Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 24: Property Values and Seed Money

And now... it's time for plot! Delicious, delicious plot, as we rocket into the endgame of this, well, game. 

After that whole mess with dealing with the sociopath that is Jacinthe, AZ starts muttering some ominous things. Lumiose is trembling, and he can feel the 'unease' spilling from Prism Tower. AZ also very casually drops that the only thing that could deal with the power from Prism Tower is... Mega Floette? Which, uh... I had a visceral reaction towards, but at least the game actually gives us a reason to Mega Floette's existence. There is still a vague 'you need to reach the pinnacle of the Z-A Tournament to become the strongest, which really is still something I find to be quite hollow-sounding considering what a narrative handwave everything around the Z-A Royale has been, but okay. There is a brief discussion as Taunie also resolves to climb up the ranks, but then we get summoned to Quasartico.

Vinnie and Jett meet us at Quasartico Inc, and Jett finally gets to be a bit more relevant now. Jett absolutely denies the fact that the Pokemon are flocking to Lumiose due to some plot by the company, which... again, considering Pokemon's track record, huge doubt on that. Jett notes that the holo-tech barriers are the main thing that Quasartico has been doing to prevent wild Pokemon from damaging the surroundings, and specifically Rogue Mega Evolution.

Hilariously, Jett notes that after the Ultimate Weapon incident in Pokemon XY, Lumiose City was 'hemorrhaging people and property values were in free fall'. Right! We need to save the property investments in Poke-Paris! That is such an unexpected line to see in a Pokemon game. But Jett and Quasartico were the only ones that stepped up to help with the urban development project, with Quasartico wanting to create a city where Pokemon and humans could live in harmony. 

Which... yeah, wild Pokemon is a bit suspect. I mean, Legends Arceus and so many dex entries have proven that. I honestly wished there were a bit more sidequests in this game that showcases this dichotomy between the 'harmonious living' and 'wild Pokemon can behave unexpectedly in urban settings' in this game, instead of just boring 'bring me an Inkay' nonsense. 

Anyway, Jett continues to tell us that when they began to renovate Prism Tower, the tower was emitting a peculiar energy, Mega Power, which is both drawing Pokemon to the city and triggering Rogue Mega Evolution. I find that that is a much more pressing matter to solve than Jett's concluding remarks about how people will leave the city once more, but I suppose she is just a dedicated businesswoman or something. 

As we leave Quasartico, Jett asks Taunie about her jacket, apparently that jacket reminding her of something. Taunie says that it's the only thing she has to remember her mom by, and Jett finds it curious. 

We get another trio of rogue mega evolutions, which I'll kind of breeze through. A Dragonite, a Tyranitar and a Starmie are about to rampage, and Naveen notes that all three are difficult to tackle even without mega evolution. You're telling me, there's two pseudo legendaries there. 

I go for Tyranitar first and it's Naveen on the field with me. Naveen notes how defensive Tyranitar is (is it? I thought they're like, sweepers) but notes that his Scrafty would be powerful against a Tyranitar. Type-matchup wise, sure, but I dunno, Naveen, maybe mega evolve that fucking lizard. Mega Tyranitar is quite defensive, but between Hawlucha's Flying Presses and Meganium's Giga Drain/Dazzling Gleam combo, I do have two counters towards big ol' Poke-zilla. Some really cool explosions and effects as Tyranitar unleashes giant walls of Stone Edge throughout the battlefield, and shockwaves of... Sand Tomb, I think? Mega Meganium is a tank of her own with Giga Drain, though, thankfully. 

The next one I go for is Dragonite, and I have to admit that the way to get up to where Dragonite was lurking is... much more annoying than I expected to, with him lurking on top of a building. Taunie is with me for this one. And Mega Dragonite, despite being new, is one of the more promoted new Mega Evolutions, so that's not the biggest surprise. 

What's a surprise, however, is how cool this battle is. Mega Dragonite is fast and brutal, teleporting (or Bouncing/Flying) down onto my trainer very specifically. But its little gimmick, other than Hurricanes and Dragonbreaths, is to charge up its attack. You can interrupt it and it'll 'merely' fly off the stage and unleash several beams of Hyper Beams...  but fail to interrupt it with mega attacks, and it'll fly off, charge the mother of all Hyper Beams, and the Hyper Beam erupts, anime-style, on the center of the battlefield to hit everyone in an unavoidable attack. 

That is awesome. Again, it is a bit of a bare minimum if we're talking about Dark Souls or something, but this isn't Dark Souls. This is Pokemon. And I love that they did so much for Dragonite's fight. 

