Pokemon Sun LP, Part 7: Mimikyu is Creepy as Fuck

Last we left off, we were hanging out Route 12, walking through sharp stone on Mudsdale. I caught a couple of Pokemon, and apparently Torkoal has Drought now? I never knew that any other Pokemon other than Groudon and Ninetales have Drought, and the latter only as a hidden ability. With Torkoal it just seems like its second ability has been changed into Drought. Interesting. I don't think we've ever had Abilities be changed from generation to generation.

There's this Treasure Beach-esque area, the Secluded Shore. Lots of Pearls and Pearls and Pearls and more Pearls for Stoutland to dig up.

I continue West until I reach Tapu Village... which, holy shit, is not what I expected. It's perpetually raining, and there are the ruins of houses immediately near where I enter the city. There is a pathway leading up north to Mt. Lanakila, but it's cordoned off until the Pokemon League is finished being constructed. Well, I guess Kukui's plan will come to fruition sooner rather than later.

What's striking, though, is the beach on the south side of Tapu Village, which is Route 14. Holy fuck, it looks like a devastated post-apocalyptic world down there. The street into the area is cordoned off with fences, with people telling me that someone tried to build a Thrifty Megamart on a sacred land, and this pissed off Tapu Bulu so much that it descended down with the wrath of an angry tiki bull god, and just laid waste to everything. I go down to the beach and it's freaking black sand everywhere, with even the sea waves crashing onto the shore being black. The highway is visibly crushed and torn apart, with the ruins becoming ledges, and it's just ruins both in the water and the land. Holy shit, respect to Tapu Bulu. This is amazing, a very, very effective usage of atmosphere to really tell a story.

The actual Megamart is blocked to me by a trial gate, though, so upwards I go to Route 15. There's a huge portion of Route 15 that's cordoned off by large rocks in the ocean, and Tauros can't swim, and Lapras is apparently not strong enough to break them. So after fighting a bunch of trainers, I walk up to the Aether House... upon which Hau and myself get accosted by the guardians of the facility... two kids. I beat up a kid's Pokemon with my monstrous Golisopod. Hau gets his ankle gnawed by a Yungoos. Better get that looked at, Hau, rodent bites aren't anything to scoff at.

Acerola and Lillie show up, and apparently Aether House is some kind of orphanage, showing that, yeah, at the very least, as shifty as they are, Aether Foundation is actually doing some good to the world. Acerola reveals herself to be the Ghost-type trial captain, which is not something I actually expected, and we head off to the trial site, the abandoned megamart.

Let me take the time to stop and point out how fucking creepy the abandoned mart is. Having seen the actual megamart in its glory back in... well, wherever the non-abandoned megamart is... seeing the shelves and items all torn apart and dilapidated is kinda sad but not scary. What really gets me is the background music, though. I was playing with earphones, and holy fuck, this is some Lavender-Town-level shit here. Other ghost-area music post Generation I (Giratina's Theme in Platinum aside) tend to be more on the melancholy and mysterious side of things, but this? This is just creepy as fuck, with the music breaking up into scratching noises at times and just gives me goosebumps.

The actual trial itself isn't that scary, just walk around until poltergeist activity happens, like checkout counters moving by its own, or dolls that float above the table. It's all just Gastlies and Haunters and Gengars causing mischief, and I can find them with my Rotom Poke-Finder Pokemon Snap thing, upon which they naturally attack. I have a shadow-arrow-shooting ghost owl of my own, though, so none of these dudes stood a chance.

Love meeeeeee

(Hilariously, Rotom was actually scared the fuck out before entering the Megamart, despite being a ghost-type himself)

There's a Pikachu that scampers around at the edge of my vision every time I defeat one of the Generation I ghosts, up until I go into a tiny room at the back of the mart. The Poke Finder fired up on its own, and I just see a wall with crude drawings of Pikachu having fun with children and Pikachu being loved and shit, and I keep wondering where the ghost will turn out. I didn't think to really look back for a good minute or so, but when I do. Mimikyu! With his... pretty creepy cry and the dialogue "SEE ME!" and the very creepy ghost-shifting between his true Mimikyu form and a Pikachu...

Holy shit, of all the Pokemon in the game to pull off anime human speech (Rotom has a speaker in the Pokedex, he doesn't count), this... this creepy shit was not what I expected. Mimikyu has always been portrayed as this sad little thing that just needs a hug and is sad that it's not popular, but promotional material really downplayed the creepy aspect of the thing.

I mean, I know Mimikyu exists and half-expected him to be the Totem Pokemon here, but I've always found the dude freaking adorable when taken out of context. But he's still a Ghost-type at the end of the day, and apparently he's the Totem of the place. He hits hard and fast and actually KO'd my Decidueye with a critical Shadow Claw. Mimikyu and his Gengar buddy (holy shit, that's easily the most powerful Totem buddy I've seen this whole playthrough) just tore through half my party with ease until I revived Decidueye and ended Mimikyu's rampage with the power of my Ghost-type Z-move, Sinister Arrow Raid.

Acerola was all, 'what, what back room? What are you talking about?' in an attempt to creep me out, before giving me the Ghostium Z. I don't exactly need it -- Sinister Arrow Raid is so much cooler and more unique -- but hey.

