Let's Play Pokemon Violet, Part 17: Interviews, Elite Four and Champion!

So after completing the Path of Legends last episode, I decided to just go and finish off the Victory Road storyline as well. Which means I fly off to the Pokemon league, where La Primera Geeta is waiting for me...

And we get an interview. This interview is also something that happens if you wander into this Pokemon League building before you have eight badges, but it'll only unlock the Elite Four and Champion challenge if we actually have all eight badges. Similar to that series of checkpoints in Indigo Plateau back in the first two generations. 

And it's Rika! Rika with a pair of glasses, conducting the interview with me! Which is very interesting. the interview itself is pretty fun, going from simple questions -- like 'what is the name of the school you're attending', including Naranja Academy from Scarlet; what my first starter Pokemon is -- to seemingly philosophical bullshit ones like 'what is your goal in the Pokemon league'. Which... there's no wrong answer to that. The first time around. Some six questions later, Rika actually asks you the same question again, which is an amazing way to get her to gauge our consistency! 

Another great little memory game to see if we're serious about the Pokemon League is asking me which of the eight gyms that I had the most difficulty with. Which, of course, I answered the Alfornada Gym, which I challenged as my fifth or sixth gym instead of the... uh... it's supposed to be the last gym I challenge, apparently, according to Rika's listing. Okay! And then Rika proceeds to ask what type and what the name of the gym leader is. Very nice! Again, it severely punishes anyone who somehow is cruising through the game without paying attention to the simplest details, and I love it. 

Rika declares that I have passed the first part of the champion assessment! Yay! And it's time for the Elite Assignment... which, of course, involves  me fighting the Elite Four. Which, of course, includes her. 

There's a cool little walkway down to the battlefield, very reminiscent of the ones in the first four generations of games with long corridors leading to a room with a bunch of square tiles. Rika, of course, is the first Elite Four member that I am supposed to face, and she takes off her glasses and gets ready to fight. 

And... you know what? I wasn't very sure what type Rika is going to be. Dark or Grass/Bug seemed to be the ones I thought she was going to be. Dark because she kinda has that very strong Nanu energy; and Grass or Bug thanks to her hair colour. But no. Her first Pokemon is...

...a Whiscash! Which I send out my Rabsca to fight. Oops! Like the Arven fight, the levels of my party is more or less in the early-60's range, though this time I did bring my full proper party since I know I was going to fight the Elite Four. My Rabsca is strong enough to take out the Whiscash no Problem. 

Then Rika sends out Camerupt, against my own Clodsire... and I forgot that Clodsire is part-Poison, so he takes considerable damage from Earth Power. Clodsire manages to take out Camerupt with two Earthquake, though. (Camerupt wastes his second turn, using Yawn to put Clodsire to sleep)

Next up are Donphan, followed by Dugtrio, both of whom are pure-Ground and get absolutely bullied by my Brambleghast. Her final Pokemon is a Clodsire, which she Terastralizes from being a Poison/Ground into a pure-Ground type. And then it dies to Power Whip, since Grass-type moves are super-effective instead of being normally effective. Silly Rika! 

Rika congratulates me and calls out Poppy, who walks into the room. Cute that I don't have to go into each successive rooms, but instead have the Elite Four all come into my room! And in each successive fight, the defeated Elite Four is watching me! Poppy is a small girl, and she's excited, and she's happy to beat me up! All her Pokemon are super tough, she says with a cute grin... 

...and thankfully, I can still heal. I mean, thanks to the remote accessing of Pokemon boxes, I can actually discard and draw my party and replace them with fully new members, but that sounds like absolute cheating. I will, however, make use of my Super and Hyper Potions in-between battles. And to wake up Clodsire with a spray medicine.

Poppy has a big-ass key as a necklace, so Steel-type isn't that hard to guess on her. She sends out Copperajah, who she calls Rajah. "Smush 'em!" she says, and... well, I predicted right, and I had Skeledirge just sit in the entire battle, alternating between Torch Song (which has a chance to buff my own Special Attack) and Flamethrower. Man, Torch Song is so cool, with his little fire bird jumping out and making a mic stand, and him screaming so hard that the little fire bird friend becomes the Phoenix Force to burn down the elephant...

