Let's Play Pokemon Violet/Scarlet, Part 31: New Paradoxes & Team Star Shenanigans

It's been a while since I did a proper update of my Violet playthrough! I have been doing rather sporadic updates of my Scarlet save file, and I eventually kind of sat down and rushed through all the gyms and Area Zero while I was binge-watching Kamen Rider Geats and the 2012 season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Anyway, I think you guys are the most interested in the new stuff. Turns out I don't need the Nintendo online subscription to access the brand-new Walking Wake and Iron Leaves fights. Just... just upgrade the game to 1.2.0. on the home page, and download the new raids from Poke Portal News on the side of the Pokemon Center. Yep! Totally straightforward and I didn't have to sift through like a dozen online pages, most of which talk about strategy to beat these new Paradoxes! 

Anyway, the first one I tried was Walking Wake, the prehistoric Suicune from Pokemon Scarlet. Interestingly, it looks nothing like the Paradox fused version of Suicune, Entei and Raikou we saw in the Scarlet Book, and I wonder if that's going to be a Pokemon we see in the expansion? Anyway, after doing all of those, I head off and fight Walking Wake in my Scarlet save file. It's... it's not easy, because I have never built anything for the high-level Tera Raid battles, but I choked my Meowscarada with all the Rare Candies I have, put a Shell Bell on him, and sent him off to spam Flower Trick on Walking Wake. Someone suggested I do the defensive cheer and that sure works. 

And Walking Wake is pure Water thanks to the Tera den stuff, so he does take super-effective damage from Flower Trick. It's got a weird ability that sets up Sunny Day (despite being part-Water) but somehow also gets a boost from it? Okay? I basically redid the battle like, twice or thrice to avoid the Flamethrower from knocking out Meowscarada, but otherwise the Walking Wake gets taken down pretty easily. No dex entries for this one yet, though. 

It's... uh... Water/Dragon? Okay, making Suicune into a velociraptor dragon with a mass of hair and two split-apart tails isn't what I would've expected from a Suicune Paradox, and it's got, of course, a new signature move in Hydro Stream. Okay. 

...on the other hand, Iron Leaves... yeah, I might need to train something up to get this one down, one of the "meta" Pokemon or something. I had a miserable time trying to catch Iron Leaves. It's Psychic-type, and it's got a setup move in Swords Dance and that jackass Megahorn move that counters Dark-type Pokemon... and restarting the battle has it waste like so much time setting up Electric Terrain and Quark Drive and all that jazz. That's honestly one of the most aggravating parts of fighting Iron Leaves, the fact that it takes so long just to reset the fight. 

And I tried using two Switches to do a co-op play, getting a friend to play my copy of Scarlet and just button smash Meowscarada's Night Slash... but boy oh boy, if anything, playing this in co-op ends up just fucking up the timing. The timing for the partner Pokemon's terastralization is just fucked up all over the place, people get stuck in knocked-out or a Terastralizing animation while the timer just counts down like a jackass and I just... I just really don't see why this isn't fixed or made better after nearly four months of doing this. The challenge at this point isn't because Iron Leaves is hard, because with two proper human players instead of AI goobers we certainly have the damage, but the system just gets stuck on animation loops and takes so long to show Shell Bell or Quark Drive animations and the like that it's just miserable to sit through. And people are farming these Tera Raids? 

Anyway, I haven't caught an Iron Leaves yet, but I think I'll have to build a proper Iron Leaves 'killer' if I want a less tiring experience of just spamming this over and over again.

...anyway, while I've obviously been focusing on Scarlet and on Persona 5, I've also been doing Violet on-and-off, mostly to see what little extra content I haven't done here. And it's mostly the Team Star rematches! And... it's not the most exciting stuff, story-wise, though I appreciate a different avenue of money-farming than just the Academy Ace Tournament. I also do like the fact that we get to see the 'final forms' of these characters' teams. 

The Team Star rematches don't feature their gigantic pimped-out Revavroom Star Mobiles, and I kinda wonder whatever happened to them? But regardless, they all have a brand-new team of five. Giacomo had a team of two (and one of them is the now-nonexistent Revavroom), so he gains basically a brand-new team of Dark-types -- Cacturne, Honchkrow, Mabosstiff, Krookodile, and of course the Kingambit is his ace, the final form of his Pawniard. Unlike La Primera, Giacomo, this random DJ, knows that you're supposed to put Kingambit at the end of the party. 

Atticus keeps his Skuntank, Muk and one of the Revavrooms, and adds two aquatic Poison types, Toxapex and Dragalge. Very respectable!

Also, none of the Team Star bosses Terastralize their Pokemon. I guess they find it as lame as I do? 

