Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 37: Sisters in Suffering

Last we left off, Korinna is happily enjoying her old hotel room in Hotel Z, while Ansha mentions that the hotel she stays is so decadent that she can't feel relaxed. Which... is something I can relate to for cities and towns, but for hotels... I've been in some really horrible hotels so the fancier they are, the better, really. The rest of Team MZ note how fancy Ansha's getup is, being someone who stays in Hotel Richissime, and Naveen mentions that even her apron is 'bespoke'. 

Lida then asks a question that someone probably should've asked before we brought the literal child into an alternate distorted dimension and a yakuza base: whether it's okay for Lida to be staying here seemingly away from her parents. Ansha gives some non-answers, noting that her donut shop is right there, and that she's been going home at night anyway... which sounds like a bald-faced lie, but then again Ansha is partnered up with Hoopa, the portal Pokemon. 

The bell to Hotel Z rings, and Gwynn and her Chandelure enters, with Gwynn being super surprised at the donut shop... before calmly pulling out her phone and saying very calmly that 'target acquired... in Hotel Z'. That's a very bounty hunter thing for you to do, Gwynn! Gwynn gets a shot off to shut off Nvaeen, the 'fake Canatic', which I found to be funny. 

But then Lebanne bursts in, doing her crazy wild-lady pose, and keeps yelling and screaming about 'no rooms!' and how 'there's no time for calm!' Lebanne is freaking out about risking the wrath of Lady Jacinthe. Naveen calms her down enough to explain her situation, and Lebanne does so, noting that Jacinthe has a close friend that she admires, and the daughter of that friend is staying in Hotel Richissime and she's gone. 

Of course, that child is Ansha, and based on the outfit and context clues of another rich person, it's Pokemon XY's champion Diantha, isn't it? 

Lebanne, meanwhile, hams it all to high heaven screaming in a larger font and all caps "MISS ANSHA! WHERE ARE YOU!" All of this is going on with Ansha and Hoopa standing in the room, and Gwynn even telling Lebanne that she's right there. Lebanne is so pumped up that she needs a battle to calm down, which is of course an excuse to have a double battle similar to what we had with Grisham/Tarragon. At least it's not as random as butter?

Gwynn isn't too pleased with this very 'Ivor-like behaviour', but decides to play along to crush the fake Canatic. So poor Naveen gets roped into the fight again. I actually find this to be nice; a nice follow up to the subtle rivalry the two had before.

The battle itself isn't anything special, other than the hilarious title of "Sisters in Suffering" for Lebanne and Gwynn, which I find hilarious. We've seen Lebanne and especially Gwynn's team a couple of times now. But Korrina explains the differences of a 'Z' Mega Evolution, noting that these Pokemon need less time to fire off moves, but burn through their Mega Power bar. So they're there for massive and rapid-fire burst damage. I fight them with Mega Absol Z, and it does run out of mega power a bit faster.

Lebanne having calmed down sits on a rock and starts giving an exposition about Ansha and how she really needs to find her. "I don't care what happens to me- wait, no, I do care what happens to me. But I care more about my duty as her bodyguard." That's a funny line from Lebanne as she rambles on. Of course, Ansha is right here. We get a rather fun sequence of Lebanne with her jaw open, and looking at Gwynn for confirmation silently, before she sighs and notes how distracted she was before the battle. 

Lebanne shrugs it off, noting that Ansha would be safe around Team MZ. Naveen notes that Jacinthe might not be all right with that, and Lebanne agrees... but Lebanne also notes how overprotective Jacinthe can be, and it's something that Ansha agrees with. Lida even makes a crack about how Jacinthe will probably shut Ansha in a Jacinthe-Zone, which I wouldn't put past the narcissistic lunatic. Lebanne decides to take an executive decision to defy Jacinthe. Yes! Break the chains of nobility oppression! Lebanne will cook up a story saying that Ansha is in her room in Hotel Richissime, before she heads off. Gwynn praises Lebanne for being considerate (not at all like Ivor).

Corbeau then gathers us back in the Rust Syndicate base, which is the new briefing location, I guess. Corbeau actually apologizes for making us run to Rust Syndicate all the time, because people get afraid whenever he and Phillippe roam the streets... which, you know what you are, Corbeau. He also doesn't like holo-calls, which doesn't have the warmth of a face-to-face chat. You know what? I am on you for that, Corbeau. Corbeau still directs our attention to the Hyperspace Rogue Mega Arena on top of Prism Tower, and... yeah, the big dimensional void-rift is threatening. Got it! Our research is basically allowing them to detect more rifts, containing stronger Pokemon. 

Corbeau gives us an update that more Pokemon from Hyperspace has been showing up in regular Lumiose City. Which would be cool if this was reflected in the Wild Zones or the overworld (which I thought was a bit of an underutilized mechanic) but sadly no such things happen. This cutscene does trigger a bunch of cutscenes that deal with Hyperspace Pokemon appearing in sidequests, though, so there's something. 

