Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 38: The Saga of Big 'Chu

So at this point, there are a lot of side-quests going on. Unlike the main game as well, there are a lot of random little distortions happening in the background, and between the Infinite ZA Royale and the minor distortions containing different Pokemon and whatnot, it does mean that a chunk of the DLC gameplay is kind of grinding what's essentially sidequests.

...to be frank, I don't like it that much. The tasks in these Mega Dimensions are a lot more repetitive than the ZA Royale missions or Wild Zone requests, and having only three Pokemon at most times is quite boring, especially when there really isn't a proper 'twist' to the maps beyond the strange cutoff. These 'farming' is what took a lot of time for me to play through the DLC, since I'm mostly doing these while also listening to podcasts and whatnot. It's not exactly the most engaging gameplay, and I loathe the timers tied to the donuts as well.

Anyway, so far I've gotten Purrloin, Sandygast, Zubat, Starly, Nickit, Foongus and Wimpod from the distortion rifts, while other Pokemon I find are pre-existing from the base game. It's nice to see these old familiar faces, but the rift gameplay is kind of boring and repetitive. 

Thankfully, there are some side-missions that at least offer a bit more interest. I have been finding some Gimmighoul Coins in the Mega Dimension. A collector called Thelo shows up with his Gimmighoul (who says 'gimme') who he got from Paldea. Thelo tells me that I need many Gimmighoul Coins to evolve Gimmighoul into its final form of Goldengho... and we need 999! Thelo tells me to collect the 999 coins, although he also just immediately gives Gimmighoul to me, as well as all the coins he has collected. At 413 (which is a bit of a random number), and the amount of coins I've been getting, it's not that much of a chore, I feel. It's just something that I'm going to just do in the background. 

Going back a bit to the base game, I finally decide to finish two sidequests. First up, is Pikami... a young child who is dressed up in an outfit that resembles Ash Ketchum from the anime, albeit in a generic NPC outfit. This person is called Pikami, and he claims to be the strongest Pikachu trainer there is, bragging about his Pikachu with a Light Ball being faster and more powerful than any other Pikachu I can bring. 

So I've been slowly building up an Alpha Pikachu I captured and have been feeding Zincs and Rare Candies. But that's not enough, because Pikami's Pikachu has... Dig. Boosted by Light Ball. 

Going around to find Dig of my own, I ended up looking up a guide because the NPC that gives out the TM for Dig hangs out in front of the museum at specific times of the day. Giving my own Pikachu a Quick Claw, I give "Big Chu" Dig for super-effective damage, Protect (to avoid being hit by attacks) and two fast-hitting moves in Quick Attack and Iron Tail. It's a bit of an interesting wrinkle to the battle system where moves like Protect still needs you to target the enemy, and Dig basically has the enemy disappear immediately. So it is a bit of a reflex game on how fast I can button-mash to hit Dig the moment the enemy Pikachu emerges from its own Dig. It took a couple of tries, let's say. A couple of frustrating tries because this is a stupid battle. 

Ultimately, after beating Pikami, he gives me the Light Ball, before telling his own Pikachu that if he gets to level 100 with a Light Ball, he's going to be the strongest Pikachu. Okay, sure. 

I then go to the Alolan tourist in front of Quasartico Inc, the leader and sole member of CHARGE (Committee to Highlight Alolan Raichu and Generate Excitement). I evolve the souped-up Big Chu into regular Raichu, and fight her Alolan Raichu... and it's a lot less annoying than the Pikachu battle, since the Alolan Raichu doesn't dodge around with Dig or whatever, and my Big Raichu still has Dig and Protect. 

Griddella congratulates my victory and offers to trade my regular Raichu for an Alolan Raichu, and I just give her a spare level 10 spare... Big Chu earned his spot as a guest star in my party, I think, after the amount of grief I've gone through with him. Griddella talks about how she's going to spread the joy of both types of Raichu all over the world...

...except this didn't exactly happen, because defeating Griddella apparently unlocks a mission in the DLC where an unknown distortion with a side mission and an unidentified mega stone appeared in one of the malls. Chomping on a higher-tier donut from Hoopa, I enter that distortion... to find Griddella and Tracie. Tracie being the lady who traded Pikachu/Raichu for Heracross all the way in the beginning of the game. Both of these NPCs were the ones who have received Raichu from sidequests, and somehow they found themselves in the Mega Dimension. They are not the least worried, but instead decide to show me Raichu's mega evolutions. Which... uh... it's something you could do in the regular world? Without having to risk your life in a strange half-dissolving distortion? 

