Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 23: Ghost Stories of Lumiose

This is another big sidequest mission before we jump into Vinnie's summons! And we'll start off with my favourite -- the Litwick quest. Remember how I complained how a lot of the side-quests don't actually 'properly' feature the Pokemon they are supposedly spotlighting? Well, there's still a lot of those here, but the Litwick one I've got no complaints about. 

A kid called Consei is panicking, because his little sister wandered off after Litwick. In case someone doing this quest isn't familiar with the creepy smiling ghost candle, Consei reiterates that Litwick is a Pokemon that sucks out your life... life force! Consei is worried "what if she never comes back?" Yep, implied child death! 

The Litwick appears nearby, and the game does its best with its limited graphics to show Litwick being creepy. This involves its model seemingly glitching in and out of existence, and teleporting to another part on the screen. It's perhaps not the most ideal effect to give to a candle-ghost, but they actually put some effort into it instead of just a simple, quick teleport. So kudos for that. 

(Also, I started this quest during the in-game day and had to quickly find a bench to make it night, otherwise the theme is kind of lost)

Litwick leads me through a bit of a run throughout the city, and there's a point where it stands on a railing overlooking a river, ghost-shuffles backwards... and seems to fall (or I guess, float) down. I thought that was unintentionally funny. Litwick's little cries, which is a bit more cute than creepy, keep playing through all  this. 

As we chase the Litwick into an area in the sewer, at the terminus is a little girl who asks "who are you... so you came to find me...?" and the camera rotates unsettlingly around her and me. "My brother worries too much..." and her hair covers her eyes... and... and it's not a jumpscare, not really. It's just a the little girl saying a creepy thing when she shouldn't. Turns out the little girl is okay. We've got five Litwick surrounding the little girl as the camera angles returned to normal.

The little girl says that she came upon the seemingly weak Litwick, and gave it her own life-force to sustain it. I... I don't think that Litwick was actually wounded, based on its Pokedex entry at trying to deceive travelers, but okay. Consei is rightfully angry at the little girl for feeding several candle-ghosts with her SOUL. And there are five of them! Did the other hungry Litwicks come after realizing there's someone willingly offering up their soul as food? 

The quest ends with the siblings exiting the sewer since Litwick is okay... but then we get a cutscene of the Litwick slowly inching towards the camera... and then BOO JUMPSCARE! It's cute.

And just to be clear, it's still very tame. It's very kiddy. No one above the age of like, eight or whatever will be actually spooked by the jumpscare or whatnot. They picked Litwick with its cute face and cute cry, and not something that would actually be properly unsettling. Even the anime's got a lot of scarier episodes than this. But within the constraints of the format of a game that needs to appeal to all ages, I felt this was really good! Compare this to the Phantump or the Dedenne quests, for example. 

And besides, I still think the Litwick was really just stringing that girl along. I don't trust that smile. 

Another really good one that follows the spooky theme is a mound near a tree... and a Froslass peeks out from behind the tree. The Froslass goads me to follow her, and I do. It's a simple run-around mission (also, again, best to do this in the night) and leads me all the way to a familiar top of a building... it's the same location where I fought the Rogue Mega Froslass with Naveen. The Froslass shines brightly... and disappears, leaving a Dawn Stone behind. 

Now while this is 100% an epilogue to one of the Rogue Pokemon similar to what we got for Mawile and Hawlucha, it is gloriously a lot more ambiguous whether this Froslass just wanted to say thank you and disappear... or if it actually died and it's its ghost saying thank you one last time. Yes, Ghost-types can have ghosts, too. It's... it's weird. 

New wild zones appear, 18 and 19. 18 is just another scaffolding-covered alleyways... although I do like that you needed to scramble up the side of a building to get to a good 80% of the zone. A giant Alpha Salamence is just menacing the actual streets, though. The rest of it is filled with fliers like Altaria and Noivern. So I guess the idea is that it's 'high rise' to reach Flying-types? Still kind of lame, but I suppose  there's only so much you could do with the urban setting. 

19 is a fun one, it's the gazebo where we fought Venusaur, I think? It's got rows and rows of... it's France, so I assume those are grape vineyards. A colony of Kangkaskhans have taken over this place, and at night a group of Clefairy and Cleffa show up in the gazebo. That is adorable. 

Here's an example of a quest that technically 'spotlights' a Pokemon but doesn't have anything to really do with it. A dude with a Heliolisk gives me a long riddle about where he wants his new house to be. It needs to have a view of the Prism Tower, of the river, must be near a Pokemon Center, must be near a river... and must be on a rooftop for his Heliolisk. It's such a small detail, a small insignificant detail, that doesn't really bring the Heliolisk truly to focus. It's a cute quest and I like the riddle, but I really want these sidequests to be about these strange, interesting creatures instead of just... just bland random setting-agnostic quests, you know?

Another sidequest has Andi, the lady with a Pancham from the first quest of the story, arguing with one of her clients. She's working as a tour guide or something, but her client is an asshole who demands Andi carry his entire Aggron. Excuse me, sir, that is a metallic Godzilla right there. Rude tourist, must be from Unova. The rude tourist is apparently here to join in the Z-A Royale and challenges me to a battle. He doesn't even use a Mega Aggron! These side-quests would have been perfect to show off some of the minor Mega Evolution! 

It actually is a 2-v-1 battle, even if the Pancham isn't much of a help compared to my Mega Slowbro making a joke of his team. We send the rude tourist packing, and Andi thanks us and has a little reminiscing moment about our first meeting and how she's still technically the first trainer I fought in Lumiose City. That's cute. 

Speaking of which... doing the battle zones at night now has random B- and A-ranked trainers actually mega evolve their final Pokemon, which I found out with a Mega Lopunny. That's so cool! Again, I feel like they could've shown it off a bit earlier in the tournament rounds, even if it's as a 'don't fight this uber-trainer' style like the early Pidgeotto dude, but I'm happy they're around now. 

A charming little quest is atop some rooftops, and I must admit that it took me longer than I should to get up there. A dude called Nett is trying to get me to show to his lazy Clauncher how to shoot a Water Gun at the piles of sludge. He really wants his Clauncher to help out,  but Clauncher is having a bit of an attitude problem and refuses to do so. After I demonstrate the Water Gun via Slowbro (instant move relearning is the best), Clauncher then shows off how powerful it is... by one-shotting a rock. The trainer then decides to... let's just go clean up rocks instead.

Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure the real-world pistol shrimp actually can probably destroy rocks their size.

An annoying side-quest I feel I have to highlight is a kid who's trying to get his Honedge to be a bit 'sharper', Becuase Honedge is looking down. His grandpa tells him that the only solution is a Pupitar, and for some reason I have to fight his stupid level 50+ Honedge with only a Pupitar in my team and win. Just... just sharpen your blade, man. Getting my Larvitar up to evolve is already annoying, but to keep it at the Pupitar level and not turn it into Tyranitar... thank goodness I have a lot of candies left over, let's just say. 

Another quest involves an Emolga that goes around stealing pecha berries. I have to chase it around as it flies around the rooftops. It's basically a showoff of the Roto-glide thing, isn't it? Again, not the best showcase for Emolga and it could've been replaced with any remotely flying Pokemon and it would've been the same quest. 

A Rust Syndicate Grunt tasks me to investigate some strange mounds of earth that have appeared in the boss's zen garden. Those things are expensive! Tracking it down, it leads me to a Drillbur. That alone is whatever, but the grunt's mannerisms as he finds the Drillbur, and gives it a dressing down and demands that it make penance to society by cleaning its mess is cute. The Grunt calls the Drillbur his new underling, and mutters about needing to give it a Poison or a Steel move... and after the quest, he is delighted to learn about the existence of the Rock/Steel Excadrill. That's nice. 

Finally, I did Restaurant Le Wow. 

And this time, it's TEN battles without healing. Ten! Each trainer only has three Pokemon each, but without healing, and the way these trainers are designed? I really like it. I really like this, and I find this way, way more entertaining and challenging gameplay-wise compared to Jacinthe's stupid tournament. The Pokemon aren't really individually strong, but they are designed to wear you down. Even if their little gimmicks don't hit you, getting hit by one or two moves really can be damaging even if it keeps your Pokemon at yellow. I have access to Mega Evolution, true, but Mega Evolutions get reset with every trainer. I like it. I lost the first time around at around battle 6 because it didn't register to me how long the fights were going to be; and for the second time I lost at the final Pokemon. But let's break down the Pokemon in Restaurant Le Wow's ten-course meal, because it's actually fun.

Of course, my little secret weapon is my Meganium, who is a tanky dinosaur with Giga Drain, and being able to heal is really good. But I still didn't want to rely on her as a crutch and it's challenging using her as little as possible. 

The first trainer starts off with a trio of Pokemon that all open up with Toxic. Garbodor, Victreebel, and Scolipede. Again, I should've started off with my own Scolipede out to prevent my party-members from being poisoned, but I love that the debilitating Toxic really does build up over time. The second trainer does the same with Fire-types (Camerupt, Pyroar, Talonflame) and tries to inflict Burn. The third trainer? She starts off with a dual-screening Carbink, which was where I realized the wearing-down tricks.

