Yeah, yeah, I know the title says 'Let's Play Violet', but it's easier for me to keep track of these posts like this. Anyway, I kind of began seriously playing through Scarlet basically alongside Violet around the time I started exploring the post-game in Violet in late December/early January. This is just me expanding the notes I jotted down into a proper blog post.
I restarted my Scarlet copy after getting a cheap second-hand Switch Lite, just so I can do the little starter spam thing, which I mentioned a while back. I decided I like Quaquaval much less than I did Meowscarada, which has, against all odds, grown on me a little? Skeledirge is still the best Paldean starter by and far, but either way.
A lot of this isn't super-duper interesting. I play as a girl in Scarlet, though I don't really think it changes any dialogue, unlike Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The uniforms are still ass, and the opening cutscene basically plays the same, just with Koraidon instead of Miraidon. I feel like the huge, giant 'tribal' wings look a lot better rendered in 3D, and so does Koraidon's more naturalistic gait when he's walking around. I do like the fact that his wheels are made out of a 'neck sac' and his tail rolled up... but he's still much less appealing to me than Miraidon. I'm sorry, the giant spiky wheel jammed into Koraidon's neck just feels so out-of-place in his design compared to the sleeker mecha-bike on Miraidon's design. Koraidon's a cool design whenever we actually zoom into the dinosaur-dragon head, but that tire really just bothers me. At least it runs instead of actually transforming into a bike with spinning wheels like Miraidon. That'd be a bit too weird for a non-mechanical creature.
Anyway, I really do think that while it is necessary for the younger members of the audience, the tutorial segment -- getting from my house to the rival battle in Nemona's house to the catching tutorial to Koraidon on the beach to meeting Arven to Los Platos to meeting Penny and Team Star to meeting the school to getting all three main quests in the school and it's just so much dialogue to mash through. I intended this to be a proper second playthrough where I take in everything again, but... honestly, other than a couple of 'ah, it makes sense in context' for Arven and Penny, and the novelty at seeing Koraidon and Professor Sada, it really is dull, huh? I know the Alola games are the worst offender at this, but yeah, sorry, Nemona, your dialogue isn't entertaining or interesting at all.
We also get Koraidon pretty late after all this, although I do know to make a beeline straight to Mesagoza instead of exploring without my dinosaur bike.
And Professor Sada... well, she sure is a professor waifu in a caveman outfit, I guess. Knowing what I know about the nature of this professor, and the fact that the only real changes to the dialogue is a find-and-replace for 'past' and 'future' and 'mom' and 'dad', poor Professor Sada really ends up with a very mismatched design-and-storyline cohesion, huh? She looks like an extra in Flintstones, but she's embroiled in this time machine and A.I. robot storyline.
I do have a party planned out, with me wanting to use a bunch of favourites I didn't get to use in Violet because I encountered them a bit late. I'm also going to purposefully not use the Rellor, Nymble, Wooper, Nacli, Bramblin and Tarountula lines in this playthrough since I used them quite a bit in Violet. I've never 'set up' a team before I played a game, at least not before this one... I bred a Greavard and Toedscool in Violetand sent them over to Scarlet. Not for IV's or whatever, I just wanted them to be at a decent level that'd be around that of Sprigatito, and all the Toedscools and Greavards I find are around level 30+. Plus to make them obey my Scarlet character perfectly. So yeah, those three are, until I can think of any other ones I really like, the core of my Scarlet playthrough.
Still undecided about the rest of the party, though. Glimmet, maybe? I'm considering Gholdengo and Tinkatink, though I'm not particularly super-committed to either one of them and especially not if they're going to double up on types. Maybe I'll an older Pokemon from a previous generation? I was considering Scovillain, but with Toedscool and Sprigatito already in my party, I don't think I can justify three Grass-types. If I can't find a decently (below level 30) versions of them, I would probably breed them.
I went off and did the Klawf Titan first, and I ended up blazing through a lot of the Titan Pokemon first just to get the exploratory stuff a bit faster. While I am still really compelled to catch any Pokemon without that pokeball next to its name that I come across, I also don't really do too much grinding or trainer-fighting this time around. I'm really just relying mostly on me banking everything on my Sprigatito, who evolved into the rather underwhelming Floragato before I reach Klawf. Though, honestly, I've seen the duck. Shouldn't be too hard on my cat magician.
And I do like Floragato and Meowscarada now that I've learned a bit more about them. They're literal stage magicians in a setting with real magic (or real psychic powers, anyway) where they use thin vines hidden beneath their long fur and use the flower-bud-yo-yo's to seemingly look like they're actually psychic. I like Floragato. He spins around his yo-yo to summon Seed Bombs.
