Reviewing Monsters - The Legend of Zelda, Oracle of Ages

I never played the two Oracle games in Zelda, which were released for the Game Boy Color and released after the successful duology that's Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The two games are heavily based on the previous 2D Zelda game, Link's Awakening, and that's why this review is going to be very short -- almost 90% of the bestiary is borrowed from Link's Awakening, with only most of the bosses and maybe a handful of new enemies in both. 

And I tried to play a little bit of each game, but I just... I just kind of lost steam, and the opening of both just felt a bit more generic compared to Link's Awakening, A Link to the Past, Minish Cap and a bunch of other 2D Zelda games. In both games, Link gets drawn to a brand-new land, with Labrynna in Oracle of Ages, where he has to fight the singer Nayru from the evil sorceress Veran. Combined with the plotline and the villain in Oracle of Seasons, Link can access the final chapter of both games (through the power of a password) by swapping certain game-exclusive plot devices, fighting against the true mastermind. Anyway, I am honestly rather indifferent about the bestiaries or the games for both, and I think it's because they're so samey to Link's Awakening? About time I talked about them, though. 

Returning LA Enemies:

I'm not going to talk about every single one of these, but we'll just quickly cover the returning enemies just to appreciate these old-school sprites. I talked about all of them in my review of Link's Awakening. And discounting a couple of 'traps' like the Beamoses, Podoboos and Anti-Fairies, these are all the enemies that reappear in Oracle of Ages...

We've got your typical early-game weirdo animals and plants like the Octorok, Leever, Peahat, Rope, Tektite, Keese and the Biri/Bari combo. these guys have been such mainstays in the 2D games! Most of them come in different colours, but I'm not going to put in every single one of them.

We've also got the more 'mundane' enemy animals like the Sand Crab, Crow, Cheep Cheep, Beetle and Water Tektite which I mostly just associate with Link's Awakening!

Particularly memorable 'walking hazards' like the Spiked Beetle, two variations of Spiny Beetle and Hardhat Beetle also make their return. 

A bunch of slime enemies -- Buzz Blob, Cukeman, Zol and Gel also return. 

And a bunch of classic humanoids. Darknut, Wizzrobe, River Zora, Moblin, Pig Warrior and Ball and Chain Warrior make a reappearance. 

And a bunch of undeads. Four different Stalfos, Sword Stalfos, Shrouded Stalfos, Gibdo and Ghini. 

Another set of 'classic' enemies that I feel I associate more with the later parts of any Zelda game, we've got the Pol's Voice, Like Like, Lynel, Floormaster, Wallmaster, Armos and Mini-Moldorm.

Leaving us with a handful of final enemies that I associate more with Link's Awakening and in that extent the Oracle games, Arm Mimic, Iron Mask, Goponga Flower and Pincer. 

In addition, two minibosses from Link's Awakening, Rover (called Smasher here) and Vire also make a reappearance. 

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Now on to the new enemies!

New Enemies:

Fire Keese

These enemies are 'new' in the sense of the 2D Link's Awakening game, but the Fire Keese technically debuted in Ocarina of Time, and I'm sure this is a '2Dfication' adaptation of it. Not much to say, it sure is the regular Keese model on fire!

Color-Changing Gel

Remember that even colour in a video game used to be such a massive innovation! The Colour-Changing Gel makes use of the Game Boy Color's, well, colour in order for their gimmick. They can camouflage into the backgrounds of the rooms that they spawn in, and Link needs to use the room's gimmick to change the colours to 'bring them out' and make them vulnerable. Cute!

Guard

Coming in various armour colours, the Guards are the guards in Labyrnna's past, guarding the palace that mostly serve to bother you. As is consistent with most Zelda games, Link isn't allowed to kill explicitly human enemies and these guards will run away instead of disappearing in a dying poof like the Moblins or whatever. 

Kyandokyan/Candlehead

Good thing that the Wiki offers a name, otherwise I'd be confused what this thing is! Some kind of sentient fruit creature with legs? A totem? But it's actually a candle enemy. I don't think we've had this in Zelda before! These things walk around in diagonal patterns and hit Link, but are weak to fire and when est on fire, they will run around wildly before exploding. 