Also, I want a Mimikyu of my own. My party has been sitting at five members that I like (Decidueye, Golisopod, Ribombee, Magneton, Lycanroc) but the sixth has been rotating around between Wishiwashi, Charjabug (who's useless until the fourth island) and whatever I'm trying to level up to evolve and fill the dex. So I went back into the megamart. Sure enough, though, the back room is gone. Mimikyu's the rare encounter, with the rest of the population being Gastlies, Haunters and freaking Klefkis. But I caught one relatively painlessly, and I named him Boo.

Yeah, he's got typing overlaps with Decidueye and Ribombee, but I don't care. He's going to hold the fort as the sixth member and probably swap in and out with Vikavolt when we finally get to evolve one.

What a fun, creepy little shit Mimikyu is. Luring us in with all his helplessness and all... and he is cute, don't get me wrong, but he is also a creepy ghost-type with a very suitably creepy dex entry. Apparently if you peek at its real form under the sheet you die out of shock. Yeah. It wants a friend and all, but there's a reason it's avoided. I don't care, though. He's on the team. His moveset is a bit shitty, though, so other than the Shadow Claw I taught him via TM he's going to rely on, well, Slashes to get by until he learns better moves.

Definitely not who I was expecting
to meet in Alola, that's for sure

I return to Aether House and apparently Plumeria has raided the place and kidnapped a couple of the Pokemon. We fight for a bit, but they just kind of walk away despite... y'know, me having a full party ready to stop them. I don't think three humans can just waltz by an angry Golisopod and Lycanroc. But okay, we need plot progression. Lillie and surprisingly Cosmog are unharmed, though. I half-expect Nebby the Cosmog to be kidnapped by Team Skull, but apparently not. Team Skull challenges me and tells me to come alone to some place that's apparently their hideout, so it's showdown time. Acerola tells me to go seek the man in the kimono.

I was expecting... well, I don't know who I was expecting, but it certainly isn't motherfucking Grimsley, still doing his coin game thing. Grimsley is no doubt the coolest and my favourite member of Unova's Elite Four group by a huge margin, and he's decked out in a fancy white suit. I had absolutely no idea Grimsley was going to make an appearance, and the love that the games are giving the fifth generation -- human characters if not exactly the Pokemon -- warms my heart. Grimsley gives me the Sharpedo Poke-ride, and holy shit, Sharpedo is just so fast and fun to ride around. He's like a jet-ski, but also a shark that slams through boulders. I love Sharpedo, so that's a huge factor in me liking this new feature.

Speaking of new features, a while back I met some lady from one of the older regions that gave me the TM for Fly, noting that in her region it's a HM, a far more sought-after commodity, where here it's just another move. Cool stuff, getting rid of HM's.

Whatever the case, I work my way through the relatively long water route, with Magneton and Decidueye tearing through the hordes of Finneons and Tentacools in the water before reaching Route 16, then go through the misty Ula'ula Meadow. There's a side path leading into this weird lakebed temple called the Temple of the Moone, complete with Pokemon Moon insignias all over the place, but there's absolutely nothing but a huge ruined hall, a long corridor and the TM for Psyshock. It's a bit weird, but I'm assuming that it's either a version exclusive thing or a future legendary Pokemon encounter.

I head up Route 17, which is starting to be infested with Team Skull Grunts skulking about. It's really nice how far from Tapu Town the Team Skull base is. Normally in Sun everything is just so linear and close by each other that there's minimal exploration and legwork involved, but this is some old-timey Generation III/IV-level meandering around. Route 17 leads into Po Town, which is... this abandoned town covered all over with graffiti, old trial barricades and a lot of Team Skull Grunts. One random dude whose face looks like he came from Attack on Titan shows up, warns me about Team Skull, and gives me a very awesome line: "I'll make sure your remains get home." Jeez, Pokemon, you just got dark!

It's really a very cool atmospheric place, with the graffiti'd up Pokemon Center being my favourite of the bunch. There's a small minimal-effort sneaking-around puzzle involved, and as with everything involving Team Skull the gangster wannabe dialogue is just hilarious. The best part has to be the thugs that took over the Pokemon Center, and are apparently so poor they can't afford the rent and had to charge a measly $10 to heal my dudes so they can pay rent.

It's a very cool, thuggy place, with Skull members just loitering around, standing on top of trucks, and I enter the Shady House, which is an old mansion, and begin just pummeling every single Skull grunt in my way. There are some hilarious dialogue, like one who is angry that I'm barging into people's rooms without permission, a pair of female grunts arguing about Skull tanks, and there's an obligatory password puzzle. After a cool walk atop the building's roof, I confront Guzma, who threatens to beat me up, and all that jazz, and everyone's afraid of him but he's honestly... not much tougher than before.

He's super-angry and has to return the Aether House's Yungoos to me, but not before causing his grunts to run away, making some angry threats, and buggering off. Jeez, Guzma, back your words up with some actual power, man. I mean, you definitely look like a thug, but you don't act like one. That Golisopod is cool, but if that and the weak Ariados are the only two things in your party, you're not going to get anything done. No Z-moves, no mega evolution, not even a full party! I did get the Buginium Z, which my own Golisopod will be putting to great work, thank you very much.

That dude with the creases on his face show up again, and is all like dismissive about everything. Acerola shows up, identifies him as Uncle Nanu, one of the policemen in the area. Nanu's all like 'eh, rent is cheap'. Nanu seems like he's going to be like the kahuna or trial captain or something, his model is too unique for just a random character. Whatever the case, I've cleared Team Skull for the time being, rescued an orphan's Pokemon... so it's time to get back to more trial and maybe Ultra Beast goodness?