So because I am a gigantic dork, I went back to Uva Academy and began to basically devour the entire library. Each bookshelf usually has a single book poking out, and I can read those. A lot of them are... real basic stuff usually hidden away in each region's obligatory Pokemon School, like status conditions, types, Tera types and the like... and some fun stuff like the school anthem, the history of Galar (to recap the other main-series Pokemon game in the market right now!) and academy rules about uniforms (the terrible handwave to why customization is limited to four outfits).
And then there are a bunch of books that are a bit more... interesting. There are books about the gym leaders. I've met Katy the patisserie, but apparently there's also some person called Brassius who's well known for his Sunflora-themed artwork, a musician who was so sorrowful that she played a song for her dead dog who rose from the dead... and Professor Turo is a member of the Hall of Fame.
There is also a series of 'Occultist' books about... the Iron Jugulis and Iron Treads and whatnot, which are sightings of beings that are suspected to be related to the UFO -- which are creatures similar to Hydreigon, Delibird, Donphan, Volcarona and Tyranitar. Okay? Arven did talk about a mysterious Donphan within a certain log of exploration to Area Zero or whatever, which at the moment was something that I thought was going to be the five Titans... except I met one of the Titans and it certainly wasn't a robot or any of these five Pokemon listed here. Huh!
And also, I found the Violet Book, which is the very book that Arven was referring to. It's a recording of the expedition of a guy called Heath to the Great Crater of Paldea, with some interesting artwork that really reminds me of the 1st-edition Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks. Or artwork of that period of time, anyway. There are some talks about the journey to the Great Crater and Area Zero, and the Pokemon and geological strata and the map there... and then at one point one of them found strange circular symbols that straight-up look like they're satanic rituals. There are also mysterious plates with inscriptions that no one can leave a scratch on... the aforementioned assault by a gigantic mutant Donphan and some talks about a Cobalion-looking monster...
Sounding very much like something out of a Cthulhu story! Especially when the author Heath apparently strayed away from the team, fell unconscious and scribbled a bunch of designs but having no memory of doing so.
After some photographs of Heath and the original founder of Uva Academy, we go to... an absolutely gloriously creepy sequence of a ■isk P■e■n and the whole page is just pockmarked with ■ as it describes some entity within the crater's depths. There's a very creepy drawing of some... strange... sphere made up of hexagons, glowing like a gemstone, and some sort of chameleon-phoenix-dragon thing perched on it. There's also a crown.
Okay, Pokemon! You had my curiousity, but now you have my attention. This is a lot of hidden build-up for what I assume is the main story of the game, with whatever the shit's happening with Miraidon and Koraidon. This is way more foreshadowing than the nearly jack-shit that they did with Eternatus in the previous game; and I really do appreciate these images which elevate the creepiness factor like a thousandfold.
...so of course, after all that creepiness, the next thing I do is... go for all my classes! And each class is like a bite-sized episode kinda dealing with a bit of school life. I think the proper schoolteacher content is going to revolve around me going to the areas and actually talking to the teachers? They do have some introductions with a neat bit of personality, which is definitely something I appreciate -- the non-unique-model NPC's in this game might as well as not exist considering how utterly flat their dialogue have been... even for generic NPC's in a Pokemon game.
Anyway, first up is Battle Studies with Ms. Dendra, who is a lady in a tracksuit with a Medicham. She sure is hot-blooded, rattles on a bit too much about her age and hobby, and defaults back to HOT BLOODED WORKING OUT. She teaches me about the physical/special split, and... well, I guess I could get the answer wrong?
Math class with Ms. Tyme! She actually notes how math itself isn't a particularly interesting subject, appreciates the students' 'umm' honesty, and then... cuts straight to Pokemon battle mechanics, asking about type effectiveness and multipliers! Okay, I was wondering if I was going to have to do some real math.
Then Biology, with Mr. Jacq, who we saw before. He just gives me a tutorial on the walking-Pokemon feature.
Home Economics with Mr. Saguaro, who... has a pretty distinctive design! Huge muscles, pink shirt, funky mustache and hair! Home Economics is one of those subjects that I only ever see in anime or cartoons. He sure does teaches me about cooking and picnics and ingredients and meal power, something that I have completely forgotten all throughout this playthrough, despite actually buying and acquiring some ingredients. Oops!
Then Ms. Rainfort teaches me History, which is basically a recap of the Great Paldea and Area Zero stuff I read from the book. Sorry, Rainfort, I take self-studying very seriously.
Anyway, with a lot of the area around Cortondo and Los Platos kind of combed clean of most of its Pokemon, I continue going on ahead to explore the huge, maze-like canyon on the East side of Mesagoza. And I absolutely love that the population of Pokemon just basically changed so much, and it's such a refreshing combination of Pokemon from multiple generations. Shinx! Rookidee! Makuhita! Skiddo! None of these guys even debuted in the same generation!