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Mini-Bosses:

Giant Ghini

Despite his name, the Giant Ghini actually has not much in common with the iconic one-eyed, tongue-lolling Giant Ghinis we see in other games. No, this Giant Ghini has a more unique face and two tiny nubs on its head. It's accompanied by three Mini-Ghini that fly around and stick onto Link and slow him down, while the big one slams onto Link. Pretty simple, but it is always neat to see an "elite" version of an enemy we've grown to be familiar with in the game.

Swoop

He kinda looks like a Vire, huh? Swoop here is basically another goblin or demon-looking creature, but with massive wing-ears. I really don't have a whole ton to say here, because it's honestly not the most exciting thing on this page. It's just a... flying demon-guy with ear-wings! Swoop here does remind me of a more devilish version of something like Terriermon from Digimon Tamers, but otherwise he's kind of just there. I'm not going to talk about the fight mechanics of bosses in a game I've never played, but Swoop here doesn't seem to do anything interesting from the description in the wikis.

Subterror

Speaking of Digimon, Subterror here is just straight-up Drimogemon, being a mole with a gigantic nose-drill. It's a pretty simple design, replacing a mole's regular digging claws with the fun image of a giant drill. The fight, obviously, involves Subterror burrowing around the battle arena, and Link needs to use a shovel item to dig Subterror out. 

Armos Warrior

This guy barely got shuffled into the same list as Smasher and Vire up above, because he's basically the Armos Knight from A Link to the Past. It's just that he's actually got a different name and model, and... he's got a sword that he controls telekinetically, which is kind of an interesting way to allow this bulky-looking man to actually fight with a sword. I also like that his massive shield has a sword with a cross on it, saying that 'no sword!'... which is a hint for Link to cause the Armos Warrior's own telekinetic sword to smash onto his shield many times. Kinda cute, thanks to the psychic sword. 

Great Moblin

I am frankly surprised we don't get more 'big Moblin' bosses in the older games! I don't think it's until King Bulblin from Twilight Princess that we actually get another 'big blin boss' enemy, and you'd think that it'd be obvious to have Moblin generals and Moblin chieftains. The Great Moblin is a big green pig-man with a kingly crown, cape and a necklace. Is that crown supposed to be upside-down? Cute.

While he's kind of an 'expected' depiction of a Moblin boss, I do like that the Great Moblin appears in both Oracle games, and based on whether you do the 'linked game' thing or not, the Great Moblin would disappear in the second game you clear and allow exploration of his territory. 

Angler Fish

Huh! This guy has the same name and clearly is a reference to the Link's Awakening boss, but where LA's Angler Fish is a big, dumpy ugly warty anglerfish, Oracle of Ages's Angler Fish is a big, fat and honestly uncomfortable-looking fish with a comical little lure on his forehead. The Angler Fish is apparently fought inside the belly of Jabu-Jabu, in a reference to the iconic dungeon in Ocarina of Time, and he fights more with bubbles instead of charging around like LA's Angler Fish. I prefer LA's more monstrous version, but this one is kinda cute as well, it's like the big brother of the Cheep Cheep enemies or something.

Blue Stalfos

Known by the far more threatening moniker of "Death Stalfos" in the Japanese version, the Blue Stalfos is a straight-up Grim Reaper! It's a Stalfos in a proper, defined hood with a massive scythe, and he's not hunched-over like those silly Shrouded Stalfos minions! Blue Stalfos isn't our first or last 'creepy grim reaper' enemy in the franchise, but it's still cool to see something like him rendered in 2D. The fight is an interesting one, where the Blue Stalfos will shoot around balls of light that transform either Link or the Blue Stalfos into a helpless form. For Link, he gets turned into a baby, which implies some kind of time reversal magic... but the Blue Stalfos gets turned into a Stalfos skull with Keese wings! Huh! 

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Bosses:

Pumpkin Head

And we're going into the bosses now, and our first one is... a jack-o-lantern man? Huh. That feels a bit off for Zelda? Is it just me? He's a pretty cute looking pumpkin man, though, and the fight is kind of interesting. The design makes him look like a humanoid or a spirit (like a Poe or something) that dances around and summons fireballs, as you do. But when Link deals enough damage to the Pumpkin Head, his body will disappear and leave behind just the jack-o-lantern head. Pretty expected for one of these things, right? then Link needs to pick up the pumpkin and reveal the true form of the creature, which is a tiny little ghostly spirit not too reminiscent to the Mini-Ghinis we see above! So it's a puppeteer spirit that manipulates the larger pumpkin head body! That's cool!

