Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 32: Diamonds Are A Trainer's Best Friend

And so, as I run around doing side-quests and evolving pseudo-legendaries, I decide to highlight the Diancie side-quest. Diancie's side-quest is unlocked by getting the mystery gift, which is... still honestly a bit of a really weird thing that I've never been a fan of. It's the same system as how you unlock Mewtwo, and I suppose that lets Diancie technically keep her 'exclusive to real-world events' moniker. But honestly a lot of newer games have slowly transformed a lot of previously events-exclusive mythicals like Deoxys and Keldeo out of mythical jail, and I really do hope more and more of this happens over time. 

Anyway, with the Diancite in my pocket, I can visit Emma's little investigation bureau, at which point Mimi the Espurr ends up being interested in my little Diancite. With a lot of 'mrawp' and 'murrr-mrrawr' (very good onomatopoeias, Pokemon), Mimi insists on her interest in it. Emma explains that Mimi can sense psychic energy, telepathically picking up thoughts and feelings and transmitting them to other people. Mimi's telepathy tires her out, however, and Emma has been telling her to dial it back a bit. But sometimes it detects something, and Emma suspects my Diancite is imbued with a strong emotion. 

This leads to a bit of a run around Lumiose City as Emma and I follow Mimi around. There is a bit in the quest where Emma calls up a bunch of names, like Sedna, Eris and Nix, who appear to be her assistants that are running around the city and are people she is asking to help hold the fort. These are the very minor NPCs that were part of her 'gang' in Pokemon XY, and they are so minor that even I had to look them up since I've completely forgotten them. 

Emma gives a more straightforward recap of her XY backstory here, which is nice, since I didn't realize we didn't get the full story in the main game. Man, they did really do my girl dirty in the spotlight department, huh? Emma explains the detective bureau's ties to Looker, and Looker's ties to the International Police, and Looker's eventual departure (this would be... I think in Alola when he got amnesia?) and Emma eventually taking over with Mimi... although Emma only uses Mimi as a bit of a trump card so as not to stress Mimi out too much. 

We get a bit of a joke sequence where Mimi ends up leading us to a baguette stall because she picks up on Emma's hunger, and a brief sequence where we overhear Emma's inner monologue... but ultimately, not much more beyond that.

Mimi leads us to a rooftop where it's filled with a ton of mega crystals. Rather disappointingly, there's not an acknowledgement that the pink crystals all resemble Diancie's own pink crystals, which is a massive missed opportunity. Even if no explanations are offered, I really wished there was an acknowledgement, because come on, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? And while I don't want every legendary Pokemon to feel a bit less special, in this case I really feel it's a bit warranted. 

Two Carbink show up, and in-between the Carbink is good old Diancie. Diancie, of course, is a legendary Pokemon that technically 'evolved' or 'mutated' from Carbink in her backstory, although of course it's not something you could do in actual gameplay. Despite knowing what 'Diancite' is called, Emma is briefly baffled at what this Pokemon is. and just instructs me to catch the strange Pokemon to solve the mystery. 

Just like the Mewtwo battle, if I lose the fight, I just restart it as Emma yells at me to 'don't defeat it, you need to catch it'. Diancie is a lot more chill than Mewtwo, even with her two additional minions. She does have access to her signature Diamond Storm attack, which is rendered rather gorgeously with the mirror-shard-like mass of diamonds swirling in a cylinder towards me. I don't have much commentary to offer about the fight itself, other than I had to repeat it maybe five times because I had rather abysmal luck with properly capturing Diancie. 

For a mystery sidequest, there was not much of a mystery, by the way, about what emotions Mimi detected or how they are connected to Diancie, so there is a gigantic missed opportunity there. 

Emma does note that Diancie's pink crystals reminds her of Anistar Sundial -- a nice reference to the world outside of Lumiose City, and Emma muses about the theories of Anistar Sundial being tied to the Mega Stones (another mystery implied but never, at least to my memory, properly explained). Emma gives a bit more of her backstory, particularly about Professor Sycamore, another person that she considers her mentor. Sycamore has a theory that Mega Stones were formed 3000 years ago when AZ fired the Ultimate Weapon, which was also confirmed by AZ. 

The firing of the Ultimate Weapon 5 years ago in Pokemon XY, by the way, is also why new types of Mega Stones have been discovered in the world, particularly egregious since Mewtwo had Mega Stones associated with it, being one of the few Pokemon that we know are created close to modern times. That's nice! That's a nice little plot hole that no one questions, but I very much appreciate that they covered. 

Emma also notes that during the 3000 years that AZ wandered the earth, he also visited Hoenn, which has a phenomenon that is the 'beginning of all Mega Evolution', which of course we know to be the Primal Reversion associated with Groudon and Kyogre; and Rayquaza's own super-special stoneless mega evolution. It is a nice bit of canon-welding... we see AZ's eternal flower in Sootopolis City in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire; and both XY and ORAS had slightly conflicting origin stories for mega evolution, both claiming that their own plot device is the 'first' ones. This is an unexpected tie-in to all that, where the Hoenn incidents with Rayquaza were the proper 'first' Mega Evolutions, but it became really widespread after the Ultimate Weapon was fired. I like that! I like that timeline reinforcement!

