Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 46: Alpha and Omega

After grinding, after miserable, miserable grinding, Corbeau finally calls me to Centrico Plaza, where we meet Grisham and Griselle at the cafe truck. Griselle makes a bit of a crack that Corbeau only orders drip coffee, as if they've suddenly gone to penny-pinching for some reason. Corbeau ignores this barb, but thanks me for helping to protect Lumiose City -- his city -- as he gestures at Prism Tower. I actually do like this scene a bit; it helps to show why Corbeau is taking the role of the point-man for this endeavour. "The things that need doing are sometimes the hardest to do."

Corbeau tells me that I need to get to the Ruby and Sapphire Distortion. A bit on the nose there, but okay. The Rust Syndicate has been researching recipes... and they find out that the ingredient they need is Hoennian Salt. Which turns out Grisham has. Grisham is a bit confused how they know about his secret ingredient, but it's a bit of a silly question. They're the mafia! Of course they know everything about everyone. It is a bit silly as well that apparently the usage of Hoennian Salt (which doesn't even sound that impressive) is 'leverage'. 

With a goofy grin as he does a pose, the Rust Syndicate claims that they didn't even do any digging or snooping around for this information; they figured out the secret ingredient due to Phillippe's palate. That's... that's cute, actually. 

Ansha then gives me a list of flavours, similar to the Darkrai donut, that I need to create the 'Alpha Old-Fashioned Donut' and 'Omega Old-Fashioned Donut'. Which, of course leads me to go and do a bunch more grinding in hyperspace because I just don't have enough high-level berries, because the game wants me to spend the high-value berrieds to create high-value donuts to go and do the mega evolution rifts so I can grind points and arrrrrghhghghghghg. 

Anyway, I got the Groudon donut done first. It looks like an omega sign. Wonderful. 

Entering the Ruby Distortion, we enter a subterranean cave with massive ruby-coloured crystals. The set design for this is phenomenal, with a gigantic lava pool set up like an omega symbol, a massive stalagtite of rubies pointing down, lava waterfalls, and Groudon sealed in a statue-like form at the end. It looks amazing. But even more amazing is if I look up, and instead of a ceiling, it's an impossible reversal, where water is flowing upwards to a different chamber... the Sapphire Distortion. Kyogre's lair! See, this is the kind of psychedelic, weird hyperspace locations I'd rather explore, not just muted glitchy Lumiose. 

Groudon then awakens, cracking open from its statue-like prison, and we get a two-parter fight. First, against regular Groudon, and again against Primal Groudon. After all the grinding, though, I just don't have the energy to really pay attention to thsi fight. Groudon sure uses some of his iconic moves, like his signature Precipice Blades, and some Earth Powers and Solar Beams. Abilities don't exist in Legends ZA, but the raid Primal Groudon still has an aura that prevents Water-types, something that Taunie panics about. 

I primarily rely on Mega Zygarde, because ironically Primal Groudon is weak to its own Ground-typing. 

Groudon falls and I also get the Red Orb, which allows Groudon to Primal-revert any time it's in battle. Which is similar to Complete Form Zygarde in this game, where they can actually just stay in these super forms without a timer essentially for the duration of a whole battle royale or a distortion. The game gives a cutsccene where Corbeau asks Korrina about the difference about Primal Reversion and Mega Stone, but we already know that from ORAS. 

Next up is Kyogre, whose rift is in Wild Zone 5. Again, the location is wonderfully rendered. Perhaps a bit less impressive than the glowing effects of Groudon's magma, but the water pools being arranged like an alpha sign, the waterfalls, and the massive crystal... and just like Groudon, Kyogre is in a statue-like form at the end of the dungeon. And Groudon's lava location is, of course, on top of this. 

Again, the raid is in two parts. Kyogre, and then Primal Kyogre. Kyogre uses a combination of Water and Electric-type moves, and I absolutely love how Origin Pulse is portrayed in this game. Primal Kyogre actually has the little orbs that shoots the pulses appear and start pointing in different directions as it spins around, like a proper dang video game boss fight. I appreciate that. 

