Yeah, this was a bit... longer for me to write. A lot of the Indigo Disk playthrough in the
So after capturing the Duraludon in the previous part, I ended up running around farming the 300 BP's I need to buy the Metal Alloy. It does give a fair amount of things to do over time as I explore the Terarium, since items like this cost 300 BP or so, the Elite Four fights cost 50 BP each, and eventually when I upgrade the Terarium to spawn the starters, it'll all cost 3000 BP a pop. Not to mention the whole customization of the club rooms and such that I haven't really mucked around with.
I did get the Metal Alloy and evolve London the Duraludon into an Archaludon, and shiny Archaludon is much more different. The, uh... ridges of the bridge (I am terrible at bridge anatomy) are blue instead of an almost-black, and the red highlights being changed to silvery-white to blend with the rest of Archaludon's primary colours works a lot better compared to the original shiny Duraludon.
I don't really plan to be super-competitive with my EV's and IV's, but I did feed a bunch of Calcium and Smart Feathers to raise Archaludon's Special Attack. He's got Electro Shot (an electric-type Solarbeam, basically), which I think is his signature move, as well as STAB moves Dragon Pulse and Flash Cannon. It's actually surprising for me to learn that both Duraludon and Archaludon are special attack oriented, though I suppose considering the 'bridge mode' is a railgun cannon, it shouldn't be that surprising for the evolution.
I do find the 'bridge mode' both goofy and silly, with the 'support wires' manifesting out of energy as Archaludon charges up for his robotic murder-beams. I find the regular Archaludon to look insanely goofy, particularly since I also see him as a staples-remover thanks to the body layout, but... I think running around with this shiny does manage to make me develop an inordinate amount of love for this thing. I'll definitely be using him non-stop until the end of the Blueberry Academy championship, if nothing else.
I do want to clear the story as fast as I can with the limited amount of time I have to play the game, so I go straight into Amarys's trial. She brings me to some random field away from her battlegrounds for her trial. I do like that she mistakes Miraidon's vocalizations ("Agias") as its name. There's some excuse handwave where apparently by consuming the candy that Amarys gave him, Miraidon's now just able to fly? It's a Terarium plant, and I guess it's just building up on the running gag of Miraidon getting power-ups from magic food.
The actual trial isn't anything super-impressive, honestly, just flying and moving Miraidon through hoops in the air. It's a bit similar to Grusha's trial, except that this, I think, is going to be a mechanic Miraidon learns in the game itself. I don't hate it, but I think it's so slow compared to other games I played recently with this sort of flying mechanic that it's kind of disappointing.
Before the fight, Amarys asks me what Kieran is to me, giving me the option of 'pal', 'rival' or 'I don't know'. I answer rival, and Amarys surmises that I see Kieran as a worthy adversary. She gives a bit of a monologue about how she's a very close friend to Carmine, and for her sake if nothing else, she wants to help Kieran. Which... is nice, but it also kind of translates to her wanting to beat me and keep her... position... in the Elite Four? Okay, yeah, now you lost me, lady.
Amarys is a Steel-type trainer, if her nut-bolt hairdo and pocketwatch hasn't clued you in. She sends out Skarmory and Alolan Dugtrio, against my Darkrai and my shiny Archaludon... which I realize is around 20 levels underleveled. Welp. This Dugtrio/Skarmory team, of course, instantly unleashes an Earthquake that knocks poor London the Archaludon out. But then Darkrai instantly Dark Voids both of them, and both Darkrai and Ogerpon begin to chisel away and take out these two. A Scizor gets sent in that takes poor Darkrai out with Pounce, which I felt was hilariously disrespectful.
I send out Garganacl, and Amarys sends out Reuniclus. I love that each Elite Four member in Blueberry has a single Pokemon that they just like and isn't part of their signature typing. Garganacl spams Rock Slide, though it really isn't dealing the most damage to them, while the Reuniclus sets up a Trick Room. The Scizor manages to survive on a sliver of HP and murder Ogerpon.
Garganacl's Rock Slide might not do as much damage as I want to, but the big salt boy absorbs Energy Balls like there's no tomorrow. Clodsire zips in, taking advantage of the Trick Room to unleash his moves a bit early. An Earthquake murders everyone -- including my own Garganacl, which probably isn't the smartest thing to do.
