Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 6: Truleewoodo & Giant Fire Cars

So yeah, last episode, we arrived in Artazon City's gym, which is the right side of Mesagoza. It's a pretty town, a fair bit larger and has more landmarks than Cortondo for sure. There is a huge circular hedge maze, a giant playground for children, and a whole ton of random sculptures and art pieces made by the gym leader Brassius, with the typical combination of artists who wax lyrical about Brassius's avant-garde artistic sensibilities, as well as a group of people who are just 'hmmm, weird sculptures, neat I guess?' It's neat and all, but I kind of miss it when a town or a city has something more than just the gym leader, y'know? Like... oh, Pewter City has the museum; Ecruteak Town had the two towers; Mauville City has the whole New Mauville subplot and the casino; Driftveil City had the Cold Storage sub-area... Artazon City's pretty cool and distinctive, but everything just ties to Brassius and even then it's so far kind of a one-note personality?

I don't know. Maybe I'm a little bit too harsh, but there literally is nothing to do in this city other than just go to the gym and move on. There used to be at least some interesting sights to look at. The hedge maze is nice, at least.

Nemona is there waiting for me in the gym receptionist building, and she has a rather funny line where she very furiously and specifically denies that she was there waiting for me and that it's just a huge coincidence that we picked the same first two gyms. 

The game this time around is relatively fun and a lot less irritating than the squishy-olive game. I have to look for ten Sunflora hidden throughout the city, a venture that's a bit more fun thanks to the city itself having visually interesting landmarks, and a whole lot of Sunflora sculptures that aren't Sunflora. It's also nice to see Sunflora get a bit more love, though I do hope that this generation might give her an evolution? Half the Sunfloras are hidden in the hedge maze, which I trivialize by having Miraidon jump over the hedge and run on the hedge walls. 

The ten Sunflora I'm supposed to find also troop behind me, which, of course, with this game's questionable graphics, causes them to lose frames a fair bit. It is still fun for the visual sight of a bunch of happy smiling sunflowers just tottering along as my lizard bike jumps on top of a hedge maze and these flowers just keep following. 

After I return the Sunfloras to the ranch, I get to fight the gym leader, the Verdant Virtuoso Brassius on a battlefield under a giant windmill. Brassius has been standing there like the goddamn Batman, and he leaps down and lands in a superhero landing. He's got a whip of thorns, and he basically looks like Burgh's emo cousin. He talks about art and my performance being avant-garde, so clearly he approves of the run-on-the-hedge-walls tactic. 

Brassius's team is... kind of underwhelming, though. His Petilil and Smoliv fall very quickly under my Clodsire and Spidops, and his ace, disappointingly, is also not a Grass-type. Unlike Katy's Teddiursa, though, at least Sudowoodo pretends to be a tree, and there's a sense of funky artistry as Brassius uses the power of Terastralization to turn a Sudowoodo into a Truedowoodo or whatever, making him a Grass-type... that immediately gets one-shotted by my Crocalor's Incinerate.

I'm sorry, it's really not that interesting of a gym battle to commentate on, since my team is so overwhelmingly able to take down Grass-types. 

Anyway, Brassius gives me a new TM for Trailblaze, which is a brand-new Grass-move also increases the user's Speed stat. Okay, sure. After the battle, one of the Elite Four, Hassel, a blonde man with a dapper half-cape, shows up and talks about the championship and Grand Crater... and also he's apparently my art teacher. Okay! At this point, a bunch of new clsases unlock in my school. That's an interesting way to get people a bit more interested in the classes offered in the academia, I suppose!

I head off and explore some of the area on the other side of Artazon and there are a lot of Pokemon here that I haven't encountered in the previous routes. Teddiursa, Murkrow, Dunsparce ,Skiploom, Litleo, Steenee... shit, Komala of all things, all the way from Alola... I also find the evolution of Lechonk, which is... Oinkolonge? It sure is, uh... a bit more elegant-looking than I expected for a chonky boy like Lechonk, but it doesn't go all the way on the other side of the spectrum the way Buneary and Diggersby were. It's... it exists, I guess? I honestly find Lechonk looking so pleasant that I really didn't think too much about its potential evolution. 

