Let's Play Pokemon Shining Pearl, Part 6 - Snow Way Home

So welcome back to Pokemon Shining Pearl! And... there's a lot of road going from where we last left off -- Lake Valor -- to get to Snowpoint City. There's really not much to say about the Mt. Coronet segments. With Strength and Surf, I can now bypass the roadblocks on the upper entrances of Mt. Coronet, and finally run around the insides. There's literally not much of interest, though, other than the customary item collection, since, again, just like Iron Island, the caves in Generation IV are unbelievably boring. There are Chinglings and Bronzors there to slightly break up the pattern, I guess? 

But going through the snowy terrain is a bit more of a delight. Three long routes is admittedly a bit of a slog, but the Pokemon are new. Snovers, Swinubs and Sneasels patrol the grass, and the environment is actually nice to look at instead of caves, more caves, and cave-with-a-lake, populated by Pokemon with Sturdy. The snowy areas first gives us a nice two-tiered route with grass on a valley and log bridges on the cliffs; which opens up to a massive snowstorm-y area with thick snow that's hard to get through and a bunch of log cabins to find shelter, before we get to the mass of trees and tall grass that leads to Snowpoint City and Lake Acuity. It's a slog, but it's a nice-looking slog, you know what I mean?

There's really not much in Snowpoint City other than the relatively unique novelty of having a city being snowed in. Snowpoint Temple, the place where Regigigas slumbers, is sealed off and guarded, and there's really not much else in the city other than the gym. Again, it's kind of interesting to compare what existed in Diamond and Pearl and how much they expanded it in Legends: Arceus.

The Snowpoint gym puzzle is probably one of the few gyms in this game that could actually be called a puzzle instead of just being a bunch of slightly-decorated corridors, yeah? I think the only other gym that qualifies would probably be Maylene's, which is kind of cute since Platinum would establish Maylene and Candice as BFFs. This isn't a typical ice-crack puzzle either, but you have to calculate momentum (based on the altitude that you slide down from) to smash snowballs; and all the floor tiles are slippery except for several spots. It's not actually difficult, but it's fun. 

Also, a bunch of the Ace Trainers in this gym also utilize non-Ice Pokemon. We've got Tentacruels, Pelippers, Steelixes and Quagsires mixed into the Snovers and Sneasels. Which... I don't mind as much because at least some of the Pokemon are Ice-types. It sure is a lot less boring than Byron's, where 80% of the Pokemon are Onix, you know? I think I'm of two minds about keeping a gym 100% 'on-theme' to the type it's supposed to represent. Obviously having none of the typings make sense is bad, but there's also something to say instead of just looking at the regional Pokedex's list and just picking out a representative of each evolutionary family. 

Candice herself has a rather... interesting team. It's got a Snover and Sneasel, both first-level Ice-types. Her ace is an Abomasnow, which I think is quite accepted. But where I'm used to Candice's other ace being a Froslass, she actually tosses out a Medicham as her third Pokemon. Which is... kind of random! There is, I suppose, some merit to this -- I think there's an argument that Medichams are found in the grass outside Snowpoint Temple, and it's a representation of Candice using a 'tough' Pokemon that can survive the extreme weather despite not being Ice-type. There's also the Maylene connection, too. 

...but that said, at least in the base Diamond/Pearl game, there's nothing to really lead you to that. No NPC that mentions that Candice uses Pokemon from around Snowpoint, or that she likes training tough Pokemon, or anything at all. What could have been a very cool characterization-via-Pokemon-roster like Oleana having Garbodor in Sword/Shield or Karen having Vileplume in Gold/Silver ends up just feeling very random. 

That said, Candice is probably the only gym leader that gave me a bit of a pause in this fight, mostly for the reason that I insisted on fighting her with Torterra, who holds the Amulet Coin. Putting a 4x-weak-to-Ice Pokemon before a horde of ice-types led to Torterra being knocked out at some point in the fight, 10+ level difference notwithstanding. 