Corbeau and Vinnie direct me to a particular distortion which I must admit it took me a while to get to, being placed on top of a building. As Korrina, Taunie and I venture into this Hyperspace Portal, Korrina notes that the Ange tower was the cause of the Rogue Mega Evolutions... so why are the Pokemon in Hyperspace Lumiose still Rogue Mega Evolving? Taunie speculates that the energies from the tower bled into Hyperspace or something. 

But then, a Staraptor floats in the middle of the arena, ready to fight. And fight them we do. Korrina explains that Mega Staraptor is a Fighting/Flying type. Mega Staraptor is pretty neat-looking, exaggerating the Pokemon's 'emo brawler bird' features and giving a lot more definition to its feathers, its plumage, and most importantly its pompadour without going too over-the-top (unlike Mega Lucario Z or Korrina's new design). I actually like it quite a bit; I feel like if Staraptor wasn't limited by how simple a sprite could be, this would be what the original D&P designers would make it out to be. 

Oh, and those eyes. Black sclera and a glowing red pupil. That's fucking metal as shit, Staraptor. 

The fight is... miserable. Rogue Mega Staraptor is at level 120, with all of the bulkiness of what that level implies. But I went in with a mere +6 donut or something, which gives me a set timer, and considering the raid needs me to gather energy and to fight the Mega Staraptor, while also dodging it as it zips around and does this 'disappear then kick' attack (Fly? Bounce?) four times in rapid succession, it feels particularly annoying. The Absol Z fight was simple, but this Staraptor fight was... a miserable one. I don't feel like this game rewards particularly clever strategizing with Pokemon combat, or dodging, or understanding the mechanics of the boss's attacks, but just... 'did you consume a big enough donut before you came in' and 'by the way, we overinflated the defenses and HP because of the higher level'. It's just annoying. 

Fortunately, at least because this is part of the main quest, the game actually lets me 'continue the fight with the boss's HP reduced'. After restarting the Mega Staraptor fight a couple of times, I decided that it absolutely wasn't worth it, that I wasn't even having fun anymore, and just kept spamming this to whittle Mega Staraptor down. This is dumb. 

Beating Mega Staraptor gives us another golden pokeball with berries and even more butter, which Taunie dubs Great Butter. Yay. Great. This is starting to get repetitive. We return to Hotel Z, and we get another dinner scene with the croissant curry. They discuss how much more powerful the Pokemon in a Hyperspace Distortion is compared to regular Pokemon, but we also get information that Hoopa's donuts can buff the power of my Pokemon as I explore the distortions. Wonderful, this is... this is everything I hated about the sandwich buffs from Scarlet/Violet, but enforced into gameplay. I don't want to be optimizing which random berry taste flavour combination is going to be useful for my team for a certain 'raid' or whatever. It's miserable. I want to optimize my Pokemon party, my Pokemon stats, my Pokemon moves, my Pokemon's held items, all that, not whether I can stack a bunch of berries together. 

I'm not very impressed by all these donuts nonsense, if you can't tell. 

Anyway, Ansha and Korrina get a short scene as they look at the Prism Tower and the giant swirling vortex above it. Ansha notes that she feels like she could hear a voice calling from it. Korrina goes 'well, that's eerie', but quickly jumps to the conclusion that there's probably a Pokemon out there trying to tell us something... how did you jump to that conclusion? I mean, that's probably the right thing here, but it really is apropos of nothing. 

And we do get some cryptic words in the dark! Initially it's just '...way...' but eventually morphs into 'stay away...' Oh, that's nicely ominous. 

The next morning, there's some generic discussion and re-stating of our mission to save the Rogue Mega Evolutions. Taunie (despite being leader) is a bit surprised that Korrina and Ansha aren't considered full members. Ansha notes that she doesn't have the Team MZ logo anywhere on her garments, and Naveen responds that he couldn't bring himself to ruin a haute-couture coat with logo. Fuck the haute-couture, Naveen, you are going to be the face of the fashion world, you need to be more confident in yourself. 

Corbeau needs more time to analyze the data, or more accurately he needs me to run around and gather more hyperspace-task-experience or whatever they call it. It's okay. I don't mind jumping into some of these shorter rifts and catching new Pokemon and evolving them. A lot of these grindings happens in-between missions, and I really don't have anything interesting to say about them. None of the Pokemon are really even new to me per se, since I know all of the Pokeymans, and it's not like I'm seeing Nickit or Meowth or Sandygast doing anything new with the environment or trainers or whatever since it's just exactly the same Hyperspace Lumiose architecture with random Pokemon plonked in.

Speaking of Lumiose architecture, Korrina and Ansha go around to play tourist for the day. We get a rather long, extensive sequence through the Lumiose Museum. It is one of the best locations in the city with a lot of care put into it, and I appreciate that at least a main quest forces players to go through it, even if it's not the most comprehensive look around. Korrina volunteers to be 'a tour guide who doesn't know anything about art', which is actually funny. 

