So after clearing the two Titans, I've been running around exploring the places I haven't really seen before, while also trying to evolve some of the Paldean Pokemon. One of the areas I travel to is the Adaso Desert, located north of the Bombirdier mountain. Also, on that mountain, I find a Chinese-esque seal with the ominous writing "Herein lies sealed the Ruinous Sword." Legendary Pokemon? Probably the region's equivalent to the legendary Regis.
I went to the mining town Zapapico near the Orthworm mines, and found that despite being surprisingly well designed, the town just has... nothing of substance to it. There is one NPC that tells me that it's a mining town, another one that offers me a trade of Sinistea items, maybe just one more that talks about the Titan Orthworm... and absolutely nothing else. It really does vex me a lot, and while I probably wasn't the kindest about that game, it does make me yearn for the cities in Sword/Shield where the cities felt small, but populated. Here the cities feel so wide, and doubtless I feel like there's visual care given to even small towns like Zapapico, but man, you'd think they could've gotten an intern to drum up less generic town NPC dialogue. It wouldn't have taken more than a couple of hours, surely?
I go to the desert and we get a nice selection of desert Pokemon. Cacnea, Larvesta, Silicobra, Sandile, Hippopotas... absolutely appreciate that the Hippopotas and Sandile actually swim under the sand like hippopotamuses or crocodiles would do in the water. It's always a visual that the anime and manga do a lot with these species, but we never really got to see it happen in-game, though Legends: Arceus did give us a Hippopotas in the mud.
Unexpectedly, another Bug-type Pokemon! This generation has been really good to me in terms of giving me new bugs! It's a dung beetle! Again, I did do a little draft of what a fan-made region made by me would look like earlier this year, and among the Pokemon I listed there was a Bug/Ground dung beetle. My idea for that dung beetle is that Pokemon wouldn't allow a bug that literally rolls up shit, right? Turns out they just has Rellor roll up mud, with... with... uh... I don't really want to know what those orange and white rods are. Apparently it rolls the mud ball around while it gathers the energy it wants to mature, so it's like a cute variation of cocoon-style Pokemon! I like it.
There's also Espathra, which is... it sure is an ostrich. A pure psychic-type, and the aesthetic seems to be going for something Cleopatra-esque? Not the biggest fan of its design, though I don't dislike it.
There's also Espathra, which is... it sure is an ostrich. A pure psychic-type, and the aesthetic seems to be going for something Cleopatra-esque? Not the biggest fan of its design, though I don't dislike it.
The desert has a fallen version of the ruin-towers that usually have a Gimmighoul on top. I guess, uh, the Sandiles or whatever killed the Gimmighoul, cause even when I used Miraidon's super-jump power to get on top of the fallen tower, it's empty.
Izu the Lokix learned Throat Chop! Finally, a Dark-type move that doesn't deal tickle damage like Assurance did.
While doing this, I got some evolutions out of the way. Magikarp to Gyarados, Scatterbug all the way to Vivillon... and Pawmi into... Pawmo. Which looks more or less the same, except it's got a better-developed lower body now. I, uh... okay? I expected something more Raichu or Azumarill-esque. This one's apparently going to have a final evolution, but I'm not in a hurry to repeat what I did with Bramblin at the moment.
Also, Tandemaus evolves. Or, uh... is it really evolution? It just apparently reproduced off-screen, making two babies. And I do really mean off-screen. We don't get an evolution screen or information, Tandemaus just literally evolved into Maushold without any indication unless when I went into the party. It, uh... it sure is... interesting? I'm really not sure what to think about this guy. These guys. Whatever the hell.
Man, breeding Tandemaus must be really fucked up, huh, since the two parents hatch from the same egg? Best not to think about it too hard.
Anyway, a bunch of roadblocks -- literal roadblocks -- are in my way on the way to the desert. I mean, my Miraidon is upgraded enough to literally jump over them, but it's the principle of the matter, no?
