More Alpha Sapphire!
So, I cleared out Team Aqua's hideout, did a couple of sidequests here and there and then cleared out Mossdeep City
Team Aqua's hideout is a bit expanded from the original Ruby/Sapphire game, but is still essentially the same, recognizable base. It's gotten a bit of an overhaul, though, with customized rooms for Archie, Shelly and Matt which, again, adds some character to them. It also looks more like a base than a dungeon, with several laboratory facilities with gigantic machines testing out an Aqua Diving Suit and trying to make an artificial Blue Orb. There's also a fair amount of books talking about Kyogre and the AZOTH project, and apparently Team Aqua has been investigating AZ's Ultimate Weapon from Pokemon X/Y. Also, we get an explanation for the differences between Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion. Mega Evolution comes about from a strong bond between the trainer and the pokemon, whereas Primal Reversion comes from the getting power from the nature itself.
Also, some backstory about the characters are revealed by interacting with pictures and whatnot. Mostly about Shelly, really, because all we learn about Matt is that he's a bro and he really idolizes Archie. Shelly and Archie apparently go way back, and they had an encounter with Jirachi, which is rather surprising and not something I expected. None of this are really developed, though, since the only Admin fought in the Aqua base is Matt.
The obligatory Aqua Grunt Horde Battle was pretty underwhelming since it only happens once, and it's been like plastered everywhere across the trailers. Matt's battle is also slightly underwhelming since he still only has a single Sharpedo.
Speaking of Sharpedo, Team Aqua's modified the submarine to make it look like a gigantic Sharpedo with a drill. It's... odd, to say the least.
Still, whatever the case, I cleared out Team Aqua's base which is a lot more fun than I thought. Afterwards I flew back to the Trick House to play around a bit. The second level is a basic Rock Smash puzzle, which was extremely easy to beat. I had to even go back and switch my team out for a low-level one to make it at least somewhat interesting. The third level of the Trick House initially seems to be just a Flash level, which is a bit silly since Flash isn't necessary to actually see things. Everything is very much visible. But no, they were being clever with the 3D angles and were hiding a hidden underground stairway on one corner of the whole map. It's pretty cool. Haven't tried the fourth level's Strength puzzle yet, though.
I mucked around in some other areas -- I found out I cannot access New Mauville yet, I ran around the Safari Zone for a bit -- before heading Eastwards towards Mossdeep City, tearing through relentless schools of Tentacools and flocks of Wingulls. Mossdeep City is relatively small and the main attraction is really the gigantic Space Station... but other than the overhaul that all these facilities receive, it doesn't really have anything at all... for the moment, anyway.
Mossdeep is really pretty barren other than the dude that gives me the Super Rod, so I challenged the gym immediately. Unlike most of the gyms, Liza and Tate have taken a page from Brawly's book and completely redesigned their gym. It's something of a snakes-and-ladders thing where only one-way paths leading to these floating platforms are available until you defeat some trainers. It's a shame that the gym doesn't become completely accessible, though, since I locked myself out of at least four trainers before unlocking the one-way trip towards the leaders.
Liza and Tate don't really get too much in lieu of additional characterization, they're just doing their cheerful-twins thing and get easily wiped out. I don't even need to use Surf! Shedinja and Gallade took out the Lunatone/Sorlock duo without suffering much.
After beating the gym, there was a relatively long cutscene of a green pillar of light exploding in the sea, and an extended cutscene of Steven explaining about the Seafloor Cavern in Route 128... which is a bit of a nice thing, because this is the point where I was completely confused back when I was playing the original Sapphire as of where to go. There is a lot of area I can explore at the moment. The stretch of water between Petalburg and Dewford, the stretch of water with the Abandoned Ship between Dewford and Slateport, and the whole mass of water on the Eastern side of the map. But I guess until I have the urge to train an electric type I'll just progress with the plot for now.
With dive in tow, I headed off to the location of the Seafloor Cavern and zipped on down. Diving looks gorgeous in this game, with the diving sections looking a lot less like 'caves, but underwater'. There are even Chinchou just moving in the underwater chasms too deep for us to go in to! It's pretty awesome. Also, as a side-note, we need more deep-sea creatures done up as pokemon. Just saying.
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