I mean, where was I? Ah, yes, Bronzong. That thing probably had Heatproof, right? Just to be sure, Skeledirge Shadow Balls the metal bell. 

Corviknight! Wasting its turn with Iron Defense instead of something that could damage my Skeledirge! Death by fire!

Magnezone! It sets up a Light Screen, but also Death by Fire!

Tinkaton! It's the final form of Tinkatink, which I have, and it's got a giant-ass Thor hammer made up of scrap metal harvested from the Corviknights it kills! Does Poppy know that? Does Poppy's Corviknight know that? Whatever the case, Poppy Terastralizes 'Tinkie', transforming her into a Steel Terastralization... and the Steel Tera effect has a GIANT FUCKING AXE IMPALED INTO TINKATON'S HEAD. Okay. Okay, from a sheer hilarity standpoint, this is one good thing to come out of the Terastralization nonsense. 

Oh, and also Death by Fire, of course. 

Poppy gets sad, runs to Rika, and blubbers that she wanted to take revenge on Rika, and Rika corrects her, saying that she should be taking revenge for Rika. The third Elite Four member is... the one I didn't see before, except technically I did. It's... it's motherfucking LARRY. 

Unfortunately for him, he serves as a member of the Elite Four, too. Is that why he's so overworked? He's holding two full-time jobs? Man, poor, poor Larry. As I face him in battle, putting my Skeledirge in front in anticipation of nullifying all of his Normal-type moves, Larry talks about how in his gym, he uses Normal type, but the 'boss' (Geeta?) told him to use a different type as a member of the Elite Four. 

...Wait, what? Damn it!

Larry adjusts his tie and... OH I GET IT. The only thing that's not a boring generic salaryman outfit is his tie, which has clouds on it. That's cute. Okay, Larry, you might be overworked, but you sure have a fun fashion sense. 

And his first Pokemon is... Tropius. Who sets up Sunny Day? I assume this is for a Solarbeam combo, but man, I was expecting Normal-type, but Larry serves me a weak-to-fire Tropius on a silver platter. You know the drill, Skeledirge does DEATH BY FIRE. 

His second Pokemon is a familiar face, the Staraptor from his gym. I send out Garganacl, one of the only two Pokemon with anti-Flying moves (Rabsca also has Electro Ball, but he's part-Bug so that's not good for him) and Staraptor immediately Close Combat and brings Garganacl to yellow. I switch into Brambleghast, and the second Close Combat goes through Brambleghast, and the leftover damage from Salt Cure takes down mohawk bird. 

The third Pokemon is Altaria, and... okay, I really don't have anything against Dragon, huh? Garganacl pops out again and just spams Salt Cure until it dies, while also making use of Recover to get back to green. Larry's fourth Pokemon is Oricorio, who uses Teeter Dance and manages to survive enough Salt Cures to see my Garganacl take herself out with confusion. Clodsire finishes off the Oricorio .

And then the final Pokemon is... Flamigo, the flamingo amigo! It knows Brave Bird, but that's not particularly useful against Skeledirge, who two-shots Flamigo with Flamethrower. 

The final member of the Elite Four is, of course, my art teacher Hassel, and Larry just keeps calling out for Hassel, who can't hear him because Larry's voice is so soft. Rika actually facepalms in the background because Larry just repeats the same stupidity, speaking with such a soft voice, over and over... until she finally loses her patience and yells for Hassel to get back out. 

Hassel is overly excited that his student has reached this stage, explains that he's the dragon guarding the final challenge (oh, that's why his assistant was a Gible!) and then challenges me to battle. The final member of the Elite Four! And he's got dragons! 

His first dragon is Noivern! A very cool dragon! I send out Garganacl, and Salt Cure does damage the big angry gargoyle sonicboom bat monster, but Noivern uses Super Fang to make fun of Garganacl's defenses, and Dragon Pulse manages to cripple Garganacl all the way to the red before the Noivern is out. 

