We're back with more Pokemon Violet! Since the last time I posted, I did mostly just run around the land of Paldea looking for Pokemon and just... exploring. Again, not the biggest fan of Miraidon's design, but he does make exploring a lot speedier and fun. Also, I do really like the auto-battle and the experience scaling, where it makes the battling into something that doesn't instantly gives you multiple raises in levels but still helps you to grind regardless while also interacting with the environment.
I also take the opportunity to gallivant around Mesagoza a bit. One of the random ladies in the stairways talks about being able to see to my 'past lives', which is a clever way of saying that she gives me the save-file-in-my-Switch bonus. I have all the other Switch games other than the D/P remakes, so from Let's Go Pikachu I get a Pika-Vee case. From Legends: Arceus I get an Arc Phone case, a great call-back to the Arc Phone in that game -- though the Rotom Phone case doesn't have the giant Arceus waist-ring thing. And from Sword I get... the... Ball Guy case. You know what? I'm not even mad, that's kind of hilarious that one of them ends up being a gag.
I also explored the Delibird Presents shop, which has a whole lot of items. Phone cases for people with no previous save files, rather basic held items, and Heal Balls. I am going to assume that these shops will update their inventory as I progress through the game -- which, if you're keeping track, is going to involve beating eight gyms, five Team Star bases, five Titan Pokemon, upgrading Miraidon up to its proper health, and there's the completion of the Pokedex and completing all my classes with a good GPA somewhere tossed in there.
But I'm really taking things slow. The game none-too-subtly nudges me to go either West or East depending on whether gyms or titans are more appealing, and... well, I guess I'm kind of a traditional player since I kind of go for the gym challenge with Nemona, so I head off West to... I guess the routes are just 'Area One' or whatever? It eventually leads to a series of fields with brown-coloured grass which opens up to a bunch of farmlands, which are inhabited by little swarms of Combees... and the odd level 25 Vespiquen that completely kicks my ass. I avoid them like the plague, just like avoiding those Alpha Rapidashes in Legends: Arceus.
Lots of older Pokemon here, like Starly, Yungoos, Mareep and the like... I do adore that many of them gather in little flocks and swarms that kinda interact with each other. I guess I tested out some of the Terastralize stuff, and... I still don't like it, though I do like that Pooper the Wooper, whose Terastralize Type is Poison, ends up getting a gigantic, cartoonish and utterly gloriously goofy-looking poisonous purple skull-and-crossbones on its head.
I start encountering a bunch of newer Pokemon, too, like Smoliv! The smol oliv! It's got the most adorable panicked face ever, and... it's not the first 'plant blob with a face' that we've had. But I don't know. Compared to Bounsweet and Oddish, it is one of the more adorable ones! I actually put it in my party for the type coverage, and mostly because I do find it kinda cute.
Another new Pokemon is the mangy dog Maschiff! It's a Dark-type, and I'm actually surprised we got a second dog Pokemon in this game considering we already got Fidough! It sure is an angry mastiff dog! Not my favourite dog out there, and until we get a sheepdog or a pomeranian I don't think I'll be ever truly be satisfied with a dog Pokemon, but Maschiff and Fidough are both good boys.
Also, in all this excitement, Fuecoco evolves into... CROCALOR! Which is, uh... he has a sombrero made out of flames? And when he attacks, the central orb kinda bounces up? I do like that his white face (is it supposed to be a clown?) kind of pops up. Apparently this is a 'valve' connected to his vocal sacs? He's a chonky dinosaur guy, and while Fuecoco is much more adorable, I actually am optimistic of Fuecoco's final evolution if we're remaining dinosaurian.
I also participated, finally, in one of the 'Tera Raid' battles, which are these huge chunky crystals. As with Sword/Shield, I don't have access to the online services, and... I can say that things at least move a lot faster this time around, with all four players' attacks happening at once. I assume that the game also removes that one dipshit who keeps spamming Cosmic Power Sorlock? Also, the lack of repetitive 'toss my stupid giant pokeball' Dynamax animation and the fact that the Terastralized Pokemon all still keep their unique movesets instead of just defaulting into the generic Dyanamaxed moves and its repetitive animations ends up making the battles seemingly a bit more interesting. I did go through a Flabebe and a Meowth raid, and it's all right because it's a lot more snappy. I don't like the Terastralize gimmick, though, so I'm not sure if I care too much to have a Meowth that can temporarily turn into Flying-type or whatever.
