Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 10: Deltas, Legendaries & Cowboys

Because the previous post was a bit long, I separated out my explorations of the two post-game DLC areas! First up is the River, which is based on one of the most iconic areas in the original Pokemon Snap, and Todd even makes mention of it. This doesn't mean that we're sticking to the original 151 for the river area, though. There are a lot of Magikarps here, but almost immediately we're accosted with even more Beautifly and a Feraligatr jumps and splooshes into the river behind me. 

Most routes tend to have a little 'story' going on throughout it, like the Grookey and Pichu playing around throughout the first Nature Park level, and our buddy this time around is Psyduck, who gets chased around by evil, vile Aipoms. Man, monkeys are evil! Leave that duck alone! I don't like monkeys. 

The Psyduck just gets chased around until at some point it's in the river and ultimately just rides the rapids next to us, looking upwards. No thoughts, head empty, Psyduck? We could learn from you. That's just such a cute little shot of Psyduck just floating in the river with his dumb empty expression looking up. 

There are also a bunch of other Pokemon, notably showing off Sobble sleeping with a bunch of Tropius. I love Sobble! Grookey and Scorbunny got so much prominence in the early forest and park levels, it's honestly kind of surprising that Nintendo didn't push for all three of the Galar starters at once and Sobble only shows up in the higher-level jungle level in the original game and even then he doesn't follow us across the route like his two fellow starters. 

Obviously this is because Sobble is the most superior and most perfect Galarian starter by a huge mile so I guess they don't need to promote him, hmm hmm. 

Also, speaking of Tropius... man, Tropius is cool. I remembered being so impressed with how Tropius looked in the Pokemon Adventures manga, and being wholly disappointed when the actual Pokemon isn't useful at all. And honestly, Tropius is probably one of those Pokemon that's overdue for some kind of evolution or regional variant. 

There are some moments in the river that are clearly supposed to be some kind of a secret unlocked in later levels, including claws on trees that specifically identify Ursaring (which I thought was a really nice integration of real-life bear behaviour) and a mysterious giant waterfall which rather obviously is going to be where Gyarados shows up. I never played the original Pokemon Snap, but even I know that the iconic scenes from that game includes Gyarados climbing a waterfall; and a Charmeleon falling into lava and evolving into a Charizard. 

I wasn't particularly looking forwards to the Badlands, if we're being honest, since it's another desert level, but with some canyons and a couple extra oasis watering holes. Very cowboyland, I guess? It's really great, surprisingly. We start off at this duo of inactive geysers, and at one point a huge Wile E. Coyote rock falls and splashes into the water. A bunch of Crustle lumber slowly around the holes, while Mandibuzzes perch on dead trees and Diglett make funny noises as they pop in and out. 

Just like the Psyduck in the River, and Pichu-and-friends in the shrunken map, we follow the adventures of a trio of goofballs -- a Shinx, a Tepig and a Torchic. I'm... I'm not sure why these three specifically. Tepig and Torchic, sure, they're starters, and Fire-type starters, but a Shinx instead of someone like... Chimchar? Chimchar's even in the volcano region. But I'm not complaining! They're very cute as they scamper around. 

There's also a bizarre sequence where I see a little... red... plant thing that is near a Tepig, and I was utterly bamboozled at what this is. Turns out it's a Silicobra! That was another Pokemon that I kinda forgot, and definitely would've been much more memorable if my first impression had been like this instead of the rather dull way it was slithering around in Galar's more limited engine. 

And then we get a giant toxic swamp! Insert your own Dark Souls or Shrek joke here, whichever you prefer. The toxic grove is populated by a single Swalot, although a Koffing flies around nearby. There's a lot of stuff to scan here that explains that the toxic fumes come from vents and crystals and whatnot... don't need to try to explain it to me, Pokemon, I have played enough fantasy games to accept that sometimes, swamps just do be toxic. 

The final part of the region is a giant canyon with massive holes drilled into them by Onixes. The Digletts pop in and out, and even a massive Onix lurks out and says hi at one point. Between the Onix swarm doing Dune Sandworm behaviours in the desert, the entire level devoted to Steelix and this... the designers really have a lot of respect to the Onix evolutionary line. I can respect that. It does really make a very memorable location. 

I unlock the Badlands at night, and the Tepig Gang is now joined by a Rockruff and they get into a whole lot of hijinks particularly in the geyser area, and the geyser explodes at one point to everyone's surprise. I love that. The 'story' following them is a bit more apparent at night, and it's just kind of nice to see. This game doesn't have much in terms of a proper 'main' story, but it sure got a lot of nice, wholesome moments. They play a lot in the geyser area, and later do a Scooby-Doo thing as they run into the giant Onix tunnels and keep popping in and out. 

A whole cluster of Vivillons are perched around the massive big rock that falls down into the geyser in the day, with a whole lot of other patterns instead of just the sandstorm one. Interesting. 

And in the toxic swamp, a majestic Scolipede is just slowly walking around, surveying the area around him. Man, I love Scolipede. Such a badass giant fat centipede monster. Throwing a bunch of stuff into the toxic lake gets a surprise, though, as four Swalots suddenly burst out of them -- a pretty damn comical sight considering how the Swalots look. 

