Apologies for the delay of this one. Some real-life stuff came up, and as thus there's a sizable gap from when I first played the Indigo Disk and when I finally continued on with this playthrough. Anyway...
So yeah, I think it's a given that in any Pokemon game with an overworld, I'll go around and ignore the main story for a couple of hours to run around and explore the overworlds. This time, I tried to shiny-hunt for the other outbreak -- Flabebe -- but the damn things are so small and after three entire swarms, I kind of decided that I don't care for Flabebe enough to waste my time there.
(I'll probably get another shiny Litwick before the day is over, though).
But there are a lot of fun stuff, and I'm just running around the Savanna and Canyon biomes right now. The savanna biome only looks like the Kanto Safari Zone in the earlier areas, but there are some very Pastoria-esque swamp areas with Tynamo, Eelektrik and... Bruxish swimming through them? Bruxish, who is based on a colourful tropical fish, hangs out in muddy water? Yeah, that's... that's really weird to me.
Oh, and Kantonian Tauros are around here, since this whole thing is just a love letter to the original Safari Zone. Capturing a Tauros isn't anything exciting, I've done it at least ten times over ten different games now, but it's reading online and finding out that appaerntly Tauros was already available in Kitakami -- since it doesn't count as Paldea, hatching a Tauros egg in Kitakami (and presumably Woopers, too) would result in the original, default breed instead of the Paldean Tauros. That's cool!
There is also like a mini-desert populated with Trapinches and its far more aggressive evolutions, Vibrava and Flygon. Flygon's just angry that it's somehow been passed over for Mega Evolutions, Regional Variants, Gigantamax Forms, and whatever the hell else is available.
I hop over to the Canyon area and it's kind of a nice mountainous area, with a bunch of Scraggys, Tyrogues and, interestingly enough, Alolan Geodude. I didn't really think too much about what kind of regional variants would show up because I would default to the 'original' ones, but it's pretty fun to take this exercise into trying to think as to why the Alolan Geodudes flourish in this Terarium instead of Kantonian Geodudes, while the Exeggutors I meet are the Kantonian instead of the Alolan ones.
Or maybe I just have to not take these things seriously and have fun.
The Coastal Biome has a lot of the expected sea-dwelling Pokemon. Tentacool, Luvdisc and Finneon swarm the ocean, while Crabrawler scuttle in the beaches. We've got Pikipek being the coastal birds, which I'm not sure is accurate for woodpeckers or toucans. But most fun are the fact that apparently Espurrs and Meowstics hang out in the Coastal Biome. Don't cats hate water? Some of them are even found on some random mini-islands in the water itself. Did they accidentally teleport or levitate themselves there? That's hilarious if that's the case.
I also got lost in the underground labyrinths of the Coastal Biome, which is infested with Galarian Slowpokes, Magmars, Miniors and... Happiny for some reason? Do Chanseys reproduce in subterranean caves with access to the ocean? Okay, sure?
I guess the big gimmick for the coastal biome is that it's filled with a whole lot of regional variants, both Alolan and Galarian variants. Or well, Galarian Slowpoke, at least. Loads of Alolan Grimer, Diglett and of course everyone's favourite Exeggutor show up and wander around the location.
Eventually I deign to do the main quest before I explore the Canyon and Polar Biomes, and the 'class' basically involves of the teacher standing in a gazebo and giving a brief talk about Regional Variants, and tasking me to capture something from Alola. I already have a couple of Alolan variants in my box, so I immediately complete this quest with no real trouble. Lacey congratulates me for completing the first Blueberry class.
And then she talks about some aspects of the Blueberry academy, and this is something that I do enjoy from Legends Arceus and a bunch of other RPG's -- the generic sidequests. Pressing the otherwise-useless right arrow button will now give me access to the Blueberry Quests, gloriously abbreviated into "BBQ", and it's things that are simple like catch 10 Pokemon, photograph a Pokemon in the water, that kind of stuff. it's going to be something nice that'll allow me to play Pokemon while I watch episodes of anime, which at this point is something I really do appreciate.
BBQ's will give me Blueberry Points (BP's, not to be confused with Battle Points) which I assume will be able to buy competitive items and whatnot, just like the BP's from previous games.
Not a whole ton to say, and I like that the game just chucks me off to the world to explore. Carmine calls me and asks me to meet in the center of the Terarium, and I do like that the game does give me the option to be a jackass to her, pretending that I don't remember who she is and stuff.
Carmine is talking to a girl that we later learn is a member of the BB Elite Four (oh, Lacey is also one of them, if I haven't mentioned it). She's clearly the Steel-type trainer, with her hair done up into Magnemite-style screws (how much gel did she need?) and pulling out one of those cool, vintage pocketwatches-on-a-chain when talking to Carmine. Carmine challenges me to a battle and she has a brand-new team after apparently been on a trip to several other regions with Briar, and I don't remember if she had been able to Terastralize before.
