Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 5 - Libraries and Bombs

We start off this time in Canalave City, the little lazy port town on Western Sinnoh. I really like the design of Canalave City, it's a city split in half by an opening bridge and a little docking area for the ferries that come into the harbour. First up, though, we've got a battle with our ever-hyper rival Barry, and this is the first time that he's actually a bit of a challenge. Not in this game with its whack level scaling, no, but he now has five Pokemon, has actually evolved his Starly, and he's packing a Heracross in addition to his normal gang of early-game Pokemon.

This is also probably the first time in the game that I buy that he's actually beaten the gym leader of the town. Between Monferno and Heracross, I can almost believe that he beat Byron before me.

Canalave City's got a lot of things to do and see. We've got the Move Deleter, who is useless now that HMs are no longer a thing. We've got the ever-mysterious Harbour Inn, with its faded signs and its tightly shut doors... since we get the Azure Flute in the remake, I assume that the previously Nintendo-event-locked location might actually be something accessible in this playthrough? One can only hope. 

At this point in the game, too, Sailor Eldritch's son is still running around happily and yapping a lot in their home, with Eldritch's wife commenting on how the child is a bit too energetic. Ominous, ironic foreshadowing, anyone? 

My favourite part of Canalave City is, of course, Canalave Library, which has a lot of foreshadowing about the world-building. It's filled with a lot of the Sinnoh Myths, which I remembered spending a lot of time reading and cross-referencing with Pokemon dex entries back when I first discovered Generation IV and V after my hiatus. Lots of fun bits here, and I always love the extra effort the development team spent on making the mythology actually sound like the verbage of real-world mythologies. From the strange, esoteric mentions of how Pokemon decide to join humans from tall grass; or the oft-memed one where 'Pokemon and humans dined at the same table'... to more specific myths like Arceus creating the world with a thousand hands, or the horror stories of how Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit can steal your emotions and memories if interacted with wrongly. Always maintained that the three Lake Guardians would've been a lot more memorable to me if they had actually been more distinctive about their themes instead of just being the same design wearing different hats. 

"Look not into the Pokémon's eyes. In but an instant, you'll have no recollection of who you are. Return home, but how? When there is nothing to remember?

Dare not touch the Pokémon's body. In but three short days, all emotions will drain away.

Above all, above all, harm not the Pokémon. In a scant five days, the offender will grow immobile in entirety."

How much cooler is that than how the Lake Guardians are in the actual gameplay? 

Out of the myths in the game (which I don't have the time to talk about every single one in this let's play) I do think that the one titled simply 'Sinnoh Myth': "Betray not your anger, lest ??? will come. Weep not with sorrow, or ??? will draw near. When joy and enjoyment come natural as the very air, that is happiness. Let such be blessed by the hand of Master ???. Those words were spoken often as customary." is probably the one I'm not sure about. I don't think it's referring to a specific Pokemon that I know of, unless anger and sorrow are more references towards Mesprit? 

Also, in probably one of the more obscure cross-game references is a 'newly decoded' book in the Canalave Library's second floor -- every other interactable book is on the third floor -- which talks about the 'Seaside Hollow', and how a Mantyke, a Buizel and a Qwilfish with longer horns recognized a human and brought them to the Prince of the Sea. I wasn't super active in the online communities, but apparently this brought a lot of discussion about a potential Qwilfish evolution... and the payoff would be Pokemon: Legends Arceus, which takes place in ancient Sinnoh and features Manaphy and the Seaside Hollow, and a Qwilfish evolution at that. Very cool, very 'guide dang it', but it's a nice little fanboy moment. 

Next up is the Canalave Gym, which I think is one of the few gyms to be identical between Diamond/Pearl and Platinum. It's a serviceable little maze, I suppose, with elevators going up and down that I think is meant to resemble a construction zone? Not the most memorable gym puzzle, and to be frank not the most memorable gym in general. My team having two Ground-types (Torterra and Gastrodon) with access to Earthquake and Earth Power, plus a Toxicroak having access to Cross Chop, also really trivializes the gym trainers that the only problem here is PP. All the trainers also almost exclusively use Onix, which isn't even Steel-type. There is a very random trainer with an Azumarill in the gym, and I'm not sure why... but I actually like it? I like it if gyms throw us little curveballs like this. 

