After enough exploration and mucking around with synchronization, I finally decide to tackle the Elite Four! And since she's the first one that introduced herself to me, I decided to challenge Lacey's trial first. She's located in the Coastal Biome, which... isn't an area that I really associate with Fairy-types. In fact, I really can't think of a single Fairy-type Pokemon there, it's all mostly just Alolan Pokemon and assorted Water-types.
Oh, and I also have to pay 50 BP to challenge the Elite Four members. In the grand scheme of things it's really nothing, I think I made that much just defeating Pokemon and picking up items just on the way towards Lacey's little tetris-block stadium, but it's an interesting little twist that basically forces you to interact with the Terarium. I like it.
In a neat nod to the voting stuff earlier, Lacey actually apologizes for voting against me joining the BB league, and reiterates that it's not merely just because of the rules. It's just partly because of it. Mostly, Lacey doesn't want me to be embroiled in the whole school politics. But since I'm here, it's time for some fun with her trial...
...which is a whole big quiz, and it's something I adore. Lacey's apparently all about cutesy-wutesy Pokemon, and she kind of tests my knowledge. The first question is asking me where a Pikachu's electricity is stored, the second question is asking me how a Venonat senses things at night. And I love how Lacey notes just how adorable Venonat is, and yes, I agree. Out of all the Bug-types, Venonat does actually rank pretty high for me in terms of being cute. And if you disagree, just look at this adorable older TCG artwork form Skyridge or something.
The third question asks me to identify which of the three Sinistea is an 'authentic' cup, the fourth is a memory spinning-cup game with Miniors, and the final one is a trick question that you have to beat a nearby trainer to know -- where does Lacey like to sleep on her adorable Granbull? It's the belly. Doggo bellies are a nice source of warmth.
And after answering all of her questions, Lacey finally decides to get serious and fight me, noting that this time around she's not going to dick around with Plusle/Minun teams and actually use her proper Elite Four Team. And she's got a full team of six! I was bringing a level 60-something Roaring Moon to train that died very quickly to her initial duo of Granbull and Whimsicott.
Meanwhile, my Clodsire manage to cripple both the Granbull and the Whimsicott with Poison Jabs before repeated Ice Punches from that big bad Granbull took Clodsire out. The poisoning from Poison Jab finishes off the Whimsicott, while my Ogerpon (who's just there to accumulate experience before the eventual smackdown she's going to inevitably have with Kieran) Ivy Cudgel's Granbull.
Lacey then brings out a PRIMARINA. She has starters! I always love it when the designers remember to put starter Pokemon into trainer parties. They barely do it anymore! I always found it so special when Gardenia pulls out a Turtwig, or a random Victory Road trainer in the Johto games pulls out Charmeleons and Ivysaurs.
Of course, the Primarina falls easily to Ogerpon, a legendary Grass-type, but it's the thought that counts. Meanwhile, Lacey's fourth Pokemon, a Galarian Slowbro... isn't even a Fairy-type! He's a fake Fairy! He's Psychic/Poison, which are the two other purple types! And the combination of Quick Draw and Shell Side Arm allowed the Slowbro to murder my Ogerpon and Darkrai with impunity, before finally falling to a Shadow Ball from Skeledirge.
Lacey also has an Alcremie that... well, she's got Sweet Veil, which means that I wasted a turn trying to cast Dark Void with Darkrai. That was kinda neat, I liked that I was bamboozled by abilities that I should have known about. The Alcremie basically doesn't do anything but use Decorate to buff her allies. I guess that was how the Slowbro managed to sweep half my team.
And finally, Lacey's final Pokemon is the same old Excadrill from her original battle, her daddy Clay's Excadrill... and she immediately terastralizes Excadrill into a Fairy-type. You know what? You know what? This is actually one of the few times Terastralization actually thematically made sense in the game for me. I still have nothing but disdain for the type-swapping mechanic, but I can admit when it's done well. Like this time! Lacey's a Fairy-type trainer, and she's kinda committed to the type... but her absolute favourite Pokemon isn't her Granbull, it's the Excadrill she shares with her dad. That's probably one of Lacey's absolutely favourite Pokemon in the whole world.
But Excadrill isn't a Fairy-type, which is why in order to fit her theme and specialized type, Lacey Terastralizes Excadrill into a Fairy-type. That's actually extremely adorable, and I like the little story being told here.
Anyway, after Excadrill falls, Lacey waxes lyrical about how adorable all the Pokemon are, going into a small rant about how cute everyone's Pokemon are. You can try flirting with her and saying that she's cute, but she will just get angry and say that she's talking about the cute Pokemon. After taking a picture with her and the Pokemon from the quiz, Lacey declares that I've beaten her trial. Drayton shows up a bit afterwards for some dialogue, musing that Lacey's only strict with him while polite to everyone else, before noting that my arrival's going to shake everything up... including the stick-in-the-mud that is Kieran.
At this point, I made my way to the next Elite Four member, which I decided was going to be Crispin... and I stumble upon a swarm of Duraludon. Now my original intention was just to farm some Duraludon materials in case I need them for TM crafting, but then my Skeledirge refused to fight one of the Duraludons. Which... you know what this means! It's a SHINY! It's actually a bit surprising and kinda funny because Duraludon is one of those shinies where barely anything changes -- the little red 'inhaler button' on top of Duraludon's head becomes silvery-chrome. It's stupid! I remember the Gigantamax shiny has different windows on the tower, but that form doesn't exist in this game.
Yes, technically the inner side of his belly and hands are a bit bluer, but good luck telling that apart without having two Duraludons stand in front of you side-by-side.
