Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 24: 108 Shackled Souls

So after a whole lot of grinding and running around, I finally finished a lot of the more lengthy side-quests in the previous 'part'. And... completing the Pokedex is pretty cool, even if I do think that there could be a couple of UI improvements to make looking up tasks mid-battle or something a lot easier. This segment is just me doing a whole bunch of shit before I finally confront Arceus, which includes the Daybreak mini-DLC, the Spiritomb hunting, and some unexpected shinies. 

And... well, I didn't have a good time doing the whole Tornadus/Thundurus hunt. Landorus was nice. But it is kind of neat to properly tie the three weather kami to a Japanese-based region, and particularly one that's so traditional like Hisui is.

I do have a bit of an annoyance with the Spiritomb quest, which is so time-consuming to do without a guide. At least the Unown sidequest had clues that tell me where to look for them! Other than the counter telling me how many wisps are in each area, even if there isn't a "mark the answers on the minimap", I kinda wished that once I got like, 70 or 80 wisps, the little Spiritomb girl would give me a clue and start to give like, rough estimates of where each wisp is. I don't know.

Anyway, in the midst of running around doing the Spiritomb quest, I also kind of breezed through Mai's whole quest about the massive mass outbreaks, which, I feel, is a neat way to bring in a bunch of the NPC's back. The Munchlax is cute and I suppose Mai is the warden that we kind of glazed over very quickly in the beginning of the game before we go off to the secondary areas, so it's nice for her to do something. I do like the confusion and speculation about the massive mass outbreaks done by the NPC's, though it really could've been something that they tied in to one of the legendaries. Maybe the Forces of Nature? Anyway, this is part of the post-release "Daybreak" update, which is why it feels kinda different. All of these more lighthearted quest all were given to us pre-final-mission!

There's a neat check-in with basically all the noble Pokemon guardians and watchers and whatnot, and they all have their own opinions on the mass outbreaks. Some of them like Gaeric really don't have too much to say and basically feel like they're tossed in just for me and Mai to have something to say... but I guess it is a showcase of how the three clans of Diamond, Pearl and Galactic are basically working together and we get to see the trade of information and technology, foreshadowing how modern-day Sinnoh would have all three cultures melt into one. 

Oh, and Akari offers to battle me again... with me having a full legendary team at the time, because I was testing out the kami's Therian Forms. Boy, that girl can never catch a break huh? It is nice that she gets a bit of a closure as she's trying to basically reaffirm that she also has a role among the Survey Corps. Her team's a bit higher-leveled now, all level 60... but she's also still rocking with unevolved guys like Clefairy and Pikachu. Heck, even the starters she have are still unevolved! Prinplup at level 62? I think the only evolved Pokemon in her party are Mr. Mime and Staraptor. Dude. I mean, I guess it does fit the theme that the actual battlers in Jubilife City are all relatively losers (with Volo, Kamado and Beni being the exception, I suppose)

Oh, and Akari's finally made friends with her unruly Pikachu! Good for her, she's tamed her rat!

Anyway, after a brief sequence with Mai putting mushroom cakes, and some generic sitcom rivalry between Melli and Lian... and an actually neat segment that ties together the Diamond/Pearl clan rivalry a bit better with Adaman and Irida acknowledging that space and time is the source of how beautiful the current daybreak is. And then I shock them by talking about how in the future, people will fight in gyms, and they get bamboozled at how the hell one is supposed to fight in a gym. Ha!

We don't actually get any real explanation about the massive mass outbreak beyond mumble-mumble-something-Almighty-Sinnoh-mumble-mumble-test, but okay, whatever. I felt like there was a way to tie it in to the dozen different legendaries in this game.  The punchline of this whole quest chain is that... a Zorua ends up mimicking Mai just to get a bunch of mushroom cakes from me, tossed in-between the otherwise pretty bland massive mass outbreak quests. That's actually kinda cute. 

