep Space Station where Cozmo and
Steven explain that the whole plan is to launch a rocket (powered with Infinity
Energy combined with the power in the Mega Evolution/Key Stone thing) to create a giant warp panel, and I do like how Cozmo notes how warping
has been around in the Pokemon universe since, like, forever. He even does this
little teleport warp panel jump! Steven and Cozmo talk for a bit about the
meteor and stuff like that, about how they need more energy to control the warp hole, and then Zinnia suddenly barges in and scares
the shit out of that poor receptionist girl. Can't fault her, Zinnia is kind of
a wild crazy woman. I do like her, though, weird-looking cape and all. Zinnia kind of flaunts around and swaggers a bit and talks
about the whole technology, and how we're fuelling the rocket with Infinity
Energy, and how abominable it is and how 'for the best of humanity' is not a
justifiable reason. But really, I don't think Devon is killing Wurmples and Zigzagoons en
masse to power up the rocket, because from what I took I think they found a way
to artificially recreate the energy.
At least I don't think they are really murdering a shit-ton of pokemon off-screen to power the freaking rocket...
At least I don't think they are really murdering a shit-ton of pokemon off-screen to power the freaking rocket...
Zinnia then talks a bit and tells us to think everything
through and compare necessary and unnecessary sacrifices and telling us to not
make mistakes of the past, before buggering off. Well, I guess she's just
crazy, because as Steven points out, a meteorite is coming down to kill all of
us. Zinnia goes off, and then Steven and Cozmo decides that we need to go to Meteor Falls to get a second Meteorite Shard. So that's where I'm off to.
I explore a bit of Meteor Falls, who, I have to say again, looks absolutely freaking gorgeous with all the waterfalls and the pretty rocks and everything. And I do like how the Delta Episode asks you to go to all these rather forgotten places like Granite Cave and Meteor Falls. After fighting a couple of trainers, I meet Steven, who's talking to an old woman who is a member of the Draconid clan or something. Apparently Zinnia is a member of the Draconid Clan, a Lorekeeper which is like the chosen one. Do think it is an odd, if interesting addition to the big lore, and they're like this Rayquaza-worshipping cult. Or temple priests. Or something. Whatever the case, apparently they hand down the power of Mega Evolution, having used it in the past before with Rayquaza to avert disasters by Primal Groudon/Kyogre and to destroy meteors. And Zinnia's infiltration of Team Aqua is apparently in order to summon Primal Kyogre in order to get Rayquaza to show up... and I guess that was why she was talking about sacrifices and whatnot. Steven ponders the moral implications of all this, before heading back to Rustboro. It's interesting, and I like how much it ties into the original main plot of Ruby/Sapphire instead of just a tacked-on postgame. It's wonderfully crafted so far.
Running back to Rustboro City, I go into the Devon Corps and the scientist from Petalburg Forest runs out and literally runs smack to me. He's being accosted by the Aqua Grunt from before, who's like 'yo, geek!' which I thought was hilarious. His Poochyena has evolved into a Mightyena and he's added a Golbat, so he's a bit better than Matt in updating his team. Still no challenge for a Gallade, though. He's got a couple of buddies who falls down easily as well. I do like how the grunts lampshade how it's impossible for them to win.
The scientist was all like 'I'll give you yet another Great Ball- no wait!' and apparently Matt has successfully stolen the Link Cable's control device, called the dimensional shifter. And apparently in the time that I flew from Meteor Falls to here, Steven's already shown up and then gone off to Mossdeep again.
At Mossdeep, Matt is leading the quintuplet female Aqua Grunts and are assaulting the Space Center. I do like how the receptionist is referencing the not-rattled-in-the-face-of-a-terrorist-invasion receptionist lady from the Weather Institute, which got a chuckle out of me. Also I do like that they kind of try to bring up how long it has been since our last meeting, but since the time isn't set in stone they kind of argue about it. It's a horde of Mightyena this time, which gets to eat a gigantic rain-boosted multi-hitting Origin Pulse courtesy of Primal Kyogre. It's a good thing Swampert wasn't out, though, because he would've gotten five times Intimidate and that Earthquake probably wouldn't do shit. And the grunts even acknowledge that they're trying to use Intimidate five times in a row! That was fun. And apparently one of them is trying to stop Matt?
Matt is apparently still pissed off that his bro Archie is, to him, 'corrupted' after he's gotten mixed up with, well, everybody else, which is nice that not all members of Team Aqua is immediately nice and happy people after their leader converts. And he's apparently going to take Project AZOTH to the extreme and return the world to its beginnings by blowing up the rocket. Also he's apparently gotten his hands on a keystone. There's a double battle between me and Steven against Matt and a grunt. Matt mega-evolves this time around, and that Strong-Jaw-empowered Crunch actually takes out my Kyogre, which is a bit surprising.
