Speaking of signature moves... yes, I taught Dragon Cheer to Dipplin. It's something that I actually really woudld've liked to have figured out in-game, but it's almost been two months since the Indigo Disk came out, and even in Kitakami everyone figured out Dipplin had an extra evolution since Eviolite works on it. So yeah, teach Dipplin 'Dragon Cheer', and he evolves into Hydrapple! Instead of just a single worm, Hydrapple's got seven heads, though most of them hide in the apple most of the time. I don't think I like Hydrapple as much as the two original evolutions, but Hydrapple is significantly a gigantic improvement over the underwhelming Dipplin, or even the original 'Gigantamax' final forms. Such a cool looking design, even if the extra heads stay hidden inside the apple most of the time.
And while we do open with some evolutions... I used none of these guys in the fight against Kieran. Oops!
Drayton talks to me about Kieran, noting that in the past, he had the 'spine of a Wimpod'... but had such joy in battling. And Drayton liked Kieran back then. But now he's basically just an asshole, and Drayton himself is too soft to stop Kieran.
Anyway, the Kieran fight is... pretty neat, though the buildup does leave something to be desired. I really did kinda wish that we actually saw more of jackass bully Kieran before the fight, though. I think we got one scene of him bullying some chump off of his club, and he gets one line of dialogue or other after every Elite Four fight. Sure, he might have changed his hair, but I really kinda wished that we actually saw Kieran be more of a jackass instead of just having Carmine and Drayton tell us he's a jackass. For the amount of time that they spent building Kieran up as a side character in the Teal Mask, his role is disappointingly tell-not-show in the Indigo Disk.
Kieran goes on a rant about how he has put everything into making his Pokemon stronger, how he beat everyone with the end goal of beating me. Again, I like this interpretation of a rival -- not particularly new in anime terms, but rather refreshing in Pokemon terms. My strategy is, well, to just pull out Ogerpon and beat the shit out of Kieran.
And, of course, there is some special dialogue from Kieran, where his pupils shrink and he got pissed off, going all 'you've got some nerve, bringing out the Ogre now at all times'.
Which... considering how much of his personality has revolved around his love for the Ogre's legends, it's kind of sad and goes slightly unnoticed by both my character, Carmine or Ogerpon that Kieran's gone so nuts that he doesn't even care anymore about Ogerpon.
Anyway, Kieran sends out a Politoed and Dragonite against Ogerpon and Darkrai. I want to bully Kieran a bit, and unleashes Dark Void that procs on the Dragonite. Ogerpon then two-taps Politoed with Horn Leeches, while tanking a Psychic from the froggy. Politoed falls, though the rain he leaves behind with Drizzle remains. Darkrai and Ogerpon pile on attacks on Dragonite, but the Dragonite wakes up and takes Ogerpon out with a critical hit Hurricane.
It is raining, so I send out Archaludon to make use of his Electro Shot -- which is basically Electric-type Solarbeam that takes only one turn to charge in the rain. Kieran sends out a Grimmsnarl, who proceeds to set up some Reflect walls. Archaludon is a bridge, and bridges tank Hurricanes -- before shooting Dragonite out of the sky with an Electro Shot. (It probably would've made more sense to use Dragon Pulse, but I just wanted this to be cool). The buffs that Archaludon's been getting allows it to chip off health from the Grimmsnarl with a Flash Cannon, but not before Grimmsnarl uses its signature move, Spirit Break, to take down Darkrai.
In true Blueberry Academy fashion, Kieran pulls out a starter of his own, using an Incineroar. It's accompanied with a Porygon-Z, which is very random for Kieran, I feel. I send out my shiny Chandelure. My Chandelure chips away at the Porygon-Z's health, but Incineroar does a Darkest Lariat and murders my sentient ghost chandelier with a spinning wrestling move. The Porygon-Z also unleashes a motherfucking Hyper Beam that manages to down my Archaludon. That Porygon-Z is also Life Orbed, and there was no way my poor bridge boy can withstand that.
My two last Pokemon? Miraidon and Skeledirge. I think at this point the music ramps up a bit. Miraidon takes down the Incineroar with a Power Gem, and Kieran summons his ace Pokemon -- Hydrapple! Oh yeah, he uses a Dipplin in Kitakami!