Head Thwomp

Huh. The Thwomps are from Mario, right? Well, we have a four-sided Head Thwomp, who spins around like they're a Quintesson from Transformers or something, and you fight him in a side-scrolling section. Each of the heads have a different effect and summons different kinds of attack patterns, with the exception of the red face -- which is shocked and will spit out a healing heart. The Head Thwomp also shoots out Podoboo, another Mario-based hazard. Not too much to say here, it's neat to get a stronger version of an enemy that you encounter earlier in the game, even one that I personally think of more as a 'hazard' than an 'enemy'. 

Shadow Hag

She looks like a more monstrous version of the Ocarina of Time version of the Poe, huh? She's a pretty neat-looking sorcerer enemy, and while the design isn't the most exciting-looking one visually, I do like that the 'Shadow Hag' actually does split into shadows and rush around the room, and at some point she summons little moths that attack Link. The Moths are exactly like the bastard fire-seeking moths from Majora's Mask which give me PTSD so! Anyway, this wouldn't be quite as exciting without the shadow-diving gimmick. 

Eyesoar

Ah, that's more like it! There's a lack of eyeball monsters in a 2D Zelda game. Eyesoar here has a fun English name, but its original Japanese name is 'Patra', referencing the exact same creature from the very first Legend of Zelda game. Actually, a lot of first-game Zelda bosses make a return, just in the other Oracle game. Eyesoar here is a big eyeball with wings, with four smaller eyes that kind of orbit around it.

Unlike the Arrghus, the Eyesoar's orbiting buddies can't actually be killed and Link has to go straight for the central eye, making use of the gaps between the Eyesoar's little buddies and hitting the central eyeball. Interestingly, when this central eyeball is hit the smaller orbiting bodies fly away, leaving the central one vulnerable. Is the Eyesoar actually a symbiotic creature of sorts, then, and the little yellow things just opportunistic or something? 

Smog

It sure is a giant, sneering face made out of smog and gas. Smog actually challenges Link to a series of puzzle rooms, making him a rather unique rarity in that it's not entirely a boss that Link defeats in combat but in puzzle-solving. Has there actually been another Zelda boss that does that? Huh. 

You still have to beat Smog in combat after completing all of his trials or whatever, but he just shoots lightning and hovers around the room before you stab it to death. 

Octogon

Oh, like an Octorok, but octagonal! Kind of! We only really see five or six spikes! Octogon kind of reminds me of Big Octo, particularly the miniboss variant fought in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The design is much more angrier-looking, and the tentacles actually make me think of something like a hermit crab. He's also got the four-part beak of Omastar from Pokemon. After some back-and-forth where the Octogon's vulnerable part is its head, Link has to actually chase the Octogon underwater for the second phase. A pretty fun creature, and I'm a big fan of, again, adding more powerful variants to existing enemies. 

Plasmarine

The boss of this game's version of Jabu-Jabu's Belly, Plasmarine is a big jellyfish with cartoon eyes on it. It's a bit more amorphous and actually jellyfish-looking than the rigid Bari... though the Plasmarine is also able to shoot lightning balls at him. There's a colour-swapping gimmick going on where the Plasmarine goes from red to blue based on how Link hits him. Really don't have much to say about this one, it sure is a jellyfish!

Ramrock

Ramrock is kinda cool! Some kind of rock elemental, Ramrock floats up with its head and two disembodied hands. He fights in four phases, swapping his floating hands for weapons (spiked gloves, shields and ball-and-chain combos on the subsequent phases). It's a simple gimmick, but one that does give Ramrock a bit more oomph as he uses bombs and seeds to take down Ramrock. 

Veran

And our primary antagonist for this leg of the game is the sorceress Veran, who's... a lady with a fun hairdo that looks like an upside-down version of the modern Breath of the Wild Zoras. She sure is an anime witch, is all I'm saying. Her boss fight and her role in the story has her possessing a bunch of characters, like Possessed Nayru (the titular Oracle of Ages) and Possessed Queen Ambi. They sure are blue humans! Cool from a story perspective, I'm sure, but kind of yawn, y'know? Until...

Yeah, Veran reveals her true form, and it's actually a bug-winged demon fairy thing! And she also summons Dark Links, which is always a welcome if slightly-tired addition. 