Anyway, I eventually arrive on Cortondo Town, and it's... a small town? I think most of the buildings here are villas, and there's a lot of swimming pools behind the houses. Again, a bit of a shame that we can't go into the houses, but the NPC's do talk about how this place is apparently an olive-harvesting town. There is a big bug-themed bakery with web decorations and whatnot and an upper-floor battle arena. Vivillon of different forms kind of hover all around the area, and I love the smol Smolivs hanging out on top of cars and umbrellas and whatnot.
Also, I get a cute sneak peek at the Nymbles that hang out with the townsfolk and I got a bit too excited at seeing the cute little bugs that I'm not familiar with!
There's a huge square-shaped gym building and... it's going to get some getting used to seeing the gym not actually be a huge arena filled with puzzles but a glorified receptionist desk. Nemona is there and babbles on about how gyms work, and the receptionist desk sends me off to do my pre-gym puzzle thing... which, in this case, involves me going out of town, and... rolling a giant olive across an obstacle course?
I didn't have a good time with this obstacle course. The controls were a bit wonky, but that's expected for a gym puzzle... but the nasty, squelching noises from the giant olive just sounds disgusting. And I'm not sure how this has anything to do with the gym leader being a Bug-type leader and also the owner of a bakery? I mean, yeah, sure, there's a talk about olive being an export of the town, but I really do feel like sometimes you probably could've just left the gym as a bunch of trainers and left it at that.
Anyway, Katy the gym leader is... a bit of an airhead? She's like, all nice and sweet and stuff, constantly forgetting that she's here in her capacity as a gym leader and not as a bakery shop owner. She shows up with a Vivillon and talks about bugs being badass and all... but get this. She doesn't use the fully-evolved Vivillon at all in her fight. I don't know if her gym scales depending on which order I visit the gyms in and I just didn't get to see it, but... she's kind of... disappointing? Admittedly she is the first gym and I brought along the Fire starter, but... it's not the difficulty that's disappointing but her roster. I really honestly didn't think that a Vivillon would be too much here.
But the battle starts off simple enough. Nymble! That's the cricket we see in the city, and it's pretty adorable, even if Crocalor one-shots it with Ember. A Tarountula is kind of expected. And then... her ace Pokemon is... Teddiursa? Who has a Bug-type Terastralize?
What?
So, uh, I really do hope this is a one-time thing, and that the gym leaders won't, y'know, not showcase one of the new Pokemon of the region that's representative of the type they're using and instead use the Terastralize bullshit to not do so. -sigh- They're totally doing it, yeah? Man, that's just disappointing.
Oh well. I got cupcakes from Katy and also the TM for Pounce, a new Bug-type move that decreases speed.
Going to something a bit less depressing than Katy's choice of Pokemon are the new Pokemon out there. I just randomly stumble upon Nacli! Which is... what is it? I was a bit bamboozled by it. It looks like something out of Minecraft, and it's like... a mushroom-cupcake thing with square eyes. The Pokedex identifies it as a 'rock salt' Pokemon, and... oh, that's a huge chunk of salt as the 'hat' and the 'mushroom cap' are strata of earth! That's actually pretty cool.
OH! NaCl! Salt! I just got that joke right now hahahahaha what the shit, good job, Nintendo/Game Freak.
I also took this time to walk around and go through the Southern area with Miraidon. There's a trainer that uses a creature called a Tadbulb, which is an Electric-type tadpole that's like... a less horizontal Tympole? That's kind of weird, but okay. I wonder if it's a 'convergent evolution' thing like Wiglett is?