And... you know what? Let's go for the story. I use a Max Revive on Ogerpon, while Skeledirge takes out the Porygon-Z. Kieran rants about not needing the old weak self, all the typical anime stuff, before terastralizing his Hydrapple. It's... it's Fighting-type? Okay, I guess it's neat that he's not turning Hydrapple into Grass or Dragon type, but it's so random. Can Hydrapple even use a Fighting-type move?
...I wouldn't know, because Kieran's Hydrapple unleashes Earth Power that takes out my Skeledirge. It's just as well since I want to just unleash Ogerpon and beat the shit out of Kieran's party. The Hydrapple keeps spamming Fickle Beam, which is Hydrapple's signature move. Fickle Beam is a weird move that sometimes does extra damage when all seven hydra heads open fire at once, and I don't think Kieran's Hydrapple managed to proc it even once.
And so Ogerpon gets her 'revenge', unleashing Ivy Cudgel upon Ivy Cudgel on Hydrapple until it falls.
Kieran is shocked, the students are shocked, and... the students just kind of walk away from the battle. It's kind of unrealistic, wouldn't they swarm around the battlers and try and figure out what happened and interact with the fightesr? Whatever the case, Kieran is just shocked. From the nearby characters, Carmine doesn't even get a focus unless you talk to him after the cutscene. Amarys is pensive, Crispin doesn't give a shit, and Lacey is angry... but only because an outsider won and became the champion against the regular Blueberry Academy regulations. Okay, then.
Drayton walks up, noting that it's a good match and almost mockingly calling Kieran an 'ex-champion'. Drayton then gives some inspirational speech about how Kieran shouldn't let the desire to win burn him into a crisp. Kieran just mumbles about 'winning next time', and I have the choice to 'say something' or 'say nothing'. I pick the former and... I don't think it really changes much?
Again, a lot of this, I think, has to do with how Kieran is handled in this DLC. Despite his emo heel face turn being kind of a major part of the climax of the Kitakami DLC, he's barely a presence here, and most of what we see of him is what we're told he's doing. It really does make the buildup to the confrontation feel forced. Drayton isn't the most interesting character to be our buddy through this all, and I honestly wished they had allowed Carmine to carry the story instead.
And while I do think we'll have some more dialogue with Kieran, it's also rather a shame that we just kind of brush Kieran as being quiet and reserved after his defeat, and we get into the joking that Lacey is all up-in-arms over the fact that a transfer student is champion now, and there's a funny sequence where Crispin is flabbergasted that as the lowest-ranked Elite Four member, if Kieran gets demoted then it would push Crispin out of the Elite Four.
But... well, honestly, I just kind of feel the Kieran fight isn't that hard or exciting. It would've been something if the game actually forces me to use Ogerpon or something? I dunno. But apparently this is all the time we're going to spend with the Blueberry Academy storyline, since an announcement interrupts the discussion, summoning myself, Drayton, Kieran and Carmine into Ms. Briar's office, presumably to kick the whole 'Return to Area Zero' storyline back to gear.
I am excited about that, at least, if nothing else.
Random Notes:
- There's really not much for me to say since there aren't any brand-new captures, but I've been spamming the BP quests a lot in-between me writing chapter 4 and 5 of this DLC. At some point I'll just buy everything in a couple of huge sittings.
- Before the Kieran fight, there's this whole deal about announcements in the intercom asking for everyone to show up... and barely anyone new that's not already one of the NPC's in the lobby show up. Considering Scarlet/Violet's notorious lack of processing power, though, it's probably for the best.
- I'm not sure if they programmed in a small line in the AI to tell Kieran to attack Ogerpon if she's on the field, but both his Politoed and Dragonite did go for Ogerpon first.
- Hydrapple's got a signature ability, Super-sweet Syrup, that drops evasiveness when it enters the battlefield. It's kinda weird.
- It is kind of... interesting that the move that makes Dipplin evolve into Hydrapple (Dragon Cheer) isn't the same with Hydrapple's actual signature move (Fickle Beam).
- Oh, and at some point during my victory lap around Kieran, Drayton also gives me the Master Ball. I don't actually remember the last time I used one of these, I might use it against Terapagos or something. I think I have two already in my inventory.
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