We're closing out the post-game, and the final member of the Treasures of Ruin is... okay, let's recap the previous members, shall we? A walking, festering pile of sentient detritus, death and decay arranged in the form of a snail, with tablets that once contained forbidden knowledge forming the shell. A shattered cursed sword who animated the snow around it into the form of a slender snow leopard with the grudges of the dead. A shattered vessel in the image of some mysterious deity, who animated a chunk of the very earth itself in the form of a deer, able to create fissures where it stepped. The embodiments of rot, blizzards and earthquakes.
...and then we have good ol' Chi-Yu, whose name is just 鲫玉 goldfish-jade, also a pun on a longer term for 'goldfish' itself. Which is... a glorious little goldfish with jade magatama forming the iconic, gigantic eyeballs of the goldfish. I... I am so glad I wasn't spoiled for the appearances of these things. What the hell!
Chi-Yu is also Dark and Fire, shooting out Lava Plumes while the jade-eyes glow white-hot. This thing is created from accumulated beads within the curved beads, which sparked multiple conflicts... and the result of that envy created this fish. Okay, demon fish that wiggles around, I don't really know how to make sense of you just yet, but I didn't think it was possible to top the rotten-leaf snail... but you certainly do!
Raifort has one final scene with the Treasures of Ruin, talking about the oddity and theorizing how the four jade pieces that make Chi-Yu's eyes work -- if they were attached to a person's ears and arms, or if four people used the ritual together (perhaps to bring the Treasures of Ruin to life?) before talking about how the Treasures of Ruin needed someone that was pure of heart to break free from their seals. Implying, that, of course, she isn't actually pure of heart. Raifort thanks me, gives me the TM for Nasty Plot (ominous!) before talking about how she'll be happy to take the Treasures of Ruin off my hands if I ever get bored of them. Ominous!
And I wonder if this will get a follow-up. The Disc Pokemon and the strange amalgamation of the Generation II and V lesser legendaries in the Scarlet/Violet Books are definitely foreshadowings of brand-new Pokemon in a potential DLC, spin-off or third game, but I do wonder if we're going to get anything more for the Treasures of Ruin? Time will tell.
Rounding up my gym leader rematches is Iono, who, unlike Brassius or Grusha, doesn't really have too much going for her this time around. She just yaps about another collab with me, her 'friendo', and then challenges me straight to battle. I don't really mind it, though, because she did give me a pretty huge impression with how well her personality is delivered in the mini-game and the original gym challenge. Again, though, she doesn't get to use anything from the Magnemite line? Are Ryme and Grusha really the only gym leaders that use the Pokemon they're most associated with outside of the gym battles?
There are a couple of cute lines, for sure, where Iono's happy that her clickbait stream title got her a bunch of views -- she's "trending like the internet's mad at [her]". It's hilarious!
Anyway, Iono's team is pretty much the same as before, except she fully evolved her Wattrel and Luxio into Kilowattrel and Luxray, and added an Electrode to her lineup. Not too much to say, really.
I decide next to challenge Ryme, who briefly teases me again with the prospect of a rap battle. But then Ryme starts spouting some smack about Geeta for sending out a rookie instead of coming there herself. Disrespecting the M.C. of R.I.P., that La Primera. There is sadly not too much memeable rhymes this time around, though it's always welcome to see Ryme and her ghoulies. My Skeledirge and Iron Jugulis both run Snarl, so it's pretty easy for the double-damagers to make short work of Ryme in double battle.
She adds a Spiritomb to her party, which is neat, but despite the ghostly change that'll turn my high to lows, the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows, Ryme really doesn't stand a chance at this point. She calls me the real deal, and tells me to call her if I ever need help with any trainers or specters that's vexin' me. Ryme's cool. I don't think this meeting adds anything too much, but like Iono she's already cool from before.
After being all eight gym leaders, I get a call from Geeta, who talks to me in my dorm room which I really forget existed at all. Frankly it's surprising that they didn't do a 'Secret Base' thing with the dorm room, but I suppose that was left in the cutting room floor alongside character customization. Geeta basically thanks me for basically doing my job, notes how a lot of the gym leaders seem to be a bit more invigorated after fighting the new champion, and finally declares the Academy Ace Tournament (or the 'School Battle Brawl', as Arven and Clavell call it) open. Which Nemona all but drags me to after this.
