Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 2: Motorbike Dragon vs. Hellhound

So last we left off, I was on a cliff overlooking a fallen Miraidon. The cutscenes later on make it a lot more clear that we've got certain... modes, if you will, to this legendary Pokemon. It's somewhat similar to how Zekrom, Reshiram, Solgaleo and Lunala all have 'modes'... if you call having parts of your body shine a bit brighter as a 'mode change', anyway. With Miraidon, it's a bit more obvious since a lot of the yellow lightning parts are actually retracted. The tail, the giant lightning-bolt eyebrow-horn things, and the fact that it's walking around on all fours like a robot dragon instead of hovering the way it does in the cover art. 

And... well, I definitely am happy that I picked Miraidon for one particular fact -- its eyes are digital. Or, well, made out of dots. I'm not the biggest fan of the questionable decision of integrating the region's gimmick of a motorbike companion Pokemon and have its throat be a giant wheel, but at least for the future-themed Miraidon it looks a lot more... understandable that this dragon has Transformer parts. Its Scarlet counterpart Koraidon just looks utterly messy, with cool primal feathers and head-whips, but a goddamn wheel lodged in its throat.

Anyway, my character falls off the cliff and nearly breaks a bone, if not for a hilarious yet ridiculous animated cutscene where the Rotom phone flies up, and I can use the floating little electric gremlin to break my fall. Okay!

I give the wounded Miraidon Mom's Sandwich, which is in my key items, and this legendary purple cyborg dragon likes it so much that it powers back up, and basically beckons me to follow it into the nearby cave, the Inlet Grotto. Nemona ends up seeing me and Miraidon walk into it from the top of the grotto, and we basically make our way through it. 

There are a couple of Yungoos wandering around this area, but a Houndoom is part of the background overlooking us. And then in a cutscene, like an entire horde of Houndours show up! There's like, ten or twelve or so, which is actually a fair amount more than I thought the Switch could render, especially considering Sword/Shield. Also, unlike Sword/Shield's alleged 'improvements' to the 3DS models, it's particularly obvious with Houndour and Houndoom how they actually did actually take time to render fur texture on these doggies as compared to how they looked in previous 3D games. 

Miraidon helps to scare a bunch of the Houndours away, but then Houndoom shows up with the horde again. The level 40 Houndoom faces off against my poor level 9 Fuecoco, and obviously I get one-shotted with... is it Roar that Houndoom did? That'd explain why Fuecoco returns to my Pokeball, actually. 

Miraidon charges in and knocks the Houndoom away with its tail, and when I get cornered by three Houndours, it just picks me up like a sack of potatoes and flies up out of the cave to meet Nemona. Very cool cutscene, and, yeah, sure it's pre-rendered and everything, but it really does surprise me just how much the main legendary is being integrated into the story this early on. It's something that Pokemon has definitely been doing in recent generations, but with how hands-off Arceus was in Legends: Arceus and how Zacian/Zamazenta just had a brief prologue role before disappearing, they really don't have the personal connection that this game's story is building with Miraidon. 

Miraidon collapses and reverts to its unpowered state again, and Nemona apparently compares Miraidon to a Pokemon like a 'Cyclizar'... is that a legendary or a non-legendary one? I actually am having loads of fun not knowing everything about a Pokemon game for once!

We then walk up and meet a guy called Arven, who Nemona identifies as the son of the Pokemon Professor Poco. Arven has... cute eyelashes and fancy hair. He's a bit pissed off at being constantly remembered as 'the professor's kid', and of course he's also enrolled in my school. He's apparently related to Miraidon in some way, gets flustered because Miraidon's not in its true form (which is, of course, the cover form) and fights me with a Skwovet to determine if I'm worthy to be Miraidon's trainer. 

...and he just gives me Miraidon's Pokeball right after that, though Miraidon doesn't actually join my party. He's just... treated as a key item, I guess? 

Nemona brings me up to the lighttower to show off the city of Mesagoza where the gigantic, castle-like Uva Academy is at, before pointing out a typical first town, Los Platos. 

And the route there has trainers! A couple of Youngsters, and... it's such a bizarre inversion to the typical Pokemon game, but it kind of makes sense that this would be how they get around the problem of a trainer walking up to you in a 3D game and freezing you in place. No, in Paldea, you walk up to the trainer and talk to them! I'm the one with the "!" on top of my head now, I suppose! That's pretty cute. 

Also, I can walk around a lot more here, with routes that feel a lot more expansive in-between towns. Sorry, XY, Sun/Moon and 75% of Sword/Shield. This is what a 3D Pokemon route is supposed to be. Lots of familiar faces, with Psyducks, Buizels and Azurills populating the nearby rivers, and Igglybuffs and Hoppips wandering around. After wandering out of town a bit more, I find some Pichus and Bonslys -- a bit surprising since they were so fucking rare in Legends Arceus. But there are a lot of new faces, too!

Like... Pawmi! An Electric-type Pokemon that I feel is the Pika-clone of the generation. It's got pads that constantly discharges forepaws, which is why they are large! Then there is the bread dog Fidough, which is a Fairy-type. I'm not the biggest fan of either of these designs, but they're pretty competent early-route Pokemon. Mostly I'm just kinda happy to get a Pawmi after trying to find it in the first route in the game. Fidough might stay, though. He's a good boy. 

