So after clearing a bunch of objectives, I guess I do want to go back and start catching a bunch of the older Pokemon. Which is what I'm doing in the areas around the desert, the canyons and the Orthworm mine. But most of all, I do want to see a bunch of the newer evolutions -- basically to get myself un-spoiled preemptively and to see as many new Pokemon as I can. I know some will be locked geographically in the Northern regions, but eh!
I've also been making use of the newly-found water-walking ability to start going through a lot of the rivers. I'm basically alternating between the aquatic areas as well as the thickets surrounding the mine area. Slowpoke, Arrokuda, Shellos, Kirlia, Dreepy, Shellder, Cloyster, Tynamo, Qwilfish, Luvdisc, Girafarig, Lycanroc, Axew... a lot of catching up in terms of Pokemon! There are Pokedex rewards that I didn't actually know existed, and I shot straight to basically 140 or something in a single go, which means I caught almost as much Pokemon as there is in the entire Red/Blue dex without really even trying.
It's been a couple of weeks since the game released, and through conversations and osmosis from the internet, I have been spoiled about the existence of some evolutions of certain Pokemon in the game. Some of them are weird, I'll tell you that.
I explore Porto Marinada, which... admittedly, it is much nicer-looking than the mining town Zapapico. There is still not much to do in the town and it's a bit of a tragedy that I bitched enough in previous entries, but... but Porto Marinada, at least, is something that I will praise for actually having something in it. There's a very clear central fresh market area in the center of the town! There are mentions of auctions that as I discover later on, is locked behind some story... but I don't care. At this point, I'm kind of starved for any kind of uniqueness to the towns that this is really something that I genuinely welcome. This feels like the little identifying gimmicks of previous smaller towns, you know? Like how Pacifidlog Town has the gimmick of floating on a colony of Corsola, or Ambrette Town having competing aquarium and fossil museum spots, or Malie City being filled by Kanto immigrants, or Circhester being based around the hot springs...
Anyway, Porto Marinada is a step up compared to a lot of the other cities by the virtue of this gimmick -- it's really quite sparse compared to even something we got a generation ago in Galar, but at this point, with the disappointment I'm having with all the cities, I'm taking what I can get!
Even cooler is the fact that when I'm going around beating up the Kirlias and Grimers in the nearby lighthouse, turns out that one of them is a transformed Ditto! I never realized that this is how Ditto should appear in the overworld, transformed into other Pokemon! The game actually gives a bit of an interface spoiler because if you ZL-lock onto the target, it will actually tell you whether it's a Kirlia or a Ditto disguised as a Kirlia. Pretty cool!
I get a brand-new fish Pokemon, and it's... it's a fun, angular-looking Water/Psychic Pokemon called Veluza. And... its signature move is the self-buffing Fillet Away... and I wasn't very sure what I was looking at until I saw its Pokedex entry, where... it's a homage to the art of slicing away fish flesh from bones, an art in sashimi/sushi preparation. The Pokedex image even shows Veluza... "shedding spare flesh from its body". Wait, what? Wait, what? That's so gloriously morbid, and not something that I thought Pokemon was ever going to do. Pokemon had adapted creatures that can do some degree of autotomy, but they've toned it down (into a move that doesn't showcase the body parts being broken, and for inorganic Steel-types at that) or ignored it altogether (as in Pyukumuku).
Also, my Dolliv evolves! And... I expected a generic plant-lady in the vein of Tsareena or Bellossom or Liligant or the other Liligant... and... hello? What the fuck is this? I get Arboliva instead, which is a bird-esque creature. The image online shows her wings splayed out like a bird, but her default state is standing in place with the leaf-branch-wings held together like an 'o', like some sort of weird lawn ornament. It's not my favourite design, but it's such an unexpected and creative anatomy for Smoliv and Dolliv! I still think my favourite of the three-part evolutionary line is still Smoliv and its adorable face, but this thing, as a bird-creature with olive-cannons on its wings, is pretty cool.
I go to the other side of the desert and reach Cascarrafa City, which is a rather large multi-level city seemingly based on Portuguese architecture. There are a fair amount of shops to visit here, and lifts to carry me to different levels of the city if I haven't unlocked Miraidon's super-jump ability. Very fun! Rivers cut the city apart and there are bridges and ankle-height pools. A fancy-ass restaurant has long menu names on a posh menu. There is a Delibird Presents store with evolution stones and new phone cases, including ones based on Komala, Flabebe, Magnemite and Gothita. New expensive shoes!
