Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 31: Beginning of the Post-Game

So we're starting off with the post-game. I've got the DLC installed, but I'll try my best to do the 'proper' post-game of Legends Z-A's base game before we head to the DLC but there will inevitably be a little bit of crossover.

We start off with Naveen, Lida and Taunie discussing AZ's death a bit, noting that AZ's will has left the hotel to do with us as we will. Okay! I do like that AZ did note that if running the hotel will be too much burden for the young trainers, we could sell it... which of course we won't do, but it's a nice thought. He notes that this whole affair has been the 'joining of the x and y axes that were never meant to meet', which is a cheeky nod to the whole debacle surrounding how this is the spiritual successor of Pokemon Z. It's nice to see more reactions from Lida and Naveen about AZ's death. 

But there's also the problem of what to do with the 'wish' from the Z-A Royale, which apparently both myself and Taunie qualify for because we're both A-ranked. So it's not just the champion? Eh. Ivor and Jacinthe show up and request that we ask for the tournament to be extended or transformed into some new form. Ivor really wants to fight, and Jacinthe really likes tournaments. There's an actually funny moment where they get :o faces as they look at each other and realize they actually agree on this front. Okay. Out of spite against Jacinthe I would actually ask for a completely different wish, but of course that's what the game is leading us towards.

We meet with President Jett and Vinnie in Centrico Plaza, where the area around the half-reconstructed remnants of Prism Tower is now sealed off as Wild Zone 20. They apologize to us for having to solve a problem that by rights should have been solved by Quasartico, which... I know that it's something that's obviously going to fall to the plucky protagonist group, but it's nice to be acknowledged. 

Jett gives us a choice for the wish, and we get a couple of options... but all of them get shot down. They even suggested that Taunie ask Quasartico to help hunt down the missing person she wants to find (which is another hanging plot thread) but Taunie wants a more 'selfless' wish. I asked for 'more pokemon to be allowed into the city' first, which obviously they can't do with the critical mass of the Wild Zones. So Taunie and I ask for the Z-A Royale to be continued in some way. 

Apparently this is also something that AZ has discussed with Jett and Vinnie before, and they had noted that trainers gain something from the battles. Vinnie is ready to activate the 'Infinite Z-A Royale' at a moment's notice, calling his team to 'push an update' to the app. This, of course, means that the nightly Z-A royale mechanics continue to happen, with a bit of a twist. Each challenger's ticket entitles me to a match with prizes from Quasartico Inc. Okay!

Trying out this mode, I farm the points required for the Ticket (which, not going to lie, is a bit grindy... but I do have some pseudo-legendaries to evolve) and I talk to the Quasartico Inc personnel. They arrange a fight with me... 

...with, gloriously, Le Eternel Z, Zach himself. His Slowpoke, Pidgey and Pikachu are still level 15. The Shelgon and Sliggoo I was training were more than enough to tear them down, let alone my actual team! Beating Zach gives me one of the Johto Apricorn balls, but I assume that the other trainer rematches will happen in the Infinite Royale as well. 

Afterwards, I return to Hotel Z to see Lysandre there. Lysandre reflects on how he is glad on the few conversations he had with AZ, no matter how scant... and this is where he confirms about his newly-obtained immortality, because AZ is the only other person who understands the agony of not being able to die. They also share their reflections on both their good and heinous deeds... which, again, this game doesn't highlight as much as I thought it should, but at least Naveen brings up how AZ did do a genocide, it's just 3000 years ago, and the only thing that maybe makes it 'okay' is that he was punished for it and is making amends now. 

Lysandre also notes that Ange's construction, despite the chaos it wrought, at least now has a positive impact in bringing wild Pokemon gathering around Lumiose City. Which... I'd argue whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, and Lysandre also notes the same. Despite the co-habitation opportunities, Pokemon and humans are still separated by the holo-barriers. Lysandre muses that he is looking forward to observing what the people of Lumiose will choose. That's probably not until a future game, though I do like the rather bold writing move of the writers for portraying the 'gimmick' of this game as something not entirely good. 

Lysandre then tells us that he remembers something from his time in Team Flare... about "The One That Gives" and "The One That Takes". Xerneas and Yveltal! The cover legendaries of Pokemon X and Y! That's cool. Lysandre essentially sends us off to investigate the two of them, which is the post-game for Legends Z-A. 

