Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 12: Seasonal Routes

Yeah, turns out that there is way more to New Pokemon Snap than I thought. I really did think that all I have left is to grind up the Badlands and the River, and that's it, but... I just kind of am surprised at the sheer amount of detail and stuff hidden out of the way through hidden interactions and alternate paths. I've been slowly unlocking the alternate paths in addition to grinding for levels, and originally I had intended for what would become this article to be much shorter; just a checklist of the Badlands and River areas and a rapid-fire bullet point at the end of the other areas, but... eh!

The night desert has a bunch of really fun details, particularly when I realized that the Onix romping grounds isn't actually replacing the Trapinch antlion sandpits but that the two are branching pathways. And in higher levels, there is an adorable scene of the Flygon from earlier in the route curled up sleeping next to the Trapinch at the bottom of the hole. 

I also finally figured out how to access the behind-the-waterfall area in the daytime Founja Jungle. I have no problems doing so at night, but turns out that the Liepard needs to be moved out of the way with an illumina orb instead of an apple in the day. It's... it's honestly quite silly, and it really does speak to my one frustration about this game about how it's really not intuitive on what the Illumina Orb does. The apple is easy to understand. Pokemon eat it, and knocking Pokemon with it causes them to get angry. The music box wakes up sleeping Pokemon, and the scan gets some Pokemon to look at me. The Illumina Orb seems to just be 'random bullshit go'. 

Anyway, behind the waterfall in the day aren't Swamperts and Morelulls, but a bunch of Sobbles just pitter-pattering away and playing with their Leafeon friend! And I can be a gigantic asshole and pelt the Sobble with apples, at which it cries. Cry, cry for me, little Sobble! This creates a massive mist that knocks Leafeon out cold. 

Yeah, not so wholesome after all, huh, Pokemon Snap? I do find this just so unexpected, and the mist effect from Sobble was so large that it caught me off-guard. I also don't know if it's just the limitations of the engine or what, but I thought Sobble's tears will cause you to cry along with it (with the power of a thousand onions or whatever the pokedex entry said), but Leafeon just gets knocked out flat. 

One very hard-to-do alternate pathway was the 'ruins path' in the night Founja Jungle. Which I didn't expect was going to be a thing, since the Founja Jungle alerady had the swamp alternate path and the behind-the-waterfall alternate path, and Mew. And this path is completely inaccessible during the day, at least that's what the internet tells me. 

Basically, in a level positively infested with Liepards, I needed to find one specific sleeping one near a bunch of logs and pelt it with an Illumina Orb. And then, as I am about to approach the log that leads me down towards the waterfall area, I need to look around for one specific Liepard that's sleeping in a tree, and orb that sucker to. Not a different Liepard that is sleeping on a tree, not like five other Liepards walking around or sleeping on the ground. No. Just those two specific Liepards. 

And if I hit the two right cats, just as I'm about to cross the log, another Liepard shows up behind my vessel. BEHIND! Meaning that I might've done some of these before and completely missed out on this interaction. This Liepard, I have to yeet an apple towards, causing it to run off... for a bit, before it comes back and knocks my NEO-ONE down onto the ruins that we've passed so many times before. 

My reward is just a slight detour through the forest floor with a bunch of nice shots of Ledian, but ultimately not much else. But these are the kinds of super-elaborate, minimal-stakes easter eggs in video games that I live for. 

I also finally figure out how to unlock that elusive last area in the bottom-right corner of Elsewhere Woods, because it always felt weird that there's just a weird empty spot there. Turns out that you need to light up all the Crystalblooms in the right order to get the lost Deerling to the end of the second foggy area, and have it reunite with Sawsbuck. (There is one Crystalbloom that you shouldn't light up, but unlike the Liepard there's some logic to this since it brings Deerling to the wrong direction).

I've done this Deerling rescue mission before, but one thing I didn't realize? If I did this, a random scannable branching path opens up, and I can follow the Deerling-Sawsbuck parent and child pair into a completely different part of the Elsewhere Woods, with a bunch of Lotads minding their own business... and a wonderful, wonderful grove where all four seasons are represented and the Sawsbuck and Deerling from all four seasons are there.

Or, well, three, anyway. I might've missed a step or two in the couple of times I triggered this path. But the location still looks amazingly pretty and peaceful, and it's honestly so much respect given to Sawsbuck and Deerling when they've never really gotten any kind of a highlight from the games at all. They were a one-note gimmick in Black/White, and they show up in different forms to show off the open world in Scarlet/Violet... but I'm so glad that there's at least one game, even if it's a side game, where these guys are given some attention. Someone in Bandai-Namco, when developing this game, really liked the idea of Sawsbuck changing with the seasons so much that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Elsewhere Woods, the mechanically coolest area in the game, was created out of the genesis of a game designer who wanted to incorporate an area with all four Sawsbuck forms. 

