#I just really like the Ultra Recon Squad ok

[melonthesprigatito]

Before Legends Arceus came out (so, two years ago whoops) I started coming up with my own Hisuian Ancestor and I spent a lot of time brainstorming (cough, cough daydreaming) about a hypothetical scenario of what their encounter would be like in the actual game. I tried to make it realistic as possible by making it seem like an actual event that could happen in the game, and the one thing I have to say is that it serves as the obligatory "Spooky Encounter" that's been in pretty much every Pokémon game since the Old Chateau.

I'm not going to tell you which character is the descendant of this ancestor just yet, because the story is better if you don't immediately know what's going on. All I can say is that this ancestor is the ancestor of a Gen 7 character.

The quest is intended to be more of a post game thing because it eventually leads into an Ultra Beast catching quest involving the space time distortions (which isn't the main focus, more of a bonus quest really). Think of it as a second update story quest like the Daybreak Update. I'm just going to call this entire thing the Nightfall Update I guess.

WARNING: SUPER LONG POST, FULL OF PLOT SUMMARY, HEADCANONS AND ART (Uh.... Don't read the post tags before clicking the blue read more button pretty please. Kinda spoilery

Update (2nd November 2024) : This is a full fanfic now! I'd recommend reading that before reading this post because it's basically massive spoilers. Like, recaps the entire story spoilers because I used this post to make that fic

To start the story quest you have to buy a special charm called the Otherworldly Charm from Lucille in Jubilife Village. Item description: ("A Mysterious charm made of an unknown material, discovered in Obsidian Fieldlands. It bears an inscription of a six pointed star.  Perhaps something will happen if you keep it around.") Why does she have this? Oh, she just found it lying out there in the field and thought it looked neat. Someone must have dropped it.

After you complete your expedition for the day, a short cutscene will occur. A random merchant from the Ginkgo Guild is making his way though the forest when he suddenly hears a noise behind him. He looks around, but it's completely silent. 

All of a sudden the merchant gets ambushed by the Miss Fortune Sisters. Unable to defend himself, he has no choice but to drop his goods and run. The bandits laugh among themselves at the successful robbery. They're still pissed that their scheme to steal the Origin Ore went up in smoke and they're just SOOO frustrated that the Player (in my case Akari) keeps absolutely destroying them in battle so this ambush was a morale boost for them.

Suddenly they hear a noise. Clover suspects it's another poor defenceless merchant unfortunate enough to cross paths with them, about to be robbed blind. A mysterious hooded, deathly pale figure with glowing eyes watches them from the treeline. The bandits are unnerved but launch into their motto anyway, because they're idiots, but become highly offended when the figure doesn't respond or show any sign of emotion at all. How dare they not acknowledge their perfectly rehearsed intro that strikes fear into people's hearts?! Coin says "Forget this, let's just rob them!" and lunges at the ghostly figure and she instantly gets hit with a blast of lightning coming from the figure's hand. 

The screen goes black and it cuts to the beginning of the quest.

Quest [Insert Number Here Because I Forgot How Many Quests Are In This Game]: The Witch of the Woods 

The sidequest continues when you talk to Ginter from the Ginkgo Guild. He is upset because some of the guild's merchants have been suffering from an increased number of attacks from bandits and supplies in the village have started mysteriously vanishing. At the same time, people have spotted a mysterious pale figure sneaking about Jubilife Village in the dead of night, stealing items such as food and clothing and rumours have started to spread around that it might be the evil witch that supposedly lives in a dark cave, deep in the woods at the edge of the Obsidian Fields which has gotten everyone in a panic because they're afraid that the witch might go after their children next.

Ginter doesn't believe in witches so he suspects that this supposed witch might be behind the thefts of the Ginkgo Guild stock, so he wants the player to look into the rumours and put a stop to them. At this point Zisu approaches them because she's heard ALL about this wicked witch and is really eager to join the investigation. As the Captain of the Security Corps, she feels that it's her duty to defend Jubilife Village from any threat so she wants to look into the rumours about this supposed witch so she can come up with a plan to defend the village from them if she needs to.

Current objective: Investigate the rumours in Jubilife Village (I'm using these quest objectives as a way to break up the giant wall of text. I can't remeember if the quest objective does update as you progress because I haven't played in months but whatever)

So Zisu tags along with the player and they start asking around Jubilife Village about the witch to gain more insight into the rumours. Several people recount different bits of information, but the most damning evidence is a tale from one farmer in particular who tells them a story about how one night when he was working in the fields, a big hole opened up in the sky, and what came out of it was this inhumanly pale woman with glowing eyes that spoke in a language he didn't understand. The farmer had the everloving crap scared out of him because he was convinced that this woman was an evil being that emerged from the underworld (a kid friendly way of saying that he thought it was a demon from hell) so he gathered some of the other villagers and they chased the witch off into Necro Forest.

Zisu is excited because "Sweet! Now we have enough evidence! Let's go investigate that forest then!"

Current objective: Head to the Necro Forest, north of the Obsidian Fieldands

What happens next is an escort mission where the player has to take Zisu across the Obsidian Fieldlands by fending off any wild Pokémon to a new area unlocked exclusively by this quest called the Necro Forest (Eterna Forest in the modern day) which is filled with Ghost Types. The background music is the Night Time Field theme no matter what time of day it is, or maybe a remix of the Old Chateau theme.

Later the Miss Fortune Bandits are encountered in the Necro Forest and they're running for their lives as they crash into Akari Barry Style (Charm dragging a paralysed Coin behind her). Charm is immediately aggressive but resists the temptation to battle Akari, especially because she's accompanied by the head of the Security Corps. Zisu asks what happened to Coin, and Clover freaks out about a witch in the woods that casted a lightning spell on Coin.

Akari wants to help Coin but the other two bandits are vehemently opposed to accepting help from some "Galaxy grunts." So Zisu purposefully drops a Cheri Berry on the ground and is like "Oh noooo, I dropped my berry! It would be a shame if it got stolen by bandits!" and Clover begrudgingly "steals" it, and the flee the scene, saying that you'd have to be stupid to go after the witch.

Eventually the Player and Zisu reach the cave which is supposedly the witch's home and at first Zisu doesn't want to go in because she's been pretty spooked the whole time in the forest, then she tries to play it off like she's not scared at all "What? I'm not f-f-frightened or anything! Let's just go!" then she dashes into the cave.

Current objective: Explore the Necro Cavern!

There is no cave in modern day Eterna Forest. The idea is that the land was dug into and smoothed out in order to build the Old Chateau on top of it. Its a small cave with a suspicious lack of Pokémon inside. The music is the cave theme that only appeared in the cave with the torches that you pass though with Ingo. I dunno, I just think that theme should have played in more than one location.

At the end of the cave, they discover an open chamber filled with signs that it's been lived in, such as scraps of food and clothing lying everywhere as well as a makeshift bed on the floor. Zisu finds the stolen merchandise in the far end of the chamber and runs towards it, while the player notices some weird looking metal things lying in the corner. Zisu comes screaming in the opposite direction "IT'S HER! IT'S THE WITCH!" and immediately uses the player as a human shield. The player turns to see a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, orange pupils with silvery blue irises. As well as the eyes, she has weirdly pale blue skin and she's wearing a stolen dark green torn cloak over some sort of dirty grey and blue futuristic clothing. Her hair is an absolute mess, riddled with sticks and leaves and she has sun burns all over her face.

All in all, she does look like some sort of evil forest witch, and she's started to freak out about the intruders, showing a particularly negative reaction to Zisu in particular and Akari gets dragged into a Pokémon battle. The witch sends out a Poipole aka a Pokémon that no-one in Hisui has ever seen before, and honestly if the player has any Psychic or Ground Types it gets defeated very easily.

After the battle, the witch is still freaking out, but now she just seems more terrified and upset. She quickly grabs a stick and starts brandishing it at Zisu, trying to scare her off. Zisu squeals like a little girl because she thinks the witch is waving some sort of magic wand at them but Akari puts herself between her and the witch and tries to diffuse the situation.

Nothing seems to be working until Akari has the idea to show her the Otherworldly Charm in case it belongs to her because the charm resembles the other strange metallic objects in the cave.

Akari holds the charm out as a peace offering and the woman recognising the charm, hurriedly snatches it out of the Akari's hands and backs away again. It finally hits Zisu that she's not a witch at all, just a really strange looking desperate woman.

The witch calms down a little because now she knows they're not a threat since they're not attacking her and the Player was kind enough to give her the charm back, but she's still really uneasy.

Zisu tries to ask her who she is and what she's doing here, but she doesn't understand a single thing she's saying. The woman shakes her head and tries to respond and it becomes very clear that the woman doesn't speak the Hisuian language at all and Zisu doesn't recognize the language she speaks either.

Zisu is perplexed at how they're supposed to help her when there's a language barrier, but she decides that at least they should tell her their names and try to get across that they want to help her in some way.

Zisu points at herself and says "Zisu", then she points at the player and says "Akari" (or whatever name you picked for your player) and the woman is confused at first, but then she catches on to what she's trying to say, so she points at herself and says "Hijiki."

Hijiki frowns for a moment until she suddenly decides to do charades to try to communicate with them. She mimes writing in a notepad and Zisu grabs a pen and a notepad from her bag and hands it to her.

Hijiki finds it way easier to communicate with drawings so after a while she flips the notepad over again to show them.

The first drawing is an image of a sad face and some strange device that has smoke coming out of it. Zisu is confused and Hijiki gets frustrated and points at the pile of metal objects. She walks over and grabs a small device from the pile and Zisu acknowledges that it even though she has no idea what it is, it looks very broken.

The second image is a crude drawing of several Pokémon: Luxray, Raichu, Electabuzz and Jolteon, surrounded by lightning bolts.

The third image is of lightning striking the device, making it look shiny and new, with a picture of a smiley face beside it.

Zisu is still confused but she deduces that Hijiki needs the Pokémon in the image to fix whatever her strange device is. The idea is that she needs electricity to charge her device again and it's up to the player to go out and catch these Pokémon and bring them back to her. Zisu decides to stay with Hijiki DEFINITELY not because she doesn't want to go back into the forest again, no sirree, she has to protect Hijiki and although Hijiki doesn't want her to stay with her, it's not like she can speak up and object so she just stays silent and anxious.

Current Objective: Catch the Pokémon from Hijiki's drawings and bring them back to her.

One catching quest later, the Player gives Hijiki the Pokémon and she starts tinkering on her device with whatever tools she has on her. The Pokémon strike her device with lightning and when she's finished, she attaches the device to her belt and has a distinctly relieved look on her face.

The device gets switched on and immediately Hijiki starts to speak English (well, the text is English, but in universe she's speaking whatever language the Hisuians speak), much to Zisu's shock. The device she fixed was a universal translator and she's so glad that she can finally explain herself she doesn't have to keep producing those terrible drawings with her embarrassing lack of art skills.

And with that, the truth finally comes out and the mystery is solved. Hijiki explains that she's from another dimension called Ultra Megalopolis and she and her Poipole fell into this dimension through an Ultra Wormhole. She lost most of her memories and woke up scared and alone in the Obsidian Fields, having no idea where she was. When she spotted civilisation, she tried to get help but because of her appearance and the language barrier, she got chased off and fled for her life into the Necro Forest. Because of how badly the first contact went, she assumed that the inhabitants of this world were extremely hostile, (hence why she attacked them on site) so she created a shelter for herself inside a cave to hide from them.

