Last we left off, we enter the Zero Lab, beat up a bunch of Paradox/Future Pokemon and finally come face to face with Professor Turo. Except he's slumped over at his chair, and has been exhibiting certain odd patterns that made me think that he was either trapped in the future, or a robot, or something... and turns out it's not quite it.
Professor Turo wakes up, or rather, more accurately, reactivates. He 'deactivates sleep mode', and thanks me for making it this far. Miraidon #02 attacks, and Professor Turo, like a boss, just pulls out a Master Ball and recalls #02 back into its ball. Okay! Okay, is this really the first time that a Master Ball and its 100% catch rate has been relevant in a Pokemon game? Turo gives the confirmation that our Miraidon fled Area Zero after losing to #02 in a territorial struggle.
And then, as his eyes briefly glow blue, Turo apologizes for his deception all this while. What is he lying about? Well, he's not the real Professor Turo, but rather an artificial intelligence that the professor created, imbued with memories and predictive algorithm on how the Professor would act. The real Professor Turo, you say? Well, he passed away when Research Station #4 was destroyed in a battle between the Miraidons.
Right. He straight-up died, jumping in the way of an attack meant for my Miraidon from #02.
I know we've got mentions of death in Legends: Arceus, but... okay, we're starting to acknowledge death in Pokemon main series games, huh? That's actually rather surprising. I mean, my pet theory throughout the game was guessing that Turo is trapped in the future and has to communicate through computers, but this one, that the Turo we've been interacting with throughout the game is an A.I., does kind of explain a lot of things, like why he can't leave Area Zero and kept communicating to us via phone calls, why he's so distant to Arven whenever he confronts him, and why he was never a parent to Arven per se -- he's not human.
But A.I. Turo has brought me here for a reason. He wants me to help stop the time machine that the original professor created. In the elevator ride down to the time machine, Turo explains about his status as an A.I., and how such an advanced A.I. is only possible thanks to the crystals in Area Zero... but that's also why he can't really leave the area. He also explains that Turo's time machine sends Poke Balls to different points in the timeline, catching the Pokemon from the future, and then bringing them to the present. Apparently after Turo's death, the time machine has been working on autopilot, capturing future Pokemon and bringing them here.
However, the future Pokemon's adaptations for the distant future is a bit too hard for them to coexist with the present-day ecosystem. And, well, that makes sense! Introducing random new creatures from a different location in the same world would fuck the ecosystem, let alone robotic beings from the future! The original Professor Turo thinks that such destruction is a natural part of life, which means that he's not a particularly good biologist. Currently, the natural stone formations around Area Zero is corralling all the future Pokemon in Area Zero, but clearly there are some that had gotten out, like Iron Treads in the desert.
Now how Iron Treads managed to get out, as opposed to, say, uh... one of the other flight-capable Future Pokemon...
Anyway, we have to stop the future Pokemon from escaping before they run rampant across the Paldea region and fuck up the entire region's ecosystem. "The rich and varied ecosystem of Paldea will be trampled beneath their coming." A.I. Turo notes that there's no logic for such a tragedy to occur, but as an A.I. he cannot go against his programming. Hence, him summoning me here. And with my power, I have to destroy the dream Turo once cherished.
We enter the time machine chamber, which is a Cerebro-esque room filled with nothing but crystals all around it. Did the crystals drive the original Turo insane or obsessed, I wonder? It is a very eerie location, of course, and as the battle progresses, these crystals change colour and I appreciate it. A.I. Turo activates the time machine, and he reveals that the professor's ID is located within the Violet Book which he got us to bring. However, when I put the Violet Book into the machine, A.I. Turo notes that he will have his programming overwritten by the system and be turned against any obstacles... which would be me. A.I. Turo also talks a lot about how his battling programming is flawless, based on analysis of all the champions of the Paldea region... but he believes in me and the bond I have with my Pokemon.
Okay, then.
I plug in the Violet Book into the time machine, and emergency shutdown is activated. As the cutscene plays, the crystals turn yellow as it denies me access to it. The machine shuts A.I. Turo into 'sleep mode', before offensive protocols are activated. The platform starts to rise up like a goddamn giant tower, and the huge black-and-white time machine on the ceiling starts to unfurl and drop a Master Ball into A.I. Turo's hands.
And he begins to speak in fun corrupted speech, with symbols replacing some of his letters. |ikǝ 7his. AI Turo's eyes glow, he rants about how his dream is within reach, and no one is going to get in my way.
So yeah.
Final battle time. He drops his Master Ball from that height dispassionately, and summons the first Pokemon... the Paradox Pokemon Iron Moth, the future version of Volcarona with disjointed wings. I have absolutely no idea what types these Pokemon are. I send out my Skeledirge against the Iron Moth, and the battle begins!