And then Amarys sends out her aces -- a pseudo legendary and a starter. Metagross and Empoleon! Metagross gets Terastralized and looks... rather ridiculous but sort of appropriate with a spiky battleaxe sticking out of his spider head? Empoleon unleashes a Grass Knot that takes out Clodsire and Metagross just unleashes Hammer Arms here and there. Together, the two of them... actually wipe my entire team out. Clodsire wasn't able to one-shot the two of them with an Earthquake, while my sixth, an Iron Leaves, gets one-shot by a critical Ice Beam.
And... yeah, I actually get taken out by an Elite Four member. Granted, I wasn't trying too hard, but it's pretty fun to see them do a better job at fighting me!
Anyway, round two and I swap my team around. Not to specifically counter Amarys because that wouldn't be too much fun, but so that the team actually can work together a bit better. Dugtrio and Skarmory face off against Garganacl and Iron-Jugulis, the latter being able to avoid Earthquake. The Skarmory gets taken down by a combination of Rock Slide and Dark Pulse, and this time around Amarys sends out Empoleon a bit early.
And... you'd think the Empoleon is here to take care of Garganacl with a Hydro Pump, but no. It's the Dugtrio that kills my Garganacl with an Iron Head. Jugulis finishes off Dugtrio, and Empoleon... Grass Knots Iron Jugulis? Okay, you do you. We get a rematch as Darkrai comes out against Scizor, and immediately gets Pounced to death. This just isn't your day, Darkrai. Sorry.
We get a starter fight as I send out Skeledirge out. And despite having a squishy Fire starter up against a Water starter... the Empoleon ignores Skeledirge and uses Grass Knot on Iron Jugulis again. Okay? Skeledirge is free to Flamethrower Scizor to death, Iron Jugulis takes out the Empoleon, and Skeledirge gets a free Shadow Ball to murder Reuniclus. Jugulis did fall to one final Pounce from Scizor, though.
I send out Koraidon, and together with Skeledirge they double-team the Terastralized Metagross. In his last act of defiance, Metagross uses... Zen Headbutt. Which doesn't get STAB, and doesn't even manage to take away more than half of Koraidon's health. Amarys just wasn't on the ball in this rematch. She gives some generic dialogue about strength reflecting beliefs, and apparently this battle proves that... my desire to help Kieran is greater than hers? No, lady, you beat me. And also, I'm here to get the money and status, not necessarily just to help Kieran.
Drayton shows up and talks to the 'champ in the making', and notes that it's unexpected but nice that Amarys and Carmine are super-close friends despite having polar opposite personalities. Apparently Amarys is super-sensitive, despite being rather rigid. The game doesn't force me to do this, but I did save Drayton for last and he's rather pumped that I saved him as the last Elite Four member.
I fly to the upper-left Polar Biome, and was about to fork out the 50 BP to challenge Drayton when he shows up, waives the fee and tells the receptionist to charge it on his account. Cool, cool. Drayton notes that as a cold-weather guy in the icy tundra, it does make him rather unusual among Dragon-type experts. Drayton gives me his challenge, and I'm surprised that he even bothered thinking up of one. It's nowhere as elaborate as the other three's, however, and it's a fighting challenge. With a twist! I need to catch Pokemon that are caught wild in the Terarium.
I love this. To quote Drayton himself, he refuses to let me use my "vault of beefy Pokemon" to "cheese through" the battle. It really does help to enforce some interaction with the Terarium area. Of course, I already have a couple of boxes' worth of evolved Terarium Pokemon to pick from, chief among them London the Shiny Archaludon.
I pick out a team of former party members from previous games to hang out with the shiny Archaludon -- a Metagross, a Galvantula, a Flygon, an Araquanid, and... an Alolan Exeggutor for the memes.
Three trainers face off against me, and I resolve to use Archaludon in each and every battle. The first guy uses a Rampardos and a Bastiodon against my Archaludon and Metagross. Archaludon one-shots the Rampardos with a Flash Cannon, while Metagross Hammer Arms the Bastiodon. The second lady uses Dewgong and Alolan Sandslash against Archaludon and Galvantula. One Flash Cannon and one Thunder later, we're off to the next battle, which is against an Iono fanboy with Zebstrika and Magnezone, that gets taken down by Flygon and Exeggutor.
I actually wished the enemies had more robust parties, but I guess they really didn't want to make this too irritating for people that aren't wacky capture-freaks like me. Anyway, the actual fight against Drayton allows me to bring a regular party. At this point in time I'm kind of tired, though, and I just stack my roster with legendaries to fight against Drayton's dragons.