Archaludon does, though. And I know there's an item in the school store that is unfamiliar to me. A quick google search tells me that, yes, the Metal Alloy is what will help 'London' evolve into his brand-new DLC form, so I proceed to go farming for more BP to buy that item.
I also have a fair bit of fun running around exploring the Terarium while also mucking around with this Synchronization thing. I love that I don't have to return to the scientist NPC to do it, and I can just L + R and synchronize on the fly. I love how some Pokemon like Clodsire also have swimming animations. And while they make for terrible auto-battlers, it's cute to use smaller Pokemon like Quaxly or Fuecoco or Pichu or Milcery to wibble-wobble around and collect items.
Of course, I end up stumbling into Crispin's trial anyway and decided to activate it. And... I'm not going to go through every step of the way, but it's a rather simple 'trading chain' puzzle as I try and swap around sandwich ingredients to make the spiciest possible thing for Crispin. Crispin himself, personality-wise, is pretty straightforward... he just likes spicy food. There are a couple of extra battles with potato salads on the line, and I particularly like the battle with an Earthquake-dodging Eelektross and a Discharge-immune Camerupt.
I do like that Crispin's "sandwich orgasm" cutscene is shown with six Magmortars, so as not to spoil his party other than his signature Pokemon.
Anyway, Crispin is a lot simpler for me to beat, though I also came in prepared (no 'free meal' level 68 Roaring Moon for him to beat up this time). I get ready with my Clodsire and his Earthquake in order to do some double-battle strats... and then of course the first two Pokemon Crispin sends out are Talonflame and the levitating Heat-Rotom. Of course. Crispin then proceeds to make a mockery out of Clodsire by Will-o-Wisping him, and before I can spam Surf, another one of his Pokemon casts Sunny Day.
Poor Clodsire is just there slinging Poison Jabs with the vain hope that he might proc a poison status, while I swap in Darkrai to unleash the Dark Void on both of Crispin's Pokemon. Having a rather low proc chance is kind of annoying, though ultimately a combination of Dark Pulses and Bad Dreams allows Darkrai to sweep Rotom and Talonflame in a single turn.
Next up from Crispin are Camerupt and... Exeggutor? So every Elite Four just has a single Pokemon that's weird and not connected to their typing? Magnificent. Exeggutor proceeds to one-turn Solar Beam my Darkrai to death, while Camerupt puts poor gimped Clodsire out of her misery with an Earth Power. I send out Skeledirge and Water-mask Ogerpon to replace them. Skeledirge manages to take out Exeggutor with a sunny-day-boosted Torch Song, before falling to a critical Earth Power. Ogerpon's Ivy Cudgel is weakened a bit thanks to the sunny day, but it's enough to take down the already-weakened Camerupt.
And Crispin's two final Pokemon are both Fire-types... including yet another starter! Blaziken this time. Blaziken and Magmortar, and the Blaziken Terastralizes into Fire-type... and then my Garganacl from the original main playthrough just unleashes a Rock Slide that knocks out the Blaziken and almost takes Magmortar with it, but another Ivy Cudgel finishes off the fire duck.
And in the midst of talking about food and trials and whatnot, Crispin bemoans that things are 'good or bad', or 'spicy or non-spicy'. Such a binary view of life, Crispin. Of course, that really just makes you rather naive in navigating the complex social situation that is high school politics, but there you go. We get another talk with Drayton, though this time Kieran also shows up to remind us that he exists and reminds me not to lose before I get to him and his goofy-ass new hairstyle.
Pretty fun fight, and Crispin is a good sport about everything in general. Again, after the disappointment of the actual 'La Primera' in the main region's championship, it's great to see the BB Elite Four putting up a bit more of a fight. I also like that they have a bunch of additional Pokemon in their roster like Galarian Slowbro, Excadrill and Exeggutor that fit their personality or tactics... something I always wished more 'elite' trainers in-game do.
Anyway, I'll leave Amarys and Drayton for the next one... which might not be for some time. Again, it's kind of annoying that I wasn't able to finish the DLC in a timely fashion in the month that it's released in, but real life got in the way. I'm really not trying to drag this on or anything, it's just that the time I have to play video games did really diminish a lot in the past couple of weeks.
Random Notes:
- If you look at the descriptions of the Elite Four members before embarking on the challenges, you actually get to see which towns they're from. Drayton's obviously from Opelucid City; while Amarys is from Castelia and Crispin is from Virbank. I didn't get to catch Lacey's description since I challenged her a bit too fast, but since she's Clay's daughter she's definitely from Driftveil.
- Man, I really liked Virbank City from B2/W2. I just like sewer levels in 2D RPGs in general, I think. But you can totally see the very straightforward Crispin coming from the same town as ol' Rosie.
- Venonat is cute. I don't care who you ask.
- I need to evolve my shiny Milcery into an Alcremie. I haven't found any of the nonsense held items that Milcery needs to evolve, though, and I'm honestly wondering if I care enough to figure out which of the three dozen Alcremies I like. I don't particularly care that much, to be honest.
- When talking to me after I beat Lacey, Drayton quotes the gym guides from previous generation, calling me 'champ in the making'. That's cute.
- While the first Crispin goon fights me with the very nice Eelektross/Camerupt duo, the other trainer fights me with... two Pyroars who spam Hyper Voice. Not very creative, Gamefreak.
- Darkrai's given out to everyone for free because Dark Void is insane in double battles, yeah?
- Oh, hey, they even have a shiny Duraludon card!
- I find that they did a nice job making a lot of the Pokemon that are rare in base Paldea become common in both Kitakami and the Blueberry Terarium. Slakoth, in particular, are just hanging underneath the palm trees in the Coastal Biome and I find a lot more Rotoms and Happinys around.
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