She then explains that there is no natural light in her world, so it was impossible for her to travel outside of the cave during the day because she got blinded and burned by the harsh sunlight. All she has is the clothes on her back and a few gadgets and tools that were in her backpack, so in order to survive she had no choice but to ambush passing merchants venture into Jubilife Village at night when it was dark and where no one could see her so she could steal supplies for herself.

She's very sorry that she had to steal from the Ginkgo Guild because stealing is a crime in her world as well. She didn't mean to scare anyone and she really wishes she didn't have to live in the wild anymore but she's too afraid of being attacked by the villagers again to try to ask for help.

Zisu is very shocked and saddened by Hijiki's story, and after a few moments be asks her if she wants her to escort her back to Jubilife Village. Hijiki doesn't want to because she'll get attacked, but then Zisu says "No you won't! I'm the Captain of the Security Corps. Everyone trusts me to keep the village safe, so if I say that something is not a threat, they'll listen to what o have to say, so I'll clear up the misunderstanding for you!"

Hijiki is still sceptical. She finds it hard to believe that the villagers will accept her just like that, so Zisu sighs and says "Maybe we should report to Commander Kamado about the situation, and give the village a heads up first?" 

Hijiki thinks that's fair enough. She's willing to wait in her cave for the Akari and Zisu to come back for her.

Current objective: Report back to Captain Kamado!

Zisu and Akari have a meeting with Ginter, and Commander Kamado to discuss their findings. Firstly Zisu reassures Kamado that there's no threat to the village. The witch of the woods was really a faller from another world like Akari and Warden Ingo and one of the Pearl Clan's Wardens. She was driven to stealing for survival after the villagers attacked her and drove her away even though she was lost and confused, and most likely in pain from the suburns.

Kamado is incredulous when Zisu tries to argue that they should take her in. Kamado is against inviting Hijiki to stay in the village. Akari is already on thin ice about being allowed to stay and the villagers only tolerate her because she's been busy quelling the frenzied nobles and slowly earning their trust. To invite someone who's KNOWN TO BE A WITCH would be disastrous. Zisu insists that Hijiki isn't magical, she just has some gizmos from her world that haven't been invented in this world so they only seem like magic. She tries bringing up the Pokéball, it looks like magic too but it's really just an ordinary object.

But Kamado is firm in his decision, even if Hijiki does have technology that seems like magic, what if she were to use her technology against the village? And some of the most superstitious villagers wouldn't accept that she's not dangerous and would still consider her to be a bad omen. Letting Hijiki stay would be too much of a risk.

Zisu is worried and disappointed. Even though she was one of the people who was terrified of the forest witch, now that she's discovered that she's actually an innocent person who's suffering hard, she feels absolutely horrible that they can't do anything help her. Zisu decides that they should at least head back to Hijiki's shelter and tell her what Kamado said. Maybe they could formulate a different plan, maybe the Diamond Clan or Pearl Clan could take her in instead?

Akari and Zisu return to the shelter to find it completely ransacked and Hijiki is nowhere to be found. Zisu finds a ransom note among the rocks. Turns out that the Miss Fortune Sisters had been spying on them ever since they bumped into them. After they found out that Hijiki wasn't really a witch, they wanted to take revenge on her for attacking Coin, so they kidnapped her and stole all her technology. Seeing an opportunity to spite Akari as well, they wrote on the ransom note that they took Hijiki further north to the Alabaster Icelands. If she wants to get Hijiki back she has to go the ice caverns in the Bonechill Wastes.

Zisu is outraged, but warns Akari that it's most definitely a trap. The Miss Fortune Sisters are most likely using Hijiki as bait to lure her into an ambush far away from where she can get help, and they're probably intending to leave her to die in the frozen wastes. But Akari wants to go save Hijiki anyway so Zisu decides to head back to the village to rally some of the Security Corps as backup and tells Akari that she'll meet her in the Icelands.

Current objective: Chase after the Miss Fortune Sisters!

Meanwhile, Hijiki has been thrown into the the ice pit in the Bonechill Wastes and the Miss Fortune Sisters are currently occupied. Clover is whining about how cold it is as Charm and Coin go through Hijiki's belongings.

She had things like her taser, an aura scanner, a GPS, an Ultra Smartphone etc but they can't figure out how any of them work or what they're used for. Clover is whining about all the effort they put in ended up being for nothing because everything "the witch" has is useless junk, but Charm snaps at her. At least they might be able to sell this overworldly technology on the black market after all. Coin isn't convinced. Who would buy useless garbage that don't work?

Coin starts threatening Hijiki into telling them how to use her gadgets, or else she'll sicc Toxicroak on her, but there's just a slight hiccup. Hijiki is unable to understand what they're saying because they took her translator away so all she does is stare blankly at them. All three of them are oblivious to the fact that Hijiki can't speak Hisuian at all, and that they all sound like nothing but enraged gibberish to her.

All this really does is piss them off. Clover starts yelling at her again, just completely exasperated and baffled. She's literally being held captive by bandits and tossed into an ice pit, probably freezing to death. How could she possibly feel so blasé about it????? Does she not realise the situation she's in right now??? Coin has had enough and decides to let Toxicroak attack Hijiki anyway. If they can't get any use out of her things, at least she'll be able to get payback for the "lightning strike"

At that moment, Akari shows up just in time. The Miss Fortune Sisters do their motto and start evil motive-ing about how THIS TIME for sure they'll win against Akari and leave her to perish in the ice forever. This time they're going to attack her with all three of their Pokémon at once instead of one at a time like the last few fights and overwhelm her with numbers.

Charm and Clover release their Pokémon and instead of joining in, Coin decides to sit it out. She tells the other two that she's still going to attack the witch with Toxicroak and that they could stall Akari long enough to let Toxicroak get enough hits in. Charm and Clover start arguing with her because that was NOT the plan, but Coin just tells them to shut up.

Charm and Clover go 3 Vs 1 as Toxicroak attacks Hijiki, with Charm substituting Toxicroak with her Rhydon. Akari beats them because of Main Character Plot Armour and Charm goes full villainous breakdown and just decides to attack Akari herself, but then out of nowhere, Hijiki's Poipole breaks out of it's Pokéball and glues the Bandits to a rock. Akari jumps down the ice pit to save Hijiki and you end up battling Toxicroak with Poipole instead of your Pokémon.

With the bandits finally defeated for good, the Security Corps show up to apprehend them. Akari stays with Hijiki who's in a really rough shape. She tried to avoid Toxicroak for as long as she could, but it eventually weared her down, and now she's lying unconscious at the bottom of the pit. Zisu immediately orders the two Medical Corps people to take Hijiki back to the village to get her medical attention. The medics are like "You want us to WHAT-" because that would involve taking THE WITCH TO THE VILLAGE, but Zisu yells at them again and they have no choice but to do what she says.

A day later

Scene transition to a day later and Akari is waiting in Kamado's office. There was quite a uproar in the village when the Security Corps returned with the famous Miss Fortune Sisters somehow stuck to a rock and near mass panic occured when the Med Corps rushed the rumoured witch of the woods to the hospital room in the Galactic Building. Professor Laventon runs in, very upset. He can't get any work done with the noise of that many people crowded around the entrance trying to catch a glimpse of the witch to see if she's really as terrifying as people say she is. Kamado informs him that he already sent Cyllene to get them to leave.

Pesselle arrives from the hospital room to give them an update on Hijiki's condition. They're currently treating her for Toxic poisoning, as well as suburns and eye damage. Pesselle is clearly shaken and explains that she's never seen anyone like Hijiki in her life, she's not even sure that she's human. For starters, her eyes are extremely unnatural looking and she's so deathly pale that her skin looks pale blue. Not to mention that she appears to have bioluminescent eyes and freckles.

She's willing to take Zisu's word that Hijiki is still a normal human from another world, but she wonders what kind of world would have people who are so obviously weakened by sunlight. Kamado thanks her for her help and Pesselle returns to her duties, not before telling her to bring this supposed witch to his office once she's recovered enough.

Professor Laventon talks to Akari about the strange purple Pokémon that was following Hijiki around because he's having trouble identifying what it is. Rei speculates that if the witch is from another world, then maybe the purple Pokémon is too. Laventon nearly explodes with excitement because they have the chance to document a Pokémon from another world! Maybe he could ask the witch if he could have a look at it, which is something he immediately goes to do. Rei runs after him in a panic.

Zisu enters with Ginter. Ginter confirms that they managed to get back some of the things Hijiki stole from the Ginkgo Guild, though obviously things like food couldn't be recovered. Zisu asks if he wants to press any charges, and Ginter considers for a moment before ultimately deciding not to. From the sound of things, Hijiki went through a lot and he would feel terrible if he added to her suffering. Zisu regretfully tells them that the Miss Fortune Sisters got away. After they were freed from the glue, they used a smoke bomb and escaped in the confusion, though she thinks that hopefully the bandits would think twice about confronting Akari again.

A while later, Pesselle brings Hijiki up to Kamado's office and the poor woman is shaking like a leaf, half from because she's still weak and the other half because she's obviously terrified of Kamado. In a scene echoing Akari's first meeting with Kamado, he stares Hijiki down and she loses her nerve instantly, backing away and hiding behind Akari. Pesselle scolds Kamado because this is clearly no way to treat a patient, but he reminds her that this is an outsider he's dealing with, and he must test her by having her face him in combat like he did with Akari.

Hijiki stammers and tries to say that she has no idea how to do that "creature combat thing" that Akari and the bandits did and Kamado clarifies by saying he meant PHYSICAL combat, not a Pokémon battle. Hijiki freaks out because she'd just die if she did that. Kamado retaliates by saying that surely someone who is capable of survived in the wilds and ambushing Ginkgo merchants MUST be able to fight, and if she wants to prove herself, she has to.

Hijiki takes a deep breath and just edges close to him, hesitating to even touch him AAAAAND Kamado throws her. Cut to black with a CRASH! text box and fade back in to see Hijiki flat out unconscious on the floor again. Cue Pesselle totally ripping him a new one, yelling at him about how that was totally unnecessary, why does he always have to do this, has he no shame, as text box after text box hits the screen going by too fast for the player to read.

Zisu helps Hijiki to her feet but she's distressed because Kamado managed to dislodge her translator from her belt so she doesn't understand him when he says that someone so cowardly and unwilling to fight clearly isn't a threat to anyone. Hijiki quickly retrieves her device and turns back to Kamado, saying

Hijiki: "I'm very sorry, my translator fell off. I don't speak in whatever language this is so I couldn't understand any of that. Could you please repeat what you said, sir?"

Zisu: "He said that someone so cowardly and unwilling to fight clearly isn't a threat to anyone."

Hijiki: "Oh…"

Kamado then says that if she wants to stay in Jubilife Village she has to be able to contribute to society, so what skills does she have? Hijiki thinks for a moment because she can't remember much but she does have a vague idea of what her old job. She remembers that she was probably a Poipole handler which is why she has one with her, and she was one of the people tasked with taking care of them as they were typically adopted as companions or to help with construction because of their glue (kinda a Zookeeper/animal shelter worker kind of deal)

Pesselle speaks up and says that it kind of reminds her of the people who look after the Pokémon in the village's pastures. Kamado turns away, thinking about it. He would half to discuss it with Zisu because that falls under the Security Corps jurisdiction. Zisu barges in like "DID SOMEONE SAY SECURITY CORPS?" at that moment and startles everyone. She's 100% on board with letting Hijiki help at the pastures.