After the battle, Matt is like 'why am I not good enough' but suddenly Zinnia's Whismur, Aster, just shows up, knocks this giant of a man around and steals the dimensional shifter. And it is freaking hilarious to see this gigantic dude get knocked around by a cute little Whismur. And Zinnia destroys the dimensional shifter, and points out that the warp hole would instead move the meteorite into a different dimension, like a freaking multiverse or something, and she all but references the original Ruby and Sapphire games, which is a 'Hoenn like this one, where Mega Evolution was never discovered.' Shit! I have absolutely no words for this. It's like Crisis on Infinite Earths! But with Whismurs! I'm not sure just how Zinnia manages to get word of this knowledge, and she doesn't really elaborate, but what's done is done.
And Zinnia just wallops Matt and steals his keystone. Apparently the girl's going around stealing keystones and shit, and she's gone off to steal Archie's keystone from Team Aqua's base. Matt is pissed, but apparently he's content to just hang around. And neither Steven or Cozmo really question it. And while Matt, Steven and Cozmo are just hanging around upstairs, in the first floor the civilians are still cowering in a corner while the Aqua quintuplets are just standing around. Yeah...
I surf to Team Aqua's Hideout, and apparently the three grunts that's blocking the entrance from way back when have been kind of beaten down by Zinnia. And apparently the grunts inside are kind of spooked out (and some just want to fight) so there are battles. Which is nice, since now I can level up some weaker pokemon, like this Lileep I just got from the dude that revives fossils back in Devon Corps. Do like the reactions of some of the grunts, including one that is apparently shitting his pants not because of Zinnia's army of dragons, but because of the Whismur.
I kind of run around their base, beating up the grunts who think I'm her ally. I reach Archie's room, and apparently Zinnia has beaten Archie in a battle. Zinnia also refers to Aster as her daughter, adding to the whole 'Zinnia is kind of crazy' theory. Zinnia steals Archie's key stone straight off his anchor, and then says that she has everything she requires to summon Rayquaza. She goes off to Sky Pillar and apparently Shelly and I just stand around and not try to do anything to stop her. Archie gives me the Sharpedonite simply because he loses his keystone, which is kind of sad. He's talking about me taking his power, but I don't even have a Sharpedo!
(I should evolve the Poison Fang/Ice Fang Carvanha in my box, though. Not for sentimental reasons, but simply because Sharpedo has apparently gotten a unique surfing sprite and you can move faster in water with Sharpedo)
Also, it's fun to just Eon Flute everywhere. Steven doesn't trust Zinnia for good reasons, and he tells me that I have to find Wallace, who has inherited similar ancient lore, and knows how to get to the Sky Pillar. Flying over to Sootopolis, Wallace is talking to an old man and apparently the big tree in front of Cave of Origin was a gift from 'a huge man from Kalos', who can only be the crazy giant AZ. Apparently Wallace is the descendant of the ancient people of Sootopolis, and only Wallace or a Draconid can open the gateway to the Sky Pillar. And Zinnia is able to summon Rayquaza. Wallace heads off to the Sky Pillar while I have to fly after him. Why can't Steven just tell Wallace to show up in the Sky Pillar? Eh.
At the base of the Sky Pillar, Wallace challenges me as per custom of the ancient Sootopolitan tradition, and he's apparently packing his Pokemon Emerald champion team! Which brought me memories as I completely crush his team. It's really no match to Steven's Cradily and Sturdy Aggron. Well, they're really representing Emerald here, aren't they? Rayquaza being central to the plot, Wallace's team, a double battle with Steven in the Space Institute thing... I appreciate the homages.
I explore a bit of Meteor Falls, who, I have to say again, looks absolutely freaking gorgeous with all the waterfalls and the pretty rocks and everything. And I do like how the Delta Episode asks you to go to all these rather forgotten places like Granite Cave and Meteor Falls. After fighting a couple of trainers, I meet Steven, who's talking to an old woman who is a member of the Draconid clan or something. Apparently Zinnia is a member of the Draconid Clan, a Lorekeeper which is like the chosen one. Do think it is an odd, if interesting addition to the big lore, and they're like this Rayquaza-worshipping cult. Or temple priests. Or something. Whatever the case, apparently they hand down the power of Mega Evolution, having used it in the past before with Rayquaza to avert disasters by Primal Groudon/Kyogre and to destroy meteors. And Zinnia's infiltration of Team Aqua is apparently in order to summon Primal Kyogre in order to get Rayquaza to show up... and I guess that was why she was talking about sacrifices and whatnot. Steven ponders the moral implications of all this, before heading back to Rustboro. It's interesting, and I like how much it ties into the original main plot of Ruby/Sapphire instead of just a tacked-on postgame. It's wonderfully crafted so far.
Running back to Rustboro City, I go into the Devon Corps and the scientist from Petalburg Forest runs out and literally runs smack to me. He's being accosted by the Aqua Grunt from before, who's like 'yo, geek!' which I thought was hilarious. His Poochyena has evolved into a Mightyena and he's added a Golbat, so he's a bit better than Matt in updating his team. Still no challenge for a Gallade, though. He's got a couple of buddies who falls down easily as well. I do like how the grunts lampshade how it's impossible for them to win.
