So I decided to do a bunch of teacher interactions this time around, and go through another batch of gym leader rematches, and also unlock another Treasure of Ruin.
First up is the Treasure of Ruin, who hangs up in Icerend Shrine on the Western side of Paldea. It's the Swords of Ruin, and apparently the hatred of those killed by the sword mixed with snow and ice to create a... long cat? Chien-Pao (or, more properly, Jian Bao, 剑豹 or sword panther) is the hardest for me to capture because I forgot that I was bringing a team with Iron Jugulis and Miraidon and four Pokemon I'm trying to evolve for the Pokedex, meaning I just had to keep alternating between hyper potioning the Miraidon and throwing balls. At least Miraidon has Thunder Wave on, which paralyzed the stupid long cat.
It's an interesting design, I guess, with the swords forming the saber tooth fangs, but I don't really have all too much to say about it? It's Ice/Dark, and it learns Sacred Sword and I assume other sword-related moves.
Ms. Raifort points out that the sword's blade and hilt form the fangs, so it's not technically two swords. She wondered if the sword was always split in twain, or if it broke when the rest of the legendary pokemon was formed. Raifort makes a theory that the king wouldn't buy a broken sword, so perhaps it's a weapon that's meant to be used in a broken state... probably as a Pokemon, then? Eh.
But first, I finally got off my ass to grind those Gimmighoul coins and visit every watchtower and basically got my Gimmighoul coins up to 999. And then I leveled up one of my Gimmighouls and evolved it into... Gholdengo! Yeah, that's not what I was expecting. Or, honestly, I don't think anyone expected it when they first saw Gimmighoul. Little buggy coin-imp who hides inside a chest full of coins? I don't know what I expected, but it sure isn't this. Now I have been spoiled by what Gholdengo looked like before this thanks to all the guides out there that told me how Gimmighoul evolves, but...
I kinda like it? I think I would like it if Gimmighoul itself was a bit more viable since I enjoy Gimmighoul's design so much more. But the idea of a palm-tree man made entirely out of coins, and it carries the Gimmighoul chest as its belt? And it moves by surfing? And as he surfs, the coins at the back move to the front? Okay! Okay, it's interesting. Ghost/Steel, huh? This dude's so weird. It's not my kind of thing, but I do like him a fair bit after giving him some time to settle in.
I go to Zapapico to do another hard-to-get evolution, where I trade in 10 Sinistea items to get a set of Malicious Armour. Charcadet is a Fire/Ghost Pokemon, and it's evolved due to interacting with a set of armour steeped in grudges. I... I don't really care too much for this design on a Pokemon, but as far as humanoid Pokemon does, I would ahve to say that Ceruledge outdoes his Scarlet counterpart significantly. Or it might be just those ghostly flames that get me.
Ceruledge has a stupid amount of cool moves in its remembering slots, though, including Solar Blade and Night Slash. Okay!
Gym leader rematches! Next up is Larry. Larry notes that she's supposed to be meeting the boss, but sending students to do her job is totally something that she would do. You really do get the undercurrent of a frustrated salaryman from Larry, huh? He even mutters about how I got 'roped in' by La Primera, before we go back to the Treasure Eatery. Larry notes how he's using his regular team in the gym leader fight, and how his Pokemon are of the 'Normal' type. As in plain, average, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill... and then Larry says he really likes the Normal-types. They suit him perfectly, since he too is an ordinary man.
Larry talks about how he likes the ordinary things, he likes the simplicity of going home, and that 'nowadays people only want a shock factor. Something weird, something bizarre'. Oh! Like terrible Tera Type gimmicks! Gotcha, Larry. (I'm two months into this game and I am still very much ambivalent at the Terastralization at best)
I like Larry. He knows the Pokemon he likes, and I honestly think he picks the Flying-type specialty as an Elite Four just to hang out with his Staraptor.
I bring out my newer Pokemon against Larry's Pokemon, with Wo-Chien facing off against a new Oinkolonge first, then Iron Jugulis against Dudunsparce, and my Jugulis nearly got killed by a Stone Edge! Larry throws in his brand-new Braviary, who I fight with Ting-Lu and his Rock Slide, though Ting-Lu nearly dies to the Close Combat. Wo-Chien finishes off the Komala, and then Miraidon #02 takes out the Terastralized Staraptor. Yeah, these guys definitely have their EV's raised up because none of my newer-captured Pokemon have!
Larry then reflects afterwards that he understands why La Primera told him to pick the Flying type as the Elite Four, because there's scenery that we won't even notice if you stick to flat, well-trodden paths. Larry leaves a word about appreciating my own high-soaring talent, before calling it a day because he needs to cut down on overtime hours. Yeah, Larry, get some sleep, man!
