Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 42: The Lava Dome Pokemon of Jaune Plaza

So last we left off the main story, we dealt with some lazy writing regarding Jacinthe and Griselle, just to randomly handwave another cross-factional battle. And next up is another rogue mega evolution in hyperspace... which is a very unexpected Mega Meowstic!

As much as I do think that Mega Dimensions is a massive step-down from the base game of Legends ZA, at least the new mega evolutions are still pretty cool. It is also a huge shame that after the Mega Tatsugiri fight happening in a giant sushi stadium that we're back in the formless void... really, how difficult would it be to put Emma's office here? Or even like, the sewers or something? Anything, really. Korrina even lampshades that the area feels the same with the arena where we fought Mega Staraptor and Mega Absol Z, and do these arenas reflect the subconscious thoughts of the afflicted Rogue Mega Pokemon? We don't get an answer, of course, which is a shame. 

There is a brief discussion about the male and female Meowstics looking different and having different moves, and Korrina explains that the Meowstic in front of us is the male variant, which are more defense oriented... and then Meowstic mega evolves. It's... it's got the colours of the male and female combined, with the body being split down the middle similar to the mascot of Danganronpa (I've never played the games, but I recognize the mascot). The eyes in its ears are in full display, and it's got a blue and yellow eye.

Normally, I really find it lazy when developers try and shove the same model to account for a single Pokemon's multiple forms. We see this in Gigantamax Appletun/Flapple and Mega Pyroar... but Mega Tatsugiri and Mega Meowstic are so stylish about it. I love them. 

The Mega Meowstic fight is another one that's a bit difficult, but I find it quite cool. Its little Zelda boss fight mechanic is to summon four walls, like a Trick Room, and we have to break one of the walls (which is always the one furthermost to us) and get into the room otherwise we get blasted. That last bit, by the way, was not communicated well and I was confused because I thought it was my Pokemon running in and damaging Mega Meowstic that's the trigger. I felt like a smart cookie when I figured it out. 

Anyway, I used another lower-powered donut than I'm supposed to, but since this is a plot-relevant fight, I could continue with the HP shaved off. Anyway, after this sequence we've got another -sigh- butter, it's called Supreme Butter, and we go through a whole song and dance with bringing it back to Ansha. 

In the dinner, Lida mentions that the pressure from Jacinthe is getting to her. Ansha notes that Jacinthe is kind and keeps her company at mealtimes since she didn't have many friends. Korrina then asks and very casually name-drops Diantha as Ansha's mom... which is such an anticlimactic reveal and considering these post-mission curry dinners have mostly been fluff, it's probably easy to miss. No one, by the way, explains who Diantha is, too -- so anyone who didn't play Pokemon XY wouldn't get the reference or why everyone in Team MZ is so freaked out. It's bad writing, GameFreak. You can't have your cake and eat it too -- you can't write for a 'new audience' with minimal references to older continuity, and then weave in a huge drop like this without explaining it. The base game averts the problems reasonably well by explaining Team Flare, Lysandre, AZ and a lot of the plotline quite well if and when they become relevant, but at no point did Diantha's impact is really explained to the audience. 

Anyway, le gasps here and there, and Ansha explains that Diantha taught Jacinthe how do do battles. Which does makes sense, Jacinthe also uses Carbink and Gardevoir, and randomly has an Aurorus in her party which she shares with Diantha. Lida is of the same mind with me, noting that Jacinthe's  skill must be impressive... not because of her battling prowess, but because she was patient enough to take someone like Jacinthe under her supervision. 

Ansha explains that Diantha is off shooting a movie in a faraway region and won't be home at some time. Boo! Boo absent mama leaving the poor child in the hands of an irresponsible nitwit! Korrina brings up the possibility that Hoopa could use her powers to send Ansha to Diantha, but... apparently this is impossible? Why not? Hoopa is a legendary Pokemon! Ansha tells us that Diantha taught her how to make donuts, and it's this donut-making skills that allowed her to befriend Hoopa.

Not much answers are given to us, before some bad dreams happen. More 'stay away' and 'stop', and my character just begins to run around in the empty void. The mysterious voice tells me that it 'only want stay here', and that I should 'stay way stAy Away STaY AWAY'. Some really nice angles as I walk around this empty void being confused and in all directions like a cartoon. More of these instead of samey backgrounds, please game. 