The fourth trainer abuses moves like Curse to raise defenses. Avalugg's defensive, Sableye's got weird typing and... Noivern's there I guess. Not the worst, but as I find out in my multiple runs, all his Pokemon run Rocky Helmet. More chip damage! The fifth one just hits hard and fast. Kangaskhan has all the elemental punches. That Gengar will get off a Shadow Ball, and as I find, even if I can OHKO the Gengar with my Chandelure or Malamar, that Shadow Ball will shave a chunk of my health. And that Steelix also quite quick to spam Earthquake as well. The sixth one uses Steel-types, but ones that hit hard: Scizor, Lucario and Aegislash. 

The seventh uses really speedy ones: Aerodactyl, Starmie and Froslass. Again, it really odes wear you down over time, especially when you're not expecting if this is going to be a type-themed trainer or not. Switching out not being a free move in this game really does force me to be a bit more on my toes! The eighth spams Giga Drain and Leech Seed and Synthesis, with Arbok, Roserade and Gogoat. She knows the trick! 

The ninth battle is where in my final run half my team gets wiped out. Gyarados, Dragalge... and Dragonite. Yeah, putting the fear of pseudo-evolutions back in me. It's vaguely Dragon-themed, but it's not really friendly to picking a specific type and spamming it, yeah? Dragalge can really screw up Fairy-types! As I found out, when it took out my Mega Meganium! I underestimated Poison. 

And the final battle? A Drampa, a Skarmory, and a Tyranitar. Another pseudo evolution, but... but a MEGA pseudo-evolution. I audibly cheered when Mega Tyranitar is formed, even if at that point I've only got the very unsuitable Chandelure left during the run that I lost. It is a bit less of an achievement that I felt when I beat Le Wow in the third run, because I was expecting certain troublesome Pokemon in the climb. But I really do like the idea of this endurance-type fight without healing... and things like how speedy moves are and how some moves can still hurt you even after the 'caster' is knocked out is a nice little gimmick unique to this gameplay.

That's all the sidequests available to me at the time. Next up, we begin the endgame!

Random Notes:

• Some more of the less-interesting side-quests:

• Furfrou barber is back at it again, this time wanting a Pokemon to show Scyther the move Psycho Cut. Can... can Scyther even learn Psycho Cut? You know, for a Furfrou-themed NPC, I really wished that at least we got to see the quest showing off the Furfrou hairdos. 
• One of the morons from the SBC tells me that the SBC is made up of all Dragon and Fairy-type users, and that's probably why Lebanne always has a disadvantage against Jacinthe. I mean, it's not like Jacinthe's playing fair either, having a random Aurorus that seems to be there just as a middle finger to Lebanne's team...  Anyway she fights me with a Dragon party. Sure. 
  
• There's a nervous taxi driver? That one was kind of... cute, if short? She only knows a single destination despite me being able to pick from a large menu. She gets so nervous over it that she promises to make up for it with an entertaining battle. A bit odd and doesn't actually have anything to do with Pokemon, but I didn't mind this as much as it feels a bit more Lumiose-coded and relatively short. 
• Four Beldum are attracted by magnets and block a holovator. At least they're doing something thematic with the holovators instead of 'random Pokemon in front of it!'
• At this point, I think I've evolved all the pokemon that could evolve by stones, and am just slowly evolving those that need levels. Man, this game has so many pseudo-legendaries it's not even funny. 
• Wild Zone 19 also has Eevees, in case you didn't manage to grab the ones that spawn in the overworld. 
• Do you know what random Pokemon I realize I haven't gotten, and spent way too long during this sidequest session trying to get? Motherfucking Dedenne of all things. Hawlucha was difficult, too, but with a new mega and whatnot I expected some difficulty in getting him. Dedenne just refuses to spawn in the rooftops for me, I don't know why!
• How fucking cool is that full-art Twilight Masquerade Froslass card? 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 22: Down With the Richness

Final Rogue Mega Evolution is Froslass, the new one. I do actually like that Naveen makes some character-appropriate comments about how he's going to take some fashion inspirations from Froslass. Mega Froslass is... it's neat! Her 'fake body' has extended into  a full on towering body that expands out like a cloud at the base, her arms and 'sleeves' have became longer and wavier, there is some long chunk of snow/flesh that acts as a weird 'hair'. That bit is weird, but I appreciate that it's there to make Froslass less 'just the base design stretched out'. Oh, and she's got ice oni horns now. 

Notably, despite all the big deal being given about him getting a mega stone, Naveen does not mega evolve his Scrafty. The Mega Froslass unleashes giant blizzards and summons icebergs that crash down from the sky, while I dodge around with Chandelure... but I actually die to the gimmick! At one point she summons some giant pillars and unleashes a blast of icy wind that freezes Pokemon... but damages the humans! I didn't realize that I was supposed to hide behind the pillars. 

So yeah, my soul was reaped by Froslass. I realized what I had to do and beat the Mega Froslass with my Mega Chandelure, but I did like this fight. It was quite frantic and a lot more fun compared to the relatively easy Altaria and Venusaur fights. 

Like a wart that won't go away, Jacinthe pops up again, actually acknowledging that Rogue Mega Evolutions are a threat to the city... but then goes straight into how important it is for us to join her stupid dumbass tournament so we can go back to protecting the city. This is worse than her being a rich airhead, she is a rich bitch who completely knows that the Rogue Mega Evolution is a danger to everyone, but who cares, right? Her rich people tournament is more important than the plebs. "My tournament is of equal -- if not greater -- importance!"

Naveen tells Jacinthe that our plate is full, and Jacinthe, in her infinite dickery, turns it around and rambles about how her own 'plate' is full of patience, totally, and that will not last forever. What an entitled spoiled twit!

We return to Hotel Z and everyone rightfully bitches about that dipshit Jacinthe. Taunie was fully willing to go back to Hotel Richissime to get things over with, but suddenly the bright sounds of a Battle Zone starting up happens, and we run out... to find that a purple battle zone. Lebanne, two of the SBC rich twits, and holo-Jacinthe show up. Yep, that's the rich dipshits for you. At least the mafia were more direct and had some sense of class about them! Jacinthe talks about how she has personal-use holo-walls and it totally matches her holo-avatar... what an utter asshole! She keeps going on and on about how we wouldn't do 'what is right', to participate in her stupid tournament. This honestly goes on for a bit, before holo-Jacinthe disappears. 

Lebanne sighs, and tells us that consequences await those who defy Lady Jacinthe. The two goons go and fight me. It's a lady with a Mawile and Klefki, and a dude with Dragonair and Shelgon. For all its hoity-toity reputation, the SBC sucks balls. Between each round Lebanne offers to heal my Pokemon, but that would require my Pokemon getting a single point of injury. No such thing happened.

Lebanne fights, and she suddenly hypes things up, yelling and being happy that she can cut loose in a REAL battle. She starts flexing, yells at Taunie and calls her a punk, and she starts doing some awesome feral poses. I like her. She summons a Noivern, which clashes with my Malamar. It's a contest of brute attack as I unleash Psycho Cuts and Night Slashes, and the Noivern unleashes Dragon Pulses. We have a double knockout as moves hit each other at the same time, something impossible in turn-based Pokemon but absolutely anime-accurate here. 

Next up is a Tyrantum, which faces off against my Meganium who Solar Beams it to death. Then a Garchomp appears, and I respect Garchomps. Cynthia has traumatized me enough. I mega evolve Slowbro and one-shot it with Ice Beam before it can do anything. Respect, Garchomp. 

Lebanne then unleashes her final Pokemon... a... Dragalge? That's not the Kalos Dragon-type I expected you to Mega Evolve, but fuck yeah. Lebanne does some more poses, and mega evolves Dragalge... and I think this might be my favourite new Mega. Dragalge's 'hair' expands into like an awesome, over-the-top anime cape, which makes sense since it's a seaweed monster. Its horns become like giant fake eyes, and the general look feels like a great idea of the 'exaggerated features leading to a unique silhoeutte' principle that a lot of the best-looking Megas have. 

It is unfortunately up against Mega Slowbro, and between Psychic and Ice Beam it goes down like a punk, but a very cool punk. 

Lebanne gives me a thumbs up... before assuming a feral pose and yelling that she's going to heal up her Pokemon and battle me as many times as it is needed to drag me to the hotel. The idea of abusing potions is a great little gag, but Taunie stops it and says that we're already planning to go. Lebanne sits like a punk on a rock and starts ranting about how we should've led with that last time, but Taunie points out that they were the ones that waltzed in and trapped people in Weird Zones. 

Lebanne rants a bit, but then shrugs it off, saying that she enjoyed cutting loose for once. She used to be a fighter, and the kind that seeks out strong opponents until she lost a fight to Jacinthe and was... uh... forced to become her maid and talk proper. So... uh... slavery? Or at least Lebanne got harassed into compliance? That's kind of disturbing, actually. Free Lebanne! Apparently, if I lose to Jacinthe, I become a maid? Well. 

Jacinthe clearly then pays off the organizers of the Z-A tournament and sets herself up as the next promotion match. Rich people are evil! 

Lebanne does a huge, embarrassing, cringey 'heart' pose to shut off the Jacinthe Zone, before giving me a fist-bump and meeting us back at Hotel Richissime. Lebanne greets us, back 'in character', and takes a photo of me. I do the most uncooperative expression, which is sad. We get up, and Canari informs us that apparently Jacinthe trapped everyone in the forcefield. Beat the bitch up, holy shit. Corbeau! Phillippe! You two are mafia! What are you doing? Come on.

Jacinthe yaps about her tournament and how perfect it is and stuff. The tournament bracket is on, and while it does look like everyone is participating, it becomes quite obvious that I'm just going to fight every previous promotional match again. So okay. Of course, Jacinthe and her over-inflated airhead ego has put herself as the ultra exclusive rich seed to fight whoever wins. 