Candice gives me the badge, which is seven out of ten. I walk out and head out to Lake Acuity, where the Team Galactic Grunts have finally made their way... and walk in to see Barry being bullied by Jupiter. Jupiter gloats that they have taken the Pokemon of the lake, Uxie, whose cave also appeared around the time that they blew up Azelf's lake. So I guess Barry and Jupiter just have been fighting for all the time that I took to scale a mountain, go through multiple icy forests, and beat a gym. At the bare minimum. M'kay. Jupiter wasn't subtle at all at telling me where she's going to go, telling me 'don't follow me to Veilstone'!

Barry mutters something about being weak and runs off, while I fly to Veilstone. In another string of bad Team Galactic HR, the guard standing outside of Galactic Headquarters rants about how Team Galactic took his Clefairy (No! Grunts! Use! Clefairy!), how they demoted him and his friend, and now he's totally not going to drop a Storage Key in front of me as he totally quits. That's a nice little character arc... if that grunt was actually a recurring character that we could've remembered. But oh well. With the HQ still sealed other than the cover-story lobby, I go to the Galactic Warehouse and use the Storage Key, opening the Team Galactic Base at last. 

And... it's quite linear, honestly. The underground base that's connected to the Galactic Warehouse does have a bunch of teleportation panels and whatnot, but it's hardly an interesting puzzle. It's at least a fair bit more fun than Iron Island, though, with the Team Galactic Grunts having rather fun dialogue (even if it really feeds into the whole 'they can't commit to a vibe or gimmick' vibe of Team Galactic in general) and the music being all right. It's mostly beating up a bunch of Dustox-es, Stunkys, Glameows and Zubats, though.

After a bunch of teleportation pads, I reach Cyrus. Cyrus waxes lyrical about how I'm here out of sentimentality and emotions, and how those are completely illogical and irrational, and that these emotions are borne out of my lacking heart or something. Cyrus fights me with the frankly very embarrassing team of Golbat, Murkrow and Sneasel. It would've been a cakewalk even without the insane level-scaling of the remakes! 

After being beaten, Cyrus goes on another rant about how the basis of my power is my compassion... but that's wasteful and illusory, and they will 'fade over time until death banishes them forever'. Which, by the way, are pretty cool lines if taken on its own. It's just that Cyrus's execution and portrayal as our big bad is so few and far between, and there isn't really even an attempt at making his team threatening. He also gives me the Master Ball, because... he... doesn't need to catch Pokemon, because... he... doesn't view Pokemon as partners or tools, but make their power his own? Yeah, I felt like they could definitely have tweaked Cyrus's infamous nihilistic ranting to be a bit more palatable. Don't change his character, because I kind of get where they're trying to go with him. It's just the execution that fails. 

Cyrus lets me go into the secret corridors, where in a nice little touch, we get a couple of scientists actually feeling bad and in horror once they realize the depths of depravity that Team Galactic is willing to get into. In the secret lab, we get to see Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit held in little cages, overseen by Saturn. Saturn openly questions why Cyrus would allow me to run around the Galactic HQ uncontested, but... y'know, it's not like Cyrus could stop me with his weak-ass Golbat and Murkrow! Saturn fights me with the same team of Kadabra, Toxicroak and Bronzor, and it's actually hilarious that Saturn actually is a harder fight than Cryus is. I mean, marginally -- he's not a challenge in this fight, but at least he could theoretically be a bit more dangerous.

After beating Saturn, I press the button on the machines, opening the mechanical seals around the three Lake Guardians, who promptly teleport away. Saturn, too, teleports away with that convenient NPC black-screen ability. From Cyrus and Saturn's words, they were planning to dispose of the Lake Guardians... for... no real good reason. I think you guys are severely lacking powerful Pokemon, Team Galactic. Maybe using that Master Ball on one of the Lake Guardians would've made you guys more credible as villains. 