First up is Hassel. Last we met him, he was confronted by a Dragon Tamer in the middle of the schoolyard. I later meet him in the entrance hall, where he reveals that he is the successor of a clan of Dragon Tamers. Very Claire/Lance! The Dragon Tamer we saw earlier is his relative (not a jilted lover as I originally assumed!) who wants him to return back and lead the clan, because Hassel's dad is sick. We also get some interesting information. Apparently Hassel left the clan to pursue a music career, before ending up as the teacher-cum-Elite-Four that he is now.
I later meet Hassel in the art room, where he is confronted by the Dragon Tamer. Hassel says that while he's not indifferent towards the fate of his proud lineage, he also has other priorities -- nurturing his students and the art and creativity they make. There's a brief bit of acknowledgement between both dragon clan members that they are equally stubborn like dragons, and that Hassel has made his choice. Hassel also notes that the story about his father's health is apparently a lie, and that he's going to just stay and continue teaching in the school while his relative will keep coming back. Okay, then? A bit rushed of a conclusion, honestly, but okay.
Next up is Dendra, who is trying to get Nurse Miriam to eat her sandwiches. Previously, she got Miriam sick with a meat-meat-meat sandwich, back when she was 'young and thoughtless'... which is last month. Haha! I kinda am afraid for Miriam's life if she tries to eat Dendra's sandwich, but the game makes me encourage her to eat it. Turns out it's 'not bad'. Okay, then. Dendra later shows up in the school store, buying sandwiches. Apparently her one and only goal at the moment was to just make a sandwich to pay back Nurse Miriam, and with that goal done, she's decided to focus on her actual strength... being full with energy, and basically gives the moral that people should focus on their strengths. Okay, then. Not the most interesting teacher interaction.
Savlatore is still trying to figure out about his Pawmi, who's rendered mute by the trauma of being attacked by wild Pokemon before arriving to the school grounds. Jacq and Miriam find nothing wrong with the Pawmi, but Salvatore basically decides to just let the Pawmi recover from its trauma all in good time. A good man, that Salvatore. Eventually Salvatore starts thinking what the best thing is to do with pawmi, since without the ability to communicate in the wild, it's not going to survive all that long... and then we suggest, of course, that Salvatore himself keep the Pawmi. At which point it finally speaks! Yeah, that whole sequence is pretty cute.
Salvatore decides to give me a reward for my efforts, but instead of items, he gives me a Meowth? Okay, so you get a rodent and you give away your cat? That's... uh... it's a Galarian Meowth? Okay? Didn't expect the other Meowth regional variants to show up here. I evolve the Galarian Meowth into Perrserker, but... but there's no slot for Perrserker in the Paldean Pokedex? Um... okay? Weird. Bring back the National Dex, I guess?
Saguaro sends me on a side-quest, which is to give him the sweetest ingredient in Paldea, which he can't find on his own because he needs to keep up his reputation as a huge hardass badass who's totally never eating anything sweet, god damn it! Okay, um, I thought we solved this whole problem. He sends me off to get the Sweet Herba Mystica. Okay, neat. That's the thing I got after beating the Titan Klawf. I went all the way back to the Klawf location, trying to get that plot device, and... uh... no? Nothing in the caves?
Okay, I finally look up what the hell I'm supposed to do here, and apparently I have to get them from Tera Raids. I have to go and look up a specific pool of Pokemon in five-star raids. A bit annoying, but surely it won't take longe than a day or two to do? Haha, no. The rest of the article is just me ranting, so skip over it to the random notes section if you don't want to hear my rant about Tera Raids. You have been warned.
After looking up a list of the five-star Pokemon that can drop Sweet Herba Mystica, I finally engaged the raids, and... hoo boy. Hoo boy. I have only done maybe less than ten 1-3 star raids? The only better part here is that all the attacks happen simultaneously and that the AI's don't bring Cosmic Power Sorlock anymore, but holy fucking hell do Tera Raids suck! And this is the offline experience, the very vocal online community are bitching about the online experience with the lag.
Because guys, get this. There's a timer. In a turn-based video game.
Which, in itself, isn't the worst idea. But get this.
The timer doesn't pause if there are abilities or attacks that have extra words I have to click through. Or animations when burn or poison happens. Or if, god forbid, I Terastralize, which takes up even more seconds. And the raids of course force me to, because the fucking shields can only be broken by Terastralized Pokemon using the STAB types, and not what's actually effective against the enemy type.