The Mega Starmie fight is a bit more involved, because another party got there before us... the Rust Syndicate! A grunt blocks our way, but lets us through once he realizes who we are. Philippe is also there, this brick shithouse of a man, being quite upset that the grunts let some civilians through, but is happy that we are there. Lida gives some context to what the rogue mega evolution is. Unfortunately, Philippe is honour-bound to take on the Rogue Mega Starmie under Corbeau's orders, and he totally can't bend the rules. 

It's a bit silly, though. ALL of us could take on the Mega Starmie together, there's no rule saying only one team can fight a rogue mega at a time! And even then, if Philippe wants to take on the Mega Starmie... be my guest, you know? He's got a Mega Skarmory of his own, and even if he can't take down Mega Starmie on his own, we could mop things up for him. 

But no, of course this leads to a battle. Everything is solved with battle in the Pokemon world. It's fine, we've only fought Philippe once and I do appreciate Mega Skarmory. My Chandelure burns his entire steelworks team to the ground. Philippe acknowledges our strength, noting that there are bigger fish in the pond than him and Corbeau. Philippe gives us an expanded version of the Rust Syndicate backstory, which is unexpected. Philippe was the local gang leader who kept all the local thugs in control, but didn't know how to do anything but be strong -- it didn't 'put food on the table', and they had to rely on philantrophists like Lysandre. In come little Corbeau and his Venipede.

Corbeau was smart enough to negotiate, and convince Lysandre to... give him seed money for his ventures. I am sorry, what? I love that Pokemon has been using a bit more business terms in this game. It does, I suppose, fit the urban setting. Anyway, with the venture capital seed money, Corbeau started businesses like security services (for drug jobs, probably), Pokemon couriers (for drugs, probably), and "even some things that perhaps weren't entirely aboveboard" (drugs).

Philippe's gang chased around Corbeau, seeing him as an upstart rival, but Corbeau outwitted them all the time, and managed to outdo everyone in areas not relating to Pokemon battles. Okay. And at some point, he gained Philippe's respect and became his boss. Philippe realizes he babbled on for a bit too much, and in exchange for our silence gives us a Water Stone. Philippe leaves with some encouraging words for us. 

There is a short moment as Lida muses whether to evolve her Staryu and shrugs and does it. After all the hullaballoo that the previous scenes had about Lida's evolution problem, this was definitely a bit anticlimactic. 

And Mega Starmie... well, you know what it looks like. I know what it looks like. Memed to hell and back ever since the debut of its game, Mega Starmie just becomes longer, and I think the idea is for it to look like a starfish tokusatsu alien monster or something. It look so stupid. So stupid, but in all of the good ways. I still would've preferred a more epic Mega Starmie, of course, but it is something that's a bit more wackier than I expected in motion, seeing how Mega Starmie runs around like a wacky little dude, and its special attack is just a super-speed blitz run towards me. 

Comparatively to Tyranitar and Dragonite, the Mega Starmie fight isn't particularly difficult, and I think I spent most of my time just giggling at the absurdity of this thing. Again, Lida... doesn't really have much of a comment on either her own partner's evolution or the Mega Starmie, a huge, huge, huge missed opportunity. 

Anyway, we return to the hotel and Taunie asks AZ about something, about what the definition of the 'strongest mega evolution user' is. AZ says that it's up to Floette to decide, and then brushes it off. Huh. Naveen instantly shrugs and notes that it's me, but Taunie takes a bit of an umbrage to that. At this point, my next promotion match comes up... and it's not actually a character I met before, but a silhouetted image of someone called 'Grisham'. 

Lida and Naveen lampshade the oddity of someone managing to make it all the way up to Rank B without showing off their face. Taunie handwaves this with 'some people prefer not to show their faces', which really does highlight the huge logistical gaps in the Z-A Royale that I brought up during the Canari segment as well. Without the organizers forcing the competitors to meet, it is a bit silly for the competition to be organized in such a way, doesn't it? Although I suppose it does make sense considering Quasartico only held the Z-A Royale as essentially a front for recruitment. 

After a discussion about who to ask for help (we have the mafia on speed dial!) we decide on talking to our friendly local detective, Emma. As we go off, Naveen grumbles about the rudeness of people who would join the Z-A Royale under false names, while AZ bemoans that this should have been his duty, and he is unable to accomplish it. 

Going to talk to Emma (and Mimi!), Emma notes that she's been narrowing a list of candidates for Taunie's case -- which is basically all but confirmed to be a search for her mother or father. But we bring up the Grisham situation, and Emma says that she could give us the name... but it's information that could potentially bring danger. Seriously, the Z-A Royale is poorly organized. 