The scientist was all like 'I'll give you yet another Great Ball- no wait!' and apparently Matt has successfully stolen the Link Cable's control device, called the dimensional shifter. And apparently in the time that I flew from Meteor Falls to here, Steven's already shown up and then gone off to Mossdeep again.
At Mossdeep, Matt is leading the quintuplet female Aqua Grunts and are assaulting the Space Center. I do like how the receptionist is referencing the not-rattled-in-the-face-of-a-terrorist-invasion receptionist lady from the Weather Institute, which got a chuckle out of me. Also I do like that they kind of try to bring up how long it has been since our last meeting, but since the time isn't set in stone they kind of argue about it. It's a horde of Mightyena this time, which gets to eat a gigantic rain-boosted multi-hitting Origin Pulse courtesy of Primal Kyogre. It's a good thing Swampert wasn't out, though, because he would've gotten five times Intimidate and that Earthquake probably wouldn't do shit. And the grunts even acknowledge that they're trying to use Intimidate five times in a row! That was fun. And apparently one of them is trying to stop Matt?
Matt is apparently still pissed off that his bro Archie is, to him, 'corrupted' after he's gotten mixed up with, well, everybody else, which is nice that not all members of Team Aqua is immediately nice and happy people after their leader converts. And he's apparently going to take Project AZOTH to the extreme and return the world to its beginnings by blowing up the rocket. Also he's apparently gotten his hands on a keystone. There's a double battle between me and Steven against Matt and a grunt. Matt mega-evolves this time around, and that Strong-Jaw-empowered Crunch actually takes out my Kyogre, which is a bit surprising.
After the battle, Matt is like 'why am I not good enough' but suddenly Zinnia's Whismur, Aster, just shows up, knocks this giant of a man around and steals the dimensional shifter. And it is freaking hilarious to see this gigantic dude get knocked around by a cute little Whismur. And Zinnia destroys the dimensional shifter, and points out that the warp hole would instead move the meteorite into a different dimension, like a freaking multiverse or something, and she all but references the original Ruby and Sapphire games, which is a 'Hoenn like this one, where Mega Evolution was never discovered.' Shit! I have absolutely no words for this. It's like Crisis on Infinite Earths! But with Whismurs! I'm not sure just how Zinnia manages to get word of this knowledge, and she doesn't really elaborate, but what's done is done.
And Zinnia just wallops Matt and steals his keystone. Apparently the girl's going around stealing keystones and shit, and she's gone off to steal Archie's keystone from Team Aqua's base. Matt is pissed, but apparently he's content to just hang around. And neither Steven or Cozmo really question it. And while Matt, Steven and Cozmo are just hanging around upstairs, in the first floor the civilians are still cowering in a corner while the Aqua quintuplets are just standing around. Yeah...
I surf to Team Aqua's Hideout, and apparently the three grunts that's blocking the entrance from way back when have been kind of beaten down by Zinnia. And apparently the grunts inside are kind of spooked out (and some just want to fight) so there are battles. Which is nice, since now I can level up some weaker pokemon, like this Lileep I just got from the dude that revives fossils back in Devon Corps. Do like the reactions of some of the grunts, including one that is apparently shitting his pants not because of Zinnia's army of dragons, but because of the Whismur.
I kind of run around their base, beating up the grunts who think I'm her ally. I reach Archie's room, and apparently Zinnia has beaten Archie in a battle. Zinnia also refers to Aster as her daughter, adding to the whole 'Zinnia is kind of crazy' theory. Zinnia steals Archie's key stone straight off his anchor, and then says that she has everything she requires to summon Rayquaza. She goes off to Sky Pillar and apparently Shelly and I just stand around and not try to do anything to stop her. Archie gives me the Sharpedonite simply because he loses his keystone, which is kind of sad. He's talking about me taking his power, but I don't even have a Sharpedo!
(I should evolve the Poison Fang/Ice Fang Carvanha in my box, though. Not for sentimental reasons, but simply because Sharpedo has apparently gotten a unique surfing sprite and you can move faster in water with Sharpedo)
Also, it's fun to just Eon Flute everywhere. Steven doesn't trust Zinnia for good reasons, and he tells me that I have to find Wallace, who has inherited similar ancient lore, and knows how to get to the Sky Pillar. Flying over to Sootopolis, Wallace is talking to an old man and apparently the big tree in front of Cave of Origin was a gift from 'a huge man from Kalos', who can only be the crazy giant AZ. Apparently Wallace is the descendant of the ancient people of Sootopolis, and only Wallace or a Draconid can open the gateway to the Sky Pillar. And Zinnia is able to summon Rayquaza. Wallace heads off to the Sky Pillar while I have to fly after him. Why can't Steven just tell Wallace to show up in the Sky Pillar? Eh.
At the base of the Sky Pillar, Wallace challenges me as per custom of the ancient Sootopolitan tradition, and he's apparently packing his Pokemon Emerald champion team! Which brought me memories as I completely crush his team. It's really no match to Steven's Cradily and Sturdy Aggron. Well, they're really representing Emerald here, aren't they? Rayquaza being central to the plot, Wallace's team, a double battle with Steven in the Space Institute thing... I appreciate the homages.
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