Byron himself is... all right. I've always found it funny that he looks like an extra from Fairy Tail or something, particularly with his 'construction worker with a wanderer's cape for some reason' design. Byron tells us that Roark is his son, before challenging me to battle. His team is... all right? His Bronzor starts off with a Trick Room, and then he follows up with Steelix and Bastiodon. Of course, Earthquakes and Earth Powers make his team kind of a joke. Steel honestly isn't anywhere of the defensive bulwark it's supposed to be since Generation II, and the type combination of Steel/Rock and Steel/Ground is a liability more than a strength most of the time. 

Oh, my Skorupi finally evolves into Drapion at this point. I like my giant centaur-scorpion monster! 

After beating Byron, Barry brings me to the library where Professor Rowan and Lucas are there. Rowan has such a minimal presence in the Generation IV games, honestly, that I actually laughed when he talks about 'if you remember, my expertise is Pokemon evolution'. No, professor, you barely have a presence after your initial appearance, and you're so stoic that you don't have any of the goofy quirks that someone like Birch or Elm have. Rowan does give us a well-written speech about the philosophy of evolution, and how it relates to perfection... and if the legendary Pokemon that don't evolve are actually already perfect, if they are already complete as creatures. Interesting theory, professor, but some legendary Pokemon in Alola might disagree with you!

And it's actually a nice little speech that might have some thematic tie-ins with Cyrus's whole desire for a perfect world. It's just that the way that the Generation IV games are written, we get these huge moments of lore-vomit interspaced with long periods of not really meeting the main characters, making it rather difficult for me to be invested in the story the way that the Unova or Alola games grab me. 

Rowan wants us to go and check out the three lakes of Sinnoh, and as the lakes are being doled out (I'm assigned Valor), a huge shaking happens. Which... isn't actually as epic as I thought the remake would make it out to be. 

Everyone rushes out of the library, and I like that the game gives the NPCs some altered dialogue as they react to the massive earthquake. Barry immediately rushes off to Lake Valor, and that's where I'm supposed to go. Professor Rowan and Lucas... just mutters something about not doing anything too un-safe, and bugger off to continue investigating Lake Verity. I guess they don't really care about the huge explosion/earthquake that just happened? Although, not going to lie, completely understandable civilian response. 

But Lake Valor can wait, I'm going to Iron Island first to just rush through a side-quest. And one thing about Iron Island that I can say is that... it's completely boring. It's an okay enough length for a cave-type 'dungeon', but every single Pokemon there are Generation I cave Pokemon -- Onix, Graveler and Golbat -- that aren't even new in this game. Gravelers have been hounding me in all the grass patches around Mt. Coronet! There are items and trainers, I guess, but I just sprayed a ton of repel to go through this. 

Riley's here too, I guess, but he's... he's really got nothing going on to him other than his cool Lucario outfit, yeah? I guess this is supposed to be our big introduction to Generation IV's marketing baby, but Riley's Lucario keeps spamming Screech of all moves. Where are your Aura Spheres, Lucario?

At the end of Iron Island are a couple of Team Galactic members, with the very vague handwave of them 'agitating' Pokemon. Except none of the trainers, or even Riley, explains that this is even a thing that's happening. It would've been a cool little side-quest, but the conflict that Team Galactic is doing anything just feels randomly shoehorned in. It's honestly kind of lame. With Riley giving me the Riolu egg and my bag filled with more loot from Iron Island, I leave and head off to Lake Valor. 

As it was in the original game, Lake Valor is blasted up with all the water completely gone. I'm not sure that's what happens if you detonate a bomb in a lake, but I guess this is a galactic bomb, so what do I know? All the poor Magikarps are just karp-karp-karping all over the place, poor things! A huge school is blocking the upper-left corner, preventing me from exploring all of Lake Valor other than the area directly around Azelf's cave. It is kind of strange that there are ready-made stairs in the lake, though. Anyway, I've always found it cool that even in the Nintendo DS days that they bothered to put in all the effort to temporarily change this location for maybe 20 minutes of gameplay. 15 if you rush through the battles. Meanwhile you've got Sword and Shield who had the massive Dynamax Pokemon rampaging happen completely offscreen. 