Also, being that we haven't obtained Zygarde yet, that is also part of the post-game. Lysandre notes that Zygarde has likely exhausted its power and is recovering. Lysandre sends me off to investigate Xerneas and Yveltal, and troops off. Lida lampshades this, noting that 'he's trying to win the Cryptic Old Guy contest!' That got a chuckle out of me. I mean, it's nothing compared to your average Elden Ring dialogue, but I appreciate that Lida and Naveen did bring up the supreme unhelpfulness of Lysandre's advice. Team MZ brings up that we have some ex-Team-Flare contacts, being Mable and Grisham/Griselle, and it's off to see them... next time. I'm going to do a bunch of side-quests and exploration. 

(I did do another round of the Infinite Z-A royale and my next 'champion' opponent was Griselle, which was funny. Not sure if there's any rewards in the landmarks, but I do need the experience points for my pseudo-legendaries.)

Wild Zone 20 is just the new park-like area around the destroyed Prism Tower. Alpha Pokemon always appear in the area below the tower itself, but there are some watery, bridged areas and some construction zone areas. All the Pokemon that appear are fully-evolved, and many of them (Aggron, Scrafty, Malamar, Dragalge, Gardevoir, Lucario) are able to mega-evolve. More importantly, all the starters appear here... The three starters of Legends Z-A, plus the three Kanto starters. 

With some other trade-exclusive evolutions like Machamp also potentially appearing here, almost all of the base game's dex is captureable. I believe only Aromatisse, Slurpuff and I believe either Scizor or Alakazam are left. 

With the post-game, certain events are activated, too. I claimed the items from when they were released back in October and December respectively, but now I go back to the B3F floor of Lysandre Labs. At this point, the system detects the two Mega Stones within my inventory... Mewtwonite X and Mewtwonite Y. 

The computer asks me whether I would like to release the locks to this dangerous project. Of course, I do. At this point, Mable calls me to ask me what I'm doing, releasing the extremely dangerous Mewtwo. Mable tells me that I need to catch Mewtwo, who is unleashed from behind the screen or something, I guess. The Mewtwo is fully offensive. No Recover moveset nonsense here, he's got Psychic, Psycho-Cut, Aura Sphere and Shadow Ball. And the nature of the game means that I can't just spam healing items, since Mewtwo gets enraged after a bit and balls don't work until I defeat him. 

Thankfully, if I defeat him, Mable just gets pissed off at me for 'showing off' and defeating a legendary, and I just retry with Mewtwo at full health. Eventually, I catch Mewtwo. 

Mable then shows up in holo-flesh, and starts giving a bit of an explanation. Seeing Lysandre Labs gets her a bit of a complicated feeling, Mable gives us the backstory of Mewtwo. It's a Pokemon created by a scientist that was experimenting on Pokemon DNA... and it has formidable power, which piqued Team Flare's interest. At some point, they were wondering if they could use Mewtwo's power in the Ultimate Weapon project. In a nice tie-in to one of the few locations where Mewtwo has a dedicated dungeon to it outside of Kanto, apparently, in the canonical timeline of events, Team Flare found Mewtwo lurking in Kalos's Unknown Dungeon, and it is them that captured Mewtwo instead of the player character. 

Mable theorizes that Mewtwo arrives to Unknown Dungeon in Kalos searching for the power of Mega Evolution... but no one can say for certain. Mewtwo refused to mega evolve with either Mewtwonite X or Mewtwonite Y, probably because of the whole 'the Pokemon must trust the trainer' baggage that mega evolution comes with. And with Mewtwo conserving its energy until it needs to battle, Team Flare put Project M on hold and 'forgot about it'. 

I am sorry, Mable, what the fuck? You guys captured Mewtwo, the strongest man-made Pokemon, clone of the Alpha Pokemon Mew, a highly valuable and mighty legendary Pokemon that every organization in the Pokemon World would want, and just... forgot about it? For six years? Just... just leave that psychic embryo cat-god in a tank in a secret base under an abandoned cafe? You just... just forgot about Mewtwo? Man, Team Flare is the worst evil team out there. 