And hey, with that done (and the mystery of what emotions Mimi detected left forever a mystery), I now have a Diancie and a Mewtwo, both able to mega evolve and both bumming a spot in my party as I run around the post-game. I don't mind them, with the Infinite Z-A Royale or whatever being something that I just do in the background, it's nice to have some variety in the party. Although admittedly, Mega Diancie is a lot smaller than I thought. Or rather, I was surprised to see that Mega Diancie didn't actually grow a bit larger to accommodate that dress. 

Not all the side-quests are interesting, but there's a nice one where I meet Josée again in the Fists of Justice dojo. Josée wants a rematch after being beaten by me a couple of times, but if Ivor has no hope of beating me, neither is this poor girl who doesn't even have access to mega evolution. She has four Pokemon now, a Machamp, a Scrafty, a Hawlucha and a Medicham. Really think the Medicham could've been her mega! Josée reflects that she hasn't grown any stronger at all, and views herself as a disgrace...

At that point, two rogue Pangoro attack and begin rampaging around the dojo grounds. These two Pangoro apparently go out of the way to avoid the Wild Zones, showing that, yes, Pokemon are smart enough to get around all these temporary measures that Quasartico and Mable put up just while they deal with the energy radiating from Ange.

Josée asks me to fight the Pangoro with her, and we beat the two alphas handily. After the two Pangoro lumber away in shame, Ivor shows up and gives a nice little pep talk to Josée, saying that the whole point of him being willing to leave the Fists of Justice under her charge while he's away is because he trusts her, and trusts in her knowledge of the gap that she needs to bridge. It's a surprisingly nice moment for Ivor, showing why he's at least a good sensei for his martial arts dojo even if he's got a lot of screws loose in his head. 

Another side-quest that involves a member of the supporting cast is the little tenant from the Corbeau quest, the one that asked us to help deal with a Gengar infestation from his new house. The dude, Ganger... has been abandoned by his Gengar! I really thought that this quest was going to lead somewhere, since we get Gwynn to help us out. Gwynn and Chandelure, after a rematch, gets us to investigate three locations but in every location there was a different and wrong shrouded Pokemon. 

The end of this quest is a rather muted and abrupt realization that Ganger has been taking his Gengar for granted and just... gives up and walks off. It's a bit bizarre, really, and even Gwynn seems a bit confused by the whole thing. I like that it's not a happy simple reconciliation, absolutely, since that makes it a nice bit of subversion... but the fact that we don't actually get any real reflection or melancholy on something like... the capriciousness of Ghost-types, or a commentary on Pokemon needing to be wild... even the bit where Ganger randomly drops the 'revelation' that he's not been appreciating Gengar could've been actually properly built up, I think. 

Random Notes:

• I got most of the pseudos and starters up to their final forms at this point, except for Sliggoo/Goodra, who needs rain. I don't think it even rains that often in this game, so that's going to be for quite a while. 
  
• Two more side-quests:
• We get the movie-maker guy again, this time wanting to shoot a rampaging Tyrantrum. The Tyrantrum I use, of course, ends up being happy to see me as an extra in the movie and acts all cuddly. The movie director ends up finally scrapping his movie series about scary Pokemon in nature and make one about the cuteness of Pokemon. Hilariously, the male star is just 1000% done with it, just coasting along as long as he gets paid, while also simultaneously being a hundred percent sure the movie will flop. 
  
• A cook that sends me into the Lion's Den Wild Zone to look for a discarded feather from a Skarmory. I have to dodge lion earth powers while I pick up random junk like random Diggersby fur and Klefki keys, until I find the Skarmory feather on top of a roof. The cook wants to use the discarded feather as a sword. Nowhere as cool as manga!Falkner using Skarmory's feathers as blade boomerangs, but it's actually a decent quest that spotlights the Pokemon's feature, I suppose. Oh, the Skarmory also ends up staying with the NPC, which I thought was a nice little bit of story. 
• A lady called Sente wants me to bring a very weird selection of berries, some of which require me to go and buy berries from a specific stand. It really is annoying that I can only buy a single berry at a time instead of multiples at once like other items.
• Emma has been very heavily sidelined in the second half of the game, not even really participating in the final 'everyone in Lumiose fighting together' climax, and I was admittedly quite salty about that. This is a nice little extra spotlight for her, although I don't personally think it makes up for her lack of screentime in the main game. Even if the spotlight are to the new wave of characters, I still think Emma could have very easily been snuck into parts of the story like the tournament or the climax. 
• While Emma is talking about mega evolution, Mimi and Diancie are actually playing in the background. I liked that. I liked that a lot. 
• Is anyone else disappointed that Mega Diancie didn't get an updated animation of summoning a crystal sword out of the tiny floating crystals around her? Oh, everyone is? Good. They updated Mega Blastoise so its special attack has it slam its hands down so the hydro pumps are launched from the central tank cannon instead of its mouth; they could very well damn update Mega Diancie's attack animations. 
• The Gengar quest did give a rather hilarious exchange between Ganger and Gwynn, snarking about Gengar looking for haute couture, and Gwynn professing her own preference for the somewhat gothic-themed Wisp store. Which, by the way, only sells stockings and gloves, but I really want that Chandelure hat, Gwynn! Is that custom? 
• The Spritzee quest also has a brief line that gives a nod to the Juice Master from Pokemon XY. I must admit, I completely forgot the juice shop exists until the game reminded me of it, and I still had to look up what the effects of the juice is.