We also unlock some battle challenge whatever with Ingo, and I guess that's to showcase how the future will have more battles in the future or something. But this random guy Gared gives me like ten different 'Path of Solitudes' with random fuckers like Bidoof or Wormadam or whatever, and... I'm probably never going to complete these, just like the solo species master trainers in Let's Go Pikachu or whatever. 

Irida and Adaman also both have brief segments where they want to finally face off against the Origin Forms of Palkia and Dialga, with us carrying the respective legendary in our party against all of their Eeveelutions. It's kinda overpowered on our part, and we do get some pretty neat dialogue from them about how they've accepted Almighty Sinnoh isn't what they once thought it was... and they gain respect from the members of the opposite clan. Neat! It's kind of obvious that this is basically showing how the Pokemon battles and the Jubilife City culture would eventually cause the Diamond and Pearl clans to be subsumed and eventually create the modern Sinnoh culture. Again, it's all stuff that I felt could've been slotted to the epilogue story (i.e. when we were hunting Heatran and the others) a bit better instead of added to the Daybreak DLC as it seemed to be. 

Also, since I finished the Unown bit last part... we didn't get a cutscene for finishing the Unown dex, huh? I don't even expect them to open the Sinjoh Ruins or whatever, but at least Professor Laventon should have a line of dialogue or two!

I also collected all the Old Verses, which took me around 10 minutes or so after finally giving up and getting a guide. All of those were pretty cool, it's just such a shame that looking for items with Ursaluna isn't particularly fun. Lots of neat lore about the Legendary Pokemon of Hisui, as well as randomly a Potato Mochi recipe snuck in-between. It's also heavily implied that it's Cogita that wrote the Old Verses, with how #12 has Cogita compare Hisui to Sinjoh, and that she'll spend eternity here until I, the Chosen One, arrives. 

I also did a whole ton of Pokedex task grinding. And... while I blaze through Andor and House of the Dragon, I'm just mindlessly grinding against the lower-leveled Pokemon in the Fieldlands and Mirelands. Ultimately, though, while all those Pokedex entries get filled up relatively quickly if you know what you're doing, some dex entries are particularly difficult to do. My last four (not counting Spiritomb, which I saved for last) were Cherubi, Chingling, Cleffa and Pichu.

Eventually I realized that the blue trees at the bottom-center of the Fieldlands map, near the Alpha Lopunny, always spawns Cherubi. Something I would definitely very much would've liked to know before I hunted all around Hisui for a Cherrim! So yeah, I just kept resetting the map for that. Chingling, too, always hangs out near the Alpha Chimecho on Lake Acuity, and that eventually became a bit easy for me to spam -- although it is annoying that Chingling eats mushrooms instead of berries. I've been so used to oran berries being beloved by practically everyone!

And then... I just kept resetting the maps over and over and over again until I get Cleffa and Pichu. Cleffa, at least, I can predict where they spawn -- at night in the Fabled Springs, usually around where the Alpha Clefable and the Roselias gather. It's just that they are so skittish in running away while the Alpha Clefable and the aggressive Roselias try to murder me!

I can't complain, though, because in the midst of my runs to try and get a Cleffa... I got my first shiny in Legends: Arceus! Well, my first one that's not the plot-mandated Ponyta. It's a Clefairy! With its green ears and shit. I remember you from the Pokemon Platinum Veilstone gambling minigame! Fuck yeah. Admittedly, Shiny Clefairy isn't particularly super-cool, but the fact that this was a regular spawn instead of a outbreak or whatever, which I felt made it feel a more special. 

Speaking of outbreak shinies, my first one was Chingling (ironically captured after I completed the dex entry for the little bastard), which gave me so much anxiety because Chinglings really like to run away. I did get the Chingling and I do plan to evolve it to a Chimecho...  which is a much more striking Shiny than the Shiny 'just more anemic than normal' Chingling that I didn't really notice. I also got a shiny Barboach at one point! Shiny Barboach, on the other hand, looks so much better unevolevd with the golden-orange mustache whereas shiny Whiscash just looks off-putting. 