And after beating Veran's green form, Veran starts going into wild metamorphosis. Part of her first couple of phases involves her summoning bug minions, but it turns out she herself is a bug! And... there's some rather nasty artwork that looks rather horrific even (or perhaps because) though it's in pretty simple sprites. Veran's Beetle form looks more comical than anything, with Veran's head stuck on one of those Hardhat Beetles or something. 

But her Bee and Spider forms has Veran's diabolical cackling face fused unnaturally on either the forehead of the bee or under the mandibles of the spider! Pretty cool little series of final forms! 

Of course, Veran is the final boss if you're not playing the linked game -- once you beat the main boss of Oracle of Seasons, it unlocks a 'true ending' on whichever game you play second, but we'll talk about him (it's Ganon, hijacked by Ganon) when we cover Oracle of Seasons!

One Piece 1122 Review: Impact Dial

One Piece, Chapter 1122: The Time is At Hand

So yeah, I'm... not the biggest fan of this chapter? I don't dislike it, and I appreciate the subversion in a way, but I don't know if it's just me being grouchy from my illness or still kind of 'reeling' from the Nika-form Bonney thing (which after seeing how much relatively weaker it is, makes me feel a bit more mollified). 

Apparently Vegapunk's message is still kinda going, but he's not really saying anything much. Some random generic citizens all over the world get inspired by Vegapunk's message to go after the One Piece.... yeah, Office Worker Ossan With Bad Pharaoh Cosplay; Skullhat and Budget Jeet are totally going to be the new Supernovas. We also get the explanation how the prisoners in Impel Down can hear what's going on, since apparently Vegapunk's technology just hacks into all the snails, and they can't shut down all of the snails in Impel Down. 

We get some reactions from some major players, like Koby... who's in a bed and growls about how he's going to stop Luffy from stopping his dream. I mean, sure. Maybe, like, save Garp first, and do that later? Just a thought, maybe you need some priorities. Buggy plays to the crowd and makes his Cross Guild goons swoon over a "it's not my world, it's our world" speech before Crocodile and Mihawk tells him to get his ass down. Blackbeard also reacts to this, kind of, with Devon and Augur in the process of bringing Caribou to him. 

We have the Iron Giant being tackled by Topman, and we see two panels of a Den Den Mushi falling down and seemingly being caught by an explosion. It's still One Piece so some death-defying shenanigans may occur, but I don't think a fucking snail should be able to pull a Pound. 

Emet talks to Luffy a bit, and keeps saying about 'Joy Boy', and Luffy finally realizes that Emet mistook him for someone else. Emet notes that he kind of figured it out that Luffy and Joy Boy isn't the same person, but he's nostalgic and he just woke up from a hundreds-year nap and they just feel so similar. He apologizes to Joy Boy, noting that he "could not make Joy Boy king", which... is interesting? Luffy yells about his identity, and the Iron Giant responds to 'D'.

We get a pretty cool shot of the four Gorosei assembled as the Sunny flies through the air and Emet looms to fight them, and I think the sheer scale of how much bigger Ju-Peter and Topman are compared to Emet, Ethan, Saturn and the giants.

Iron Giant unties a knot, which... I'm honestly not sure whether that knot is inside of the gianat's body or somewhere outside? It's a reference to a random minor scene forever ago, with Haredas, the weather wizard that trained Nami, showing off some wind-sealing knots. And it's honestly just something that comes out of nowhere as Emet unlocking that knot just unleashes a fuck-ton of Conqueror's Haki. It blasts a bunch of Marines out, and we see the black lightning emerging out from a long-shot of the island. 

The blast hits the four Gorosei point-blank, and Topman, Saturn, Ethan and Peter get knocked out of their Zoan Beast (?) modes. And then we get to see Topman, Ethan and Peter get teleported into the Big Room of Authority, where Marcus Mars is just sitting on his chair with the most displeased expression on his face. And... I guess when Luffy, Bonney, Sanji and Franky did their combo attack thing, they actually did send Team Rocket blasting off again? It does explain why Marcus never flew back to Egghead to menace our heroes. 