Hijiki interrupts, unfortunately she can't work during the day because the sun is straight up harmful to her so she doesn't know how useful she could be. Zisu turns to her and proposes that she'll give her a lodge in exchange for her services at the pasture on the night shift. They're needing more people who can stay up all anyway.

Hijiki is stunned. They wouldn't really do that for her, would they? One encouraging grin from Zisu is all she needs to accept the offer and become a full fledged member of the Security Corps.

Catching Poipole

Hijiki thanks the player for everything, and as a reward for completing the sidequest, she gives the player her Poipole because she feels that the player would be better at taking care of it in this new world…. If she can catch it that is.

Catching Poipole plays out like a Legendary Pokémon battle like how you catch Enamourus. As in, it flies around attacking you with poison blasts and you have to stun it before you can throw a Pokémon to battle it.

After this, Hijiki just becomes an ordinary NPC that you can talk to near the pastures (though she can only be encountered at night.) Her appearance changes, as she's now in the Security Corps uniform instead of her Ultra Space/ cloak get up.

As a little easter egg, you can have a rematch with her and she battles you with the Pokémon you gave her in the sidequest. She excitedly explains that Zisu taught her how to partake in "creature combat".

Her dialogue is mostly showing amazement at how cool everything is in Hisui and how she really wishes she could go out and investigate everything like the Ultra Recon Squad. She realises that Akari wouldn't know who the Ultra Recon Squad is and she explains that they're basically her world's equivalent of the Galaxy Team.

She's heard of the legends about Hisui from Rei and is just as intrigued by them as he is. Though her main complaint is that Hisui is a little… behind, technological wise. Though she expresses interest in the player's Arc Phone as it seems a little out of place in this world…

Since the quest is available during the post game, she talks about how scared she was when "the sky turned red and green" (aka that part of the game when the Player is banished from the village and the sky distorts. She remarks that thought that the Blinding One had escaped from the Tower and drained Hisui of it's light, but apparently it was something else. She figures she shouldn't worry about it since it's not this century's problem anyway. The Tower isn't predicted to break down for another two hundred years anyway (Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon Necrozma foreshadowing!)

Ultimately she doesn't affect the story in any way and her sidequest is completely optional, but it is required if you want to be able to catch Ultra Beasts.

Sidequest: ??? The Beasts from Beyond

To trigger the next quest, you have to enter a Space-time Distortion. The next day, Melli barges in to the Galaxy Team headquarters demanding to speak to someone, ANYONE. He claims that he was minding his business, in the Coronet Highlands when all of a sudden a pile of bricks just up and attacked him! They completely ruined his day and scared Lord Electrode and he demands that someone does something about it! Nobody takes him seriously and Rei just thinks he's gone nuts.

But the next day, Warden Palina shows up, looking really worried. A strange pure white Tentacruel creature showed up in the Coastlands and has been behaving aggressively towards anything that approaches it, and even the Alphas won't go near it. Cyllene calls Akari into her office because she's been getting continuous reports of strange monsters being sighted across all of Hisui that apparently emerged from the space-time distortions.

Hijiki runs in, and quickly excuses herself for interrupting. She's really panicked because she heard from the villagers that Hisui is being invaded by monsters that sound suspiciously Ultra Beasts. She volunteers to help because they're creatures from her homeworld so at the very least she's familiar with them and knows what to expect if Akari goes out and attempts to catch them.

To learn about where to catch the Ultra Beasts, you have to talk to Hijiki. She's heard rumours of monsters and such from the people who visit the pastures to see the Pokémon and she thinks she knows exactly what the monsters really are. She has dialogue talking about each Ultra Beast and a hint as to where it's found.

"There's a ghostly figure floating around the Deadwood Haunt. I don't know much about spirits but it sounds an awful lot like Nihilego. It would float around like a ghost, I think." (Deadwood Haunt, Cobalt Coastlands)

"I heard from someone in the Pearl Clan that an insect with huge muscles is challenging an Alpha Machamp to a flexing contest…. I don't understand, do Buzzwole normally behave like that…?" (Arena's Approach, Alabaster Icelands)

"There's a Pheromosa going wild in the bog. What terrible luck to fall into a wormhole and end up in a place so muddy. It hates getting dirty." (Scarlet Bog, Crimson Mirelands)

"That rude man can't catch a break. Apparently his Electrode is being bothered by a Xurkitree that's trying to eat it's electricity… " (Moonview Arena, Coronet Highlands)

"I've heard that a Celesteela has taken root near the Floaro Gardens. The soil there must be very fertile. It's a giant creature that blasts off like a rocket and- Wait, have rockets been invented here yet? Never mind." (Floaro Gardens, Obsidian Fieldlands)

"I've heard that a sharp creature that looks like paper has been cutting down trees in the Heartwoods. It's Kartana, I'm certain. That Lord Kleavor must be jealous of it's cutting edge sword techniques…" (The Heartwood, Obsidian Fieldlands)

"Oh, this is absolutely terrible! A huge monster is eating giant lumps of ice and snow in that tundra! Sounds very uncomfortable, chewing ice hurts my teeth… Oh wait, what was I saying? Yes! Guzzlord! You must stop it before it consumes everything in sight!" (Avalugg's Legacy, Alabaster Icelands)

"The creature that's that looks like a pile of bricks in must be Stakataka, I'm certain. Where did that unpleasant man say he encountered it? Must have been near some ruins?" (Celestica Ruins, Coronet Highlands)

"Um… What's a volcano anyway? I've never heard of such a thing… Apparently there's been the sounds of explosions coming from the volcano that's making people worried. I don't think the explosions are coming from the volcano itself, sounds more like a Blacephalon is causing them." (Firespit Island, Cobalt Coastlands)

To get Naganadel, talk to Hijiki. She'll explain that Poipole have been selectively bred to be unable to evolve by themselves. They must be taught a special move that lets them evolve that only experienced handlers know how to teach, because it's stronger form is too wild and dangerous for the average civilian to handle. She's seen Zisu teach Akari's Pokémon new moves and tells Akari that she needs to get Zisu to teach Poipole the move Dragon Pulse.

Other stuff

And that's everything I've got about Hijiki. If you haven't worked it out already, she's the ancestor of Zossie from the Ultra Recon Squad. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are kinda my favourite 3DS Pokémon games and there was a time when I was absolutely obsessed with the Ultra Recon Squad and I was so sure that they'd come back as an explanation for being able to catch Ultra Beasts in the post game of future Pokémon games that I felt ROBBED when they never showed up in the Crown Tundra.

So with the dawn of the idea of Hisuian Ancestors, I thought "Wouldn't it be cool if the ancestor of one of the Ultra Recon Squad fell into Hisui and got mistaken for a supernatural creature because the locals thought their technology was magic?" Because of how massively technologically advanced Ultra Megalopolis is, I figured that even if it was 200 years ago, it'd still be way more advanced than Hisui so anyone who fell through a wormhole would be in for a sort of time traveller-esque fish out of water scenario but without the time travel.

Hijiki is Zossie's great great great great great great great great (however many greats that can fit in 200 years) aunt. She can't be Zossie's great great grandmother because the grandmother has to stay in Ultra Megalopolis for Zossie to even exist at all.

The name of Necro Forest has a double meaning. As soon as you walk into it you think "Oh, Necro = Death because of the Ghost Types" but it's also the first foreshadowing that the ancestor is from Ultra Megalopolis. Who stole the light from Ultra Megalopolis? Necrozma.

If you're one of the 47 people who played USUM, you'd remember that the Ultra Recon Squad had to wear full protection against the sun, which Hijiki lacks, hence the sun burns.

Hijiki is scared of Zisu because she's been stealing from the Ginkgo Guild and she recognises that she's part of the village's law enforcement so she was afraid that she came to catch her and punish her for the thefts.

About the whole glowy eyes thing, that's a headcanon I have about how the inhabitants of Ultra Megalopolis have bioluminescent eyes. It's based off official art of the Ultra Recon Squad where Dulse's eyes appear to be glowing in the dark. What is canon is the whole thing where the Ultra Recon Squad has silver irises and pupils that match their hair colour. If you zoom into their concept art you can see it.

I picked the name Hijiki because it has the same seaweed theme naming that the individual members of the Ultra Recon Squad have. The seaweed she's named after has been part of the Japanese diet for centuries. (At least according to Wikipedia.)

But what was that "lightning magic?* It was just an ordinary taser. Hijiki just nonchalantly tased Coin. You can find the taser among Hijiki's other gadgets in the cave

Bonus: my thought process while reading over part of this:

"Ok, so Hijiki jumps Gingko merchants in the woods and mugs robs them. Wait... wasn't Volo a Ginkgo merchant---"

The result:

This post took me two years of procrastination to make-

Update: (2nd November 2024) Somebody made art based on this post so I've decided to add it in

[kinki-cami]

Ok nah i posted something similar on an alt but affini could literally never domesticate EVERY pokemon, like yeah pokeballs but we're assuming they're similar to the ultra recon squad: no pokeballs

So right off the bat you have quite a number that are just immune to any drugs: my bodies are Regi, Yveltal (once yveltal dies... any affini in the area is dead too), any/every artifical mon

Then you got the LITERAL GODS: Eternatus, palkia, dialga, giratina, unown, rayquaza more than likely, mew would probably not give a shit and just hide as one of these big legends, then the big boys zygarde (its made up of like sentient cells as shown in the anime you can anger it as a core and corrupt it when its formed but beyond that i dont think your going to really corrupt the pokemon of balance) like literally if rayquaza is the ozone condom Zygarde is the earths surface condom and it can deform and reform at will and thats not including

*dark souls boss theme starts playing*

ARCEUS

Yeah no arcues being literally god means it doesnt have dna and is immune to every type of attack UNLESS GOD WANTS YOU TO CATCH HIM there is no way to catch him and even so he just lets you have a piece of him

Oh and ghost types and some rock types and all futurr paradox pokemon (they are literally robots or at least living metal) and specifically guzzlord would consume them before they had a chance, and blacephalon would probably blow his own mind before they got to it (i mean that literally)

[r0-boat]

Dulse headcannons

For some guy that only appeared in Ultra sun and moon for a minute he was pretty darn sexy

I'm sorry if I go a little sci-fi crazy djdn

Sfw

First of all there is no way that the people from Megalopolis are just human even though they did came from an ultra Wormhole it's kind of boring. Sooo I think they are evolved humans that integrated technology and AI in some way.

Dulse is more robotic than his other members of the recon squad, he's more physically stronger and smarter than the average human and Megalopolis citizen. But he lacks expression of emotion and comes off quite cold when not meaning to.

Dulse really doesn't show any emotion and it's hard to get a reaction from him.

Dulse is still human tho. Like any human He wants companionship, and he is not subtle about what he wants.

I feel like he sees everything as a checklist,( not because he is more robotic) mostly because I see him as extremely organized, he takes everything extremely seriously, and hates to be unprepared

Ok... you probably saw this coming but like demi. Like N he was probably thought he was ace

Then you came... came in with a "hah fuck u, u got feelings now"

But like... do you even count especially because you're from another dimension?

