Anyway, this is the last side-quest for the Kitakami region, or the Teal Mask, and... I must say it's actually a decently-sized DLC! I think the exploration of the area is pretty neat. I'm not sure if it's a smaller location than the Crown Tundra? It feels like there's more than the Isle of Armour, though I think I've gone on record on saying that Isle of Armour really always felt like a prototype on what a DLC could be in these games. A lot of the focus is given to the main storyline of Ogerpon, Carmine and Kieran, and... it really did stumble a fair bit near the end, I'm going to be honest, but it's at least something. There's a fair bit of buildup for the second part of the story and the DLC pack, and while, again, it's not the best, I do appreciate what we get.
And it does seem from the dialogue that ol' Perrin here is also going to show up in the Indigo Disk! Again, to recap briefly, she's a photographer, and descendant of Adaman from Pokemon Legends Arceus, and she's in a slump and wants to capture the photograph of the cryptic, mysterious Bloodmoon Beast... which is a mutant Ursaluna. Which are supposed to be extinct, or at least extremely endangered. Perrin shows off a picture of the Bloodmoon Beast shadowed in the mist, and good fucking job on whoever did this. It's basically the same Ursaluna model that we later see in-game, but the framing and the shadows, as well as the glowing blood-moon forehead and the little beady left eye, really does a great job at making Ursaluna look like a monstrous creature.
Anyway, after finishing a whole lot of random sidequests as well as helping the people of Kitakami solve their whole Ogre problem, we run and meet Perrin being super-excited about a Poliwhirl in the Timeless Forest. And... the game just gives us an option to call out to her and to... observe... her. Just... really... getting... uncomfortably excited... about the Poliwhirl. She gets way too excited about the 'cutie pie' that is 'lovely' and 'adorable' that she can 'eat up', and it's an 'extra serving of cuteness' with 'more extra storage' and she needs a 'napkin'.
You know, this would be a bit more disturbing if you're perving on a Machamp or a Gurrdurr or something, but that poor, poor Poliwhirl! You have some real strange tastes, Perrin!
Perrin's Growlithe borks really loudly which interrupts Perrin and she tries to play off her strange swirly-frog fetish. You know what, Perrin? I don't even want to know.
Anyway, Perrin shows off the aforementioned creepy picture, and tells us that Bloodmoon Ursaluna only ever shows up in nights with heavy fog. As Perrin demonstrates, however, some Pokemon are really violent and territorial, as an Ariados leaps up and literally causes Perrin to fall on her ass. I... there's an easy joke to make here and I'm not going to make it. I squish the Ariados, and Perrin says that this is proof that we need to set up camp, so as to make the local Pokemon get acclimatized to us.
Her tent is cute, and has Shaymin pictures. And then Perrin gives us some ground rules about photography. She has a unique device called a 'Pokemon Searcher' which she totally got for legit and she didn't get scammed by someone who gave her some spare-parts item that has the same jingle as her plate dryer. I don't know if this is an item from Pokemon Snap or anything, or really how much of this is actually a tie-in to Snap and how much of it is just my assumption. But the Searcher will be able to take readings of Pokemon we photographed and eliminate those readings and give us movement of Pokemon we didn't photograph.
That sounds very Star Trek-y, but okay, sure, fine, whatever!
Perrin also tells me that I'm not allowed to ride on big, noisy Pokemon, so no Miraidon for me. And I think we are placed in an instanced version of the Timeless Woods with fixed Pokemon that I need to take photographs of. And it's fun! Some of them are pretty obviously just waltzing around, though I do need to sneak up to them to take photographs of them. There's a Sudowoodo trying to be a tree, a Litwick just hanging around all creepy and shit... Geodude just still not looking like part of the background despite how much the game wants to pretend that Geodude camouflages well, Duskull phasing in and out of existence, Hoothoot flying from tree to tree...
And there are a couple that are a bit harder to spot. Spinaraks on tree trunks, Seedot sitting on tree branches, Lotad in the lake, and teeny-tiny Tynamo in the lake.
I love that if I take a photograph of Perrin's Growlithe, she compliments it... before saying that her Growlithe isn't part of what she's looking for.
