Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 11: Seaside Cliffs & Sequence Breaking

Okay, ever since the first couple of gyms, I've been trying to put two 'objectives' in a single post. Either titans, gyms, Team Star or at least a huge trawl of either new species or the school stuff (which I really need to get to doing). And that was fully the plan of the previous 'episode', where I wanted to clear all the objectives on the west side of the map. And I sure cleared Mecha-Donphan, Bombardier and Cascarrafa... but boy oh boy, I thought that one gym tucked in the South-West of the region was going to be easy to clear out. I mean, so far all the clustered objectives were pretty easy to get to, right? Alfornada Gym, house of the Psychic-type Pokemon? Pfft, my party is built to kill Psychic-type Pokemon. With two Ghost-types and two Bug types (one of which is Bug/Dark) -- three Bugs, if we're counting the Rellor I'm training up -- it feels rather obvious what was going to happen. 

Except... 

Except it's a helluva long way to get to Alfornada. It feels pretty simple, you know? I just go down southwards from Cortonda, catching every which Pokemon that comes my way. Riolu, Pachirisu, Salandit, Sableye... hey, a cave network! Alfornada does seem to be surrounded by a bunch of mountains, I guess I go through the cave?

(In the cave, I pull out another one of those obviously-sealing-some-demon stakes. I have no fucking idea what this is going to unleash, and it sounds like a bad fucking idea to randomly pull out these seal-stakes, but I sure am anticipating it! Sounds ominous!)

There is a detour through some... I'm not good with geography, but it's a genuinely impressive series of seaside cliffs connected with natural bridges. And at this point I realize that the signs said 'Alfornada (Detour)', and that I'm fighting a bunch of trainers who themselves are lost. 

And because I refuse to fly back to a Pokemon Center when I'm halfway across the cliffs, I basically just powered through every trainer in my way, and I entered a gigantic cave built into the mountain. It's filled with the typical stuff, like Sableyes, Hariyamas, Dugtrios... oh, hey, an Umbreon! Let me fight it... and it's level 43. At this point I realized that the wild Pokemon have jumped from being level 20-ish to level 40-ish. In comparison, my entire party is ranging between 30-35, with the high-exp-receiving Lokix being at 37. 

I mean, I could do the pussy thing and just kept switching out my party members, but that's no fun! 

And it's a pretty cool cave that I have to navigate through, meandering like a spiral cut into the mountain. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that I'm supposed to go up to get to Alfornada Town. 

And, for the second time in a row after Cascarrafa, I am suitably impressed that Alfornada Town actually has some lore beyond 'hey, this is the gym leader's job' and 'hey, the NPC's talk about how cool the gym leader is'. Right from the get-go, Alfornada already looks a lot more beautiful than practically all the other towns in the city, thanks to all the mosaic-styled architecture. Lots of people talk about how the biggest industry in Alfornada is tablewares and mosaics... but this isn't the industry of the gym leader herself. 

Rather gloriously, wrapped around the giant observatory tower are a bunch of mosaic artwork. Or rather, pixel artwork. Or rather, those Gen-I menu icons that were so hilariously bad at representing any Pokemon you have that isn't Clefairy, Tauros or Seel. You know? The pixelated images of like, the gym Rhydon-esque statue or the flower with eyes or the bull or the bird that takes you flying around in Gen-I? Amazing that they thought of using the 'mosaic' theme to put up this 8-bit artwork. 

Anyway, I like Alfornada a lot. 

Also, Nemona shows up and she's like a weird tsundere battler who's like "oh, you only have to battle me if you want to..." before rushing the hell off and panicking because she doesn't have the right team composition for me. Lady, just fight me and give me money so I can buy more Great Balls! No, seriously, Nemona, I don't mind it if you fought me in every city!

Kinda tired after running all around, I just go straight to the gym to get the Alfornada gym over with. And the gym challenge is... ESP! Not 'extrasensory perception', no. Emotional Spectrum Exercise! And handling it is Dendra, one of my teachers from Uva Academy. I really need to go back and do some more of the lessons, huh? I think in the next part I'll chill out, maybe take out a Team Star Base, and just chill in the school. Dendra is buddies with the gym leader Tulip, and... it's kind of a rather long game of me just kinda playing DDR, with the four buttons on my console representing four different emotions. 

Also, Dendra apparently lost a 'the loser has to do whatever the winnner asks them to', and apparently Tulip demands that she do free labour for her gym challenge. 

And, again, we have trainer battles, but the enemies here are level 40-ish! Mine are around 30-ish, as we established before, and I'm leading with a poor Rellor that I've been training to try and get it to evolve because I like my bugs. I mean, again, I do have three Bug-types (one of which is part-Dark) and two Ghost-types, but they're all under-leveled. This is problematic, but...

Finally, a fucking challenge. 

