Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 6: They Are Legion

So yeah, apparently the big key was to illuminate Clawitzer to increase its strength enough so that its claw water gun thing explodes the rock, which unlocks a whole new side-area. And I felt like this side-area is much more massive than any of the other side-paths I've unlocked, which I guess is kind of on par with the volcano? I just probably didn't quite realize how I unlocked the volcano's equivalent to this area. 

And what greets me is a very nice part of the reef where there are a group of Chinchous hanging around in little crevices filled with bioluminescent algae, while Todd notes about the beautiful light pouring down from the surface of the ocean. It's very creepy, very beautiful, very eerie -- I absolutely just am in love with these undersea locations. 

And while it initially seems like I emerge from another part of the same trench where the Wailmer-Octillery part plays out in the first level, it's a bit of a distance beneath the ocean! We go deeper, past the Wailmer and Tentacruel and Sharpedo and the Octillery that bonks down to a little ledge... 

And then SURPRISE JUMPSCARE by Frillish!

Man, Frillish's eyes look super dead, doesn't it? Jellyfishes are already pretty ethereal-looking, but the face on Frillish and just how hauntingly it's animated to move... and that's before I remember that Frillishes are Water/Ghost jellyfishes that canonically drag sailors down to their doom! 

And the Frillish don't actually attack me, but they still look creepy as they just hover and move around like underwater ghosts... and I guess this was what they were going for with Frillish's design in the first place, capitalizing on the similarities between a jellyfish's design and a ghost. Pretty cool stuff. 

And a giant horde of Mantine just keeps on chirping as they dive down past the Frillish, and I've never really thought of Mantines (or manta rays) as particularly deep sea divers, but it makes sense, right? The NEO-ONE follows the Mantines and Frillishes as we go deeper and deeper into the abyss... 

And finally we reach the seafloor. It's sand, and there are several Lumineon just waddling around with their tripodfish legs, just trying to scavenge for food under the water. I chuck apples and them and... suddenly the blue clams on the water explode out as a Clamperl pokes its head out and just swims away like a panicked clam! That's so cool! It's these little touches that really make this game special, the team thinking of which cool Pokemon based on which cool animal could they put in this area. 

And then we go even deeper, and there are a bunch of pillars and the ruins of civilization. Atlantis? Poketlantis? Perhaps. It's an ancient civilization at some point, but now it's overgrown with Frillishes dancing across the destroyed ruins like the wisps of civilizations past, and Cradily just hanging around like overgrown weeds. But far more spectacular are the Golisopods, all of whom are just very still as they sit in a meditative position. I thought I was just unable to figure out which item to wake them up, but then it hit me that the designers are pulling on the samurai-esque theme of Golisopod's design, and showing them meditating! That's cool. 

And it's so, so haunting. The remnants of this ancient civilization that either sunk into the depths of the ocean (or got flooded, maybe?) and is just populated with deep-sea Pokemon now. Very, very cool. 

The undersea level gets upgraded to level 3, and I jump back in immediately. There's some Alomomola that joins the fishies at the beginning of the level, and now some Inkay swoop down to playfully hypnotize Chinchou. A Starmie spins around like a goddamn boomerang, and I didn't know that's how Starmies actually swim! 

And as I descend down the trench, I get to see some fishies like Finneons and Luvdiscs rising up, and then they are joined with Lanturns and Luvdiscs and Magikarps and Sharpedos and whoa whoa whoa there are so many fishes coming up what is going on, is there some kind of underwater explosion-

OH SHIT IT'S A WAILORD.

Oh, that's so cool. The Wailord just slowly rising up from the depths of the ocean, while the fishies all rise up in panic to get out of its way? It's so majestic, and far more impressive than the earlier sequence where the Wailord bursts out to hang out in the surface. 

As I continue to descend down there are a couple more extra little interactions. Two Frillishes are disturbing a Lanturn and seem to be trying to drag it down, so I guess they are still murderous ghostly jellyfishes here, they just attack other Pokemon. There is interestingly. a Lumineon and a pair of Finneon being attacked by a Sharpedo, and if I interact with the nearby crystalbloom, I can get the Lumineon to defend itself by... farting a mass of ink? Like an octopus? I... I'm not sure what move this is supposed to be. Smokescreen, I guess?

The underwater ruins with the Golisopod remain mostly the same, except there's a small notable change... one of the pillars have been sliced in twain, and the implication is that one of the Golisopods do it. It's pretty badass! Now the Golisopods are actually lumbering around walking, and they will eat apples. Just like how they looked so cool in Sun/Moon, they will extend their little mouth-bug-claws to pick up items and bring them to its mouth. 

With these sojourns deep under the ocean, I finally decide to cap it off by diving deep under the ocean and investigating the brand-new Illumina energy readings. And... it's... a giant school-form Wishiwashi! And I want to say that this is super-duper impressive, this is super badass, this is such an appropriate usage of Pokemon, that Wishiwashi is one of my favourite Pokemon... except I actually do know what's going on here. 