Nsfw

Look like I said before he pretty much has his entire life and events in his life I'm getting laid is probably the bottom of the list.

Bitch has no sexual appetite, and is only interested in the human anatomy

Well now your here and he wants to experience these new feelings with you, "no checklists..." You tell him

Dulse is slow and gentle saying "can I?" Or" may I?" Before doing anything.

Dulse is still 10× stronger than you and he has to remember that for a while before he he gets use to you.

He prefers all the lights to be off he feels more at hone, and don't worry his eyes are better suited for the dark so he could see you perfectly.

Kinks? Honestly I'm drawing a blank, maybe bondage, rough sex other than that I could see him being just vanilla. I can see him trying out a lot of things just to have the experience with you.

He's probably got finger/hand game 🥵🥵

[midyearflowers]

ok i havent beat the elite 4 yet but i finished the necrozma plot line in ultra moon and ive got some thoughts

-      i really love this game. the changes they made were great and going back to sun to grab some mons for my dex felt so empty. i feel ultra added a lot more scenic things to routes and the additions of the beaches and mantine surfing is awesome. i didnt really give this gen much thought when it first came out, like i liked it but found some of the mechanics were weird or annoying. i wasnt interested in the new pokemon and thought the trials were too different from the gyms. but now i absolutely love it. its such a breath of fresh air honestly. and i made it a point to have teams of only alolan pokemon and i really came to like them a lot. being able to get the giant totem pokemon in ultra is great too. i cant gush about it enough

-      i was a little disappointed that they scrapped lusamines story with nihilego. it really fit her character in sun and i feel that without it the whole “cryogenically storing pokemon” and her personality were kinda out of place. i think they couldve kept it in and had the story mostly follow sun where she was only working with the recon squad so she could collect the ultra beasts as well, and then once you bring her back from the nihilego event the squad couldve been like “despite her betrayal we would be willing to help heal her so long as you take care of necrozma as initially planned.” like the way the player handled the situation impressed them and they decided to have them help instead of learning pokemon stuff themselves

i just feel like it couldve worked cause with the idea of humanoids living in this universe with the ultra beasts theyd obviously have info on them, and the fact that nihilego is like a parasite and saps the life force from people theyd probably have experience dealing with the aftermath (also lillie didnt get to yell at her to be a better person and that was such a good part of sun)

-      I GET TO RIDE THROUGH THE COSMOS ON THE BACK OF A GIANT MAGICAL SPACE CAT!!!!! that shits fucking TIGHT. i love solgaleo so much my big golden kitty with a big mane and its light form gives it little golden booties. i love lunala too the design is so cool but its wings take up so much of the screen rip. like using it in battle i cant see the opposing pokemon lmao. lunala definitely fits a little better with cosmog and cosmoem in terms of design with the purple and gold in an oval shape but both legendaries are so good

-      i wouldve liked to see more ultra recon-like people but the concept as a whole was neat. aliens from another universe seeking to right the wrongs of their ancestors and also learn about other worlds. i like that necrozma wasnt seen as some big monster that was terrorizing people for no reason, but a creature that had been wronged and even when it lashed out and hurt others they still recognized that it was in pain too and the only way to solve the problem was to help it as well as themselves

and i think this might be the first time in a main game that there was like, almost a justification? for the player character to have these legendary creatures in tow. like necrozma needs its light and will get that light from being near solgaleo/lunala, so to have a trainer that is powerful enough to defeat ultimate necrozma carry them around would be the most logical course of action to preventing another disaster

-      it still does feel weird that you can catch the tapus tho. like these are the guardians of the islands, why can this one trial goer just catch them and keep them in their team or in a PC box?? i get the whole “catch em all” thing but it wouldve probably made more narrative sense for them to just be like a super challenge. either individually really powerful or you fight them all in a row kinda thing

-      z moves are so OP looking and pretty cool and i love them. i love how each type has its own dance, theres a few special ones for specific pokemon like the partner cap pikachus z move is adorable. what i find hilarious tho is how ridiculous they are in the animation. like for example ultimate necrozmas z move is like, total nuclear annihilation through absorption of all the universes light. and then the target just gently faints afterwards lmao. or the dark type move that straight up sucks pokemon into a black hole. theyre just so over the top and i hope they bring it back in some form like how you can have some mega forms in alola

[perenlop]

7, 23

7. Favorite Gym Leader

elesa!!! her bw2 design is my fave, she’s an electric type user + emolga user, i’m strangely fond of how much time i’d spend training for her bc i always felt so accomplished when i’d finally beat her! usually people hate her for that but it made me feel good.

23. Favorite Music Track

OHHHH my GOD where do i start... i love so many it’s actually insane the music is one of my favorite aspects of this series... my ultimate comfort track is time gear from pmd but i feel wrong not mentioning anything else so i’ll make a list from each gen (minus the first three) + the spinoffs

gen 4: mt coronet, cyrus battle, game corner, canalave city, team galactic hq, professor rowan’s lab, distortion world, giratina battle, frontier brain battle (sinnoh), ho-oh battle, dark cave, inside ruins of alph, cianwood city, dance of ecruteak

gen 5: all of N’s music overall, the gym leader battle + the last pokemon theme, the credits theme, rival battle, plasma grunt battle, ghetsis battle, driftveil city, lostlorn forest, all of the legendary pokemon themes, virbank city, champion iris battle

gen 6: all the AZ themes, both elite four themes, peace, let’s go home, wally’s emotional theme, verdanturf town, hoenn gym leader theme, champion diantha battle, lysandre battle, rival brendan/may battle, groudon/kyogre battle, maxie/archie battle

gen 7: seafolk village (night), kahuna battle, elite four battle, ultra necrozma battle, ultra beast battle, all of lusamines themes, lillie’s theme, gladion battle, mt. lanakila, champion battle, guzma battle, faba’s theme, ultra space travel, ultra recon squad battle

pmd: ok so like. honestly every single track from explorers is a piece of art in some way except for aegis cave and dark crater but if i HAD to it’d be dialgas fight to the finish, all the future dungeon themes, all temporal tower themes, hidden highland, sympathy, every single goodbye track, fortune ravine, team charms theme, and treasure town.

rescue team: farewell, fugitives, credits theme, great canyon, ninetales legend

gates to infinity: our first meeting, theme of hope, sympathy and sincerity, what’s wrong with everyone?, the frism, both desperation themes, kyruem battle, a friends decision, magnagate, telluric path, all the great glacier music, stompstump peak

super: every single dungeon theme in this game is glorious, time to set out, serene village, don’t give up, entrusted hope, all the partners themes

and then for other spinoffs it’s really just sinking submarine and the legendary and admin battles from ranger guardian signs

[marawis]

Pokémon Villain-Champion Switch Scenarios Part 2 (well more like “villain is not the villain now and the rival is on some jelly-fish” scenario)

Yeah I’m still at it, now in Alola~. This time the prompts were:

Kukui wants to bring progress and a Pokemon league but in a dismissive manner towards Alola’s traditions. 

Hau takes Guzma’s words way worse to heart, eventually winds up stumbling upon nihilego and going batshit.

I took some liberties with it and this came out. And this ended in an even longer post than ever before, even with a Rainbow Episode-like postgame and all. You are all warned. (Check out Hoenn, Sinnoh and Kalos here)

Intruders have invaded Aether Foundation, and the alarm has been set.

Is the Ultra Recon Squad.

Lusamine in this world didn't fall into despair after the wormhole incident with Mohn because she thought her kids needed their mother more than ever now, so she is way more sane this time around.

There isn't much in the Foundation except for their Ultra Space research, so she fears these strangers are trying to get Nebby. Lusamine asks Lillie to run away with it and to look for Burnet, an old friend of hers. She will keep them safe.

Lillie then runs away but is almost caught by the URS. Nebby manages to teleport them away before it's too late though.

Lillie then gets lost, but is found by Burnet anyway, who in turn asks her husband Kukui to care for them while she investigates some more on this  whole Ultra Wormhole business that seems related to Nebby and the URS.

Everything should be ok now, right?

Three months later, you are a kid from Kanto who just moved to Alola for reasons.

Fastforward here, you go to the tall grass, get your starter from Kukui, then go to meet the kahuna to make it official, meet Lillie, almost fall from the bridge, sparkling stone, festival oh wow even marawis made this thing the same story!

The similarities stop right in the festival though.

Hau was introduced as "the kahuna's grandson" in what was pretty much his debut battle to the town, and he lost to you, a foreigner "who met Tapu Koko".

Is pretty obvious he is hurt by how the battle ended, but still tries to fake a smile and say that "it was fun".

Nebby keeps getting out of the fucking bag, and two members of the URS are nearby looking at the whole place.

One wants to just go and grab Nebby, but the other says they must wait a bit, since it is a bad idea to go in when the place is full of trainers, and a kahuna to boot.

You go to Kukui's place, where he gives you the Rotom Dex.

He then asks you what do you think about the Pokémon League in Kanto. You mention that you have an autograph from a gym leader. You love the system and can't wait to go in a pokémon adventure of your own in Alola.

Kukui is sorry to break the news to you, but Alola doesn't have a League. They have an Island Challenge, so you will have to go with that for now.

But don't worry! Kukui is already working on getting a Pokémon League in Alola. Or at least he would, if the local system wasn't so obstructive on the matter.

Hala and Olivia are ok with the idea, but Nanu refuses to give his vote and there is no kahuna in Poni, not much that can't be done unless you have all the voted to your favor.

Oh well, Island Challenge will be.

You go around doing your usual stuff in the first island, with Lillie at your side because she feels safe with you.

A couple of Team Skull members approach you and challenge you to a battle, all while asking you to get away from the girl.

Of course, it isn't until you beat them that they make clear they thought you were a kidnapper or something, and were just trying to save Lillie.

They can't tell you much on the matter (mostly because they don't understand), but they were asked to keep an eye on Lillie by their boss, so they warn you to not try anything harmful for her, or they will have to do more than just bad hip-hop.

Lillie is confused, but doesn't try to give it too much thought neither.

You move to the next island with Kukui, Lillie and Hau.

Hau leaves to who knows where once you all arrive, and Kukui also leaves because he has some stuff to do. He is a busy man now.

You explore the place with Lillie. When you try to go into the Tunnel for the first time, the URS appears.

Lillie recognizes them and asks you to run.

The URS won't let her go now, not when they finally managed to get them on an isolated area.

Battle starts.

The first URS trainer is terrible so you defeat them easily.

The other one wants to give it a try but they are then interrupted by the Team Skull music in the background.

They may not be any better than the URS in trainer skills but still challenge them into battle so you can get away. After all, you were told they had orders from their boss to keep an eye on Lillie, weren't you?

You manage to get away, and ask Lillie what the hell is going on.

Lillie doesn't really want to break it all to you just now, at least not herself. She tells you to follow her to Burnet's work place.

You go there and Burnet explains to you all there is to know about Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts, or at least the few stuff we know so far.

Burnet also takes the chance to ask why Kukui is not with you all, and Lillie just says he left to do something.

Burnet is a bit annoyed but it can't be helped. It must be related to all the League paperwork her husband is stuck with since forever.

You then go to do your usual trial stuff with Lillie still around. In the middle of the road you encounter Hau who feels confident in his abilities and challenges you to a battle.

You win, and Hau still tries to fake a smile, saying that even if he lost it was still fun!