We beat Groudon and Kyogre, and captured them, the two legendary Pokemon of Hoenn... but our primary target, or rather, Ansha's primary target, is Rayquaza. After some offscreen study of the Red Orb and Blue Orb, we bring in Holo-Mable, who insists that she is an 'acting director', not a 'professor'. Corbeau, catty little asshole that he is, actually keeps calling Mable as 'Professor' throughout the whole conversation. What a jackass! 

Mable's conclusion is quite nonsensical, even by the standards of this franchise. Turns out that all the mega dimension energy that seeped into Darkrai isn't just subconscious thoughts, but also dreams. And this means that to get Rayquaza, we need to "actualize a related aspect of the subconscious as a basis". Or, as Mable dumbs it down for us: You. Have. To. Wish. Really. Hard. 

It is kind of dumb, isn't it? Pokemon has never been 'hard' sci-fi, never by a long shot. But it always has some sort of quasi-logical explanation to its plotlines, usually related to legendary Pokemon powers. This really felt like a bullshit handwave, even moreso than the Mega Donut. Why we can bring the Pokemon, even legendary Pokemon, out of this dream space is also never explained properly. 

Corbeau and Mable trade more barbs, before we return to Hotel Z. We recap the reest of the team about what we've learned, and we gather on the rooftop of the hotel. Ansha then gives some backstory that ties together the plotlines of Pokemon XY and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, which I appreciate. We also have some strange traditional drawings of Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, which I really love:

It's very storybook-y, and such a simultaneously goofy but historic depiction of the Hoenn legend.

In this 'Primal Age', the world overflowed with natural energy. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre clashed, empowered by their respective orbs, and they fought over the world's natural energy, with every roar and attack causing the world to shake and change. They fought for 20 days, warping the world around them until the ancient Draconid People wished for Rayquaza to descend and save them from destruction. 

And Rayquaza descended from the heavens in its powerful form, a mega evolved form, scaring the two into submission. Interestingly, the artwork also depicts a Little Prince looking trainer with green hair standing on top of Rayqauaza's head. The rest of the story is what we know, Mega Rayquaza uses its power to subdue the weather-manipulation powers of the other two, driving them away to the depths where they slumber. Ansha has read this story with her mother a lot, and was inspired by the stories of Rayquaza and the Draconids. 

After this story (which is a nice recap of the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald lore), Korrina then explains that Rayquaza has a 'mikado organ' that has the same power as a Mega Stone. You... you can say that Rayquaza swallowed the Mega Stone, Korrina. We all know what happened.

All this conversation, and all this wishing... leads to another massive rift opening above Prism Tower. Phillippe shows up and gives us another 50K point grind to get enough data to understand the sigh donut recipe required or whatever... 

Some grinding later, and we get another meeting with Corbeau and Phillippe, and I'm not saying that Legends ZA is some kind of Shakespearian masterpiece, but it really does show that the writers really didn't put any thought at all to any of these dialogues. The characterization of characters like Corbeau really get reduced to 'lol serious character saying silly things', which is only funny in small increments and just feels out-of-character when repeated so many times. The base story gives the side characters dialogue that at least tied to their personalities, but I took screenshots of their dialogue to see what I can say about them and find that none of them mattered at all. Corbeau gives us some Arboliva Oil, which is the secret ingredient to the donut with nonsense requirements, so I had to grind even more bullshit for the specific berries. 

Anyway, we open up a rift and end up in Hyperspace Sky Pillar, an excellent recreation of the Sky Pillar from the 3DS games. They even have the cute, boxy, square-shaped staircase that would've led down to the rest of the dungeon in the older games! Ah, if only this location was actually explorable, and that some of the hyperspace grinding would be actually tied to a proper, engaging location...

And then like a god, Rayquaza flies down from the sky in a straight line down, glowing green and slamming down and roaring before us. The cutscenes and the music and the environment, at least, are awesome. Rayquaza unleashes hyper beams, draco meteors, hurricanes, and rapid-fire outrage slashes, and my first team to face him had pokemon like Mega Slowbro, Kyogre and an ice-beaming Mewtwo among them.