That doesn't make it any less badass, though. Wishiwashi's School Form is one of those designs that just looks fucking impressive, with the not-quite-joined 'fins' made up of little fishes, and the half-open mouth, and the glowing fish-eyes... they all look just so impressive underwater, particularly with the spectacular lighting design that this game has. 

And the boss fight against Wishiwashi is... again, not super complex. This is, again, a game meant for children to be able to complete. But whereas you just have to get Milotic out of the water and use apples to consume Volcarona's fire spin shield, with Wishiwashi, it explodes out into its tiny solo forms that just hang around, these tiny minnows and anchovies deep in the abyss of the ocean, and I have to chuck my Illumina Orbs to get them to glow. once enough solo Wishiwashis have been sufficiently disturbed to dive into the faraway depths, the lumbering form of School Form Wishiwashi arrives to terrorize me. 

This happens several times, with the tiny solo Wishiwashi using several patterns including moving around in groups and finally showing up as a giant clump, but I really do love how much they utilize the creepiness of the super-deep ocean to make it ambiguous where Wishiwashi is going to come from, and to highlight just how easy the sheer, bathysmal abyssal murk shrouds giant creatures as large as School Form Wishiwashi, even with the glowing mini-eyes. Pretty amazing stuff. 

Anyway, with Wishiwashi on the photodex, Professor Mirror congratulates me on finding the four Illumina Pokemon... and tell me that there's a fifth! Instead of showing up in the center of the four islands, though, it randomly is revealed... on the top right of the planet, the snow-covered island of Durice! Mirror insists that this is uncharted territory that's never reached by Captain Vince, but to be honest I really do feel like they probably could've added some more worldbuilding around Captain Vince if they wanted me to care about him this much. 

Far more welcome than this rather bland attempt at lore is a new feature that Todd introduces to me... turbo! Which is basically a way for me to hold on to ZR and my chariot moves faster. About damn time! Some areas are kind of repetitive, and as much as I love the gameplay and the level design, there are some (particularly the desert and the boss fight levels) that I could probably zoom through. 

 

Speaking of the desert, I did a couple more runs of the daytime desert, this time on level two... and after being kinda underwhelmed by the day-desert level throughout my playthrough, I'm pleased to say that it gets much better. There's a cute bit where a Cacnea gets picked up by a tornado and sent rolling down the dunes. 

Activating some crystalblooms causes a tornado to explode and reveal the Flygon inside, which is actually quite cool. I was wondering what these crystals were for, and apparently I was never fast enough to activate all three of them at the same time in my previous runs!

And most interestingly, a Tyranitar is now hanging out in front of the oasis, right next to a giant rock. A Lycanroc pounces down and the two beasts roar at each other and actually do a bit of a fight before the Tyranitar smashes the rock in frustration, unlocking a path. That's cool! I think this would unlock something in the next level of the desert? 

And the back end of the track is now populated with Onixes, which move so fast as they burst in and out of the soil. There's one that jump in and out like a dolphin, another one that slithers out of a cave and hides under the shade... sadly, this also seems to have destroyed a lot of the Trapinch pits. I can still go back to the first level of the desert area, but man, poor Trapinch! 

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Lots of fishies, lots of underwater exploration, a bunch of creepy ghost jellyfishes, and a bit of a detour to the desert... very fun!

Random Notes:

• 
  I also did a couple more runs of the laboratory, starting from different parts of the laboratory which triggers different activities for the Pokemon. There really isn't a whole ton to say, though, other than the course does move pretty quickly and it's a bit hard to get some of the puzzles like the Bunnelby one when it's moving kind of fast. 
  
• Oh, and a new Pokemon that only appears in certain types of runs is Rattata, who shows up near the campfire alongside Trubbish. Those two would get along, I suppose. 
• I really love that basically after I unlock the Clawitzer route, the game kind of upgrades my 'Underwater' level to level 3, where the pathway is permanently open so I don't have to chuck the pink orb at Clawitzer every time I want to enter the super-deep underwater level. 
• Man, I throw so much apples under the water. The bottom of the ocean is infested with apples now. 
• The super-deep abyss is a great place to put Clamperl's two evolutions, Huntail and Gorebyss. I hope they are in New Snap in some degree!
• In addition to the turbo feature, Todd and Rita claim that the vehicle slows down when I'm zooming in, but I really do feel like I doubt that particular claim. 
• I am surprised they didn't do a sunken ship or something, but the underwater pillars are far cooler! 
• Honestly, even if it's just a couple of them, I kinda wished that some of the ancient ruins also would give us some RPG-style collectibles that contain bits and pieces of Captain Vince's lore. It would nicely bring in an element of archaeology (which you could shunt one of the otherwise identikit NPCs into), but also actually make me care who this Goron-looking guy is doing instead of being just mentioned and handwaved away by the Professor all the time.