Anyway! I also go into the it's a small world secret side path, and... this is also another side path that I missed out despite it being literally just there. There's nothing I have to do to unlock this, no insane Lost Deerling sidequest or figuring out which Carbinks to hit to summon Diancie, or which Liepards will unlock an alternate path... no, there's just a branching path I somehow never really scanned before. It brings me into a giant hollowed-out tree stump where Snorlax is sleeping. Yay, Snorlax! 

I've seen bits of him while traveling through the secret side path previously, but I thought the puzzle was how to get Snorlax to wake up, instead of trying to get to where he's sleeping.

At night, Scorbunny and Pichu take a nap on the Snorlax's belly, apparently tired out after their adventure with Dodrio and Torterra in the day.

Waking up Snorlax is a bit of an ordeal, but a fun one! I have to lob apples... into Snorlax's open mouth! Four times! That's honestly quite adorable, and unlike the Liepard puzzle one that makes absolute sense. After waking Snorlax up as a small shrunken-down cameraman, Snorlax would later show up at the end in the flower field. I even got it to run, completing a request!

And with Snorlax as the final Pokemon, I get the Florio island sticker! That's four out of six stickers done. 

I also go to the level 3 ruins, which has a fair bit of interactions. Jirachi has a couple of different behaviour, the Sigilyphs are sleeping, the Beheeyems are sleeping while floating, which is glorious... but best of all are the pair of Golurk that are flying with their arms and lower body retracted through the sky. It's always one of the most ridiculous things I've seen a Pokemon unexpectedly do that the games don't really do justice to. I like Golurk. 

There's also a fun little interaction where the Noivern from the earlier levels is menacing a small Salandit cave. I can drive off the Noivern, causing the Salandit to scuttle out... and its friend, too, which is Umbreon! And the Umbreon kind of runs through the ruins location, eventually actually having a very adorable 'dog meets dog' moment with Absol. Lookit those tails wag. It's so wholesome. 

And I did also go through the park at level 3... I keep trying to get Heracross and Pinsir to fight. In the midst of doing that I managed to trigger a bunch of new interactions, like getting the Bouffalant to headbutt each other when they get pissed off by the nasty-ass jingle, and witnessing a fight between a Wurmple and a Taillow. Wurmple uses Poison Gas or some kind of attack, which is fine... if he didn't like shoot the purple gas right out of his ass. No, seriously, the Wurmple actually physically spins around to point his bum at the Taillow. 

Another fun interaction in the nighttime beach is getting a Crabrawler to accidentally punch the sleeping Exeggutor, who wakes up and gets pissed and begins chasing the Crabrawler around. It's not the first time a member of this evolutionary line is chased by an angry tree, with the Crabominable and Abomasnow in the snow level! At the end of the level the Exeggutor is somehow chasing two Crabrawlers.

Also in the beach level there's two Pyukumukus arm-wrestling. Glorious. I love Pyukumuku. There's also two Pikachus on a date, and... I'm still trying to get Seviper and Zangoose to fight, but it might be a level 3 thing. 

Anyway, that's more or less what I have from warndering around old areas, but that's a lot of fun new interactions. This is honestly been a pretty fun ride. Next up we'll explore the new levels of the two DLC areas, and we'll be done with New Pokemon Snap!

Random Notes:

• I know there's a huge Teraleak thing that's happening, with a whole ton of concept arts and whatnot that is released for stuff... I haven't read any of them, and frankly probably wouldn't for a while, not until someone compiles stuff that are 'confirmed' to actually be from Gamefreak and whatnot. The Beta Pokemon designs, however, I will absolutely do a review about, though again probably not before December at the absolute earliest just to give everyone a chance to settle down and for people who have the energy to sift through the misinformation to do so. 
• I'm actually not sure why my jungle experience levels are in triple-digits instead of five-digits, or the nighttime reef. It's not because of the score, since I do get a decent amount, and it can't be because of the lack of new behaviours, since I grinded some of the desert levels without photographing any new behaviour. Eh? 
  
• Another fun detail that I'm not sure I've mentioned before or not, but if you lob apples at Cacnea, instead of bouncing off of it, the apples actually get stuck to Cacnea's cactus thorns. 
• There are actually a lot of Applin in some of the seasonal pathways in Elsewhere Woods. I definitely should be looking up to the trees a lot more often. 
• There's an online guide on which branching path to take in the first foggy part of Elsewhere Woods, and how you interact with Espeon in order for you to guarantee which of the four seasons you end up in. I just rely on RNG, man. 
• Shaymin shows up a fair bit more than other legendaries in the Nature Park, actually! It's just that I keep mistaking him for Grookey, since he's a little green guy that also runs around with Pichu in the beginning.
• Some of the Beheeyems also dance. It's pretty cute, all things considered.
• There are a lot of Drifblims carrying Clamperl in the night beach at higher levels. I thought it was just an easter egg for the night reef. I'm not sure why these two are paired up specifically in this game, but they sure are.