Clavell-Clive shows up and starts talking about how there are a lot of rumours about what Team Star is doing -- rumours that they're about to overthrow the school or wreak some over-the-top havoc or anything... but then, just like Mela before, Clive emphasizes that they are rumours. The real fact is that the school issued out a warning for expulsion of all the Team Star students, and the deadline is fast approaching and Team Star themselves have not had any response. It's... I guess Clive kinda regretted that it came to ultimatums, and he's trying to essentially rehabilitate Team Star with my help before they get expelled and become real gangsters?
It's not the most interesting plot twist ever, and we have seen Team Star being a bit more effective in being menaces to society compared to, oh, Team Skull or whatever, I mean, they were bullying Penny and they're blocking the road and are trying to gang-press a bunch of kids into their ranks. But okay, I actually kinda understand the story a bit more.
Interestingly, my character caught up to how suspicious Cassiopeia has been all this while, and is hiding Clive from her. Huh!
Anyway, we face off against Segin Squad. We get a brief comedy moment with a female grunt that is super-duper hyper, and her dude partner that's so tired and doesn't even bother fighting me at all.
The setup for the fight against them is more or less the same with Mela's team, but I definitely still find the Star barrage to be the most fun of these events compared to the gym minigames or hunting the Titans, as identikit as the Star Barrage is. We've got Pawniards, Sableyes, Stunkys and those tiny Nymbles that I'm happy that my Spidops and Lokix are able to hunt down automatically.
Giacomo introduces himself as DJ Vice, and he is the producer of Team Star's absolutely bopping soundtrack. He's got a laptop and a pair of beats, and his fight is... basically the same with Mela, yeah? The music's great, he sends out a Pawniard and then I have to fight his giant Revavroom car. It sure is simple for my team, which is half-bug at this point, to sweep him. Giacomo's Revavroom is Steel/, I think, thanks to the modification, because two Low Kicks from Lokix just brings the tongue-car down. I completely sweep him!
And then we get the 1.5 years ago backstory, which is... a lot more interesting than Mela's! Giacomo the seeming leader of the five Team Star 'admins', to borrow an old term, and they're working under a 'big boss' that we're not seeing. We get more hints to the enigmatic Operation Star, and how Giacomo is in talks with the big boss about something huge. He's also the previous student president that was so vexing with his strict rules that according to Mela, they 'got some other nerd to replace him in five minutes'. He's now chilling in team Star, being all happy and stuff.
But now in Team Star, his buddies are happy to get a code of conduct written by Giacomo himself...
...which leads to the fact that Giacomo has to honour his own rules, and bow out and disband Segin Squad. He has a nice handshake with me, before asking me if I enjoy school, which I answer in the affirmative and he's in deep thought about it.
And then Clive shows up. Giacomo gest a bit shocked by the gigantic pompadour, and asks Clive that if he got a Qauxwell to style it up for him. I mean... he might have done that, actually, since the Quaxly was left with him! I highly doubt they made Clavell walk around with a Floragato or Crocalor-inspired hairdo, but it's a cute bit where it got me thinking.
Giacomo and Clive got a bit of a talk, and Giacomo reminisces about how he and his team are just waiting for their boss to come back after he went MIA since one and a half years ago. Some very strong Gold/Silver Team Rocket vibes to this, yeah? But Giacomo says it doesn't matter, because the boss is their treasure, to borrow a term from the school. That's cute. That's nice.
Anyway, Penny shows up at the end again, and got licked from head to toe by Miraidon. Yeah, that can't be comfortable. Penny talks about how Team Star is not just a bunch of delinquents, but rather a group of bullying victims that gathered together, presumably to bully the bullies with their gigantic cars or some shit?
Okay, that's neat. It's kind of obvious where we're going with Team Star and how they're not at all a traditional evil team, but they carry themselves like a traditional evil team. It is kind of disappointing that we're three generations in a row without a proper villainous 'Team', but at least unlike Team Yell, Team Star is actually antagonistic in a way? The story's nice, at least.
I thought this was going to be the focus of the next part, but I guess this sequence actually ended up being pretty quick! As I wandered back to the desert, I ended up stumbling onto the Quaking Earth Titan... which... okay, this is not what I expected, especially not from the drawings from that ancient book that Arven showed me. Though I suppose the ancients probably had no idea how a mechanized Donphan would look now, would they? Would've just drawn him with funky looking legs and whatnot.