We get the Canari fight, and this is the third time we've fought her. I like Canari, but at this point I just kind of try and get through the fight as soon as possible. I really also wished that Canari's roster has became expanded a bit. I just pop up my Meganium, who learned Earthquake, and quake her Heliolisk and Ampharos; Giga Drain her Stunfisk; and we get a mega rumble between Mega Meganium and Mega Eelektross. Canari, you're all right. She curses up a storm and walks off. 

Next up is Ivor, who reveals that it was Lebanne who beat him up and inspired him... but then declines to say any more. You have a crush on the big scary maid, Ivor? Ivor's team is also the same. Chandelure fries Heracross, then Malamar psycho-cuts Machamp and Medicham, and finally Mega Slowbro one-shots Mega Falinks with a Psychic.

Third is Corbeau. There's a bit of a cute moment where Phillippe is yelling encouragement from the sidelines, and apparently Corbeau has been fighting the Steel specialist to train against me, since Steel is defensively powerful against Poison. That's nice. I take down his Arbok with my Slowbro, but get blindsided with Gyarados again. Hawlucha comes out to take out the Gyarados with Thunder Punches, but ends up getting severely wounded by Bounces. Malamar Psycho-Cuts Roserade, and finally, the moment I am waiting for... Scolipede vs. Scolipede! No! MEGA Scolipede vs. MEGA Scolipede! That was fun. That was cool. I won with Iron Tails and Megahorns, but it was a bit close. I loved this moment, just to see two giant centipede-knights clash against each other. 

Jacinthe yaks on about how the final battle of her superspecialawesomeidiot tournament is going to happen... and suddenly, an interruption! God bless!

It's Zygarde!

L walks in behind Zygarde, and I love how this shuts down Jacinthe's grandstanding. Tarragon recognizes Lysandre as the missing leader of Team Flare, and gives a recap of who he is. Phillippe also recognizes him and gets excited for Corbeau's sake, but Corbeau wants to play it super-cool and not be embarrassed in front of his hero. Canari is shocked that the guy that fired the Ultimate Weapon is there, and poor Gwynn just wants to go home. 

Lysandre tells me that Zygarde wants to forge a bond, a bond that cannot be severed against me. Lysandre also drops the fact that he is amnesiac and remembers none of what he has done, which is news to me! but the Zygarde thing is important, because it's crucial for Lumiose City- and then Jacinthe opens her stupid mouth and yells about how this is totally great for her superspecialawesome tournament, and she randomly slaps Zygarde onto the tournament board as a competitor. Shut up and fuck off, moron. Vapid twit. Rich bitch. 

Suddenly, a bunch of squishy things started moving in from all parts of the room, passing the spectators' feet. It's a Zygarde Core and a bunch of Zygarde Cells! To people who aren't well-versed with Pokemon lore, Lysandre gives us a bit of a backstory and context about them, telling us that Zygarde gets stronger and stronger as more cells are gathered. It's a colonial organism... and Zygarde merges into... the best form, the serpentine Zygarde 50% and the original design that Zygarde debuted in. 

TIME TO FIGHT!

I respect Zygarde, so I fight him with Meganium. Giga Drains and Dazzling Gleams surprisingly only chip off on his health, so he's clearly scaled with Mega-Evolved Pokemon rules. So I Mega Evolve my starter, and charge up a Solar Beam to take out the legendary Pokemon.

Zygarde then zips off in his dog form. No capture, unfortunately. Lysandre tells me that Zygarde was pleased, and tells me that Zygarde has a bit more to go to become Zygarde 100%, or Zygarde Complete. Lysandre then goes off to gather all the remaining Zygarde Cells, because that's apparently what he's been doing off-screen as Zygarde 'has commanded him'. Okay? Weird way to incorporate that collection quest, but sure. Lysandre then tells me to continue growing as a trainer to be worthy of Zygarde, before addressing the assembled trainers of Lumiose, telling them that... 'the time has come to consider why Zygarde has came today, I pray all of you find the right answer'. Very vague and not informative at all, is it, old man? Silly Lysandre. 

Lysandre walks off, and all the fuzzy feelings I get from a cool meeting is crushed immediately when Jacinthe opens her stupid mouth and starts ranting about how the exceedingly incredibl(y annoying) host of this terrific(allly poor) tournament to begin the final round. Come, bitch, fight me and end this already. 

Jacinthe rambles about her plans at Rank A, which is a stupidly vague 'make each trainer strong' because that's her duty as an influential socialite. Just... just fuck off and go to your room, rich twit. 

Jacinthe is a Fairy-type trainer, and she starts off with Carbink. Come on. Meganium one-shots Carbink with a Giga Drain. She sets up Stealth Rock... at the corner of the room. What an idiot. Next up is Mawile. Chandelure, Flamethrower. Next. Jacinthe then sends out Aurorus, which isn't even in the Fairy Theme. Hawlucha, Brick Break. Next. A Gardevoir? Hold up, you're Diantha if Diantha was unlikable, huh? Anyway, Malamar. Night Slash. Next. 

Her ace is... CLEFABLE? Okay, I kind of expected her mega to be a Fairy-type, but I expected a Generation VI Fairy-type. For Clefable to get any attention... that's neat. Jacinthe gives some stupid 'responsibility to guide the masses', and turns Clefable into Mega Clefable... and hahaha what a stupid design. I like the big butterfly fairy wings, but the ears become ugly chunky tubes and she's got... a... beret? A flesh beret? Not feeling it. Mega Scolipede, Gunk Shot the shit out of that Mega Clefable. 

Nope, not a single piece of effort was given in the fight against Jacinthe. I am promoted to Rank B, and Jacinthe claims everyone is pleased. They are all clapping, but I think they're clapping because the tournament is over more than anything. Jacinthe gives some self-centered bullshit about how they have learned something about deep bonds between trainers and pokemon, but the only deep bond is the depths of your ignorance and stupidity and annoyance. She says a bunch of more stuff but if you can't tell, I found her extremely insufferable. Good writing, Pokemon team, I guess, in making her so unlikeable. My guy and Jacinthe do a fist-bump, but I choose to interpret it as me trying to punch her in her smug face and missing. 

We go back to Hotel MZ, and, uh, Naveen is so traumatized he's eating curry croissant? Or, well, he claims this is in the spirit of celebration, but it is a bit surprising for him. Taunie handwaves that she's going to catch up to me soon because she has a promotion match. Please beat up Jacinthe too, Taunie. The team notes that Floette and AZ are absent...

...And we cut to a scene with the two of them at the rooftop of the hotel. AZ overlooks the Prism Tower and mutters about someone called "Ange", who was meant to be the guardian of the city, towering and watching over 'her' always. I think he's talking about the Prism Tower? So maybe there's a Legendary sealed within? AZ then mutters about a 3000-year-old desire, foolishly held, a 3000-year old mistake, foolishly made... one that costed Floette's life... and mutters that young bright lives must pay his remaining debts. Ominous stuff!

The next day begins with AZ, again, ominously noting that 'Lumiose trembles'. As this happens, Vinnie summons us to Quasartico. I feel like we're going into the endgame now, and it's quite exciting! Certainly more exciting than this nonsense with Jacinthe!

Random Notes:

• These two Jacinthe-centric parts were... a bit tough for me to write and edit. I really, really found Jacinthe to be utterly insufferable especially compared to our previous focus characters of Corbeau, Canari, and even Ivor -- who I found stupid but in an entertaining way. I just really didn't enjoy her story at all. 
• I will admit that Jacinthe's battle theme is quite well done. That's something that did make the fight a bit more entertaining, and that's coming from someone who doesn't like electro.
• Naveen, on the SBC: "that sure was quite a thing we just witnessed. I'm not sure WHAT thing, exactly, but quite a thing." Same, bro. 
• I am actually surprised that the Zygarde cell gathering wasn't a fetch quest that runs throughout the game. Even if it's going to be plot relevant, I expected there to be like a couple of huge gathering missions for the cells, or at least a separate encounter with Zygarde core. 
• Not going to lie, with Lebanne's colour coordination, I was sure she was going to use a Mega Noivern. With Noivern being quite popular among the Generation VI Pokemon, I was surprised! I wasn't really thinking what mega that Jacinthe would use; but I kind of expected a pseudo-legendary like Dragonite or Goodra since all her goons used pseudos. 
• So for the bracket... I beat Canari to fight Ivor (who beat Tarragon) to fight Corbeau (who beat Taunie and Gwynn, and Gwynn beat Tarragon). Poor Taunie, she just can't stand up against the mob, can she? 
• I did chuckle that apparently Zygarde, legendary Pokemon and protector of nature, actually was a good boy enough to sit down and have his photo taken for the tournament. 
• In-between the Canari, Ivor, Corbeau, Zygarde and Jacinthe fights, we can talk to all the other people. Nothing is interesting other than Gwynn simping over Canari and Tarragon not giving a shit and caring more about taking away the posh food. That's a bit of a writing crime, honestly. 

Let's Play Pokemon Legends Z-A, Part 21: Riche Connasse

Last we left off in the main story, AZ finally gave Lida and Naveen mega rings and mega stones, and they wanted to fight in some battle courtyard. Lida is the first to face off against me, being confident that she can do something with her li'l Staryu. Lida at least has a somewhat more evolved team, having a Clawitzer and a Vanillish, plus a brand-new Emolga... but her ace is still a Staryu and there's only so much that a Staryu can do against a Mega Meganium. 

