So I've just been spending a lot of time just wandering through the East Province meadows, which... I think the four provinces are really what splits up a majority of the older Pokemon population? There's just a whole ton of new ones I find like one after the other and I just keep burning through the Pokeballs I have. Phanpy, Swablu, Toxel, Goomy, Mudbray, Magnemite, Dreepy, Bagon... a great mix of generations for sure!
Also some newer faces include the fact that there is a gender difference for Oinkolonge, which I didn't realize before. Females have a brown face, and males have a black face. It's okay, I guess. I can't really say I have too much of any strong opinions about Oinkolonge at all.
There are also a total of four Squawkabilly colours, which is neat, and I do find it interesting that they do have little gang fights. I really honestly do wish that some of the overworld Pokemon can actually battle each other instead of just surrounding each other menacingly.
...speaking of newer species, my Nymble finally evolves and... it's a Bug/Dark evolution? And it's humanoid... and it's KAMEN RIDER? Rider, rider... RIDER! Damn, if there was any doubt, that Rider Kick pose in the Pokedex, complete with the moon in the background, really does sell this thing to me. Ideally he'd be Bug/Fighting, I suppose, but is this seriously our first Bug/Dark Pokemon? Unless I'm forgetting something. You'd think an 'evil' bug would've been obvious to Pokemon, but it took multiple decades to get there.
And... well, I guess this guy's more Shadow Moon than Kamen Rider Black, I suppose. That's okay. I love how the dex entry describes about how he can only stay in his 'showdown' mode, which is when those back-mounted wings unfurl downwards to become GIANT FUCKING GRASSHOPPER LEG CHAINSAWS for a time. In addition to, well, obviously being a giant Rider Kick, it's also a neat nod to how some Riders do have limited-time super forms.
...I might even like him more than Spidops? I don't know. Spidops is cool and all, but... well, he is just pure-Bug. Oh well! That's why we rotate the party members!
Another new Pokemon I find is Wattrel, the Electric/Flying petrel. A bit surprising to find them to be given the Electric-typing, and the design is honestly what I'd expect from an Electric bird, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, this guy is basically being swapped in just to give my team a bit more type diversity, and both Electric and Flying does cover some of my weaknesses.
Wattrel also gains experience points very quickly, which makes it evolve rather rapidly into Kilowattrel. That's some Digimon-style naming scheme, and I heartily approve. It's also surprisingly big! I'm not sure if it's the very cool sleek shape and texture of the wings, but I feel like it seems bigger than Staraptor or something.
Anyway, I end up finally meandering all the way to Levincia, which is a huge harbour town dominated by a huge Pokeball-shaped bridge-cum-battle-stage in the center. There are a bit more shops here! The fashion stores carry different items, including a super-expensive boutique with all the 'endgame' fashion items. Which... I would probably appreciate more if the game wouldn't take like almost ten seconds to load each option. I do really notice that loading times for the outfit previews and the Pokemon box sprites took the longest. Damn, Scarlet/Violet, I love you, but optimize your load times, sheesh.
Levincia looks good, but... once more, there really isn't anything about it. It really is going to be a bit of a running commentary that I have. All of these random background NPC's that seem to 'say nothing' in previous games really do a pretty good job at building up the vibe of the towns. Here there's maybe one or two people who speak about Iono and her streaming whatever, and the rest just feels like... boring dialogue, y'know? And it really shouldn't be. They had all the assets to spice the town up in ways that matter. One of the restaurants is one that I can enter, but there's hardly anything different there -- is it really that difficult to program in like a Battle Restaurant there? Is it really that different to type in like an extra half-dozen people being huge fans of Iono and gathering in front of the many identikit boring restaurants, and another batch of people discussing the expensive fashion or something?
Anyway, mini-rant over. It's gym time! Nemona rushes in after a call, telling me that she's starting to use more of her party. Which just means a Rockruff, really, added to her team of Pawmi and her evolved starter, Floragato, which... okay, yeah. I know people get defensive when I talk about starters, but... I... I don't like it? Especially if I had picked Sprigatito? I definitely prefer Crocalor, I can tell you that much. It sure is a cat on two feet with like, a leaf-bib or something.