In the next day, Lida mentions that she has the same creepy dream, and Naveen refuses to listen to any creepy dreams. Emma shows up and notes the adorable donut shop that's been set up in Hotel Z. Emma thanks Ansha and Hoopa for their help in the whole hyperspace crisis. Most importantly, Mimi gets a donut! Mwarp! Emma notes that there are a lot of Pokemon like Gulpin that's been appearing out of Hyperspace, and she's had her hands full dealing with them. Gee, if we could see some of those instead of dealing with the same old same old grind... 

There was a discussion then about what kind of a man AZ is, since Ansha never met AZ before. Emma describes AZ as a man with 3000 years of regret, who is determined to prevent others from suffering. We also get the origin of Hotel Z, where the land was given by someone in the ancient past as reward for creating a guardian over Kalos, and he left it in the care of friends over his long, long life. The hotel ended up becoming something that these friends set up to help cover costs. Anyway, after that bit of reminiscing and so on, Corbeau calls in and summons us to Rust Syndicate HQ. 

Canari and Ivor are somehow besieging the Rust Syndicate, and Canari is going ballistic. She wants to drag Corbeau out, because Corbeau dragged Ivor into the Hyperspace Dimension thing, and because that happened, Gwynn is also involved. It's a very nice moment for Canari; but also nice to see that even though it's off-screen (why is it off-screen?) Corbeau is enlisting the other powerful trainers of the city to help out in the crisis. All of this is causing Gwynn to want to go off and hide out in her nonexistent world... which is alarming and honestly quite sad for the poor girl who keeps getting dragged into nonsense. 

Corbeau shows up and tells Canari in his typical crime boss fashion that 'whatever is decided between Ivor and Gwynn is between them'. Which is actually fair enough, Canari should be beating Ivor up. But this is a much better setup for a battle compared to the Griselle/Jacinthe handwave. I team up with Corbeau to fight Canari and Ivor, although there was a funny bit where Canari's angry that I am not fighting alongside her. 

After the fight, Ivor explains to Canari that the Hyperspace threat has led the Fists of Justice to be re-galvanized to fight a new threat, particularly with so many random new Pokemon appearing from Hyperspace. It's a nice callback to the Fists of Justice's original mission. I still agree with Canari looking out for Gwynn's wellbeing, but this answer and the battle convinces Canari to at least help out -- help Gwynn, at least, so she doesn't have to deal with Ivor all on her own. That's nice. 

Corbeau replies very blithely: "Hooray. Your newfound team spirit helped you patch things up." Bless you, Corbeau.

As they leave, Korrina notes how Corbeau really should be more transparent when he's helping people out... but he does a pretty cool edgy-emo thing where he notes that he's not here to play hero, and he doesn't mind being hated. Okay, although in this particular case it's not really benefiting you in any way. But Corbeau's cool, so I don't mind. 

We get another show of the mini-map for no reason (was there supposed to be animation here showing the rift getting bigger, perhaps?)

There's another hyperspace research nonsense here, which again, this game is grindy as fuck and these grinds are nowhere as interesting as the Z-A battles or the Wild Zone researches. All the Pokemon are thoughtlessly thrown into samey locations, and I keep having to make fucking donuts just so the fucking timer doesn't run out. It's miserable. I'm not going to keep bitching about it. Anyway, a lot of the grinding happened concurrently with the side-quest material. 

And the next Rogue Pokemon is... a legendary Pokemon... HEATRAN!

God bless. This is a bit of a deep cut, because back in Pokemon XY, due to a random freak mistranslation, two NPCs talk about the 'Lava Dome Pokemon' that's rumoured to be found in Jaune Plaza. This was a mistranslation of the original Japanese script being of the two of them having a lark about mimicking Heatran's cry, but it was mistranslated into dialogue that looked like a hint. 

Ten years later, and Heatran is actually in Lumiose City. 

Korrina notes that the appearance of a legendary Pokemon in Hyperspace is a good thing for Ansha's dream, since it does mean that at least legendaries can appear in Hyperspace.

Heatran Mega Evolves... and... whoa, is all I can say. Its rear body has melted to the ground, its front legs turn into pillars supporting it, smoke is ejected out of its back, and most importantly, its mouth is permanently agape in a manner similar to a dripping volcano shaped like a cannon. The end result is a body that particularly reminds me of the Digimon Raremon, but lava-themed. It looks dreadfully painful and uncomfortable for Heatran, but I think that's the point -- it's half-melting, it's out of control, and it looks awesome. 