After Lida loses, she mutters that she might really need to evolve Staryu after all. Naveen tells Lida that she needs a water stone to evolve Staryu, before challenging me himself. Naveen's team hasn't really changed much, he still has Ariados and Sableye. He adds a Krookodile into his team, but I have a Hawlucha. Who's there jumping up in the sky? Iiiiit's Hawlucha!

Naveen then mega evolves Scrafty into Mega Scrafty... and it's all right? Mega Scrafty's discarded skin becomes fully pale-white, and the half that forms the 'hoodie' resembles a hoodie more. I think Mega Scrafty might be a bit taller, too? And he's got an 'arms in the pocket' pose. I kind of get a bit of a 'thematic' joke here where Naveen's a tailor and so his Scarfty has the clothes change, but it's also not the most interesting design alteration. I really hoped that the hoodie and stuff got a bit more elaborate. Regardless, Mega Meganium one-shots the Mega Scrafty with a single Dazzling Gleam. 

After the fight, we go off to Nouveau Cafe, and Naveen is glad to be dining in a location that keeps its croissants and curry separate. The unique-model staff member at Cafe Nouveau gets a bit angry because Lida and Naveen keep making separate orders instead of doing it all at the same time, which honestly is a fair enough thing to be a bit angry about. 

As we discuss Naveen's new Mega Scrafty, an anime maid with long green hair shows up and introduces herself as Lebanne, a representative of the Society of Battle Connoisseurs. Right, the asshole rich kids I beat up with the mafia. Naveen gives some info-dump about the SBC, noting that it's a group for the children of elites and socialites. Lebanne tries to talk up the badassery of this group, saying that they do more than just do mock battles, and invites myself and Taunie on behalf of Lady Jacinthe, their leader. We are to meet at Hotel Richissime, which is a nice little location callback. Lebanne then departs, with a slightly ominous 'who knows what might happen otherwise' if we don't show up. 

Lida and Naveen then get utterly disgusted at Taunie's declaration that she'll just show up at Hotel Richissime dressed with her normal outfit. Lida says it's a 'hard no', because this is a chance for us to rub elbows with the big shots. If nothing else, it would be great for Hotel Z. Naveen also agrees, albeit surprisingly less-vehemently than Lida. I suppose even though he's a fashion designer, his deal is more street-level? 

So we go shopping! Naveen, Taunie and I arrive in front of Boutique Culture, who sells the most expensive clothing in Lumiose City both a decade ago and now. And they have been refusing to do business with my plebeian self! The owner steps out, a Furisode Girl called Asami, who gives a long speech about 'people are free to pick out whatever clothes they wished to wear, but it would be grand if the clothes picked the person'. Okay, true, but you also literally refused entry to me, like, every single time I tried to visit your store. 

Asami then decides that we could be worthy by having a battle with her, with a stipulation that we beat her with a mega evolution. I oblige. She uses a Florges. I use my Mega Scolipede, making use of the brand-new Mega Stone and the Gunk Shot TM that Corbeau gave me. I one-shot the Florges, and Asami... waxes lyrical about how beautiful and stylish my victory was. I mean, Mega Scolipede is a cool design, sure, but Gunk Shot literally has it manifest a ball of icky green glob of refuse and chuck it at your flower fairy. I don't think it's pretty at all. This is the sort of trendy, avant-garde Pokemon battle she wishes to see, though, so who am I to judge the tastes of the bourgeoise?

Taunie is 100% done about this, and even Naveen isn't feeling Asami's attitude, but the two agree that returning to face Lida's wrath is even worse. Asami then decks me out with a fancy suit with floral patterns and a nice little cravat. Oh, and fancy opera leather shoes, too. I mean, it actually is a lot more stylish than what Naveen is wearing, at least! Taunie refuses to change into a fancy outfit of her own, though, noting that the jacket is a memento from her mother and she doesn't do any other styles. I mean... fair enough. 

Asami then name-drops the fact that she has overheard a mysterious up-and-coming mysterious tailor called Naveen. Naveen and Taunie share a knowing look, but they don't reveal his identity to Asami. Probably because Naveen isn't happy to collab with someone who thinks my Scolipede's Gunk Shot is stylish. With some new clothes in tow, we return to meet the SBC. 

Hotel Richissime has gotten a bit of a glow-up since I was last there a decade ago, and Taunie has a brief bit of jealousy as she compares Hotel Z to Richissime. Lebanne the maid is waiting for us in the lobby, and she keeps noting how bad it is if we were a no-show, and she doesn't even want to think what would happen to us. This really does feel a bit more yakuza/mafia-ish in the same vein that the Rust Syndicate comes off as. 

The SBC is set up at an upper floor, a posh and nauseating upper-class-twit location. Almost all the other previous named NPCs are around. Canari and Gwynn walk up to greet me, with Canari being very much willing to get a vengeance in a 'comeback' fight. Tarragon, Ivor, and even the mafia bros Corbeau and Phillippe are around. 

Jacinthe arrives, and she's... very pink. She keeps fluffing her two giant hair, too, but other than the gag of being over-the-top noble (and I don't necessarily think she does it that well) she's kind of... bland. At least at this point in time. She gets very irritating later on. I do think this is the intended reaction, so good job on the game for portraying a rich upper-class twit that isn't insufferable because she's mean and rude, but because she's so utterly oblivious to everyone else's feelings. Jacinthe starts off innocently enough, introducing herself as the host, thanking everyone and introducing the SBC. Jacinthe name-drops one of their recent guests, Leon from Galar, who delivered a lecture and a fight in the invitation. I actually like this, and it does make sense... Leon feels like the type of dude that would jump at the call at any invitation to battle. 

Jacinthe does a bit of a roll call of everyone, setting up the battle tournament. Pretty neat setup, a roll call before we introduce the Le Super-Tournoi de Jacinthe.

Of course, at this point Vinnie calls in and tells us that a bunch of Rogue Mega Evolutions are around and need to be stopped. Taunie and I immediately have to go, of course, and we even apologize to Jacinthe for the inconvenience, and to tell her to just mark us off as losses. I mean, the tournament sounds fun, but we need to protect the city. Jacinthe is confusedly surprised, while Lebanne sighs with a 'I knew this was going to happen' expression. 

As Taunie and I walk to the hotel lobby, Lebanne walks up to us and gets a bit angry and tells us to watch ourselves after that display. She tells us to reconsider our actions, to return to the venue, and nothing can be more important than a bunch of rich people's private party. This is out of concern for our well-being! Taunie even gives a nice reason of 'we need to keep protecting the city so you all can keep enjoying your tournaments'. Lebanne yells out at us, but we ignore the maid and run off. 

Lida and Naveen give some comments about how the 'other half' lives, and we set up our three mega evolutions! We've got a Venusaur, an Altaria and a Froslass. Froslass is our new Mega Evolution, and I suppose it makes sense and is kind of overdue since Glalie got one all the way back in Generation VI. It is also kind of odd that Venusaur got a Rogue Mega Evolution, but not the other two Kanto starters.

And then suddenly, Jacinthe joins in on the conversation, giving in random bullshit comments like 'when opponents become more formidable, one needs to train to match them' or some stuff like that, which eventually goes around to her suggesting that I should join her tournament to power up. We get the anime trope of the other characters replying to her comments as if she was there all along... and it isn't even funny because these kind of jokes are cute when someone says one or two sentences before realizing someone who's not supposed to be around is there. But the game overplays it with too many lines of dialogue. 

It gets a bit more annoying as Lida actually blurts out Rogue Mega Evolution and even starts explaining it 'because someone isn't paying attention'. Jacinthe gets caught up on it, and she wants to escort Taunie and myself back to the SBC tournament. Naveen and Jacinthe bond briefly over her fancy clothes, and Jacinthe insists that we are friends. Taunie insists that we most certainly are NOT. Jacinthe keeps prodding us to rejoin the tournament, but we told Lebanne to disqualify us because, you know, fate of the city.

But Jacinthe, the posh twit, keeps talking about how the tournament she planned was perfect in every way and anything less would be unacceptable, and the two of us are indispensable in making the perfect dream into a perfect reality. An utter twit, aren't you? I would use much stronger language, really, but what an unlikable dipshit she is. Lida even points out that a 'perfect' tournament wouldn't have guests waiting around for the host. Team MZ splits up the missions as usual, and Taunie even points out that we're going to ignore the SBC tournament. Jacinthe walks off, insufferably polite, and says that she doesn't take kindly to those who make light of her tournament. What a clod.

Anyway, mega evolution fighty-fight time. First up is a Venusaur, just frogging it up in a random gazebo. Mega Venusaur evolves, my big flower frog boy, and I face off with my Meganium. Grass starter against grass starter! ...and it backfires terribly, because Mega Venusaur has Poison against both of my Meganium's types. Its Sludge Wave attack is quite wide-reaching! So I swap to Chandelure and start launching Flamethrowers at Mega Venusaur. In a quasi-Frenzy-Plant kind of deal, Mega Venusaur causes giant bramble-thorns, similar to the ones that pop up in the city, to burst out all around us. 

Interestingly, the brambles also serve as a way for Mega Venusaur to gain health, and I can either go around unleashing AoE attacks on the brambles (Heat Wave was good at this) or just keep piling on damage to Mega Venusaur. Mega Venusaur also has an insane Solar Beam attack that follows me around, which visually looks spectacular. 