Speaking of which, I found a bunch of Wiglett in the southern-most shore, hanging out and popping out of the ground and hiding if I come close. Wiglett is Water-type, and is a convergent evolution of Diglett because they're two separate species. I was a bit confused what this means initially, though I obviously know about what convergent evolution means in a biological sense. In a Pokemon sense... both Diglett and Wiglett exist simultaneously in Paldea, and they can't interbreed! Plus, Diglett is a mole, and Wiglett is a pipe eel!
...a disturbingly phallic, pulsating pipe eel, but still a fish regardless!
Going around the Southern area, I also find Flamigo. A glorious punny name. A flamingo amigo! It sure is... kind of basic of a Pokemon? It's Fighting/Flying, which works well for a flamingo, and it has some interesting animations, I suppose, with how its legs bend and how it mouth opens widely, but it's kind of... well, not too different from an average cartoon flamingo?
I also find a very weird Pokemon near the currently-closed-to-me Pokemon League near Mesagoza. It's called Tandemaus, and... I guess someone wanted to be funny? We've had multiple Pokemon be considered a single species before. Kangaskhan, for sure. Magneton, Klang, Klinklang, Binacle, Barbaracle and Zygarde. Slowbro is also two Pokemon fused together. The fused Kyurem and Necrozma forms.
But this? Tandemaus is just... two mouse with beady eyes and mouths that open far wider than you'd expect. Two mice that are paired together, get captured together and apparently eat together. But... I don't know. What? What the fuck? Are these twins? A mated pair? A soul split in two bodies? An incestuous mated pair? Go into my box, you creepy mice.
Also, I've been wondering what that creepy noise I hear in several parts of the overworld are, and... it's apparently a Pokemon called Gimmighoul! Which are these tiny, flat imps that hang around certain places, panics when I approach them, and ninja away leaving a coin for me. Are these like Spiritomb wisps in Legends: Arceus?
I'm not sure what's going on, though, because I climbed up a tower and found a chest, which opens up, Mimic-style, to reveal... a bunch of coins and one of those gremlins in it. This is the full Gimmighoul, a Ghost-type that I capture, and... what's the point of the other solo lonely chest-less Gimmighouls? It's bizarre, and I've elected to carry Gimmighoul in my party even though right now it has only Astonish and Tackle. Such a wacky take on the 'Mimic' trope!
And, of course, my good boy Tarountula evolves into Spidops! It is... not what I expected, but I'm very pleased with this thing! Eyeballs that are on the side of its heads, eight legs, and while it stands upright in the sprite, when I send Spidops out into the overworld it scuttles around like a spider! Creepy! Spidops has a presumably-signature-move called Silk Trap, which is like Protect with some extra debuffs. It's also got a veyr cool Pokedex artwork where it's like showing off its webbing with its arms.
I've also realized that I can relearn moves on the field, which means Crocalor finally learns a Fire-type move better than Ember, which is Incinerate!
And... that's where I'll stop today. A gym beaten, a bunch of new Pokemon captured, and a whole lot of exploration! Next up I'll probably try and do a Team Star or a Titan takedown, and maybe explore a whole bit in the school!
Random Notes:
- What isn't disappointing about the gym is the gym theme -- and the Galar-inspired crowd chanting. It makes a bit less sense since we aren't in a stadium filled with fans this time around, but it's still definitely hype-inducing and very well done!
- There's a guy near every Pokemon Center in the open-world areas that gives me a free TM after I defeat a bunch of trainers in the area he's overseeing. A neat little way to motivate me to hunt down and beat up all the trainers!
- Other Pokemon I've also captured in my wanderings: Bonsly, Surskit, Magikarp, Wingull, Happiny...
- There are giant glowing Pokemon in the field, which in my case is the aforementioned Flying-type Tera Meowth. I thought it was the new indicator for Shiny Pokemon and got excited over nothing.
- The load time being slow is particularly noticeable for loading in my model when I want to buy clothes.
- Rather disappointed I can't rotate my Pokemon in the 'Pokemon' status screen.
- Current Party: Crocalor, Spidops, Smoliv, Nacli, Paldean Wooper, Gimmighoul
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