By the way, hidden in one of the random interactable laptops (and not all laptops in this game are interactable) is an actual reason why they need the Red Chain. They managed to find out via research that the Pokemon in Mt. Coronet -- Palkia in this game -- can't use all its power if subjugated with a Poke Ball. However, using a Red Chain made from parts of other legendary Pokemon would allow Team Galactic to dominate Palkia and force it to use its power. That's a really nice thought put into this game's otherwise meandering storyline, and I really wished they had given these to Saturn, or to the scientists, or someone.

Anyway, Saturn and Cyrus both hint that the next step of their plan takes place on the peak of Mt. Coronet. I'm not really feeling up to going through another cave, though, so I've been running around gathering items now that I've unlocked a bunch of HMs. Rock Climb, Surf and Strength allows me access to a bunch of stuff -- in particular a lot of trainers and items south of the hotel network between Pastoria and Veilstone. I really, really do appreciate the water effects that the remakers did -- the way the water parts as the rental Bibarel swims through it is genuinely pretty. 

Not so pretty? The Rock Climb segments that are now a lot harder to spot behind houses, since the way the 3D modeling is done, the hotels actually do cover a bunch of the stuff behind them, making it a bit irritating for me to try and guess where the rock climb spots are. It's these little moments where you can really tell that they were focused more on making a one-to-one remake with pretty graphics, without really understanding how those graphics would translate into the new engine. Compared to HGSS and ORAS, you really can tell.

I've also completely missed the long route below Hearthome, filled with security guards who would only battle at night, as well as Mr. Backlot's mansion. The little minigame isn't active yet until after I beat the Elite Four, though. I always found the concept of the Backlot Mansion to be so weird, with rooms blocked away by maids who never go away even until the post-game, and the implied 'comedy' that Mr. Backlot likes to show off so much that he makes his butler run around, kidnap/buy a bunch of rare Pokemon and let them loose in his backyard just so he appears to be telling the truth. It's a cute mechanical way to get an area with rare Pokemon, but considering so much of base Sinnoh is so repetitive, I really felt like they could've just introduced a lot of the Sinnoh-dex's Pokemon they hid in Backlot's garden to actual wild encounters. 

Anyway, I actually did spent a bit of time running around the routes I haven't explored, but... there's just not much that's interesting, honestly. It's just trainers, and with how slow battles are paced in this game, I really don't have much to say here. Next up will be the climax of the game, though, so I hope it'll be a fair bit more fun!

Random Notes:

• There's a skier that talks about 'ghost stories' in the mountains, which I thought is just a clever reference to Froslass... but turns out we actually do meet what I think is a ghost. A friendly ghost! One of the cabins has a woman who speaks slowly and mutters about how not a lot of travelers come her way, and gives me a Spell Tag. Exit and re-enter the cabin, and she's gone! OooOooOO!
• The notorious trainer that will trade you a Haunter for a Medicham is still there, and she still puts an Everstone on her Haunter, with the same line of dialogue saying that she's doing it on purpose to stop her Haunter from changing forms after evolving. Little troll!
• At some point I went shopping in the Veilstone Department Store for TMs...  but decided that the game was easy enough thanks to, again, the level scaling, without me having to also have perfect Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Psychic/Shadow Ball coverage. 
• I do find it charming that half of the Team Galactic employees are grunts yelling about "the world will be purified, space and time will be rewritten before our great leader", typical villainous minion stuff....  while the other half are corporate jokes like "I haven't been promoted despite working for five years, FML". 
• One of the funnier things is the little post-it notes in the Team Galactic office cafeteria, with a lot of notes in the vein of "a healthy meal leads to a healthy life" and then our character sees that the sink is dirty and the fridge is filled with filthy crap. 
• Turns out the epic scene of Cyrus addressing his army of Team Galactic fanatics, and our player witnessing it from the shadows, is another Platinum-exclusive scene. And I'm not saying that Platinum's Cyrus is some kind of masterpiece in writing or anything of the sort, but the extra scenes would definitely have worked to make him feel less like a first draft. 
• I also remembered the Backlot Mansion maids having a little gauntlet battle minigame, but, again, another Platinum addition.