Here is another thing. The timer doesn't stop through all the animations. Some animations are long, like Miraidon's Electro Drift, or Shadow Ball moving so much more slowly than Rock Slide or whatever. And then there's that extra two seconds of some crystals popping out of the Tera doohickey when your Pokemon is about to use said Tera STAB move. Oh, and you can only Terastralize once in the entire raid, because your Pokemon can't re-Terastralize if it gets knocked out, making any raid where you Terastralize too early to break the Tera-shield or whatever kinda impossible to complete. Oh, and the defeat of a Terastralized Pokemon takes up several extra seconds. Oh, and the stupid boss gives an unskippable cutscene any time it's shield is up or its shield is down or it's 'about to unleash its power'. Nothing irritates you more than to know you've got a sliver of time left, and then the boss cuts down that time by roaring and going 'there's not much time left' bitch I know.
And it's still bearable if you min-max enough to brute force the five-star and six-star raids alone, I guess, but in online? I haven't played online, I don't care or plan to play online, but... apparently the lag is terrible, and considering everything I've seen about this game, I'm honestly sad to say that I'm not surprised.
But here's the thing, yeah? To get Saguaro's stupid herb, I need to find a five or six star raid of Weavile, Sableye, Vaporeon, Blissey, Cetitan, Dragapult, Froslass, Amoonguss, Delibird, Farigiraf, Ditto, Dondozo, Talonflame or Raichu. Which I'm kinda sad to say that I've kinda sorta memorized since I had to keep referring to the list screenshotted on my phone. Then I have to beat the raids themselves, which is kind of a crap shoot. Oh, and unlike the Raid Dens in Sword/Shield, there's no way to tell which Pokemon is in which raid den, forcing me to drive to each and every raid den to peek. (By the way, I did beat a 5-star Ditto!) ...and then you only have like a 10% chance, allegedly, for the Herba Mystica to drop.
Haha, yeah, no, Saguaro. You'll be left in the limbo of never getting that Herba Mystica. It'd be one thing if I find the Tera Raids at least bearable to do, or if I could get someone to carry me, or if it's just a matter of perseverance. No, this is just dumb.
So anyway, I borrow a Switch to set up some trades with the world of Scarlet, mostly to get myself multiple copies of the starters. I didn't really do a whole ton of progression -- my original Scarlet save file basically reached around two or three gyms before I traded the Quaxly to my Violet save file, and now I'm just mashing buttons to get the save file up to get myself the weed cat Sprigatito. Next up, I guess you guys will see some more Scarlet content from me!
Since we are clearing off all the evolutions, I suppose I'll acknowledge Palafin here, who I finally obtained after a evolving Finizen at level 38 in the Union Square while connected to another player. What a way to force the stupid multiplayer on people, am I right? It's pretty obnoxious. It is rather odd that Palafin is completely unrepresented in any of the gym leaders or titan quests or whatever? You'd think like, Clavell or Geeta would've carried it in one of their parties. But nope! Hell, you'd think this would be a perfect Pokemon for Kofu to bring in the rematch with him, isn't it? Not all Pokemon in a regional dex needed to be featured, of course, otherwise it would feel a bit too gimmicky, but having Palafin at least be in the party -- not even as a signature Pokemon -- of one of the characters is a bit surprising.
Palafin's regular form doesn't even look different than Finizen other than a single star on its chest, but if you switch it out and switch it back in (helped by its presumably signature move, Flip Turn, a.k.a. Water-type U-Turn), it's, uh... it's that thing right there. It's a dolphin-mermaid superhero, and I guess the idea is that trope of Clark Kent ducking into a phone booth to speed-change into Superman. Which I kinda like, but I'm not the biggest fan of regular Palafin looking kinda bland outside of engaging this ability.
Random Notes:
- I didn't notice that the load screen changes until, like, just now. The Pokeball and the Violet Book disappeared!
- Miriam's office has Pikachu and Eevee dolls. I get it! There's also a Ralts and Hattena adorably sleeping on the couch. Honestly, I didn't really pay too much attention to it, but the sleeping animations for the Pokemon is one of the best additions in this generation.
- I do like that Larry mentions that I've faced him as part of the Elite Four, and that this battle really wouldn't leave much of an impression.
- There was a bit of a bug in the first Pokemon Larry sends out where the speech bubble of the guy at the counter that changes your tera types didn't disappear.
- You can't actually re-challenge the Elite Four and champion to get money? But why?
- The Dudunsparce's attack animation involves it inflating one of its segments! That's so gross but so cool!
- I evolved even more Pokemon. The Perrserker, of course, and also Grumpig, Fraxure, Altaria, Weavile, Krookodile, Blissey, Sandaconda, Palossand, Salamence and a bunch of others.
- Apparently the Metal Coat is in the Delibird Presents in Levincia. I need to get some things ready for the huge trading session that I'm going to do with my Scarlet copy.
- Man, playing Scarlet and completing the dex there is going to be so much less of a chore!
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