Anyway, this is the Quaking Earth Titan, the monstrous creature that I read about in one of the Occultist magazines in the school library... Mecha-Donphan! Or, well, as the game calls it, Iron Treads! So this is the, uh... regional version of Donphan? I'm going to assume that in Scarlet, we get a 'primal', primitive version of this Donphan.
And I love how much this thing's silhouette looks like Donphan, but its face really doesn't look like it. It's like a bunch of mechanical parts arranged together to revolve around Donphan's own gimmick of turning into a spinning wheel --and all the other parts can retract into Iron Treads' body. Love those stabilizing 'ear' wings, the robot legs that can fold upon itself, and the neon lights on the tire treads. The only thing I'm not the biggest fan of is the face, which is just an angry digital face, but... we can't have everything, I guess?
Even Professor Turo gets in on the call this time around, telling me that Iron Treads came from the depths of the Great Crater of Paldea. Iron Treads manages to take out Lokix and Dolliv pretty handily before I pull the Skeledirge button, and he one-shots the thing from full health with a Flamethrower. After a bit of chasing around (nowhere as troublesome as the Orthworm), I corner the giant robot, who can eat the Herba Mystica.
Arven shows up and gets bamboozled if this thing is even a Pokemon. Arven now uses a Scovillain, which... he catches nearby, and it's like... a weird two-legged triffied monster? With two Deku Baba heads? I really couldn't get a good look at it, but later on as I look at its entry in the Pokedex, it seems to be the evolution of Capsakid. Oh! The heads are bell peppers! I get it. Weird, okay. Iron Treads one-shots the Scovillain with some critical hit move, but my Clodsire makes fast work of the big future robo-elephant. I like that the animation has his red neon lights become gray as he falls.
And... that's neat. It's kinda reminiscent of the Ultra Beasts, except this guy is from the future. I am now a bit more pumped to look at the future versions of Hydreigon or Delibird (???) or whatever we got foreshadowing of in the library!
The Arven/Mabosstiff cutscene is a bit short this time around. The doggy has a bit more of an appetite, but there's a hint of desperation when Arven realized that this fourth herb isn't doing anything too noticeable. But he's all convinced that the fifth one will heal Mabosstiff! I hope so!
Anyway, Miraidon unlocks gliding! It's not exactly flying, but it can glide down mountains to reach like, crags and whatnot, I guess. Arven makes the hypothesis that there is some psychological trauma preventing Miraidon from actually accessing its proper battle power. Love that the animation for Miraidon gliding has his head-wings turn into gigantic hangglider wings. That's cute!
I hang-glide my way all the way to the coastal town Porto Marinada, which I guess I'll be exploring next!
Random Notes:
- Mela's squad is the Schedar Squad, I forgot to mention it at all.
- Oh! I got it! Crocalor's hat is a fire-bird egg in a nest which makes up the sombrero, and in Skeledirge the egg hatches! That's cute.
- I got a copy of Pokemon Scarlet as a gift, so I'm going to speed-play it with Quaxly probably and note any differences.
- Yeah, I know what Quaxwell is. After seeing Skeledirge, I basically got myself spoiled on the starter evolutions. I do like Quaquaval a fair bit (though the middle version is just no for me) but I am happy that I got Skeledirge for sure.
- Larvesta has one of the low-key funniest dex entries in this game. "In ancient times, Larvesta was worshipped as the Emissary of the Sun. However, it was also viewed as a burden since it often caused forest fires." Could you imagine the ancients of Paldea going 'damn, our worm sun god is like, such a burden, it's causing forest fires all the time!' 'But it's god!' 'Doesn't mean it has to be such a bitch!'
- The other Team Star heads are Eri, Ortega and Atticus. The cutscene from Giacomo's perspective actually lets me see them from the front, instead of from the back as it has been in Mela's flashback.
- It is hilarious that literally after the dialogue about fair play and shit, Giacomo gives me the TM for... Foul Play. Ha!
- Current Party: Skeledirge, Naclstack, Clodsire, Lokix, Brambleghast, Rellor
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