Mela also keeps the sole Torkoal from her boss fight, and gains a grab-bag of generic fire-types (Coalossal, Houndoom, Arcanine)... but most importantly, she gets an Armarouge! Presumably, this is Charles, the Charcadet from her main story! That's a great little attention to detail, something that I don't think is present with some of the other characters in the game. 

Ortega isn't particularly interesting, but that's because he has his team basically set up already at the end. He just adds a Klefki and a Hatterene to his original party, again minus the Revavroom. 

Neither does Eri, who just replaces the Revavroom with a Primeape? Okay, she already has Annihilape as her ace, but I guess she really likes that line. 

Speaking of Team Star, there are several little extra storylines forming a pit of an epilogue for Penny, Arven and Nemona. And... let's go through the latter two first, because they're not the most interesting. Arven's at least a rather complete storyline at the end, where he decides to go around on his 'Treasure Hunt' and do it about his dad's backstory. (Mom, of course, in Scarlet, but we're back in Violet-land for this playthrough). And it's kind of a neat story as he goes to learn more about Professor Turo from Clavell, we find out that Clavell's machines was once Turo's lab. It's a nice little callback to how Clavell is all like "Turo, it couldn't be..." much, much earlier in the game!

Arven later investigates the Violet Book, and I do like the slightly creepy note that the book came way before Turo was born, but it's already talking about the Paradox Pokemon that are supposedly summoned by Turo's time machine. Arven also shows me the disc Pokemon, if you're too lazy to read the Scarlet/Violet Book. DLC, guys! 

Arven later brings me to his room, which has a bunch of raw cooking materials, rows of manga tankobon, and the most adorable little Maschiff photograph. He wants to be a cook! That's a logical enough ending to his story, and I do like that he does go through a bit of soul-searching, figuring out who his dad is and who he is in relation to that. Also, we unlock his room, which is unique-looking... but there's not much to do that. 

Nemona's story is much, much simpler. She tries to get a generic student to battle with her, and the other kid turns her down as we chase her throughout the school, and she's utterly bamboozled why the other kid refused to battle simple because he's guaranteed to lose. She's kinda pissed off because she's very much into battling, and she worked hard only to have everyone dismiss her meteoric rise to Champion rank as her 'being a whiz'. It's short and sweet, and it's a nice, more somber tie to end Nemona's story on, and of course she finishes the conversation with 'be my battle friend forever and ever and ever'. She's hanging out with Pawmot, and her room is super-neat with badges and otherwise very minimalistic. I guess she doesn't stay there for long.  

Penny, meanwhile, is basically kinda stalking on the Team Star captains as they re-integrate with the school, which is adorable! We start off with Giacomo and Ortega in the library, where Giacomo tries to shanghai Ortega into yelling out loud in the entrance hall to make them feel more approachable. Giacomo basically makes use of this as a concert practice, and Ortega somehow ends up yelling along with him before catching himself... but their dorking around ends up causing other students to think they're a bit more approachable. "What. On. Earth." says Penny at the absurdity of this scene. 

Atticus is on the school store, trying to buy a... ninja cosplay garment? But it's sold out, and he's shocked. In his shock, he takes off his hood and Penny likes what she sees. Turns out that Atticus's little buddy whose name I forgot and can't be bothered to look up is the one that bought the ninja clothes, and they go off to play ninja. That's cute. 

Meanwhile, in the art room, there are rumours of Team Star coming to raid them... but it's just Mela and Eri. Mela yells at them like a gang boss before catching herself, and asking to join the art club since she wants to learn how to draw flames. There's a neat discussion where she likes a simple Fletchling drawing, and ends up befriending the art club president. 

Eri, meanwhile, just... stands next to me and Penny, not realizing we're supposed to be hiding. Eri and Carmen started a wrestling club, and she's just here to give Mela moral support. Penny then brings me to her room, and it is a gigantic mess! It reminds me of my room, except with Eevelutions instead of dogs sprawled out all over the place. Adorable! Penny feels very guilty because she doesn't have faith that her Team Star buddies can't find their own place in school, and she's already scheming to 'fix' things herself, but she's basically happy that everyone seems to be getting along. Er, three of them, at least. Giacomo and Ortega are just shouting like lunatics in the library.

Anyway, the ending sequences are a bit longer for the rivals than the gym leaders, and it's just a bunch of short skits for the Team Star commanders, but it's nice to see some epilogue for them. 