Venusaur is taken out... and a holographic Jacinthe appears behind me, jumpscaring me and going 'absolutely marvelous', congratulating my strength and giving some bullshit talk, again, about how she wants us for the tournament. Fucking lunatic stalker! She promises/threatens to haunt us as long as we keep avoiding her. 

Next Rogue Mega Evolution is Mega Altaria, atop of a roof and Lida fighting alongside me. Lida has a brief moment where she's asking if the three of them are a help to me, and of course I have to say yes... but if we're really being honest, Lida, you leading with Staryu really isn't the most useful. But she's nice. Mega Altaria is gloriously big and fluffy, and there is a bit of a problem that she keeps flying around, so I have to use Pokemon that have ranged attacks or can fly. 

Ultimately, though, other than those two gimmicks, Mega Altaria only unleashes some relatively rather easy to dodge Twisters. I Mega-Evolve my Scolipede, and take down the fairy dragon. Mega Altaria's cool, though. Always a supporter of that big fluffy design. No complaints about it from me. 

Jacinthe, of course, pops up again and asks me about Rogue Mega Evolution and my rapid rise up the Z-A Royale... mind your own business, lady! She keeps saying that my strength belies my lack of grand ambitions... I mean, grand ambitions are not synonymous to your tournament, you crazy crazy! She just gets even more insistent that we will be part of her perfectly perfect tournament, and even threatens to buy out Hotel Z. What a nitwit!

Anyway, I'll save the Mega Froslass and the rest of this insufferable arc for the next segment. 

 

Random Notes:

• Oh hey, some of the new Z-A originated Mega Evolutions have new TCG cards now! Yay! Not all of them, but it's nice to have Mega Scrafty's card art be the opening for this let's play. 
• Lida does make a bit of a grumbling point about how she doesn't want to lose what made Staryu so adorable, which is honestly a fair point. This could be a Pikachu-doesn't-want-to-evolve-into-Raichu storyline. You know, Lida, you could get another mega-evolving Pokemon! 
  
• The clothing options apply to both genders, so the suit-with-cravat set would also be given to a female player character. 
• I also did finally end up finding an Alpha Gogoat, which allowed me to finish a minor sidequest where an ex-Gogoat-Shuttle owner is trying to pivot away his business to become a Gogoat delivery service. Not sure how a Gogoat that towers all over the other Gogoats is going to be particular in this front, but hey, as long as the Gogoats are well taken care of! Alpha Gogoat is seriously much larger, though, with the regular Gogoat maybe reaching up to slightly above its knee. 
  
• I do gloss over this in some of my previous side-quest writeups, but the Gogoat Shuttle service being given a quiet sendoff is both a nice nod to XY but also kind of sad. 
• One of the random hotel guests: "staying long-term at a hotel makes for a nice minimalist lifesetyle!"
  
• For the game to justify us traveling without Taunie between locations, they just keep having Taunie go "I have a request to help someone!" ...which would be nice to see more of these before, y'know, the arc around Taunie getting into trouble for helping the wrong people. 
• I suppose that explains why the two Charizardites and Blatoisite were available in the Stone Emporium, but not the Venusaurite... but you'd think if they'd pick a Kanto starter to give a Rogue Mega Evolution to, they'd pick the one that has a spare Mega Stone...
• Notably, Taunie does not actually mega-evolve her starters.  Come on, you've got both Feraligatr and Emboar! 

Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Pt 17 (Specter to Umber Hulk)

 

Click here for the previous part
Click here for the next part
Click here for the index.

This batch of monsters features aparticularly interesting reinventions in 5.5E. The big thing is the change in the Sphinx. Dropping the gendered species discrimination between the Sphinxes is kind of expected, but they have truly rewritten the lore of the Sphinxes that they might as well as be brand-new monsters. For the purposes of this review series, I will review them one after the other due to the sheer differences between 'classic' D&D Sphinxes and the new ones. This is what I want out of a proper rewrite, not to either quietly reduce the monster to a two-sentence footnote hidden in a subspecies lineage selection.

I think everyone universally loves the Incubus and Succubus for both surprisingly preserving the 'seduction demon' aspect of the Succubus. That was something that wasn't a given considering how much sanitization is happening to 5E (for better and for worse), but the themes they picked for the Incubus is most certainly welcome.

Again... while I do think I am going somewhat slow, I would rather do the Monster Manual right to be a 'point-to-something-I-already-did' when I eventually go and talk about other D&D or D&D-adjacent bestiaries with a lot of overlap in terms of monsters. 

[Originally published on December 2019; Updated in December 2025]

____________________________________________________

Specter

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 1

Out of the ‘incorporeal ghosts’, Specters are functionally the weakest of them all. They are incorporeal and can move through creatures and objects; have a ton of resistances as befits an intangible spirit; and can drain life (or HP)… but ultimately it doesn’t quite have the possession ability that a Ghost has, or the bag of tricks that a Wraith or a Banshee has. And it definitely isn’t anywhere as mechanically powerful as the deceptively terrifying Shadow. 

It always is a pet peeve of me that the much more impressive-sounding ‘Specter’ is actually weaker than the mundane-sounding ‘Ghost’, but that’s just my little hang-up. The primary difference, as far as 5th Edition’s Monster Manual claims, is that Specters are just doomed to be unable to pass to the afterlife. Unlike Ghosts, they do not possess any more connections or memories to their past lives, and no ‘unfinished business’ that would allow it to rest. They are just condemned to haunt the world forever until some adventurers grant it the oblivion of destruction. The only thing left for the Specter is the hatred towards the living, which fills the Specter with sorrow, wrath and jealousy and drives it to destroy life. Of course, no amount of life drained will ever satisfy the Specter, and it just keeps going around looking for more life and happiness to drain. 

They are repelled by sunlight, and as per 5.5E they are drawn to darkness and negative emotions, feeding on the suffering that evil beings cause – or on the evil beings themselves. The table given by 5.5E gives a bunch of potential locations that Specters would lurk around. There are obvious ones like the lair of a powerful fiend or undead; the gravesite of a villain; a death cult; a Shadowfell portal; but a more interesting one would be sites of disaster or a town that is gripped with many grudges. 

The Specter, essentially, serves the same role that a ‘zombie’ or a ‘skeleton’ would have among the corporeal undead – they are feral, they are always hostile, and there is no way to get them back. A simple lower-tier enemy to be destroyed, without much roleplay opportunity beyond 'scary crazed enemy that needs to be put down'. Their art in 5E is just a screaming purple figure, but I think 5.5E showing them as tattered skeleton-ghosts gives them a nice identity that communicates how ‘frayed’ even their identities are. It is notable that the Poltergeist, who got its own entry in 5.5E, started off as a Specter variant in 5E. 

____________________________________________________

Sphinx - Androsphinx / Gynosphinx

• 5E: Large Monstrosity; Lawful Neutral; CR 11 (Gynosphinx), 17 (Androsphinx)

One particular creature in 5th Edition was given such a gigantic rewrite in 5.5E that I think it’s best that I talk about the ‘traditional D&D’ version of the Sphinx. The original version of the Sphinx from 1st Edition tried to merge Egyptian and Greek mythologies together. The Egyptian Sphinx is a wingless lion with the head of a man, always depicted as regal and protective of the pharaoh. The Greek Sphinx has wings, tended to be female, and the ‘riddle’ thing also came from Greek myth – specifically the myth of Oedipus. Dungeons and Dragons’ earliest versions just tried to adapt the two different Sphinxes as male and female versions of the same species, and merged the different lores together.

Older editions, particularly 1E and 2E, really liked Sphinxes and added a bunch of different variations (including the hieracosphinx and criosphinx, who became notorious for certain writing choices that we won’t get into here) but 5E simplifies the Sphinxs as just a guardian of secrets and treasures of gods, and demands them to pass through tests. They are both the noble guardian of Egyptian mythos, and also the test-giving antagonists of Grecian myths. This does really fit with what D&D wants to do with their monsters, giving an in-universe explanation for whatever dungeon puzzles a DM wants to throw at his/her players. It doesn’t have to be riddles, but the idea is that you present the Sphinx at a level where it would be an unfair fight to the party, forcing them to engage with riddles and puzzles. The Sphinx’s magical powers even gives it an excuse to teleport your party to a temporary game stage, like a giant chess board or something. But even if a fight breaks out, it’s not entirely unwinnable. The Sphinx has a magical, divine bond to whatever it is guarding, causing the path to disappear if the puzzles are not completed properly. This is… interesting narratively, but perhaps a bit problematic if the DM isn’t careful to accidentally lock an important plot device in the care of a Sphinx. 

I do find that all artwork of the Sphinxes tended to be on the goofier side in older editions, and it’s not until the 5E Sphinx, particularly the Androsphinx, that looked genuinely majestic. With the Andropshinx and Gynosphinx both sitting at a respective CR 17 and CR 11 respectively, they are probably the strongest of the ‘intelligent lion mutant’ group of mythological monsters. The origins of the Sphinxes are a bit more vague, though, with 5E noting that they could be ‘high priest of gods’ but most are ‘embodied spirits’ that were brought to the mortal world by prayer or divine intervention; or they even arrive from extraplanar realms. This wording was here from 5E, and makes a reinvention in 5.5E make a bit more sense. 

Lastly, if you don’t like the ‘servitors of gods, guardians of tombs’ angle, 5E also gives the hook of Fallen Sphinxes, who break free of their divine command whether through weariness, regret from slaughtered supplicants, or just wanting to be worshipped… but they’re still somehow bound to the secrets they protect? That feels a bit off.  