Anyway, which... I guess I do like the rematches with the eight gym leaders, bringing them to the 65-70 level range for us to fight. It does end up giving a fair bit more personality to the gym leaders who are one-dimensional (Brassius, Grusha, Tulip), while the ones that are already well-defined in their first appearances (Ryme, Iono, Kofu, technically Larry) just get to show off what they're all about. It's just poor Katy, really, that doesn't get much to say. I do still kinda wished that they had six Pokemon in their parties. While I appreciated them using a mix of older and newer Pokemon, I did kinda feel like they could've showcased an extra one or two newer Pokemon that remained unused by any major character (either a gym leader, a Team Star member or a Titan)... oh well. I suppose I haven't met all the trainers in this game yet.
Because next up is the Academy Ace Tournament, or the School Brawl, which... replaces the Elite Four and Champion re-challenges in this game. It's repeatable and you get a random set of four people to face off against -- not dissimilar to the random four trainers in Galar's stadiums. I don't know, though. From what it seems, it's just the students, teachers and Geeta that's in the pool, and I honestly would've liked the Elite Four guys to be here too. I guess poor Larry needs a break. Anyway, after a speech from Nemona and Clavell about the organizing of the tournament, I get my opponents. Because I'm a muppet, I forgot to swap my party out after catching Chi-Yu, so my team had three Treasures of Ruin, Iron Jugulis and two members of my regular team (Lokix and Rabsca). Which made the tournament a bit of a challenge.
And... the first trainer I face off is Arven. He still has the same Pokemon he had before, so really the only challenge was my own unorthodox team, which... other than Chi-Yu, at least all had proper moves. Greedent, Garganacl, Toedscruel, Scovillain, Cloyster and Mabosstiff.
Next up is... Jacq! Who is, hands-down and very easily the least memorable teacher. He barely has any personality in his classes, and he doesn't really have a off-class storyline like Dendra or Hassel or Salvatore. He does have a rather interesting party mostly consisting of older Pokemon, though. Arcanine, Mudsdale, Lurantis, Slowbro, Swalot and Farigiraf as his ace. Again, I kinda wished that his one Gen IX Pokemon was something that a previous trainer hadn't used (Tulip in this case). He could've used... oh, I dunno, Tandemaus or one of the Charcadet evolutions or Brambleghast or something, y'know? Eh, I'm nitpicking a bit too much. Jacq has a well-balanced party, and those tend to be pretty interesting to fight.
Another teacher shows up to fight, and it's Dendra, who gets a bit too excited defending her position as battle studies teacher. Naturally, Dendra is a Fighting-type specialist. Very interestingly, she uses the two new variations of Paldean Tauros -- both the Fire/Fighting and Water/Fighting ones, as well as Falinks, Medicham, Hawlucha and Hariyama. Hariyama is the one she Terastralizes, not Medicham, who is the Pokemon she shows up with everywhere? Hmm.
Dendra does give us a fun little closing dialogue about how adults are learning every day. Jacq gets a bit into trouble with Clavell for a line he says about how maybe I should take over as teacher or something?
And the final battle, is... well, I thought it was going to be Nemona, but she's not participating because she's organizing this, so Geeta ends up showing up with exactly the same team she had before. Espathra, Veluza, Kingambit, Gogoat, Avalugg and Glimmora. Really? Couldn't swap out a single one of your party members, huh? Very decidedly underwhelmed with her team. And especially now that I've learned a bit more about these newer Pokemon... yeah, as commenter MegaZardX2 pointed out during my first Geeta fight, putting Glimmora as the absolute last Pokemon she uses basically makes Glimmora's Toxic Spikes generating ability useless, yeah? While she sends Kingambit as like the third or fourth Pokemon, meaning that it doesn't get full usage of its Supreme Overlord ability. Honestly, with the A.I. keeping Glimmora as her absolute final Pokemon since it's the one she terastralizes... yeah, I've been comparing champion teams with previous generations and I really do think that Geeta might have the worst team of them all? Sorry, Primera.