Iono is a streamer, and I have to basically rack up those viewer count- er, create good content with her before she would allow myself to 'collab' with her. The part of me that's a cranky old man wants to roll my eyes at this clear attempt to get on with the kids, but... you know what? I'm not a huge high-energy sugar-clickbait streamer guy, but they definitely nail the charm down. Hell, we even get a streamer layout as my character gets all flustered and confused at what the shit is going on with her. She's got catchphrases, cutified 'anywho' pronunciations, and constant nods to subscriptions, viewer counts and collaborations and all the funky jargon of streamers. We even have a fun logo for a fake YouTube showing up here and there! And... her design is actually kinda neat! The bubblegum hair, the oversized poofy sleeves, the sharp teeth (more of a V-Tuber thing, cause I don't think anyone really sharpens their teeth like that), the two bizarre bubblegum... mutant Magnemites? They actually hover around and spin around, but I've already seen regular Kantonian Magnemite. Did Iono paint over hers and gave them tinier magnets, or are these regional variants?
Anyway, I actually quickly found myself completely enjoying this gym challenge. The high energy, the change in format, Iono constantly (purposefully?) flubbing how she wants those viewer counts and people to 'smash' the like button, before correcting herself is fun. And the little pre-gym minigame is actually pretty pleasant! I suppose the Sunflora one was fun too. Sorry, Katy. Your pre-gym minigame sucks ass.
Iono brings in a random passerby and tells me to find him in a mini Where's Waldo sequence as she shows me a security camera of the town. And, of course, it's Clavell! Not in his Clive persona, I mean, who is Clive, totally not our most venerable and elegant director of the prestigious Uva Academy, no, it cannot be. As 'Mr. Walksabout'. Which Iono actually has to double-check with her production team if the title is 'safe', which I feel is something that I've seen a lot of streamers get into trouble with.
The hide and seek portion is fun and simple, but then Iono actually sics some gym grunts on me. Or, rather, Poke Maniacs. Her simps, basically, which I thought is hilarious! I get to fight two trainers, all of which are all mega-fans (though not that creepy, this is Pokemon after all) before Iono herself faces me off in the gym battle in the big-ass bridge in the center of the town.
And after her catchphrase and going a bit nyahaha, and thanking one of her donators (ha!), Iono fights me, and her team is... pretty neat! Four Pokemon this time around, starting off with a Wattrel -- which gets taken out by my Dolliv, who happens to be leading the party. She almost died thanks to all the Plucks, but hey, I had Flail on Dolliv which works as intended! Then my Clodsire shows up and takes out the Luxio quickly, and... a new... thing? What is that? Is that a frog? That is a chonky boy, that's what it is, I can tell you that much.
It's a thing called a Bellibolt, and... uh... I think it's Electric/Water? It tries to take Clodsire down with a Water Gun, but... well, Clodsire has Water Absorb. And obviously, being a Ground-type, little Pooper the Clodsire is immune to Bellibolt's Electric-type attacks. So all it can do is just stare dumbly with panicked eyes and a ._. face as Clodsire just very slowly and methodically Mud Shots it down. Two ._. monsters staring at each other, one with dot eyes and one with bulging eyes. It was a match made in heaven.
Bellibolt also has an ability called Electromorphosis, which apparently gets charged any time Clodsire's attack hits it? But considering that Clodsire literally counters Bellibolt's entire movepool, I am not sure what stat this actually increases, or how scary it is.
Oh, and Iono's final Pokemon that she Terastralizes or whatever is a Mismagius. That makes even less sense than the bug lady using a Teddiursa, I'm sorry. What happened to the Magnezones she was using to record her streams? What the hell does a Mismagius have anything to do with the Electric-type, her gimmick as a streamer, or anything at all? I don't mind the gym leaders having a more diverse Pokemon pool -- I thought it was cute when Diamond/Pearl had some later-game gym leaders have a couple of weirder Pokemon who has attacks of the type they specialize in... but they aren't the ace Pokemon, y'know? Brassius is literally the only one that gets a pass because Sudowoodo looks like a Grass-type but isn't. I'm not sure what it'd be for Iono -- maybe a cheerleading Pokemon like Oricorio or something, but this is just very silly, I feel.
Anyway, if you haven't guessed, I make it a point to ignore the Teracrystallization or whatever literally since basically the first gym. Which means I didn't use it against Mela, Brassius, Titan Klawf and certainly not now against Iono. The Mismagius has Levitate, so I guess that's a long-winded way to toss in an Eelektross gimmick there, so I just Poison Jab the Mismagius to death. It actually died of poisoning, I think.