Someone who was watching the battle can't believe he is seriously saying that, and says that if he keep that mediocre mindset he will never get better.

It's Gladion.

Lillie recognizes her brother, and is both happy and shocked to see him, asking him where he was these last 2 years.

Gladion is a chuuni so he can't explain all the details, but lets us know he is working with Team Skull and that he heard about the orders to protect Lillie and about the fight they had with the guys from the URS. He doesn't know why Team Skull suddenly cares about her nor who these guys are, but asks you to stay alert anyway, since he doesn't really trust the Team. He then leaves.

Hau tries to not think about Gladion's words.

You visit the Battle Royal Dome for your obligatory tutorial with Masked Royal, who is totally not Kukui.

You and Lillie aren't fooled tho, you aren't Hau after all.

Lillie thinks Kukui must be doing this Battle Royal stuff to get some extra money for his League project. What a devoted man.

You finish your trial business, but right after your final battle with the kahuna you meet Faba with his gay partner an Aether employee, although Faba doesn't really look like, well, Faba. He is using a cloak to try to disguise himself, with little success if Lillie's reaction is anything to go by.

"This is why I hate kids!"

Faba escaped from the URS's takeover of the Foundation a few weeks ago, and has been hiding.

Lillie asks how everyone is doing in there.

Faba refuses to talk on the matter, and just tells Lillie to stay away from this mess as much as she can, or otherwise the URS will get their hands on what they want and Faba's work will be all for nothing.

With not much you can do and finally solving this puzzle on your own (since Lillie still doesn't want to do healthy communication), you leave to Ula'Ula, arriving to not-Johto Town.

There you find Kukui having a talk with another guy, but seems the tension is growing between them a bit.

The other guy of course is Guzma. He seems to be accusing Kukui of being an idiot and a hypocrite. Kukui says he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Guzma screams at him to stop feigning innocence. He saw the construction workers near Tapu Village and is not a secret that Kukui wants to do a Pokémon League.

Guzma doesn't mind the idea, and in fact is all for Alola finally being on par with other regions, but he is well aware that Kukui is doing all of this without the permission of all the kahunas. And is doing construction in a sacred area too.

"You know what happened to Tapu Village just for a supermarket, what do you think will happen with what you are doing in Mount Lanakila?"

Kukui won't take these words from Guzma of all people tho. What does Guzma care about traditions anyway? He who went and revived the team made by that rebel kahuna. If anyone should be getting the tradition talk is Guzma, not him.

Kukui stops the argument once he sees you and Lillie, and leaves.

Guzma is really pissed and with some desire to beat the crap out of someone, so he challenges you to a battle.

You win, and Guzma is more pissed. But at the same time it sure feels nice to let the frustration out, so it's all good now.

You may have gotten the idea by listening to Kukui, but still he introduces himself as the leader of Team Skull. He then recognizes Lillie, and mentions that she indeed looks a bit similar to the Aether prez.

Lillie is surprised, and asks him if he knows her mother.

He does. She supported him back when no one else would and is grateful to her. So when she suddenly called him and asked him to protect Lillie, he agreed without a doubt, even if that's not exactly what Team Skull is about.

He assures you his team will be around to check on your safety, and seems they have already fought the URS more times. Still, you shouldn't let your guard down just because of that. After all, what good does a weak trainer?

You leave to do your trial stuff still, but now the NPCs are doing some talk around. They have noticed the construction work in Mount Lanakila, and most of them aren't happy about it.

You reach Tapu Village and understand what all that talk comes from.

You encounter Kukui there, and question him about going on with the League project without all the votes and permissions.

Kukui is still on a good mood about this. He says he is sure there is no problem with it. If the Tapus had any problem they would have already acted about it.

You have some serious doubts on that statement since Tapu Bulu didn't rage against the supermarket until it was finished and construction for those things aren't done in a day.

Kukui still thinks you worry too much, and leaves to do other business somewhere else.

But whatever, you still have to do some trial stuff to do, which btw is taking it's sweet ass time to get done, looking at these many points I have done already.

Hau catches up to you and challenges you to another battles. You win again.

You are all expecting him to smile and say he had fun, but he acts more pissed out this time, and saying a PG curse under his breath.

You keep curbstomping him, so he starts to wonder if everyone else in the island is going easy on him just for being the grandson of a kahuna.

He is not in the mood to try the Ghost trial after this, so you leave Lillie with him in the Aether House that Acerola helps on. It seems the URS's influence hasn't reached there.

But when you come back oh surprise was that a big mistake.

On your way there you find Skull members in shock about what happened, screaming and crying about how if only they managed to finish their Island Challenge then maybe they would have been strong enough to stop those blue weirdos.

At the house Hau is hating himself on how weak he was, how he couldn't protect Lillie and instead she had to let the blue guys take her away to save him.

Lillie has been kidnapped for real.

Gladion arrives and of course is fucking pissed at Hau after listening to that.

If Hau just stopped being such a mediocre trainer earlier on, this wouldn't have happened!

But ok no time to panic, we need as much help as we can to save Lillie, so he has to tag along with us.

Since the URS took over the Foundation, is pretty much a given that is the first place to look around.

You all go to the port and are met with this Skull Ferry (I still can't believe it was a thing).

Guzma is there waiting for you. It's time to go and play hero for once.

You go to Aether Foundation, where you are greeted by Employees with Nihilego hats. The place doesn't look like the Foundation from the intro scene neither.

This is all starting to look more and more disturbing the more you get in.

You make your way to Lusamine's main room to reach the room where all the creepy stuff takes place on.

The URS is there, with a captive Lusamine getting high on Nihilego toxins, and Lillie caged in another corner.

Nebby is trapped and unable to teleport away.

Well this wasn't what you expected when you heard Alola was a chill place.

The URS members feel like having a chat, so they tell you what they did.

Lusamine refused to give them access to her technology, it was a very difficult task to make any progress like this.

They found good old Mohn's research on Nihilego though, and with it they used their own Wormhole to open a portal to Nihilego's dimension.

They let the Nihilegos prey on everybody in the Foundation, which gave them enough freedom to finally access what they wanted.

You see, they have their own technology to travel and all, but Aether had way more means to accomplish the plan they have in mind, all for the greater good!

Their world is suffering. Is a world of darkness. 

A very long time ago, their source of light died, but a pokémon made of pure light appeared and let them survive.

Their people became greedy, and tried to control the pokémon by force, making it lose it's light and be in pain.

They now need to find a way to restore the pokémon to it's original state, or else they will die. And for that they need a Solgaleo or Lunala, the legendary pokémon from Alolan Legends.

Of course, they DO have one of those, or else they wouldn't be able to do this wormhole travel. But then again, if they lose their Legendary they wouldn't be able to travel anywhere, is in their best interest to find one in another world and use it to feed their Light.

So now they will take Nebby and make it evolve in their world.

They thank you all for being a nuisance and leave with Nebby, but not without sending some Nihilegos to you to stop you from following them.

You of course aren't buying any of this and run right behind them to follow them through their wormhole.

You were followed by Gladion and Guzma, good thing all the gang is here! We aren't forgetting anyone at all.

You reach Ultra Megalopolis and go throught he only hallway there is in the whole place.

You find the URS and you are really pissed off, wondering if they really had to do this convoluted plan and if they couldn't just migrate to another world if they have Wormhole Travel Express.

It's not so simple. It seems their Light pokémon can also do wormhole travel and if they just leave like that it will reach a point where it may go out to hunt for light all by itself.

"Y'all are stupid."

You ask them where is Nebby.

They tell you that with the borrowed technology, the cloud is on it's way to reach it's final evolution and be fed to their light pokémon, not much for you to do now.

You call bullshit and go up their weird tower they have. Seriously this city is a disaster, which architect greenlighted this?

You reach the top right on time to see that this light pokémon is Necrozma, and it just did some questionable methods of fusion with the evolved Nebby.

You fight and defeat it, freeing Nebby in the process too.

The URS panics and in a moment of scared retardation they send their Legendary against you.

Necrozma then grabs the URS' legendary and fuses with it instead, and reaches it's final form.

Necrozma has not forgotten what the people from this world did to it, so it starts to rage and destroy the whole place.

The URS doesn't even have time to ask for you to help them, for they are the first to bite the dust.

Nebby picks you all and returns to your world before Necrozma can burn you out too, arriving at the Lake.

You take the moment to take a break, but this is far from over. Gladion reminds you that you need to go back to the Aether Foundation and get rid of those Nihilego hats.

You all go to the Foundation and start making those Nihilegos faint with Nebby's help.

You even manage to save Lusamine, yay for you.

Lillie apparently looks too much like a Nihilego so they didn't really bother to suck her head. Good thing we guess.

You wonder where is Hau, but Lillie doesn't known what happened to him after you all left through the wormhole since the light of it was too intense and she couldn't make out much of it.

Gladion thinks he may have gotten away, since he isn't really a strong trainer, he must be smart enough to run away. You hope so.

Faba suddenly appears with some medical help, all while acting as if saving the Foundation was his doing (from a mastermind point, that is). None of you take that and Guzma outright bullies him on the spot.

Lillie is grateful for your help on this, and for saving Nebby too. She entrusts Nebby to you since you seem to be a strong trainer, and she decides it's time to let you go on your own, since she now has to take care of her mother after all that Nihilego juice. Gladion will also stay behind this time.

It's ok, you have no time to waste on this plot. You still have some trial stuff to do! That's why you play this game after all.

Guzma gives you a ride back to Ula'Ula on the Skull Ferry, since you still have to fight the kahuna of the place.

You go to Po Town and visit Nanu on the house he is staying in.

At first he is all "go away kid I'm on my free day", but Guzma calls him out to do his duties, this kid here was a hero a few moments ago!

Oh well. Nanu fights you and you complete the Ula'Ula stuff.

Guzma gives you a ride to Poni. He wishes to fight you once you finish the Challenge.

Poni doesn't have much to offer, except for that stoner girl who can't come up with a trial. You are encountered by Hapu tho, who just got named Kahuna by Tapu Fini. 

You battle her and win, congratulations you finished your Island Challenge!

But we still have more to do.

Tradition says you have to do a Boss Rush with all the kahunas, but for now things can't be done like that.

Now that Hapu is a kahuna, she wants to have a serious talk with Kukui, who just went on and began construction of a League in sacred grounds without permission, and she wants to do it before the Tapus run out of patience on the matter.

You go back to Tapu Village with her, and there you meet with the other kahunas too. Hala and Olivia are a bit hurt about this trust betrayal. Nanu just wants to avoid having to deal with an angry Bulu if things don't get resolved.

You go all the way up the mountain.

Seems construction of the place is almost done, and Kukui just came back from where he left a few points ago.

He is really excited about the news he has. The International Pokémon Company, er I mean, League Association said all the construction's regulations are in order so they are all ready to add Alola to the group of leagues. He only needs the local authorities (aka the kahunas) to sign it and Alola will finally be on the map as a serious place and not just some tourist hole.

Hala stops him bluntly.

He tells Kukui he was aware that Alola needed to finally move on and make some progress to get with the times of the rest of the world, but he is hurt that Kukui went ahead with his plans without waiting for Nanu to give his vote nor for Tapu Fini to choose a kahuna. Olivia seconds his opinion.