Shinies! They are special. 

Pichu, meanwhile, is just a big asshole. They run away so fast, they spawn in places where Paras and Staravia gather, and there are a bunch of spots that I have to check -- and they share the same rare spawn as Pikachu, making it a bit more soul-crushing to run there and find Pikachu instead of Pichu. With the Clefairy line, at least they bring their whole damn clan when they spawn. There's this one spot near the Floaroma Meadow where two Pichus might spawn at once, but, well, it's such an annoying shot in the dark for the little bastard gremlins to appear. But eventually? With the aid of smoke bombs and delicious honey, Pichu ends up being the penultimate Pokemon that I complete the dex entries of.

Also, slightly before getting Cleffa and Pichu, I ended up getting enough experience points or whatever to rank up to the full ten (?) ranks on Cyllene. I thought that it'd only be full if my dex is full, but I guess I got some extra tasks done? My reward is more cash per capture, which I absolutely love. More money for clothes! And inventory space! And Rotom appliances!

Which means... Spiritomb hunting time. 

And it's a lot harder to gather the last couple of wisps. It's easy when you just run around gathering and picking up anything glowing. It's a bit harder when you realize you have to open up a guide and re-check every single spot to see if you've gotten this wisp or that wisp or whatnot. It's so easy when there are still 15 wisps remaining, but when there's just ONE wisp in the whole of the goddamn Coastlands with its stupid itty-bitty little islands and shit... oh boy, that's when things get hard. That's when I finally gave up and used a guide. 

Finally, after all 107 wisps are gathered, I return to Vessa, the creepy little child, who asks me to meet him in that huge rock formation shaped like the Odd Keystone in the Mirelands. Of course the event only happens at night. Vessa tells me how he's not been completely honest, and that there was one last wisp left... which, of course, is Vessa himself. Get it? Vessa, vessel? I tell Vessa that he's kind of a strange one, and he agrees wholeheartedly, before giving us the final wisp. Vessa did have a strange line, talking about a 'traveler who used that strange magic' and wondering if that traveler will 'forgive him'. 

...wait, hold up. What traveler? Since when does the Pokemon setting have wizards and shit? Or is this some kind of traveling, wandering legendary Pokemon? Or is it Cogita, perhaps? 

The screen goes dark, the wisp sound effect happens, and then... we see one last wisp appear in the core of the Odd Keystone, and Vessa is gone. Touching that last wisp completes the final 108... and Spiritomb, the Pokemon formed out of 108 spirits, bound and shackled to the stone. The narration also briefly has Vessa muse that this is his 'final mischief', presumably before he gets sucked into the legionic hive-mind that is Spiritomb. I mean, man. I know the Pokedex entries for Yamask and Phantump and Spiritomb all talk about dead ghosts turning into Pokemon and shit, but there was always the idea that... that they might be mistakenly recorded. Nope, Spiritomb is literally a fucking legion of souls, of which at least one is very much sentient, compressed into a flat face of whirling purple-green eldritch flames forever shackled to a stone. 

And... and that was fucking great. It's not a particularly long cutscene, not for the amount of time and frustration I poured into this collection quest. But Legends: Arceus has really been great at taking certain Pokemon who already has a story baked into their concept and actually portraying it as part of the game in a way that makes them a lot more memorable! Remember how utterly stupid and off-brand talking to 32 people in the Underground is, and how it really doesn't feel sensible for Spiritomb? Or how weird that the region based on USA has wandering legendaries based on ancient Japanese weather deities? Legends: Arceus doesn't get every single Pokemon the attention it deserves (Heatran, Cresselia and Regigigas felt obligatory and tacked-on) but honestly? They did such a wonderful job making these Pokemon stories -- these stories tied to these fantastical monsters -- into part of the role-playing experience. That really is something that I felt has been lacking in Pokemon for quite a while, and what elevates this game above... honestly, practically almost every other Pokemon game at this point.