Iono gives me the badge, a photo where I do a weird long-sleeve pose with her, and the Volt Switch TM. I think she's the first gym leader to not give me a TM for a new Gen-IX move!
La Primera shows up to talk to me after the gym battle and... she tells me her name, and it's Geeta. I think 'La Primera' is much more badass. Since there are so many champions around, she's actually the chairwoman of the Pokemon League. Neat!
Then I walk to the area north of Levincia and it's a bunch of cliffs... and I walk into a tumbleweed. Been doing that a lot in Genshin Impact's desert areas, except that this isn't just an aspect of the background, no. It's a Pokemon! Called Bramblin, which is... a cage made up of tumbleweed vines, and it's got two beady eyes inside. I accidentally kill it a couple of times before finally catching one. It's a Grass/Ghost! Okay, I really should've expected that. I guess tumbleweeds are kinda creepy, and it is a dead plant, after all, but it's still moving with the power of the wind!
Also in this area is Varoom, which is just zipping around. I thought it was like a lawnmower, but nah. That's Rotom, not Varoom. From its name, it's the pre-evolved form of Mela's gigantic car Vavaroom or whatever it's called, so it's like... a hot rod engine with wheels just zipping around merrily. Not the biggest fan of it if we're being honest, but it'll probably grow on me! This thing is Steel/Poison, to my surprise. I guess it expels smoke! Apparently the steel part is the Pokemon's real body, and the, uh... wheels are coal chunks that it latches and 'eats' from? Okay, now I like it a bit more with the little effort of telling me how it 'biologically' survives in the wild!
Anyway, Bramblin is much more neat, so it's replacing Dolliv for now as the Grass-type in the party. This part of Paldea has a lot more older Pokemon too. Rolycoly, Carkoal, Silicobra, Rufflet, Cufant, Voltorb, Dugtrio... the Voltorbs will self-destruct! I don't think my character can take damage the way I could in Legends: Arceus (I have to keep reminding myself that I don't take fall damage), but it's always fun to see Voltorb go kaboom.
Arven also calls me at this point telling me that I'm getting close to the Lurking Steel Titan, which is like a super-fast worm-thing, I think? So perhaps a Steelix of some sort.
One of the trainers has a new Pokemon called... Finizen! It's a dolphin buds! People have been begging for a dolphin since the franchise's inception, and it's about overdue, I would say. It's a cute little dolphin!
In the West Area, I also find a weird Fairy/Steel... caveman... thing? It's called Tinkatink! It's, uh... it's weird, but it sure is a fairy caveman with a giant metal club. It apparently constantly works on its metalworking skills and is a bit of a perfectionist. Okay?
I just realized that there are Pokedex rewards I get for catching loads of different species of Pokemon. I got a bunch of stardust and evolutionary stones! I also tried to slowly evolve some of the early-route Pokemon like Fidough or Wiglett, too.
Random Notes:
- Iono is actually voiced, and she's in the official Pokemon YouTube channel! That's adorable.
- The lighthouse near the city led me to a bunch of Shuppets and Grimers, and a Rotom. Man, Grimer's muck looks gloriously goopy in this generation. The lighthouse doesn't really have anything on top but a bunch of tourists.
- There's also a beach with Sandygast, Crabrawler and Mareanie! All my Alola buddies!
- Another thing to note about Levincia is that they've got a Chinese food restaurant, which sells mapo tofu and stuff! That's interesting, but... I'd really liked to have someone to tell me about the restaurants instead of just a load screen to show me a bunch of foods that lead to bonuses or whatever.
- Among the older Pokemon, it is a treat to see Silicobra just wiggle its way onwards.
- Did I ever mention Naclstack's new move? It's Salt Cure, it deals damage, leaves damage over time, and damages Water and Steel types more. Neat!
- The music in the Bramblin area is very cowboy-esque. Not sure how well it fits Spanish music, but it sure is a pleasant tune to bop to.
- I've just realized that the item drop from Makuhita is called Makuhita sweat. I get it, Makuhita can't really drop anything, but shit, that's nasty.
- Current Party: Crocalor, Clodsire, Lokix, Naclstack, Kilowattrel, Bramblin
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