Hassel's second Pokemon is Dragalge, who pops up only to get Psychic'd and beaten down by Rabsca. Sorry, Dragalge, you're a cool dragon, but you ain't that powerful.

Hassel's third Pokemon is Haxorus! A very cool dragon! I don't have any Fairy or Ice types or even Dragon types in my party, so I just test the waters out with Lokix. First Impression and a subsequent Sucker Punch manages to put Haxorus in the red, but two Rock Tombs finishes off Lokix. Rabsca hops back out to Psychic Haxorus down. 

Hassel's fourth Pokemon is Flapple! Who is a strange dragon, but a very cool apple! I send Skeledirge out, forgot that Dragon resists Fire, and Flamethrowers the Flapple. Thankfully the Flapple really can't do much against Skeledirge, and it falls.

Hassel then summons his final Pokemon, which is... Baxcalibur? Okay, that's new, but I assume it's the final form of Arctibax, the pseudo-legendary of this region. It's kinda neat! It's a theropodal dragon with an icy head, Wolverine fangs, and a big-ass glaive-shaped Spinosaurus spine that it uses to impale others with, as the animations show. And... and it's an Ice/Dragon type that Hassel transforms into a pure-Dragon type (the dragon tera crystal has a weird Zelda-esque dragon totem on top). 

...which I kinda didn't consider like an idiot, and had Skeledirge go hurr durr Flamethrower on Baxcalibur. 

Because I had no fucking idea that Baxcalibur's ability is Thermal Exchange. Which basically is a free Swords Dance if Baxcalibur is hit by a Fire-type move. Hey, guess what I just did! I hit Baxcalibur with a Fire-type move!

And Baxcalibur used an attack called Glaive Rush. And it one-shots Skeledirge. And with absolutely nothing to stand up against Dragon-types, I just send out my Pokemon one by one. Garganacl, Clodsire, Brambleghast and Rabsca all get Dragon Rush'd to death, and it's a single-hit too thanks to the free buffing I gave him... and I think Terastralizing also adds some stats, too? Anyway, with how jacked up Baxcalibur is, highly doubtful that I can take it out even if I used Revives and Hyper Potions. Well, I... I got wiped out by an Elite Four member!

...and I wasn't even taking this battle too lightly! But this... this is fun. This is a great feeling for me. The last Pokemon League I lost to was Cynthia, and unless I'm misremembering something I don't think I ever actually lost my entire party to an Elite Four or Champion member. So yeah, Hassel... congratulations. You're pretty badass! You made me white out! This is what a Pokemon League should be. XY and the first Black/White Elite Fours were so easy, and I don't really remember much about my first encounter against Sun/Moon or Sword/Shield. Other than the fact that Sun/Moon has my favourite Elite Four themes. 

Which means... it's a training arc time. Except not really. It's just like, a minute as I look through TM's to see if there are any Fairy or Ice TM's that my party can learn. Garganacl can learn Ice Punch, which I give to him, and after five minutes of going to Western Paldea to murder several Finneons, I teach Clodsire Surf. That's enough coverage for me, time to re-challenge the Elite Four!

This time it's really not that much of a challenge, since I know what's going to come. Brambleghast and Clodsire pretty much take on Rika's entire team; Skeledirge still sweeps Poppy's entire team single-handedly; and Larry is fertile testing ground for Garganacl's new Ice Punch. 

Which leads to my rematch with Hassel. Garganacl Ice Punches Noivern! Skeledirge Shadow Balls Haxorus, because I have to conserve Garganacl's health! Rabsca Psychics Dragalge! Garganacl Ice Punches Flapple! Then it's time to have revenge against Baxcalibur! ...who immediately takes Garganacl out with a Glaive Rush. But this time, my team is a bit more prepared, and more importantly, Thermal Whateverthefuck isn't activated. A Shadow Ball from Skeledirge manages to break through, and Lokix manages to cleave half of Baxcalibur's health with Sucker Punch, and Rabsca finally deals the finishing blow with a Psychic. 