Perrin gives a unique commentary for all of them, and I think that many of the other wild Pokemon in the Timeless Woods would also be available. My last Pokemon that I photographed was Illumise, and you can't have Illumise show up at a location without Volbeat! I'm going to assume that Pokemon like Phantump and Impidimp that show up in the regular Timeless Woods would also show up here.
Perrin tells me that she took photographs of 'the rest', but we all know she's just standing around hunting down that Poliwhirl, the sicko.
We have a brief conversation, and... it's a bit of a relatable one? Perrin is in a slump, nothing seems to go right for her. She's a young photography prodigy, but she's been in so many competitions and got so many awards that she's now lost her spark and her new work lack any kind of heart. I... I really actually do feel for this character!
And then we get the arrival of the Bloodmoon Beast, and... it's cool! The sprite, when static, is kinda goofy, but the way the game introduces us to the Bloodmoon Beast in the darkened, foggy jungle is pretty damn badass as this big bear-monster just lumbers out and growls at us with its glowing red moon forehead. the most terrifying thing about Bloodmoon Ursaluna here is that the peat has grown and encrusted half of his face like he's cosplaying Hollow Ichigo from Bleach or something, and the eye underneath that peat-mask is glowing creepily at night. Pretty creepy!
...and because Perrin is supposed to be a photography prodigy, she takes a photograph of this big, wild beast... and forgot to turn off her auto-flash. How the fuck are you photographing Pokemon in a foggy night and you forgot to turn off flash? Fucking liar, I know you were taking photographs of that Poliwhirl.
Anyway, Ursaluna fights me and Perrin does some funky poses to take photographs of the Ursaluna, which again is treated as a titan battle. Or I guess an alpha battle, since the soundtrack is a remix of Legends Arceus's soundtrack. It's pretty cool, and the Blood Moon signature move literally has Ursaluna summon the image of a glowing blood moon in front of its head and launch a beam straight out of Naruto or something at me.
I capture the Ursaluna, and that's a pretty fun and honestly pretty unexpected addition! Honestly, while I did grouse a bit about how uncreative Dipplin is, I do appreciate that Dipplin, Sinistcha, Polchageist and Bloodmoon Ursaluna are all updates to Generation VIII Pokemon. So many times we get these updates and they're only given to Pokemon from Generation I and II, and it's nice to see even newer Pokemon get something new.
There's a cute comedy sequence as Perrin's Growlithe plays dead (I think it's just his fainting animation) when Perrin complains that the Growlithe did nothing to help. The next day, Perrin reveals that... for all that work, the photographs turned out terribly, and are so bad that she will never show them to me. But her slump is gone thanks to all the excitement. I mean, I could show off the Bloodmoon Ursaluna in my box, but I guess she wants to capture the photographs in a pure, unadulterated natural form. Perrin's been too caught up in worrying what kind of a photo she should take, what judges would say, that she forgot the joy of photography.
I dunno, I think you were preeeeeetty joy-of-photography when you were taking photos of that Poliwhirl, is what I'm saying.
And at this point, Perrin finally asks my name since she's been calling me 'partner' all this time. She gives me a Choice Scarf, the twin of her Hisuian Growlithe, and then runs off, which kind of hints that she'll come back in the second part of the DLC.
Random Notes:
- Oh, another random item I got are the jinbei that Kieran and Carmine wear, which their grandparents give me. They found an extra set that are exactly my size and they very suspiciously insist that these are definitely not hand-me-downs. Sure, grandma.
- Anyway, brb, getting New Pokemon Snap. I'm probably not going to do a playthrough here, but I honestly am so charmed by this sequence that this unintentionally made me go and really want to play some Pokemon Snap.
- If I had some sense of actually looking through my Pokeballs, I would realize that the Moon Ball is the perfect ball for the 100% capture rate for the Bloodmoon Ursaluna. Instead, mine resides in a Luxury Ball. Eh.
- I have captured most of the Kitakami DLC, I'm only missing a couple of Pokemon that are exclusive to Scarlet, which are the Gligar line and Cramorant for some reason. I don't really feel like spending a total of $60 just for a complete DLC Pokedex, so unless the Indigo Disk is really super-duper-special-awesome, I'll be happy with a complete regular Paldean Pokedex.
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