So Drayton sends out Dragonite and Flygon against my Koraidon and Archaludon. My strategy is simple -- Koraidon will Outrage. That is it. Koraidon's Outrage almost one-shots the Dragonite. Archaludon doesn't manage to take out either dragons, but a combination of Flygon's Earthquake and a new move I don't think I've ever seen before from Dragonite called "Ice Spinner" takes out Archaludon. It's kinda cute, I think it's meant to be based on someone spinning around in ice-skating.
I send out my Chien-Pao, who uses his priority Ice Shard to murder the Flygon. Koraidon tanks an Ice Spinner, from the Dragonite, who proceeds to get Ice Sharded to death as well. Drayton sends out a Haxorus... which almost dies to another Outrage hit that lands... but Focus Sash! The bastard! The Haxorus lived long enough to Iron Head Chien-Pao to death.
I send out Roaring Moon, and Drayton sends out Kingdra. Completely by coincidence, this means that Roaring Moon benefits with Protosynthesis from Koraidon's ability. Nice! I totally planned that! Roaring Moon spams Breaking Swipe, and Koraidon kills Haxorus with another Outrage hit. Kingdra, however, unleashes Rain Dance, which ruins my Protosynthesis.
And Drayton sends out... Sceptile? That's his token starter and his token non-type, though it is hilarious to note that Mega Sceptile, a form that isn't in this game, is actually a Dragon-type.
Kingdra's Hurricane finally takes down Koraidon, before the Kingdra itself falls to Breaking Swipe. Sceptile unleashes an X-Scissor that critical hits and takes down my Roaring Moon. And... it's rather obvious that Drayton's signature Pokemon was going to be an Archaludon from the trailers, so he sends it out. A regular, normal, non-shiny, peasant of an Archaludon. My two final Pokemon are Miraidon and Iron Valiant (which has an Electric Terrain synergy, again, unintended but a nice little serendipity).
Drayton waxes some lyrical about watching 'this dragon's blood boil'. Does Archaludon even have blood? Archaludon Terastralizes, and... you know what? The end result looks like some modern art piece. It stacks a messy dragon totem design on an already messy design in Archaludon. There's so much going on in this terastral form that I'm not even mad, it's kinda neat.
Miraidon one-shots the Archaludon with a Dragon Pulse or something, while Iron Valiant takes out the Sceptile with a Close Combat. Not... not the most climactic finish after a rather exciting battle, but there you go! I beat all the Elite Four members.
Drayton is ready to make me the 'real deal', part of the BB League, since I beat all four Elite Four members. There are a lot of 'Elite Four' and 'Elite One' awful puns from Drayton, though I really do like the little detail that he completely forgot to prepare the TM that he's supposed to give me. It's Dragon Cheer, which is a new buffing move for double battles that works better on dragons.
And now I can challenge Kieran! Kieran shows up with his background music, comments on my slow progress, and notes that he knows Drayton is planning some vague schoolyard politics scheme. I really am not at all invested in whatever's going on in this school, which I think does contribute to my slow burn through the Indigo Disk DLC. But Kieran struts off, wanting to fight me and settle who is the strongest.
I'm going to bring Ogerpon to bash his Pokemon's face in, but that's going to be next time!
Random Notes:
- Google tells me that there's a free Metal Alloy for me to pick up at the highest point of Chargestone Cavern, and as I walk around unlocking all the fly points, I pick that up too. I guess I'll use it for a regular peasant Archaludon, just to have that form in my Pokedex.
- The game really likes to have Amarys do her 'pocketwatch check' animation. It's cute the first couple of times, but when she does it like 2 times back-to-back right before the battle it just feels a bit too much.
- Apparently Amarys's team is infamous for being assholish because the Skarmory would Whirlwind your team out and impale the newcomers on Stealth Rock. I never, ever saw either of these moves despite repeating the fight against Amarys.
- The photo with Amarys is kinda funny, with her emotionlessly making the 'heart' symbol with your fingers, while my character seems surprised that she's doing a rather cutesy pose with a super-serious deadpan expression.
- Drayton goes all about the 'majesty of the Polar Biome Court' before waving it off as 'nah, it's the same as all the other battle courts, but colder'. I like his snark, but damn, the Tetris Block battle courts do look ugly as hell.
- Holy hell the Paradox Pokemon are starting to get TCG artwork and they look badass.
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