Hassel gets so emotional that he's blubbering and yelling WONDERBUL and sobbing through his words. Hassel gets so emotional that he can't really talk straight, so Rika tells me that I pass the Elite Four test. Barely! I actually lost like, half my team to Hassel and that's with preparation!

Rika heals my team to full health so I don't waste my potions and ethers (well, ether is mostly for Sucker Punch) and then I have to go off to meet Geeta, the woman who strongarmed the four of them to join the Elite Four. Man, poor Larry. 

And thus we go to the final test of the Champion Assessment, taking place on a goddamn rooftop arena where Geeta herself, is waiting for me. The Top Champion of Paldea, the head of the Pokemon association, La Primera and the woman with the funkiest hair in all of the region. La Primera apologizes for the fact that is inappropriate for League Champions... that she is incapable of holding back in a Pokemon battle. Whoa, them's fighting words, lady! I'm not sure why that trait is inappropriate. You'd think that the champion should be able to fight all out. 

But as the music builds up, Geeta talks about how no one recently (other than Nemona) has been able to pass this test. Hell yea, lady! Come at me, La Primera!

Also, yeah, while the Elite Four theme was just kinda there, the champion fight theme is pretty head-bopping!

Her first Pokemon is... Espathra! I led with Garganacl, who I immediately swap into Lokix. Espathra uses something called as Lumina Crash and I have no idea what that is, but it sure as hell doesn't affect my Dark-type Kamen Rider! Then a First Impression completely murders the weird Cleopatra ostrich! La Primera even takes time to praise me for making the right decision!

She then sends out Kingambit, which... okay, I know there's a Bisharp evolution in this game, but not what it looked like, and... uh... it's a... shogun? I was a bit confused why a very Japanese-looking evolution debuted in Poke-Spain, but, uh... Kingambit is... uh... it sure is a design? It activates something called 'Supreme Overlord', which lets him gather power from the fallen. Okay, Ainz Ooal Gown. 

Apparently he is a fat-ass king, because Lokix almost takes out Kingambit with a Low Kick. Almost being the operative word, because Kingambit uses a Stone Edge. Which critical hits to boot, taking out poor Lokix. La Primera even notes how unfortunate that there was a critical hit. Skeledirge shows up to Torch Song Kingambit to death. Oh, Kingambit is sitting on his long-ass ponytail? Okay. 

She sends out Avalugg, who Skeledirge one-shots with a Flamethrower. Then a Veluza shows up, which faces off against my own Brambleghast. A Power whip and the fish gets minced up to death... yeah, Brambleghast literally hard-counters Veluza, huh?

La Primera's fifth Pokemon is a humble Gogoat. I mean, no disrespect to Gogoat, but... well, literally my entire team except maybe Garganacl can deal with it. I choose Rabsca, though, and a Bug Buzz knocks out the leaf goat. 

So what is La Primera's ace? Her Dragonite, her Garchomp, her Metagross, her Volcarona, her Mega Gardevoir? It's... it's a Glimmora! That terastralizes into a Rock-type, with the whole damn Parthenon popping up on its head. Okay, okay. I toss out Clodsire to try and Earthquake it down, but Earthquake takes out maybe half of Glimmora's health, and it manages to critical hit Earth Power my Clodsire. Not bad, not bad. 

Garganacl pops out to do another Earthquake, and almost kills Glimmora. But Glimmora takes out Garganacl with two Earth Powers, and the Toxic Spikes unleashed by Glimmora's ability would've taken out Garganacl anyway. 

I still have three Pokemon left, though, making it a lot better of a place than I did when I faced off against Hassel. I could use Rabsca and Brambleghast, but... but I'll use the Pokemon that I started off with. So once more, without Terastralization. Just a fire crocodile and his undead bird spirit pet, unleashing the mother of all rockstar scream to take down a sentient rock creature. 

And... and I'm the Champion!