I also almost got wiped out by a Paldean Tauros, who is a pure Fighting type. The only real difference is the colouring, though, which is entirely black. It's a bit... weird? The Pokedex numbering also makes it clear that Tauros isn't getting an evolution in this generation, so, uh... okay? I mean, sure, Tauros already has high stats already, but I really did feel like they could've done more in either making him different or something...

I also captured myself a Cyclizar. It sure is a naked, tiny version of Miraidon/Koraidon! I don't really care much for it. It's Dragon/Normal. My Nacli also evolves at this point into Naclstack. A NaCl stack, because it's a bunch of... uh... salt Minecraft cubes piled together into a tortoise thing? God, it's such a weird... thing. It's a boxy rocky thing, and... I don't know. By all rights I should dislike it, but I can't. I'm not sure if it's the movements, or that it's got another theme of being a rock sa monster beyonbeing a Minecraft gag. He's a cute salt boy. 

My Smoliv evolved into a Dolliv, and... it's... it's okay? It's still Grass/Normal and I'm mostly bringing her along for the type coverage. It's a lot more pleasant looking, I think, compared to Liligant or Tsareena, though I still prefer the scared Smoliv face by miles. 

I also finally tried to do a picnic, and it's kinda cute. All seven of my Pokemon came out at once, and it's kinda reminiscent of the similar camp feature from Sword/Shield, though without throwing balls around. I can redecorate my magic hammerspace table and whatnot, and the sandwich making game is, uh... piling ingredients according to a recipe? Okay, sure. It's a bit more variable per sandwich compared to the very samey curry minigame, so I don't mind? It's just basically giving me a similar set of buffs that I would get from buying the food in the cities, which means, uh... I don't remember the exact numbers, but I'm pretty certain that the ingredients for sandwiches are much, much cheaper. 

Wandering on my way to get to the Team Star fire base and constantly falling down the ledges, I finally decide to go from Artazon instead. I run across the regional bird, Squawkabilly, which the game tells me is the eternal rival of Fletchling? Okay. It's sure a parrot! There's a rivalry between the blue and green feathered ones, similar to Basculin. I know it's asking a bit too much, but I do kinda wish that we still had the Generation VI/VII thing where horde battles will have rival Pokemon like Seviper and Zangoose or Corsola and Mareanie fight each other. 

I also catch a Tadbulb. It sure is a tadpole lightbulb thing that apparently can float high off the ground if there are thunderclouds. I'm probably going to like whatever frog this thing evolves into, but Tadbulb herself just feels kinda eh. 

I approach the Team Star Base and Cassiopeia gives me a rundown of how I'm supposed to enter and dismantle the operation and the many, many trainers inside... and an unexpected ally appears. Clive, who comes with his shorts and glasses and immaculate spiky pompadour that he poses with. Who is totally not Clavell, no sir, he is Clive, a student that is concerned about Team Star! Why, next you'll be telling me the Masked Royal is one and the same with Professor Kukui! The sheer audacity, the sheer unmitigated audacity of some people, assuming people look alike just because they share some minimal features!

(Clive, by the way, is a glorious plot twist that I didn't see coming mostly because I immediately suspected Clavell of being shady. I guess he's shady in a different sort!)

Anyway, Clive and Cassiopeia explain that taking down a Team Star boss will cause the whole squadron to disband, which sounds like something disingenuous... but the boss, Mela, will not come out unless you beat up all of her goons. Cassiopeia have also sent out declarations of war to all the Team Star bases, meaning that, well, I really have no choice but to fight these guys! One of the grunts fights me in 'self-defense', and then runs back to warn all his buddies when he realizes who I am. 

Then 'Clive' shows up with a... a weird Pawniard-looking Pokemon called Charlos the Charcadet. Okay? It's apparently one of the school's Pokemon, and it's arrived in the base looking for something or someone. 

Anyway, ain't nobody got time for the little buddy, because I'm up for a Star Barrage. I'm only allowed to bring three Pokemon, and... I have to fight the entire base of 30 Pokemon all at once. This is such a great way to make the fight actually feel like you're one man taking on an entire army of goons and grunts, compared to just like, maybe eight or ten battles of grunts with like the equivalent of Zubats and Rattatas. And it makes use of the auto-battle, and the restriction of only three Pokemon? I bring the half of my team that's not weak to fire -- Crocalor, Clodsire and Naclstack. Poor Naclstack got a bit bullied by the Numels, but otherwise it's three against thirty and there's just a great sense of hectic accomplishments taking down these goons with my Pokemon!