Nanu then says Kukui is really dumb if he thought the Tapus not acting right away meant they were giving him the thumbs up. At best, the Tapus are waiting for him to finish the whole project before coming and blast it away. That's the kind of karmic punishment they like to do.

Hapu says she knows Kukui meant no harm, but still the way he acted on it was what made them all decide to not greenlight this League project.

Yeah that's right. They are all voting now to decline the League.

Kukui finally stops being all merry on the matter, and gets angry at this sudden turn of events.

"See this is why Alola can't move forward!"

Kukui blames this antiquated system as the reason Alola is stuck in the past. People live just following these traditions blindly, without wondering if they are truly necessary anymore.

Kanto and many other regions do well without kahunas saying what people can and can't do, for one!

Kukui asks you for validation on this.

You agree that Kanto doesn't really have such a strong presence of a high authority nor guardian deities, but that doesn't mean Alola should work the same way. There must be a middle ground between tradition and progress, you think.

Well, there is only one way to decide this, a method that is probably the only timeless thing in the Pokémon World: a pokémon battle.

The battle for the fate of Alola's ways starts!

You fight Kukui and defeat him.

An awkward silence follows, which is not broken until Kukui talks.

Your moves were really strong and well coordinated, you truly are a talented trainer.

He agrees on at least stick with traditions this time and cancel the League project. There is no point on forcing progress like this, or else he will be met with even more opposition and no one will be happy.

Hala is happy that Kukui listens to reason, and promises that if he works hard on making ammends they can rethink this whole League thing.

Everything is good now, you think.

Until a weak laugh sounds.

Your turn around and are greeted with a disturbing image.

Hau was standing right behind you, with a Nihilego at his side.

Hau applauds the whole scene. How everything was all just decided with a pokémon battle.

Kukui's beliefs, ideals and convictions he holded for years, all meant nothing the moment an 11 year old kid defeated his pokémon team. What a funny world we all live in. All so simple.

Hala is worried and asks Hau what's wrong. Hau screams him to shut up. He is not in the mood to listen to another lecture of his.

Hau is tired, you know? All so tired. He at first hated his father for leaving his family behind, not being able to live under the shadow of the mighty kahuna Hala. But now he understands what his father felt all his life.

Ever since he got his Pichu, everyone was comparing him to Hala. 'Oh I bet you will be as strong as your tutu!' 'Are you going to specialize on electric types instead of fighting like your grandpa?' 'You have a Pichu because Raichu can beat your granfather's type, right?'. So annoying! He hates his stupid town!

He at first thought if he only concentrated on battling for fun and not to win, he would overcome this sentiment, but it didn't work. 

His debut battle against you only left shame to him. The grandson of the kahuna, defeated by a foreigner. And Tapu Koko recognized him instead of the great kahuna's grandson. That is a really shitty burden to have.

And of course, the next battles didn't help. The only fights he won were against people who were very aware of who his grandfather was. Even he could tell Olivia went easy on him on the trial battle, even after she gave him that talk about being himself.

And of course there were Gladion's words and how he couldn't save Lillie from the URS. It was all because he wasn't a strong trainer. Because he couldn't be like you.

You don't really know what to tell him to make him feel better, but not that it will matter. He has been under Nihilego's influence for too long, you doubt your words can really reach him.

Nanu is the only other who understands what is going on. He tries to talk down Hau while getting ready to battle and knock out the jellyfish.

Nihilego is not taking any of that and throws an attack at Nanu, leaving him unconscious.

Everyone else also gets ready to fight while still trying to talk some reason to Hau. 

Hapu tells him she understands what he was through. After her grandfather died, she was sure Tapu Fini would choose her to be the next kahuna, but it didn't happen. She then traveled all around the islands, training and getting stronger until Tapu Fini recognized her strenght. She is sure that Hau only needs to believe on himself and train to get stronger.

Hau says that isn't necessary, not anymore. Not now that he got Nihilego with him.

You don't like where this is all going.

Nihilego is set and absorbs Hau, fusing with him.

The other kahunas try to fight him, but he and his team with boost auras defeat them easily.

Kukui tries to stop Hau. Being used to test pokémon moves on himself, he manages to withstand his attack's more than the others but is still left on the ground.

Kukui wasn't really trying to defeat Hau himself, but analize what they were going against.

Before falling unconscious he tells you all he could get from his moves. Nihilego must be Rock/Poison, but most of his moves are Poison type. What you do with this information is all on you.

This is your real final boss battle.

Hau first sends 5 pokémon with boost aura against you. You manage to defeat them, but now comes your worst fear. Now you have to fight the Hau/Nihilego fusion.

The fight is tough, but mostly because you are afraid of hurting Hau.

Hau takes out most of your team. You need to stop him.

Remember the professor's words. Rock/Poison, Poison moves. Don't you have something powerful enough and with type advantage to that? 

You send out Nebby as your last pokémon, your very last hope to stop and save Hau.

Nebby fights and weakens Hau enough to make the Nihilego get away from him, and Nebby returns it to it's rightful dimension.

You approach Hau, who is lying in the ground, barely awake.

He asks you if you are hurt. You are ok. He smiles and apologizes for the trouble. You ask him if he really hates you, to which he replies he never did.

He then falls unconscious.

All fades to black.

It has been days since that happened, and you haven't heard much of Hau's state.

You don't even care about not being able to finish your Island Challenge yet, you just want to know if Hau is doing well.

Suddenly Kukui arrives. He has good news for you. Hau is doing well, the doctors they brought from Kanto managed to take away all of Nihilego's neurotoxins out of his system, and you can go visit him now.

You of course go to check him out.

Hau is genuinely happy to see you. He apologizes again for all the trouble he caused and for the nasty words he said.

He can't say those weren't his feelings, but still it was really rude to just scream them like that. You tell him it's all ok, no harm done.

Hau then asks you how your Challenge went. You haven't finished it yet. He then tells you that he heard the kahunas were all ready to be challenged at Mount Lanakila, and asks you to go and be a Challenge Champion for them both.

You promise you will win, for them both.

You go to Mount Lanakila, and meet the kahunas there.

Yes, even Nanu is there. Not that he really wants to.

They are ready to give you your Boss Rush, so you can finally be the Champion.

You fight them all at their strongest, and win.

Hapu asks you to follow her.

Why is she taking you to the cancelled League building?

Once you reach the Champion's room, Hapu smiles and asks you to register your pokémon for the Hall of Fame.

The project will take a while to be greenlighted, but is good if they already have a Champion for when it happens.

Congratulations, you are Alola's First Champion!

Credits roll.

RAINBOW CHAMPION EPISODE (remember this is still set in the Villain-Champion Switch bunch of scenarios, so expect the according champions here!)

Postgame happens, your mom still has your stuff in boxes.

Someone knocks on your door and she asks you to go see who it is.

You don't even reach the living room and you already hear the door open.

"Wow they don't lock the doors here neither."

"That doesn't mean you can get in just like that!"

Hey a tanned guy and a nerd are in your house now.

The guy in glasses apologizes for the way they got in, and introduces them both. He is Maxie and the other guy is Archie, they both come in representation of Hoenn.

Usually when a new region gets a League, it just gets credited and they are all done with it. But seems Alola is a different case.

The kahunas sent a note to the League Association, saying that the Tapus told them they were going to accept this League stuff on their grounds only if they could test the elected Champion.

This is a bit of a special case, so the League Association needs to make sure all this passing gets recorded because...

"What do I know? Weird traditions of yours."

Archie tells you to go to Mahalo Trail to start this process, and he and Maxie leave, since he wants to go check the stores from Hau'oli City.

You go to Mahalo Trail.

Once you reach the place you meet with Hala, who introduces you to the League member who will supervise your battle against Koko: Kanto-Johto former champion Giovanni.

Giovanni has heard stories about Tapu Koko's love for battles, so he expects your trial to be an interesting sight. He could also learn a thing or two from Alola's regional guardian pokémon with that (remember, he is a researcher now).

You go to the Ruins of Conflict, and get your Totem battle with Tapu Koko.

A tough battle, but you manage to win.

Giovanni congratulates you and tells you your next point are the Akala Outskirts. For now he must leave to fill his report for the League.

You leave to the Akala Outskirts now. There Olivia meets you.

Or at least she would, if she wasn't so busy trying to woo Maxie there.

A redhead who knows how to appreciate rocks is a rare sight in Alola after all, better get him now.

Maxie doesn't mind the attention, but Archie takes the opportunity of you being there to stop this nonsense.

You being there means you already defeated one Tapu, Olivia is proud. But she warns you that Lele can be quite merciless despite being known as a healer, so she warns you to not let your guard down.

Archie and Maxie are a bit worried, since their experience with 'merciless' local deities isn't the best, but they trust Lele won't go apocalyptic on the region. 

You all go to the Ruins of Life.

Now that you are there the battle against Tapu Lele can be done.

You fight Totem Tapu Lele and win, as usual for you.

Archie gets all excited and congratulates you on passing this test. Maxie is more calm about it and informs you that Haina Desert is your next stop.

You leave to Haina Desert.

No familiar face is waiting there for you, just a blue-haired guy with an emotionless face.

He introduces himself as Cyrus, the former champion of Sinnoh. He is here to see how you do against this so called Tapu Bulu. He is also interested on exploring the desert, since it is said to be an ever changing maze. It kinda reminds him of a place he was on a few years ago, and wants to know how such a place works in this dimensional plain.

You navigate the desert, get lost a few times until you finally reach the Ruins of Abundance.

Knowing Tapu Bulu's description, Cyrus wonders if the Desert is the way it is so Bulu can be left alone.

No time for getting all existential, you have to fight your Tapu.

You battle against Totem Tapu Bulu and win. Is kinda easy when his terrain heals you tbqh.

Cyrus is satisfied with what he saw, and tells you you are almost done with this test thing. Your last stop is the Poni Breaker Coast.

You arrive to Poni Breaker Coast.

Not a soul there to greet you. Hu.

You walk a bit to get to the Ruins of Hope, and right in the entrance you meet Hapu and other guy.

They notice your presence and the lion-hair guy introduces himself as Lysandre, Kalos' former champion.

Hapu says she was just talking with Lysandre about how exactly the people in Poni live, since he was wondering how they manage in such a hostile island. He is quite amazed with the way the Seafolk people live. Like water nomads of sorts. An interesting way of living.

But enough of this boring chat, you must want to fight Tapu Fini.

You all go to the Ruins of Hope and there Fini makes a presence. Lysandre is astonished at how beautiful the Tapu is, and guesses it's beauty must match it's strenght in battle.

You fight Totem Tapu Fini who spams Aqua Ring and is a pain in the ass for stalling, but you manage to take it down.

Lysandre is amazed at your skill, and Hapu congratulates you for passing the test of the Tapus. Now the League can be greenlighted for real this time!

Lysandre interrupts the merry celebration though, saying they aren't really done yet.

Yes, the League Association sent him and the other former champions to be witnesses of this "ritual", but they all agreed on their way there that it would be a waste to only let the Tapus test the Alolan Champion.

Oh yeah, you are set for a Champion Boss Rush now.

Lysandre asks you to get ready, they will all be waiting for you at Mount Lanakila, where the League should be set.

You go to Mount Lanakila yet again, and there meet the former champions.

They all have seen your skill and strenght in battle, now they want to test your Champion material.