Somehow, however, the world flashes white and both of their Raichu gets mutated into Alpha size. Yep! That's totally healthy! I face them off with my Zygarde, and the two Raichu fans mega evolve their Raichus into Mega Raichu X and Mega Raichu Y, the two poster boys for the DLC. Repeated usages of Land's Wrath and Thousand Arrows take out the two rats. 

And... the two Mega Raichus are slightly different and kind of weird. The fanged Mega Raichu X has Pikachu's colours, and has its tail split into two. The thing that the promotional images don't really show? This lets Mega Raichu X fly like a goddamn superhero, using its tails like hover-wings.

Unfortunately, despite my brief excitement, Mega Raichu X is not Electric/Flying. Boo, boo! (Mega Raichu Y is just a 'bigger' Raichu, with a longer whip-tail and much larger ears). It's a bit of an interesting duo and I'm happy Raichu got some love, but I wasn't the biggest fan of either of its mega forms compared to regular (or even Alolan) Raichu. 

The two Raichus return to their normal size, and the NPCs give me the Raichunite stones as a reward. It's... it's interesting. They return to the regular world after the mission, and that sidequest portal closes. I guess this is how I'm going to get some of the other mega stones?

So I go into another one of these two-star dimensions... and a MEGA CHIMECHO is just standing there, hovering menacingly. Mega Chimecho's main body is still a Chimecho, but it's sprouted a giant metal frame not dissimilar to a more flat version of Chingling, with Chingling's two massive ribbons and six wind chimes resembling Chimecho. It's actually quite a cute concept, essentially having Chimecho as the whole display. 

Unfortunately, this one I just straight-out fail in catching since I've got a mere +8 Donut going on and it's a bit too high. It's a bit frustrating, really. Just a mite, just a mite. Nice to see a brand-new Mega, and I do like the design, but the gameplay really does make me quite annoyed since I get punished for something that isn't my fault and is so mind-numbing to otherwise interact with (those fucking donuts) and I lose that rift with the Mega Chimecho in it. 

A Quasartico Inc employee stops me in front of Wild Zone 8, who has been charged with Wild Zone management. There have been some strange Pokemon activity in Wild Zone 8, and we get a scene of some Drillbur and Sandile running away as five things rumble on the sand... and it's a horde of Sandygast! Gasp! God, I love Sandygast. 

I beat up the Sandygast and return to Quasartico Inc officer. She thanks me for resolving the situation. The officer hypothesizes that the Sandygast arrived from Hyperspace Lumiose and immediately made themselves at home, like an invasive species, and scared off the other Pokemon there. The lady then just quotes Sandygast's Pokedex entry to highlight how creepy it is... but the quest has nothing to do with the grudges of the dead possessing a sand pile! Man, this quest was so close to having a nice point to spotlight its Pokemon-of-the-week.

I would've really liked some actual follow-up to this one, too. It's a nice showcase of the invasive species from Hyperspace interacting with the ecosystem of Lumiose City, but the game has already flirted a lot with a bunch of new wild Pokemon coming to a new habitat they are not necessarily ready for... but didn't really have a payoff. This doesn't even 'unlock' Sandygast in Wild Zone 8 or whatever. A missed opportunity for sure. 

I entered another distortion with a 'side mission detected' in it, and inside I find just a man sitting cross-legged on a bench, asking me to deliver a message for him. He asks me to deliver a letter to the director of the Academie Etoile, and he is unable to do so because of 'certain circumstances'. This man, Cherir, tells me that he doesn't have any bad intentions, and just tells me to deliver the letter.

And that's it. I exit the distortion, despite consuming a +8 donut. Man, this donut gimmick is nonsense, isn't it? It's annoying that the game doesn't really tell me when and where these side-quests are going to require a heavy battle. Boo. 

The director of the Academie Etoile is Moire... who is the lady from one of the earliest side-quests in the game, the woman who lost her ring to a Sableye in the graveyard. Turns out that Moire is the director of the school, and she receives the letter... only to be shocked. She asks to meet her in Racine Construction, where she's talking to Tarragon. Moire reveals that the letter is written by her dead husband, who was the person buried in the grave where the Sableye played. Her dead husband had left his ring to Tarragon for repair, but never had the chance to get that ring back before the accident. 