...and I'm not sure really what to say here. The Flying-types and Bug-types in the early route is a bit more of a nuisance since I'm using a Grass starter, but not by much. Klawf is easier, obviously. Then I did Katy, the Bug gym-leader, which was a bit more challenging, and so was Brassius. Again, not by much, though. I just spam Swift and Bite from Floragato to get around the fact that the Seed Bombs don't do a whole ton of damage against other Grass-types, but at least I get to listen to the funky gym cheering music!
On the other hand, after clearing the first two gyms, both the objectives after the first West and East gyms, Mela and Bombirdier are kinda a bit more challenging for a Grass-starter to deal with. I ended up bringing a Klawf I captured just to deal with these weak-to-Rock enemies. I did, again, go after Bombirdier first just to get the ability of Koraidon to just explore a bit more. I did have to actually use the vending machine a couple of times to restore my poor Graevard in the Mela squad base, though honestly 10 minutes is way too long of a time!
I really did find the very Grass-heavy team (I tried a version of this team with a Capsakid) to be rather debilitating, and... yeah, it really can't do for me to speed-run this game, so to speak, without some firepower. So I added a Tinkatuff I caught to my party, and swapped out the Klawf for a Frigibax from Violet. Frigibax isn't going to be useful until at least his first evolution, but he sure is there, the disturbing walking head. I'm not sure who my sixth member is going to be. Either Gholdengo or Scovillain would be neat, but that'd be some type overlap. Palafin, maybe?
Anyway, I clear Iono, Orthworm and Giacomo in quick succession, though I did get absolutely bamboozled by Orthworm's Earth Mover ability, and while Orthworm can't really kill my party efficiently, neither could I take him down quickly, just whittling him down with Bites and Brutal Swings.
Did a bunch of trading, too. Not too many trade-relevant evolutions this time around, though. Haunter/Gengar, Scyther/Scizor, Slowpoke/Slowking, and that's about it? I don't think a single trainer in the game ever used a Scizor or a Slowking, unless I missed someone?
I traded all the Violet-exclusive Paradox Pokemon -- Miraidon included -- to Scarlet, and I am pleased to say that the Future Paradox Pokemon all have more unique Pokedex entries in Scarlet. I also traded over the Treasures of Ruin, just to read their dex entries and because unless I'm really bored, I don't think I care to repeat looking for the stakes all over again. I do plan for a full Pokedex on both games, but where I can make things easier on myself via trade, I'll do it. At the very least, Gholdengo, Palafin and Kingambit are definitely going to be obtained via trade.
But where in Violet all the dex entries for the future Paradox Pokemon range from 'this resembles something from the books' to 'not much is known about this', in Scarlet we do get some... well, at least some theories to their creation. Which I think is just taken from the Occulture books in-game, but eh! I do like how Iron Treads and Iron Moth are thought to be related to aliens and U.F.O.'s, Iron Bundle is somehow created by an ancient civilization, Iron Thorns is a Tyranitar from 1 billion years in the future, Iron Hands is a modified (human?) athlete), Iron Valiant is a biological weapon... and my boy Iron Jugulis is the result of a Hydreigon getting, um, all picnic-like and daycare-like with a machine. Okay, Hydreigon!
Random Notes:
- Nemona is shown with a Tauros in the little prologue video. Did she ever use one in her team? I don't think so. Did she have one in an earlier 'draft' of the game that they used to create the promotional video?
- So if it's just a mental block, why did mom's sandwich activate Koraidon's full battle mode? I get that the adrenaline of seeing me in danger form the Houndoom would bring him out of his funk, but Koraidon's in full battle mode throughout the entire cave exploration...
- At least I know to just skip all NPC dialogue, since there's very scant that I'm sure they changed between Scarlet and Violet. It makes me feel a bit dirty inside, but I don't fancy myself being burnt twice.
- With Koraidon breaking some rocks in the Inlet Grotto, it seemed like a foreshadowing for one of the HM moves that Koraidon could do, but nope, that's the only time rock smash has ever been relevant in this game.
- If nothing else, I get to re-listen to the Team Star soundtrack! It's a banger.
- So, uh, all along, I could've beaten the gym trainers in the stupid olive minigame and they'd open up paths! I thought they were just standing in my way!
- I didn't know some of the Sunflora can fight me in the Artazon Gym! That didn't happen to me the first time around.
- Toedscool's physical attack animation is a roundhouse kick. I love this dumbass. He's a fun one to have to follow you around.
- Speaking of Toedscool, it's got an interesting ability where its status moves can bypass abilities, but it'll always go slower? I'm going to assume it's a way to balance around Spore on a Pokemon much more faster than Amoonguss and Parasect...
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