Yeah, so obviously the level 42 Gothorita or whatever is way too powerful for my poor Rellor to fight, but she does prove as a fun battle for my other bugs. Lokix takes out Gothorita, and the second Pokemon, Kirlia gets steamrolled by Brambleghast and her Phantom Force. 

There's a second trainer, this one with three Pokemon! Wow-wee, a gym that's actually challenging! The Grumpig murdered my Rellor with Power Gem, and I toss out my Lokix who Sucker-Punches that fat psychic pig to the ground. A Medicham shows up and my Spidops uses Aerial Ace to bully its Fighting-type, and then the final creature this gym trainer is... Indeedee! Yuck, Indeedee! Throat Chop it to death, Lokix! That thing has a very visible throat! Murder it! Kill it!

After the battle, I reorganized my team's party members and it was at this point that I realized that Skeledirge knew Shadow Ball all along. It's in the 'relearn moves' segment. Oh, now we're cooking. 

It's gym battle time, with Tulip the Bewitching Beautician. It's cute and very 'modern', I guess! Tulip orders makeup items and stuff. I'm mostly distracted by her clapping... uh... whatever those are on her dress shoulder. Butterfly wings? Helping Hands? They sure are distracting, and I thought it was something related to her Pokemon... but nope, it's just accessories, I guess. She talks about how makeup is magic to change appearances, which... okay, sure, that makes me think you're a Fairy-type, but apparently you run a Psychic gym?

Her first Pokemon is... a level 44 Normal/Psychic Farigiraf. Of course. Even thought my Skeledirge with the Ghost-type Shadow Ball is leading the team. God damn it. I knew Farigiraf exists, I just forgot about it. Man, it finally looks like a proper giraffe! And it looks so silly! I honestly don't know what to think of this thing, personally. Not the Girafarig evolution I expected, but cool. 

Anyway, Skeledirge still has Snarl, and I can unleash that on Farigiraf... and OH GOD IT KNOWS CRUNCH. Skeledirge is tanky enough to survive a Crunch, and probably would've fallen if the Farigiraf didn't goof around and set up Reflect in its next turn. As it is, the Shadow Ball takes down the Farigiraf, but my strongest, highest-leveled warrior is essentially crippled! A problem!

I send out Brambleghast against Tulip's Espathra, that weird-ass Cleopatra ostrich... which has Shadow Ball. Brambleghast survives with like 5 HP before he goes into Phantom Force and lands a hit on Espathra, taking slightly more than half its HP. I pre-empt the Shadow Ball and switch into Lokix, who tanks the Shadow Ball with her Dark typing. And then Sucker Punch! Espathra is out.

Spidops comes out against Gardevoir, who one shots the Spidops with a Dazzling Gleam. I send out my Naclstack to maybe chip down the Gardevoir, but it knows Energy Ball, and takes out my rock pile. I send out Skeledirge, who manages to launch a Shadow Ball to take out the Garvedoir. Damn, and this Gardevoir isn't even her final Pokemon! 

But then the final Pokemon Florges shows up, and she goes Terastralize. Man, a defensive tank, too! The Psychic-type Terastral giant attachment is probably the only one that I genuinely find aesthetically pleasing instead of a tacked-on terrible fashion show accessory, since it's a giant floating psychic eyeball. I try to Shadow Ball the psycho-Florges, but it outspeeds my Skeledirge and finally sends it down with a Psychic. 

I send out my Lokix, fully aware that Florges probably runs a Fairy-type move, but the Sucker Punch sneaks in and tears through half of Florges's health before she unleashes the inevitable Moonblast. Don't worry, Lokix, you did your job.

...and at this point, Lokix, Skeledirge, Naclstack and Spidops are all fainted.  Brambleghast has 5 HP left. Who's left? 

The one, the only, the saviour... CLODSIRE! My wonderful evolved Paldean Wooper, Pooper the Wooper the Clodsire! 

...who is part-Poison, yes. I was fully ready to lose this battle. I mean, these thing outlevel me almost by 10 levels! But... but no. Clodsire somehow tanks a Terastralized Pyschic to the face and stands tall with his wonderful .____________. face. Yeah! Yeah, be defiant in front of this terrible gimmick, Clodsire! Unleash your brand new move, Megahorn, which I don't really want to know what part of your anatomy you're doing Megahorn with. 

And Megahorn strikes true, despite its shitty accuracy... and... yes! Florges falls!

Oh man. That was the most fun gym battle I've had in a long, long while, with almost my entire team. Long live Pooper the Clodsire!

Tulip gets me to do a yoga pose or some shit, tells me not to upload it to social media, and buggers off. Nowhere as fun as Iono or Kofu, but you gotta respect the hustle, and definitely the challenge. I return to the gym house and I meet La Primera, or Geeta... I think I'll still call her La Primera regardless. La Primera is the top champion, and Nemona and La Primera talk a whole lot about things that are honestly pretty damn obvious at this point. Then Nemona challenges me to a battle, and La Primera wants to observe. 