Tarragon, of course, has the ring. Moire insists that she needs to pay Tarragon for this good deed, and Tarragon obviously declines... although he does handwave it by claiming a fight with me as his 'reward'. I mean, sure. Again, we've fought Tarragon a couple of times by now, but I thought this was a nice little moment regardless. Could've added some new Pokemon to his party, though, just saying... Tarragon gives me the Cherished Ring... which, for an item that immediately gets handed over to Moire, I am surprised that GameFreak bothered to even draw up artwork for the ring. Moire thanks me for being able to reunite the two separated rings.

It's a nice, sweet story, even if it is a bit creepy with the ghost of Moire's husband apparently just drifting in these strange void-dimensions.

Another somewhat-long sidequest involves two new neighbours. A guy called Acier stares me down, before introducing his partner Scizor... who is intimidated by her new neighbour's Tinkatuff, who keeps glaring at Scizor and Acier is worried because the Tinkatink line is well-known for preying on Steel-types. I thought this was going to play on staring and involve Scizor's false heads on his claws (something that I've only seen the manga acknowledge. The neighbour, Herrera from Paldea, reveals that her Tinkatuff is actually scared of Scizor, who looks very intimidating. 

This goes back and forth for like three or four times, and while I bemoaned the short length of some of the sidequests in Legends ZA, this one just essentially repeats the same sentiment before we reach the conclusion that... hey, both Scizor and Tinkatuff are actually nice and can play with each other. I can't be too mad about this one, though, since we actually acknowledge an aspect of a Pokedex entry with Tinkatuff attacking Steel-types to get more steel for her hammer. 

Random Notes:

• I would like to know that I haven't been grinding the Infinite ZA Royale too much. I have done a couple of rounds just to farm money and experience points, but I am taking my time as I slowly evolve the Pokemon I capture during the course of the DLC. I do know that there's some cutscenes locked behind doing the Infinite ZA and fighting the bosses a couple of times. So far, I've fought Griselle, Tarragon, Lida and Xavi.
  
• Xavi makes a crack about me having a 'rank X' vibe, but unlike Zach, he actually upgraded his team! He still has a Furfrou for an ace, but he's got a Slowking in addition to fully evolving his team to Scolipede, Roserade and Alakazam.
• More sidequests that I don't have much to talk about:
• A baker asks me to walk her Fidough through a route around town. Normally I'd bitch about non-thematic sidequests, but taking a dog on a walk is not that bad, if lazy. We also get a cameo from a Maschiff, the other Paldean dog. I guess both of them are also newly added via the DLC. 
• A random writer asks me to bring a Ground-type, a Pokemon with Flamethrower, and a mega evolving Pokemon, and begins to blather a spiel about a generic isekai-esque story. I think the story isn't ridiculous enough to actually be funny. 
• A jogger with a hasty Jolteon that keeps running off wants to battle me. He uses high-Speed Pokemon, and this is a tutorial to explain natures (specifically Hasty natures) to the player. I thought this one was kind of cute, actually. 
• A biker asks me what battles hinge on. It's not 'the whims of fate', apparently, but it's speed. He then fights me with three Cyclizars. I mean... okay? Cyclizar's got a high base speed, I suppose? 
• A guy who YELLS ALL HIS DIALOGUE directs me to a quartet of Squawkabilly fighting in the skies above an alley, and I have to climb up and beat all four Squawkabilly. The guy thanks me but HE CAN'T STOP SHOUTING because of the Squawkabilly. 
• At least the Mega Dimensions give me a ton of Mega Crystals. I have been severely not bothering with farming Mega Crystals properly, particularly after I've gotten all the new Mega Stones, so this will at least be a nice way for me to go around and remember to farm the crystals and collect all the mega stones from Quasartico Inc. 
• Near Wild Zone 17 is an alley with a businessman holding a suitcase selling me the 'good stuff'. The good stuff are TMs for moves that are re-introduced via the DLC, and I pay mega shards to buy them. The Hyperspace Distortions make it very easy to get mega shards, although I do prioritize getting all the mega stones from Quasartico first. 
• I also finished the 'raise an Aurorus' quest. It's a lot simpler than the Pikachu one, since all I have to fight is a Tyrantrum, which is weaker to Aurorus already. As long as I feed the Aurorus enough XP candies, it outspeeds the Tyrantrum and takes it out easily. 
• Random civilian dialogue: "Doing the right thing doesn't always mean you'll get the right results. Why? Because life is unfair." Surprisingly randomly philosophical. 
• Chingling and Mega Chimecho's metal parts are really well-rendered. I appreciate it.