Mable tries to make it all sound cryptic and mysterious, wondering why Mewtwo awakened and reacted to the Mewtwonites I have in my inventory (they literally fell out of the sky, Mable, we don't exactly get an in-universe explanation to these mystery gifts). Mable speculates Mewtwo would respect a kind trainer like me, and of course it'll mega evolve with me. And Mable then closes off the call with a 'byeee' and a waving animation that looks slightly nightmarish thanks to the holo-effect and the context of the conversation.

Still, that was a nice little side-mission for the bonus legendary Pokemon. I like this. I like that the mystery gift legendaries aren't just popped into your box randomly, but get a whole little mission tied to it. When was the last time we had one of these? Probably Victini and Liberty Island in Generation V? I participated in a lot of Wi-Fi events in VI-IX, but we don't exactly get a lot of dialogue and especially not a full quest like this normally. 

Oh, and before we leave for this, I also met a second shiny, which is a random shiny Budew in the overworld! Which I caught in a Dusk Ball, which isn't my preferred ball for a shiny Budew or Roselia or Roserade... but you panic a little when you hear that shiny noise. The shiny Roselia line isn't the most exciting of shinies -- Budew is a bit more prominent due to its purple 'bib', but shiny Roselia and Roserade only changes their flower from red/blue to purple/black... which is nice but I also wished there were a bit more changes in the main 'fairy flower person' body. 

Still, it is a new shiny and while Roserade doesn't exactly have a new mega in this game, I do like Roserade enough to slowly build up a little guest star in my team here. I've never really thought too much about Roserade before, and finding a shiny is always a nice little excuse to appreciate a Pokemon more... which is what I've been doing with shiny Slowbro (and Mega Slowbro) in this playthrough. So yeah, Roserade! 

Random Notes:

• 
  It is quite notable that 'canonically', Mewtwo only really appears in the mainline games in Kanto's Cerulean Cave (in the Kanto and Johto games), and Kalos's Unknown Dungeon. All other Mewtwo appearances have been either been part of gifts, or ambiguous alternate-universe stuff like Hoopa rings, Ultra Dimension; or the Gigantamax max-lair nonsense. I like that at least someone in the Pokemon team is actually keeping track of the 'canon journeys' of some of these legendary Pokemon!
• Naveen does make a nice point about how Kalos had two catastrophes in what is a five-year time frame in-universe, which is why celebrations like the reopening of Centrico Plaza is much needed. 
  
• There is a bit where Team MZ discuss about how it's a bit 'selfish' for them to use the wish to maintain Hotel Z, but I dunno... I feel like Vinnie at least would be invested in maintaining the hotel even without us asking. 
  
• Naveen does ask Jacinthe about why she has to go through all this hullaballoo with tournaments, instead of just asking people to battle like regular trainers do. Jacinthe being Jacinthe, she just gives a non-answer. 
• Other side-quests that I did:
• A lady wants me to show her an XL-sized Avalugg for her four little Bergmite to sit on. I show her an Alpha Avalugg, which she takes pictures of. That's cute. Her pictures go viral. 
• A lady called Aimee who boasts that her Pokemon is actually secretly super-strong. She uses baby Pokemon like Cleffa and Pichu... and... I don't know what the joke is, since they're weak. I almost wished they were level 100 or something. Not sure what this one is all about. 
• Another 'trainer that introduces a concept' is a Pokemon Center Nurse called Bien, who shows off recovery moves. The fight itself isn't anything to write home about, although I did like the brief, short jokes about her making fun her being a P.C. nurse that has to now heal her own team.  
• A lady called Chante, who is a white-outfitted Hex Maniac, shows off Perish Song, which kills everyone that hears it in 30 seconds. It's nowhere as creepy as it could've been. 
• Some more side-quests seem to be about me raising a specific member of a Pokemon species and participating in an endgame-level fight against them. So far, I've unlocked: 
  
• A lady with an Alolan Raichu who wants me to raise my own Raichu to fight hers, and prove Raichu superority. I did giggle when she introduces herself as the leader (and only member) of CHARGE: the Committee to Highlight Alolan Raichu, and Generate Excitement. That's cute. 
• A pair of kids fighting about which fossil to buy -- Tyrunt or Amaura -- and the sister asks me to raise up a powerful Aurorus and fight the brother's team with only an Aurorus. 
• A kid dressed like Ash Ketchum who shows off his 'strongest Pikachu in the world' because it has a Light Ball. 
• There's also a really stupid side-quest that tells me to hunt down a specific combination of berries, which is just really banal.