We stop in Laverre City and its clock, and Korrina makes a comment that 'the world is ours for the seeing', after Ansha mentions that she keeps being cooped up. Great sentiment, Korrina, except that is particularly untrue in this game which locks me only in Lumiose. 

There's some discussion about the Lumiose holographic model, the Hisuian ancient Pokeballs, and the Temple of Sinnoh. Through this all we get to see that Ansha has a bit of a complex where she doesn't consider herself a trainer (Hoopa is a 'partner') and she's afraid she can't stand up to all the standards that her mother -- who is totally Champion Diantha -- had set. Korrina offers to train her, and then shows off the painting of the Tower of Mastery to Ansha. Korrina gives her own backstory, saying that she was raised in a family that encouraged her to be a trainer, despite her own parents' being busy. It's a simple, if nice, sentiment of 'your parents will be happy as long as you are happy.'

Ansha tells us how she and Hoopa met, and she nursed Hoopa six months ago, where Hoopa looked wounded and injured after a battle with a 'mighty Pokemon' it played a prank on. She fed Hoopa a donut, and they've been buddies ever since. 

We then go to Cafe Soleil, where we get a cute scene where Ansha orders black coffee because that's the flavour her mom likes to have... and we get a hilariously off-put expression on her face. Yeah, I didn't get to like black coffee until I was well and fully into my teenage years. Korrina adorably seems to have anticipated this and ordered some Moomoo Milk Tea to swap. We get a bit of a discussion on what Pokemon exactly hurt Hoopa to that extent; and later on discuss how dangerous it was for Ansha to peek through the distortion. 

We then return back to Hotel Z, where Lida admonishes Naveen for not treating Ansha's little trip as something special. It's never the museums and cafes that are special, it's the occasion, the moment, the people! Speaking of the people, Naveen, Lida and Taunie show off the brand-new apron emblazoned with Team MZ's logo, which was actually quite an adorable moment. We formally welcome Ansha to Team MZ. Korrina... doesn't get anything with the rather flimsy excuse that her outfit is way too busy for Naveen to put another MZ. But I'm sure they could've fit something in there! We still note that Korrina is part of Team MZ, though. 

We are then interrupted by a noise from the meeting room. Lida hilariously thinks that it might be AZ's ghost... but as we investigate the room and Naveen starts getting war flashbacks to the Mega Banette fight, a dark figure drops down from the ceiling... and it's... a Gulpin! Falling on top of Naveen's head! It's adorable. Gulpin is adorable. 

Anyway, we get a new Gulpin guest in Hotel Z, with Team MZ speculating that this Gulpin is another refugee that teleported in from Hyperspace. Team MZ decides to let Gulpin live there; and it's now sitting on top of the donut table. I... okay! That's cute. I don't mind that. It's a bit unexpected, but I'm always for giving non-legendary, non-mascot Pokemon more spotlight. Hi, Gulpin!

Ansha and I feed the Gulpin a donut, and after the Gulpin eats the donut, he gives me a fancy rare berry. I guess Gulpin's use is to recycle shittier berries for fancier ones? Eh. I am still enamoured by Gulpin's adorable entry into the hotel and the story, if we're being honest. 

This went on for a bit too long, but it's a lot of scenes that I otherwise didn't have much to say about and so I decided to just cram them together. Next up we'll cover some sidequests! 

Random Notes:

• People actually realized that Ansha's very first appearance in the DLC had Diantha's theme song playing, but if I'm perfectly honest I don't actually remember much of Diantha's theme song before re-listening to it for this writeup. 
  
• The museum trip also has Korrina very unsubtly go 'if the Lumiose Museum is a trainer, it'd be a Champion!!!' in a very terrible unsubtle foreshadowing that just sounds random. 
• Going back to see Tarragon actually reveals that he is selling Canari Bread, which is a healing item. I can only buy one per day, and it's a croissant shaped like Canari's head. That's actually cute, not going to lie. 
  
• I like that there is some tangible differences to these specific types of Mega Evolutions. Not sure how they're going to translate it to the mainline games... maybe something similar to Gigantamax, where the super mode lasts only for a set amount of turns?
• At one point, Taunie notes that Jett and Quasartico is taking over a lot of the PR and communication with the public, and lampshades how everyone seems to be taking this very calmly. I do like that, but on the other hand as far as I can tell none of the overworld NPCs even mention anything about the mysterious portals appearing all over the city, which feels like it wouldn't take much to add like a couple dozen "These portals... they should be okay, right?" flavour dialogue. 
• Mega Staraptor's dex entry isn't really giving it anything new, only noting that it can soar through a sky while gripping an 800 lbs Steelix. Which is a bit of my annoyance with a lot of these newer dex entries. 
• Honestly, Korrina going 'you can just go to Laverre City if you want' makes me even angrier that the Mega Dimensions DLC doesn't actually like, select another map in Kalos to give to us as a proper DLC area.