That was actually a hard-fought battle. Mostly against Hassel, but Geeta wasn't that much of a pushover either. The Elite Four show up to congratulate me, Hassel gets super emotional, and then Geeta brings me back down to the entrance where a familiar face is waiting for me. Nemona! She asks me if I became a champion, and... I can troll her and continue saying no, and she keeps telling me to quit with the jokes but gets actually worried and agitated at every sequence until it devolves into her just screaming "YOU! CHAMPION! YES?!?!" She asks me to be best rivals for life, and gets super excited to finally have someone at her equal.

Geeta tells me to rest for a bit and stops Nemona from ambushing me into a battle. It devolves into a discussion of where to hold this super-important rival battle of the two of us with our full power and equal champion titles. I suggested Nemona's backyard (which she doesn't seem keen on) and the Treasure Eatery (Larry wouldn't like the surprise visit, and Nemona doesn't find Larry memorable how dare her) before she runs off to Mesagoza for a proper final battle. 

And I guess this is kind of like springing a new battle into the Elite Four/Champion formula. Which... okay! At least it's not mandatory to do immediately, but you know what? Let's go with it. Might as well as finish all of the Victory Road storyline, right?

So yeah. The final battle with Nemona in the Victory Road path! A bunch of people come to watch us battle in the square, including Clavell, La Primera, the Elite Four (Larry walks by in the background) and then we face off in a pretty cool shot... and then I am challenged by Champion Nemona! You've been kind of a punching bag throughout the game, and La Primera says that Nemona didn't even use her full strength in the champion assessment. 

She leads off with Lycanroc, who manages to get off a Stealth Rock! Clodsire Earthquakes it! She sends out Orthworm, which Earthquakes my Clodsire before it could Earthquake it! Skeledirge Flamethrowers the Orthworm! Then Nemona sends out Goodra... and I have to go with Garganacl. Garganacl manages to Ice Punch Goodra before she herself gets taken out. I toss in Brambleghast, who Phantom Forces Goodra to death. 

Nemona then sends out Pawmot, who also gets Phantom Forced. But Pawmot manages to score a critical hit Ice Punch, leaving Rabsca to Psychic to take out the Pawmot. I get to see an attack called 'Double Shock' from the Pawmot, though, which apparently uses up all its electricity? Okay. 

Nemona's fifth Pokemon, which would be the one I never saw before is... a DUDUNSPARCE! Rabsca manages to get off a Psychic to take out half of Dudunsparce's health before it Hyper Drills Rabsca. Lokix shows up and takes out Dudunsparce with a First Impression. 

And finally, the battle of starters. Meowscarada versus Skeledirge... and... sixth verse, same as all the pervious ones. The original kill that my Fuecoco did, and now easily taken out. Final evolution, full power team, Terastralization... and still, Meowscarada gets taken out with a Flamethrower. On the cat's defense, it finally learns Shadow Claw, which is actually kinda damaging! 

After beating Nemona, there is an animation where she seems to cry, and Clavell and Geeta almost gets concerned... but she's just laughing in sheer manic joy at finding someone she went all out for... and still lost to. It's some battle-hungry, competition-hungry mentality, and... yeah, the joke that she just wants to keep fighting me over and over with just little bouts of rest does kind of get old, but that's a nice little cap off to this little battle-heavy sequence. 

Anyway, as champion, next up will be me clearing out Team Star, and hopefully finishing up their storyline! 

Random Notes:

• Final Violet Party: Skeledirge, Lokix, Brambleghast, Rabsca, Clodsire, Garganacl.
• Slight apologies for the longer-than-normal let's play segment. Or is that a bonus? It's to compensate for my break while I reviewed Marvel movies, anyway. 
  
• Be proud of me for not making a 'what a hassel' joke throughout this let's play. 
• Hassel did make a 'drag on' pun. For shame!
• It is pretty strange facing the Elite Four in what's basically the mid-point game for me. I mean, I guess I could do the Titan and Team Star quests and complete them first, but I could also do them last! It's so weird to have all of this going on, as even games with multiple plotlines going on at the same time tended to have the Elite Four/Champion fight be at the very last part of the game... the closest we deviated is in Sword/Shield, but even then the supposed Champion fight leads to the cutscenes that led to the final villain battle.