And as I continue just wandering around this canyon area and fighting trainers, Arven calls me and informs me that I've reached the area where the Stony Cliff Titan is lurking about. And, hey, just about time for me to encounter a whole ton of wild Rock-type Klawfs... which are... uh... certainly crabs with spiky joints. Apparently these guys can scuttle forwards instead of moving sideways. Mutant crabs! Mutant crabs!
And as I reach the huge cliff face, I get to see a particularly large Klawf just... pretending to be camouflaged against the rocks. And it's so flat that it's actually well-hidden from other angles, actually. I love that the Klawf's eyes allows it to rotate around and spot me, and the Titan Klawf just... scuttles slowly like a goddamn creepy spider up towards a higher elevation, forcing me to chase it. Very cute behaviour!
The fight against Klawf himself is kind of... well, I guess I kind of expected more after the Noble Pokemon recently in Legends: Arceus, as well as the Totem Pokemon in Sun/Moon, but Klawf is basically just a regular fight with a bit more HP than usual. Which is kind of sad, honestly, since my Smoliv just solos the Klawf without even breaking a sweat with Mega Drain.
Klawf then jumps off the cliff, smashes the cliff, pulls out a giant glowing pink herb which I assume is the Herba Mystica that Arven is searching for. So this is how the weird ingredient hunt ties into the Titans! The herbs are the ones that persumably makes the titan a mutated! Arven shows up himself at this point and we double-team the Klawf -- me with my Smoliv and him with his Shellder. It really isn't that difficult, again, as I just spam Mega Drain. Klawf does have the Anger Shell ability, which decreases both its defenses and increases its attacks and speed stats, but man is he a pushover.
Arven finds the Herba Mystica and starts making a sandwich out of the herbs... at which point Miraidon shows up, all but demands the sandwich with the power of puppy-dog-eyes (or the equivalent that an LED-eyed bike-lizard-dragon can have, anyway) and somehow the sandwich unlocks the power of... dashing! Okay, so the Miraidon upgrade storyline is tied to Arven's Titan Hunt!
Interestingly, Arven basically tells me to go off and enjoy my journey while he tidies up... and then the camera lingers on Arven as he apologizes to me, mutters about how 'the coast is clear' and seems to release someone from a Pokeball. He has been edgy and mysterious about why he needs the Herba Mystica, so I do like that there's something more to the otherwise quite boring questline.
Professor Turo also calls me and tells me to enjoy my journey while confirming that Miraidon's regained his power. Suspicious!
But my big takeaway from this playthrough session is that my Paldean Wooper... evolves! Not into Paldean Quagsire, no, but it's a completely new species called Clodsire. Look at him. Look at this cute buds. This is what I actually wanted Quagsire to turn into -- even derpier and even more huggable and look at this ._________. energy that Clodsire has. I love him. His stubby little feet makes him even more like a dumb-looking salamander...
And then he uses an attack and those six dots on his back sprout out into horns like Pyukumuku. I'm pretty sure this is most likely a reference to a specific amphibian of some sort. Probably those frogs that can shoot out its young from its back, or that one newt that can push out its ribs? I'm not sure if Pokemon would go that dark? Regardless, I love my Clodsire and he's going to go all the way to my final team.
I also catch a Nymble! I already have a Bug-type in my party in Spidops, but... we'll see what Nymble evolves into, or if it'll evolve. Really do like Nymble's design, from its eyes to its very spindle-like feet to the very toyetic... reverse-wings thing it's got going on.
It's a bit of a shorter talk this time around mostly because I rambled on about the books and stuff. I've reached Artazon at the moment of writing, though I haven't really gone through the gym challenge... and... well, as I kind of alluded to above, the town really feels hollow, doesn't it? Artazon is a lot fancier-looking visually than Cortondo, but there's barely any NPC that says anything in the game that's not either generic dialogue or about the gym leader Brassius. Kind of a real shame, honestly, because I really do feel that as hollow as the towns in regions like Kalos or Galar might be, at least each town has an identity that doesn't wholly revolve around the gym leader.
Random Notes:
- I've been using the Pika-Vee phone case and I just realized that the sprites for Pikachu and Eevee are lifted directly from Pokemon Yellow and they are arranged in a fight! That's adorable.
- One thing that I haven't really had a good place to mention in my let's play is that when a Pokemon learns a new move, you can actually ask the Pokemon (or, well, the game) about which move it wants to forget in exchange for it. That's cute!
- Just like Quagsire, Clodsire has an adorable BWAAAAA mouth-opening animation.
- I was about to put a Klawf in my party, but... but that dying-rock-grinding noise that Klawf keeps making every time I auto-battle with it just makes me chunk it back into the box and bring out NaCl. Sorry, Klawf. I actually do like your crabby design, but you're a bit annoying.
- The Pokedex basically tells me that Spidops doesn't evolve any further. Bit of a shame, I was almost hoping that it gains a secondary typing after a second evolution, but I guess I already like Spidops as he is.
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