She keeps her Mightyena and her signature Sinistcha (which is terastralized into a grass-type), but swapped the rest of her party for a Toucannon and a Scrafty. The toucan is a bit weird since she otherwise has a full 'spooky' theme, though. I do enjoy Carmine's nonsensical battle banter about how she's not the most pleased that I'm using super-effective moves on her.
After the battle, Carmine asks me about Kieran, and... we get to witness a scene where Kieran's changed up his hair, and is acting like a stereotypical high school gangster. He's basically bullying another student, telling him off for his lack of commitment to some 'club' (which is apparently a huge thing in this academy) and... uhh... that's not exactly what I expected his little tantrum in the post-credits scene of Teal Mask to turn him into. That hairstyle also isn't flattering at all. Carmine notes that Kieran's been different ever since the school trip to Kitakami and that whole Ogerpon business, and dialogue from other characters like Drayton imply that Kieran's been pretty infamous recently for his antics.
And then Drayton shows up, and... I'm not about to say every single thing that he gives me a tutorial about, but he and Carmine have a bit of a rivalry -- the scripting of Drayton's passive-aggressive potshots at Carmine is pretty well-done, and Drayton eventually tries to recruit me to their 'club'. The clubhouse is... well, just some random room in the school with half-eaten snacks and treadmills and some really nicely-made digital props of whiteboards and stuff. I like the little character detail from the laid-back Drayton about how he leaves behind half-eaten snacks everywhere in the room.
Drayton allows me to join the club on a 'trial basis', gives some exposition about the Elite Four (Carmine's not good enough to be part of it, though she insists it's a 'tactics' thing) before giving me access to the computer that allows me to donate BP to do stuff like unlock brand-new Pokemon in certain biomes (this is how I get the previous-generation starters), redecorate the club room and get some new poses or whatever. It's kind of neat. I do really like the idea that the starters take some extra effort to get, and are one of the ultimate rewards of this whole BBQ thing.
Carmine goes to my room, and gives a bit of an explanation about the whole Kiki situation. After Kitakami, Kieran's been a bit crazy about improving himself and becoming a badass. Drayton used to be the most powerful trainer in Blueberry, but Kieran apparently beat him up, becoming the president of the League Club and the Champion at the same time. So we've got a boss to beat down, okay. Kieran's refused to talk to Carmine, and apparently because I'm still Kieran's "friend", Carmine wants me to stick by him.
...I tried answering no, but Carmine basically forces me to say yes.
Carmine also really tells me not to trust Drayton, who looks like a slacker but is actually up to something according to Carmine. Which... yeah, he does feel like he's got something up his sleeve with the writing of his dialogue. I can't really explain it, but even when he's just showing off the clubroom, he does feel like he's just introducing me to the club as some means to an end.
Carmine freaks out slightly about the whole 'date' term that Drayton uses to describe our upcoming meeting, before telling me to go meet Drayton on the 'date' in the cafeteria. Which opens up most of the Blueberry academy map -- multiple classrooms, the same school stores, Carmine's room and I do like that they show that there are a couple of school-building towers above the Terarium. Pretty neat little cut. I've played a bit ahead at this point because of the delays of writing this let's play,
Random Notes:
- I'm back, though a bit slowly. I'm working on doing some Violet playthroughs first before I catch up with the One Piece manga or the What If cartoon.
- For those of you who're still caught by the Pokemon bug, I released a 'reviewing Abilities' for Generation IV and another part of Infinite Fusion monster reviews over the week.
- Also, I guess it's not the worst thing for me to wait, since at the rate I'm going, I might hit the epilogue, releasing on January 11th, at the same time that I would hopefully complete the DLC's stories.
- I really love that EX Sandstorm Trapinch art, by the way. That specific card was my first introduction to Trapinch, and I found the artwork, the pose and the look of him looking into the night sky to be so hauntingly cute.
- Skarmories fly us around instead of Squawkabillies.
- BBQ, heh.
- One of the NPC's in the rest area in the Coastal Biome offers to make me the items to evolve Galarian Slowpoke. The, uh, Galarica Wreath or whatever they're called. It's neat.
- I do like that both Kantonian and Alolan Exeggutor exist simultaneously in the different biomes of the Terarium, and that whatever modifications they did to the environments in the Coastal Biome has allowed all the Exeggcutes to evolve into the long-necked Alolan forms.
- There is a lot of brand-new sandwich ingredients over the course of the two DLC's, but I barely even engage in sandwiches in the base game, so.
- Between "let's get into position" and the talk about wanting to go to my room so we can't be disturbed, whoever's writing the dialogue for Carmine is having fun with double-entrendes.
- I assume Drayton is related to Drayden, if Lacey is Clay's daughter. Drayton/Drayden seems a bit too obvious not to be. I hope not all the Blueberry kids are related to someone from Unova, though. That'd be too on the nose.
- Apparently, Drayton repeated the same year three times. Okay, then.
- There are thankfully wild Hitmontop spawns! I am so glad I don't have to dick around with the Attack and Defense stats just to get this spinning top jackass that I'll never actually use in battle.
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