A lady near the fountain trades me a Johtonian Wooper for a Paldean Wooper. It's called Manchester. Cute!
As I wander throughout the city, there is a weird black... giant... demon-sealing stake thing with a Chinese-pattern orb similar to that Ruinous Sword cave I saw a while back near the Titan Bombirdier mountain. I pulled it out, of course, like any irresponsible idiot, and it crumbles and vanishes. I see I'm going to unleash some sort of sealed demon creature!
Anyway, going on with the gym story, this big, burly excitable old man called Kofu goes 'Vaultin Veluza!' and just runs off being all late and stuff. He's apparently going on a market trip... and he forgot his wallet! The gym secretary, the lazy, irresponsible woman, sees some random kid in the streets, gives me Kofu's wallet, and tells me to return it to him as the 'gym challenge'. That's extremely irresponsible, I might've splurged all the money in the wallet on expensive shoes!
Kofu has good taste in wallets, though. That Venonat wallet is adorable.
But I do like that some of the NPC's in front of the gym building are whispering about how Kofu's gym test is so weird and strange and difficult, which... I'm never going to see, because my gym test is running across the desert to give back a wallet to an old man going to the market to buy some seaweed.
...or, in my case, since I had visited Porto Marinada before, I just fly there.
But not before I go into the gym building, where Hassel, the art teacher guy, is in the building with a very handsome guy with suspenders and a tie and an anime ponytail. Wait, he's a she? She's Rika, a young lady, and she's very sassy, telling me not to be intimidated by her prettiness, and clearly doesn't think too highly of the Uva Academy, unlike Hassel. Rika is another member of the Elite Four, and trash-talks the gym challengers and encourages me to continue because the fourth gym is usually where challengers drop out. I like her!
Anyway, I fly to Porto Marinada, Kofu stops to literally talk to some flowers before running to the market square... and as I approach him, I get interrupted by some goon called fucking Hugo. Who is a gym trainer! Finally, another gym challenge with battles! Kofu has a Floatzel and Clauncher, and... I have not optimized my team for fighting Water-types at all, but Arboliva is being very useful, especially since she learned Giga Drain in the meantime.
I return the wallet to Kofu, who then directs me to the auction market, which finally gets activated. Kofu wants some prime-quality fresh weed from Hoenn! Sorry, seaweed. I can't not make that joke. The auction is rather simple, and I've seen this gimmick in other games, but I do find this to be kind of a cute little minigame. Is this the replacement to the now not-legal-in-children's-games gambling areas? Hmm. Kofu returns to Cascarrafa, but I stay behind to look at the different auctions, which presumably rotate its item choices. I get a Rotom Catalogue for my troubles.
The whole damn city loves Kofu as he walks up to the battle location. After a warning to not eat his Water-type Pokemon, Kofu sends out his party. And, like Iono, he does a damn better job of showcasing Paldea's Pokemon compared to the first two gym leaders I faced. The first Pokemon he sends out is Veluza. Vaultin' Veluza! I am leading with Lokix, though, which isn't a good lead against Water-types... but is, by coincidence, very good towards Psychic-types. Lokix Throat Chops Veluza... not sure what part of the fish she's chopping, but Veluza dies quickly.
Kofu's second Pokemon is Wugtrio, which gets taken out swiftly by Arboliva. Again, nice that he's using Paldean Water-types! Unfortunately, the final Pokemon is another non-Water-type. Like Brassius's Sudowoodo, though, this one is adjacently Water-esque, since Crabominable is a crab. God, I'm now reminded at how fucking ugly Crabominable looks like. That stupid-ass face, that stupid-ass hair, that weird chest-piece... still probably ranks pretty highly in terms of designs that I absolutely despise out of Pokemon, and it sure as hell doesn't look any better with a tacky crystal water fountain or whatever the hell the Terastralization adds on top of this thing.
Anyway, my Bramblethorn clearly doesn't like Crabominable any more than I do. And Kofu's stupid mountain crab doesn't get to do a single thing as Bramblethorn just Bullet Seeds it to death with a 5x hit Bullet Seed. Good tumbleweed. Spit on this creature!
Kofu himself is pretty charming, even if his taste in signature Pokemon is questionable, and he asks me to take a photo of him in one of those funny forced-perspective photographs with him looking like he's a tiny Kofu on my hand. Kofu has been kinda annoying throughout his relatively long gym challenge, but charmingly annoying, if that makes sense? Like one of those old grandpas or uncles that tries too hard to hang out with the youth, but he comes off as so energetic and damned happy that it's infectious?