And that's what's kind of surprising, for such a cool location you really do breeze through like maybe three grunts that are battling? Not all of them fight me, for sure. Some are just ranting about the power of the Galactic Bomb. In the cave is Commander Saturn, the one with the spiky blue hair, and he gives a bit of a badass boast about how all of Team Galactic's plans are going as they have foreseen and whatnot. The battle against him is rather simple, he sports a Bronzor, Toxicroak and a Kadabra. That's new, I guess, for Team Galactic, even if it's not particularly powerful. After getting beaten, Saturn changes his tune about how 'even' a commander was only briefly delayed. And... yeah, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire really did a great job at giving extra quirks to the Magma and Aqua admins. Actually, HeartGold and SoulSilver did the same as well, giving them models and names. I dunno, even if they didn't quite go as extreme as the ORAS admins, they could've imported some of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn's anime or manga characteristics. Even expanding a bit on their dialogue would've done wonders. 

Saturn and gang somehow escape, because I guess I can't detain them with my Torterra and Gastrodon and Drapion. Despite Saturn and the grunts being quite clear that they've taken the legendary Pokemon to their base in Veilstone, I never bring this up to Rowan or anyone, which really does feel kind of disingenuous, isn't it? By all means, block the path into the Veilstone Galactic HQ until the game wants me to, but at least give an excuse, y'know?

Anyway, I continue to fly off to Lake Verity, which is the second lake that I can access. Rowan is supposed to be fighting a grunt, I think, although just like Generation IV they're just staring at each other. I forge through a bunch of double battles before I finally reach Lucas, who has been beaten by Mars. No double battles here, this isn't Platinum. Mars remembers me from Valley Windworks, gets angry, and fights me again with her team of Golbat, Purugly and Toxicroak. Again... not really a threat, even back in the day when level-scaling wasn't broken. 

Mars then gives a speech about how Azelf being disturbed also ends up causing Mesprit to pop out and try and aid his friend, allowing them to catch Mesprit. Honestly, Team Galactic, with your teams filled with Golbats and Toxicroaks, I am genuinely baffled how you guys are able to catch the Lake Guardians. I guess the grunts with Stunky could do something, but I really felt that the game designers really missed a chance to be thematic here. Heck, a lot of the game script even implies that Team Galactic collects Clefairy for some reason (the kidnapped Clefairy; and some grunts mention getting Clefairies as rewards), that would've been something, y'know? I don't think they really quite 'got' making evil team grunts a bit more interesting until Generation VI, maybe VII. 

Mars leaves, because apparently all of the legendary Pokemon have been transported off-screen. Rowan and Lucas show up and discuss what's going on with the lake guardians, and sends me off to back up Barry in Lake Acuity... all the way up in Snowpoint, which means it's time for another long trek! Which I will do... next time.

Random Notes:

• As I go through the little building outside of Canalave City, one of Rowan's researchers -- who's also Lucas's dad -- shows up and goes on to upgrade my pokedex with the ability to see gender differences, before commenting that my Pokedex actually has already been upgraded. I'm assuming this is something that was an actual upgrade in the original game that they gave us from the get-go in the remakes.
• Who names their child 'Eldritch'? Honestly, maybe it's just my exposure to D&D and the Cthulhu Mythos in general that makes this a common word for me, but it's such an on-the-nose name even for Pokemon. 
  
• Yes, Nintendo/Gamefreak's research to make 'mythology-sounding' material for the Canalave Library was the result of the very unfortunate drafts starring most infamously Typhlosion that was leaked online in the massive Nintendo giga-leak. Which I still haven't covered the prototype Pokemon in. Maybe someday.
• Gastrodon has learned Earth Power, and the animation for Earth Power and the massive lava-encrusted rocks that explode up from the ground is just so cool in this game. 
• Looking at the Platinum trainer line-up, its version of the Canalave gym actually replaces the Onix horde with Magnemites and Bronzors, which makes much more sense for a Steel-type gym. 
• Apparently, the dialogue implies that Barry either forgot he has a Pokedex, or he didn't even receive one at all because he never went back to Rowan? That's actually a totally believable Barry thing to do. 
• Okay, fine, Iron Island is good for catching wild Steelix, which is one of the few times that a trade-evolution Pokemon is available to catch in the wild. But other than that, it's really boring.