...Nemona was ready to just lay a smackdown on my beaten-up party, but La Primera heals my team first because she plays fair. 

And I absolutely know that I've basically done a sequence break (can you sequence break if the game is open world?) because Nemona's team, which I assume is tied to whenever you cleared your fifth gym, is all level 30-ish. 

Okay, I'm a bit tired, but let's see what Nemona's team, crafted to beat my team, is consisting of. Lycanroc against my Skeledirge? Not bad, not bad, if only it actually it uses a Rock-type move. A Shadow Ball, followed by a Torch Song, burns up the Lycanroc. Goomy? Murder that shit, Skeledirge. Shadow Ball one-shot. Pawmo? Oh my god, woman, don't joke with me! Torch Song, murder that stupid Pika-clone off the face of Paldea. Meowscarada? Okay, you look slightly less terrible than the middle stage, but definitely still happy that I didn't pick you, Sprigatito. You and your silly phantom thief mask and your yo-yo and whatever. Yea, yea, take half a minute to Terastralize... and do absolutely jack shit as I flamethrower you and your gimmick down. 

-ahem- Yeah, it feels good to sweep Nemona with only a single Pokemon. La Primera and Nemona praise me, and they give me the TM for Tera Blast, which is a stupidly convenient move for people who are too lazy to actually figure out movepools. I toss it away. Far more interesting, albeit marginally so, is La Primera talking about how Nemona isn't just here for friendship or support, but is basically really hoping that by the end of my gym journey, I could become a full rival after catching up. 

Anyway, I'll stop this to note that two of my central party members evolved after fighting so many high-leveled opponents at the end of this. Naclstack evolves into... the whole damn salt mines itself, Garganacl. It's kind of the worst-looking of the three, and I'm slightly pissed off that it turned bipedal. But can you really call Garganacl and his super-long almost leg-like arms really 'humanoid'? Especially with that salt block pyramid, and that minecraft face? Nacli is still the best, but I don't mind Garganacl all that much. 

And turns out that Rellor evolves by me walking around again, so I return to Iono's city and the huge circular square, and... at least Rellor's walking animation, like Bramblin, is pleasant to look at! Rellor evolves into Rabsca, and it's... okay? Bug/Psychic? Huh. Huh! That's cool. That's cool! Okay, now it's holding its dung ball aloft with the power of psychic, and the Rellor dung beetle evolved into one of those fancy glowing scarab beetle jewelry that pop culture associates with Egyptians...

Hold up, why is the dung ball now fleshy and writhing and pulsating? "An infant sleeps inside the ball. Rabsca rolls the ball soothingly with its legs to ensure the infant sleeps comfortably." Oh. OH! I get it. I get it! Dung beetles roll the dung to feed their young, right? So all along, Roller is doing so to feed its baby, which now it keeps inside the creepy, almost womb-like psychic ball when it's Rabsca? What the hell, that's creepy! Okay, I like this guy. I like this guy a lot.

And its signature move is... Revival Blessing. It's a free Revive. And Rabsca doesn't have to die for it, unlike that one terrible move where you heal someone but the casting Pokemon dies. It's not very useful right now, but in competitive? Ho boy! 

Sorry, Spidops. I was about to bring you along when it was just you and Lokix, but now with three Bug-types, your mono-type really doesn't work for me at all. I still like you a lot, Spidops, but you're no psychic scarab beetle holding aloft the womb containing his child with psychic powers. 

Random Notes:

• Lots of fun Pokemon in the cave, actually, and the levels there are high enough. I'll have to return there to grind for experience points for some of the other Pokemon that I need to evolve to get some Pokedex entries. 
  
• Brambleghast learns Giga Drain from the gym battle, adding more huge weaponry to my arsenal. 
• Oh, Clodsire does Megahorn with those weird ribcage-spine-bones that pop up from his back! Less disturbing than the alternative! 
• Man, the animation for Torch Song is super cool. 
• Tera Blast being a TM just falls into my complete and utter disdain of the Terastralize gimmick at all. It just follows the type of the Tera Form, and works off of either your highest physical or special stat... what is this bullshit? It would be fine if this Tera Blast is like, a move reserved for someone like... oh, Porygon or Kecleon or even a brand-new Pokemon from this region. Bleagh.
• I'm pretty sure with Rabsca replacing poor mono-typed Spidops, I have my final team for what I foresee to be the rest of the game: Dirge the Skeledirge, Izu the Lokix, Tutankhamun the Rabsca, NaCl the Garganacl, Pooper the Clodsire, and Kunikuzushi the Brambleghast. I do have a couple of Pokemon in this region that I do feel are a little bit favourites, but I'm going to save them for my Scarlet playthrough before I raise them. 
• Despite some rather manly names, my entire team other than Skeledirge are girls. Oh well.