He gives me a TM for Chilling Water, which is totally a Water-type move that freezes, right? Uh... it's a debuff? Um, okay?
Nemona also shows up a bit, but she runs off crying because she can't battle me properly since her team is specialized to take on Kofu and it's not optimal and she finds herself to be pretty rude. Nemona, buddy, you picked the grass starter. I know yo-yo cat isn't the coolest starter out there, but I'm sure it can sweep Kofu's party pretty well.
After Kofu, I did a bit more running around. My Dunsparce finally gains enough experience from leeching off of other Pokemon that it finally learns its signature move of Hyper Drill and evolves... into... the majestic DUDUNSPARCE.
It's literally the same thing, but with an extra torso!
That's so dumb. So fucking dumb. And if this was any other Pokemon, I'd be bitching about it.
But it's Dunsparce.
The Pokemon whose whole point is that it's a dunce and a sparse. The literal definition of being super-rare in a mon-collecting, game, but being completely useless, unlike the Dhelmises and Feebases and Absols and mythical Pokemon and whatnot. That's the whole joke, and for decades, Dunsparce's stupid-ass face has been perfect.
I have seen way too many fan-evolutions that turn Dunsparce into some sort of majestic Couatl or dragon or angel or whatever the hell, and I feel like they all miss the essence of Dunsparce. This one, though? this one... god, it's so stupid. I love it.l I love that they just literally added an extra line on his eyes and tail, an extra spike 'mustache'... DuDUNsparce. God, what a stupid looking thing. It's perfect.
Then I have been walking around grinding other Pokemon, too, when I randomly come across this creature called Glimmet in one of the caves left behind by the Titan Orthworm. Oh, a cute little cave flower, I thought. Surely it's like, Grass/Rock or Grass/Ground or something. Maybe a Fairy. And then I took a look at its dex entry... Rock/Poison??? "Glimmet's toxic mineral crystals look just like flower petals. This Pokémon scatters poisonous powder like pollen to protect itself." to quote the Pokedex. Hello??? This thing is a rock creature? It just resembles a flower? Rock/Poison, lest we forget, was the typing for the ephemeral extradimensional parasitic jellyfish Nihliego, and it's apparently just a normal poison-crystal-spewing rock creature? It's an asbestos flower or some shit?
I also manage to come across a Cetoddle. It's adorable! It's Ice-type, and it's a wee bit less exciting since I've seen Cetitan in promotional material and this is basically a smaller Cetitan. But it's cute! A terrestrial whale-creature that toddles along on stubby legs. And it's an ice creature. I like this thing!
Anyway, I actually tried to do two gyms this time around, but as you guys will undoubtedly see in the next entry of this playthrough, the next gym ended up being a bit of a surprisingly fun challenge just to get there, as I go to a gym that was probably meant for me to be one of the later gyms to go to!
Random Notes:
- There is apparently a new patch for Scarlet/Violet 1.1.0. to get rid of some glaring bugs, but it didn't fix the performance issues of lagging and frame-rate dropping for people in the distance. At least in my experience. I personally don't really get bothered too much by it, though.
- All these water Pokemon are giving my Net Balls something to catch! I have like 20 of the things.
- There are mentions that ghosts appear at night in Porto Marinada, but I waited and didn't see anything particularly different than usual, and certainly no special ghosts that appear in the town. That alone is notable because there's one NPC that gives me something of interest in Porto Marinada! Did the game hear my bitching about boring cities?
- I'm pretty sure this is already something they did in the previous 3D games they show up in, but it always amuses me to no end that Shellder and Cloyster move backwards -- something that is biologically accurate to the shellfish they are based on, of course, but still a little bit charmingly weird when you put a cartoon face on these things.
- Tynamo and Eelektrik are just swimming in the ocean. This is slightly baffling to me, mostly because the only place I remember encountering Tynamo in the wild is in Unova's Chargestone Cave. I know they're based on electric eels and lampreys, but actually seeing the things just swimming in the ocean alongside the other fishies took me out for a loop.
- Clodsire can swim! Or, well, float!
- Current Party: Dirge (Skeledirge), Pooper (Clodsire), Izu (Lokix), Kunikuzushi (Brambleghast), Tutankhamun (Rellor), Silk (Spidops)
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