Emma then decides to solve this dilemma with... a Pokemon battle! Emma leads us outside, and Taunie tells me that Emma is a great Pokemon battler, she just doesn't participate in the Z-A Royale due to her work keeping her busy. Emma introduces her team as Pokemon that were given by a man who played an important part in her life. Which is... well, her Pokemon are technically given to her by Xerosic, but he's, uh, not the best mentor. I guess Emma still finds him as a surrogate father-figure, I suppose.

Emma opens up with her Ampharos, which was who she demonstrated Mega Evolution with. Every single one of Emma's Pokemon can actually Mega Evolve! Just like mine! The Ampharos gets Earthquake'd and put in the ground. She then sends out Lopunny with all the elemental punches, which gets Brick Break'd by my Hawlucha. A Mawile suffers the same fate slightly less quickly afterwards. Her fourth Pokemon is a Lucairo, who gets Brave Bird'd by Hawlucha. 

And of course, Emma's final Pokemon is her own final Pokemon in Pokemon XY... Malamar. 

Hello, M Y F R I E N D M A L A M A R

The Mega Malamar trailer was one I watched, was a great little online campaign, and one that really does fit into the manipulative, cruel character of Malamar. My own non-mega-evolved Malamar got actually taken out, and I had to bring in my Meganium to take down the brainy squid. But I really do like Mega Malamar. Love how the proportions still looks like a squid (even if a different one), how the exaggerated proportions are made up of existing anatomy -- the 'brain' made up of tentacles is a great one. The Mega Stone for my own Malamar doesn't actually become available right after this battle, but soon. 

Emma congratulates me for the battle, chuckles that 'those old guys' aren't here to see her defeat, and then asks us if we knew about Team Flare. I played XY, so I do, of course, but I do like the way this is framed to also be a nice recap for anyone jumping into Kalos for the first time. Emma recaps Team Flare and Lysandre, and gives the muted conclusion that, hey, 'L' is just a kooky old man who isn't up to anything nefarious at the moment. So it isn't the old guard we have to be worried about... but the new. 

Apparently there's a brand new team flare. Emma notes that she had ties with Team Flare before via Xerosic (who she doesn't name), and noted that Team Flare had 'made moves to ensure their legacy'. Which I suppose Emma was also one of them, being a young woman they captured and brainwashed to be a pawn. But a different project trained up a new generation to carry on their ideals, and Grisham, our mysterious B-ranked trainer, is one of them. 

Emma and Taunie speculate a bit about Grisham's motivations, before directing us towards Mable in the Pokemon Research Lab. Which... yeah, I, the player, know about Mable's ties to Team Flare in XY, but I'd imagine that it would be a nice little plot twist. We'll explore all this Team Flare stuff in the next go, though I am absolutely much more excited about this after the whole Jacinthe thing. 

Random Notes:

• These blog posts are published in the blog as I turn my notes (which I take as I'm playing) into proper paragraphs. But as a little behind-the-scenes as to how much the Jacinthe stuff soured me, I actually ended up ignoring the main story and went side-questing and evolving Pokemon and farming money in the game instead of continuing because the main plot had left such a foul taste in my mouth. In contrast, I was in the zone for all this Team Flare stuff, and while it's going to be split in 2-3 posts, I did most of it in a single, very happy, sitting. 
• Again, a lot of Ryme City vibes. Wouldn't be surprised if Detective Pikachu, out of all the side-games, would be the one to be integrated to the main canon first. 
  
• Meganium doesn't learn Moonblast? A travesty, a crime. 
• Love that we do get the traditional generation I sound effect for Hyper Beam, too. 
• I found it funny that the grunt blocking the way to Mega Starmie looked at us and went 'It's [name] and... the other one!",  with none of them remembering Lida. But Lida doesn't really comment on that, boo.
• The little weird not-quite-pool area that the Mega Starmie spawns in is actually filled with a moat that has a ton of Staryu hanging out in it. The game does really want to highlight the creepier side of Staryu/Starmie, and I love that they're actually zooming in on the 'weirdo maybe-alien' aspect of this Pokemon. 
• In the mad rush to get the challenger's ticket, I've been doing the nightly Z-A Royales as well. Mega Evolutions are starting to spice up these battles. They're still sadly underleveled to prove much of a challenge, but it is cool to see random trainers with Mega Aerodactyls and Mega Audinos. 
• Emma's final team in Pokemon XY consists of a Crobat and a Malamar (both also used by Xerosic in his battle); and one of her earlier teams is a Fairy-type-themed one that also has a Mawile. Other than Malamar and Mawile, though, all of Emma's team is original to this game. 
• I have been doing side-quests throughout both this part of the game as well as the Grisham arc, but at this part of the game they surprisingly have became a bit more weightier for me to talk, so I'll wait until I'm a bit done with main plot stuff before doing the side quests in another go.