And... notably, Saturn is not back yet. It is notable, again, that so much attention was put into Saturn being physically on a boat sailing to Egghead, and he summoned the other four Gorosei there with magic kuchiyose-no-jutsu style summoning circles. So something Emet did undid the summoning technique, and that something is also similar to whatever Luffy did that knocked Mars back. I'm going to guess it's the Conqueror's Haki more than anything, but I... honestly feel like this really came out of nowhere. It wouldn't be as bad if we had any kind of foreshadowing -- even Luffy (and Bonney) being able to wound or disrupt the Gorosei with Gear Fifth had some logic due to the whole established idea of the Gorosei being afraid of Nika. But this random Haki-storing rope being in the Iron Giant all along feels like a completely random development. 

Oh, and Imu is keeling over in his room, thinking about Joy Boy, but who knows if he's keeling over from pain because he's connected to the Gorosei, or because he feels the Haki... at this point the mystery's honestly kind of annoying. 

The Thousand Sunny lands on the Giant Pirate ship, and we get some reunion scenes with the rest of the crew and some (mostly offscreen) catchup happens. While all of this is going on, we get to see Saturn look at the now-hopefully-destroyed Emet going "...". 

And then we get a flashback to Emet -- still sparkling new -- talking with Joy Boy, who is completely silhouetted. He sure has a straw hat! Emet also has an 'X' on his arms, which presumably is going to tie to Alabasta somehow? Joy Boy is also sitting on what appears to be a Poneglyph, though no idea which island this is. There's some exposition about Joy Boy storing his Haki into the knot for the future, but I'm mostly more interested in Emet having enough of a personality and sentience to be happy that Joy Boy will stay with him, in a sort, all the way to the future. 

Anyway... hopefully Egghead Island wraps up soon. I can't say I find the Joy Boy and Emet stuff a particularly good payoff for just how long the giant robot has been going around going "Joy... boy..." over and over again, and I'm someone who's mostly been okay with a lot of the revelations in Egghead Island. It can't all be bangers, I guess, but I really wasn't the biggest fan of this one. 

Random Notes:

• The cover page is Smoker with the truncated "Hero Academia" in the smoke. This is actually a replication of the fan-art that Horikoshi sent in to One Piece all the way back in the Dressrosa arc, before he became an established mangaka! That's honestly quite amazing -- that Horikoshi managed to start a manga and conclude his manga (I'll have to get caught up in the last 10-20 chapters) but also that One Piece, this behemoth, has been running long enough to inspire a high school kid, have him grow up to an age where he can start publishing a manga, and even conclude it... and One Piece is still running strong! 
• One thing that really does make me wish Oda does more is to give some recurring characters as mooks in Buggy and Blackberad's organization. It's not much to ask for that, isn't it? Like knowing random names of all the captains in Whitebeard's divisions or having names for all the Kid Pirates, Law Pirates, Oniwabanshu, et cetera? 
• We notably don't get to see if Saturn is weakened by water. We only ever see him tossed around in the air, or back on the land. 
• Some people mention that the idea of 'storing energy' is kind of similar to Impact Dials... which, again, if the Weather Knots or the Impact Dials are meant to be relevant, it'd be nice to just see them be mentioned in... not even in Egghead Island, but even a brief mention here and there in the post-timeskip era would've been nice. 
• I love that while Topman, Saturn and Ethan are posing as if they're badass warriors that are trying to endure a hit, Ju Peter is posing like he's about to dive into a fucking pool thanks to how the worm mode was posing before it's taken out. 

Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 2: Accidental Fungicide

We're back again with some of my playthrough of New Pokemon Snap. I did a couple of extra runs of the Florio Natural Park just to kind of familiarize myself with the controls and try to get some extra experience points. I do really like that the Bidoof dam has actually been completed as the area progresses, damming up the river and causing one particularly unfortunate Magikarp to get stranded on a piece of rock.

Also, more importantly, I found the part of the settings that allows me to actually adjust the speed of turning the cursors and the camera, which was a huge problem for me in trying to properly catch up with some of the Pokemon. Particularly in the next region, which is the Founja Jungle of the Belusylva island. 

I actually really like how the Belusylva Island is introduced to us. The way that the world map was initially displayed made it look like we're just going to explore all over the Florio Island, with the different biomes and beaches and stuff located there, when this much larger landmass appears on the map! I mean, it ultimately isn't going to matter since it's not an open-world game and these are just levels that I enter through a menu... but it's the presentation that really matters. 