...in other words, this minigame is everything I wanted the gym battles to be, and what the gym battles have been really floundering to deliver at this moment. 

And then Mela bursts out with her glorious gigantic pimped-out ride, which is a big-ass monster car with disco balls and speakers and she's standing on top of the stage with her insane big-ass boots and the engine of the car has a disturbing tongue to it. Taking down the Torkoal is easy. Just a Salt Lick from Naclstack and it's done. 

But the Schedar Starmobile? The fact that I have to fight a level 26 pimped-out gangster car, boosted by the Torkoal's Drought? And it has Speed Boost? It's a Pokemon called a Revavroom, apparently, though the icon that shows up when the Pokemon's ability is activated is a bit different from the pimped-out monster we're fighting. The Schedar Starmobile uses a combination of its already inherently high HP, combined with Screech and then spamming its high-speed move to just rampage through my team. 

It basically took me until Naclstack, Clodsire and Spidops are taken out until I realize her strategy, and considering what loser pushovers the Titans and Gym Leaders have been, the sheer absurdity of fighting a big-ass car and the banger Team STar music really did distract me. Eventually I wised up, revived Naclstack, and just did a bit of a switcheroo between Crocalor and Naclstack, both of whom can easily tank the Starmobile's attack especially after a couple of Overheats have disabled its Sp. Attack stats. 

Mela kind of deflates after that, and we kind of have a brief flashback to one and a half years ago, where Mela meets up with the other four Team Star bosses. She has a bit of a petty rivalry with Ortega, and Eri kind of helps her out? We really don't get too much of what they're planning, beyond a cryptic 'Operation Star', and apparently the rumours being spread of them trying to fight the campus -- at least by Mela's potentially biased claims -- are unsubstantiated. The giant Starmobile isn't even a menace, they built it for a mysterious 'big fight' in the past and never busted it out since then.

Mela does give me her badge and disband her team, but not before crushing my grip with a solid handshake. Damn racer goth punk! Mela apparently uses to be good friends with Charlos the Charcadet, and she seems to be convinced to go back to the university? I really hope she keeps those big-ass boots and her unique walking animation, though. It'd be such a shame to ditch that killer metal rockstar look.

At the end of this quest, Clive buggers off and Cassiopeia sends one of her allies to bring in some TM's and materials, and it's... Penny! The Eevee backpack hoodie girl. She's being all meek and shy, but, uh, the game basically all but hints that she's most likely Cassiopeia herself. The plot thickens, then, because it seems like our character isn't getting the whole picture about Team Star.

But... yeah. After the very disappointing two gyms and the so-so Titan Klawf, I absolutely love that Team Star -- and the evil teams tend to be the most disappointing part of any given Pokemon game -- ended up somehow being the most thrilling and exciting part of this so far! A boss fight in a Pokemon game that I actually have to focus tends to not really come until the end-game. Good job, Mela!

Random Notes:

• The music for the gym is the one thing that I will never complain about. It's a banger!
• Brassius's Truleewoodo pun is also very funny. 
• I've found out that if you chuck a non-swimming Pokemon into the water, they summon a giant... white Pokeball floating platform to stand on. A bit less primitive than Legends Arceus and its wooden plants, but cute!
  
• I guess the different seasonal versions of Deerling depends on which side of the Paldea region that you encounter them in? Hmm, that's kind of interesting. I saw Oricorio in this game too, and I'm going to assume the four quarters of Paldea also determine the Oricorio forms. 
• I guess a chest Gimmighoul is on top of every single tower? All the ones I go to have had one. I sure am gathering a huge chunk of Gimmighoul Coins from them!
• The reaction to eating a sandwich is, uh.... very... uh... interesting, shall we say. 
• Mela has a pretty sick design. Without contest, she's the first character in this game that feels the most distinctive. 
• Also very awesome about Mela is her fucking theme. The Team Star theme is a banger, and Mela's is even better than that. Most of the music in this game is already pretty neat, as per Nintendo standards, but these two and the gym battle theme are standouts for sure. 
• Current Party: Crocalor, Spidops, Clodsire, Nymble, Dolliv, Naclstack.