The 5E Monster Manual describes two main kinds of Sphinxes – the Androsphinx, who has the head of a man; and the Gynosphinx, who has the head of a woman. Androsphinxes ‘test’ adventurers by being outwardly gruff and downcast, but is actually secretly noble and his attitude is part of his test. Gynoshpinxes are more knowledge and lore oriented, and are even willing to bargain with supplicants. 

Combat-wise? All Sphinxes have the immunity to mind-reading (no cheating in riddles!) and have a reasonable library of spells, with the Gynosphinx’s spells being a lot more lore and knowledge-oriented. They also have the ability to teleport themselves. In their lair, they have the ability to… reverse time? The Androsphinx is stronger than the Gynosphinx due to old-timey sexism (remember that none of this dimorphism is from real myths!), and is given higher-level spells, and a specific triple-roar effect. 

Ultimately, I do think that the trope of the Sphinxes guarding tombs and being so divinely and supremely tied to their puzzles and function to be a very necessary trope. The 'Sphinx' and her riddles are also quite ingrained in pop culture and people will recognize them as much as they would recognize Medusa or the Hydra or Vampires. But while there are a lot of nice stuff about them, design-wise... they're a bit dated. The Andro/Gyno dimorphism is, again, something D&D invented wholesale and probably one of the few blatantly sexist bits in D&D. It's not even a function of societal roles that could be argued for some of the humanoid species, the Gynos are just straight-up weaker. And while I do find the artwork cool in insolation... let's not forget that the Monster Manual alone has Manticores, Chimeras, Gryphons and Lamias as lion-monstrosities. Being a 'naked lion with a head and some crowns' isn't visually as distinct. 

____________________________________________________

Sphinx

• 5.5E: Tiny Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 1 (Sphinx of Wonder)
• 5.5E: Large Celestial; Lawful Good; CR 8 (Sphinx of Secrets), 11 (Sphinx of Lore), 17 (Sphinx of Valor)

So now, D&D’s 2024 5.5 Edition update has probably reinvented the Sphinxes the most out of any monster. With their very hyped-up lore from 5th Edition, the Sphinxes being retconned into a type of Celestial makes the most absolute sense to me, particularly with how much emphasis on worshippers and extraplanar abilities that the original 5E writing has. The idea of them being knowledge and secret protectors are emphasized a lot more. 

In this edition of the lore, the Sphinxes are ‘formed from spirits of sages and explorers’, and know the full weight of lore. They share the wisdom with those who prove themselves through riddles or tests – a lot of similarities to the older edition. But in this version, the Sphinxes actually gain power and change form as they gain understanding of cosmic enigmas. 

And the idea of these knowledge-beings slowly growing up like Digimon gives them a lot more avenue to interact with the fantasy world instead of just being stuck in dungeons waiting to host puzzles. The youngest version, the brand-new CR 1 Sphinx of Wonder, is the size of a regular kitty, and ‘one comes into being every time a new idea is conceived on the Material Plane’. That association with ideas and knowledge is really neat, and these young Sphinxes are fascinated by a particular type of study. Sometimes they even cross over and form a bond with mortal scholars – which feels like a much more built-in roleplay as a Celestial-type familiar. Other than Imps and Quasits, none of the other Familiar options really have a story hook to them. And besides... who doesn't want a colourful, rune-covered flying cat? 

Next up is the CR 8 Sphinx of Secrets. They've grown to the 'Large' size, and one thing to perhaps note is that the Sphinxes' faces are all kitty now. Which is a change that I feel I could do without. I do like the colourful fur, and magical runes all over their body. And while they do have human-like hair, I did wish that the faces grew more human as they 'evolved'. 

Anyway, Sphinxes of Secrets are CR 8. They are associated with sites of great magic and learning, and do the dual role of protecting those sites while conducting their research. Their abilities are similar to the original Gyno/Androsphinx from 5E, with 'Inscrutable', the regular melee attacks, and a small spellcasting list... but the Sphinx of Secrets has the 'Curse of the Riddle' that turns the riddle into an actual mechanic. The book makes it into just an intelligence roll, but come on, any self-respecting DM needs to have prepared riddles handy for this!

And finally, the original Gynosphinx and Androsphinx are reprinted as the 'Sphinx of Lore' and 'Sphinx of Valor'. They're both just rune-glowy angel cats, with more or less the same abilities as their 5E counterparts. The differences in their power are now tied to the size of the secret and knowledge they are guarding. The Sphinx of Lore have the typical lore that the traditional D&D Sphinx has... ancient artifacts or texts that they guard in remote places. Sphinxes of Valor guard specifically world-changing and dangerous secrets, things that could destroy the world or dangerous knowledge that could doom the world. Instead of seeking for a worthy champion, the Sphinxes of Valor actually are far more dutiful, seeing their charge as paramount to everything else. 

Overall? I think this is an okay change. I do feel like visually there might be some arguments of dropping the 'human face', but it's at least a distinct and memorable look. The Sphinxes in D&D have always felt to be a great concept that could be explored and pushed even more. Dropping a lot of the sexist dimorphism (again, not there in the original myths), giving them a more unique visual look, and tying everything about them to the theme of knowledge is a great one. I am a fan of this redesign... again, I don't agree with every aspect of it, but I really loved that they tried instead of deleting the entries or reducing them into one or two lines without context. 

____________________________________________________

Sprite

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Fey; Neutral Good; CR 1/4

5th Edition was pretty great at representing most of the iconic monsters that have appeared in most of the ‘first Monster Manuals’ of previous editions… with the exception of smaller fey. Older editions would have Brownies, Leprechauns, Atomies, Grigs, Pixies, Atomies, Nixies, Sprites… a whole bunch of them, and I can see why they wanted to streamline them into just two – just the Pixie and the Sprite. There is admittedly a bit of a visual identity problem, though, and I am quite sad that neither the Pixie nor Sprite has insectoid features other than the wings. We could’ve had one of them be little humans/elves with insect wings; and the other be little humans/elves with more insect parts! Or maybe just make them be merely lilliputian little humans/elves.

Instead, the main difference between Pixie and Sprite just seem to be their attitude and their ability to do magic. Pixies are more cheerful and use magic a lot. Sprites are cold, lacking in warmth, suspicious, and use mundane (if poison-tipped) swords and bows. Their only real supernatural ability is invisibility and a ‘heart sight’ to understand an interloper’s alignment and intentions. 

I do like the idea of a group of tiny little forest people that protect nature, judge people who come, then either toss them out either forcefully (via sleeping arrow darts) or by scaring them off via rustling leaves. But all the other descriptions of the Sprites really do make them just feel like more boring, more serious versions of the Pixie. Which… again, really do feel like more of a cultural difference more than anything. We don't put 'Ranger Humans' as a separate species from 'Druid Humans', do we? 

I don't know... it's not that the older editions did a particularly good job at distinguishing all of their 'little fairy people' races, but at least there tended to be more differences, culture-wise or visually, beyond 'Tinker Bell' and 'Tinker Bell, but she dresses like Peter Pan'. At least when I was grousing about the various races of fish-people, there is a significant visual difference between the Locathah, Sahuagin and Kuo-toa. I skimmed through the 'small fey' of 2E and I am kind of disappointed that when they picked 'Pixie' and 'Sprite', they really didn't think of differentiating them visually or lore-wise. 

____________________________________________________

Stirge

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Beast (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Unaligned; CR 1/8
• 5.5E: Swarm of Tiny Monstrosities; Unaligned; CR 2

I find the Stirge to be a nice, underrated monster. Borrowing its name from the vampiric Strigoi of Romanian culture, the Stirge in D&D is patterned as a strange bat-mosquito, with how insectoid or mammalian the Stirge looks varying from edition to edition. I particularly love how they have grown to look much less than just a lumpy bug; gaining a second pair of wings and features that make it look reptilian in 3E and 4E. I really do find that 4E Stirge to be quite charming, looking like an old-school Star Wars alien in a way.

5E’s Stirge goes perhaps a bit too far in deviating from the previous appearances, though, giving it the head that is best described as some kind of a long-snouted possum, and legs that look almost mammalian (although it’s hard to tell). It makes it look a bit too much like a weird bat, like something that would believably be a real-life obscure species from Australia or something. 5.5E goes back into being monstrous, keeping the bat wings but bringing back decidedly insectoid legs, and a head that is just a massive, serrated dagger-piercer. It looks a lot less like a ‘proboscis’, but definitely more like something that would draw blood. It does look more like a serrated nail than the needle imagery that all previous Stirges have been using, though. 

Stirges are relatively simple monsters, being actually classified as ‘beast’ in 5E before there seemed to be a collective decision to just make all animals that aren’t in real life be ‘monstrosities’ instead just to make things simple. I like the idea of them being essentially more dangerous and threatening versions of mosquitoes as you trek through a jungle, actually able to drain someone to death instead of just giving you a nasty itch. 

I do like the writeup noting that once a Stirge has drawn blood, they would rather fly away to digest it – which really does make it feel like it’s the behaviour of a real wild creature which is just preying to survive. The problem, of course, if there’s a whole swarm of the things… each member in the swarm wants to feed, after all. 5.5E also highlights the Stirges’ nocturnal behaviour, and how an encounter might just happen due to the accidental disturbance of their hiding spot. 

I like the Stirge. In a more boring world they wouldn't have made the Stirge and filled in its role as a pest with 'Giant Mosquitoes' or 'Swarm of Vampire Bats' or something like that. But giving this ecological niche to a make-believe monster and putting in a bit of effort to detail their ecology is one of the reasons why I like world-building so much. 