I also get to meet the waddling Paldean Wooper, a Ground/Poison Pokemon. And... man, it's such a simple but obvious change, making Wooper a lot more mud-based compared to its previous self, but I think Paldean Wooper might be one of my favourite regional variants ever? The axolotl antennae now forming crossbones is a great little detail, too. Which means, if you're keeping track, I do have a full party of Fuecoco, Tarountula, Paldean Wooper ("Pooper"!), Lechonk, Fidough and Pawmi, all Paldean Pokemon. 

Then I walk up to Los Platos, where Nemona introduces me to the new Pokemon Center, which takes the place of a massive stand with three booths. A Pokemart, a Pokemon Center, and a TM machine. The TM's are created out of all these loot I've been taking from the fallen Pokemon, and Nemona gives me a whole bunch of new loot, too. I don't think I really care about TM's until we get to the Flamethrowers and Ice Beams, but it's a nice little way to integrate a loot system without going through a 'craft most of your items' way that Legends: Arceus had. Getting the TM's in the overworld basically unlocks the 'recipe' into making more of them in the PC, which is interesting. There're also two currencies. Regular Poke-dollars and League Points? Okay.

There's also the Union Square, which I don't think I can do anything with without an online subscription. And I'm not interested in running around with people in my world anyway to be honest, so.

The people of Paldea are, evidently, a lot more secure in keeping their houses. All the doors to the buildings here are locked, and I can't just wily-nily get into everyone's houses and raid them for useful items. 

I also started experimenting a bit more with the buttons on the Switch. "R" just sends my lead Pokemon out to battle and auto-battle the enemies out there, though I think it's just an instant fight to basically hard-farm for EXP, and the tutorial page does all but confirm that the level difference is what's going to determine this. "Y" brings up my Pokedex and Minimap, "X" is the typical Pokemon party menu with the bag and save option there too. "B" gets me to crouch and slide. I can move the camera around fully with the right joystick.

The arrow buttons are a bit more interesting. Top arrow just gives me a set amount of random emotes/poses I can do which I assume matters more in multiplayer. The right arrow is notices (which does nothing) and the left arrow... is clothes! I don't need to go to a damned boutique to change my clothes anymore! I get a bunch of basic outfits, like the spring/summer/autumn/winter uniform, as well as the option to ditch the ugly hat and to wear some glasses. That's neat. The bottom arrow is a camera mode, including a selfie option. Okay, that's kinda funny, I guess. 

I walk around Los Platos, mostly, and... there's a bunch of typical NPC's, and there's an ice cream store that sells ice creams... including TERIYAKI ice cream. What the fuck? These give certain effects I think comparable to the O-Powers in XY, but they are expensive so no ice cream for me yet. 

Now Pawmi and Fidough are both Pokemon that are a bit more heavily featured in some of the trailers. I confess I don't remember much about them, but they're at least vaguely familiar. Wandering on the other side of town, I found my second new Paldea Pokemon... Shroodle! A Poison/Normal... rat-thing? Uh... the game calls it a 'toxic mouse', but its anatomy... I guess it looks like a mouse if you squint? It apparently paints markings around its nest with poisonous liquid. So poison piss! Okay! I don't really care for Lechonk, so Shroodle replaces it. 

Anyway, I'm supposed to head to the university, but I'm having way too much fun just.. wandering around and fighting and taking in the sights. Very neat, and I'm basically catching any new species I come across. Yeah, even moreso than Legends Arceus, this is going to be a game where I really run around and wander around and just catch Pokemon and gather items and ignore the story for days at a time, I see...

Random Notes:

• There have been some complaints about graphical performance, and... the only times I really noticed was the town, where the walking NPC's in the background do... suddenly turn jittery if I walk a certain distance away from them. 
• At one point Nemona gets baffled at Miraidon breaking a giant rock, asking what move that is. Gee, I don't know... Rock Smash, I guess? 
  
• By dint of being such an open-world with exploration as the main focus, I do appreciate that the leveling isn't that drastic and that the experience point gain has been severely nerfed, in order to facilitate you not progressing too fast with auto-battling. 
• Nurse Joy, or whatever Paldean Nurse Joy is called, is the typical J-RPG 'I will give you a hint where to go next', since this is an open-world game. 
• Not part of the normal buttons, but like all 3DS games, spinning around the movement stick gets my character to pirouette in place. 
• I pick the Winter Uniform. I just wanted something with long pants, and the Spring Uniform has those suspenders that make me look like an extra-dork with the glasses. The jacket in the winter uniform is neat. 
• The Pokedex all having unique images and being structured like a CD/book-shelf did catch me a bit off-guard when I first saw it, but it is an interesting aesthetic if nothing else. 
• It is kind of a jarring experience from Legends Arceus to go back to a game where I just have to catch a Pokemon once and potentially be done with it for the rest of the game if I don't want to use it at all. 
• There is a pond with Surskit, but it's a bit too deep and I just have to quickly scramble out of the water if I drop into the pond, and I can't throw Pooper that far. So... no Surskit for me yet.