Anyway, Founja Jungle! It's a bit more of a deeper forest compared to the Florio Natural Park, with denser trees and abandoned ruins dotting the location. 

It's filled with a bunch of new Pokemon. We've got Bounsweet and Aipom running around the branches, a Slaking sleeping with its ass pointed towards me, a bunch of Beautiflys flying around... there's a spiderweb that clearly belongs to an Ariados that I really can't do anything about. After passing a bunch of ruins, I end up going to a beautiful-looking waterfall and lake filled with Magikarps and Quagsires. 

Oh, and there's a lot of Liepards, and I think it's perhaps a function of it being an early-route Pokemon, but I've never quite realized just how cool Liepard is in motion. Really like that giant whip-scythe tail! I mean, it's just a slender, deadly-looking leopard, but those are cool, and I think Liepard kind of gets lost in the shuffle of the Unovan dex. I have a new appreciation of Liepard now, honestly, which isn't a sentence I expected to write. 

I actually thought that the Founja Jungle was a bit of a letdown... at least in the day. I didn't get to see much that isn't just more jungle, and there's a lot of repeating Pokemon throughout the trek, I feel.

I almost immediately unlock the night time version of the jungle, which has a lot of Liepards lurking around... but also Yanmega just buzzing around menacingly like tiny helicopter dragonflies of doom. But the coolest thing is the fact that the jungle comes alive at night, with so many Morelulls just pitter-pattering about in their tiny little mycellium legs, lighting up the forest and making it look so surreal. It's not quite the creepy Fairy-type forest from Galar, but it's still so beautiful! There was this one grove with like 15 Morelulls hanging on top of branches in rows, and that looks pretty. 

There are also a bunch of Pokemon that are sleeping, which is interesting. An Arbok just sleeps like a lazy man on a hammock and I can knock it out of the branches it's coiled on. Clusters of sleeping Ledian hug trees, and I wonder how to get them up. 

Ariadoses scuttle around and patrol their territory. Toucannons and Pikipeks sleep in the night, where they fill the trees in the day. 

And... as the title of this sequence might clue you in, my most memorable encounter of the game revolves around a trio of Morelulls near the end of the track. I was just chucking apples and spamming the photograph button, trying to see if I could trigger some of the specific behaviours that the Pokemon would do. 

So I chuck the apple towards the Morelull. 

The apple, which is as big as the main body of these tiny sentient fungus friends. 

Which, according to Rita and Professor Mirror, apples that should weigh less and not injure a Pokemon.

The Morelull just keels over and drops to the ground with its eyes closed, expelling a bunch of spores. And it's just... still. Its friend stands next to it, just looking with those blank eyes, those blank dot eyes, so emotionless yet so full of sorrow. 

Yeah, did I just accidentally kill a Morelull? Or severely injure it enough to give the fungus-monster equivalent of a severe brain concussion. 

Oh well, at least I got some points?

Anyway, I had to repeat this night course like three times because I completely missed the fact that Professor Mirror was constantly telling me to take a photograph of the Crystalbloom flower from the Founja Jungle... but it has to be glowing. I kept getting ones that are not glowing, and I wasn't sure why it wasn't working. 

It did let me see a bunch of brand-new interactions, though, like Yanmega asleep perching on a tree, the Ariados above the web finally dropping down and standing on its web menacingly, and I get to finally realize that there are Metapods and Leafeons around. Or maybe they spawned after enough level-ups. 

At this point, Professor Mirror gives me another tutorial of the Illumina Orbs, giving me two kinds of these to fill in my Y-button. These things can make the Crystalblooms or specific Pokemon glow. It's definitely not as intuitive a mechanic as getting a Pokemon to look at me, or chucking an apple to either disturb them or get them to it. I apparently have to unlock them by scanning a glowing Crystalbloom in every new area that I enter into. 

Which means... new areas! The giant deathworld-looking long island of volcanic doom on the top right is revealed to me as Voluca, while the small batch of islands on the bottom right is called Maricopia. 

Also, the NPC's -- and I genuinely don't remember which -- give me another item that now fits on the R-button. The Poke-Flute... or rather, a melody to wake up sleeping Pokemon, or to make them dance if they're already awake. I refuse to call it a poke-flute because the jingle that this thing makes is actually kind of annoying instead of soothing like the flute. What's wrong with using the classic jingle? It's a bit annoying. 