And then... I just mostly did a bunch of leveling up for experience points. I will consider myself to have completed this game once I've snapped at least a single picture of all the Pokemon available. Not insane enough to do all the requests and fill all four stars for each single Pokemon, but this, I can do. And first up is to go through some of the older areas and see if any legendaries have popped up, after Manaphy and Shaymin in the previous run. 

One rather obvious one that the quests clue me in is the presence of 'rainbow feathers' in the volcano. So let's go hunting for a giant fenghuang! And... I wasn't really able to find the Ho-Oh through a couple of runs, until in a third reset it just flies by. I'm not sure what I did that was different. Was it illuminating the Altaria or the Talonflame or something with the music box? I'm not quite sure, but the Ho-Oh just flies past the opening area's sky leaving a trail of rainbows just like how Ho-Oh did in the first episode of the Pokemon anime. 

Elsewhere Woods, meanwhile, has a rather obvious Pokemon that I think I speculated about but didn't have it confirmed until playing through this -- Celebi! Celebi flitters by very quickly in the last part of the run, and now it makes sense why the forest trail keeps teleporting me to different moments in the season. Good show, Celebi. Honestly, as much as I love the volcano and the undersea areas, Elsewhere Woods might take the cake for being my favourite. 

In the Ruins of Remembrance, Jirachi is perhaps one of the easiest legendaries to take a photo of. It just flies out of the temple and plays with the Eldegoss in the beginning of the level, and then keeps showing up as I travel deeper into the ruins. At one point it's even sleeping on top of one of the totems! Apparently, Jirachi's crystalized form shows up in the first level of the Ruins of Remembrance, which I confirmed by replaying the first level... I guess I just thought it's a weird rock among all the weird totem stuff going on around here?

Interestingly, photographing Jirachi earns me an Aurus Island sticker, showing that I've photographed every Pokemon in this island. Okay! That's going to be my 'badges'. The other areas really don't have their photo-dexes completed because I haven't really touched the DLC areas all that much yet, so I'm going to assume that I haven't unlocked their respective final areas' full complement of Pokemon. 

And the final Pokemon that I found... was actually kind of spoiled to me by a friend, but to be honest I don't think I would've been able to figure this one out without a guide. At night in the Founja Jungle, I need to turn around and play the lullaby, and a pink ball of light shows up. Lobbing an apple at it causes Mew to appear, who continues to plague you until the end of the route. 

And this is kind of a twofold reference, and one that honestly shows that despite being made by a third party, Bandai Namco did give a shit when making this game. Mew flying around in a pink bubble was how the original Pokemon Snap handled Mew, with the boss fight against Mew having Mew transform into a pink bubble that we have to keep hitting with apples. But the fact that they picked this area is a huge, huge nod to how in the original Generation I games and the anime's movie prequels, Mew was explicitly noted to have been found in the deep jungles.

I also did the Nature Park, looking for a legendary, but it's just Shaymin from the Meganium level, hiding very expertly in the midst of so many flowers. Man, what New Pokemon Snap has been teaching me is that the camouflage employed by these Pokemon really do work with the right background. 

And... that's it for this post. I know I have a fair bit to play around. I'm not sure if every area has its own legendary... I haven't found one in the desert, or the undersea region either; and maybe Ho-Oh and Manaphy just reoccurs there just like Shaymin. But I'm pretty sure that the snowy areas and the underground cave is likely to have its own unique legendary. There are also some additional secrets that I'm dying to at least explore... what's in that whirlpool? How do I get Zangoose and Seviper to fight (because that's definitely going to be an interaction)? Where is that Jolteon? How do I summon Gyarados? 

Random Notes:

• See the pun I make above with "DLC"? Heh heh heh heh. If I actually considered the three actual DLC areas -- the shrinking area was originally released as DLC -- then it'd be Deltas, Littles and Cowboys. 
  
• I was confused why there are so much Beautiflies in the river since they've shown up quite a bit in this game already, until I realized that it's because the River is technically located in the same area as the places that the Beautifly hung out in the areas before it. Neat! 
• In Elsewhere Woods, I also finally unlock that little side-story where I can keep lighting up a bunch of crystalblooms to guide a confused Deerling all the way to the end of the foggy path, where its Sawsbuck parent (and an Espeon for some reason, is that his other parent?) is waiting for them. That's honestly one of the most wholesome stuff in the game, and probably the only time in my life that Deerling and Sawsbuck have been memorable to me. 
• Honestly, for a Pokemon themed around seasons, Deerling and Sawsbuck should have been much more memorable. But the only difference between the various Sawsbucks are just the designs! They don't even have like a specific move or specific abilities between the different forms.
• Giving the Midnight Lycanroc an apple has it pick it up, look at it... and then toss it away with the most jackass expression on its face. God bless Midnight Lycanroc. 
• Be honest, how many of you guys looked at Ho-Oh in the first episode of Pokemon and thought it was just a weirdly-drawn Moltres? 
• Jirachi's cool. I always thought Wish Maker is one of the better Pokemon movies, but that might just be my bias for the giant Cthulhu Groudon that gets summoned at the end. 
• I also got a Kecleon hanging upside-down with his tail in Elsewhere Woods. It's part of a request, but I stumbled upon it by accident. He's just so chill, I actually think he's just sleeping while hanging upside down like a goddamn lunatic. 
• For some reason, while I was going through some of the older areas, apparently I missed a fair amount of Pokemon, like Cubchoo! I really do think that's a Pokemon I've seen before!