No more teams of 5 pokémon, no more easy mode. No. You better get ready for full teams of level 80 with held items, perfect IVs, trained EVs and no brakes on the rape train.

You at least get the chance to choose the order you fight them in.

When you get to choose Archie and Maxie, they ask you who you want to fight, but no matter which of the two you pick they say they were joking. No escape from the double battle here.

After you defeat them all, they welcome you to the ever growing club of regional Champions, and wish you the best of lucks to hold that title for a very long time.

Thanks for reading!

[kibibarel]

hey kibi whaddaya think abt the ultra recon squad (unless youve already Released A Statement on them, in which case im dumb)

i haven’t! because i don’t really have strong opinions about them lmao……

i can only really speak on Dulse and Zossie and, while i think they’re adorable and interesting on their own, the awkward jumps USUM has to make in order to include them in the main plot are….just that. awkward. like that you go through the whole deal with Lusamine obsessively hunting down Cosmog in order to open a Wormhole and stop Necrozma, a goal that she and the Ultra Recon Squad seem to be working together on (seeing as the Squad is blocking your entry to her room saying “don’t interfere” while she’s in there torturing Nebby), and then later watch as Nebby performs a Heroic Sacrifice(TM) in an attempt to fight Necrozma later on, see Lillie begin to lose all hope................and then IMMEDIATELY the Squad is there to kill the drama like “lol hey here use one of our Lunalas to open up a Wormhole and save Nebby/Necrozma we have like a billion of them!!”

............................................THEN WHY WAS..WHY DID YOU NEED NEBBY TO.....YOU COULD HAVE JUST...

WHO.....

.......ok..........

there’s also just a lot of unexplored potential with them…i was kind of shocked to find out that Ultra Megalopolis, despite being SUPER COOL, is basically just a place for two members of the Squad to stand there and ask if you want to change your choice in Ultra Space mount?? and isn’t explorable?? and no other people from that world are interactable?? i don’t know i find it hard to form an opinion on the Squad because they feel so shoddily included and not really fleshed out at all, even though i enjoy Dulse and Zossie’s dynamic and think Zossie is SO CUTE and interesting...there’s a bit of XY Character Syndrome(TM) going on with them (read: their potential is more interesting than they actually are in the canon)

[kalosstarters]

OK I finished the /BIG/ part of the plot that happens before the league and I’m angry. Here’s why (obviously spoilers):

Sorry gamefreak, but I don’t like what you are doing with Lusamine. At. all. At the Aether Paradise we found out that she’s still responsible of freezing _possibly thousands_ of Pokémon, and she was proud of it (saying something like “this is my personal collection”. ZERO regrets. 0 care). I know in the previous games some grunt was talking about a way to revive them and keeping them safe until that, which means that technically they aren’t dead. But does that make it any more acceptable? No. They are still Pokémon incapable of doing anything, who knows for how long, years, maybe lifetimes? Because of her. And not only that. She still is acting abusively towards her kids. She hadn’t let them make their own decisions, she still claimed they are not her children (and many other things)... And the fact that she wanted to stop Necrozma, for selfish reasons, does not change that fact.

Well, does this game care about it? No. Back at Aether after showing the Pokémon /no one/ cared about them. No one confronted Lusamine. Some characters even seemed like it was admirable she went after Necrozma (and guess who had to stop that Pokémon anyway). The only person who brought up Lusamine’s real personality after she fell from the Ultra Hole was Phyco (and I love him for it). They had even left Lillie’s amazing speech (that happened in the Ultra Space after Nihilego had taken Lusamine) that showed some real character development out of this game entirely. I mean I understand that they couldn’t do it exactly the same way, but still, she should have told her mother off. She didn’t (not properly). So, what I’m really wishing from this game would be some actual punishment for Lusamine. They are just trying to push her issues away like they didn’t exist even though they very much do. I didn’t like in S/M how Lillie left with her, because I thought she deserved better, but at least in that game the things that happened somewhat made sense. Now this one is just entirely ignoring the issues. And I don’t like it. (Well, after this rant I need to keep in my mind that I still haven’t finished the entire game so there’s still hope that something that would at least slightly fix this would happen... but I kinda doubt it. The one thing they did right tho was Lusamine admitting that Lillie was right.)

After that long and unnecessarily bitter rant, some positives: I love Ultra Recon Squad (and I’m happy they are not evil). Like I already mentioned, I liked how they confronted Lusamine, and Dulse and Zossie were adorable (I wish I had Ultra Sun so I’d get to see more of them). Although, mild anger happened again after they told the PC it will probably take a long while until they get the light back into their world. The poor things deserve better. Lillie was also adorable when we were on our way to the Altar, talking about her plans to become a trainer, etc. The dragon trial turned out to be a lot harder than I remembered, I had to use 4 max revives to survive.. even though I had a fairy on my team and my team was pretty high leveled. The difficulty is never a bad thing :D Also, the Solgaleo riding in the ultra space was pretty cool. And I liked how Guzma decided to become a better person :) That’s some character development. 

That I wouldn’t leave a totally negative picture, I have to mention that overall I am enjoying this game, I love the new additions, the pokemon that couldn’t be found in the previous games, etc, etc, but I just wish Lusamine was written differently. That’s all!

EDIT: one more addition! If anyone who hasn’t played through that part yet reads this, MAKE SURE TO HAVE /at least/ lvl 60ish mon and /particularly/ ‘mon that can take special attacks. That Necrozma is a shit and I wouldn’t have been able to survive at all if it hadn’t been for my Primarina with her good sp def, Necrozma was able to OHKO pretty much all my other ‘mon. (Which isn’t that surprising bc I was aware of their weak defenses but yeah)

[hikaup]

ok so I’m like officially 99% done with usum (like obv I gotta get my pokedex done and do a few other things but almost all the plot and postgame is taken care of) and I Have Feelings 

my pros:

1) I love. love love love. the ultra recon squad and the ultra wormhole and the whole parallel realities. they’re amazing. I love these theories and they make me so happy. I love them they’re my favorite 

2) I love that lillie doesn’t leave?? and you get to battle with her?? and see her be a trainer??

3) holy shit. I forgot how much I hated ghetsis until he reminded me that he’s literally the biggest piece of human garbage known to man by daring to lay a finger on lillie and threaten to hurt her and just... outright refusing to see how he could possibly be wrong like the other bosses (esp maxie and archie. I love that they always kinda deep down realize that they Did a Bad) 

4) cyrus’s confusion? is this his new world? child looks angry. has emotions. clearly not. cyrus actually always fails no matter the situation or scenario. though I would’ve liked much better if it was more clearly implied that this was an iteration of Distortion World cyrus, I’ll take “suddenly I was swallowed by darkness” as a vague maybe

5) SO MANY CUTE NEW OUTFIT OPTIONS AND TAKING PICS WITH YOUR BABIES AND A MORE INTERACTIVE ROTOMDEX AND MORE OF THINGS AND PIKACHUVILLE AND HAU!!! HAU!!!!! HAU

my cons: 

1) I really... hate what they took from lusamine. she did such a good job in sumo as the first female super boss antagonist and her trickery and deception and just despicableness was so. important?? and it just vanished?? like the whole narrative showing that children can stand up to abusive parents was just... erased. and I thought that had such value 

2) they were clearly planning all this extra originally and just cut corners to sell a second game what the fuck 

3) why couldn’t they keep all this new and still have lusamine as the Big Bad ????  ??? ?? 

4) why couldn’t they just make this a single special edition ??????? ???? bring back my platinum emerald crystal and yellow days 

[captainshyguy]

so uhhh...i finished ultra sun/moon’s main “story” and here are my Thoughts 

all im gonna say above the tline if you want a good gameplay game, both sun and moon and ultra sun and ultra moon works 

if you were looking of a game with genuine emotion/one where lillie and gladion get any further development and their characters dont feel tacked on and cheap...play sun and moon lmao

ok im gonna go good first bc unfortunately i have a lot of bad stuff to talk about and i mean i ALOT which is annoying since i spent 40 fucking pound on this game 

good

god the top screen graphics were really nice like it looked so much more vibrant and the water and grass looked BEAUTIFUL 

the ultra recon squad were great, especially when phyco wanted to throw down with lusamine like same binch 

poipole is SO CUTE AAAAAAAAA 

more ilima content?? THANKS GAMEFREAK AAAAAAAAA literally like??? you see him at the trainers school, then in hao’oli city, then again in hau’oli, then for his trial, then after hala’s and then he’s a part of mina’s??? and he shows up for the festival and he also has 2 sidequests where you get to talk to him and stuff??? and you get some backstory? NICE 

also seeing him with more than 2 pokemon was nice thanks 

like honestly when i asked for more ilima content i didn’t think i’d get it bjdgkdsgkdfs 

mina being more prominent was nice 

TOTEM RIBOMBEE THANK YOU FOR SHOWCASING THIS AMAZING POKE 

mantine surfing is cute 

as someone who only played moon and not sun, im glad i got to fight kiawe this time around! 

gong up to pokemon on the street and getting to like play peekaboo with them? incredible 

elite 4 molayne was pretty damn cool

the sheer amount of cool little sidequests was really fucking cool, i still haven’t done them all/found them all probably???? i like how they’re more extnsive than in sun and moon, like the letters, the dugtrio girl, the hypno thing with ilima

speaking of ‘THEY STOLE MY NUGGET’ BNKJDSGNDSKJGDSG

also that tiny sidequest on route 15/16 where there’s a sandygast and if you talk to the kid he’s all ‘look what i made!’ and then the sandygast turns round and its like ‘SAND!!! DEE!!! GAST!!! with like a zoom in on each pause JKSDGDSKGSDG 

hau really comes into his own in this game, honestly he and guzma are the only characters from sun and moon that actually get any significant character development, and i love hau a lot bc he’s super sweet so?? getting to see him more and see his motivations, and show how close you and him are was a delight, like it almost, almost saves the game for me like hau....thank u b without you i WOULD have thrown this game out the window

o yeah speaking of YOU HAVE TO BATTLE HAU FOR THE TITLE OF ALOLA’S CHAPMION AAAAAA now i’m kinda mixed abt this bc honestly i loved fighting kukui, which y’know, doesnt happen in this game (unless he’s gonna challenge you when you redo the elite 4) and it felt like more was at stake?? like the music was better and kukui was harder so???? idk it still gave me chills fighting hau tho 

the rotomdex was sweet overall, though i do have my problems 

the music that plays when necrozma comes out of the ultra wormhole was incredible, it took my breath away 

bad 

this game took away almost every ounce of charm and emotion that sun and moon had and i’m absolutely furious, i get this game was more about the gameplay, but emotional highlights in sun and moon just didn’t happen, lillie and gladion and nebby got COMPLETELY shafted, and everything that made sun and moon so great story wise was gone

what i mean by that is the main driving force behind sun and moon was lusamine being the evil fuck that she’s supposed to be, and gladion and lillie’s absolute defiance to that, growing, tearing away from their mother and becoming their own people!! it was amazing, inspiring, especially in lillie’s case, seeing her go from quiet and timid to defying her mother to her face, shouting and making her point!!! that didn’t happen here, like yeah they run away, but bc of what they did to lusamine’s character, it felt nowhere near as impactful, and i really didn’t feel for lillie and gladion at all?? or nebby???? 