Anyway, this tournament closes with Clavell announcing that this is going to be a regular event, and we'll be able to repeat the Academy Ace Tournament as many times as we want. Jacq also calls me to tell me that surprisingly stronger raids have been popping up, but out of all the other types of content I haven't been engaging, that one isn't something I'm going to touch any time soon.
I did try the Academy Ace Tournament again, and I did get a different batch of teachers. Salvatore has a team comprised of a Honchkrow, Persian, Palossand, Glaceon, Gothitelle and Raichu. I'm... surprsied they didn't use regional forms for this teacher? Particularly since even though they clearly didn't program every single variant in, Quagsire and Perrserker are clearly in the game. Also very disappointed that he didn't fight with his Pawmot, though I suppose not everyone completed the school storyline.
Saguaro, meanwhile, uses 'cute' Pokemon, so he at least has a theme, using a Pachirisu, Froslass, Goodra, Vespiquen, Alomomola and Hatterene. Somehow, this home economics teacher is a bit harder to take down than La Primera was. I'm sorry, Geeta, but facing all these other trainers with cooler teams, even when I'm gimping myself with a weaker team, just isn't that impressive for you. I face Dendra again for my third trainer, and then Clavell is the final challenger and he's got the same team as before too. Neat! I foresee myself finding the constant animation of them throwing the Tera Orbs to Terastralize in the middle of the battle to be annoying, but nothing that I haven't faced before since Sword/Shield. At least each animation is a bit more different and has a bit more flair than 'make my ball big'.
...and with that, we've conquered all the classes, grown closer with almost all of our teachers, re-challenged eight gym leaders, participated in a tournament, investigated the Paradox Pokemon and obtained the four Treasures of Ruin. That's all the post-game, yeah? Which means I'm done with Pokemon Violet... but not Pokemon Scarlet! Which I've been playing on-and-off over the past couple of weeks, it's just that I decided to finish everything before doing a writeup about it. I won't repeat anything I've said in my Violet writeups, but I do plan to complete the Pokedex (at least in Violet) and having two games to trade back and forth is definitely going to speed things up as far as things like, oh, Gholdengo or the Treasures of Ruin go.
Random Notes:
- We have Scarlet & Violet TCG art now! Oh, joyous day, oh frabjous day! Look at that killer Mabosstiff artwork!
- Discounting Scarlet-exclusive trade Pokemon, the hardest ones for me to find were Petilil, Alomomola, Dedenne and Barboach are the absolute hardest to find. Alomomola is on the Northern Sea, yes, but they actually stay fully submerged, and will only come up if you stay still above it for a while. That's a bit bizarre, but... honestly, an interesting way to do one of these rarer Pokemon. Just kinda wished that they had a bit more of a clue regarding this Pokemon's behaviour.
- Palossand's Violet dex entry talks about how it shoots out the bones of the victims whose bodies they have drained of vitality. What the hell! And I thought its previous dex entries were dark!
- The Academy Brawl is going to be great at getting experience points for like the half-dozen pseudo-legendaries, which are really some of the few Pokemon I have left to obtain via evolution.
- Geeta also has a brief Q&A answer about which gym leader I like the most, I find difficulty with, found easiest, et cetera, but I don't really think this choice mattered at all.
- While I can get that Palafin and Gholdengo come off as a bit of a 'secret' Pokemon... we've had champions and Elite Four members that used Pokemon like Milotic, Spiritomb, Dhelmise and highlighting them a bit. I really do feel like while it wouldn't necessarily increase the difficulty per se, but Geeta's original underwhelming team most certainly would've felt more impressive with these instead of freaking Gogoat and Avalugg.
- The Terastralization animation of Fighting-type is just a gigantic fist sprouting from the head of the Pokemon. That's... that's kinda funny, I'm not going to lie.
- I know there's still a bit of scattered content here and there, including something about Team Star's admins? If there's enough to do a separate post, or I might combine it a bit with the Scarlet stuff, I might talk about them there, but otherwise I think I'm more or less done with the post-game of this game.
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