Phil also yaks about yet another brand-new feature, because apparently the Neo-One pod has the capability to... shrink? Ant-Man style? He tries to get me to go and test it out. Rita overhears us, and basically threatens to tattle unless she joins in... and... uh... I apparently have to scan a specific spot in the Nature Park. 

So I repeat the nature park a couple of times and... I can't find the specific spot. Maybe I'm just blind. But the Combees have summoned their big queen, Vespiquen, to hang out with them. I also complete a quest showing Tangrowth jumping like 50 feet into the air before landing on a cliff, which is fucking ridiculous but also glorious. I also chuck enough apples at a Hoothoot to force it to show off its second foot.

Not... not the most ecologically friendly methods of getting pictures, I must say. 

I try out the beach area of Maricopa first, which is... just very pleasant! Again, the animation of the clear seawater and the coral reefs is just absolutely sublime and beautiful, and I can just say that unless the game pulls out the stops, the watery areas are going to be my favourites without any question. 

We start off in a beach with Crabrawlers scuttling around, Wingulls cawing in the sky and Exeggutor -- Kantonian, not Alolan, surprisingly -- just lumbering around. The Crabrawlers have a hilarious reaction where they will try to box every single apple you throw near them. 

I got really distracted by the sea, to be honest, that I forgot to take pictures for a bit. There are a bunch of marine-pattern Vivillons and I thought it was quite clever to have different Vivillon forms in different parts of the map. There's a moment where a sleeping Exeggutor needs to be lobbed with apples before he stands his fat ass up and lumbers away. 

Then there's a bunch of Stunfisk and Pyukumuku just hanging out on the beach, there's an Octillery just lurking beneath the (very clear, very beautiful) ocean surface, and on the beach there's a Machamp that will do a little bit of a flexing motion as I pass by. And as I am about to close off the beach, there's a Sandygast shovel randomly on the edge of the water, but there's nothing I could do about it. 

And... you know what? I just feel happy. That beach level really did make me have fun. And while not as impressive as the beach, the Morelulls in the jungle also were pretty impressive. I'm having fun with this game, guys!

 

Random Notes:

• Oh, there are Woopers with the Quagsires too in the Founja Jungle! I thought I should mention that. Wooper and Quagsire are the sources of some of the most fun expressions in the game. God bless these two dorky axolotls. 
• I didn't realize Bounsweets can fly and helicopter around on their little leaf hats. I thought they could only hop-hop bounce around. 
  
• There's also a Swampert half-submerged in the Founja Swamp which I'm not sure how to get out of the swamp. 
• On the same token, it's a bit surprising that there are a lot of sleeping Ledians when none of them actually show up in the day version of this track. 
• For being the previous main character... man, Todd Snap really doesn't have a personality, huh? Him and Mirror really do blend together as just talking heads of exposition. As poorly written as they are, Rita and Phil at least embody two common anime archetypes, making them at least something. 
• Okay, shrinking really feels like a gimmick that you think Pokemon would've done at least once? Like, I'm surprised we don't have like a quasi-microscopic bacteria or plankton or tiny bug Pokemon that we can interact with by shrinking down to an almost-microscopic level. 
• In the "beach or mountain" debate, I am team beach, all day, every day. You get the sun, the sea, a nice coconut or beer to drink, and the sea water will lull you to sleep. Why people find getting sweat-drenched, mud-caked as they walk through mosquito-infested hiking trails likely to conceal snakes and rabid monkeys is beyond me. 
• The Wingull sounds they recorded for this game really does resemble real seagulls. It's both annoying and immersive at the same time, because seagulls are one of the few things that might make a beach experience less enjoyable. 
• I am seriously surprised that they resisted using the long-necked, coconut-tree-themed Alolan Exeggutor instead of the Kantonian versions... and the Alolan ones would be more in-brand. I guess the long neck would make having their pictures taken a bit difficult? 
• The beach randomly has a bunch of Pikachu. I'm going to assume that just like the original Snap, there's going to be a way to get a Surfing Pikachu on a photo. 
• I mean, I don't think any of the games ever showcased Unovan Stunfisk hang out in the beaches or the sea, and it's more of a marshlands type of creature, but I guess just like Tynamo in Scarlet/Violet, we're just assuming that since they're all based on fishies, they can also survive in the sea?