Now it's a good thing that I captured Iron Bundle and Iron Jugulis before, otherwise I might've assumed that these creatures are all part-Steel or part-Electric. Iron Moth does spam Discharge, though, while I spam Shadow Ball, which seems to deal neutral damage after figuring out that Flamethrower is resisted by the Iron Moth. The corrupted A.I. Turo talks about how this is the power of the future and all that jazz, and I manage to take down Iron Moth eventually.
A.I. Turo then unleashes Iron Thorns, which... yeah, I have no idea what that is, but it turns out to be... Mecha-Godzilla! Or Mecha-Tyrannitar! A much, much cooler design than Duraludon, and surely this one is part-Steel, right? Flamethrower is sadly resisted, and it takes out around half of Iron Thorns' health before a critical hit Stone Edge takes out Skeledirge. Oh no!
Also, "just as calculated: a critical hit to my Pokemon". Bullshit, you robot, critical hits are random! RNG! You can say the percentages, but you can't make them happen by calculation!
Trying to figure out which member of my party resists Rock, I send out my Clodsire who unleashes an Earthquake. Which Iron Thorns dies to, and Turo is bamboozled by the super-effective hit, asking if I understand their weaknesses. It's a lucky shot, but if you want to think it that way, sure.
His next Pokemon is an Iron Jugulis, which I toss out my Garganacl to try and Rock Slide, but Garganacl falls short of killing the Jugulis. The Jugulis unleashes a Flash Cannon that is super effective and takes out my poor salt mountain. Rabsca comes out, Electro Balls the Iron Jugulis to death. Turo's fourth Pokemon is another one I've seen, an Iron Bundle, also a Pokemon that gets Electro Balled to death. His fifth Pokemon is an Iron Hands, which I just unleashes a Psychic on and it is super-effective. So I assume just like regular Hariyama, Iron Hands is also Fighting-type.
A.I. Turo waxes lyrical about his calculations and how the probability of me winning is zero, and unleashes his final Pokemon... the Iron Valiant. And holy shit.
I normally don't like humanoid Pokemon, as anyone who has read my Pokemon reviews can probably tell. But Iron Valiant is a Paradox-future version of Gallade and Gardevoir, mixed into one, and... okay, it's got such a cool 'simplified anime robot' vibe to it, like it's an edgy, cool side-character in Mega Man or Astro Boy or something. The rather toyetic design of the Generation III/IV aesthetic with the Gardevoir head-curve works wonderfully when they play into it and make it into a robot. The eyes look cool. The Gundam-esque mecha 'skirt', the bladed lower arms, the crystal jutting out of its chest...
...and then it pulls out its weapon, which is a double-bladed Darth Maul glaive. HOLY SHIT!
Also, it's holding a Booster Energy, so its Quark Drive ability gets activated. I don't know what it really entails, but I know I'm going to get fucked!
Original flavour Gardevoir and Gallade are Psychic-types, so I unleash Bug Buzz from Rabsca only for it to get resisted. Rabsca's been fighting three Paradox Pokemon, so she doesn't really have much health left, and especially not against Iron Valiant's Spirit Break, which has awesome animation that matches Valiant's cool-ass double glaive. Lokix pops out to try and Sucker Punch Iron Valiant, but it also gets mightily resistant. Which means that Iron Valiant seems to have inherited its two present-day counterparts' typing... is it Fairy/Fighting, then? Okay. Also, Lokix dies to the overpowered Spirit Break.
Brambleghast comes out and manages to tear through a good chunk of Valiant's health with Phantom Force before falling itself, and then I pop out Clodsire, who almost dies to a Psycho Cut but manages to hang on with like 10 HP, before she Poison Jabs Iron Valiant to death.
That's all the future Pokemon, and A.I. Turo is defeated. The Time Machine room goes dark, the towers slide down, and Arven, Nemona and Penny rush into the room. A.I. Turo thanks us for stopping the time machine as he sparks in place. Arven demands some answers, quickly surmising what we already know -- that A.I. Turo isn't actually his dad, and that he kinda figured out what is going on. In a neat 'this unit has a soul' moment, A.I. Turo marvels at how big Arven has grown, and tells him that he's proud of him.
..and then everything goes bright purple as the computer yells 'SECURITY SYSTEM FAILURE!'
...which we'll talk about next time, since this article's gone a bit long as it is!
Random Notes:
- I am told that Scarlet also has the same A.I. professor twist that Violet has, and while my Scarlet playthrough hasn't reached Area Zero yet, if it plays out similarly to this, I don't think the robot twist fits the cavewoman-vibe of Sada compared to the future Mr. Fantastic vibe of Turo.
- Among the scattered notes in the lab where we first met A.I. Turo, is actually notes about the Poke Ball Lab system. A neat little foreshadowing!
- Also in that lab is the Booster Energy item that the Paradox Pokemon needs to activate their abilities!
- There are a fair bit of things that remind me of the 'invasive species' vibes of Sun/Moon (with both Yungoos/Rattata and the Ultra Beasts) as well as the 'space-time distortion' of Legends: Arceus.
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