And at which point, basically the only thing for me to do in Violet is to complete my dex. Which I am now able to do thanks to Scarlet. I don't think I'll bother completing the Scarlet one unless I'm really bored, but I basically sent every Scarlet-exclusive Pokemon over to Violet. All the past Paradox Pokemon, Koraidon, a Sprigatito I bred, Skrelp, Stunky, Stonjourner, Oranguru, Zangoose, the Deino and Larvitar lines, Armarouge...

That is to say, all I have to do is basically do some evolutions, and I would have done everything there is to do in Pokemon Violet! ...other than catching that bastard Iron Leaves, anyway... and until the expansion pack comes...

______________________________________

MINI-UPDATE!

I caught Iron Leaves. I eventually gave in and used the 7-day-free trial which I apparently still have? I thought I used that for Sword? Well, whatever the case, I used it to go through Iron Leaves and it's even more of a miserable experience because the timer just eats into everyone's animation time and sometimes the timer will go from halfway full all the way to ending. Sometimes the animations take so much time that I go straight from beginning the Terastralization animatino all the way to Iron Leaves kicking us out of the lair. But eventually, after spamming A-button with my Iron Jugulis and Dark Pulse, I eventually lucked out and the RNG-gods smiled upon me enough for all the Megahorns to miss and for me to beat the Iron Leaves. 

Tera Raid battles suck, and while the solo version is non-offensive, I legitimately don't understand how anyone finds the multiplayer version of this enjoyable. Fuck the timer, really. 

Anyway, I make use also to basically trawl the Tera Raid and join any raids that drop the Sweet Herba Mystica, finally allowing me to hand it over to Saguaro. It leads to the expected 'it's okay for Manly Man to eat sweet dishes' revelation, and he gives me a Slowpoke Mug. 

And finally, I completed the Pokedex, claimed all the rewards (the final ball is a Beast Ball, in a game where the Ultra Beasts are banned by the regional dex) and go off to Jacq and Clavell, who give me the Diploma. I think this is the first time I've gotten the Pokemon Diploma since... did I do it for Pokemon Y? I think I was missing a couple of mythicals. I did get it in Platinum. Was that the last time I got my Pokedex to completion? 400 Pokemon... I really do think that the Paldean region could handle more, and I suppose that's what the expansion will be all about! 

And... honestly, that's it until the expansion comes in. I guess I could mention stuff like customizable uniforms finally showing up if I pre-buy the expansion, but a lot of what I feel about the pre-release trailers are still the same. Not a big fan of the festival-exclusive Pokemon (though the idea of a small festival is fun) and am a bit more excited about the Area Zero one and seeing what all the mysteries about Heath and Terapagos will be all about. 

Random Notes:

• 
  Damn, the TCG art for the newer expansions are killer. 
• So I passively button-mashed my way to clearing all the Gym Leader rematches and the Poke Tournament in Scarlet. Just thought you guys should know. 
• Nope, I'm not bitter that I checked like ten different Water-type Tera Raids looking for the stupid Walking Wake because I didn't realize you have update the Poke Portal stuff.  
  
• I do love the fact that Eri basically bowls her Pokeballs against us. 
• The Violet dex compares Flutter Mane, the past Misdreavus, to... a ghostly pterosaur? Is that what ol' banshee-face is supposed to be? A pterosaur? 
• Roaring Moon's Violet entry all but name-drops the Mega Evolution for Salamence!
• I'm not going through some of the annoying evolution methods for the Paldean Pokemon, so I traded Pawmot, Annihilape, Gholdengo, Rabsca, Brambleghast, Palafin and a bunch of others that were annoying to evolve to Scarlet to unlock the dex entries. 
• Arven mentions that his love of cooking comes from the fact that he had to do it himself because his dad wasn't around. Which is... a very logical conclusion to his situation. Still very sad, though!
• There's a bunch of neat posters -- particularly the Scizor and Palafin Superman ones -- in Penny's room. Those were cool. 
• So I guess the fusion legendary trio in the Scarlet and Violet Book really are just... concept art or something? I do think having an 'Iron' version of all three Musketeers and a 'Past' version of all three legendary beasts would be a bit too much, especially if we toss in a combined form, but honestly, I really would've rather had the fused versions instead. 
• Somehow, when going through my Violet Pokedex and ticking off the Pokemon that needs Scarlet transfer, the only one that isn't from a trade or a pseudo-legendary evolution is... Gothita! Which only spawns as a rare spawn outside Zapacico (for some reason, a mining town?) while her bigger siblings Gothorita and Gothitelle spawn more often around Tulip's city. Okay? Breeding time, just like Slakoth, then. 
• Evolving Sliggoo to Goodra is also annoying, because there was no way to trigger the rain in the overworld. I was running around trying to evolve the other pseudos, so it wasn't as irritating as it could've been... but it was still annoying.