____________________________________________________

Succubus

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Succubus)
• 5.5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Incubus)

I am very, very happy that despite newer editions of D&D going so much into playing it way too safe that the Succubi actually remain as the Monster Manual’s premier seduction-themed monster. They even get an expanded stat block, the Incubus – which previously is just a cosmetic, gender-flipped Succubus but is now something a bit more substantial that we’ll cover below. There is, still, admittedly a bit of PG-13-ifcation by giving us various alternate plans that a Succubus can take without implying sexual attractions (adopting the form of a lost loved one, a flattering underling, taking the form of someone needing protection, an isolating gaslighter) but the artwork and writeup does still keep the essence of the monster.

Drawing from European and Jewish mythology, the Succubus is adapted as a fiend. Previous editions have really flipped-flopped on whether the Succubi are demons, devils, or something else and 5th Edition just gave a gigantic cosmic shrug and characterized them as ‘independent’ fiends that can be in the employ of any greater fiend or work on their own. 

Succubi often use their ability to shapeshift, and essentially use a combination of sleeping manipulation, until they become susceptible to temptation. The ‘Succubus’ is the form that the fiend takes when they are physically seducing and tempting their prey, appearing in the guise of a humanoid and through seduction and temptation, corrupts their prey. The 5E Manual notes that Succubi don’t deal in contracts, but causes three betrayals – of thought, word and deed – to claim their prey’s soul. The Succubus has the ability to cast the Charm spell, but do not actually want to use it and wants to lower-case charm people to make them voluntarily lose their own soul. 

In combat, a Succubus has an additional attack called a Draining Kiss, which is a very common trope in fiction (albeit not always associated with Succubi) where they inflict the ‘pain and emptiness’ within the Succubus’s soul towards the victim. This is often a mark of the final death that the Succubus grants her victim, after successfully corrupting their soul.

In 5E, Succubi and Incubi are just terms for when the Succubus takes a female or male form. But in 5.5E, the abilities are split into two, and they can freely change between either form while being whichever gender they like. The Succubus is the ‘physical’ temptress, exploiting the waking desires. But when she transforms:

____________________________________________________

Succubus - Incubus

• 5.5E: Medium Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 4 (Incubus)

Most people forget that the original real-world mythology of Incubi and Succubi isn’t just about ‘sex demons’. It’s about sex demons that visit you in sleep and cause you to think of impure thoughts – essentially ancient people’s explanations of nighttime phenomena like wet dreams or sleep paralysis. The original 5E actually does note this in the writeup, saying that many Succubi stalk their prey and whisper sweet nothings while they are sleeping, making them more susceptible when the Succubus appears in the physical world. 

5.5E, however, makes the Incubus a full on alternate form with different abilities, representing the ‘dream demon’ aspect of the source material. Incubi visually look very cool, too, with ‘armour’ made of a porcelain-like material similar to their almost mask-like faces, while their ‘flesh’ glows with the consistency of the night sky filled with stars.

Instead of the ‘dream phase’ merely being a prelude to sexy seduction, an Incubus can now fully feed off dreams and continue feeding them with nightmares until their prey expires, and often haunt family members after they are done killing one. It’s a pretty sadistic demon, and you can really have a neat storyline about a constantly shapeshifting Incubus/Succubus trying to corrupt a whole family and using different methods with different members of the family. 

This also actually fills in a nice role of a ‘nightmare monster’ that the original Monster Manual doesn’t actually have, since the name ‘Nightmare’ is given to a demon horse. Incubi have access to a bunch of spells like etherealness (allowing it to phase into bedrooms), and sleep-themed spells like hypnotic pattern and dream. It can also curse enemies to be unable to have a restful short rest, which I thought is a nice, clever mechanic to interact with the resting mechanic of D&D. I just wished they went a bit further with it.  

____________________________________________________

Tarrasque

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Monstrosity - Titan; Unaligned; CR 30

The Tarrasque might not be as iconic as the Beholder or the Mimic or the Mind Flayer, but it is another monster that is basically quite iconic as a 'face' of Dungeons & Dragons' monsters. While it borrows from the name of a dragon from French mythology, the Tarrasque has very little in common with its inspiration.

And... let's be frank at what the Tarrasque is. It is basically just 'fantasy Godzilla'. Almost always constantly the most powerful end-game monster in most basic Monster Manuals, the Tarrasque stands at a whopping CR 30. With massively powerful attacks and the ability to shake the world around it as it moves, the Tarrasque is also blessed with a carapace that reflects magic. 

The Tarrasque is indeed just a giant monstrous lizard, and has mostly kept a somewhat similar appearance with slight variations. The 2E artwork gives it a much more humanoid, bipedal posture and the 4E artwork in its 'super serious' art-style makes it gray and removes its distinctive carapace. But the Tarrasque is always a giant, titan-sized theropodal lizard with a massive jaw, two prominent horns, and a carapace on its back lined with spines. Again, the vibe really does feel like a love letter to the vibe of Godzilla. 

The lore of the Tarrasque differs from setting to setting, but at least in the Forgotten Realms, the 'default' setting, there is only one Tarrasque, and that being retreats back into the depths of the earth to slumber if it is sufficiently injured. It's like Godzilla, who always returns back to the depths of the ocean... or comes back to life in the next movie with an infusion of plot device. 

Tarrasques slumber most of the time, but when (and where) it awakens, devastation is sure to follow. They are large enough to wander through entire towns like... well, like Godzilla through Tokyo, and what causes a Tarrasque to awake is unknown. The 5.5E Manual describes it as 'the Shape of Calamity', and where I have criticized the 5.5E for randomly cutting out chunks of monster lore compared to its older sibling, the Tarrasque is one that got an extremely welcome flowery explanation. Whereas the 5E Manual kind of shrugs and handwaves its origin, the 5.5E restores a lot of its old lore, noting that this primeval destroyer is a survival from the earliest epochs of the Material Plane, being a weapon of immortal forces and awakening to usher eras of destruction. 

It lashes out at anything and everything, and interestingly, takes particular offense at the 'works of lesser beings', meaning buildings, structures, and ships. The Doylist reason for this is for DM's to go wild with all their Godzilla tropes, of course, but I do like the in-universe reason that the Tarrasque is instinctively drawn to destroy what was not created by the primordial 'immortal ones'. 5.5E also notes that it's not even just one powerful Tarrasques, but apparently Tarrasques are seemingly some kind of a multiversal constant that can only be halted. Even on the off chance that sufficiently powerful adventurers do not drive it away and actually destroy it, another Tarrasque will just spawn or awaken. 

____________________________________________________

Thri-kreen

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Chaotic Neutral; CR 1 (Marauder)
• 5.5E: Medium Monstrosity; Neutral; CR 8 (Psion)

Probably one of my favourite non-human races from D&D is the Thri-Kreen, the resident humanoid ant-mantis-people hailing from the Dark Sun setting. Short of their 2E artwork that showed them with a much more bug-like lower body (which looks cool, admittedly), Thri-Kreen tends to be consistently portrayed as having a four-armed humanoid body covered with buggy carapace. I have no complaints here, it’s a pretty cool design that communicates the idea of hardy, desert-dwelling bug-people. They have decidedly taken a more ‘ant’ based design, losing the serrated forelimb spines of the mantis that its 1E and 2E variants have… which honestly fits the desert-dwelling theme a lot better. 

In 5E, Thri-Kreen are noted to live primarily in the deserts, but also savannas. They are, as expected from a species of insect-people, based on a lot of the eusocial ‘hive’ behaviour of ants and termites... but not a hive-mind! They're more nomads! 5E’s Monster Manual describes a lot of the inherent differences of an insect-based intelligent lifeform, noting that Thri-kreens communicate with mandible clicks and antennae gestures, making it particularly difficult for them to be understood by other species. Thri-kreen are still able to write, draw, and as with most creatures hailing from Dark Sun, have psionic abilities… but it does give Thri-kreen a bit of an indecipherable ‘secret language’ of sorts. 

Speaking of psionic abilities, yeah, Thri-kreen have them. Not all of them do, but some being born with these abilities does kind of play into the polymorphism that many ant species showcase. I do like the little caveat that while your average Thri-kreen can’t really feel emotions the way that most humanoids understand it, Thri-kreen psions are just inherently a lot more sensitive to it. 

Other aspects of Thri-kreen biology is highlighted in the 5E Manual (but not the 5.5E one), like how Thri-kreen don’t require sleep, have a short lifespan of 30 years, and have a worldview where they only hunt and kill to survive, not for sport. If they kill humanoids (especially elves), it’s without any true malice behind it. As a side-note, though, while 5.5E truncates a lot of this down, like every single Thri-kreen monster entry, they find it important to tell us that Thri-kreen name their two-handed polearms a ‘Gythka’, and their three-bladed shurikens are called ‘Chatkcha’. 

While mostly portrayed as being dull brown like real insects, Thri-kreen have camouflage abilities that is translated into their initial monster entries as a bonus in Stealth. When the Thri-kreen were promoted to playable 5E species in Spelljammer (which, by the way, I absolutely love), it’s just handwaved as them being able to be any colour… and the 5.5E Manual just straight-up has them as being able to adapt to whatever biome they have set up their nests in. 