Mega Heatran is, ironically, a lot easier of a fight compared to Mega Tatsugiri and Mega Meowstic, for the simple reason that it stands in the center of the battlefield. It's a bit tougher in terms of attack and HP/defense, but by dint that my Pokemon doesn't have to run around the arena chasing the rogue megas while a stupid donut clock is ticking down, it means that I can hyperfocus my attacks on him. Zygarde is my Pokemon of choice in this fight, and there's just such a nice feeling being able to stay as Complete Form Zygarde for an extended amount of time, firing off Zygarde's four signature moves, Mega-Evolving into a giant cannon for short bursts, before continuing flying around as a Gundam to fight this volcano kaiju.

It also really brings to mind how bad Heatran's original design looks, doesn't it? I know it's a sprite designed for the NDS, but it really does highlight that the random orange and silver bits really do look like fragments of rice crispies on Heatran's body instead of the solidified slag and lava that they're meant to be. Mega Heatran's model looks so much more badass. 

Anyway, after all this bit we get another blah moment with butter. It's Hyperspace Butter, now, allowing me to add like, seven berries or something now? I really don't care. Taunie and Ansha find the butter good enough to make their supreme 'dish du jour' for Naveen... which is... a donut on top of the croissant curry. Naveen notes that 'combining two good food does not always make a masterpiece'. And yes, it does look horrifyingly bad. In-game, Naveen appreciates it, however, and the game does a whole overdramatic thing of showing him spinning around in the void. 

Similar to Naveen finding Gulpin in his room, this night is interrupted by a loud yelling from Lida's room. All the characters converge on her room and barge in, afraid that something bad is happening... but Lida and Mega Starmie is doing some sleepwalking.... or rather, sleepdancing. Korrina 'mega-wakes-up' Lida and she goes into a rather bland recap of how she has been dancing since she was a child, and there's some mistake or other between 'Staryu' and 'saw you'. The pun probably worked better in the original Japanese script. 

Most importantly, however, is the lore drop that Lida came from Hoenn! Does this mean that Tierno also came from Hoenn? Does anyone care about Tierno more than Lida now? I sure don't! 

After we all had to deal with the consequences of Lida's dreams, I get more ominous nightmarish messages going 'stay way, stop' and this time I find myself... in a creepy Alan Wake style forested cliff. Oh! Oh! Are we going out of Lumiose City's borders at last? Look! It's actual terrain! Actual terrain with rocks and trees and steps and a non-urban overworld! Floating before me is a glowing sphere -- the portal to Lumiose City, but it's shining brightly like a full moon. As if this is... a Full Moon Island of some sort. Eh? EH????

"It hurts... help..."

So yeah, the mysterious dream voice is suffering. Unfortunately, it'll take some time -- and lots more soulless grinding and donuts -- before we can help it! 

Random Notes:

• There is a bit of an unfunny running gag from this point on that these morning discussion end up with someone mentioning Corbeau's name, and he calls immediately after. It's not as funny as the game thinks it is; and honestly the game did it already with Jacinthe in the base story. 
• Korrina does mention that Mega Meowstic has elements of both male and female combined. Wonder if Mega Meowstic actually becomes genderless? 
  
• "The holes in your donuts aren't empty - they're full of love!" - Korrina
• So yeah, the nightmares in this leg of the game and that Full Moon symbology basically confirms that it's Darkrai that's causing the nightmares, so a Mega Darkrai seems to be the final boss? That's really the only legendary that makes sense, other than maybe Mega Cresselia or Mega Hoopa Unbound at a stretch. But it is surprising that we didn't get any of the other Kalos legendaries as the primary big bad!
• Emma also gives me like 5 hyper tamato berries, which is nothing. In this game's grind, I really genuinely wish some of the NPCs would give me some of the lesser hyper berries in like the dozens. I don't mind doing the gameplay, but fuck farming berries is a soulless, boring grind. 
• Actually, since this mission has revealed that at least Ivor and Gwynn (and implied to include Canari soon) are involved in hyperspace missions, couldn't some of the other Hyperspace battles featuring rogue mega evolutions have them show up? Fuck, that would've made it a lot more fun at least than 'hey, here's a Mega Scovillain and nothing else, deal with it'. 
• "It's culinary chaos!" No, seriously, curry with donuts or croissants sounds utterly vile. 
• During the Mega Starmie incident, Naveen wonders how someone would revert Mega Evolution if it happens out of battle. The answer, Naveen? In this game, you're forced to wait for the clock to run out. 
• Heatran has joined Mewtwo, Diancie and Zygarde as the legendaries in my party that can mega-evolve and be a bit more useful in these side-content.