Turns out that this was a mistake. Rayquaza mega evolves, and wraps itself in a barrier of wind that neutralizes all Flying-type weaknesses. Including Ice. I... this was part of Delta Stream's effects, and with Primal Groudon also importing its regular-game immunity, I didn't know why I didn't prepare for it. So I bow out gracefully from the mega fight, and bring in a small army of fairies. Xerneas, Diancie and Meganium take central stage now, and I just bombard Mega Rayquaza with Moonblasts and Dazzling Gleams while avoiding the attacks.  

And you know what? Credit where credit is due. Fighting Mega Rayquaza as it shoots around hyper beams and draco meteors, with the awesome music in the background, on top of Sky Pillar with the night sky around? That's awesome. I'm not going to let my utter disregard about the rest of the DLC sully that. 

We return to Hotel Z, where I let Rayquaza out on the rooftop and Ansha is quite delighted (if shy) to meet such a fine Pokemon. I'm supposed to give it to her, but the conversation goes into Ansha realizing that the adventure is over and she would have to hang up her apron as a donut chef. The older members of Team MZ basically then hype her up, telling her that she could continue making donuts while the rest of Team MZ deal with Hyperspace Distortions. In perhaps the one good line of conversation in this whole cutscene, Korrina asks Ansha why she's so obsessed with giving Rayquaza to her mother, leading Ansha into a bit of an introspection of 'what I would do after this', and Korrina tells Ansha that she has a better gift to give to Diantha... stories, memories, and a sign that as a child, she has matured. 

Korrina also casually tells Ansha that Jacinthe and Diantha already know that she's been hanging out in Hotel MZ all this while, and Ansha thanks Rayquaza and asks me to take care of Rayquaza until she becomes a Pokemon trainer. Korrina promises to take Ansha under her wing, and we get a short epilogue of Ansha drawing her and Diantha meeting and how she gave Diantha the gift of donuts and stories. 

Neat storyline. I would've cared a lot more if it wasn't stretched out like a rubber band across so much grinding and pointless dialogue. Was there a reason that this had to be a whole post-game to the DLC, instead of incorporated as the 'storyline' boss fights leading up to the Darkrai mission? It's a bit silly, really. It's not even the low stakes and the general wifty-wafty vibe of Ansha as a character, it's just how it was presented as a story in general. 

Anyway, there are still some more post-post-game to the DLC, which is ridiculous that this is the state of video games nowadays. I admit I wouldn't be so frustrated without the grinding and I would just be happy that I got content, but there's a reason why these reviews are a bit more spread out. 

Random Notes:

• The music, by the way, is amazing. We get a great remix of the themes from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire for the Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza fights, and the Mega Rayquaza battle even gets a nice remix with the Team MZ battle theme. No complaints at all about the battle themes, and the boss fight environments. 
• There was a bit of a funny scene where Corbeau shuts Phillippe's boasting down and tells him to be humble because they don't want to sound like they want a 'pat in the back', but Phillippe turns it around to a compliment about Corbeau's sleepless nights researching the distortions. Aw, these two. 
  
• Corbeau: "What kind of an organization are we these days... a civic think tank?" and when we call Corbeau out that he's nice, "Once folks are in our debt, we can put them to work for free... helping to shape Lumiose just the way we want it." I like them. 
• "Wait, so we're using [Arboliva Oil] because it's green?" "Sure, no sense making it complicated." Really, the writers could at least try and make these plot coupons and devices actually matter, you know? 
• Seriously, Korrina mentions one sentence about being a Mega Evolution successor witnessing the 'original' Mega Evolution. And that's it. That's the sum of her characterization. What's the point of bringing back older characters if you're not going to do anything with them? 
• And unlike the mega evolution raids earlier in the DLC, Rayquaza does not allow you to jump in partway through the battle if you fail, which I appreciate. The Rayquaza/Mega Rayquaza fight is well-designed enough that I don't mind doing it properly without mistakes, unlike some of the more bullshit raids that they had earlier in the game. 
• I catch Rayquaza in a Friend Ball, which is a ball that really fits his colouration, doesn't it? I think we need a lot of newer balls in general... was the last ball to enter the mainline games really the Beast Ball from ORAS?