____________________________________________________

Treant

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Plant; Chaotic Good; CR 9

A trope as old as Tolkien’s works, it was through my initial reviews that I realized ‘Treant’ was a word invented by Dungeons & Dragons to refer to the Ents from the Lord of the Rings without actually breaching copyright. Treants are relatively simple enemies from what you expect from a giant tree with a face, with the ability to slam you (with the weight of a tree!) and awaken nearby plantlife to act as ‘lesser’ Treants to fight for them. It’s an always awesome fantasy trope as the helpless forest rises up to wage war against those who would despoil it. 

The depictions of Treants have been wildly different between each edition, but that is absolutely fine, isn’t it? Trees all look wildly different, and I love that some Treants are more spindly, some have very human-looking faces with leaf-beards, and some look lumpier and half-formed. It all depends on the specific tree and the specific circumstances that the Treant awakens. 

Most Treants awaken from ancient trees in locations that are steeped with natural magic, often helped by other Treants and Druids. Once a Treant has ‘awakened’, it will continue to grow as a tree and can ‘root’ itself to continue growing as a tree. Again, it’s taking on some LOTR inspirations with how Treebeard and the rest of the Ents look indistinguishable from regular trees until they decide to move. And, of course, Treants are particularly hostile towards those who cut down trees and burn down forests indiscriminately. 

5.5E adds in another LOTR-inspired tidbit by noting that Treants avoid being embroiled with the conflicts of other shorter-lived species, with the only thing that could rouse them being assaults on their forest homes. 5.5E gives us a nice table showing potential Treant plot hooks – blessed by a god to grow a magical fruit; protecting portals and dungeon entries; protecting ancient druidic lore… pretty simple ‘protector of nature stuff’. But the last two really give some fun nods to what Treants could do at the hands of a DM that’s willing to push beyond the common tropes: “rooted on a hero's burial mound and animates trees that look like questing knights” and “scarred by a fire and holds the bones of the arsonist who started it in a hollow.” Pretty cool stuff, and two Treants that most certainly have some kind of story baked into them. 

They might seem a bit more mundane thanks to Lord of the Rings being such a juggernaut in the general minds of fantasy media, but I do really appreciate the Treants a lot.

____________________________________________________

Troglodyte

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E), Monstrosity (5.5E); Chaotic Evil; CR 1/4

I mentioned in my original review back in 2019 that "I always kind of forget Troglodytes exist". Now, writing this in 2025... I still kind of forget Troglodytes exist. Part of it, I think, is because of their visual identity – visuals aren't everything, but they are a significant part of a monster's memorability. There is a reason why Tieflings are more popular than, say, Gnomes. Troglodytes are essentially 'subterranean Lizardfolk', but where other 'Underdark-flavour' races tended to do something interesting with it, the Troglodytes... really don't. The term 'Troglodyte' refers to a race of savage cave-dwellers from Greco-Roman historic records. Reinterpreting them as lizard-people is neat... if D&D didn't already have several dozen of them. But sure, the twist of them being lizard-people is neat... except, again, if D&D didn't already have several dozen of them. And the Lizardfolk, Kobolds and Yuan-ti have so much more lore written about them. 

But sure, let's talk about the Troglodytes as they are presented in the 5E Monster Manual. They are at war against their neighbours in the Underdark all the time... which I think is the rule rather than the exception about any species that grow up in the Underdark. They eat anything they can stomach, they dwell in filth and grime, and this is reflected by their 'stench' ability, powerful enough to stun those around them. 

Otherwise, they are simple-minded brutes that can't plan ahead and just raid to get food. They're also sadistic and eat their prey. If their leader shows weakness, they get devoured. They also fight and kill each other over simple things like weapons. 

...again, all of these descriptions really lack identity. Being evil raiding brutes that only respect strength applies to so many other evil sentient races in D&D. The whole 'filth' thing could be a twist about it, but being mottled but otherwise clean-looking albino lizard-people really doesn't communicate that thematically or visually. The 'consumes everything' aspect, as well, isn't depicted particularly well. I feel like there really could have been something more around them. Some additional aspect of their culture, or of their biology, or of their battle tactics. Anything to make them more interesting than, like, Grimlocks or Quaggoth, two other Underdark species I've complained about being boring before... but those two at least had their gimmicks. The Troglodytes just exist, and they're angry, and they're smelly... and nothing else.

____________________________________________________

Troll

• 5.5E/5E: Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 5
• 5.5E: Small Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 1/2 (Troll Limb)

The term ‘troll’ is a term in general fantasy media that just means so many different things from so many different cultures. While each individual setting is always different, you can get a reasonable guess at what a ‘goblin’, ‘orc’ or ‘ogre’ would be in an average setting… or, failing those common tropes, the creators would be trying hard to subvert expectations. But trolls? Running down through various fantasy settings on top of my head, beyond ‘big, dumb and cruel’, perhaps the one common thing that tends to be reflected in fantasy trolls is their ability to regenerate. And that alone really does help to be a hook to really differentiate trolls from the half-dozen other ‘big dumb weird human’ that you find in the Monster Manual.

Trolls in D&D have been very variable visually, being a lot bulkier in 4E, lankier in 2E and 3E, with varying degrees of tusks or hair being present. In D&D they have been consistently shown with green skin, although I must say that I really like the 5.5E redesign the most. Restoring the fangs of the 1E-3E versions, the green-skinned Troll is also now covered with a layer of moss and lichen, which does sell them as being stealthy swamp-dwellers. Love the pinpoint-dot singular eye as well. 

5E’s writeups on the Trolls just highlights their cruelty, appetites and their work as independent thuggish mercenaries to evil monsters. 5.5E gives us a bit more about ‘natural’ Trolls, describing them living in festering lairs and abduct prey either alone or in small packs. But the most important part highlighted by both Manuals is the regeneration ability. Broken bones and slashed flesh closes off quickly, and even dismemberment is a minor inconvenience. Trolls can reattach severed limbs like it’s an inconvenience, and sometimes these limbs will even scuttle around on its own. However, acid or fire stops the Troll’s regeneration, thus making the Troll highly memorable for being this ‘puzzle boss’ similar to the Hydra. 

In other 5E material such as Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Glory of the Giants, we get to see this regeneration ability be taken to some really fun conclusions by showcasing utterly hideous mutated trolls that are the result of botched regenerations. Even the original 5E Manual has foreshadowing of this, noting that some Trolls who were beheaded can grow two heads; or Trolls that feed on unconventional flesh (like a fey creature) might gain additional fey powers. 

In the original 5E Manual, we get a sidebar for ‘loathsome limbs’ which gets turned into a full, proper monster statblock in 5.5E. I absolutely love this, establishing the limbs as its own monster that the Troll can keep creating as it gets hacked up. Perhaps to be a bit more ‘realistic’, the main Troll body will actually suffer exhaustion the more limbs it loses. Which makes sense – the Troll might be able to regenerate, but it’s still losing blood! Troll limbs will lose their autonomy after the main Troll body regenerates the missing parts. This works for heads, too. 

Again, I always find monsters to be a lot more interesting if they have a bit of a ‘hook’ to them. That hook can just as well be mechanical, like the Troll's, instead of flavour-wise! This is what I'm complaining about when I talk about the Hill Giants, Ogres or Troglodytes in the D&D world. There are so many other substitutes for 'giant dumb dude' and 'lizard person' in D&D that merely being that isn't enough. Not all monsters need a new sourcebook's worth of lore to make interesting, or have to be created from scratch to fit a setting. But they have to be memorable and distinct somehow for people to remember them.

___________________________________________________

Umber Hulk

• 5.5E/5E: Large Monstrosity; Chaotic Evil; CR 5

A monster that debuted from the very first Monster Manual, the Umber Hulk is giant bug-man monster! I really do like the name ‘Umber Hulk’ as well, which has that really nice descriptive feel that gives out a ‘vibe’, if that makes sense, despite the actual meaning merely meaning ‘big brown dude’. 

The original 1E Umber Hulk is just a nondescript bipedal monster with some bug mandibles, but from 2E onwards the Umber Hulk has grown more and more insectoid. The Umber Hulk gains a beetle-like carapace in 2E, and loses the somewhat dinosaurian/humanoid face in favour of being a fully insectoid monster from 3E onwards. The most distinctive features of the modern Umber Hulk are the gigantic, chunky forearms and the two massive mandibles that jut out of their buggy faces. They are also covered with bristles all over their hard carapace, which is noted to be what grants them their tremorsense. 

While not represented in the statblocks as anything other than a burrowing speed, Umber Hulks are noted by the writeup to be able to withstand cave-ins thanks to their hard carapace. This allows them to be ambush hunters (similar to Ankhegs), but there’s also the valid tactic of them drawing prey into these tunnels then collapsing the tunnels on them. They are otherwise ambush predators, lying in wait in tunnels adjacent to where prey might travel through, and bursting out of the walls or ceiling or ground of the underground caves to attack. 

The Umber Hulk has a little extra bonus to make it a bit more surprising. It has a mind-scrambling gaze that is translated in-game as either being stunned, being confused, or even attacking their own allies. In lore, it can also cause temporary amnesia, leading people to not remember what monster, exactly attacks them. This leads to the Umber Hulk as taking a supernatural, almost boogeyman status in the Underdark. Admittedly, the revelation that it’s ‘merely’ a big bug with just one special attack might be a bit disappointing, but now I really do find the idea and the plot potential of a mysterious underground killer to be quite an exciting story. I’ve always found the Umber Hulk to ‘merely’ be cool because of its visual design, but having it as a in-universe cryptid is a story avenue that gives it just a bit more personality than just being 'bug monster, but mildly psychic'.