they tried to keep some things the same, but with lusamine’s character suddenly being all over the place, like the whole ‘oh she has good intentions, but she thinks she knows the best for everyone and does stuff no matter if it’s what people want or not’ but then they kept juxtaposing this, she calls lillie and gladion wretches, then she calls nebby gallant for loving lillie, she still has pokemon frozen in her fucknig hidden room, yet hau calls her a good person like???? what???? it doesnt work?? her characterisation was all over the place, and having her be good and stay at the end pissed me off SOOOOOO MUCH because like....i don’t like lusamine in sun and moon, she’s an evil fuck who was awful to her kids, but what she did made me adore lillie and gladion, and lusamine was a good character, not from a moral standpoint, but from a written standpoint, she was written so well and SOOO EVILLY and they just took that away, and it made none of lillie and gladion’s stuff make any sense??? which really pissed me off bcsun and moon was such a story driven game, it wasnt really about the protagonist, it was about lillie and nebby and their journey!

speaking of, watching lillie get forced down to a side character in this game was the worst, she doesnt go with you to exeggutor island and have tat amazing speech, she doesnt go through the ultra wormhole with you she’s just...there...and her changing into her z powered form in this game felt so forced bc like...what has she been through really, like she run away with nebby yeah, then her mum was like?? being kinda reasonable then not, and oh she went in the wormhole???? that whole aether scene felt so underwhelming, the music didn’t even change when nebby was getting hurt, unlike the other one, with lusamine’s characterisation being all over the place, it made lillie and gladion’s “arcs” in this game seem so weak and cheap 

oh yeah speaking of the aether scene what the FUCK was up with gladion like ‘oh take me with you null was made to be a beast killer!’ are you TELLING ME that after gladion says cosmog will bring disaster and they have to save it he’d REALLY try to go with, which obvious would fucking HURT NEBBY??? WEAK GAME FREAK WEAK 

can’t you tell they REALLY forgot to add anything on type null/silvally it was just...there 

gladion just randomly leaving at the end was fucking insulting, it was insulting because you can TELL they tried to add a tiny bit of emotion by paralleling lillie leaving in sun and moon but??? it doesnt work??? gladion barely has any development in this game/a big amazing arc like lillie did, you arent there to see him off, so it just genuinely feels insulting, especially since gladion actually had no reason to fucking leave lmao 

lusamine’s not obsessed with nihilego anymore?? TERRIBLE that was like her defining fucking trait??? 

also like...what was the point of nihilego coming through the wormhole at paradise, that scene has no fucking relevance/the same impact/foreshadowing or anything, it was literally just to be like ‘oh yeah that’s an ultra beast’ that was IT

now like what they COULD have done was have lusamine obsessed with NECROZMA this time around, she wants it so she can take away alola’s light, so she can catch it and use it WHY WASNT THAT THE STORY, AND SHE COULD STILL BE AWFUL AND EVIL AND CRAZY AND IT COULD MAKE LILLIE AND GLADION’S DEFIANCE ACTUALLY FUCKING MEAN SOMETHING, AND NEBBY GETTING ABSORBED BY NECROZMA HAVE SO MUCH MORE SIGNIFICANCE, IT WOULD PARALLEL THE CONTROLLING/ABUSIVE WAY LUSAMINE ACTS TOWARDS HER CHILDREN and they had SUCH A GOOD OPPORTUNITY HERE THAT THEY MISSED 

there wasn't that amazing set of credits with the photos of all the characters you’ve grown to adore in this??? and that picture that rotom snaps of you in sun and moon you dont even fucking see it in this, despite rotom still taking it?? fuck this 

my 5 FAVOURITE QUOTES WERE TAKEN AWAY ALL OF MY FUCKING FAVOURITES rotom calling ilima a dreamboat, that bit where lillie says ‘ Whenever I feel like there's nothing I can do, you seem to show up and...you do something. Every time, you've shown me that it's possible... to do something.’ that AMAZING bit where she goes off at her mum like ‘Children... Children are not just THINGS that belong to their parents! Pokémon are not just THINGS that a Trainer can do whatever they want to! I am alive! Cosmog is alive! We are not things for you to collect!, that bit right at the end where she's narrating the credits  ‘ Everyone's smiles shine so brightly. Those smiles led us to so many other people. And those meetings will lead us to a bright future. I'm so glad I got to meet everyone. I'm so glad I got to meet you.’  and the last one is Plumeria’s incredible line which really made me like her when she was like ‘no one can make up for what they've done if they're gone’ ever SINGLE ONE OF THESE WAS GONE basically they took lillie’s best lines, and they took plumeria and rotoms best lines

despite everything, we didn’t... actually learn where necrozma, solgaleo and lunala actually...come from/their origins like??? we’ve learnt there’s multiple lunala and solgaleo, seemingly only one necrozma, but like?? are they ultra beasts or not?? why dont beast balls work then lmao??? 

i’m sorry i love lillie but....i’d 100% rather have this amazing strong incredible lillie in sun and moon leave and make my heart wrench and make me cry bc it was so emotional and beautiful, than have this usum lillie stay around, this one who hasnt been through everything, who hasn’t had this amazing beautiful arc, who just randomly gave me nebby, with the whole catching nebby scene completely tacked on with none of the emotional impact that the sun and moon catching nebby scene had, who was reduced to such a side character that i cant possibly feel the same emotion for her

i just...i know pokemon games have always been about gameplay, and sun and moon was an exception but,....sun and moon was the first mainstream pokemon game i’ve ever played, and it blew me away, it was breathtaking, incredible, it was the best fucknig game i’ve ever played, it has the best fucking story i’ve ever had the honor of playing, it was complex, deeply emotional, and still so so wholesome, despite all the awful stuff that happens, it was beautiful, heartwarming, heartbreaking, i loved it and it will forever have a place in my heart, so playing this...and watching the characters i love being forced aside, with everything i love about them being gone was the most disappointing thing i’ve ever had to witness and it’s made me furious to the point where i barely even want to play through the post game rainbow rocket shit (if hau comes along then i will, if it’s just lillie and guzma, then....i dont know) because what’s the fucking point honestly 

[meowstix]

okay uh. cooler aether arc copy and pasted directly from my notes

ok so like. first off. no more loser mean redemption that was such an awful fucking decision. next, i’ve said you can have both faba and lusamine as villains. you pull that off by having lusamine still be a horrible fucking person, but have faba trying to take advantage of the situation to get lusamine out of the picture and take over the foundation. and don't worry, because BOTH of them are presumably dead or some shit by the end of all this. now, some rapid-fire thoughts:

-a more minor thing, but cosmog's ability to open ultra wormholes is established at some point since like. gladion kept talking about how nebby was a threat but they just never explained how.

-lusamine knew about the whole incident with nihilego. it's just that she never did anything about it because she was very much in on the plan of opening an ultra wormhole.

-while lillie hasn't really interacted with lusamine for what i think is YEARS at that point, lusamine's sudden presence in her life again makes lillie realize "wow, my mother was, and still is, a garbage fucking person!"

-instead of one fucking teleport, lillie finding out about how much shit has been going on behind the scenes is prompted by.. shit idk what yet but i'll figure it out

-add some additional stakes to the whole mother beast situation, since otherwise in this case there'd be no reason to go after lusamine bc everyone knows how shitty she is at this point

-lillie gets to confront lusamine herself, gladion too, no 10 million volt thunderbolt bc like. ash is great but this is very much not his story

-where does faba villain momence come in? well, not only has he been encouraging lusamine's fuckery this whole time, he tries to take over the foundation while the gang's going off to fight loser mean, so there's STILL more to do once lusamine's presumably dead (wicke gets to be the president of the foundation in the end also bc she's the only bitch here i respect)

-lillie gets to live with ash, kukui, and burnet after the arc btw

-as for the ultra guardians? the ultra recon squad can take aether’s place, simple as that, may aswell give em a role.

actually wait no i have it all written down on my notes app hold on

[tatteredgod]

i have some thoughts about pkmn USUM id like to share

some spoilers i guess, anyway,

overall - great game. an enhanced version of SUMO

was lacking in some parts, like idk why they decided to rewrite shit and make lusamine not a Heinous Bitch for some reason, acting as if she had uh, good inside her despite all that shit she did to her kids.......ok gamefreak

really lost out on not making ultramegacitypolis explorable. i was ready for Pokemon: Blade Runner and all i got was a street and a goddamn elevator.

would’ve been nice if RR castle had a bit more to it than just being a glorified boss run by having the bosses interact a bit more? i got Heavy Feelings seeing and battling Giovanni again tho, i don’t think i’ve battled him since....idk...Blue??? or do you battle him in silver too i don’t rem meber..so long ago...

when I played Sun i didn’t like Guzma that much. now i love him. stupid jerk.

i’m not far into post-game yet but does Looker show up again? he’s one of my fav charas and i loved doing the ultra beast missions with him in Sumo

Rotom being more interactive with you was actually pretty neat and sometimes touching, i thought. i’m sure a lot of people found him annoying but i like it when he asks me how i’m doing and encourages me and uh gives me roto boosts. 

i felt REALLY bad beating hau at the end. i think he deserves to be champion. he wasn’t all that hard either, Kukui was more of a fight in sumo...

wish someone warned me about ultra necrozma, FUCK THAT NOISE. then i caught him later in one pokeball? lol. 

i HATE that wormhole flying the controls are GARBAGE and i was looking forward to it too...

i like the ultra recon squad. i thought they would be some baddies but they were just trying to get light back into their world. just some dudes trying to get by.

MY CHILDREN: kiawe + lana + mallow and sun/moon + hau + lillie + gladion, i would protect them with my life

love how they changed some of the totem battles this time around! i screamed when that giant fucking araquanid showed up

I LOVE MANTINE SURFING!! PROTIP: BECOME THE TOP SURFER AT ALL THE BEACHES AND YOU GET A SURFING PIKACHU!! 

playing with the island pokemon!!! 😭😭😭💕💕💕

9/10 would restart and play again if i could

[kalosstarters]

I just finished one of the main plot parts (there’s still a lot more to come tho) and a couple of comments:

I ... don’t really like this change (to be honest I didn’t like S/M’s ending either). Well, so far, at least. It depends on how this is gonna end. But no matter what Lusamine went to do in the ultra space, even if her intentions are good - which I’m yet to find out - I don’t like how Hau and even her children seem to think maybe she’s OK after all. Um. From what I just saw, she still was the awful, neglectful mother, and she still had frozen Pokemon (even if they aren’t technically dead it’s still abso-fucking-lutely awful) and had ZERO regrets about that, yet somehow, no one seemed to care?? Hau was more shocked about Lillie and Gladion being her children than what he saw around him. And Gladion??? Why the f would you want to go to Ultra Space when Lillie just told you how it might affect Nebby?? At this point I’m not 100% sure if this plot is entirely thought through because imo none of the people around Lusa, Faba, etc should be OK with any of this. Ultra Recon Squad seem the least problematic characters in this game right now. 

Just my honest thoughts though! Keep in mind that I still have the poni island part, league and ofc post game to go so there’s a lot I don’t know yet. That means I am very ready to change my opinion if I find out something that explains these things. Some positive things tho: I like Hau’s change, he being more serious is something I wished even during S/M, and Lillie in her z-powered form is still as adorable as ever, and Ultra recon guys are cool and I can’t wait to find out more about them. Also, this game (well, this I knew from S/M) has such cool music, and the Aether part was supe intense.